Infinite Mana - Chapter 214: The Goblin Champion (Patreon)

The enormous goblin moved before the dust from its entrance finished settling. It lowered the massive iron shield in front of its torso, leaned forward, and charged Sieghart with enough momentum to resemble a battering ram given legs.

Stone cracked beneath every step. Despite standing at least eight feet tall and carrying armor heavy enough to make an ordinary person collapse, the creature accelerated far faster than anything with that much mass had any right to move.

Sieghart activated Impulse immediately. Wind erupted beneath his feet and threw him diagonally away from the approaching shield, allowing the Champion to thunder past his previous position and smash through several goblins unable to escape its path. The smaller goblins flew aside like discarded dolls. The Champion barely seemed to notice them, planting one armored foot against the street and somehow turning its enormous body before Sieghart had even finished landing.

Sieghart’s expression tightened. He had expected strength from something built like a fortress, but the creature’s speed changed the situation completely. Even worse, its movements lacked the clumsy commitment he normally exploited against oversized opponents.

The Champion charged again, but Sieghart was ready this time. A thin green Fatigue Dart formed near his fingertips and shot toward the narrow opening between the creature’s shield and helmet. The iron shield rose immediately. Fatigue Dart struck metal and dispersed harmlessly. Sieghart created another before the first fully vanished, aiming lower toward the exposed section above the Champion’s knee. The projectile crossed the distance quickly, but the enormous cleaver moved with startling precision. The broad blade rotated downward. Its edge met the spell.

Green mana scattered across the street. Sieghart blinked. The creature had parried magic. Not reflected it through some special enchanted ability or allowed armor to absorb the effect. It had simply recognized the incoming projectile, judged the trajectory, and placed several kilograms of sharpened iron directly in its path. That was much more irritating. Sieghart launched three Fatigue Darts from different angles while retreating. One came toward the chest, another curved toward the sword arm, and the final projectile traveled low toward the unprotected ankle.

The Champion did not stop charging. Its shield intercepted the first spell, the cleaver swept the second aside, and one armored boot twisted just enough for the third dart to scrape metal instead of entering flesh. Sieghart clicked his tongue while using another short Impulse. The monster was not merely powerful. It possessed actual combat experience, and probably considerably more of it than Sieghart possessed in direct weapon combat.

The Champion suddenly accelerated again. Sieghart barely saw the shield move. He crossed both arms and activated Protection at maximum intensity while Impulse began forming beneath his feet, but the Champion reached him before the Wind Magic finished pushing.

The iron shield slammed into Sieghart. Protection flashed. The impact still launched him through the street. Sieghart flew backward, struck the corner of a stone building shoulder-first, and continued through enough weakened masonry that half the wall collapsed around him.

Pain surged through his back and shoulder, but nothing felt broken. Protection had absorbed enough force to prevent the impact from becoming catastrophic, though Sieghart immediately decided testing the shield directly a second time would be exceptionally stupid. He pushed himself from the rubble. An arrow arrived first. Mana Barrier appeared beside his head. The projectile struck the translucent wall and bounced away, followed immediately by three more arrows coming from separate rooftops around the intersection.

Sieghart expanded another Barrier at an angle above himself. Two arrows shattered against it, while the third slipped beneath the edge and struck Protection around his ribs before falling harmlessly to the ground. The surrounding goblins had not stopped participating merely because their enormous Champion had arrived. Archers continued occupying rooftops and windows while shield-bearing infantry formed another loose perimeter around the battle.

That made the situation considerably worse. Sieghart could concentrate on the Champion or watch the archers, but dividing attention between both while also avoiding dozens of smaller enemies would eventually create an opening.

Another arrow crossed his vision. Sieghart caught it telekinetically. He reversed its direction immediately. The projectile shot back toward the rooftop and buried itself through the archer’s shoulder, throwing the goblin backward behind the broken railing. Sieghart had no time to confirm the kill. The Champion emerged through the dust. It did not walk around the damaged wall Sieghart had crashed through. It simply went through it.

The massive shield struck the remaining masonry first, pulverizing the obstruction while the armored goblin followed directly behind it without reducing speed. Sieghart used Impulse sideways. The Champion corrected. That was the worst part.

Most charging enemies committed themselves to one line, allowing Sieghart to move at the final instant and punish the inevitable recovery. This creature shortened its steps and adjusted direction while maintaining horrifying momentum. Sieghart used Impulse again. The Champion stayed close. Its cleaver swung horizontally. Sieghart leaned backward while Wind Magic pulled at his upper body. The jagged blade passed centimeters above his chest, producing enough air pressure to tug violently at his coat.

The Champion reversed the swing almost immediately. Sieghart created a Mana Barrier between them. The cleaver struck. The barrier shattered instantly. But the interruption bought enough time. Sieghart fired Fatigue Dart through the fragments.

The green projectile traveled directly toward the Champion’s face. The goblin snapped its shield upward and intercepted it. Sieghart had expected that. A second Fatigue Dart had traveled underneath the first. The Champion rotated its sword. The broad flat intercepted that one too. Sieghart’s eyebrow twitched. 

“Fine.” 

He stopped trying to poison it for the moment. Fire Mana surged through both hands.

The Champion charged again. Sieghart remained exactly where he was. A Giant Fireball formed directly between them. The surrounding goblins began shouting. Even the Champion hesitated for the smallest fraction of a second when the enormous sphere of compressed flame expanded in front of Sieghart.

Too late. Sieghart fired. The Giant Fireball struck the Champion’s shield at nearly point-blank range. The explosion swallowed both of them. The chamber-sized cavern flashed orange-white as fire erupted across the street, shattered nearby windows, and hurled smaller goblins away from the expanding blast.

Sieghart crossed both arms while Protection wrapped around his body. Heat slammed into him from every direction, stronger than the spell normally felt because he had deliberately detonated it far closer than any reasonable mage would consider safe. His skin began burning. Pain spread across his hands and face. Sieghart endured it. The alternative had been allowing the Champion to reach him again.

The explosion pushed him backward while flames rolled between buildings. He used the force deliberately, adding Impulse and Wind Magic to gain as much distance as possible before the Champion recovered. Twenty meters. Thirty. Sieghart landed and immediately formed another Giant Fireball. Something moved inside the flames. He frowned. The massive iron shield appeared first. Its surface glowed dull red around several sections, but the metal remained intact.

Behind it, the Champion emerged through the inferno without slowing. Its armor smoked. Several leather straps had burned away. Skin visible around the neck and jaw had blackened. The creature was still charging.

Sieghart released the second Giant Fireball. The Champion lowered the shield. Impact. Another explosion shook the underground city. Stone fractured beneath the creature’s feet, and the shockwave shattered nearby doors and windows while Sieghart used Impulse backward again. The heat reached him even at greater distance. He felt fresh burns form across his forearms. Sieghart ignored them. The Champion came out of the second explosion faster. “What the hell?”

The thought barely formed before Sieghart understood. The creature was using the explosions. Instead of fighting against every shockwave, the Champion angled its shield and allowed part of the blast to propel its already advancing body forward once the initial impact passed.

“You are too damn skillful..”

That was absurdly reckless. It was also effective. The distance Sieghart created vanished almost immediately. He fired a third Giant Fireball lower, aiming at the ground directly ahead of the Champion instead of its shield.

The spell exploded beneath the creature’s path and tore a crater through the street. The Champion jumped. Sieghart stared upward. Several hundred kilograms of armored goblin cleared the explosion. The silhouette crossed through the flames with its cleaver raised overhead. Sieghart used Impulse. The sword came down. It missed his skull and struck the street instead. Stone erupted upward.

The impact opened a crack several meters long. Sieghart landed behind the Champion and finally had an angle that did not include the shield. Fatigue Dart. The spell flew toward the exposed back of the creature’s knee.

The Champion rotated. Not fully. Just enough. The cleaver’s lower edge intercepted the dart behind its own body. Sieghart actually laughed once despite himself. That was ridiculous. The Champion spun completely and swung the shield horizontally. Sieghart used Mana Barrier. The shield destroyed it. He placed a second Barrier behind the first. That one shattered too.

A third appeared. The Champion lost enough speed for Sieghart to jump backward before the shield finished breaking through. Several arrows immediately targeted his new position. Sieghart raised two Mana Barriers like temporary walls around himself. Projectiles struck from both sides, cracking the translucent surfaces while he kept his attention on the Champion. The monster rushed him again.

Sieghart began understanding the pattern now. The shield protected the approach. The sword intercepted anything traveling around the shield. The Champion’s armor covered most remaining openings.

Archers punished attempts to create distance. Smaller goblins controlled the streets around him. It was a surprisingly effective arrangement. Almost as if they had fought mages before. Sieghart suddenly wondered how many adventurers had reached this city and discovered exactly the same problem before dying somewhere beneath it. Another Giant Fireball formed. The Champion kept coming.

Sieghart fired. The creature raised its shield again. This time, Sieghart used Telekinesis on the Fireball immediately before impact. He could not redirect something that large easily. He did not need to. A tiny change was enough. The sphere shifted downward and struck the ground beside the Champion’s exposed sword leg instead of hitting the center of the shield. The explosion erupted sideways.

The Champion stumbled. Finally. Sieghart used the opening. Five Fatigue Darts appeared. He did not aim at the creature. He aimed around it. Two came high. Two came low. One traveled directly toward the shield. The Champion reacted exactly as expected. Shield blocked the obvious projectile. Sword swept through the upper pair.

The creature stepped away from one low dart. The final spell curved. Telekinesis nudged its path behind the Champion’s heel. Green mana struck flesh above the armor.

Sieghart’s eyes narrowed. Got you. The Champion reacted immediately, twisting toward the impact and swinging its cleaver through empty space as though killing the spell afterward could somehow remove the effect.

Nothing visible happened. That was expected. Fatigue Dart worked quietly. The Champion charged again. Still fast. Still terrifying. But now Sieghart knew the clock had started. Every step would cost more. Every swing would demand more recovery. Every explosive movement would gradually become harder to sustain. Sieghart only needed to survive long enough for that difference to matter.

Unfortunately, the Champion seemed determined to make “long enough” extremely difficult. The monster rushed through the remaining fire and accelerated harder than before, apparently recognizing that letting Sieghart maintain distance would only create more opportunities for magical attacks.

Sieghart used Impulse. The Champion followed. He used it again. The creature stayed close enough that Sieghart could hear the damaged armor rattling around its body.

Another arrow crossed between them. Sieghart barely avoided it. The distraction gave the Champion an opening. Its shield came forward. Sieghart created the Mana Barrier. The impact shattered it.

He formed another. Broken. Another. Broken again. The Champion crashed through each magical wall without stopping, but every barrier stole a fraction of momentum before the next appeared.

Sieghart’s feet touched the ground. He raised both hands. Two Giant Fireballs formed at once. The Champion did not stop. Sieghart smiled. This fight had become completely unreasonable…

He could be unreasonable too. Both Giant Fireballs launched from opposite angles. The Champion raised its shield toward the first. The second struck from behind.

The explosions collided around the armored goblin. Flames consumed the street. The air shook. Sieghart felt heat tear across his skin again despite Protection, burning hard enough that tears appeared involuntarily at the corners of his eyes.

He kept moving. Impulse pushed him farther away. One building. Two. Three. He finally gained enough distance that the roaring flames completely hid the Champion from ordinary sight.

Magic Vision still showed the mana signature. Moving. Toward him. Fast. Sieghart’s expression went flat. The Champion burst from the flames. Its shield was warped. Several armor plates were glowing. One section of its helmet had partially melted. The massive goblin continued running.

And somehow, despite Fatigue Dart already spreading through its body, it was still gaining on him. Sieghart prepared another Impulse while fresh arrows began descending around them.

This was going to take considerably more than fire.