Chapter 17: Versus The Gatekeepers (4)

“You’re in my domain now.”

Although Blake sounded menacing—perhaps even disdainful—he was genuinely thrilled to clash with the soldier.

Melee combat had always been his element.

Now that she wielded a spear instead of a bow, the parameters of the fight shifted in his favor. Yet he suspected that her choice of a longer weapon was deliberate—meant to maintain distance.

It hit him immediately: spears excelled at keeping opponents at arm’s length.

This meant he had to surge forward, denying her any room to maneuver out of close quarters.

He struck first, his katana colliding against the spear’s handle as the final gatekeeper blocked. Before she could adjust her grasp, Blake scored a hit on her armor faster than she anticipated.

He leveraged his superior speed and the hard-earned experience from his beta days, outperforming the typical player by a great margin.

Determined to repay the injury inflicted by The Supreme Archer’s arrow, Blake deftly twisted his wrist and slashed at her torso again, intent on exacting his vengeance.

And he would continue striking until she yielded and became his familiar.

His blade moved with such speed that it carved shimmering crescents in the air, bathing her in a gleaming storm of steel.

Only a handful of these arcs stemmed from the Crescent Pride skill; each one sliced clean through her armor.

The rest were clever feints and sacrificial strikes, calculated to crack her stance and break down her defenses.

[-144 HP!]

[-137 HP!]

[-109 HP!]

[-115 HP!]

As Blake once more unleashed twice his weapon’s damage on the fifth slash, the gatekeeper’s bestial eyes flickered into trembling human ones that briefly locked onto his blade.

They reverted to their feral state a heartbeat later as dire urgency seized her.

This player was no mere challenger—he wielded his katana like savage claws, surprisingly more beast than she ever was.

He eclipsed her in every facet of close combat.

If nothing changed, his next successful strike would end her.

Driven by duty and desperation, the gatekeeper took a calculated risk. She deliberately exposed a vulnerable spot, hoping to lure Blake in.

He took the bait.

Although he inflicted another punishing blow, this time he lacked the position to react as swiftly as before.

Grasping the opening, the soldier kicked him in the stomach, using the strike’s recoil to propel herself backward. Then she somersaulted gracefully, putting more distance between them.

When Blake looked up, he found her hovering near the ceiling, her spear reverting into a bow form as it absorbed red and blue radiance.

She wove a ribbon of red-and-blue mana around her arrowhead, its tip gleaming with dense magical energy.

Amid that bright tapestry of mana and light, The Supreme Archer’s poised silhouette and bow remained visible, making her appear both radiant and invincible.

Everything about this moment screamed danger.

Sheathing his katana, Blake assumed a new stance. It dredged up memories of his final battle against the leviathan, but he dismissed that painful recollection with a slight shake of his head.

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He might have perished in style at the time…

…but today, he would be reborn.

Blake studied the archer calmly.

He breathed in, then out.

She hovered at least fifteen meters away, suspended high above, safely out of reach.

It seemed he had no choice but to endure her final arrow.

Only then could he close in and defeat her…

…yet Blake didn’t think so.

The game extracted both the best and the worst from its players. Similarly, the players could surpass the game’s mechanics through ingenuity, talent, or experience—or all of these combined.

Blake wasn’t one of the characters with defined rules and limitations.

He stood here as himself.

No limits.

He raised his gaze and smiled.

The arrow’s brilliant red-and-blue glow washed over his face, as though the entire hall—his very life—already belonged to the archer.

As if confirming that notion, The Supreme Archer released her arrow.

Charged with mana, it streaked toward him like a scorching meteor.

When it reached the halfway mark, Blake sprang into action.

He vanished from his spot.

As he intersected the arrow’s path, he cleaved it neatly in two. Only the soft rasp of his katana sliding back into its sheath and the faint clink of its chains reverberated through the hall—Blake himself had disappeared.

By the time the gatekeeper understood what had happened, she instinctively tilted her head back.

There he was, floating above her, katana still sheathed, ready to strike.

“I acknowledge you as The Supreme Archer…

…but I am The Supreme Blade.”

He flashed past her in an instant, carving a deep slash from her shoulder down to her thigh, splitting open her armor to reveal the metallic flesh beneath.

Blake alighted softly on the floor and inclined his head.

Behind him, the final gatekeeper crashed to the ground like a toppled statue. Her wide, now fully human eyes admired his back.

“Yeah, I already acknowledged…” Blake bit his tongue.

He sounded like his old self. How many beta testers had mocked him for that tone? No matter—he wouldn’t dwell on it now.

“Yes,” he whispered.

“Beatrix,” said Blake softly.

The defeated soldier’s metal shell shuddered beneath a black glow, undergoing a transformation she herself could never have imagined.

Meanwhile, a set of heavy doors materialized across the hall, swinging open with a resounding thud and flooding Blake with radiant, golden light.