Chapter 86 - Gotrik's Part of the Battle (Patreon)

Gotrik Gurnisson as the proud member of the Slayer Cult and Beyonder of the Pathway of the Slayer, took on the remaining two Sequence 6 Beyonders of the Cult of the Dammed with great zeal as his twin war axes were pushing the two of them further and further towards their inevitable death.

The two Beyonders of the Cult of the Dammed that he was fighting against were Sequence 6 Nightmare and Sequence 6 Ascetic. Neither one of them seemed to be really proficient in the arts of combat due to how much they were struggling against him.

The Sequence 6 Nightmare Beyonder was relatively weak and entirely ineffective in the combat against him.

Gotrik knew that the strongest side of the Sequence 6 Nightmare was to induct a nightmare on someone; it was mostly done during the sleep of the target or during the time when the target wasn't paying attention.

Beyonders of this Pathway, starting from the Sequence 7 Sleepless were stronger during the Night and had high Spirituality, but their other combat capabilities were rather low. From the Sequence 6 Nightmare, they can separate their spirit from their physical body while they sleep, allowing it to travel freely or entirely to someone's dream.

They could then influence or guide their dreams to a certain degree and even influence their decision-making. Some more skilled and more powerful Beyonders of this Pathway could use this ability to kill their targets, but aside from that, there were not many other direct usages.

Obviously, the most dangerous ability that they gained at the Sequence 6 Nightmare was Somnokinesis, when they could forcefully drag their targets into dreams without alerting them of having done so under normal circumstances. This ability has a limited range if done quickly, but it can slowly coax their target to sleep if they are within 100 meters. They are pulled into the dream along with their target and cannot move while using this ability.

And then there was the Nightmare Limb, when they could conjure tentacle-like limbs protruding from their back as a means to fight at close range. Due to the fact that these tentacle-like limbs are partially formed from their own flesh and blood if they break, they will suffer the corresponding amount of damage.

However, these Nightmare Limbs were stronger than steel and got stronger over time, and it was one of the strongest abilities they had. Unfortunately, due to the Sequence 6 Beyonders, they met the wrong opponent this time. 

The real problem with the abilities of his opponents was fact, that they were mainly effective only against someone with weak willpower. So the fact that their enemy was someone like the member of the Slayer Cult, it was really a piece of terrible luck.

Only the best of the best became the slayers of the Slayer Cult, and even from them, only a small part walked through the Slayer Pathway. Gotrik Gurnisson's Willpower was enormous, and it wasn't something that could be breached by the meager Beyonder of Sequence 6.

So one of the Sequence 6 Beyonders against whom he was fighting was entirely useless because all of his abilities were unusable on Gtorik, and his close combat abilities were nothing of importance even if compared to non-Beyonder warriors.

The second Sequence 6 Beyonder was more dangerous and problematic than the Sequence 6 Nightmare Beyonder became his other opponent was Sequence 6 Ascetic. 

Sequence 6 Ascetic was a continuation from the Sequence 7 Ranger, and Gotrik knew that they belonged to the Great Other Pathway. This was a very powerful Pathway that was uniquely connected to the element of Ice and the concept of spring and Winter.

The Beyonders of this Pathway were most commonly very skilled killers with logical and calculated approaches to things and fighting; many of them would, later on, develop very powerful Ice Control abilities and either embark on the path of the magician with using the Cryomancy or combine it into their combat style with weapon mastery.

The one that he was using was a stereotypical continuation of the Sequence 7 Ranger because he was wielding a combination of weapons and interchanging between bow and twin daggers, and even Gotrik felt that the man was killed.

He had already dealt with a few Beyonders of this Pathway, and they were always extremely precise due to the abilities they obtained by advancing to the Sequence 6 Ascetic, when they learned to turn off their emotions and everything around them to focus solely on the combat.

It was almost impossible to disrupt them, and their process of thought was hastened several times during this state, which made them very problematic to deal with because the ones that were naturally skilled at fighting, with fast calculating capabilities, could predict future moves of their opponent as easy as breathing.

When the Sequence 6 Ascetic switched to close combat, even he himself needed to put a lot of effort into keeping up with him because every single strike that his opponent executed was done flawlessly and with perfect lethality and grace.

That level of skill wasn't seen every day, and certainly not among the members of the Cult of the Dammed. Gotrik immediately thought that the Cult of the Dammed must have been very lucky to have someone like this, as not many martially talented people joined the Cult of the Dammed.

While it was true that some Beyonder Pathways could literarily create a talent for combat and even an affinity for wielding a particular type of weapon, this was still nothing compared to the situation when someone was already innately talented, and his Beyonder Abilities just strengthened his innate talent.

And it seemed that it was the case even with an opponent in front of him because this level of martial mastery and control over his weapons wasn't something that the Beyonder Potion gave.

During his long life, he had seen a fair share of people who wanted to become Beyonders, only because they wanted to obtain some talent in combat or other discipline, but it never really worked according to their predictions. 

Actually, it always ended in very sour disappointment and utter humiliation; sometimes, even worse outcomes happen... But when the Beyonder Potion was taken and digested by someone who already had talent or was a genius in some area, then the results could be really heaven-defying.

Gotrik suspected that his traveling companion Valkorion must have been someone who was born with a monstrous talent for swordsmanship, and after digesting the Warrior Potion, his talent became really out of the charts.

If not, then he wouldn't be using such an overcomplicated sword style with such grace and precision. Gotrik didn't recognize the sword style that Valkorion was using, but he noticed that it was something that was certainly very, very old and very complicated.

Gotrik focused more on the Sequence 6 Ascetic than on the Sequence 6 Nightmare, as he mostly ignored that Beyonder, only occasionally swinging a few times his waraxe in his direction when the man attempted to flee and engaging him in the combat against him. 

He knew that to deal with the Ascetic; he would first need to deal with the weaker link so he could put all of his attention on the stronger opponent.