Chapter 74: Gatebreak [3]
Everyone stared at the vibrant fissure in reality itself as the heartbeat echoed throughout the street. Their faces hardened, and their grip on weapons tightened. They looked at the dreamgate with vigilance, waiting for the next wave to begin.
Not a single voice slipped from their lips, their breaths were hitched, and the whole street was shrouded in silence, the warning siren being the only sound present in all of it.
The arcane knights held their gazes fixed on the man who stood... or sat at the forefront of all this. They couldn’t see his face behind the icy plain mask, but his cold eyes told them stories unknowingly, each one of them was a dreadful tale that was why they called him—
’Faceless ice phantom... what are you going to do now?’
An arcane knight thought as he looked at his own palms, he was someone who had only one affinity, and that was with Ice elementals, and seeing how the faceless ice phantom manipulated ice as if he didn’t even need to cast a spell for it. Told him how much more he can progress even if he only has one affinity. He had involuntarily begun to idolise the faceless ice phantom.
And Jaden had no clue of what kind of winds his presence was blowing. He just sat on the ice chair as he thought.
’Blasted hell... how long would it take for reinforcements to come?’
Just as he thought, the sound of something ripping apart echoed within the street, and the dreamgate widened. Jaden stood up from his chair and called out to [All-severing Moonlight (Replica)]. The ice chair crumbled, and soon a burning claw emerged from the gate; a nightmare was unleashed.
The nightmare was similar to the ones before, the only difference being that their flames were darker and they had four eyes instead of three; lastly, a tail ending in a burning blade.
’A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.’
Jaden stepped forward, his sword gleaming with dim white light as he got ready to once again begin massacring the nightmare; however, before he could do so, the nightmare’s tail shot forward, intending to kill the one at the front. He defended against the blade-like end of the tail, using his sword.
The sound of the blade hitting the tail echoed like a war drum, initiating everything. More D-ranked nightmares poured out of the dreamgate... But Jaden just stood there with a puzzled look on his face as he mumbled.
"Why are they... so weak?"
The nightmares of the gate were nothing like the nightmare he had faced within the forest or Nightshade City... These were way too weak for him. Hearing his words, everyone’s eyes widened as they mumbled within themselves.
"Weak?"
"Doesn’t he mean to say that he is unusually strong?"
"Or... maybe we are unusually weak?"
Hopefully, it wasn’t a xianxia; otherwise, his words would have left them with heart demons for their remaining lives. However, his words did have an unimaginable effect. The fear that was seeping into their mind and bodies vanished as they shouted.
"Are we really getting scared by some weakass nightmares?"
"Even my two-month-old can kill them."
"Heck! Let me show you my forbidden water spell!"
"This senior is truly ashamed to be scared of such unworthy beings..."
The heavy environment began to lift as everyone’s will was reignited once again. Jaden looked at them from the corner of his eye as he thought.
’What’s up with these guys? Why do they keep saying things like that...?’
He shook his head and shrugged at their reaction before he stepped forward using [Gust step ★] and appeared right beside the nightmare, his sword fell with the weight of his being and severed the nightmare into two.
[You have slain a D-rank malaflame.]
[Experience +25 (Kill)]
’Heh... I was right, they are indeed weaker than the ones there.’
He dismissed the screen, and his gaze shifted towards the next nightmare. A few of them had already left the gate, so he couldn’t afford to let more of them pass.
Even so, he had put a restriction on himself to only use wind and ice magic. He didn’t want unwanted attention, and limiting the spells he used would make it harder for anyone to connect this incident with him. Unless they already knew about his weapon.
’Most would probably think of it as an ice sword... heh. The lesser the attention, the better the growth.’
He smiled behind the mask and mumbled.
"Shard Barrage."
Just as he spoke, his mana flared, and icicles began to form around him. Soon, wind elementals left his body and struck the icicles, sending them flying towards the nightmare. The icicles pierced their bodies, killing a few and injuring the most.
Jaden also moved with his movement art, enhancing his movements as his combat experience unleashed upon the nightmares that burned with the dark flames of some fiery hell. Each strike, slash or swing was with minimal movement, either wounding or killing the nightmare.
The nightmares let out furious cries as they leapt toward him, only to fall prey to his legendary sword that had been to the depths of the icy hell.
’How much fucking longer?’ He cursed in his mind as he swung more and more. His palms were aching, and a thin film of sweat stuck to his body. However, he didn’t stop and continued to dash from one nightmare to another.
He dashed to kill a D-ranked nightmare, who had just left the gate. Much to his surprise, the gate darkened and widened as an arm as thick as an adult human’s waist shot out of it and punched him.
Jaden was sent flying towards a nearby destroyed building.
The other arcane knights’ expressions darkened heavily as they saw the gate guardian walk out of the gate.
Crack... Crack... Crack...
The gate crumbled behind it, but now a being no one could defeat stood poised to unleash its onslaught.