What's going on in this clip

[CurrySenpai]

As the title says I have no idea what's going on in this clip after I rewatched the episode once more. All I can roughly assume is that Kirito generates an implosion, which generates a pillar, which disperses the clouds.

If someone could help me understand what's going on here (and if it's calcable) it'd be greatly appreciated.

Edit: Apologies for the horrible video quality

 

[Torsin]

After watching a clearer version seems to me that the other guy kinda moved/jumped up a little to dodge the previous sword strike from Kirito, then in response Kirirto proceeded to go for a full power stab to his chest due to which the sword was inclined up. The power of the stab blew a hole through the other guy and the rest of it in the form of a pillar dispersed the clouds. At least that's what I think happened.

 

[CurrySenpai]

After watching a clearer version seems to me that the other guy kinda moved/jumped up a little to dodge the previous sword strike from Kirito, then in response Kirirto proceeded to go for a full power stab to his chest due to which the sword was inclined up. The power of the stab blew a hole through the other guy and the rest of it in the form of a pillar dispersed the clouds. At least that's what I think happened.

I see, thank you very much. Can any of this potentially be used for say AP or anything else?

 

[Torsin]

I see, thank you very much. Can any of this potentially be used for say AP or anything else?

Oh yeah for sure. These cloud dispersion feats are pretty common. You can calculate the KE involved in the feat based on the cloud dispersion, I'm not good at calcs though. However you can view this Cloud calcs page if you plan to.

 

[CurrySenpai]

Oh yeah for sure. These cloud dispersion feats are pretty common. You can calculate the KE involved in the feat based on the cloud dispersion, I'm not good at calcs though. However you can view this Cloud calcs page if you plan to.

Time to calc. Thank you very much for your help!

 

[Kaantantr]

The depiction of the Anime is quite "original" in this case, as are a lot of things in Alicization Anime. Unlike most changes occurring in Alicization due to the incompetence of Manabu Ono as a director making most of the wrong calls one can do that garnered a lot of distaste from the fans, this one was because A-1 Studios was very proud of their light particle engine for this production that they forced it into everywhere, so much so that back in Cour 2, they basically used this particle engine to hide most of the animation, because it is easier to hide everything behind a computer generated VFX layer than it is to create and polish handdrawn animation. The effects of the engine include the weird bubbles you see in the clip Torsin shared, how the Anime decided to portray PoH affecting Koreans and Americans by manipulating with words into "We'll just get them surrounded by clouds with our particle engine and everyone will think they are being mind controlled instead" and the like.

In the scene, Kirito basically uses Skill Connect to cancel out his post-skill delay coming from Deadly Sins into a Vorpal Strike. And it is Vorpal Strike that creates the hole in PoH's chest (you have also seen a much more powerful Vorpal Strike being used against Chudelkin, this one was much more standard in comparison). There is a blast of air as part of the effect of the skill (empowered by Incarnation of course) that moves up some dust that Asuna has to slightly narrow her eyes to not get any dust in, as well as cracks being created in the nearby vicinity of their fight (which also happens during their clash too due to both being powered by their own Incarnation).

The cloud above that dissipates is the effect of PoH's Meat Chopper. It's perk in SAO was that it gets stronger (by gaining bonus stats) when you kill players with it. When converted into Underworld, the perk was altered a bit to fit Underworld's infrastructure as there are no actual "stats" to go on about in this world. As such, what it does is absorb the spatial resources generated by death instead. So what you see above as clouds are those spatial resources and it is also mentioned how they are being siphoned into the Meat Chopper in the form of a whirlwind. The moment Kirito defeats PoH, the effect is cancelled out, leading to the dissipation of those clouds, which the Anime overdramatized because it allows for a cooler shot when you have the typical "light beam dissipating clouds" moment.

All of this is from v18 Alicization Lasting, Chapter 21, Part 8.

 

[CurrySenpai]

The depiction of the Anime is quite "original" in this case, as are a lot of things in Alicization Anime.

Sometimes I wonder if we should just make two profiles for the LN and Anime but idk how to feel about that lol

 

[Kaantantr]

Lmao, totally understandable. The Alicization Anime has basically forced us to restructure our entire approach to canonicity of all SAO material due to everything it did... We'll basically have a brand new framework for it sometime this year on the Wikia all thanks to Manabu Ono's incompetence