Godan paddled a lone boat in the middle of the sea. He wasn’t scared of the monsters attacking him. No. He wanted them to attack him. He knew they were constantly watching him. He let go of the paddles and stood up, taking out his longsword, he screamed “How long are you going to watch?! I came here to slaughter you! To show my strength! To enjoy a good fight! Come! Anyone who would be a better match than that worthless woman!”
He could see thousands of eyes watching him, the stares of many horrifying monsters that the world hadn’t seen yet. Not a single one of them dared to get close to him, to get closer to the light of the day.
“Are you scared?! I am just a man like many others you hunt! Come! I know you want this!” Godan shouted as he put his arm into the water, treating it like bait for the fish to come. The sun was quick to hide behind the grey clouds as the wind picked up. The boat began to wiggle to the sides as waves pushed it around.
The eyes of many monsters backed away from Godan’s view, hiding in the darkness in the depths of the sea. Godan was about to shout in rage, but he sensed something. Looking forward, he saw water rise, almost looking like a giant wave, a tsunami. The water slowly revealed a massive whale with dark grey skin, many bits of its flesh were missing. Its fins were partially eaten. On its forehead were many harpoons stuck deep inside.
“Now… That’s a big fish.” Whispered Godan with a wide, maniacal grin on his face, ready to fight the giant whale. Except the giant creature didn’t seem aggressive. As it opened its mouth, a cold wind blew from its mouth, freezing the water right in front of it.
Godan quickly raised his sword to cut a flying projectile in half, he felt how fast it was moving as the boat was pushed back, suddenly hitting something. As he looked back he saw two triangular icebergs. The spell he cut in half froze the water behind his boat. From the whale’s mouth a path made of ice reached right toward Godan’s boat.
On a frozen path walked a man. He wore tattered black robes and a dark metal chestplate. His pants were wide and baggy, easily pushed by the wind, the ends of the trousers tucked into the white socks that reached his shins, tied with dark red ropes. His pants were tied with three dark red ropes with silver rings attached to their ends. On his forehead a silver metal band that almost looked like a crown with its fangs raised toward the sky. His hair rose a few inches toward the sky in a mixture of black and white.
“Godan The Bloodied. The champion of the pit! Stranded in a world of living! I, Simon Crauzel, Drowned by the Gods, will claim your life.” The man announced as he pointed his long glaive toward Godan. The joint between the handle and the blade made of dark metal triangular in shape.
“Are you one of God's Fingers?” Godan asked as he returned the gesture of pointing a weapon toward Simon.
“Not yet. But I might be if I present your head to the great god of oceans, Samonus.” The man exclaimed as he highly praised the name of the god.
“Ah… So you’re just a simple pawn.” Godan mocked the man and spat into the water of the ocean, thus mocking the god the man had mentioned.
Simon gritted his teeth as he watched Godan’s spit become one with the water of the sea. “The next thing the ocean will taste will be your blood!” The man stabbed the icy path with his glaive, and the water underneath it and all around froze, creating many spikes that were moving in each direction. The whale moaned in pain as many spikes pierced its jaw, backing away from the Drowned man and sinking back underwater.
Godan jumped toward the rising icicles and cut through the ones in front of him. As he landed on the ground, he looked around, seeing a massive arena made of ice, the walls of which looked like waves that were reaching toward its center before being stopped by the freezing temperature.
“A feeble ice won’t be enough to scratch me.” Godan snorted as he kicked away the bits of ice he had just crushed with his longsword.
Simon dashed toward Godan with unbelievable speed, looking as if he were flying through the air. “Ice isn’t the only trick I have!” The man shouted, trying to hide his annoyance behind a calm and cold demeanor. Their blades clashed, Godan only pushed an inch back, but his posture was sturdy, not a single sign of being overwhelmed.
With a little force, Godan was able to push the man away, with his swift movement, he moved his sword back for an arc swing that would draw a fine line on Simon’s armor if not for a sudden spray of dark blood. Flying upward right in front of his face appeared a see through green piranha, its razor-sharp teeth stained with the black blood of Godan’s.
The Drowned smirked with joy that he was the one to draw first blood in this fight. Godan took a look at his wound, his flesh eaten by the fish with a visible mark of its mouth. “Ts… Pest.” Snickered Godan, completely ignoring the missing flesh on his arm as if it were just a scratch.
He raised his sword and attacked with an even wider swing. Simon’s smirk faded, and his eyes widened. His opponent was much different than anyone he had ever faced. Even with a wound that would stop most people, a pain that would make anyone falter, Godan didn’t mind it all. Pain was of no concern to him. Seeing the blade getting closer to him, he activated his gate and went flying backwards. Godan didn’t inflict any wounds, but as Simon stopped to take a look if he was scratched, he saw a silver line on his dark armor; it was a wound to his pride.
As both of them stood in places, Godan realized that the sea had calmed down, but as he looked to confirm it, he noticed that the waves were as wild as they were when the Drowned appeared. Looking back at his opponent, he was right in front of his face, he didn’t hear a sound of him making a single step, almost as if he teleported, but it wasn’t the case, as his posture was in the middle of the run.
Their blades collide for a brief moment, but there is no sound of the metal scratching against each other. “I am known-” The only sound that Godan could hear was a scream from Simon as he turned a hundred and eighty degrees to continue his swing without losing the momentum. “-As the prodigy!” Godan raised his longsword in time, stopping the blade in place, but as he felt like winning in the contest of strength, suddenly his sword got pushed down alongside Simon’s glaive. “The only man in the whole world, in history, who possesses eight gates!” In a split of a second, the glaive went back up above Simon’s head, ready for another wide swing.
Godan tried to lift up his longsword to block the attack, but his hand was trembling. “My muscles strained? No. It’s his gate-” Godan realized it as soon as his skin got cut from his left shoulder to his right hip, dark blood spread over Simon’s armor and clothes, almost hiding the silver scratch on his armor.
A wide grin painted Simon’s face, and his gaze was on Godan’s mouth, waiting for him to scream in pain, but nothing like that happened. Godan had an even wider grin than Simon as he watched his own blood being spilled with joy. His whole body got slightly red as blood was being pumped rapidly through his whole body. Veins popped out of his skin, and his eyes almost went black as the veins in his eyes burst. It was the first time in his life that he felt like going all out, over human and his own limits.
The confidence Simon once had vanished as his lips began to tremble at the horrifying sight. His step back made a sound that immediately triggered a reaction from Godan. His sword moved for a swing, which quickly changed into a thrust as Simon moved to block the swing. The blade going into the man’s shoulder and then upward, cutting through his skin, almost making the bones visible.
As he let out the scream, the sound of waves and wind traveling through the sea came back, and it was painful to both men as their ears got accustomed to the silence. As Godan flinched, closing his eyes a bit and instinctively putting his hands over his ears, Simon dashed away so far back that he reached the end of the ice arena he had prepared.
“You’ll pay for that, you freaky bastard!” With one stomp of his leg, a path of icicles began to rise itself toward Godan.
The man swung his longsword around like a maniac, cutting each icicle that appeared on his path. Bits of ice flying in each direction, his horrifying giggles making Simon tremble as he watched the man move forward.
“Stay… Stay away!” Right from underneath Simon’s feet school of ghost piranhas flew toward the sky and turned toward Godan at the man’s command. At the same time, he added more ice to slow down the berserk man and obscure his vision. As Godan sliced the ice, he didn’t notice the first piranha, letting it bite off part of his thigh. The piranhas flew in the air and passed through the ice without slowing down.
Godan was forced to stop his advance and focus on the creatures trying to eat him alive. The piranhas flew through the ice as if it were just water, but once they made contact with Godan’s longsword, they were sliced. Hundreds of fish quickly faded into thin air after the berserk man sliced them all like sashimi. As he was about to resume his march toward his opponent, his legs wouldn’t budge as they got enveloped in ice.
“Now you won’t get away…” Whispered Simon as for a second he kneeled behind Godan, once he touched both of his legs, they began to shake as if Godan lost all the strength in his lower limbs.
As Simon jumped away, Godan broke the ice that was helping him stand in place. As he broke it, he was falling down, Simon still within reach of his longsword, and he could already smell the blood of his victim.
The ice under him suddenly broke apart as a green sea serpent four times the size of him snapped its mouth at him, eating the man whole. His hand with the sword fell to the ground as the serpent's teeth cut it off.