Infinite Mana - Chapter 202: A Faster Guardian (Patreon)

Sieghart stepped into the chamber with the enormous compressed mass of dead golem material floating behind him, and his first impression was that something about the Guardian looked wrong in a completely different way from the previous corrupted one.

The earlier corrupted Guardian had been bulky, brutal, and overloaded with power, almost as though somebody had forced too much mana into a body never intended to contain it. This new construct looked refined instead of swollen. Its body was smoother than the previous Guardian’s, with fewer jagged mineral plates and almost none of the obvious gaps between separate sections.

The metallic-gray surface looked polished enough to reflect the faint illumination coming from the dungeon walls. Even its proportions were different. The shoulders remained broad, but the torso narrowed around the waist while the arms and legs possessed long articulated sections connected by sleek circular joints instead of heavy blocks rubbing against one another.

The result looked disturbingly efficient. This Guardian had not been built like a moving wall. It had been built to move. Sieghart’s attention shifted toward the red glow flowing beneath the metallic shell. On the previous corrupted Guardian, most of that unnatural light had concentrated around the torso where the damaged core remained hidden.

Here, the red radiance extended everywhere. Thin luminous pathways ran beneath the arms, crossed the joints, descended through both legs, and reached the narrow head sitting between the shoulders. Every pulse from the chest spread outward through those lines before returning inward again.

Magic Vision made the difference even more obvious. The corruption was no longer simply contaminating an otherwise normal mana network; it appeared woven through the structure itself, reinforcing pathways that should have contained ordinary amber dungeon mana. Sieghart slowly narrowed his eyes.

The corruption seemed stronger. Not merely because there was more of it. It looked better integrated. That was considerably worse. If the corruption had moved from the previous Guardian after its host died, then it had apparently learned something during the transition, or perhaps deeper Guardians simply provided better bodies for whatever was spreading through the dungeon.

Neither explanation was comforting. Sieghart shifted the massive mineral weapon behind him and strengthened his grip through Telekinesis. The creature unfolded completely. For one moment, neither moved. Then the Guardian vanished from where it stood. Sieghart’s eyes widened. The construct crossed the chamber with a speed completely disproportionate to its size, its smooth legs driving against the floor while red mana flashed through the joints like energy passing through an enormous machine.

One second separated them by dozens of meters. The next, a metallic fist filled Sieghart’s vision. Impulse activated through pure reflex. Wind detonated beneath his feet and launched him sideways while the Guardian’s fist passed through the space where his head had been.

The attack continued downward and struck the chamber floor. Stone exploded. A crater appeared beneath the impact while cracks spread outward several meters, proving that the Guardian had sacrificed almost none of the raw strength possessed by the heavier version. Sieghart landed and immediately raised one hand. Water Jet screamed across the chamber. The pressurized stream struck the Guardian directly across the chest before the creature could completely turn. Sieghart expected a thin line to appear across the metallic surface.

Nothing happened. The water broke apart. Spray exploded in every direction while the Guardian’s polished chest remained completely intact, not even carrying the shallow groove Water Jet normally left against mana-reinforced dungeon stone. Sieghart increased the output.

The stream narrowed. Pressure rose sharply enough that the attack carved stone from the wall behind the Guardian whenever it shifted. Still nothing. The Guardian turned its head toward him. Sieghart clicked his tongue.

“That’s annoying.”

He stopped Water Jet before wasting concentration on an attack producing absolutely no result. The Guardian moved again.

This time Sieghart saw the preparation. Red mana surged through both legs. The joints contracted. Then the creature accelerated even faster. Sieghart licked his lips unconsciously as his heartbeat increased. There was something deeply unpleasant about watching an enemy improve between attacks, particularly when the first attempt had already almost reached his face.

Was it learning? Or had the first charge merely been conservative? The distinction mattered less when another fist approached. Sieghart used Impulse backward. The Guardian’s punch missed his chest by less than half a meter, but the creature did not overextend the way the earlier Guardian often had.

Its elbow bent smoothly, allowing the arm to recover before the rest of the body lost momentum. That was new too. The previous constructs attacked like machines following powerful but predictable patterns. This one corrected itself. Sieghart landed farther away and immediately sent the enormous compressed mineral mass forward with Telekinesis. Several tons of compacted golem remains shot across the chamber. The Guardian turned. Its fist struck the incoming block. The impact shook the chamber.

For the first time since Sieghart created the ridiculous weapon, something stopped it directly. The compressed mass recoiled several meters while fragments broke from its front. The Guardian slid backward only one step, then planted its foot and remained standing.

Sieghart stared.

“Okay…”

That was considerably worse than Water Jet failing. He pulled the mass sideways and swung it from another angle. The Guardian ducked. Sieghart blinked. The huge block passed over its head and smashed into the wall, sending fragments of mineral material raining through the chamber.

The Guardian had not blocked. It had dodged. That should not have been surprising after seeing its speed. It still felt wrong. Sieghart recalled the massive weapon and began rotating it around himself, forcing the Guardian to consider both him and several tons of metal moving through a wide circular path.

The creature simply waited. Sieghart did not like that either. He launched two smaller compressed fragments from different angles. The Guardian shifted between them. One missed completely. The other struck its shoulder with enough force to turn the upper body slightly, yet the polished surface suffered nothing more than a faint discoloration.

That armor was absurd. Sieghart briefly considered Fire Magic. Enough heat could eventually soften almost anything. The problem was eventually. The Guardian was not going to stand still while Sieghart cooked it. He began forming Mana Swords instead, intending to test whether repeated concentrated impacts could expose some weakness around the joints. The Guardian’s arms changed before he finished. Sieghart stopped. The metallic hands folded inward.

Individual fingers disappeared beneath flowing plates while both forearms lengthened rapidly, narrowing toward increasingly sharp points. Within seconds, the Guardian no longer possessed fists. It had lances. Long metallic weapons extended from both elbows, each one almost as long as Sieghart’s entire body and narrow enough at the tips to concentrate the Guardian’s tremendous strength into something far more dangerous than blunt force. Sieghart stared.

“That’s not fair.”

The Guardian lowered both lances. Red energy flooded its legs. Sieghart felt the atmosphere change. Then it accelerated. The movement looked horrifyingly familiar. The construct did not merely run.

It produced one explosive burst, crossed a section of the chamber, stabilized for only an instant, and then accelerated again before losing momentum. It almost looked like Impulse. Except there was no Wind Magic. The Guardian’s own body created the movement. Sieghart’s eyes widened further. Had it copied him? That seemed ridiculous. He had only used Impulse several times. Still, the similarity was impossible to ignore. The Guardian crossed half the chamber in a sequence of violent bursts, both lances held forward while its body remained perfectly aligned behind them.

Sieghart suddenly remembered the Aura bandit. Twenty meters becoming nothing. Weight concentrated behind a point. Everything transferring forward.

“Oh, shit...”

He triggered Impulse. One lance passed beside his cheek. The second came from below. Sieghart twisted in midair, barely avoiding the upward thrust while the weapon sliced through the edge of his coat illusion.

The Guardian changed direction before Sieghart landed. Red light flashed through its hips. One leg rotated. The entire body spun. The lance swept horizontally. Sieghart formed Mana Shield. The metallic spear struck it. The summoned construct shattered instantly. The remaining force clipped Protection around Sieghart’s ribs and launched him across the chamber. He hit the ground, rolled twice, and used Wind Magic to correct himself before slamming into the wall.

His side hurt. Not broken. Probably. Sieghart stood quickly. The Guardian was already approaching.

“This one is going to be a problem…”

Sieghart sent the giant mineral mass between them. The Guardian changed both arms again. One lance shortened. The other widened around the base, becoming something closer to a reinforced blade. It cut through the edge of Sieghart’s compressed weapon.

Several chunks separated. Sieghart’s expression darkened. The thing was reshaping itself according to whatever it needed. Blunt force for ordinary targets. Lances for speed. A cutting edge for his improvised weapon. That sounded suspiciously intelligent. The Guardian charged through the falling fragments. Sieghart used Telekinesis to throw every separated piece toward it simultaneously. The creature blocked two. Dodged one. A fourth struck its back.

That finally produced a crack. Tiny. Almost invisible. Sieghart noticed anyway.

“There.”

The Guardian turned toward him. Sieghart launched every remaining piece at the same point. The construct moved. Most missed. One connected. The crack widened slightly.

The armor was not invincible. Just ridiculously durable. Sieghart immediately shifted strategy. Instead of trying to overpower the Guardian with single attacks, he began controlling dozens of mineral fragments independently, surrounding the creature with a moving field of improvised projectiles.

His headache returned almost immediately. He ignored it. For now. Fragments attacked from above, below, behind, and both sides. The Guardian moved through them with disturbing grace.

It ducked. Twisted. Changed its arms repeatedly. One forearm became a broad shield and redirected a projectile. The other sharpened into a lance and pierced through another. Sieghart watched through Magic Vision, trying to identify how the transformation worked. The answer appeared in the red mana. Every time the Guardian changed shape, corruption surged through the relevant limb first, loosening the material enough that the underlying dungeon mana could reorganize its structure.

Sieghart’s stomach tightened. That was not a normal golem ability. At least, he had never seen it before. The corruption was actively improving the host. That supported his worst suspicion.

The previous Guardian had summoned additional golems. This one had become faster and adaptive. Maybe the corruption did not merely increase strength. Maybe it granted new capabilities based on whatever body it occupied. The Guardian suddenly accelerated again. Sieghart barely had time to react. Impulse launched him backward. The creature followed. Sieghart used Impulse again. The Guardian burst forward again.

For several seconds, they crossed the chamber in alternating explosions of movement, Sieghart retreating while the Guardian reproduced something increasingly similar to his own short-range mobility. That was deeply irritating. He changed direction. The Guardian matched him. Sieghart curved his movement through Wind Magic. The Guardian adjusted a fraction later. Learning. Definitely learning. Sieghart felt a smile threaten despite the danger.

That was bad. Also incredibly interesting. The Guardian attacked with both lance arms at once. Sieghart dodged the first. The second nearly reached his eye. He moved his head at the last possible instant and felt the point scrape across Protection near his temple.

One more centimeter and the fight could have ended immediately. Sieghart landed farther away. His breathing had accelerated. The Guardian stopped across the chamber. Red light pulsed through its entire body. It almost looked stronger than when the fight started. Sieghart stared through Magic Vision. The faint red waves in the surrounding chamber were flowing toward it. The Guardian was absorbing them.

So the corruption was not merely inside the creature. The entire chamber fed it. That explained why the aura had looked stronger than before. Maybe this Guardian was not only another host. Maybe it had become closer to the source. Sieghart slowly lowered his hands. Not in surrender. In concentration. The safe option remained obvious. Leave. Rest. Return with a plan.

Maybe bring someone stronger. Sieghart rejected the idea almost as soon as it appeared. He had already reached this point. He finally had a chance to observe the corruption without anyone interfering.

And if it truly escaped into another Guardian after death, then this fight might be the best opportunity he would get to stop that process. The Guardian shifted both arms back into lances.

Sieghart gathered Wind Magic around his legs. His giant compressed weapon rose behind him. Dozens of smaller fragments floated around the chamber. Water Jet formed around one hand. Mana Swords appeared above the other shoulder.

He smiled faintly.

“This one’s going to be hard.”

The Guardian charged. Sieghart did too.