The New Gate

Book 19: Chapter 3 (4)

Iira Suura opened the floor by shooting out flames.

He positioned his arm as if throwing a punch, the flames overflowing from his gauntlet erupted towards Shin like a cannonball.

The flame could easily consume Shin. However, he didn’t flinch.

He waited for Shibaid, who was about to put up a barrier, and pulled out his newly retrieved blade.

Emerging from the vivid blue sheath was a translucent blade.

The ripples on the surface of the blade were reminiscent of one on water, giving the impression of a work of art rather than a weapon.

A superior-ancient grade Katana, ‘Still Water’.

The water-attributed blade would release water droplets just from swinging, and was enchanted with a weakening status effect against fire attributes.

He combined a skill with ‘Still Water’ freshly unsheathed from its scabbard and swung it down.

Katana/Water Combination Skill [Aozakura*]. (TLN: Lit. Blue Pomegranate. I went with the Raw.)

A pale blue trail was drawn in the air following the blade of the katana as it cut through the sky. The blue slash flew through the air and collided with the incoming flame.

The slash lashed into the flame as if slipping through, swelled up inside and split into multiple cuts of various sizes and continued through the air. The flame burst from within and the split slashes flew straight towards Iira Suura and Venna Vaal with explosive force.

Iira Suura received the slashes with his arm and Venna Vaal with her tail.

A cut was made on Iira Suura’s gauntlet, corresponding to the size of the slash. The flames in the area of the hit weakened slightly and quickly regained momentum again.

As for Venna Vaal, an icy flower bloomed on the surface of her tail.

Slashes with the water attributes were highly effective against the fire-attributed Iira Suura, but not so much against the ice-attributed Venna Vaal.

Although the slash itself wounded her tail, ‘Still Waters’ enchanted water attribute was affected by the icy mana enveloping Venna Vaal, creating an ornate flower of ice.

In her calamity manifestation, Venna Vaal possessed the ability to absorb ice generated by anything other than herself to restore herself. And when the icy flower shattered, the wound on her tail also disappeared.

“I guess this can’t even be counted as a warm-up.”

 “They aren’t gods for nothing, all right. Seems like it’ll take way more than that to get them on their toes.”

“Is it just me or do you also feel like they’re getting stronger?”

“Well, I can’t say that the pressure I feel from them is any different from before.”

Shin wasn’t exactly capable of accurately gauging the strength of an opponent based on their appearance or the pressure they gave off.

In trying to get a second opinion, he asked Shibaid who replied saying he hadn’t noticed any particular difference in their strength.

And he wasn’t counting on that attack to do any damage to them either.

Shin was being wary and testing to find out, as far as he could observe, of any inconsistency from his personal recollections.

Iira Suura was level 833 and Venna Vaal 874. The latter being higher in level, as if she was getting some sort of buff from the environment.

To Shin’s knowledge, both were in the 800-900 level range. Which seemed about right considering environmental factors. And no signs of any miasma too.

So far, there had been no word from Yuzuha or Tiera confirming any anomaly with the Ley Lines.

He turned his gaze away from the gods for a moment.

Schnee and the others were standing in front of 08, which was about to advance his way.

The only support character who was acquainted with 08 in the game era was Berett, so even though they had heard some stories, Schnee and the others were meeting 08 for the first time.

He couldn’t be sure how 08 felt about this, but it seemed that Schnee and the others weren’t going to be pulling their punches more than necessary, even though they were subordinates of the same High Humans.

Schnee, Filma, Sety. Despite their different personalities, an intense fighting spirit was emanating from all of them.

08 seemed to understand that they were no ordinary opponents, and wasn’t about to jump over them to get at Shin.

“Looks like Schnee and the others have a handle on 08. Then I better get my side of things over with as soon as possible.”

Shin was fired up, thinking that by the looks of it, they might even clean up 08 before he’d be done dealing with the gods.

Even though this was his first time confronting two gods at the same time, he had friends around him that he could rely on. He couldn’t see himself losing.

He held out ‘Scorching Blade’ in his left hand pointed forward, while carrying ‘Still Water’ in his right hand over his shoulder.

A dual-wielding stance taught to him by a player who used to be his mentor.

Shin added the experience he had gained in actual combat to it to create his own dual-wielding stance.

Next to Shin, Shibaid tethered his ‘Great Shell Shield of Collision’ in his left gauntlet and was holding ‘Placid Moon’ with both hands.

Both of them were poised to focus more on offense than defense.

“I’ll take on Iira Suura first. Five minutes. Can you hold off Venna Vaal for that long?”

“Sure thing.”

Taking out the one with the lowest level as quickly as possible. This was one of the most common strategies when facing several powerful opponents.

The environment was also a debuff for Iira Suura. If it were only Iira Suura that appeared, he could have erupted the mountain and turned the place into a scorching lava stage.

He possessed enough power to influence the environment.

This time, however, there was another god, Venna Vaal, who had the environment on her side already.

The two gods were almost equal in status. Meaning, Iira Suura wouldn’t be as formidable as Venna Vaal, who already had control of the environment.

So, it’d be prudent to go after the one he had a higher chance of defeating faster and irrefutably.

“Watch my back.”

“Got it!”

With his back to Shibaid, Shin launched off the ground toward Iira Suura.

There was no looking back. He generally wouldn’t rush in without caution, but, since he entrusted Shibaid to watch his back, Shin’s attention was mostly focused on Iira Suura.

He dashed with ‘Still Water’ slung over his shoulder.

While Iira Suura’s eyes were on Shin, he knew that his attention was on ‘Still Water’ in his right hand.

Wondering when exactly he became able to tell when an opponent was paying attention to his weapon?

It wasn’t from one of his skills. But a byproduct of his own personal experiences.

As he dashed toward Iira Suura, Shin increased the amount of magic power he was channeling into ‘Still Water’. Like ripples forming on the surface of water, the blade surged immensely.

Iira Suura didn’t stand idly by as Shin approached.

He pulled his right fist with such sheer force and thrust it toward the sky. And as if splitting from his own body, a larger mass of flame shot out. Bluish-white in color and seemingly igniting the frigid air around..

According to Shin’s memory, this was one of his decisive moves named [Body-Immolating Divine Flame].

It was a technique that made players weep by breaking through items designed to defend against fire attributes and inflict damage.

Even though it couldn’t be completely nullified, the damage itself could still be reduced, so knowing that taking countermeasures wouldn’t be a total waste of time was the silver lining.

While pulling back the outstretched fist, he thrust the other fist upward.

The color of the flame that shot out was the same bluish-white from before with the same intensity. Back in the game era, this was already a one-shot technique, but right now Iira Suura is able to fire off both hands in rapid succession.

Three to four shots of flames were released, filling Shin’s path with flames of varying size and number albeit with little delay in between bursts.

“Did the activation conditions for the technique change? No, the activation key is the amount of HP. Meaning he can use it whenever he wants.”

While staring at the approaching flames, he calmly analyzed the discrepancy with his knowledge.

Then he began contemplating techniques that could or couldn’t be used. And while listing the activation conditions and effects in his head, Shin pointed the tip of his ‘Scorching Blade’ at the flame.

The same blue flame as the one looming erupted from his blade.

Shin slowed down and touched the flames with his katana at a very slow pace.

The heat of the flames enveloped Shin’s entire body, trying to burn him.

However, because he was wearing a heat-resistant cloak, the heat that could incinerate even bones to ashes dissipated before it could engulf his body.

Instead of cutting through the flames, Shin waved his ‘Scorching Blade’ as if to gently push it out. The flames, which would have been too much even for Shin if he had been hit directly, easily changed its trajectory with just that one movement.

It passed him by like an invisible obstacle. The flames that passed behind Shin burned the vacant terrain into a melted portrait of steam and sleet.

Katana/Flame Combination Skill [Spiral Flame Dance].

It was a skill that enchanted the blade with a buff that would repel fire-attribute attacks, and if it were magic, it could deflect the attack itself, just like Shin just did.

Weapons and physical attacks could reduce or nullify the fire-attribute after effects and attribute damage.

“No sweat.”

An avalanche of flames burned the ground and scorched the surrounding sky.

While the earth was dyed red, Shin’s figure was still present. Only the place where Shin was standing remained unaffected.

He swung ‘Scorching Blade’ as if he were brushing away water from the blade. The flames that covered the blade quietly disappeared with a single swing.

He became focused.

In the five minutes he promised Shibaid, he would defeat Iira Suura. Shin was seriously planning to do this, which would have been impossible in the game.

Was it because he was up against a god, a foe more tricky than any he had fought before, or because he had Shibaid watching his back? Or perhaps because he was inspired by Schnee and the others?

Shin felt more focused than ever before.

He activated his movement-type martial skill [Ground Shrink]. He lowered his body and stomped the ground vigorously.

(Not just my legs, it seems like my whole body has been slightly reinforced.)

He could feel the magic power used to activate the skill running through his body. He found that not only was a lot of it gathered from the ankles and beyond, but also that more magic power was dispersed to the joints.

The magic power surrounding his entire body was also slightly concentrated more in his lower half. Various parts of the body were strengthened in reasonable proportions to withstand quick movement.

Each step Shin took pushed his body harder than he remembered.

The high-speed movement, which could be mistaken for teleportation, put Shin right under Iira Suura’s nose in just three steps.

“…”

He exhaled quietly. The extra strength he contained in the hand that was holding ‘Still Water’ was released with that one breath. And the blade that was resting on his shoulder floated slightly.

With ‘Scorching Blade’ on his right, he charged forward. He then circled the blade to his rear as if trying to conceal it with his body.

The first move came from ‘Scorching Blade’.

As he took his fourth step, he swung ‘Scorching Blade’ to cut Iira Suura in two diagonally.

Katana/Darkness Combination Skill [Shimmering Dark Night].

The edge of the ‘Scorching Blade’ was too short for Iira Suura’s huge body. However, the blow that was delivered ran as a black line from Iira Suura’s left flank to his right shoulder.

The ‘Scorching Blade’ katana was dyed black, and the blade that extended from it was of the same color.

The slash appeared to have cut Iira Suura in two, but because his body was almost entirely flames itself, there were no identifiable wounds.

There was only a slight dent on the gauntlet of his right fist, which he happened to pull back.

The jet-black slash with no apparent force would stimulate the affinity of the attributes of the hit opponent. The higher the higher, the lower the lower. The more specific the attribute, the more pronounced the effect.

The skill’s effect was a kind of status effect, which often didn’t work or was weakened on god-level monsters.

However, Shin was confident that it would work. As proof, the red part of the flame enveloping Iira Suura turned yellow immediately after receiving the slash.

The temperature radiated around him rose even higher, and his body increased in size.

 The second move was from ‘Still Water’.

As Iira Suura flared up with increased strength and raring to vaporize the enemy in front of him, Shin swung his second blade down without a sound.

Katana/Water Combination Skill [Violent Splash].

A translucent slash shot out from the ‘Still Water’ blade he swung down.

It changed size by the time it reached Iira Suura, and sliced from his left shoulder to his right flank, crossing with the black line from [Shimmering Dark Night].

This was a skill that emphasized power rather than status effects, and was designed to deal damage.

The sliced flames quickly returned to their original state, but the color of the flames in the area that received the slash became translucent, just like the skill.

Like blood seeping from a cut, it eroded Iira Suura’s body, and after a second or so, it exploded. And what splashed out was neither blood nor flames, but water. A part of Iira Suura’s body turned into water and ruptured. The parts that became water evaporated as if they had been scraped, and even the water that splashed around dealt some damage in an attempt to extinguish the flames.

 [Violent Splash] was but an attribute-enchanted slash against opponents with physical bodies, but possessed the special effect of forcibly transforming the bodies of incorporeal opponents.

“Now to wrap up.”