[STT] Chapter 72: Guardian (Patreon)

Steam rose off his staff as the mana cannon slammed into the thing coming at him dead center, a shockwave detonating from the impact, blinding him for a moment.

A ripple of force ricocheted back from the impact, ripping him off his feet, tumbling him into the air. He hit the dirt hard, tumbling and rolling to his feet, his head ringing.

He'd hit the thing, had seen the ball of fire slam into it, felt the concussive blast, heard the crash akin to lightning.

Now all he could see was smoke, billowing and curling in on itself. It seemed to have a life of its own, swirling in lazy arcs as it rose into the sky.

That should have done some damage, right?

Shaking his head, he stumbled to his feet, waiting for the smoke to clear.

After all this exact [Mana Cannon] had vaporized a shadow monkey's head and killed a Tier 2—

It crashed into him before he even saw it.

A shadow of black and white, it hit him like a brick wall, the air exploding from his lungs as he flew backward.

He hit the ground and tumbled, rolling across dirt and rough gravel, the wind knocked from him, and he struggled to breathe.

He couldn't focus, couldn't think—

A skewer made of glass was lodged into his stomach.

That's not good.

And he was airborne again, tumbling uncontrollably through the air, before slamming into a tree.

He didn't even see the attack coming. He hit the trunk, wrapping himself around it, his head exploding in a flash of pain as the skewer broke inside him, leaving shards of glass buried in his stomach.

He dropped to the ground, his body wracked with pain, his head spinning. He struggled to his feet, his vision blurring in and out. He couldn't stand, couldn't focus, couldn't—

[Focus] clamped on his emotions and sensations, moving away from the panic induced adrenaline spike, and whatever else there had been that allowed him to overload the [Mana Cannon] with so much mana.

The pain receding, Ben finally had a clear head to think. [Ignition Step] took him away when [Mana Sonar] pinged something coming in to his left.

He found himself a few meters away and spinning to see what was coming for him. In the distance, a shadow was moving, blurring forward with an impossible speed. It was shaped like a man, but he knew it was not human.

What is that thing?

That thought briefly crossed his mind, but he crushed it as he funneled most of his skills through [Focus].

[Mana Sonar] went into overdrive, sending absurd amounts of information into his brain, thankfully [Focus] parsed it for him, or at least a part of him that definitely did not like to be in the place it was, since [Focus] let him do things in parallel.

It also gave him enough space to look at the notifications that he'd received the moment he'd left that void where he'd met the bespectacled man.

[Outside interference detected... Requesting higher authority... Granted.]

[Entity #$$##@ is ordered to halt activities. Continuing with further actions will result in sanctions.]

[Entity #$$##@ has left.]

[Rift parameters altered beyond expectations. Guardian Tier beyond anticipated parameters. Adjusting... Failed...]

[Requesting higher authority... Refused...]

[Falling back to predetermined—]

[Initiated... Rift collapse initiated...]

[Rift collapsing in...]

What the hell?

[60 seconds...]

[Rift participants, please vacate immediately to prevent entanglement. A portal shall open momentarily.]

[Warforged] layered over his body and mind, sharpening his instincts, giving him the edge, while [Mana Manipulation] took over [Ignition Step], [Mana Cannon], and [Regeneration] as he blinked into the sky, fire exploding in his wake as he created some distance between him and the creature.

[58 seconds...]

Wind rushed past him, and he flared his mana, using [Mana Manipulation] to push his [Mana Cannon] to the limit, layering fire into it, firing one off at the creature with almost reckless abandon just as the creature bent and exploded upward.

The ground cracked under the creature's legs, launching it into the sky toward Ben.

[55 seconds...]

The [Mana Cannon] hit it like a comet, a flaming ball of fire that exploded on the creature, expanding out in a blistering flash of heat and light that could undoubtedly be seen from miles away.

He lost sight of the creature in the explosion, but Ben's [Mana Sonar] had just enough time to tell him that the creature had ripped straight through the attack.

Though knowing that didn't matter as it impaled him with another glass skewer, burying it deep into his chest only to pull it away.

His fire sputtered and he turned, suspended in the air, as the creature slammed both its hands down onto him from above.

When did it get above me?

Ben crashed.

The ground erupted around him, the air rushing from his lungs and pain exploding through him, blood spurting from his mouth, his bones cracking.

A healing mark exploded, letting him recover from most of the damage. And he moved with [Ignition Step] again, realizing his best chance at surviving this was being so fast the creature couldn't follow.

Yes, surviving. He understood now, what the bespectacled man had meant when he told him to survive.

[Ignition Step] took him around, all the while raining [Mana Cannons] down on the creature. It was so fast, a blur that Ben had no way of following, was it not for [Mana Sonar].

[43...]

Even with [Mana Sonar], it was hard. Though he figured out something interesting with [Mana Sonar] as he ran around, dodging its attacks while sneaking in any attacks he could manage.

[Mana Sonar] was creating a map in his head, one that was so accurate and detailed that it was putting his other senses to shame. But more importantly, it told him something much more interesting: the creature was much like that man's chair.

Made of mana so condensed it was physical all the way through.

Ben chained jumps off everything to run away. Off the creature, off the ground, the trees, the air. He just ran around, accelerating beyond what he had thought was possible with [Ignition Step].

If he had been in his right mind, he would have stopped to think about how he was doing that, but he had enough presence to know that this wasn't the time or the place.

Ben found another skewer in his side, one in his arm, and a kick to the head that nearly made him lose consciousness, but he survived.

And he soon realized that no matter how fast he got, the creature, the monster, the humanoid thing, whatever it was, it could always keep up with him.

But that didn't mean Ben couldn't hit it, nor did it mean that his attacks were useless. It just meant he had to throw everything he had at it, but the result wasn't as big as it should be.

So I just have to survive this minute!

The forest burned as he cared little about what he was destroying in his reckless use of [Ignition Step].

But it wasn't enough, the creature caught up to him, slammed a punch into him that would have killed him if not for [Warforged], as it amplified his [Regeneration] and protected his insides from exploding out of him.

But that still left enough damage he had to funnel a constant stream of mana through [Regeneration].

He was bleeding, but most of his wounds were closing, though it didn't matter much when he got a new one with every movement. When another punch came rushing for his face, he blocked it with his staff.

It blocked the punch, but Ben was sent flying across the forest floor. He tumbled over and over until he hit a tree, sliding down it. His staff was broken in half, cracked in the middle.

Well shit.

He got up and burst out of the way, [Ignition Step] taking him into the air, and he put the staff back into his holding bag.

Igniting fire under him, he flew into the sky, pushing as much mana he could to fly as high as he could. And he didn't stop. He couldn't. There wasn't time.

Just keep going.

Faster!

Even his brain felt like it was overclocking, mana pumping through it, allowing him to maintain [Focus] even with all the information it was providing. And his body burned, mana working through his muscles, forcing his every movement to be as efficient as possible.

He'd never felt like he was working so well, moving so fast, that he was practically flying through the air.

At some point he was so fast everything was so small down below, whizzing upward, a patch of darkness.

Although he was getting destroyed in the process, something bubbled inside his chest...

As the air around him grew colder he found his lips stretching into a grin.

He was alive, he was actually doing this! And he felt so alive that the pain and destruction of the fight faded from his mind.

Until he looked around and found a curvature he hadn't expected inside a rift, the land below, darkness above.

What the...

He was at the top of the rift, and he hadn't even noticed.

He found it hard to breathe.

Am I going to run out of air up here?

That felt like a stupid thing to even think about—

Something struck him, and he found himself blanking out, falling like a kite that had lost its string. He fell, and fell, falling as he lost sight of the sky, the curvature of the rift, the endless black above.

He fell as the wind pushed back against him, his body like a ragdoll that couldn't move, even as he fought to recover, desperate to do something.

By the time he recovered, the creature was onto him.

And for the first time, he saw it for what it was. Humanoid, with a sleek black body, made of crystals, white stripes that curved up its arms and down its torso, and a head that was like a mask, featureless.

But there was something in it that made him feel seen, its eyes burning with a light as it looked at him. Its mouth moved, but no sound came out.

A hand gripped his head, and all the momentum stopped. Ben triggered [Ignition Step] and the healing mark just as his neck snapped.

The world blurred as Ben escaped its grip and his neck fixed itself, but he found himself in its clutches again.

Only, this time, he saw the sparks forming behind him through the creature's reflective body.

Ben grabbed its arm and hurled his legs up, detonating a blast to push himself toward the portal forming. Just as it formed, he slammed into it, the creature following along him, and then the portal closed.

Ben fell from the sky, supposedly outside of the rift, a hand still gripped on his head. He triggered [Ignition Step] again, only to be surprised when it followed him through the jump.

But when he looked up to see, it was half of the arm, a bright cut where the rest of the creature had been severed.

The rest of it was left behind.

How—you know what, I don't even care. Thank god.

And Ben crashed, smashing through the forest canopy as notifications appeared in his vision.

[A Rift object outside designated Rift boundaries detected... Terminating. Done. Initiating displacement protocol. The object will be relocated to the nearest valid Rift coordinate.]

The hand disappeared from his head, a spark of light and a flash of mana, and it was gone.

Ben steadied his descent, slowing himself as he dropped to the forest floor, his whole body screaming in pain. But he was alive.

He had survived. He laughed, and it hurt.

Throwing a cursory ripple of [Mana Sonar] to check out his surroundings, Ben let himself relax in the ground when he detected kids popping out of portals all around his range and no danger.

After taking a breath or two, Ben brought up the notifications he'd missed through his fight.

What a "fight" it was...

He couldn't help but think bitterly.

[Mana Manipulation Lvl 13 > Lvl 15]

[Ignition Step Lvl 3 > Lvl 6]

[Warforged Lvl 12 > Lvl 13]

[Mana Cannon Lvl 10 > Lvl 12]

[Focus Lvl 11 > Lvl 15]

[Regeneration Lvl 15 > Lvl 17]

[Tier 3 Guardian slain. Essence gained. Title usurped.]

[Rift conquered... Calculating reward...]

Wait what?

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