Board Thread:Editing Discussions/@comment-104.51.191.202-20170324031506/@comment-27384850-20170405035954

So having a high speed means high skill?

Just as much as (if not more than) timing, accuracy, feinting, and opponent-reading do, yes.

Are you saying Yuuki deliberately held back against Asuna?

She didn't use a feint because she didn't need to, even without doing so she won by a landslide. That doesn't mean she held back, though, unless you think the fact that neither one used magic to their advantage means they both held back?

Besides the novel even said Kirito is the only one that can use Spell Break.

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that Yuuki can't use Spell Blast. How, pray tell, does that make Kirito the better swordsman? All Spell Blast is is a well-timed and accurate Sword Skill, how does that make Kirito better at swordsmanship?

She didn't reject the notion it could of contributed, at all, to her ability.

Not true, according to the official translation. It says the following:

Yuuki's incredible strength in Alfheim was a product of her interface, then?

An instant later, Asuna knew that wasn't true. The sharpness of Yuuki's skill far surpassed anything dependent on machine specs. In battle instinct alone, she was at least Kirito's equal, if not better.

That is a clear rejection of the idea that the Medicuboid influences her abilities in ALO.

Yuuki's OSS proves she skilled producing those exact movements, but her using it the way she does in battle takes little skill outside of the parrying she does before she inevitably uses her OSS.

What is your point? She's got a powerful Sword Skill that she created herself, proving that she is an incredibly competent swordswoman.

In the first fight against Heathcliff Kirito didn't only use sword skills, he used his twin blades and his normal sword play for a portion of the battle

That's how the anime depicted it, but according to v1 it was almost entirely (if not completely entirely) Sword Skills. The anime is not always right, remember.

In the second fight Kirito thought Heathcliff was toying with him because of his irrational fear. It's not like Heathcliff said he was toying with him. Kirito was holding his own against Heathcliff during the 2nd battle until he did something stupid.

Whether or not he was actually toying with him is irrelevant, the fact of the matter is that Kayaba was easily blocking all of Kirito's unassisted attacks, which proves nothing about his skill without Sword Skills. Kayaba easily blocked all of Kirito's strikes, created openings, and attacked back at Kirito, with Kirito powerless against him all the while.

Was twin swords practical for Kirito against Eugene?

It was practical because it was a counter to his Demonic Sword Gram, not necessarily because Kirito was skilled with two swords. If an axe were the counter to Gram and Kirito stole some random Sylph's axe and used it to beat Eugene, would that mean Kirito was an amazing axe-wielder? Of course not, it would just mean that Kirito exploited Eugene's weakness.