Infinite Realm

"[Explosion]" Fudo yelled as he pointed his staff towards the Gatekeeper.

*Boom*

"Roar!"

-198 (1934/4500 Gatekeeper Baka's HP)

A small explosion lighted up on the body of the cyclops, but the flames only occupied its left arm. In comparison to the creature's body, this wasn't much but the damage was still okay.

At the same time, Xue Yan let go of the fireball she had been 'charging' as the attack hit the Gatekeeper without any hindrance, exploding and forcing it back by one step. The trio then hurried to withdraw as they cleared up some space between themselves and the monster. Even though they could face the Gatekeeper, the disadvantage of their classes remained so it was best to put up some gap between them and the monster.

"That was an ultimate attack and I only caused damage worth a bit above my average." Fudo sighed.

The Gatekeeper was a level 15 Special Elite wheres he was a level 13 Fire [Elementalist]. There was a 2-level gap between them and considering that monsters generally had more attribute points than players, the strength difference was more than 2 levels worth of attribute points. Also, the Gatekeeper was a Special Elite monster, meaning that it could contend with monsters two levels ahead of it. So even an ultimate attack from Fudo was only worth a skill attack from Sato.

"Ugh." Sato slowly stood up from the floor using his sword as an aid.

"Didn't know you could erupt with such strength." Sato narrowed his eyes as he stared at the cyclops being harassed by the back trio.

*Step*

Sato firmly took one step forward with his right foot, before launching himself towards the Gatekeeper. He ran at full speed that the 60 or so metres gap between him and the monster was covered within 3 seconds.

"Black Flame Slash." Sato growled as he swung the cursed sword at the creature.

A wave of black flames immediately coated the sword and just as it was about to spill away, Sato had already brandished his sword in front.

-175 (1759/4500 Gatekeeper Baka's HP)

"Argh!!" The cyclops roared out in pain.

A 2 metres long arc of black flames struck the Gatekeeper from behind, dispersing into a small wave that engulfed a portion of the monster. Once the attack had landed, Sato immediately retreated to a spot 5 metres away.

Sato's movements were too quick and the Gatekeeper was focused on Xue Yan that it had temporarily ignored Sato. It never thought that Sato would recover from the previous attack within 5 seconds and then attack it.

"You plebeians dare to harm the Gatekeeper of the temple of God?!" Gatekeeper Baka spoke as it turned to face Sato.

"We already dared to bring your HP below 50% so shut up." Sato grinned before a glint flashed in his eyes as he saw the monster's movements stiffen.

[Linear Strike]

Sato had originally planned on just dealing one attack but he noticed that the Gatekeeper had abruptly frozen after its short statement. That was the result of the side-effect of the skill, [Black Flame Slash].

Black Flame Slash : Active Skill : Release a long-range attack with a 30 metres attack range and 140% of Attack Power as damage. Upon contact, the skill would explode into a blazing black fire that would wrap itself around the target and deal flame damage alongside mental damage both wielding 120% of Magical Attack Power. The mental damage has a slight chance of sending the opponent into a [Stun] state. Cool-down : 7 seconds.

Sato never paid attention to the Magical damage part as his [Intelligence] was too low to cause any harm to any monster. However, the chance of sending a target into a [Stun] state wasn't dependent on whether or not Magical damage was dealt, but mental damage. While it was true that both forms of damages could be countered by increasing one's [Willpower], the specifics around Mental damage was a bit more different than Magical damage so the [Stun] effect could even take place regardless of whether or not the target was injured by the flame's magic damage.

However, because he had never witnessed a target being stunned before, Sato never had any hopes of triggering the effect. It was only as he noticed the stiff movement of the cyclops that Sato linked it to the skill's hidden effect.

Like a spear thrown at a target, Sato dashed towards the Gatekeeper in a straight line, leaving behind a white 'tail'.

*Whoosh*

One second Sato was behind the Gatekeeper. The next second he was in front.

[Critical Hit]

-321 (1438/4500 Gatekeeper Baka's HP)

*Splash*

Blood red liquid spilled from the side of the monster as a gaping wound appeared. If one were to look closer, they would even be able to spot some greyish white objects. That one slash from Sato was so powerful that it had even revealed the bones of the Gatekeeper!

"Amazing." Seiichi couldn't help but praise.

[Linear Strike] wasn't just a skill that focused on power, but penetration. The whole point of the skill was to focus the user's power into one blow, preferably a thrust. This was because one of the special features of the skill was to increase the penetration of the attack by 10%. for Sato, it was 35% since [Drakken] already had a passive that increased penetration by 25%!

When those two bonuses combined into one powerful attack, it was understandable for [Linear Strike] to cut through the flesh of the Gatekeeper, going so far as to expose its ribcage.

"Remember this, you're not my match." Sato stared at the monster.

Gatekeeper Baka retreated two steps backward as its face was covered in fear. A second later though, it recovered and was instead incensed at the fact that it had retreated in the face of an opponent. In its head, it presumed that the 'Great God' won't forgive it for that behaviour and the only way of being pardoned was to stop these pagans.

"Rar! All trespassers must die!"