SSS Awakening : I can Adapt to Everything-Chapter 23: The Gatekeeper

"I can still—" Toma began.

"Your bat is down and you’re bleeding internally." Hide Interrupted him, without turning back, stating it as the fact it was. "Stay here."

Toma looked at him for a moment. Then he moved to the nearest root and wild grass cluster, a dense knotted tangle of overlapping trunks that formed a natural hollow, and pressed himself into it, one hand still flat on his chest.

Hide stepped out a little into the open area, still hidden behind a group of for the first time since entering the gate, from a break in the canopy where two large trunks had grown apart far enough to leave a clear window of open air above the forest floor.

The air here was hot and dry, beyond this canopy there were several mountain ranges, all dry. There was no sun in the sky, yet it was as bright as afternoon and the heat, it felt as if he was sitting in a desert.

It was a great contrast, outside in the real world, it was cold right now. And here inside this gate, it was so hot.

’Such distinctions.’

Hide was marveled at the sight, he had always learned it as a fact that every gate had its own climate and it was a whole different world beyond. But experiencing it first hand, he could not help but venerate the beauty of the world they lived in.

But currently that wonder was of no use, he pushed all unnecessary thoughts away and focused on the several beasts flying above.

There were, as he counted, ten of them.

They circled in a tight formation eight or so meters above the opening, riding the thin air between canopy and the gate’s sourceless sky.

Each of them was roughly the length of his forearm — longer if you counted the proboscis, which extended a full third of the body length forward and ended in a point that caught the flat light with a faint metallic gleam.

The abdomen was bee-shaped, striped in dark amber and black, but the wings were mosquito wings — long, membranous, beating at a frequency that made no sound at this distance and made the hovering look both effortless and wrong.

The compound eyes were enormous. And every one of them was already looking directly at him.

They had known he was there before he arrived.

He stepped fully into the gap.

He pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it at the canopy line, same with the pants, after he was completely naked, he let the scales come.

The last time had told him enough and he did not wish to roam naked after they got out of this gate, so, cloths need to be safe as well.

The scales rose in a single slow wave, from his chest outward, down his torso, across his shoulders and arms, climbing his abdomen to his hips, spreading up his neck and stopping at his jaw.

The texture was different from anything he’d felt before. The scales were heavier and locked tighter at the overlapping edges, the outer surface carrying that faint dark lustre. The physical enhancement settled into his limbs like a current being switched on at double the voltage.

He raised the sword and aimed it at the beasts. "Die bastards."

The formation above him broke, as if agitated by his courage and bold words. How dare a weak human say that in front of a whole pack.

All ten dropped straight down without circling closer or testing.

The proboscises leading them, as their wings folded on the descent to reduce drag, converging on the single heat source below them.

Hide stepped hard left.

The first four passed through the space he’d occupied and hit empty air. Their formation fragmented on the failed strike.

He caught the nearest one across its flight path with a horizontal slash, and the blade passed cleanly through the junction between thorax and abdomen, and the two halves fell separately.

[Calamity Beast (Needler) — Eliminated]

Experience points gained: 50

Two came from either side simultaneously, wings snapping back open as they converted from dive to horizontal approach. He ducked the left one, let it pass overhead, drove the sword upward through its underbelly as it cleared him.

The right one reached the back of his neck — proboscis striking the scale coverage at the top of his spine, but the scales held and its bloodsucking needle broke.

The beast tried to fly back when Hide reached back, grabbed it by the wings, and closed his fist.

[Calamity Beast (Needler) — Eliminated]

Experience points gained: 50

[Calamity Beast (Needler) — Eliminated]

Experience points gained: 50

The remaining seven spread wide across the gap perimeter, hovering and reassessing, as the thing below them was indeed very dangerous.

He didn’t give them time to find a new strategy.

Hide crossed the gap in three strides and drove straight into the left flank — three of them were clustered near the canopy edge.

The sword moved in tight controlled arcs without pause between strokes. First went down clean. Second caught him on the forearm, but nothing happened and, he simply shook it off and drove his fingers into its compound eye.

Tearing it apart.

Third pulled back toward the treeline and he followed it two steps into the canopy shadow and cut it down before it cleared the trunks.

[Calamity Beast (Needler) — Eliminated]

Experience points gained: 50

[Calamity Beast (Needler) — Eliminated]

Experience points gained: 50

[Calamity Beast (Needler) — Eliminated]

Experience points gained: 50

There were only four left and Hide had no intention of letting them go when suddenly the earth shuddered. He almost lost his balance and fell to the ground.

But he managed to keep standing. The remaining beasts fled with their tails between their legs.

Hide stood in the quiet and let the sword rest at his side. His breathing had barely shifted. He noticed that with mild detachment — six F-Rank beasts, and his body hadn’t pushed once.

The ground moved again.

Then another step.

Then another.

Hide gulped hard and turned toward the direction the steps were coming from. The trees in that direction were moving, shifting at their bases, displaced by something passing between them that was wider than the gaps they stood in.

The footsteps stopped.

Toma stood up and walked besides Hide. His face was drained of all color and he was terrified to his bones.

The whole place went completely silent. Even the ambient sounds of the gate was no longer running — all of it dropped away at once, as if the space itself had decided to pay attention.

Then, from the dark between the trunks, something exhaled.

Two pale eyes opened in the dark and looked at Hide.

Toma besides him exhaled sharply and said quietly. "That... that’s the... Gatekeeper!"