A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 2115: Guardians of the Land - Part 2
To understand it, he would have needed time. A bellow from that Guardian – as the mage Magnus had named it – told him that he had none of the time that he required. A glance towards the exit. A possible moment to retreat. Oliver’s feet took a backwards step towards it. There seemed no reason to fight a creature as monstrous as this, when the risks were already plentiful enough, and the rewards equally uncertain.
A vague reward in victory was the best that he could hope to aim for, and even then, he was not even certain that he could beat the thing. Another backward step, as the creature advanced. It dragged itself across the floor like a lizard, its wings unfurling, as they beat angrily against the air, and chipped the top of the cavern that it was confined in.
The vast cavern didn’t just feel small with the Guardian in, Oliver realized – it was small. Far too small that that creature, if its wings were anything to go by. If the frustration on its face when it was unable to flag them properly was anything to read into. Pity was what Oliver felt, just before he reached the end of the corridor. He realized very much that the creature had just as little wish to be inside that cavern as it did have for Oliver to be inside there.
He felt not the disgust towards it that he felt for other monsters. That disgust that would normally propel him forward, beckoning him to put an end to a life that was terribly wrong. It was just pity now, pity that appeared suddenly, and seized him so strongly as to freeze himself in place.
On the end of another mighty roar, the creature’s mouth kept itself open, and a great rumbling came from its throat. Instinct saved Oliver’s life then. It bid that he roll to the side once more, just in time for a great pillar of flame to shoot past him, down the full length of the corridor.
He came to his feet again, and glanced behind him. The stone walls were charred black from where the flames had ripped along them. The torches that were burning there burned as quickly as matchsticks, the wood of their handles running themselves down towards ash and dust, until they tumbled towards the ground.
Like little candles, they all went out. A great burst of flame, and light, and then it was darkness that remained, with only the blue light of that strange magical flame to rely upon.
The realization that his pity had saved him. That if he had retreated, he would have been dead. That was an easy understanding. One look at what the Guardian’s flames had done, and he knew he would have had no defence against it. They would have melted his flesh inside his armour, and that would have been the last of it.
The creature wore something that was as close to a sneer as something so lizard-like could possibly make. It showed the many spears of its sharp teeth, and held its position, merely observing him, as if to say "if you had been a more cowardly man, you would already be dead.".
The option of retreat was vanquished from the start.
In a style that was very much that of Oliver Patrick, his own feet had carried him towards perilously with a swiftness that neither his brain or instincts could fully apprehend until the very moment that the act became irreversible.
"Well then..." Oliver murmured to himself. His subordinates would certainly not approve. If Lasha knew, she would have been angry enough to make the Guardian look meek in comparison. Even the Chief of the Gnomes likely would not have been altogether delighted – even if he had suggested it - for he seemed to see Oliver’s confidence as a foolish thing.
Fourth Boundary had been a vast underestimation of it. Fifth Boundary was the bare minimum it could possibly be. Oliver did not have the heart to imagine any further than that.
Fear crept in, where normally there would be that disgust for what was in front of him. The feeling that he had tread on something far more ancient, far more powerful than he. A realm that he did not belong in. He felt that the Guardian’s anger towards him was justified. It was difficult to find the self righteousness that normally fuelled his blade. It was only fear again, as the Guardian lunged forward, as quick as a snake, that kept Oliver from falling prey to the clamping of its massive jaws.
No time to think. Thrown in. No more time to apprehend the situation. Sword came crashing down in retaliation, thrown from off to the side, as Oliver stepped in, past its jaws, and tried a cut on the side of its head.
A strong rebound, without a cut to show for it. It felt like trying to cut the thickest leather armour, only this leather armour had a brick wall hidden underneath. Oliver squinted, almost doubting his lack of effect.
He’d stood in place for too long. The Guardian lunged again, this time with claws. Deceptively fast it was, for such a large creature. Awkward on the ground, those wings bespoke the fact that it would be far more dangerous in the air, and yet still, that awkwardness was not something that Oliver could take advantage of. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎
He dodged again. Light crept into his eyeline, as he looked beyond his foe. He realized with a start that he was staring up the very corridor that he had intended to retreat along, and now, the Guardian was firmly in the way of it.
Intelligence glowed in those deep yellow eyes. A wisdom that was beyond Oliver. He had not just been attacked at random. He’d been herded like a sheep. He’d been outfought, and out-strategized. Not on the battlefield, but in single combat. When was the last time he’d felt so bested?
’What have I gone and wandered into?’ A part of Oliver wondered. Not as a concrete thought, for his brain could not function on anything more than staying alive, and his skin tingled with an awareness that was close to the feeling of static. His eyes were wide, drinking everything in. Even Claudia and Ingolsol were silent before such a creature. The Dark God had nothing to say in criticism. Oliver could feel the opposite from him. A quiet respect, for something altogether magnificent.
