Morte

Morte (モルテ) was one of the 10,000 players who were trapped in Sword Art Online and one of the 1,000 beta testers for the game. He was one of the beta testers who called himself a Beater.

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Morte was a thin man wore a dark gray scale mail that was not metallic but had close-fitting scales that clung to his torso and gleamed wetly. He also wore gloves and boots of the same material and had a chain mail coif dangling from his head to his shoulders. The border of the metal hood was torn and ragged, with tendrils of chain that hung down like locks of hair. Morte had two weapon sets: his main set consisted of a round shield and a one-handed axe, named Harsh Hatchet; his second set consisted of an Anneal Blade.

Personality
Superficially, Morte is a cheery though curt man who liked frequently joking. However, he is actually a manipulative and deceptive person, who would help two opposing sides and spread misinformation to get them to conflict with each other, such as how he did with the Aincrad Liberation Squad and Dragon Knights Brigade on the 3rd Floor, or indirectly threaten and trick people into playing into his hands, such as tricking Kirito into duelling him in an attempt to abuse the duel system to kill him without being regarded as an orange player. Even in battle, Morte uses a variety of tricks to get the advantage over his opponent.

Concerto of Black and White
Kirito first saw Morte on December 15, 2022 when the latter was guiding Kibaou's party through the Queen Spider's Nest in search of an item needed for the guild creation quest, while Kirito's party was hiding from them with the help of Kizmel's cape. However, the group encountered Nephila Regina and had to retreat to the entrance.

Later that day, Kirito saw Morte helping Lind's party with the first quest for the Elf War campaign. Morte informed the group that the elf they side with would eliminate the other elf once their party's hit points reached the yellow zone, thus the party focused on defence as they sided with the forest elf. After the forest elf defeated the dark elf in a suicide attack, the party proceeded to the Forest Elf Base at the north side of the forest.

Several days later, on December 19, Morte waited near the Forest Elf Camp using his Hiding skill, expecting that Kirito would come there. As Morte was discovered, he threatened Kirito into dueling him in half-finish mode to not disrupt his quest. Just before the timer reached zero, signalling the beginning of the duel, Morte began by assaulting with «Sonic Leap». As his surprise attack failed, Morte kicked up a wave of water to cover him as he changed his loadout with «Quick Change», and counterattacked Kirito, who had been deceived into charging at Morte.

Having his hit points reduced to just slightly above the halfway mark with Morte's «Double Cleave», Kirito realised that Morte might have intentionally controlled his damage in an attempt to kill him without becoming an orange player by abusing the dueling system. With this in mind, Kirito used a surprise attack with «Senda» to disarm Morte of his shield and used «Sharp Nail» to even the difference in their hit points. Morte was about to launch another attack, but suddenly stopped. Claiming that he was out of time, Morte collected his gear and departed, with their duel ending in a draw.

Curse of Stachion quest.
On the sixth floor of Aincrad Kirito and Asuna accepted a quest from the Puzzle Lord Cylon. During one of the quest stages, Kirito and Asuna were poisoned with implying a paralysis effect on them. Then Cylon appeared with one of his servants and announced that he had another task for the players. While being put in a sack and carried away by the two NPCs in a carriage, Kirito heard that Cylon and his man were unexpectedly attacked by bandits. During the fight between them, Kirito understood that the "bandits" appeared to be two PKers, whose cursors had already been orange. Later one of them appeared to be Morte. Morte killed Cylon, even though the PNC had screamed that "killing alord was a crime, and Morte would be not allowed to enter towns any longer". Morte's companion couldn't deal with huge Cylon's servant, and Morte ordered his companion to lose the pNC in the forest. Then Morte approached the sack, inside which Kirito and Asuna were still lying suffering the paralysis effect, with an intention to kill them. Kirito and Asuna managed to use the pot with poison dropped after Cylon's death to force Morte back. After a few seconds Kirito's buff worn off, and he stood up against Morte. After a short period of time, Morte's companion returned, but before both PKers could attack Kirito, Asuna run from the sack and attacked the dagger user from behind. They started a fight, while Morte was confronting Kirito. Morte was holding three poisoned throwing needles in one hand and an axe in the other, but he didn't succeed in his attempts to hit Kirito with the throwing weapons, then Kirito did a severe damage to Morte's arm, leaving him with only the axe. Then Kirito executed his attack, expecting Morte to block it with the handle of his axe, but suddenly Kirito's Sword of Eventide changed its direction slightly and pierced through Morte's armor to his heart. Then they both stuck in surprise, observing Morte's HP drowning to the red zone. Kirito took a look at his face and thought that Morte was, perhaps, several years older than Kirito, but still a teenager. Kirito wanted to ask, why Morte had chosen that path, but then another PKer addressed to Morte as "Mamoru" and ordered him to pull the sword out. Next moment Morte's companion screamed and started to approach Kirito, making him to put his hand on Morte's chest and pull the sword off. Morte's companion threw a small object that turned into a smoke screen, forcing Kirito and Asuna to withdraw. Then Morte was helped to stand up, and both orange players ran away. Kirito and Asuna managed to find the dagger, the axe and the throwing picks, dropped by the orange players, but then Morte returned his axe to himself, using the Quick Change skill.

Gallery

 * See Morte/Image Gallery

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Morte