webnovel Chapter 322: The Convergence At Brooklyn
Chapter 322: The Convergence At Brooklyn
The concrete beneath Nirvana’s boots felt like ice, yet sweat tore down her face, stinging the open gashes across her cheeks. Blood, thick and hot, dripped down her arm as she clutched her shattered elbow, kneeling helplessly on the fractured asphalt of Brooklyn.
"How can such a monster exist on this planet?!" Nirvana asked in shock, her breath hitching in her throat as she looked up.
Standing just a few paces before her were the remaining members of the Sword Academy’s Invincible Five. Once heralded as the peak of their generation within Galaxy Fall’s global rankings, their gazes were now entirely stripped of pride, filled only with absolute horror. Behind their trembling defensive line, five lower-year students huddled together, their weapons shaking so violently they rattled against their armor.
"Help me!! Let me go!!!"
The desperate, piercing scream sliced through the stagnant air. They all stared at the screaming Girl, a promising member from their team, whose head was currently held in the massive, iron-like grip of the Dragon gatekeeper. Unlike the gatekeepers encountered by other teams, this entity bore an evolutionary mutation—four jagged horns crown its skull, pulsing with a dense, violet-black abyssal energy that distorted the gravity around it. A cruel, mocking sneer was etched across its reptilian face.
BAM!!
Without an ounce of effort, the monster clenched its hand, instantly shattering the head of the girl. The horrific crack of bone echoed through the ruined street before her lifeless body dropped to the ground, dead.
’Damnit! This monster is a lot stronger than a realm Boss! How can such a monster appear here!’ Jessica thought, panic threatening to override her training. Her Mythic Eye was fully active, its complex irises spinning at maximum frequency as it frantically tried to calculate the gatekeeper’s hidden stats. Every reading came back in corrupted, bloody red syntax.
She looked over her shoulder with growing dread. All her elite teammates were beaten, coughing up blood or unconscious against the rubble. She was the only strong one left standing between this predator and the remaining students.
"Die human!!"
The Dragon guard roared, the sound barrier breaking in its wake. Jessica sharply turned her head towards the monster, her vision blurring as she realized it was already directly in front of her. The sheer speed of its agility stat bypassed her perception entirely. Its battleaxe was raised high into the dark sky, its heavy blade already descending to split her in two.
’Am... Am I going to die here?’ Jessica thought in horror, her eyes wide open as the shadow of the axe completely enveloped her world.
___
[Some Minutes Back.]
The Brooklyn sky was a tapestry of ash as the Sword Academy soared through the air, leaping from building to building.
"Do you think it’s wise trusting Mirabella?" Ethan asked, drawing level with Jessica as they bypassed the skeletal frameworks of abandoned skyscrapers. His hand rested uneasily on the hilt of his sword.
"Why are you asking such a stupid question?! It doesn’t matter if we trust her or not! As long, we take care of this gateway, we can gain more points!" Nirvana yelled at him from her position, her aggressive nature flaring. To her, the global academy scoreboard was everything; letting the Dragon Team monopolize all the rewards was unacceptable.
"I am just saying," Ethan muttered, turning his gaze ahead to the ominous red glow rising from the center of the borough. "She is the one who gave us this location; don’t you think this is a trap, don’t you think this gateway will be dangerous?"
Jessica exhaled, her mind weighing the geopolitical friction between their factions. "What you said held meaning, Ethan, but I believe 20 of us can at least take care of one gate. We are the elite core of the academy. If we retreat without even looking, we forfeit our standing." She said, and then she looked over her shoulder at her team, seeing the mixture of determination and anxiety on the younger students’ faces.
"I don’t know what is waiting ahead, so for now; everyone should be on guard? Don’t let even a single creature get close to you!!" She ordered seriously, her voice carrying the weight of a true captain.
"YES!"
The nineteen yelled in unison, their collective voices temporarily drowning out the distant howling of monsters as they rushed forward into the heart of the red zone.
__
After moving for five minutes through the desolate, monster-infested streets, the group finally reached their destination, halting right at the center of the devastated city plaza.
"We are here." Nirvana said, her predatory instincts taking over as she jumped down the high building, landing heavily on the cracked ground below to scout the immediate perimeter.
"Hey! Be careful!" Honky snapped at her from the rooftop. "We haven’t scanned the spatial density yet!"
"Yeah, yeah." Nirvana waved her hand dismissively. But the moment her boots crossed the critical 1,000 meters boundary distance from the portal, the structural laws of the zone triggered. The massive gateway vibrated violently, sending dark energy waves rippling across the entire city, shattering every remaining window pane for miles.
"What the?"
The sword team were all dumbfounded, their combat formations instantly breaking as the pressure dropped. They watched in absolute disbelief as a creature with four horns walked out from the swirling vortex of the gateway. It stood over eight meters tall, its obsidian plate armor radiating a suffocating chill, and it was armed with a god class battleaxe that seemed to drink the light around it.
"What sort of monster is that?!!" Zach yelled in horror, his longsword slipping an inch from his grip as his galaxy interface flashed wild danger warnings.
"I think that’s the gatekeeper." Jessica said, her voice dropping an octave as she summoned her primary sword, the blade glowing with red aura.
"Are we going to fight that thing?!!" Ophelia asked in terror, pointing a shaking, pale finger at the looming dragon. The creature’s gaze had just locked onto them, its yellow eyes devoid of any mammalian emotion.
"If we are after that gateway, we have no choice." Andrew yelled at the group, his fists clenched as his pride as an upperclassman warred with his instinct to flee. "We are also strong!! We are also students of the strongest academy! Why are we scared of a Lv500 Monster!! Yes! It’s 200 levels above us, so what?! We can still take it down if we work together! Our combined attack can surely pierce its defense!"
"....?!"
Everyone looked at one another in the heavy silence that followed, not a single one convinced by the bravado. The sheer density of the monster’s energy pool was visible to the naked eye.
"Young Master Andrew... We all know this, but what’s the use if we get killed here?" Mike asked, staring down at the humanoid dragon with pragmatic dread.
"I am not saying we are weak, but at least, we should know our limit. I am a knight, and I am 200% sure I can’t block one attack from that thing. My shield durability would vaporize instantly." He added, refusing to let academic pride dictate a suicide mission.
Andrew glared fiercely at the guy, his aura flaring in insult, but Mike simply glared back at him without flinching. They were both elite students of Galaxy Fall, backed by prominent families, so Mike wasn’t intimidated by Andrew’s family name.
"Look at you two, already fighting... How do you expect to defeat this guy before us if we can’t even maintain a unified command?" Honky asked with a heavy sigh, stepping between them, and turned to Jessica for the final assessment. "I agree with, Mike... We shouldn’t chew what we can’t swallow. This isn’t a standard raid."
Jessica stared intently at the monster, her Mythic eye spinning furiously as it peeled back the layers of camouflage masking the creature’s true threat level. After some seconds of calculation, her face drained of color, and she nodded her head.
"You are right. This monster isn’t an average Lv500, I think it’s hiding its main strength. Its actual parameters are close to a disaster." She said, her decision made as she sheathed back her sword.
"Nirvana, abort! We are leaving the third objective!" She yelled down to Nirvana, who was still standing below the building within the trigger zone.
"Um..." Nirvana stammered, her usually fierce voice reduced to a breathless whisper. Cold sweat poured all over her face as the four-horned gatekeeper slowly lowered its yellow eyes directly onto her position:
"I... I can’t move!" She yelled in sheer terror.