The Guardian System: The strongest Summoner's quest to save his family-Chapter 345: Siegepaths and Killpaths (10)

The upper floor of Ashwick's skyscraper had been reduced to a skeleton of steel girders and crumbling concrete.

Jake didn't stop moving. He couldn't. If he stood still for more than a second, Mara would flay the skin from his bones with another barrage of light magic or whatever that was.

He ducked under a whip of condensed mana that sheared through a support pillar like it was wet paper, and his feet dug into the cracked floor as he pivoted.

<Shit.> Jake could only augment his S.H.I.E.L.D. attribute again.

His muscles swelled, fibers knitting together with a density that defied normal biology, even that of a human powered by the system.

Then his skin hardened, taking on the texture of polished iron. His S.H.I.E.L.D. attribute spiked, pushing his physical defense into the stratosphere to compensate for the fact that he couldn't dodge everything.

He launched himself toward the woman. The concrete beneath him exploded into dust from the force of the kickoff. He was fast—faster than a human had any right to be, even with the system—and he closed the twenty-meter gap in a second. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

But he was fighting Mara.

Just as his knuckles were about to connect with her jaw, the air distorted. She simply vanished.

Jake's fist punched through empty air, and he was forced to slam his foot down to stop himself, but a searing pain erupted across his back before he could turn.

[You have taken 500 Light Damage.]

He grunted, spinning around with a backhand swing, but Mara was already gone again. She reappeared ten meters to his left, her hand raised, a sphere of blinding white energy already formed.

"You are persistent," Mara said.

She fired. Jake crossed his arms, tanking the blast. His augmented S.H.I.E.L.D. absorbed the brunt of it, but the impact made him fly backward.

Jake was bleeding from a dozen cuts. His armor was scorched and pitted. The level difference was a wall he was trying to batter down with his trait.

He was landing hits on the surroundings, mostly, destroying the room, but he hadn't landed a clean hit on her in minutes.

Mara was different from what Lena and Reidar had told him.

She had been a healer back in those days, back when the system still governed her abilities. Her entire purpose had revolved around keeping people alive, ensuring they survived battles they had no business walking away from.

She buffed their attributes, enhanced their defensive capabilities, and provided support that turned the tide of impossible fights. She had been the safety net that caught everyone when they fell, the lifeline that pulled them back from the brink of death.

That woman didn't exist anymore.

She had stripped away from that role to focus on unadulterated offense. She still had access to healing spells, evident by the way the few scratches Jake had left on her sealed up seconds later, but her build was now focused on destruction. Every spell she cast was designed to destroy.

The skyscraper groaned. The constant exchange of attacks had compromised the building's integrity. The support columns were gone. The floor was sagging dangerously in the center. Dust rained down from the ceiling as the steel skeleton began to buckle under the stress of a battle it was never designed to withstand.

A loud CRACK echoed through the area, louder than the combat.

The floor beneath Lena, who was still slumped unconscious against a remaining section of wall, tilted violently.

Jake stopped the attack and disengaged from Mara, sprinting across the tilting slab of concrete to save the woman. He reached Lena just as the section of the floor gave way completely, sliding off the side of the building like a majestic, concrete avalanche.

He grabbed her, pulling her against his chest, and jumped, using his augmented leg strength to propel them away from the collapsing structure.

As they neared the ground, Jake twisted his body, taking the impact on his legs. He landed in a crater of his own making, the shockwave dusting the nearby buildings. He barely felt the pain in his knees; his adrenaline was redlining.

He looked around. The streets were in chaos. The city was being destroyed by Jake's War Mastiffs and his battle against Mara.

"Here!" Jake shouted.

Three War Mastiffs broke off from their slaughter and ran toward him.

"Take her," Jake said, placing the unconscious woman on top of one of them. "Get her out of the city. Go to the rendezvous point. Go!"

The Mastiff growled in acknowledgement and took off, the other two flanking it.

Jake turned back to the rubble of the skyscraper. Mara was floating down.

<How the fuck can she do that?> She looked like an angel of death, glowing with malevolent but still splendid light.

"You are delaying the inevitable," she said, landing on a piece of debris. "I'm going to kill her as soon as I deal with you."

Jake cracked his knuckles. "We will see."

He prepared to rush her again, to buy the Mastiffs more time. He tensed his muscles, ready to trigger Augmentation again.

But Mara didn't attack.

She froze. Her eyes, which had been focused on him until that point, suddenly went wide. The color drained from her face, leaving her pale as a sheet. She staggered back a step, her hand going to her chest as if she had been physically struck.

She stared at the empty air as if she had just seen a ghost materialize before her eyes, her entire body language shifting from aggressive confidence to something far more vulnerable and afraid.

Jake couldn't understand what was happening, couldn't make sense of the sudden change in her demeanor or what invisible force had triggered such a reaction, but he wasn't concerned about the reasons behind it.

He just needed to kill that abomination in women's clothes, that twisted mockery of humanity that had once been a healer but had transformed into something far more sinister and dangerous.

"No..." she said. "Impossible."