Chapter 497 - Fighting The Gorgon

Slamming her hands down on the ground, nanobots started to surge outwards as Shiro quickly pulled up a few blueprints she had in her mind. With the state of her mana links and the sheer amount of MP she could access, she could create some of her favourite weapons.

Namely, a pair of Gatling Cannons with specialised ammunition.

As she started to drag her hand off the ground, the nanobots started to condense together into the shape of a large scale minigun.

[Necrolight – Nanotech Gatling Cannon]

With a matt black chassis that emitted an ominous purple aura around the edge, the Gatling Cannon was a sight to behold.

Creating a few stabilisers behind her so that she wasn't blown away the moment she fired this gun, Shiro added a few more layers of armour so that she could stand up to the gorgon's petrifying gaze for a little longer.

As for the bullet that was being fired from the gatling gun, each one was comparable to a sniper shot from one of her earlier prototypes.

With hundreds of sniper shots being fired at an astounding speed, one could see why this was one of Shiro's favourite weapons.

*BANG!

Pulling the trigger, the first bullet smashed past the metal walls and dug itself deep into the gorgon's scales, causing blood to flow out into the ground.

However, this was just the beginning.

Following the first bullet, the second bullet was fired. Then the third, fourth and so on. Soon, all that Shiro could hear was the sound of hundreds of bullets being fired.

At this point, her metal walls were completely obliterated as the gorgon was being forced back a little from the impact.

While this was happening, Shiro made sure to aim the weapons a little higher up so that she wouldn't be destroying the village that they were in.

Incensed by the repeated barrage of bullets that dug deeply into her injuries, the gorgon swiped her hand down as the ground split apart beneath her and swallowed her in.

Seeing this, Shiro felt danger assault her senses as she quickly opened the emergency hatch on her armour and dived to the side.

Sliding her hand across the ground, she froze the floor in order to make it easier for her to slide into cover. 

*BOOM!!

Just as she dived out of the way, a pair of hands erupted out of the ground and ripped the cannon and armour in half.

'Yikes, if I was any slower, I would have died.' Shiro clicked her tongue.

{Do you need help? Me and Iziuel can come out to-}

'Don't even think about it, Nimue. Unlike me, you can't revive yourself with rejuvenation if the situation called for it.' Shiro rejected that notion immediately as she stomped down and created more walls of metal. That way, it would allow her some movement.

Unfortunately, the gorgon wasn't as cooperative as she raised her hands into the air.

Suddenly, a tier 5 magic circle expanded out in the sky and formed an illusionary serpent eye.

Looking up, Shiro immediately felt her body freeze up as stone started to form around her body.

'Sh*t!' Cursing at her sudden lapse in attention, Shiro made the drastic decision of controlling Ataraxia to cut off the parts of her body that were being petrified at a rapid pace while also creating a metal wall above her to block the eye.

However, the situation was not looking good since 60% of her body was already turned to stone and that percentage was growing quickly

Furrowing her brows, she controlled her magic so that an ice pillar would pierce her stomach before exploding and shredding her body to pieces. That way, she could activate her rejuvenation skill with the best effects.

Of course, the pain was going to be quite unbearable, but it wasn't anything new to Shiro.

Gritting her teeth, she quickly braced herself as the pillar smashed through her stomach and lacerated her body.

While parts of her body were flying through the area, she activated her skill, Rejuvenation and healed herself back up.

"Fu…" Sighing in relief, she glanced down at her body and felt glad that none of it was turned to stone.

'Tch, with this, I only have the Lire Rune for health regen should I be almost killed again.' Shiro thought with a frown.

With the secondary option of her Lire rune that was attached to Ataraxia, she could sacrifice all of the sword's durability in order to regenerate her health to max. Meaning, she'd have another attempt at shredding her body before regenerating to her peak.

However, doing so would mean her sword would be out of combat. Not only that, but it also meant that she'd be missing out on a potential gorgon killer within her arsenal. The Aera Rune. The secondary option of this rune is that it could sacrifice all of the sword's durability to reflect all the damage taken in the last minute by 200%. If she played her cards well, this could be the skill that kills the gorgon.

Unfortunately for her, the gorgon mostly had skills that slowly wore down her target rather than killing them instantly. Therefore, saving the last rune for Aera might not be as effective as Lire.

Glancing over at her current berserk skill timer, her Frenzied Incarnation still had a few minutes left as she debated on whether or not she should just stack all of her skills together. After all, she is facing a level 500 boss that was weakened to level 350.

'If I was to stack every single berserk skill in my arsenal along with the ones in my database, can my body even hold that kind of power?' Shiro wondered to herself.

Even without looking into her database, she already had a few berserk skills that were some of the best around. The berserk skill tied to her sword, Ataraxia, made it so that she gained an additional 50% AGI, 50% DEX and 50% STR while her enemies experienced -40% Speed, -40% DEF, -20% Reaction and a small chance to lose focus for a short moment of time, exposing their weak points. 

The duration of this skill was 2 minutes so she was limited in how long she could keep her peak form. There was also the berserk skill Akram that was linked with the god slaying sword but Shiro wanted to avoid using that at all cost due to Helion's warning. After all, once she stacked up her berserk skills, her body would no doubt be in a state of complete shutdown. Once that happened, she had a faint feeling that whatever wanted to take over her would probably use that chance.

Thankfully, even without the Akram berserk skill, she still had her Soul Sword and the berserk skills in her database.

Just as she was about to think about which one she wanted to use, mana surged around her location as she quickly activated a set of Nanomancer armour to wrap around her.

*BANG!!!!

A pulse of energy shot out as Shiro's body was forced out of cover.

Crashing against the ground, she couldn't help but cough up a mouthful of blood within her helmet.

Before she could even reorientate herself, a giant maw appeared in front of her. Inside the mouth, rows upon rows of teeth moved in synchronisation as if trying to usher her inside the mouth.

Quickly activating her Force of Element's skill, she infused it with every single element that she had an attunement with and jammed the illusionary sword between the gorgon's mouth.

*CRACK!! BOOM!!!

Snapping the sword in half, a shockwave exploded out as Shiro was once again sent crashing back.

Rolling across the floor, she could clearly feel a few bones breaking from the impact.

Gritting her teeth, she quickly activated all the skills that could help her right now while the outer layer of her nanotech armour started to petrify.

Activating Soul Sword, Berserk Path, Ataraxia and a myriad of other berserk skills within her database, Shiro then stacked her Celestial Raiment bonus with a new set of nanotech armour.

As the skills activated, Shiro felt a surge of pain within her body as power welled up within her.

Understanding that she only had a few moments to do something with this power before it disappears, Shiro charged towards the gorgon while saving the second cast of her armour for the very last moment. After all, the second cast converts 50% of her highest stat into raw power for 30 seconds. With her current stats after being enhanced by all of the berserk skills that she had activated, that 50% bonus was going to be monstrous.

However, before she could do anything, Shiro felt her heart stop mid beat as blood poured out of all her orifices.