The blade smashed into the stone floor where I'd been standing, cratering it. I rolled to my feet, already running.

Don't stop. Don't think. Just move.

The guardian pulled its sword free and turned toward me with terrifying fluidity. Not the jerky movements of lesser undead, this thing moved like a trained warrior.

It lunged.

I threw myself behind one of the massive pillars.

The greatsword came down, cutting through the air with a whistling sound. The blade caught the pillar's edge, shearing off a chunk of stone the size of my torso.

The impact vibrated through the floor, through my bones.

One hit. That's all it needs. One hit and I'm dead.

I ran to the next pillar, keeping obstacles between us.

The guardian didn't rush.

I tried to circle around it, get an angle, maybe strike at its back, but it pivoted smoothly, cutting off my path, forcing me back.

It's not just strong. It knows what it's doing.

I activated Debug Vision while running, looking for weaknesses.

But it got none.

Fuck.

The guardian closed the distance. I barely had time to raise my sword before its greatsword came crashing down.

The impact drove me to my knees. My arms screamed. The chipped blade of my sword cracked further.

I rolled away desperately as the second strike came, the blade missing by inches and scrambled behind another pillar, gasping.

Then activated my debug vision, pouring mana into the modification.

The guardian's left leg suddenly weighed twice as much, the gravity around it intensifying.

It stumbled, but barely. The guardian's next step was slightly slower, the fluid motion stuttering for just a moment.

Then it adapted. Moved just as fast as before.

Just fucking great. It resisted the edit.

I had tried everything. Increased air resistance that barely slowed it. A barrier of compressed air that shattered like glass when the greatsword touched it.

Every edit bought me seconds at most. But I was running out of mana. Running out of stamina. Running out of options.

The guardian's skull turned toward my hiding spot. Those blue flames in its eye sockets pulsed.

And I realized something that made my blood run cold.

It's not trying to kill me quickly.

It's herding me. Playing with me.

The greatsword came through the pillar.

Stone exploded. The blade punched through two feet of solid rock like it was paper, the tip stopping inches from my face.

I stumbled backward, tripped and fell hard on my ass.

The guardian pulled the sword free and walked around the shattered pillar, its footsteps echoing like a death march.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

I scrambled backward, my sword raised uselessly.

This is it. This is how I die.

The guardian raised its sword for the killing blow.

Then my hand found something in my pocket.

The necrotic vial. The poison that would make me strong enough to fight back.

"For ten minutes."

And then kill me.

Ten minutes. That's all I get.

Better minutes alive than dead in ten seconds.

I yanked the cork out with my teeth and drank.

The liquid was thick, oily, tasted like copper. It burned going down, but not with heat, but with cold. Like swallowing liquid nitrogen.

And effect was immediate.

Power flooded through my body, unnatural, borrowed. My muscles swelled. My bones felt like steel. Every sense sharpened to painful clarity.

[STATUS EFFECT: NECROTIC ENHANCEMENT]

STR: 48

VIT: 38

Bonus: x2 AGI

Duration: 9:59

I stood, and the world felt different.

The guardian's sword came down.

I raised my blade, and blocked it.

The impact still jarred through my arms, still sent shocks to my shoulders. But I didn't collapse.

The guardian's skull tilted. Surprised, maybe. Or curious.

I shoved back, driving the massive sword aside, and struck.

My blade hit its chest plate and actually left a mark.

The guardian stepped back, reassessing.

Nine minutes, forty seconds.

I didn't wait.

I attacked.

Slash. Thrust. Slash.

The guardian blocked, parried, its movements still superior. But now I could keep up. Now I wasn't helpless.

Our blades clashed again and again, the sound ringing through the chamber like bells.

I couldn't penetrate its armor. Even with enhanced strength, my sword just scraped across the surface, leaving scratches but nothing substantial.

Need a weak point.

That's when I looked at it.

The neck joint. Same as the Wight.

I feinted high, the guardian raised its sword to block, I dropped low and thrust at the gap between helmet and chest plate.

My blade punched through the mail, scraped against bone.

Then suddenly, guardian backhanded me.

I crashed into a pillar hard enough to crack the stone.

Pain exploded through my back. But I forced myself upright immediately.

Eight minutes, fifteen seconds.

The guardian touched its neck joint, examining the damage. A thin crack ran through one of the vertebrae.

Not enough to kill it. But enough to hurt it.

It looked at me with those burning blue eyes.

And for the first time, I saw something in its posture.

Recognition.

Recognition that I was a threat.

The guardian charged.

Fuck. I can't win like this...

So, I ran. Not away from it, but toward the platform. Toward the core stone.

That's the real objective. Not killing this thing. Getting the stone.

The guardian was fast. Faster than me.

But I had a head start.

I reached the platform, vaulted up the steps.

The greatsword came down behind me, missing by inches.

The core stone was right there.

Embedded in the black stone platform.

I grabbed it with both hands and pulled.

But nothing happened, it didn't even budge.

Fuck! It's stuck.

The guardian's blade whistled toward my head.

I ducked, the sword passing overhead, still gripping the stone.

Fuck it.

I pulled anyway, putting all the enhanced strength into it.

My muscles screamed. My hands felt like they'd tear apart.

The stone shifted. Cracked.

Lines of light spiderwebbed through the platform.

Then... it came free.

The core stone ripped from its housing with a sound like breaking glass.

Necrotic energy exploded outward in a pulse that made the air shimmer.

And everything stopped.

The guardian froze mid-swing. The blue flames in its eyes flickered.

There was a silence for a moment...

Then the chamber started to shake, tremors, a vibration in the floor, a rattle of loose stones.

Then the ceiling began to crack.

Chunks of stone fell, crashing around me. Dust filled the air. The pillars groaned, structural supports failing one after another.

The dungeon's collapsing.

I shoved the stone into my pack and ran for the exit.

Behind me, I heard movement.

I looked back and saw.

The guardian was moving again.

Slower than before.

It's not done. Even without the core.

I hit the corridor at a dead run, I conjured the Light Orb floating ahead, showing the way.

Stone groaned. Walls cracked. The temperature fluctuated wildly, freezing cold one moment, then suddenly warm as dormant magic systems failed.

Behind me—

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The guardian's footsteps. Slower than before, but relentless.

I reached the stairs and started climbing, taking them two and three at a time.

[TIME REMAINING: 4:22]

Four minutes until the enhancement wore off.

The staircase shook. Stones broke loose, tumbling past me. One hit my shoulder, nearly sending me sprawling.

But I kept climbing.

The sounds behind me grew closer. The guardian wasn't as fast as before, but it wasn't stopping either.

I passed the landing where I'd fought the Wight. Its corpse was half-buried under rubble now.

Higher. Keep going higher.

[TIME REMAINING: 2:47]

My legs burned. My lungs screamed. Even with the enhancement, exhaustion was setting in.

The Burial Hall. I could see it ahead, the chamber with all the sarcophagi.

I burst through the doorway—

And all twenty-three sarcophagi burst open simultaneously.

No. NO.

Skeletons and ghouls poured out, responding to the guardian's pursuit.

Why the fuck nothing goes my way...

I ran straight through the middle of the chamber, sword swinging wildly, enhanced strength letting me smash through the undead rather than fighting them properly.

A skeleton grabbed my leg. I kicked it away, bones shattering.

A ghoul lunged. I clotheslined it with my arm, the impact snapping its neck.

Then I saw the doorway.

Right there.

I dove through it as the Burial Hall began to collapse behind me, burying the undead under tons of stone.

[TIME REMAINING: 1:33]

The corridor with the collapsing floor was gone, already caved in, leaving nothing but a pit of rubble.

But there was another path. The one I'd bypassed earlier, the right-hand exit from the second chamber.

I took it without thinking, running on instinct and desperation.

The corridor twisted. Climbed. Got narrower.

Then... I saw it.

The light.

[TIME REMAINING: 0:47]

Almost there.

Behind me, I heard a crash. The guardian had made it through the Burial Hall somehow, still pursuing.

The corridor opened into the entry hall where I'd first fought the skeletons.

And beyond that, the entrance. The stone door that had sealed behind me.

It was open.

Bright afternoon sunlight streamed through, painfully brilliant after hours in the dark.

Twenty meters. That's all.

[TIME REMAINING: 0:18]

The guardian emerged from the corridor behind me, sword raised.

I ran.

Fifteen meters.

[TIME REMAINING: 0:09]

Ten meters.

The guardian charged, sword coming down for one final strike—

[TIME REMAINING: 0:03]

Five meters.

[TIME REMAINING: 0:00]

[NECROTIC ENHANCEMENT EXPIRED]

[HP DRAIN ACTIVE: 5 HP/SECOND]

The borrowed strength vanished.

My legs gave out. I stumbled, fell, rolled...

And crossed the threshold into sunlight.

The guardian's blade came down.

And stopped.

Inches from me. Right at the doorway's edge.

It just stood there, blue flames burning in its skull, but it didn't—couldn't—cross into the light.

It raised its sword, as if to strike anyway.

Then the entrance collapsed.

The stone door crashed down. The archway crumbled. The entire entrance buried itself under rubble.

The guardian disappeared in a cloud of dust and falling stone.

I lay there on the grass, staring at the sky, feeling life draining away five points at a time.

Then I heard voices. Shouting. Footsteps running toward me.

Someone grabbed my shoulders.

"He's hemorrhaging! Get the anti-necrotic serum now!"

More voices. Hands lifting me. Someone checking my pulse.

"...severe mana depletion..."

"...how is he even conscious..."

I tried to speak. To tell them I'd done it. I'd gotten the core stone.

But my mouth wouldn't work.

The last thing I saw before darkness took me was Instructor Aldwin's face, staring down at me with an expression I couldn't read.

Relief, maybe.

Or horror.

Then nothing.

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