Too Stubborn to Die

It was quickly becoming obvious that beating down the world guardian was no simple task. Which was just the way Aaron wanted it. Again and again, he threw himself at it. Blasting it with everything he had, but time and time again, his soul started to crack as he put it under too much pressure, forcing him to retreat and heal.

The problem was twofold, though. It wasn’t just strong; the C-grade world guardian had extremely good healing itself, and so by the time Aaron had gotten done mending his soul, it was fully recovered.

Aaron thumbed his ring again after another exchange ended. He felt like he was getting nowhere, and felt some temptation to remove it, but he resisted. He needed obstacles like this to move forward. Levels were only half the problem. And he’d seen enough powerful beings that lacked true strength to know that he wanted to push himself.

If his soul-mending soup stock began to dwindle enough, then he might change his mind on that. But for now, he was going to make the most of it. And he had enough to reserve for days of tempering himself against the world guardian. It was a small investment for his future, especially now that he knew the Death God was intimately involved in his universe.

With such divine threats hanging over his head, he couldn’t slack off and had to push himself to his absolute limits. It didn’t matter if he could crush Darius now. The man was little more than a minion, and there was an endless multiverse out there. If he slacked off now because he thought he was the strongest on Superearth, then there was a very real chance that when he finally adventured out, or when barriers were dropped, he would get a rude awakening.

And so, he bit down. Focusing himself, he flew out and met the beast head-on. Phasing through spears of rock, he slammed fists against incredibly hard fur, grinding himself down as stupendous amounts of energy arced out from his core.

But again, he was pushed back as the fractures appeared over his soul.

“Not bad. You’re one tough bastard.

Slurping down still warm noodles, kept at temperature thanks to his storage, Aaron recovered and shot straight back down into the cavern.

At first, he was struggling to cause even surface-level damage before the cracks started to appear all over his soul. But by focusing on the mana as it blasted out through his anchors, narrowing the output so that it exploded with more pressure, and releasing it in pulses to build up that pressure, he had increased the power. It wasn’t just power, though. By building up mana and releasing it in pulses, he had also increased the efficiency of his usage.

On the other hand, if he forced mana down, thinning it, he could increase efficiency. He could even fiddle with the frequency of it, copying that of the wombat so that they matched one another.

Depending on how he pushed his mana through his anchors, it was like he could utilize all styles at once. And he realized he was starting to realize what the System really meant by Partitioned Mana Anchors.

You have gained insight into a possible upgrade path for Mana Anchors. Current discovered upgrade paths:

Streamlined Mana Anchors (10%)

Partitioned Mana Anchors (35%)

Reverse Mana Anchors (5%)

Elemental Shift (Void) (10%)

“Five more percent. Can’t complain with that,” Aaron said, appreciating the System notification as he sped straight back into battle.

Still, even as he was doing more damage, the wombat's healing was not just keeping up, but outpacing his soul mending. He had attempted reengaging it multiple times before fully recovering, just to find that the wombat was back to full strength.

“Not going to make this easy for me, are you?” Aaron smiled wildly, embracing the challenge with ever-increasing eagerness.

If he was going to kill this thing without removing the ring, he was going to need to push himself even further. But just how much further?

However, as he threw himself against it again, he realized that there was yet another problem. If he pushed himself too hard, too fast, his soul began to fracture sooner, forcing him to retreat sooner. And the reason suddenly seemed so obvious. His core was C-grade, but his anchors weren’t. It was a mismatch of power, and that mismatch was greatly harming his body whenever he pushed himself too far. But if he could improve his anchors further?

Aaron’s toothy grin bent even wider as he flung himself at the wombat again. His sense of his core and anchors were growing with each attempt. He could feel it intimately. He could feel the excess mana failing to find passage through his lacking anchors, and dealing damage to his soul as a consequence.

The sensation and understanding of how his own body functioned was a breakthrough in and of itself, and he found himself understanding it on a deeper and deeper level.

This understanding only drove the point home. Inspiring him as he pushed himself against the beast to improve. And little by little, he was able to push his limits further.

It wasn’t just stubbornness, though. His curing of the corrupted obelisks had given him insights into energy. It was almost as if his aether and mana were becoming one.

The energy sources converted back and forth, powering one another in his core with almost no wastage, and pouring out through his anchors as his fists slammed into the incredible beast.

The battle became a war, and as it dragged on, he grew increasingly appreciative of how much difference there was between the mummy worm and the world guardian. Despite only having ten extra levels, the two beasts were incomparable to one another.

Then again, the mummy was a creation of Darius, whom he doubted had hit C-grade yet. Assuming he was still D-grade, which seemed likely as the world hadn’t fallen to his necromantic power yet, then it was also likely safe to assume that there were drawbacks to having such a powerful minion. Aaron was no expert, but he knew enough about the multiverse to know that it would punish you for having a minion of a higher tier than yourself. And those drawbacks had likely made it relatively weak, all things considered.

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Two full days passed as Aaron continued battering himself against the wombat. Several times he even pushed himself far beyond his mortal limits, refusing to retreat. Instead, he had resisted the urge to go all out with his core and tried a more measured approach.

Unfortunately, when he didn’t push his energy to its limits, it was extremely hard to hurt the creature, and while he could fight for longer without putting too much pressure on his core, eventually, it managed to land on him.

When focused on defense, the wombat didn’t stand a chance of hitting him. But after hours of nonstop exchanges, his guard dropped, and he was hit hard. And it only took one hit to severely damage him.

Cracking his torn jaw back into place as it healed, Aaron spat blood. “Well, that hurt.”

Despite that, he had only died a few times during those days of near-endless combat, and that was only when he was testing out unconventional attacks.

As long as he remained sharp and focused on avoiding getting hit, it didn’t get close to hitting him, even though it was pretty fast in its own right.

In truth, Aaron was nearly impossible to hit now. He had plenty of defensive abilities, and combined with the skill of a man who had died thousands of times, it made for an extraordinarily elusive warrior.

But no degree of elusiveness was going to hurt a C-grade beast while wearing a parasite ring.

As the days ticked by, and the Desert Pythons seriously questioned Aaron’s mental state, he threw himself against the beast again and again, like a blacksmith’s hammer against heated iron. Each attempt gave him insights into ways to improve. Helping him push his understanding of mana, and turn what he had learned against the obelisks into power he could harness.

But as the days passed, it felt like he was getting stuck. His insights were not leading to the gains he expected. And that was when he had a minor breakthrough.

He had already discovered multiple anchor types. What if he tried embracing them while still controlling the frequencies of his energy, as he split it into different partitions?

Aaron had already essentially done this with Streamlined mana, but he started to play around with void mana and reverse anchors, drawing in the wombat’s mana as it attacked him.

The more he practised switching between the styles, the more refined his control over them became, and it started to happen naturally, flicking between them as he fought.

You have gained insight into a possible upgrade path for Mana Anchors. Current discovered upgrade paths:

Streamlined Mana Anchors (10%)

Partitioned Mana Anchors (40%)

Reverse Mana Anchors (5%)

Elemental Shift (Void) (10%)

A maniac smile crept across his face as he saw himself hit 40% partitioned anchor enlightenment. He had already known that he was making improvements.

His understanding of mana on a very deep level was improving with each battle against the world guardian. But to see the System acknowledge those improvements made it that much better.

It was as if he were tuning himself. Gradually pushing himself closer to perfection. If he were an energy prodigy before, he felt like he was pushing himself to be a genuine energy genius.

He had lost complete track of time, his thoughts wholly focused on the task at hand. The only thing that mattered was increasing throughput and power, while maintaining efficiency.

He barely even conceived his mortal shell anymore. It was but a vehicle for his energy, a tool to release his power.

Another dozen attempts followed. Each pummeling into the hardy world guardian. To most, it might have seemed pointless. But soon, what had once been mere flesh wounds started to grow deeper and more significant.

Cuts and bruises were twisting the magnificent beast’s form, breaking it down.

He must have thrown himself against it over a hundred times when finally, he spotted cuts and wounds across its body after recovering from his own injuries.

He had done it. Finally, he had managed to hurt it enough that it couldn’t fully recover before he did, and he began to laugh wildly at the sight of it.

“Getting through to you now, am I?”

Aaron shot straight toward it again, slamming headfirst into it, and releasing a wildly insane barrage of punches and headbutts.

“Am I hurting you?”

The beast roared with anger, acknowledging what he already knew, and began to glow with additional power as it forced itself to even greater heights of power.

“You’ve got more in you, do you?” Aaron grinned wildly. He couldn’t have asked for a better sparring partner.

And while the beast might have been stuck defending something, it was aware of its situation. And as he flashed back and forth between attempts to defeat it, the world guardian became acutely aware that the wounds littering its body were growing bigger and bigger.

It was obvious that Aaron had reached a tipping point, and if something wasn’t done soon, it would only be a matter of time before he beat it.

And it wasn’t about to go down peacefully.

Drawing on its strength, the wombat fought with even more furious vigor than before, and the chambers turned into an endless spray of geometric powers blasting out and exploding throughout it as the two collided against one another.

Unfortunately, it was becoming painfully clear who could push their limits further.

Clashing again, Aaron exploded into gore, reforming himself in less than a second, and kept fighting.

“More! Give me more!” Aaron commanded like a madman as the two slammed into each other. “There! Push it! Is that all you’ve got?”

Even as it blasted him into shreds of flesh, he kept taunting it. Reforming and smashing his increasingly powerful fists into its fur.

“Come on! Push yourself!”

The world guardian could only roar in anger as a fist slammed into its face, sending it flying across the underground chamber, embracing everything he had learned about mana control throughout their fight.

You have gained insight into a possible upgrade path for Mana Anchors. Current discovered upgrade paths:

Streamlined Mana Anchors (10%)

Partitioned Mana Anchors (45%)

Reverse Mana Anchors (5%)

Elemental Shift (Void) (10%)

“Would you look at that?”

Before the beast had even recovered, he was in its face again, every inch of his body turned into a weapon as he attacked.

A moment later, he was forced to retreat again, having pushed himself a little too hard, and his core was about to go supernova.

But all it took was a heartwarming noodle soup to put him at ease again, and he released a comforting sigh as he prepared to give the wombat hell once more.

The world guardian almost looked scared as Aaron prepared to attack again. It was beyond weary, and wounds covered its body, many of which hadn’t healed between exchanges.

But Aaron had to admit, he respected the beast. It had been a good training partner, but its value was quickly reaching its limits. And ultimately, he had things to do, and a world to conquer. And had already spent well over a week throwing himself at the incredible beast.

“You’ve done well, big fella. But I think it’s time to put an end to this,” Aaron said, cracking his knuckles and marching out to meet the world guardian.

However, there was a realization he had come to as his understanding of mana anchors expanded. To truly make the most of a partitioned build, he would need to at least discover every style of mana anchor available.

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