Chapter 70

Guardian (3)

The rock that suddenly erupted struck me squarely in the abdomen.

The impact sent my body flying far away.

As I flew through the air, I had the strange illusion that time was moving in slow motion.

…What?

For a moment, I couldn’t understand what had happened.

How could a rock suddenly erupt from the Guardian’s back?

No.

Maybe I had simply been too careless.

Hadn’t it already made the cave floor erupt and exposed the core in its chest?

Changing the shape of its back was probably nothing to it.

More importantly…

Crash! Thud! Tumble!

My thoughts were cut short by the excruciating pain shooting through my back.

…How did it know where I was?

The rock had hit me directly and sent me flying a considerable distance.

There wasn’t a single part of my front or back that didn’t hurt.

“Khk… H-Hah…!”

I desperately tried to steady my breathing.

Opening and closing my mouth like a goldfish wasn’t going to help.

The one fortunate thing in this disaster was that the blow hadn’t struck my solar plexus.

If it had, I probably would have passed out on the spot.

BOOM! THUD!

The ground shook.

I barely managed to raise my head and look at the Guardian.

I had definitely cut off one of its legs.

Yet it had already repaired itself as though nothing had ever happened.

Perhaps it could freely manipulate not only the surrounding terrain but the entire Orichalcum cave itself.

No matter how many times its body was damaged, it seemed capable of repairing itself almost immediately.

So this is basically its home turf…

Even while thinking, I struggled to get my breathing under control.

I could breathe in, but for some reason, I couldn’t properly breathe out.

That hit had landed far too cleanly.

Whack!

“Ghk!”

Suddenly, something struck me hard on the back.

A sharp sensation shot across my entire back.

At the same time, the air trapped inside me burst out of my mouth.

Finally, I could breathe again.

Wondering who had hit me, I looked behind me.

Namu-Ppareumbo was there.

Just like during the fight with the saber-toothed tiger, he was always a huge help when it mattered.

“……Thanks.”

Instead of answering—not that he ever spoke anyway—Namu-Ppareumbo climbed onto my back.

It felt like he was telling me to pull myself together and focus on the fight again.

Suppressing the pain in my abdomen as much as possible, I got back to my feet.

Perhaps because I had poured mana solely into reinforcing my body right before being hit, I didn’t have any difficulty moving.

“Cough! Cough!”

A sudden coughing fit erupted from me.

I hurriedly covered my mouth with the back of my hand.

When I looked, my hand was covered in blood.

I might have looked fine on the outside, but apparently my insides weren’t.

Well, there was no way I could take a hit like that and come away completely unharmed.

Keeping an eye on the Guardian, I hurriedly pulled out the elixir and took a sip.

Perhaps because it also had an analgesic effect, I immediately felt much better than before.

BOOM! THUD!

No matter how I think about it, something’s strange.

Even while I drank the elixir, the Guardian didn’t attack me.

It simply walked slowly toward my position.

It never attacked first.

And it was still completely ignoring Wonmo’s attacks.

That was what bothered me the most.

It knew I existed, yet it didn’t seem to know Wonmo existed.

Why?

As I steadied my breathing, I circulated the mana inside my body.

My abdomen still hurt a little, but the elixir’s painkilling effect made it tolerable.

[Kiiiiik—]

The instant I circulated my mana, the Guardian once again emitted that bizarre noise.

Judging by the way it slowly raised both arms, it was about to attack again.

For now, I need to dodge this.

I had been sent flying too far away to close the distance in time.

Dodging was my only option.

Keeping my eyes fixed on the Guardian, I circled sideways.

The Guardian tracked my position in real time, twisting its waist at an unnatural angle to follow me.

BOOOOM!!!

The instant it slammed both arms down, a forest of spikes erupted toward me.

Like I said before, the attack was slow enough for me to see and dodge.

And this time, there was even more distance between us.

Before it could continue with another attack, I rushed toward it—

No.

I didn’t.

I quietly waited.

Is it… detecting mana?

The Orichalcum Guardian’s behavior roughly followed this pattern.

If I did nothing, it merely walked toward me without taking any other action.

But the moment I began circulating mana, it attacked.

If it hadn’t completely ignored Wonmo, I probably never would have noticed.

If that’s the case…

I even stopped breathing as I calmed the mana inside my body.

The Guardian, which had been preparing to continue its attack, suddenly froze stiff.

Then it stared silently in my direction before slowly moving its massive body forward again.

Perhaps because it was highly sensitive to mana, it could pinpoint my location.

But that was all.

I knew it.

Not using mana.

That was the key to defeating it.

But finding the strategy was meaningless if I didn’t have the ability to execute it.

I need mana to cut that thing.

The Heavenly Demon’s sword was close to omnipotent, but it wasn’t omnipotent.

Even the power of exceptional equipment was difficult to bring out without the proper abilities to support it.

Right now, I was a complete beginner who had only recently started learning an internal energy cultivation method.

And now even the technique of channeling mana into my sword had effectively been sealed away.

That left me no choice but to rely on brute force.

I’ll have to wait for the right timing…

I watched the Guardian approach, then began moving carefully.

Maybe it wasn’t attacking because I was outside its range.

I needed to determine how close I could get before it reacted.

[Kiiiiik—]

When the distance between us shrank to roughly twenty meters, the Guardian reacted.

The moment it lifted one leg as though preparing to attack, I hurriedly retreated.

[Kiiik—]

It quietly lowered the raised leg again and resumed striding toward me.

That confirmed it.

The creature was detecting my presence through mana.

It was also highly likely that the Guardian was the reason there were no dangerous beasts inside this cave.

In that case…

I slowly moved backward, making sure I remained outside its detection range.

I had plenty of opportunities.

But out of all those opportunities, there was only one I absolutely had to seize.

If I took another direct hit to the abdomen like before, even the elixir might not be enough to heal me.

Forget the elixir.

I would probably lose consciousness before I even got the chance to drink it.

Maybe Namu-Ppareumbo would have to save me again.

Slowly.

I moved back and forth, carefully testing the boundary of its range.

Before long, I figured out the optimal distance and let out a breath.

“Phew…”

[Kiiiiik—]

The instant I exhaled, the Guardian reacted sharply.

I flinched in surprise, but fortunately, it didn’t do anything beyond that.

Apparently, even breathing caused fluctuations in mana that it could detect.

…Now!

I circulated the mana inside my body and charged forward.

The Guardian lifted one foot, but it was already too late.

Just like before, I had already reached the space between its legs.

Can I do it?

The question flashed through my mind.

But I immediately pushed the doubt aside and focused every nerve in my body on the sword.

If I couldn’t do this, I would die.

I couldn’t die here.

I was going to survive and escape this hellish place no matter what.

I hadn’t fought this hard to stay alive just so I could die now.

Slash!

Without using aura, relying solely on the strength of my body, I severed the Guardian’s leg.

The massive Orichalcum body collapsed forward and dropped to one knee.

I was circulating the mana inside my body more violently than ever before.

Slash! Slash!

So it couldn’t respond like before, I cut off not only its legs but all four limbs.

Spikes erupted from the ground several times along the way and nearly put me in serious danger, but I managed to block them with my shield.

Before long, only the Guardian’s torso remained.

Now all I had to do was stab the core.

…

BOOOOM!

The instant I climbed onto its back, a rock erupted upward.

I barely managed to dodge it.

It was probably one last desperate struggle, but it was already too late.

All that remained was to drive the Heavenly Demon’s sword through its core.

“Hup!”

I thrust the Heavenly Demon’s sword hard toward the spot where the core was located.

The blade slid in remarkably smoothly.

At this rate, all I had to do was pierce the core—

Rumble, rumble!

—but of course, nothing in this world was ever that easy.

The Guardian’s limbs I had just chopped apart suddenly began moving as though they were alive.

While I stared in shock, something else happened.

Whoooosh!

“Ghk?!”

A strange weakness washed over my entire body.

It felt like the languid exhaustion that came after soaking in a hot bath.

I was bewildered by the sudden weakness, but quickly realized the cause.

“Th-This bastard is absorbing my mana…!”

The Guardian was draining my mana through the Heavenly Demon’s sword embedded in its back.

Panicking, I tried to pull the sword free, but it wouldn’t budge.

Whoom! Whoom!

To make matters worse, the Guardian’s severed limbs continued writhing as if alive.

They squirmed like worms and began attacking me.

CLAAANG!

I managed to dodge the kick, but I couldn’t avoid the punch that followed.

I barely blocked it with my shield, but my body had already been sent flying.

The bigger problem was that I had lost my grip on the Heavenly Demon’s sword.

Crash! Tumble!

“Ghh…!”

I managed a breakfall even while being thrown through the air, but I couldn’t relax.

Judging by the weakness flooding my entire body, the Guardian would definitely follow up with another attack.

Grrrrrrind—

Maybe its attacks were slow but its regeneration was fast.

The Guardian’s arms and legs had already been restored.

The entire cave was made of Orichalcum, so it had probably used the surrounding material to rebuild itself.

But I didn’t have long to think about that.

The Guardian’s chest opened.

HUUUUUM—

The laser it had fired earlier was now aimed directly at me.

The instant I saw it, I hurriedly tried to stand.

But there was another problem.

Dizzy—

Maybe it was because my mana had been drained, but I couldn’t put any strength into my body.

On top of that, a stabbing dizziness assaulted my head, forcing me down onto one knee.

“N-No…!”

Even if I was dizzy, I had to think.

I glared at the Guardian, which was aiming directly at me.

Even though all my mana had been absorbed, it still knew exactly where I was.

Why?

Before I could even fully form the question—

Flicker!

The surroundings suddenly dimmed and brightened again, like a lightbulb briefly losing power.

The moment that happened, I jerked my head upward.

I squinted against the glare, then finally managed to open my eyes.

Light?

The crystal orb King Leor had given me.

The Light spell contained inside it.

And for magic to activate, mana was inevitably required.

The instant I realized that, I pulled the crystal orb from my bag without hesitation.

Then I squeezed out every last bit of mana I could and poured it into the orb.

FWOOSH!

The moment mana entered it, the entire cave instantly became brighter.

Brilliant light flooded every corner.

Ignoring the glare, I hurled the crystal orb behind the Guardian.

[Kiiiiiiik!]

It worked.

I had successfully drawn its attention.

The Guardian’s waist twisted nearly 180 degrees as it tracked the crystal orb.

That revealed the Heavenly Demon’s sword embedded in its back like a hero’s legendary blade.

I summoned every last ounce of strength I had and sprang to my feet.

“UAAAAAAAH!”

I even let out a battle cry as I charged toward the Guardian.

I had only one target.

The Heavenly Demon’s sword.

The thing couldn’t hear anyway, so I shouted to my heart’s content.

HUUUUUM!

A strange noise came from the core.

I waited for the exact moment it fired.

When the light grew far brighter than before, I wrapped my entire left arm behind the shield.

It was the perfect posture for a shield charge.

Maintaining that position, I sprinted forward and leaped.

BWAAAAAAM!!

The laser fired from the core the instant I jumped.

No matter how enormous the Guardian was, even it couldn’t completely ignore recoil.

Just as I had expected, its body was pushed backward ever so slightly.

And that recoil became the perfect assist for me.

BAAANG!!

The bottom of the Heavenly Demon’s sword collided violently with my shield.

The sword, which had already reached the core, was driven even deeper.

The entire blade sank inside.

There was no doubt it had pierced straight through the core.

THUD!

I had performed a shield charge.

And I had leaped while doing it.

Naturally, what came next was falling back to the ground.

It hurt.

Not a little, either.

A lot.

Even so, just to be safe, I shamelessly rolled across the floor until I had put plenty of distance between myself and the Guardian.

Call it pathetic if you want.

Surviving came first.

[Kiiik—kik—kiiiik—]

Maybe because its core had been properly pierced, the Guardian began malfunctioning.

Its limbs repeatedly fell off and reattached while its entire body twisted as though it were dancing.

It looked exactly like what I imagined a broken robot would look like.

BOOM!

Before long, its arms drooped limply and the Guardian collapsed forward.

Its body continued to twitch faintly for a moment, but even that soon died away.

The blue glow of its core also went completely dark.

The only light remaining inside the cave was the Light spell floating overhead.

Somehow, it had survived being hit by the laser blast.

“Good grief…”

I almost died.

If I hadn’t figured out how to deal with it, I would have been helpless.

Were all Guardians like this?

How the hell did SwordMaster defeat things like that so easily?

With my mana drained, I couldn’t put any strength into my body.

I would probably have to lie here for a while.

Rustle—

Then something slowly approached me.

At first, I thought it was Namu-Ppareumbo.

But when I saw the round eyes and beak, I realized I was wrong.

It was the greatest contributor to defeating the Guardian.

Wonmo.

“Kkyu?”

Wonmo tilted his head as he looked down at me lying on the ground.

I stared blankly at him for a moment, then let out a dry laugh.

“Wonmo.”

“Kkyu?”

“Want some honey later?”

“Kkyuu!”

Apparently, he did.