Chapter 75: Gate guardian
Jaden crashed through a building and lay amidst the rubble. His mask was cracked as blood dripped out of his wounded head.
"Blasted... hell," he cursed and groaned as he forced himself to stand up, muttering the healing spells.
"Minor heal."
His hand moved through the debris, looking for his sword, but he couldn’t find it. He furrowed his brows and looked behind him. A short scream left his lips as he did so.
"What the?!"
Behind him stood a nightmare... frozen because it was holding the [All-severing Moonlight (Replica)]. Jaden stood up and drove a [Shattering fist ★] into the nightmare’s abdomen like a cannonball, shattering it into pieces. He called out to his weapon, and it melted before slithering towards him.
At that moment, a message appeared before him.
[Level up!]
[Host has reached level 15!]
[Level up requirement increased. 100 -> 200]
’... that’s just great!’
He thought and repaired his mask before dismissing the screen and walking towards the dreamgate.
While doing so, he finally focused on the building; it didn’t look like the ones you would see in a historical drama; instead, they appeared modern... though they seemed a few decades behind in development.
Most of the building walls were already full of cracks, hinting at poor management. Jaden looked at everything and mumbled.
"Am I at the outskirts?"
’No wonder the reinforcements still haven’t arrived...’
He finally walked out of the building, and his eyes fell on the gate guardian. It was nearly two meters tall, its body was broad, unlike the lanky body of the ones before; a wolf-skull mask of black bone covered its face, and four eyes gleamed beneath it. A wreath of magma stones, strung like prayer beads around its fiery neck.
Jaden’s expression turned dark after he examined the gate guardian. The gate guardian was currently commanding the other nightmares instead of fighting itself, which proved that it held intelligence unseen within C-ranked nightmares.
"No wonder they say, anything that can go wrong... will go wrong."
Jaden lifted his hand to call out to his sword. But he stopped, his steps halted.
’Why am I even doing this?’ He questioned himself, he had no selfish reason to help these people, he would gain nothing from it, after all, ’Then why? Ah—’ he finally remembered why.
Do not allow such emotions to weaken your resolve, Judy... You have to become a great man, after all.
Jaden chuckled as he remembered the words of his fa-... his mother. Even though it was just a few passing days for Jaden, the photographer. But to Jaden, within the illusion, the mayor’s son, it was his whole life.
He heaved a sigh, his eyes turned sharp, and he called out to his sword.
"I can’t just go back on my promise now, can I?" he muttered before his body blurred due to how fast he was.
Sshhk.... Sshhk...
A few D-ranked nightmares that were leading an assault on other arcane knights suddenly lost their heads, and Jaden appeared before the gate guardian. His sword glowed brightly as he channelled his mana into it. The air froze under the coldness emitting from the sword, and the steam rose as he swung the sword at the gate guardian.
The gate guardian was slow in its counter, and Jaden’s sword dug deep into its abdomen, freezing its insides. Jaden tried to take his sword out of the wound, but it was stuck. The gate guardian lifted its hand and smashed at him. Flames coiled around its fist.
Jaden skipped back a few steps and commanded the sword to come back. However, before the sword could come back to him, the gate guardian shouted, and its flame turned deeper, the ground beneath it began to melt and climb on its body, forming an armour.
’Blasted Hell...’ Jaden cursed in his head, lifting his hand. He tried to cast a few long or short-range spells, but before he could do so, the ground beneath him split apart and lava flooded out of it.
He moved in time, but the lava still managed to reach his left leg. Jaden placed a hand on his mouth, stifling any scream from leaving. He groaned shortly as the lava’s heat began to eat at him.
"Ugh!"
His eyes turned bloodshot, as tears welled up at the corners. Water elementals moved, healing the burn and easing the heat, but it was too late. The gate guardian reached him and threw another punch. Jaden stopped the punch with both of his hands, but the flames that were dancing around the nightmare’s fists began to burn him.
"AHHHHHH—" a pained scream left his mouth as the heat began to dig deeper. Jaden’s eyes dropped and fell on the [All-severing Moonlight (Replica)]. He commanded it once again, and the sword melted and merged into his body.
The heat began to die down, his eyes turned calm as before, and he was ready to fight once again. He gritted his teeth as his knees buckled under the weight of the nightmare’s arm.
"Ugh!" he let out a low groan, and blood dripped from his lips as he tried to push the nightmare away.
At that moment, the nightmare lifted its leg and slammed it on the ground. The ground shook. Jaden wobbled and lost his balance.
He hurriedly looked up and saw a fist enlarge in his vision, and the world suddenly blurred.
The fist landed, and Jaden’s bones twisted unnaturally, cracking under the sheer might of the nightmare. The dark flames tried to seep in, but the cold of [All-severing Moonlight (Replica)] stopped it.
His vision turned red as blood gushed from his wounds, his body went numb, and the pain started to recede, but the nightmare punched again.
"Augh!" Muffled groans and screams left his lips, and the nightmare once again lifted his hand to strike at him.
Right at that moment, a soft, feminine voice full of power echoed within the street, cutting through all others.
"My, my... Are we late?"