Infinite Mana - Chapter 203: Make It Choose Wrong (Thank you for your support, Jeff Maiden!) (Patreon)

Sieghart did not meet the Guardian’s charge directly. The last several exchanges had already proven that matching its speed with Impulse alone would eventually destroy his knees long before the creature exhausted whatever corruption continuously reinforced its body.

Instead, he stopped midway and he raised both hands and summoned Glacial Fists across the chamber. Blue-white constructs appeared around the charging Guardian from several angles, each one positioned where its movement would become inconvenient rather than simply where the largest target presented itself.

The first Glacial Fist struck its right knee just before the foot landed. Ice shattered against polished metal, leaving little visible damage, but frost immediately spread around the joint and slowed its next adjustment by a fraction. A second fist struck the opposite ankle while a third hammered into the side of its hip. None possessed enough power to break the Guardian directly, yet each impact forced its smooth joints to move through accumulating layers of frost.

The Guardian ignored the cold and continued forward. Sieghart waited longer than instinct wanted. Then Mana Barrier appeared between them. The first lance hit the transparent plane with enough force to make the entire structure flash white. Cracks spread instantly across the barrier, but the Guardian’s charge stopped for that single precious instant.

That was all Sieghart needed. He stepped sideways and fired Fireballs. Not one. A barrage. Orange spheres formed beside his shoulders and above both hands before streaking around the damaged barrier. Several curved through the air under Telekinesis, striking the Guardian from different angles instead of colliding with his own defense.

The first Fireball exploded against its shoulder. The second struck the chest. Three more hit the legs before the Mana Barrier shattered completely and released the Guardian into a cloud of flame. The creature emerged almost immediately. Its polished armor remained largely intact. The surface was hotter now. Sieghart smiled slightly. The Guardian accelerated again. More Glacial Fists appeared. One struck the chest while another crashed into the shoulder joint.

Frost spread over metal that had been heated moments earlier, forcing the surface through a violent temperature change faster than its corruption could compensate cleanly. A sharp crack appeared near one shoulder. Small. Barely visible. Sieghart noticed.

The Guardian changed direction and lunged. Sieghart used Impulse once, keeping the burst short enough to spare his knees while moving diagonally instead of creating unnecessary distance. The creature followed. That was expected. A second Mana Barrier appeared directly in its path. The Guardian struck it shoulder-first and stopped for another fraction of a second while Glacial Fists hammered both knees from opposite directions.

The barrier broke. Fireballs arrived immediately afterward. Several exploded beneath the Guardian’s torso and forced it backward while others struck joints already coated with frost, making the temperature change even more violent. Sieghart had stopped thinking of the spells as separate attacks. Glacial Fist slowed. Mana Barrier interrupted. Fireballs heated. Then the sequence repeated. Each spell handled one problem the others could not.

The Guardian adapted quickly, but adaptation still required something to adapt to. Sieghart intended to keep changing the problem before the creature finished solving the previous one. The red lines beneath its armor brightened.

The smooth joints shifted. Its right lance transformed into a broad blade while the left arm widened into something resembling a shield. Sieghart expected that too. He called the enormous metallic amalgamation toward himself. The crude mass of compressed golem remains scraped across the chamber before rising behind him, still held together only through physical deformation and the constant pressure of Telekinesis. The Guardian looked toward it.

Sieghart separated several large chunks. This time, he did something different. Fire Mana flowed into the fragments. Elemental Imbuement spread across the metallic surfaces until dull mineral edges began glowing orange-red.

Heat accumulated through every piece while Sieghart held them suspended around the chamber. The Guardian charged. Sieghart fired the first fragment. The heated chunk struck the creature’s shield-arm and broke apart, splashing glowing mineral fragments across the smooth metallic plating.

Some bounced away. Others stuck. The heat softened the broken material enough that several pieces partially flattened against the Guardian’s body instead of simply ricocheting into the chamber. Sieghart’s eyes brightened. “There we go.” He fired another. The second enchanted fragment struck the Guardian’s thigh and shattered across the joint. Red-hot pieces wedged between moving plates, forcing the creature to drag half-molten material through the mechanism every time the leg bent.

The Guardian responded by accelerating. Sieghart used Impulse backward and fired three more heated pieces while moving. One missed. Two connected. Molten mineral spread across the abdomen and opposite knee, clinging to the polished surface like crude armor the Guardian had never requested.

The creature changed both arms into lances again and thrust through another incoming projectile. The fragment split. Sieghart manipulated both halves with Telekinesis before they could fall and drove them into the Guardian from opposite sides. One struck the back. The other hit the shoulder. Heat spread. Glowing mineral material accumulated. The Guardian’s perfect movements finally became slightly less perfect. One hip hesitated during a turn.

The right shoulder rotated a fraction slower than before. Sieghart noticed immediately. “So you don’t like being welded together.” The Guardian answered with another burst of speed. Sieghart created the Mana Barrier. The creature stabbed through it. The barrier survived less than a second, but the lance lost enough momentum for Sieghart to move away without using maximum Impulse.

Glacial Fists appeared around the trapped arm. Three struck simultaneously. The Guardian pulled backward while frost spread over the heated metal and the softer golem fragments stuck around its elbow. Cracks formed across the improvised coating.

Sieghart immediately fired another Fireball barrage. The chamber flashed orange. Explosions overlapped around the Guardian until smoke and sparks swallowed its upper body. Each detonation spread heat across the material Sieghart had already attached rather than trying to melt the Guardian directly.

He was not overpowering its armor. He was changing the battlefield on its armor. The Guardian emerged from the flames and took another step. Its right leg dragged slightly. That was progress.

Sieghart raised both hands and pulled more pieces from the giant amalgamation behind him. Fire Mana entered them. The metal glowed. Telekinesis launched everything at once. The Guardian transformed one arm into a wide defensive plate and blocked the first three fragments.

Sieghart curved the rest. Two struck the legs. Another hit the back. One missed entirely, but Sieghart recalled it before impact and sent it toward the Guardian again from behind. The heated fragment struck the base of the neck. The Guardian staggered. More molten mineral clung to its body. Every movement spread the material deeper into joints. Every temperature change hardened some sections and softened others.

The creature remained terrifyingly fast. It was no longer effortless. That difference mattered. Sieghart stopped retreating in straight lines. He began guiding the Guardian around the chamber instead, using barriers to redirect its charges and Glacial Fists to punish whichever leg carried too much weight during each adjustment.

A barrier appeared on its left. The Guardian turned right. A Glacial Fist struck the outer knee. It corrected. Sieghart placed another barrier ahead. The Guardian smashed through it. Three Fireballs hit before it completed the recovery. The rhythm accelerated. Frost. Barrier. Fire. Metal projectile. Impulse. Repeat. Sieghart’s headache returned from managing Telekinesis, spell trajectories, Magic Vision, and the enormous mineral mass simultaneously, but increased Mentality kept everything from collapsing into uncontrolled chaos.

The Guardian began fighting differently. Instead of pursuing every opening, it started stopping after short bursts and watching Sieghart from beyond the range of immediate Glacial Fist combinations. Sieghart noticed. “Learning again.” The creature’s arms changed. Not into lances. The forearms thickened. Hands disappeared entirely while cylindrical openings formed where fists should have been. Sieghart stared. 

“No. Absolutely not.”

Red mana gathered inside both openings. The Guardian lowered its stance. 

The first cannon fired. A compressed projectile of metallic-red energy crossed the chamber before Sieghart finished speaking. He used Impulse sideways. The attack missed and struck the wall behind him.

Stone exploded. A crater several meters wide appeared where the projectile landed, sending dust and broken mineral material across the chamber. Sieghart looked over his shoulder. Then back at the Guardian. “You get cannons?”

The second arm fired. Sieghart created Mana Barrier instead of dodging. The projectile struck the transparent field. For one instant, the barrier held. Then it exploded. The remaining force continued toward Sieghart, forcing him to use Impulse anyway while fragments of pale magical light scattered around the impact. That settled one question. Mana Barrier could help. It could not simply tank the Guardian’s ranged attacks. The creature fired again. Then both cannons began alternating.

Red projectiles crossed the chamber in rapid succession, forcing Sieghart into constant movement while impacts shattered walls, floor sections, and the remains of older golems around him. The Guardian had stopped chasing. Why bother? Sieghart had spent the entire fight making close range increasingly unpleasant, so the adaptive creature had simply chosen another battlefield. That was exactly what Sieghart wanted to prevent.

Unfortunately, he also found the development fascinating. 

“It really changes according to what works.” 

Another projectile passed above him. Sieghart used Wind Magic to shift sideways without wasting another full Impulse.

A second shot came low. He jumped. The third anticipated the landing. Mana Barrier appeared beneath him. The projectile struck it, and the explosion threw Sieghart sideways before his feet touched the floor.

He corrected himself in midair. The Guardian fired again. Sieghart’s giant amalgamation moved between them. The cannon shot struck the compressed pieces. Fragments exploded from its surface.

Sieghart winced as Telekinesis absorbed the sudden change in weight and shape, but the improvised shield survived. That gave him an idea. He separated the damaged outer layer and enchanted the fragments with Fire Magic again. The Guardian fired. Sieghart launched his burning pieces through the incoming barrage. Several were destroyed. Others continued. One struck the cannon opening. Molten material spread across the edge.

The Guardian’s next shot emerged slightly off-center. Sieghart smiled. He fired more heated debris. The chamber became a storm of red cannon fire and glowing metallic fragments, both sides launching projectiles fast enough that impacts overlapped before the previous explosions finished fading.

Sieghart curved his attacks through the gaps. The Guardian adjusted its aim continuously. Neither remained still. The metallic coating across its body continued increasing. Its movement became slower. Its cannons remained dangerous.

He decided that was enough experimentation. He released the giant amalgamation completely. The enormous mass crashed to the floor. His mental pressure decreased immediately. Both hands became free. Sieghart raised them. Fire Mana surged.

The Guardian fired. Sieghart moved. One Giant Fireball appeared above his left hand. Then another formed above his right. More appeared around him. The Guardian’s cannon openings brightened. Sieghart did not wait. He fired.

The first Giant Fireball crossed the chamber and exploded against the Guardian’s defensive arm. The detonation shook the air. A second struck the floor beside its feet and erupted upward, engulfing both legs. The Guardian fired through the flames. Sieghart used Impulse. The cannon shot missed. A third Giant Fireball struck its chest. Then a fourth. Then another. Sieghart kept casting.

The chamber became orange-white. Explosions overlapped so closely that individual Fireballs stopped sounding separate. The air itself seemed to hammer against Sieghart’s body while heat waves distorted everything beyond several meters.

The Guardian disappeared inside the barrage. Sieghart continued. Giant Fireballs struck walls, floor, chest, shoulders, arms, and every location where Magic Vision showed the corrupted mana moving through the expanding inferno.

Each explosion shook the chamber. Dust fell from the ceiling. Cracks spread through nearby stone. The giant metallic amalgamation Sieghart had abandoned began glowing from the ambient heat alone.