Chapter 70: Guardian (3)

A rock that suddenly emerged struck my abdomen directly.

The impact sent my body flying through the air.

As I was thrown away, it felt as though time slowed down.

‘What… the hell?’

For an instant, I couldn’t understand it.

How was it possible for rocks to burst out from the guardian’s back?

No—perhaps I was the naïve one.

After all, it had already made the cave floor rise up and had also exposed the core in its chest.

Modifying its own back was probably nothing difficult for it.

‘More importantly, how did it know exactly where I was…?’

Crash! Bam! Bam!

My thoughts were interrupted.

The unbearable pain in my back was too intense.

The rock had hit me head-on and sent me flying quite far.

My whole body hurt.

“Kuheup… huh…!”

I tried to control my breathing as best as I could.

Opening and closing my mouth like a fish out of water didn’t help at all.

The only bit of luck in all this misfortune was that it hadn’t struck my solar plexus.

If that attack had landed there, I probably would’ve blacked out instantly.

Boom! Boom!

The earth trembled.

I barely raised my head and looked at the guardian.

I had clearly cut off its leg, but now it was completely restored as if nothing had happened.

It seemed capable of freely manipulating not only the surrounding terrain, but perhaps the entire orichalcum cave itself.

Even if its body suffered damage again and again, it regenerated immediately.

‘This is practically its home field…’

While thinking that, I tried to stabilize my breathing.

I could inhale, but exhaling was difficult.

I had taken the hit directly.

Thud!

“Kuagh!”

Suddenly, someone struck my back hard.

A brutal sensation shot through my entire spine.

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

Now I finally felt like I could breathe again.

I turned my head to see who had hit me.

It was Sloth.

Just like with the saber-toothed tiger, he was still helping me immensely.

“…Thanks.”

“……”

Instead of answering—though he originally couldn’t talk anyway—Sloth climbed back onto my back.

It felt as if he was telling me to regain my composure and focus on the fight again.

I also suppressed the pain in my abdomen as much as possible and stood up.

Right before the impact, I had reinforced only my body with mana, so I could still move.

“Cough! Cough!”

Suddenly, I started coughing violently.

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

When I pulled it away, it was soaked in blood.

On the outside I seemed fine, but inside I clearly wasn’t.

Well, after taking something like that, it would be strange to remain unharmed.

I carefully watched the guardian and hurriedly pulled out an elixir to drink a sip.

Perhaps because of the painkilling effect, I felt much better than before.

Boom! Boom!

‘No matter how I think about it, this is strange.’

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

It only slowly walked toward where I was.

It never took the initiative.

And on top of that, it continued completely ignoring Wonmo’s attacks.

That was what bothered me the most.

It recognized my presence, but not Wonmo’s.

Why?

While stabilizing my breathing, I circulated the mana inside my body.

My abdomen still hurt a little, but the elixir’s effect allowed me to endure it.

[Gigigigik—]

The moment I circulated mana, the guardian emitted that strange sound again.

Judging by the way it slowly raised both arms, it seemed to be preparing another attack.

‘First, I need to dodge this.’

After being blasted so far away, closing the distance immediately was difficult.

For now, I had to evade.

Without taking my eyes off it, I began moving sideways in circles.

The guardian tracked my position in real time while twisting its waist at grotesque angles.

Boooom!!!

The instant both arms came down, a graveyard of spikes rushed toward me.

Like I said before, I could see it and dodge it.

Besides, there was quite a bit of distance between us now.

Before the guardian could continue with another attack, I ran toward it.

Or rather—

I simply stood still and waited.

‘…Does it detect mana?’

The orichalcum guardian’s pattern was roughly like this.

If I did nothing, it simply walked toward me without attacking.

But the instant I circulated mana, it began attacking.

If it hadn’t ignored Wonmo, I never would’ve noticed.

‘That means…’

I even stopped my breathing and completely calmed the mana inside my body.

Then the guardian, which had been about to launch another attack, suddenly froze completely.

Afterward, it stared at me and slowly began advancing with its enormous body.

Perhaps due to its sensitivity to mana, it could detect my location precisely.

But only to a certain extent.

‘Just as I thought.’

Not using mana.

That was the method to defeat it.

However, discovering the strategy meant nothing if I lacked the ability to execute it.

‘But I need mana to cut through that thing…’

The Heavenly Demon’s sword was practically all-powerful, but not omnipotent.

Besides, even a broken weapon required proper skill to fully display its potential.

And I was barely a novice who had only recently learned the internal technique.

On top of that, my ability to infuse mana into the sword was sealed, so brute force was my only option.

‘Looks like I’ll have to wait for the right moment…’

I watched the guardian slowly advance while moving carefully.

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

I needed to confirm the distance at which it reacted.

[Gigigigik—]

When the distance between us narrowed to around twenty meters, the guardian reacted.

The moment it lifted a leg with the intent to attack, I quickly stepped back.

[Gigigigik—]

Then it slowly lowered the leg and resumed walking toward me with huge strides.

That confirmed it.

The creature detected presences through mana.

The most likely reason there were no dangerous beasts inside the cave was precisely because of the guardian.

‘Then…’

I slowly stepped backward to avoid entering that thing’s detection range.

I would have many opportunities.

But out of all those opportunities, I would only be able to seize one.

If I took another direct hit to the abdomen like before, perhaps not even an elixir could heal me.

And before even thinking about the elixir, I would probably pass out first.

Maybe Sloth would have to save me again.

‘Stay calm.’

I began moving back and forth while calculating the range.

Soon after, I found the ideal distance and slowly let out a breath.

“Fuuu…”

[Gigigigik—]

The moment I exhaled, the guardian reacted violently.

I flinched when I saw it, but fortunately it showed no reaction beyond that.

It seemed even breathing produced mana fluctuations that it could detect.

‘…Now!’

I circulated mana through my body and charged forward.

The guardian raised a leg, but it was already too late.

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

Can I do this?

The doubt crossed my mind for an instant, but I immediately cast it aside and focused all my senses solely on the sword.

If I couldn’t do it, I would die.

I couldn’t die here.

I would definitely leave this hellish place alive.

I didn’t survive just to die here.

Slash!

Without using aura, I cut through the leg using only the strength of my body.

The enormous figure made of orichalcum collapsed forward onto its knees.

The mana inside my body spun more violently than ever before.

Slash! Slash!

To prevent it from responding like before, I cut not only its legs but all of its limbs.

Several times spikes burst out and I nearly died, but I managed to block them with the shield.

In the end, the guardian was reduced to a torso without arms or legs.

Now all that remained was destroying the core.

Booom!

The moment I climbed onto its back, a rock violently rose up.

I barely dodged it.

It must have been its final desperate attempt, but it was already too late.

All that remained was piercing the core with the Heavenly Demon’s sword.

“Hup!”

I drove the Heavenly Demon’s sword toward the place where the core was located.

The sword pierced through smoothly.

If it kept going like this and pierced the core—

Kwarrrrrr!

…But, as always, things were never that simple.

The limbs I had just cut off began moving as if they were still alive.

And while I was shocked by that, something even worse happened.

Swaaaaaah!

“Kugh?!”

A strange feeling of weakness spread through my entire body.

It felt like stepping out of an extremely hot bath.

An indescribable heaviness.

At first, I couldn’t understand what was happening, but I quickly realized it.

‘T-this bastard is absorbing my mana…!’

The guardian was absorbing my mana.

Using the Heavenly Demon’s sword lodged in its back as a conduit.

I panicked and tried to pull the sword back out, but it wouldn’t budge an inch.

Whoooong! Whoooong!

To make matters worse, the guardian’s limbs, which seemed alive, began attacking while writhing like worms.

Craaaash!

I barely dodged the kick, but I couldn’t avoid the punch that came afterward.

I somehow managed to block it with my shield, but my body was already flying through the air again.

And the biggest problem was that I had let go of the Heavenly Demon’s sword.

Crash!

“Kuugh…!”

Even while being blown away, I managed to soften the fall, but I couldn’t relax.

The weakness spreading through my entire body was too intense.

Another attack would definitely come.

Grrrrrrk—

Even though its attacks were slow, its regeneration was absurdly fast.

The guardian’s limbs had already been completely restored.

Since the entire cave was made of orichalcum, it was probably using that to regenerate.

But I didn’t even have time to think much about it.

The guardian’s chest opened once again.

Woooooooong—

The same beam it had fired before.

And this time it was aimed directly at me.

The instant I saw it, I desperately tried to stand up, but another problem appeared.

Dizzy—

“?!”

Was it because it had absorbed my mana?

I couldn’t gather strength in my body.

On top of that, an unbearable dizziness pierced through my head, and I ended up collapsing to my knees.

‘N-no way…!’

Even while dizzy, I had to think.

I stared directly at the guardian aiming at me.

Even after absorbing all my mana, it could still detect me perfectly.

Why?

I hadn’t even finished forming the question when—

Flash!

Suddenly, the lights around me flickered before illuminating again, as if a light bulb had malfunctioned.

The moment that happened, I quickly raised my head.

I frowned at the brightness and barely managed to open my eyes.

‘…Light?’

The crystal sphere KingLeor gave me.

The “Light” magic contained inside it.

And to activate a “spell,” “mana” was inevitably required.

The instant I understood that, I immediately pulled the crystal sphere out of my bag.

Then I squeezed out every last drop of mana I had left and injected it into the sphere.

Fwaaaaaash!

The moment mana entered it, everything lit up instantly.

The entire cave was bathed in blinding light.

Without caring whether it blinded me or not, I threw the crystal sphere toward the guardian’s rear.

Gigigigik!

It worked.

It perfectly drew its attention.

The guardian twisted its waist almost one hundred eighty degrees as it followed the sphere.

And then I saw the Heavenly Demon’s sword lodged in its back like the sword of a legendary hero.

I gathered all the strength I had left and abruptly stood up.

“Uaaaaaaah!”

I even screamed as I charged directly toward the guardian.

My only goal was retrieving the Heavenly Demon’s sword.

Since it was a bastard that couldn’t hear anyway, I shouted with all my strength.

Wooooooooong!

A strange sound came from the core.

I waited for the exact moment it would fire.

And when the light became far brighter than before, I completely covered my left arm with the shield.

A perfect ramming stance.

I ran in that position and then jumped.

Booom!

The instant I jumped, the core fired the beam.

No matter how enormous that thing was, it couldn’t ignore “recoil.”

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

And that recoil became the perfect help for me.

Baaaang!!

The lower part of the Heavenly Demon’s sword collided against the shield with a deafening roar.

The Heavenly Demon’s sword, which had already reached the core, sank even deeper.

The entire blade stabbed completely through, so it surely pierced the core from one side to the other.

Thuuud!

I had used the shield to ram into it, and on top of that I had jumped.

What came next was a completely natural fall.

And yes, it hurt. A lot.

Even so, just in case, I pitifully rolled across the ground to get away from the guardian.

Call me pathetic if you want.

I just wanted to survive.

Gigigigik— Gigik— Gigigig—

Was it because the core had been properly pierced?

The guardian began malfunctioning.

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

A broken robot would probably look exactly like this.

Thuuud!

Soon after, its arms fell heavily, and the guardian collapsed forward.

It still trembled slightly for a few moments, but even that eventually died down.

The blue light of the core also disappeared completely.

The only light left inside the cave was the floating Light sphere in the air.

I had taken a laser cannon head-on and still survived.

“God…”

I had almost died.

If I hadn’t figured out how to defeat it, I would’ve been completely helpless.

Were all guardians like this?

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

On top of that, my mana had been absorbed, so I had no strength left in my body.

Looks like I’ll have to lie here for a while.

Swoosh—

Then something slowly approached me.

At first, I thought it was Sloth.

But when I saw the round eyes and the beak, I realized it wasn’t him.

The greatest contributor to defeating the guardian.

Wonmo.

“Kyuu?”

Wonmo tilted his head while looking at me lying on the ground.

I stared at him for a moment before letting out an empty laugh.

“Wonmo.”

“Kyuu?”

“How about I give you some honey later?”

“Kyuuu!”

Looks like he really loved the idea.