Infinite Mana - Chapter 215: When Bad Gets Worse (Thank you for your support, Rudy Louessard!) (Patreon)

Sieghart needed less than another minute to confirm that Fatigue Dart was not going to solve the problem quickly enough. The spell was working, but the Champion’s stamina pool was so absurd that Sieghart suspected he would exhaust his own body from constant Impulse use first.

That defeated the entire point. Sieghart had created Fatigue Dart to punish opponents who relied on physical reserves, not to spend half an hour running away while waiting for someone built like a siege engine to finally start breathing heavily.

The Champion came through the smoke again, one armored shoulder lowered behind the warped shield while the cleaver remained ready beside its body. Its movements had slowed slightly, but “slightly” meant almost nothing when the creature could still cross the street before Sieghart finished a comfortable cast.

Sieghart stopped retreating. He planted both feet, turned toward the charging monster, and brought both hands together while Water Mana gathered so quickly that moisture condensed around his arms and splashed across the broken stones beneath him.

The Champion saw the change and raised its shield, clearly expecting another projectile it could absorb or deflect. Sieghart smiled faintly because this time he had no intention of giving the creature something narrow enough to parry.

Water Cannon erupted from both hands. The blast formed a roaring column wider than Sieghart’s body, crossed the remaining distance almost instantly, and struck the Champion’s shield with enough force to stop several hundred kilograms of charging goblin in a single violent impact.

The Champion’s boots dug trenches through the stone. Its shield bent farther inward, armor joints screamed beneath the pressure, and the enormous creature was forced backward one step despite leaning almost its entire weight into the continuous torrent.

Sieghart increased the output. Mana surged through the spell while the water thickened into a crushing stream, spreading around the shield, hammering the Champion’s exposed armor, and flooding the shattered street until smaller goblins nearby lost their footing.

The Champion finally stopped moving forward completely. Water poured from every piece of armor, filled the gaps between plates, soaked the ruined leather straps, and ran down its cleaver in sheets while Sieghart watched the opportunity appear. He released Water Cannon and immediately separated both hands. Lightning snapped across his fingers before the last water had fallen, and Sparks fired from each palm in rapid succession toward the drenched Champion.

The first tiny lightning bolt struck the shield and spread through the water coating its surface. The second hit the sword arm, while several more connected with armor plates and followed wet channels directly into every exposed seam. The Champion convulsed. Its entire body locked for an instant while the cleaver dropped several centimeters, and violent tremors ran through its shoulders as blue-white electricity crawled across the soaked metal covering it from head to toe.

Sieghart did not stop. Sparks normally looked pathetic compared with his larger offensive spells, but water turned each small discharge into something far more useful, allowing repeated shocks to reach places armor was supposed to protect.

Steam began rising from the Champion. Water trapped against heated armor hissed violently as electricity continued spreading through it, and the creature released a deep roar that sounded more pained than anything Sieghart had heard from it so far. For one satisfying moment, the Champion dropped onto one knee. Its shield struck the flooded street, its sword arm trembled uncontrollably, and Sieghart finally thought he had found a combination capable of forcing the creature to stay down.

Then one armored boot moved. The Champion forced itself upright, planted the shield again, and started walking through the lingering electricity while steam continued pouring from its damaged armor plates.

It was slower now. Much slower. Each step looked deliberate, and the Fatigue Dart was probably making recovery increasingly miserable, but the monster was still coming toward him with the same murderous commitment.

“You have got to be kidding me. I burned you, poisoned you, blasted you with enough water to move a carriage, and then electrocuted you inside your own armor. At some point, staying down becomes basic common sense.”

The Champion answered by accelerating as much as its shaking legs allowed. Sieghart clicked his tongue, gathered Wind Mana, and prepared to use Impulse before the goblin recovered enough speed to make another shield charge dangerous. Then he heard bowstrings. Not one. Several. The sound came from above and behind him. Sieghart used Impulse without looking, launching himself diagonally away as arrows struck the flooded street where he had been standing a fraction of a second earlier.

Most shattered harmlessly against stone. Others followed his movement, fired not at his previous location but where the archers predicted his Impulse would carry him, forcing Sieghart to twist before he even completed the burst.

Mana Barrier appeared beside him. Three arrows struck almost simultaneously, producing sharp cracks across the translucent wall before bouncing away. Sieghart formed another Barrier above himself when several more projectiles descended from a rooftop. The second defense caught two arrows. A third hit the edge and changed direction rather than stopping completely, while another passed through the gap between both barriers before Sieghart recognized the trajectory.

Protection flashed around his body. The arrow still struck beneath his ribs. Pain stabbed through his side. Sieghart’s entire body flinched in mid-step, and his concentration broke badly enough that the nearest Mana Barrier disappeared while he stumbled behind a broken section of wall.

The arrow had not entered deeply enough to threaten an organ, but Protection had only slowed it rather than stopping it completely. Several centimeters of the head had punched through clothing and skin beneath his ribs. Sieghart grabbed the shaft, clenched his teeth, and pulled. The arrow came free with a wet jerk that sent another sharp pulse through his side before First Aid immediately began closing the wound beneath his hand.

That shot felt different. Ordinary goblin arrows had either bounced from Protection or lost most of their force before reaching him. This one had punched through enough magical defense to make Sieghart reconsider the threat level around the rooftops.

He looked toward the direction the arrow had come from. Magic Vision swept past several ordinary archers before finding one mana signature positioned much farther away than the others, almost hidden against the upper levels of a tall stone building. The goblin stood alone near a broken tower window. Its body was leaner than the shield fighters below, its armor darker and lighter, and the bow in its hands was almost as tall as the creature itself.

Unlike the short hunting bows carried by ordinary patrols, this weapon had enormous curved limbs reinforced with metal and horn. Even from a distance, Sieghart could see mana gathering along the string whenever the goblin slowly drew another arrow.

The archer did not rush. It watched him, adjusted its aim by tiny amounts, and waited for the Champion to pressure Sieghart into moving somewhere predictable before committing to another shot. Sieghart’s expression flattened. The Champion below was already difficult enough without a specialist sitting several buildings away and turning every attempt to dodge into a calculation involving an arrow capable of penetrating Protection.

“A goblin sniper. Of course. What is bad can always get worse, apparently, and this city seems determined to demonstrate that principle every few minutes with increasingly specialized ways of trying to kill me.”

The sniper released. Sieghart moved before the arrow arrived, but this time he did not use Impulse immediately. He stepped sideways first, watched the Champion adjust toward him, then activated Impulse in the opposite direction at the last instant.

The arrow passed where the sniper expected his burst to end and buried itself deep enough into a stone pillar that half the shaft disappeared. Sieghart glanced at it while landing and felt his annoyance become genuine respect.

That weapon could probably kill most adventurers with one clean shot. More importantly, the sniper understood how people avoided projectiles and was adjusting its aim around movement spells it had only observed a handful of times. The Champion reached him again before Sieghart could plan a response. The giant shield came forward through drifting steam, slower than before but still carrying enough force to turn a direct hit into another trip through a building.

Sieghart formed the Mana Barrier at an angle. The shield struck, broke the barrier, and slid sideways just enough for him to step past the charge instead of retreating directly into the sniper’s preferred line.

The cleaver followed. Sieghart ducked, felt the blade pass through his hair, and fired another Spark into the wet opening beneath the Champion’s arm before using Wind Magic to push himself around its back. The Champion trembled again. Its turning speed suffered now, finally showing the combined effect of Fatigue Dart, burns, damaged armor, water, and repeated electrical shocks. Unfortunately, Sieghart still could not commit to attacking the opening.

Another arrow arrived. He created Mana Barrier behind himself without turning. The projectile struck hard enough to punch halfway through the magical wall before stopping, its metal tip hovering less than a meter from Sieghart’s back.

Sieghart looked from the arrow to the distant tower, then toward the Champion slowly turning to face him again. The battle had just become a problem with two priorities, and ignoring either one could end it immediately. The obvious answer was to remove the sniper first. The Champion, naturally, seemed equally determined to make reaching that distant building impossible while smaller goblins continued gathering around every available street.

Sieghart exhaled, rolled his healing shoulder, and gathered mana into both hands again. If the goblins wanted to turn this into coordinated warfare, he was rapidly losing interest in pretending the surrounding city needed to remain intact.