Chương 21: The Guardian

What was beyond was darkness. Until he set foot in the center of the chamber and saw lights flash on, illuminating the space, that is, and saw the space filled with bones. Not the most reassuring of sights, but hey, he couldn't control the number of skeletons found in an ancient complex! The skeletons weren't the most disconcerting part, though. That was when the bones flew into the air and snapped together like puzzle pieces.

The thousands upon thousands of bones continued to snap together until they formed the outline of a creature Warhol confessed he had never seen before: it was humanoid but dragon-like, with fierce horns, webbed toes, and wings, four arms, and a tail. It was bigger than a house and emanated powerful magics. Once the skeleton had finished assembling itself, its hands move together. They clapped once and a flash of light filled the room. When the light faded, the skeleton had flesh!

With muscles, organs, and skin restored to it, Warhol had to give it the benefit of the doubt, whatever this creature was, it was both titanic as well as intimidating. It radiated magics he had never felt before. What an opportunity!

"Greetings!" WARHOL called out.

"Who might you be, oh so large one?" His System, meanwhile, began the work of scanning the creature. He might not have ever encountered it before, sure, but that didn't mean the System hadn't encountered it! He incanted [Flight] just in case. The creature fell on its feet without stumbling and regarded him. It snarled before it sent flying to him a large, bright red fireball from its mouth.

Warhol deflected the attack by flipping it with the back of his hand as if it were an annoying fly; to his surprise, though, he saw the attack leave a scorch mark on his skin. That hadn't happened in many years.

"You have some bite, I see. My name's Warhol. Might I ask yours?" [Scanning... Scanning...] Whatever the creature was, his System was having a heck of a time identifying it. It launched more bright red fireballs from its mouth rapid-fire to which he had to put some in to escape its blasts; he floated through the air like a butterfly, dodging with a skill only those who had truly mastered the way of stamina and agility could muster.

Once the creature saw how its rapid-fire shots did little to slaughter him, Warhol again asked the creature its name; the key to making friends, after all, was persistence! As he predicted, the creature simply snarled at him again before lunging in for the kill; he dodged its slicing fingernails, of course; good thing, too, since each of those nails were sharper and longer than a sword! This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

His robe danced in the air as he effortlessly moved from the beast's talons. Just to make sure he came out of the confrontation with all his appendages where they should be, he incanted [Reinforce: Self] as well as [Reinforce: Skin Armor]. Though he still had a few hundred mana within his [Skin Armor] from his fight with the 'dragon god,' he still dumped some mana into each spell, though that was only him being his usual over-cautious self. [Scanning Complete: Lifeform Identified: Guardian Construct (Lv. 1000)] Ah, a construct! He should have known! Constructs protected important places. Tombs, palaces... dungeons (theoretically). Unfortunately, Constructs are not sentient or Sapient in any way. A letdown though it be, he was not going to learn anything from a Construct. Which meant, he had to knock it down to advance.

"I guess you are incapable of telling me your name," Warhol remarked as he gathered energy between his hands for a final, big blast.

"Shame, too. I bet a creature like you have a lot of knowledge about the world to share. Alas, you were likely a fabrication. Some wizard made you from the strongest bits of several monsters, huh?" As he talked to himself, the Construct went into a frenzy. It lashed at him with his many sword-fingers, ripping his robes to shreds, but dancing off his flesh without a scratch. The Construct's assault, however, proved itself to be a furious combatant as he saw his mana boost, [-2500], dwindle at a steady rate.

If Warhol had been any other wizard, he would have died a hundred times over by now. Although Warhol stared like a hawk at his mana boost's meter, it was only to gauge the resolve of his foe. He wasn't truly worried about his safety. But he wanted to live on the edge, just a smidge. So, he waited until the last possible second, when the beast unleashed flame from its mouth, jabbed at him with his sword-hands, and was blasting him with electro-currents before he unleashed his [Flamethrower] spell.

His mana boost about to run out, his spell unleashed in the nick of time. Fire filled the chamber as the [Flamethrower] became less a 'thrower' and more a 'burst damn' of flame. The ungodly strong currents tore into the Construct's body and reduced it to ashes in mere seconds. Just like that, the battle was over. He confessed himself disappointed. After the spell subsided, Warhol smooshed the Construct's ashes with his foot.

"Level one thousand, huh?" He bent down and examined the smoldering material.

"I expected more. Maybe this Complex isn't what I thought, not if you're such a low level..." Ahead of him, the door opened, leading him further into the complex. More mysteries awaited him. And among those mysteries, perhaps secrets. Warhol banished his pessimistic thoughts. He had still an immense sum of the complex left to explore. If one Construct Guardian existed, others surely did as well. And those others would be stronger than this fella had been; so, the question on his mind was 'how much stronger?'

That was what he intended to find out come hell or high water. He activated [Levitate] and flew into the dark, the Construct's ashes floated behind and scattered as if they had never existed.