Chapter 35: 34. Helheim’s Gatekeeper

The Cerberus had jet black skin, and around each of its heads was a spiked collar. The central head stood higher than the other two, but all three of them had furrowed brows, and all six eyes stared straight at me.

The three-headed monster advanced forward at a leisurely pace, and some hellhounds followed behind it. They growled and howled, but they didn’t go ahead of their leader.

As soon as my enemy was close enough, I examined it.

[Cerberus] (Uncommon)

Level: ???

 

I bought a detailed description of its species and information on its current level. It had a level of seventy-eight, and the system screen that appeared in front of me revealed some critical information about the creature that I was about to face.

[Cerberus]

(Uncommon)

This is a rare creature that results from the evolution of a regular hellhound to a D rank creature after reaching the seventy-fifth level. It has many unique abilities, and its control over the flames remains to be an object of interest for many researchers! This creature consumes all kinds of flames to replenish its resources (Mana). The blessing of a certain deity allows this creature to have some authority on the domain of life and death! Some people even claim that they were the gatekeepers of Helheim! Run away as hard as you can if you see this system screen! Your life is more important than glory!

 

So, the description claims that this creature nullifies my strong point? Interesting, but I’ll test this further on my own.

The Cerberus was fifty meters away from me at this point, and it didn’t increase its pace at all. It was at least thrice as tall as a hellhound was, and it was twice as wide.

The countdown of my single-target skill was over a little while ago, as it only took eight minutes for that skill to be usable once more.

I raised my finger at the central head of my opponent, and screamed; “[Burn that Invader!]”.

This was a test to see whether the creature was immune to my class’s flames or not, so I didn’t go overboard with the mana that I injected into the skill. A beam appeared out of my finger and instantly reached its target.

The attack didn’t penetrate the skull of the Cerberus, and it disappeared as soon as it came in contact with its skin.

I was bewildered to see that the creature didn’t even catch fire, unlike the regular hellhounds. I realized that my plan to deplete its mana using my flames was no longer possible, and I wasn’t happy with this. The temperature of the attack was more than a thousand Kelvin, and it might’ve been too low for such an opponent.

I’ll try to use [Plasmic Torch] against the Cerberus, as its temperature is around six thousand Kelvin.

I stripped out of all my equipment and put everything inside my bag of holding. I threw it in the direction that I came from as hard as I could, and I turned back toward my opponent once I confirmed the general location in which it landed. The Boss still didn’t increase its pace, and it didn’t even react to my weird motions.

It was time to get serious.

“[Plasmic Torch!]” I shouted, and my body turned into pure plasma. I flew toward the enemy with the intention of killing it instantly, and I ended up in front of it in less than a second. The group of minions looked startled, and they tried to protect their leader by jumping in between us, but their movement looked sluggish.

Really, it’s too hard to get used to seeing everything in slow motion.

I imagined three spears of pure plasma erupting from my body, and penetrating the Cerberus’ heads. The attack happened instantly just like I imagined it, but its effect on the enemy’s heads was somewhat different from what I hoped for.

I sensed the plasma going through each of the creature’s skulls, but they didn’t cause any damage as they went through as if the creature’s body was made of thin air.

The Cerberus growled for the first time, as each of its heads caught fire.

However, the flames were extinguished instantly and the central head tried to bite my plasmic body.

I didn’t have much knowledge about what this creature could do, and whether it could consume pure plasma or not, so I retreated as fast as possible. I managed to get out of the way, as the jaws of the Cerberus closed fiercely without catching anything.

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I started thinking of some negative ideas, and seeing that the creature survived against my [Plasmic Torch] skill infuriated me.

It seems like this creature is truly immune to my fire-based abilities.

The only option left was close-quarter physical combat, so I turned back to my regular form and set my body on fire.

I increased the temperature of the flames to a thousand five hundred Kelvin, as this was the highest temperature that I could endure with relative ease in lengthy combat.

I sprinted toward the Cerberus once more and attacked it with a high kick. The creature flew ten meters away from me, and the group of hellhounds that was close by rushed at me.

I killed two of the hellhounds with jabs to the heads and another with a straight punch that decimated its skull. Two dogs were left, and they tried to flank me.

I got closer to the one to my left, and a high kick to the neck destroyed its neck. The other one tried to jump on me, but I struck its head with my right elbow.

I looked back at the Cerberus, only to see it standing once more. It gave me a piercing gaze, and it started sprinting toward me as it growled.

Suddenly, the creature stopped in its tracks when it was ten meters away from me. Each of its three maws let out a high-pitched shriek, and its skin started glowing with an orange hue.

The ground around the monster trembled for a moment and a huge quantity of soil started floating around the Cerberus. It took less than a second for the soil to be separated into twelve small portions, and each of them changed its shape to resemble a regular hellhound.

Wait, this isn’t what I think it is, right?

The outer shells of each of the hellhound figures started cracking all over, and living hellhounds came out of them. I didn’t believe what I saw at first, so I tried to examine each of the new creatures as fast as I could. The system screens showed that they were hellhounds with levels between forty and fifty.

So, this is what the Cerberus’ system description meant by ‘having authority on the domain of life and death’.

The Boss monster didn’t move for about thirty seconds; it was standing in the same spot and panting. On the other hand, the newly born hellhounds seemed eager to fight me as they tried to surround me.

I guess that this skill uses a lot of mana, and the boss is taking a little rest. I’ll defeat the other creatures fast enough, and then I’ll have another go against it.

The creatures started sprinting toward me at the same time, and I move from my location at a fast pace toward the one that was closest to me.

I attacked the hellhound with a flying drop kick to the face, and the impact destroyed its head. Two hellhounds were within my attacking range, so I attacked one of them with a high kick and the other with a spinning back kick.

They died as soon as I hit them, but I found myself surrounded by the nine remaining monsters. I knew that my current strength wasn’t enough to kill every one of them in time to be ready for the eventual attack of the Cerberus, so I increased the temperature of my flames to two thousand and five hundred Kelvin.

The pain was excruciating, but I felt power coursing through my veins. I used a three-sixty kick against the hellhounds that have been around me, and all of the ones that got hit died on the spot as it caused great damage to their necks and heads.

Two hellhounds remained, and both of them were in front of me. I attacked one of them with a flying knee, and it died on the spot as most of its upper body got decimated. The other was about to bite my abdomen, so I used my right elbow to crush its skull on the spot.

The Cerberus recovered from its rest, and it rushed to attack me on its own after it saw me destroying its underlings.

I grinned and struck it with a flying drop kick. The three-headed dog flew away, and the attack demolished two of its heads upon impact.

I was already hallucinating due to the pain, and my left leg started trembling slightly. The situation was still within my control, and I decreased the temperature of my flames back to a thousand Kelvin to be able to relax for a moment.

Suddenly, the creature rose from the ground. Some of the soil on the ground gathered around its injured areas including its headless necks, and the Cerberus started recovering at a visible pace.

Out of nowhere, two heads appeared on the necks of the monster, and they seemed as good as new.

So, this prick can regenerate too? Awesome…

I was pissed off at this point, but my opponent did something that made my mood even worse. It started screaming with the same tone that it used earlier to create the minions out of the soil.

Oh shoot, I hope this creature runs out of mana soon.

I had nothing better to do except to fight the Cerberus, and taking it slowly was my best option given the fact that my enemy was nearly immune to most of my attacks.

The situation isn’t that bad at all! This combat will serve as a useful fighting experience for me.

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