Rogue Villain-Chapter 350: Signals

Ackster wasn’t disappointed in the golem. It was his blow that had felt lackluster. It hadn’t felt like he actually hit something solid. It was like punching a cotton pillow with the unfiltered rage of a three-year-old flowing through his veins.

His strike felt useless. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Ackster glared at the golem.

It wasn’t like he didn’t understand why his punch, or rather the results of his punch, was so disappointing. He knew what kind of opponent he was up against to some degree.

A golem of clay. At first glance, it might look easy to defeat. But with an unknown and possibly close-to-endless source of both mana and clay, the golem was, even if not invincible, immortal.

The relative softness of its clay and the absolute dominion over every single part of its body, down to how it reacted when struck by an opponent, also made it impossible to land effective attacks against the golem. Not only could it take an endless amount of attacks, recovering each time. It could also reduce the efficiency of each attack.

"Don’t think you’re better than me."

Ackster could also recover almost endlessly. But while he could parry and use Bo’s teachings to limit the damage he took to a certain degree, he was nowhere near as good at it as the golem.

But the golem voluntarily destroying its hand to limit the destruction Ackster’s cause only meant that Ackster didn’t punch hard enough. With enough force, the golem’s tricks would be futile.

Ackster, caught by the claws of gravity again, began descending toward the ground. But before he could reach it, the golem’s leg lashed out, punting him into the wall. The golem’s kick lodged Ackster into the clay, and before he could struggle his way out, the golem arrived and struck him with a punch that carried all of its weight.

The blow shook the room with a deep thud, but the clay around Ackster absorbed most of the impact that didn’t fit on Ackster.

Ackster felt his bones shift into place as he recovered from being a pancake after the golem withdrew its hand. But his skull had yet to return to its original shape when the golem’s other fist crashed into the wall, with Ackster’s body cushioning the blow.

The force behind the golem’s punches was in stark contrast to the feeling of weakness Ackster got when he struck the golem. They turned Ackster into paste on the wall.

The golem was like someone with an extreme phobia of mosquitoes, while Ackster was that mosquito.

Unfortunately for the golem, Ackster wasn’t an ordinary mosquito. He retained his mind’s full usage, even when in a state of pulverization. He also had Unstoppable. Ackster could move if he wanted to.

But what good would moving do when none of his attacks would do any damage? Instead, Acskter decided to try and put his brain to work as he tried to figure out how he could either injure the golem permanently or outlast it.

After a while, Ackster could somewhat confirm that signals traveled through the clay just like when Ackster had first touched it.

But the signals were too numerous, too fast, and too complex for them to be of any use to Ackster. When he noticed them, he understood why he hadn’t noticed them before. There were so many that it was like the golem was alight with one continuous signal. But Ackster could just barely tell that it was because so many things, commands, and sensations flashed through the golem.

’Is this some kind of brain?’

It reminded Ackster of neural signals. The signals that traveled through human bodies and brains were electrical signals that transmitted information. Ackster didn’t know more than that. But it was similar to what he felt was happening to the golem’s clay, even if it seemed more like the golem was using mana instead of electricity.

If it bore a resemblance, it was most likely because the Alchemist had used the human body as inspiration when making the golem. In that case, there should be another resemblance. There should be a weakness.

The golem was more likely the body than the brain.

Following that reasoning, there had to be a brain somewhere controlling the body—the golem.

Ackster scanned the room with his senses while continuing to analyze the golem.

He couldn’t find anything in the room except for the doors, the golem, and the bird. But he did discover that the golem’s body solidified each time it struck. If he couldn’t make his punches go through when the golem was on the defensive, he might be able to use the golem’s punches against it.

Ackster changed gears on Stubborn Well-Being and Limit Breaker, increasing his recovery as he forced himself out of the crater of clay the golem had dug with its punches.

Ackster crawled away between punches, which gave him enough time to recover and regain most of his mobility. That, in turn, let him dodge the next punch with ease as he finalized his recovery.

And before the golem could even begin to throw another punch, Ackster flashed through the air and up to the golem’s brain. He didn’t believe it himself, but who’s to say the golem’s brain wasn’t its brain?

Still, Ackster left enough room for the golem to defend with a counterattack.

The golem reached up and punched Ackster with a hooked arm.

Ackster changed the trajectory of his punch and met the golem’s fist with his own. His eyes were closed, and instead of clay, he saw a golem of water.

The force of Ackster’s punch spread through the golem’s arm, leaving cracks halfway between its elbow and shoulder. The chiseled bicep was cut in half as the arm turned into stiff shards of clay that fell to the floor.

Ackster furrowed his brow.

His punch had been a lot more effective. But only on the part of the golem that had stiffened up to attack Ackster. And based on the shards that melted into the floor and the arm that quickly regenerated, it wasn’t enough.

Ackster was beginning to understand how others felt when facing him.

It was fucking annoying.