SAO Vol 1 Ch 10 Inner Monologue

“Solo Kirito and a KoB member are having a duel!”

As someone shouted that, cheers sounded from here and there. Since duels were
usually for comparing your skills with a friend, all of the spectators cheered and
whistled, ignorant to the situation that had led up to this.

But as the timer counted down, all of this started to fade away. I felt a cold
thread pass through my body like when I was fighting a monster. I focused in
order to read the atmosphere around Cradil, who was looking about here and
there with glances of annoyance, and examined his stance and the way his feet
moved.

Humans were far more liable to show certain habits when they were about to
use a skill. Whether it was a charging or defending skill, or if it would start low
from the ground or from high up, if their body revealed this kind of information,
then it became a critical weakness.

Cradil’s sword was leaning a bit back from the middle of his body and his
lower body was bent down. It was clearly a sign that he was going to use a high
aiming charge-type attack. Of course, it could have been a feint. I myself was
actually posing with my sword in a low and relaxed posture, giving the
impression that my first attack was going to be a weak blow to his lower body.

You could only rely on your experience and "feel" when searching for feints.
As the countdown went down to single digits, I closed the window. I couldn’t
even hear the noise around me anymore.

I saw Cradil, who had been rapidly switching his gaze from me to the window
and then back, went still while the muscles of his body tensed. The word
[DUEL!!] appeared in the space between us, and I jumped. Sparks flew from
the sole of my boot, and the air whistled by as my shoulder cut through it.

Not even a moment had passed before Cradil’s body began to move as well.
But there was an expression of surprise on his face, since I had shattered
his expectations of a low, defend-type attack skill and charged.

Cradil’s first attack was, as I had guessed, a high hitting two-handed sword
charge skill: «Avalanche». If the guard was too weak, the defender might be
able to block the blow but wouldn’t be able to counterattack straight away due
to the impact; meanwhile, the player who used it would be able to buy time to
ready his stance again, since the charge widened the distance between them. It
was a very good high level skill. Well, at least against monsters.

I, who had already read what Cradil was going to do, chose the charge-type
skill «Sonic Leap». If we both kept charging, our skills would collide.
If we were to look at only the strength of the skill, his was stronger, and the
game would favor the heavier skill if two attacks collided. In this case my
sword would be deflected, and his skill would hit me, weakened but still
enough to end the duel. But I wasn’t after Cradil himself.