Dual-wielding (Kenji)

"Again, she wasn’t wrong. But this had been a goal of mine since my time in the beta. Could dual-wielding actually be useful in Aincrad? It was already available for anyone to use: the problem was efficiency and usability. You had the benefit of two weapons boosting your stats but at the same time you couldn’t put these stats to effective use because your damage was tanked into the floor because of your inability to launch powerful Sword Skills. I tested various tactics over the next hour with only marginal success. It was certainly possible to dual-wield — all it required was the equipping of two one-handed weapons, and that was what gave me the impression it was implemented on purpose. Why else would it be possible? If it couldn’t be used wouldn’t it make more sense for the off-hand to be relegated to shields? There was probably a Skill for it and if there was it would certainly be interesting."

- Excerpt from SAOK: The Twin Sword Conundrum, were Kenji observes the practicalitity of.

The art of dual-wielding (両刀, lit. Two Swords) was an equipment state in «» available to everyone which involved the player equipping two one-handed weapons in their main and off-hand weapon-slots. As far as that was concerned it was available to everyone though it possessed various cons. Although it provided the benefit of two weapons boosting the player's stats, the player suffered an «Irregular Equipment» status that prevented the use of Sword Skills. As Sword Art Online was built around Sword Skills doing significantly more damage than standard attacks, this made dual-wielding highly impractical.

Overview
"The conclusion I came to when we finally returned to Urbus was that dual-wielding was certainly possible. The style had its pros and cons, with more of the latter than the former, with one glaring con being its impracticality. Still, it was usable, and anything I could add to my arsenal that gave me an option — even if that option only applied to once in a million situation — was something I’d grasp with both hands. Sword Art Online was a death game. Survival didn’t always boil down to skill and luck; at times it came from plain old ingenuity and how well you could adapt the few Skills you did possess to the situation at hand. If that meant abusing the mother-loving hell out of the system that governed everything in this game, then so be it. I’d abuse it willingly."

- Excerpt from SAOK: The Twin Sword Conundrum, were Kenji makes his feelings about system exploits known.

During the beta period many of the players attempted to utilize two one-handed swords as their primary combat style, but the consensus was that one sword was used for attacking whilst the second was used for defence. It was accepted that, in this scenario, a shield was more effective. Thusly no one could truly be said to have mastered the use of dual-wielding before the beta period ended.

Kenji Hiroshi, despite the weaknesses of the style and despite his preference for one-handed swords, managed to develop an effective means of utilizing dual-blades by exploiting the system governing Sword Art Online itself as an exploit. He did this by restricting the majority of his damage to the «Martial Arts» Skill-tree, specifically Sword Skills initiated by the player's legs alone. His acquisition of a refillable Poison vial aided the overall strength of his standard attacks by offering DoT effects. employed the technique when he attempted to kill Kirito and on the 5th Floor. Despite suffering the irregular equipment state, Kirito stated that Morte's weapon -- the «Harsh Hatchet» -- remained dangerous because of its high-attack and high-weight. His second weapon in this instance was a throwing weapon featuring Level 2 Paralysis, which he used as a traditional knife rather than throwing it. would later employ the same principal as Kenji had on the early floors of before he discovered his acquisition of the unique «» Skill during the month of March 2023. His most noteworthy use of the technique was when he fought off a group of Elves on the 6th Floor of Aincrad.

The main pros and cons of the style are:

Pros.


 * Two weapons boosting the player's stats, including magical effects.
 * Easy parrying against multiple opponents allowing for a parry-and-counter tactic.
 * High-rate of basic attacks.

Cons.


 * Traditional Sword Skills are unusable due to suffering an «Irregular Equipment» state.
 * Low damage output without Skills like «Martial Arts».
 * Equipping a shield is more effective from a defensive view-point.

Sword Skills

 * None.

Known users

 * Kenji Hiroshi.

Behind the scenes

 * Kenji experimented with dual-blade as a proof-of-concept more than a usable Skill.

Trivia

 * Kenji speculated on the existence of a as early as December 2022.