So, after some more time, we finally arrived where the relic is supposed to be. There was a bunch of huge rocks put in a circle, with nothing but dirt and dust inside it, while the outside was filled with grass, like everything we saw until now in fact.

Needless to say, this second half of the trip wasn't as relaxing as the first one, at least for me. Alice kept lecturing me on how I should have told her about my loss of power, how it was irresponsible and so on. It was extremely annoying, especially coming from her, but it's not like she was wrong, so I didn't say anything and suffered in silence. I guess I won't be able to participate in the upcoming fight against the guardian.

Well, not like I would have in the first place anyway.

In a sense, I'm lucky it's only that, she's so mad at me that heavy dark cloud has started to invade the previously pure blue sky. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but the timing is way too spooky.

So, here we are, at the edge of a huge circle of rocks, waiting for something to happen… hoping for something to happen would be more accurate. It’s about to rain and it would be great to have a shelter or something.

I believe Ogre said something about a trapdoor, but I see nothing. Even with my new ‘Inspection’ thing.

Wait…

I can’t even see the dirt or dust info… that’s weird. I looked up.

Mysterious Rocks

Multiple human-sized rocks placed her and forming a circle. Who put them here and the reason why they did it has been lost in the ages.

Fluxed Object

Hum… it’s still working fine though… there’s something fishy.

“Alice, I think there’s…”

Too late.

Sigh… even without powers, I should have foreseen that.

“Hey Honey! (yes, she decided to try new nicknames…) I think I found something! The ground is harder over there!”

Alice was already in the middle of the area, waving at me like she had found a pretty shell on the beach.

Sigh… I guess I’ll play along.

I put one foot on the dirt, and I suddenly saw Alice jump toward me. She crossed the whole distance in an instant, grabbed and pulled me several meters away before I could react.

“Stay put! Something moved.”

“Wh-what? Come on… don’t be…”

!!!!

A tremendous blast occurred from where Alice was standing a second ago, revealing a gigantic and muscular man, at least 5 meters tall, with stone-like skin, giving the image of a moving statue. Without a care for the ground his just destroyed and the huge burst of dust he provoked, he directed his blank eyes in our direction. Obviously, he was ready the Guardian, ready to fight.

Same for Alice, in fact, I could almost feel her excitement as she grabbed the silver dagger from her belt.

She didn’t say anything, but I figured she was going to handle it by herself. I tried to display the Guardian’s window, but nothing showed up.

Is he too strong? But I managed to see Alice’s one… doesn’t that mean he’s even stronger?

I tried again, harder this time, and luckily…

The Second Guardian (lvl 40) Strength 208 Agility 201 Dexterity 201 Intelligence 21 Flux Control 200 Flux Power 200 Techniques Magic [Earth(Advanced)]

Diamond Skin

???

Holy… he is more powerful than her!

But not by much. Moreover, it’s Alice we’re talking about, no matter what trick this guy has up its sleeves, she will either copy it, counter it, or both.

Yeah… I’m not worried one bit.

The cloud of dust had finally started to settle down, and there were only a few meters separating them. It was quite a sight to behold, she was so much smaller, but I could see the guardian serious eyes, as he quickly adopted a strange stance, with his right giant fist in front of him, and the other on his waist.

Alice shouted a powerful warcry and vertically swung the dagger in front of her. To my and our enemy surprise, a long incision appeared, slicing the guardian’s naked torso, with a gust of blood spurting out of it.

“Che, too shallow, I guess I’m not there yet.”

The giant roared in response, and punched the air in front of him, shaking the surrounding area and propelling the rocks in Alice’s direction.

That’s surely the Earth Magic at work.

As expected, she dodged everything. Easily.

She even broke a few that were going for me, as I was still standing a few meters behind her, with a bunch of swift kicks.

However, this was nothing but a distraction.

Without any noise or flashy scene, the guardian had changed.

He had evolved.

The window was open since the fight started, and I saw the changes in live. The name stayed the same, but in less than a few seconds, almost every stats have doubled, and that wasn’t the most disturbing.

He had grown another pair of arms, while the already existing one had taken hold of a big ass hammer, with a head bigger than myself.

I don’t have to see the future to know that if that things touch me I’ll be crushed beyond death.

But again, I wasn’t scared.

Alice was there.

Her stat didn’t budge, but for some reason, another technique had appeared in her set, Earth Magic. Yep, she’s quite unfair, but I don’t think I can complain about that right now.

And we were back to the start. Despite an already healed scar on the Guardian’s torso and a bunch of rocks planted around his Red-haired challenger, the real fight was yet to begin.

Hence, as if God himself wanted it to happen this way, a bolt of lighting in the distance sparkled the start of a faraway storm, as well as the one I’m about to witness.

Alice disappeared from my field of view for a split second.

She was already in front of him, and stabbed his chest.

He parried the attack with the hammer handle, and tried to smash her between his two free hands.

Still in the air, she jumped to position herself on his head level, evading the clap.

I couldn’t see it, but I could clearly picture the wide childish smile on her face, as she released another estoc, going for one of his eyes.

But she underestimated his reaction speed.

The Guardian used one of the hands handling the hammer to block the stab, and that’s when my own eyes widened.

Not because he was faster than expected, but because Alice’s attack didn’t do shit.

His skin was so thought the dagger didn't penetrate it at all.

Defenceless, Alice took a full slap, and was propelled to the ground tens of meters away.

Without leaving her a second to breathe, the giant grabbed his hammer back with two hands, jumped and slammed it to the ground.

In a gigantic explosion, everything was destroyed.

Even though I could see through the thick screen of elevated dust, Alice was nowhere to be seen.

Don’t tell me…

I started running, but my vision felt weird. As if I was… car sick?

A crack appeared in my field of view, and everything shattered, revealing the same exact scene, but with a woman running on the long hammer handle.

Using the element of surprise, she threw two bolt of fire to confuse the giant even more.

It worked.

She jumped.

So fast I only saw a blur.

One kick to the chin.

Clean and strong.

It dispersed the smoke cloud of the previous blow in a swift, and projected stone Guardian’s huge body in the air, defying gravity itself.

However, something was wrong.

The Guardian fell, but Alice didn't follow her attacks.

As I arrived near her, I realized why.

She was exhausted.

“Alice! Did something happened?”

“I-I’m fine… Space cut uses more energy than I thought, that’s all. Don’t worry, I’ll deal with him in no time.”

“I…I can try to heal you!”

She smiled, and stopped looking at me. Putting her dagger back on her waist, she extended one of her arms, and a stone hammer akin to the one wielded by her enemy jumped to her hand.

“I told you, I’ll be fine.”

He was already back up on his feet, and more serious than ever. His two lower arms were ready for defence, while his weapon was already above his head, ready to strike.

Fearlessly, she rushed to him, and the combat resumed, in a storm of violence and madness.

She was faster than him, but couldn't bypass his defence easily.

Like a little bee turning around an annoyed chimpanzee, Alice were going back and forth between the Guardian's arms, trying to land a hammer strike here and there.

After almost a minute of this crazy dance, she managed to hit him in the head, and it definitely did damage. The guardian tried to counter-attack and hit hear with his pommel, but it was only another illusion, and she pulled out safely.

She was slowly but steadily getting the high ground.

But…

I have a bad feeling.

It’s not only me.

If she gets hit, even once, she’s out.

He is that strong, but… it doesn’t make sense. The Book brought us here, so it shouldn’t be that hard. I only realize it now, since I’m not in the middle of the action, but this is clearly not fair. These levels… is… is this normal?

My guts are telling me… that she’s about to die, and I have no idea what to do.

Fuck!

If only I could use my Foresight!

Maybe I can do something with my other abilities…

The past? I don’t have time for that.

The present? With x-ray vision maybe, but I can’t do.

To top it all, I’ve kept the whole Inspection thing up from the start, and my eyes are burning.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

I looked at the fight again…

She was fighting, and I was just looking. But the worst part is not this bad feeling in my guts, nor this sentiment of helplessness filling me, but that everything coming to mind right now was excuses.

‘She’s amazing and you’re weak.’

‘She has so much more talent than you.’

‘You were never a fighter to begin with.’

‘If only I had my foresight…’

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuuuuck!

Since when did I become such a coward!

Since when did…

Wait.

What if…

In front of him, a small and blurry red dot was still jumping around the Goliath on steroids. He had thrown away his hammer, replacing it with a set of two smaller ones, increasing drastically his attack speed.

Nonetheless, Alice was still too fast for him, and little by little she was gaining the advantage, pushing the Guardian back on defence.

Unbeknown to her, it was the first time she had to give her all in a fight. Thanks to her crazy ability to copy every technique she sees, her strength had already increased since the start of the fight, her skin was now as tough as diamond, and her Earth magic would put to shame many Conjurers. However, she was lacking experience, and wasting a tremendous amount of energy in every of her move.

Unlike her, the Guardian had thousands of fights behind him, and he was silently waiting for an opportunity, saving his strength for the crucial moment to come.

And it came.

On instant of inattention.

One tiny mistake.

The instant Alice was about to double jump, her right side met with a hammerhead, and she was propelled to the ground.

Spitting saliva and blood, she managed to stay conscious.

But the giant was nowhere to be seen.

She jumped back as far as possible, and another strike, from above, destroyed the area.

She tried to jump again, but her legs failed her. A warm feeling invading them indicated that the healing process had started, but in the meantime…

She conjured a wall of rocks to protect herself, but he was too powerful.

Crushing the wall like it was paper, the hammer head hit Alice once again, blowing her several more meters away.

Miraculously conscious despite the pain, she could barely see the shape of the Guardian walking toward her, and as a drop of rain touched her cheek, a strange feeling invaded her guts.

Did she just… lost?

No.

She immediately dismissed the idea. She can't lose.

Not now, not ever.

It is well known that beast are the most dangerous when they’re on the verge of dying.

That’s the moment where they can put every inch of their being into the fight.

Disregarding the pain, she stood up.

In front of her… was Samsy’s back.