Imperious, Chapter 017 - Guardian (Patreon)

Anna woke after a brief nap and let out a breath into the darkness. She reached for her bag and tugged out a few more mushrooms, shoving them into her mouth and chewing to quickly cover up the last of what she needed to feel topped up. It wasn’t lost on her that waking up fully alert was coming more and more naturally, as was falling to sleep almost instantaneously. While the golems didn’t have eyes and her dialed down presence seemed to work while she was asleep, the instinctual desire to be on guard at all times had changed her sleeping patterns too.

She pulled up her stats and distributed her points quickly, throwing them into intellect, vitality, and presence again to keep her focal stats balanced and continuing to build her presence towards whatever indeterminable goal she was heading towards. Satisfied she pulled up her full character sheet for the first time in a while;

Name: Anastasia Flitt
Race: Human - Terran
Class: Caster
Profession: None
Level: 7
Tier: Mortal
Heritage: Imperious Monarch

Resources:
HP: 130/130 | SP: 75/75 | MT: 0/125

Attributes: Available Free Points: 0
Strength: 21 | Agility: 10 | Intellect: 21
Vitality: 26 | Endurance: 15 | Willpower: 28
Awareness: 15 | Insight: 16 | Presence: 54

Titles:
Youth of the Integration (Common), Precursor of Earth (Common), Pre-System Warrior (Epic)

Skills:
Maces (Common-Base), Power Strike (Common-Low), Identify (Common-Base), Heavy Armor (Common-Base), Personal Firearms (Common-Base), The Human Spirit (Uncommon-Base), Adaptable (Uncommon-Base), Resounding Blows (Rare-Base)

Spells
Mana Barrier (Common-Low)

Currency:
Iron: 60

Her strength was almost four times what it had been when she’d first gotten started, her other stats showing similar growth besides agility and endurance which she hadn’t put a lot of focus in. She considered whether or not she should throw some points in there soon but decided she liked her path as it was so far. She’d put some points in there eventually, though, otherwise eventually her stamina wouldn’t be able to keep up. She checked her skills and saw that none of them had increased in quality. Not surprising, she hadn’t tried to practice with maces yet the way she had with bludgeoning weapons, she had no idea how to improve identify besides using it over and over, heavy armor was a similar question, she hadn’t touched her gun since it was useless against golems, human spirit was passive as was adaptable and resounding blows.  

She’d hoped to at least make a little progress with mana barrier since she’d been trying to push the envelope of what it could do but it seemed like she still hadn’t teased out its full potential yet.

She let out a sigh and pulled herself to her feet, rubbing her eyes. She could still feel the bags beneath them, they’d gotten worse if she had to guess. Not that it mattered. She pulled her dufflebag over her shoulder and picked up her mace before resting her hand against the wall. No point in dawdling. She thought as she began to descend towards the true end of the dungeon.

She wasn’t sure when it happened, but the ground beneath her feet began to change at some point. Her boots sounding less muffled against the terrain and more like they were clacking against smooth dustless stone. The wall started to become smoother too, though she couldn’t see it in the nonexistent light. She got the feeling she was heading towards a more manmade structure beneath the ground, a thought that was confirmed when she finally saw light.

There was no door or prep room, no place to pause and catch her breath after the descent. One moment she was bathed in darkness and the next she was stepping out into an enormous domed chamber. The floor was made of a hewn and polished off-gray stone that made up everything in the room. Columns stretched to the ceiling to hold it up, the ceiling itself decorated with plates of the smooth rock that had been engraved with decorations. In fact every inch of the place had some kind of decorative engraving on it, even the tiles beneath her feet and the thick slabs that made up the outer walls.

She would have appreciated it if not for the literal colossus standing in the center of the room. It had to be twenty feet tall, fully humanoid unlike the golems before, with hands that showed flexible looking fingers. Its body was carved like a statue and made to look very, unfortunately, human-like. She frowned at the anatomical correctness as her eyes traced up the marble-like body of the golem and found something she really wasn’t happy about. Eyes. Two gemstone like eyes glowed brightly in its head, both of them were fixed on her.

It stood staring at her for only a heartbeat before immediately taking a step forward. 

“Oh, we’re doing this now?” She grunted and hurriedly pulled a handful of moss and roots out of the bag before tossing it back towards the stairs. It didn’t respond, of course it didn't. She used identify as it began to pick up speed.

Guardian of the Engraver’s Legacy, Level 12

She barked out a laugh, “Oh fuck you,” she chuckled and immediately threw herself to the right as a colossal fist slammed into the spot she had just been standing in. She got to her feet and threw her body into a full turn, putting momentum behind her swing as she delivered a power strike to its wrist. A crack followed by a two-step blast sounded out as the attack sent shards of marble flying. She didn’t stick around to see how much damage she’d done, darting towards its legs with her mace at the ready. She swung as she ran past it’s left leg, releasing another power strike and continuing onward, running towards the other end of the room. The booming of its footsteps told her that she had clearly not disabled it.

She spun and looked up just in time to see a marble fist coming towards her. It’s so fast! She marveled, throwing up a mana barrier that immediately shattered upon impact while she tried to get out of the way. The side of its fist clipped her and she was sent spinning, hitting the ground and skipping across the smooth stone until she hit a column with a groan of pain. She felt something in her lower back shift a little and winced, quickly coming to and looking up as the golem was already heading her way.

This thing won’t let up! She thought, momentary panic taking over as it reared its fist back. Her blood ignited in her veins at the thought of being chased around by a goddamn statue. Fucker, she snarled and mentally grabbed hold of her presence’s volume control. No point in keeping it muted if it could see her. She cranked it to max and took a different tactic. “Fuck off!” She shouted, releasing her presence from its containment for the first time since she was level two. The reaction was instantaneous. It staggered and jolted, its body twitching for a moment as she scrambled to her feet, panting.

“Don’t like that, do you?” She growled and charged towards it. It recovered quickly, pivoting when it saw that she was angling towards the ankle she had struck earlier, rearing back to punch. She glared at it and threw out her hand, a mana barrier slapping against its fist before it could actually swing. She looked back at the ankle and realized why it had pivoted. It was still damaged despite the time between now and her last strike. Her eyes whipped around the room. There was no marble here! The other golems had used nearby resources to recover but this big guy had no such advantage.

Her blood began pumping faster in her veins, the fire burning, the fury building, the focus intensifying. A momentary smile of realization turned down into a frown of absolute concentration. She charged at the joint and poured herself into a power strike, driving the mace head into its ankle, kicking pulverized marble into the air that obscured the momentary flash of dark orange-red that spread through the cracks. She ignored the buzzing at the back of her head, every ounce of focus and intent was put into crushing her target, obliterating it, dominating it. She swung a second time before a tingle warned her she was in danger. She didn’t think, she just threw herself past the ankle as marble fingers wrapped around the spot she had just been standing. 

It pulled its foot into the air and shifted back, trying to stomp on her. She merely grunted and changed targets, racing towards the other foot and taking a heavy swing. She wasn’t sure how many power strikes she had used, she wasn’t keeping count, nor did she care. The inferno in her veins told her only one thing, she needed to crush this thing if she wanted to complete her conquest. That was all that mattered. That was all she needed. To win, to overcome, to stand on top of its remains and roar yet another challenge at the multiverse. She swung again as the guardian brought its foot down, another blast of marble and spiderweb cracks spreading across the spot. 

It pulled back, taking a few steps away from her. It’s long gait giving it distance quickly. She rounded on it and narrowed her eyes, throwing out her presence again. “No you don’t!” She growled. It froze again, twitching a little and nearly stumbling back into a column as she raced towards it in pursuit. It looked down at her and its eyes glinted with a flash of light. She met its gaze and felt every cell in her body warn her that she needed to move, now. She darted to the right and charged towards a column as a rumbling sound began chasing her accompanied by a low hum that filled the chamber. She glanced over her shoulder only long enough to see two streams of energy ripping across the ground and tearing up the stone in her wake.

It has heat vision? Come on! She complained, dancing around the nearest column and pressing her back against it. She breathed hard, glancing around the column just as it began moving again. The humming had stopped and she noted that its ocular attack had also ceased. She glanced down at its damaged ankles, it was still walking fine but there were clear craters there. It was like chopping down a super thick tree, it took a while. She spat on the ground and darted away from the column as it threw another punch down at her, circling around to get a good angle to charge again.

While she ran, she quickly checked her resources. She could feel the kernels of heat from the mana in her body growing hotter.

Resources:
HP: 112/130 | SP: 43/75 | MT: 45/125

She’d only hit it a couple of times! Why was her mana tolerance already so high? She clicked her tongue, no time to think about it. She darted towards its ankles again, heading towards the more injured left ankle as it turned to face her once more. She reared her mace back and swung, break! She willed it, driving the head of the weapon into the crater again and sending another one-two punch shockwave through the spot. It tried to pivot its foot and she just pressed in harder, I said break! She snarled and swung again, the blow taking a large chunk out of the joint. Above her, the guardian creaked and at first she thought it was going to fall over only to feel marble fingers wrap around her entire body.

Before she had even a moment to think she felt herself flying through the air, wind whipping past her as he headed straight towards the wall. Shit! Shit shit shit! Slow down! She panicked, holding out her hand and casting one mana barrier after another, slamming into her own protective spells and pulverizing one after another as her body flew ever closer to becoming a smear on the wall of the boss chamber. The sudden stop came next, her entire body creaking, her bones cracking, her head whipping back and forth as she hit the wall. She slid down to the floor and sat there for a moment, vision swimming as crimson poured down over her eyes and out of her lips.

She coughed and reached up with an aching arm to wipe her lips, smelling something burning. She stared up at the guardian as it resumed its approach, marching towards her with a gleam in its eyes. She panted and shoved some roots and moss into her mouth, chewing quickly and feeling her body warm and her bones itch. She pulled herself to her feet, her shoulders slumped and bore her teeth at it. “Yeah? That it? Just gonna fry me?” She screamed at it and drew her gun, firing off a shot at is eyes, “Well fuck you!” She snarled and paused when it turned its head away raising one of its hands protectively. She tilted her head and pursed her lips, “Oh, you wimp,” She spat out a glob of blood.

It turned back to face her but she’d managed to recover enough stamina from the moss to break out into an unsteady run, darting towards the nearest column and pressing herself up behind it. She sniffed the air again and looked down at her hand holding her mace, she could see smoke coming out from beneath the gloves of the gauntlets. My mana tolerance is near its limit, she realized. Casting all those barriers to slow herself down had pushed her further than she’d ever gone with her magic before. She didn’t have time to see how bad her situation was, though, as the stomping of the approaching guardian told her she needed to act.

She turned and darted away from the column and charged, her bones creaking, her muscles aching, her fingers burning. She danced past a fist thrown down at her and charged towards its ankle. Come on, come on, come on! One more good hit! She brought her mace up and swung.

CRRRAACCKK-BOOOM-BOOM!

The burning in her fingers intensified turning from a dull ache to a searing pain but she’d done it, for an instant the leg of the guardian simply hovered in the air over its now disembodied foot. Then it titled, its body falling forward as it lost its balance completely. She darted away, shoving another root into her mouth only to get caught up as something wrapped around one of her legs. She looked down and saw a pair of massive fingers pressing down on her knee. Her eyes went wide as a loud crunch sounded out, ripping a scream of pain from her lungs. She hit the ground, her mace clattering down next to her as she curled up instinctively. She didn’t even feel the subsequent bang that followed the guardian hitting the ground.

Her mind went white as she cradled her pulverized knee, the fire in her veins the only thing keeping her conscious. Unwilling to pass out, unwilling to succumb, unwilling to back down even as her body broke and her flesh burned. She bit her lip and forced herself to come to as she heard the grinding of marble against stone. She pushed herself up to a sitting position and glared at the guardian as it got to a knee, its fist raised, ready to finish her off. She snatched up her mace and bore her teeth at it and let out a scream of fury. She swung, bringing the weapon up to meet the oncoming fist and putting every last ounce of strength she had into the blow. She felt her fingers crack and burn beneath her gauntlets but she didn’t care.

All she wanted was to win.