Chapter 5: The eye and its guardian

~The barren lands of the first floor~

Three days after entering the first floor Xander covered his face whilst moving in the desert area far away from civilization killing any first floor monsters he came across.After two days of walking he finally reached his destination.

'Its just as I remember it'

In Xander's previous life a few days before the war, news spread that the forces of darkness had discovered the location of an ancient item which would guarantee their victory in the war but just as the forces of darkness reached the location Xander followed them, defeated the elite soldiers sent to acquire the item and put up a barrier on the entrance and so the forces of darkness could not enter and get the item and the war broke out before they could get it.

Xander's destination was a small cave in the middle of nowhere.Upon entering the space inside was thousands of times bigger, an enchantment had been cast upon it.He entered the cave which activated the lighting system making everything clear to see.In that huge cave in the far end was no light purposefully hiding what was there.

The barrier I set up must have disappeared when I died, ok its time to make my preparations'

He took out bottles of monster blood, ingredients he gathered on the first floor and those he bought on the store.He mixed them together with monster blood and drew a huge magic circle,

'Theoretically speaking dark magic and light magic are the same the only difference is the catalyst of the spell, but of course people don't know that and the only reason I know this is because in order to create magic that nullified dark magic I studied magic spells of both dark and light magic'

After all the preparations were complete Xander took a weak mana ring he bought from the store and held it.

"This magic circle is for light magic used to summon devine beings but as I have used monster blood as a catalyst the summon should change to a dark being and I hope the little mana in the mana ring is enough to summon the three eyed wind rabbit, a dark being at the bottom of the food chain which has speed as its main ability."

Xander walked into the magic circle and lay down on top of it then using his dagger cut his hand slightly,held the ring in his bleeding hand with the ring coming in contact with the blood.He took a deep breath then pressed the ring down on the ground inside the magic circle.

The the blood used to draw the magic circle increased in volume spreading covering the magic circle forming a pool of blood.

" 'I summon the three eyed wind rabbit!'

As soon as Xander called out what he wanted to summon the blood on the ground began to boil and as it did Xander began to sink in it and stopped when he was half sunk then the blood turned black..

' Wait something is not right this reaction cannot be caused by a three eyed wind rabbit, if I stop the ritual I will still pay the price without achieving anything shit I have to see this through'

Everything went black as if something had swallowed all the light and Xander saw himself in a dark empty space that stretched endlessly.

"Open window"

But nothing happened

"This wasn't supposed to happen, did I make a mistake when drawing the magic circle?"

"Hihihihihihi",

Xander turned fast to in all directions to find out where the giggling sound came from but he saw nothing.

"Hey mister do you wanna pway with me"

Xander tensed up getting already for an attack from the direction of the child's voice but nothing came.Behind him a wicked red smile and eyes appeared and Xander turned to it as soon as he felt its presents but saw nothing as if there was never anything to begin with but two metres in front of him a little girl wearing a red dress appeared.

"Hey mister what game do you want to pway a game", said the cute little girl

' It can speak and is coping the form of a little girl shit, demon', Xander thought to himself as he stood in front of the little girl

" They usually drop their guard down a little when I impersonate a little girl"

' I didn't summon you, why are you here'

The little girl vanished and appeared behind Xander,

" I cant tell you that and since I forced through to come I don't have much time so I will give you what you want

" How do you know what I want"

"It doesn't matter how"

'Shit things are getting complicated, even though a demon is powerful the price they require is too big and the toll they put on the body is too much, damn but I have no choice'

"I want you to possess my body but my mind stays intake so I can use your power to sneak past the guardian and get the object I'm after"

The demon in form of a little girl smiled,

"You are after the eye!"

'How did she know, even though she's a demon she isn't supposed to know'

"Yes Im after the eye so what is the price I have to pay?"

"My disciple will need someone like you to do a certain something, when the time comes help him do it, thats the price I require for giving you my power and If you die before fulfilling your end of the deal your soul will be mine"

"who is this disciple and what do I have to help him with"

"Im not going to tell you that, do you agree or not you better make up your mind fast time is running out"

'The price is too unclear,damn it'

"Fine I agree to the price"

"I will add a little sweet benefit to our deal then, instead of sneaking past the guard I will give you enough power to defeat it, thats if you can handle my power anyway"

'If I defeat the guard I will gain rewards from the tower'

"Okay then lets make the deal, but before that at least tell me who you are"

"Whats the fun in that, besides you will find out eventually"

The demon stretched out its hand towards Xander,

"Shake my hand and say I agree, a soul bind will be created which will activate if one of us does not fulfil their end of the deal, and since you already know summon magic I think you know what happens to a soul that breaks the oath"

'Destruction of the soul, Im well aware'

Xander stretched out his hand and held the demons hand and both of them said the words at the same time,

"I agree"

'I agree'

"And one more thing judging by how your body is you can only handle my power for at most ten minutes before it starts inflicting permanent damages to it, good luck."

Xander opened his eyes and saw that he was floating in the air above the magic circle then fell down on the ground . Surrounding the magic circle where many snakes.

'I can feel the power boiling inside of me, the demon said the power will last for ten minutes, upon activation so I once I activate it I will have ten minutes t deal with the guardian'

Xander looked at the snakes for a while then proceeded forward towards the dark area where the light did not reach.After walking fifty metres towards the dark area the ground began to vibrate and large shadowy movements began to happen.High up blue eyes appeared and Xander stopped.

" So a giant is the guardian, I made the right call to get speed"

The blue eyes began to rise up higher and higher, the vibrations becoming more and more pronounced

"Shit II thought it was already to big but to think it was seated damn"

The giant shadowy figure slowly stood up and its blue eyes turned red.The giant took a step forward making the room shake even more and with another step released an intimidating aura which made Xander take a step back,

'Shit I have power to fight it but my whole body is telling me to run away'

The giant took a third step and light from the ceiling spreed throughout reveling the giant clearly to Xander.Its whole body was fully covered in red armor, it had two large legs with with abnormally large feet meant for increased balance, a thin torso and attached to the torso were four arms two facing forward other two facing backwards, its heard had two faces one facing forward the other facing backwards, it was a walking disaster.

'What the, all the years I was in the tower until I became a ranker I have never seen such kind of a giant before, wait its mechanical!"

The giant looked down directly at Xander clearly noticing him and let out a large war cry that Xander covered his ears

'Okay lets do this'

Xander closed his eyes and a dark blue and black aura covered his body then he opened his eyes, the world felt slower, his body lighter and Xander put up a timer for ten minutes.The giant held swords in all its four hands and as Xander activated the demon speed the giant attacked, swinging its large sword at Xander.The sword came crushed on the ground but as the giant lifted its sword up it did not see Xander.

"I am speed", said Xander as he stood a great distance from where the giant struck its sword.The giant noticed him from the corner of its eye and turned to the side as it swung its sword at him but he dodged the sword, stepped on its giant arm then using his short sword struck its hand as he accelerated at great speed till he reach the shoulder but he lost his balance and fell.Through stabbing the giants body as he fell down he reduced his falling speed and as soon as he landed on the ground moved some distance away from the giant guardian.

'Im not used to this speed'

'Instead of using it fully I should speed up when dodging and attacking and stop for brief moments'

'But still the big problem is my short sword can't cut through the giant's red armor, what should I do, damn it the more I think the more I waste my ten minutes but wait the joints are not completely covered by armor, precision is needed to slice the area of a person wearing armor but since that thing is big I should manage to land hits at the joints area where there is no armour without much precision'

Timer: 8 minutes 59 seconds left

Xander lowered his body, took a deep breath then accelerated foward.The giant swung its sword but Xander dodged to the left, it swung another sword but Xander slid under it before it could hit the ground avoiding it by mere inches then went behind it and charged towards the left leg.He jump onto the left leg then jumped again towards its knee joint of the right leg and slice the space between the armor but the giant had moved as it wanted ro see where Xander was and so the cut was not deep enough.

'It wasn't deep enough but I cut it, if I can make it deep and continuously do it I can win'

The giant froze all of a sudden, its the eyes of its other face activated glowing blue and steam came out from both its mouths.

' Whats it doing?'

Its arms started to twist back and forth, the eyes of the two faces would change colours, if one face had blue eyes the other would change to red.The head rotated and the face behind came to the front and rotated again and went to the back.Its torso aslo twisted with its legs remaining stationary.Xander froze there not sure if he should attack or not as he did not understand what was happening.The torso, arms and head started to follow a rhythm as they rotated and with that same rhythm the giants legs began to move in a strange way.Two slight steps to the right side, on step forward, two slight steps to the left side on one leg then one step forward, the giant was dancing.

'What the hell is this!!!, is it dancing?, and its moving faster now'

The whole ground shock as the giant danced, the more it danced the faster it became

'If thats how it's going to be then im going maximum speed until I defeat it without stopping.'

Xander prepared to charge towards the giant and the giant suddenly stopped and paid close attention to Xander.Xander accelerate towards the giant and as he charged towards it the giant resumed its dance but mixed it with its attack at Xander.The giant stepped forward to step at Xander but Xander dodged, then the giant twisted its whole body and swung with an arm from behind and Xander made a side step at the last minute as he noticed the sword coming at the last minute.

Xander charged towards the same joint he had attack before but the giant moved the leg continuing its dance movement and not giving Xander time to attack.

'What the hell is this, its dancing rhythm is perfectly countering my speed, Im definitely faster than it but because its extremely large, has many arms and moving fast for its size I can't land a hit at the openings.'

' Fighting a dancing mechanical giant, its ridiculous but I might die here hahahahaha'

'I need a way to counter'

Xander had these thoughts in the middle of failed attempts to attack its weak points.

'Four minutes left, I'm going to draw as much power as possible and not stop until I defeat it'

More dark blue aura came out of Xanders body and as it did the giant's eyes closely looked at him and released more steam from its mouths.

The giant stopped moving and began to perform the dance it did the first time, torso, arms and head rotating in a rhythm, two slight steps to the right side, on step forward, two slight steps to the left side on one leg then one step forward.

Xander looked at its dance and recalled how it moved when he was attacking.

'Wait what if I fight fire with fire'

Xander kept on charging the demon speed power closed his eyes and recalled the way the giant assimilated its dance with its attack moves.He opened his eyes and looked at the footprints left by the dancing giant then began imitating the giants dance using his super speed to cover the distance between the footprints.

' A rhythm that perfectly defends and attacks, if I can imitate it even a bit I will know what the next move of the giant will be and where'

Xander moved and twisted as the giant did, two slight steps to the right side, on step forward, two slight steps to the left side on one leg then one step forward he was a dancing speedster.The giant stopped releasing stem and began moving faster as it danced with its head torso and arms twisting faster as well.Xander continued moving at maximum demon speed accelerating forward in the rhythm of the dance twisting and turning.As Xander came into range the giant began its attack upper right arm strike, lower left arm strike, its body turned while its torso and upper hands twisted five times faster than its body creating fast helicopter slashes at Xander to which Xander dodged using the same rhythm it was using even though it was far from perfect.

Xander accelerated to the left then right then twisted as he jumped upwards and as soon as he landed lowered his body then twisted to the right then left then slid and he even though not perfect Xander started catching up to the giant and instead of barely dodging he began to completely doge.When the giant swung down his sword Xander using the giant's rhythm got onto its hand and imitated the the giant's helicopter slash on its arm joint.Xander' s rotation continued when he was in mid air, slowed down when he landed then came to a stop.The giant's arm stopped moving with the others.

'One down, three more to go'

As Xander thought things were going well he looked at the timer, and saw one minute remaining,

' Shit if only I had more time'

'I guess my only option is to cut the joint area that connects its head'

Xander started circling the giant and the giants head rotated following Xander's movement.

'According to its rhythm the only chance I have is the part where its supposed to use the left lower arm which I cut, I will use that chance to climb and go for its neck joint.'

Xander made the last lap then charged at the giant which attacked him but he dodged its attacks and when the part where it was supposed to used its left lower arm came Xander jumped onto the left arm accelerating with everything he had towards the head.The giant dropped its swords and used its bare hands to get rid of Xander on its body.Xander saw its giant arm coming at him and he jumped it but as he was in the air another arm was on its way

'Shit I can't dodge it if im in mid air!'

As the arm was near to hit Xander by inches Xander stretched out his hand holding his short sword and forcefully twisted his body vigorously imitating the giants helicopter slash once more but in a way to defend himself and not to attack and so twisted along the arm rolling and passed it.After barely avoiding the arm Xander heard the sound of his timer reaching zero but ignored it.He held the short sword with both hands and with maximum speed and power cut through the opening on the armor in the neck area.

He felt strength leave his body as he fell down to the ground from the top of the metal giant and landed a few metres from the giant.

'Did it work?, did I cut it?'

Xander turned his heard and saw the giant still standing for a while but its head then slowly disconnected from its body and fell down.It landed few metres from Xander almost crushing him as he did not have the strength to avoid it..The rest of the body then followed to crush down on the ground.

'That rotation I did to avoid its arm damaged my body and I also exceeded the time limit with some seconds, I feel cold and heavy, its the same feeling when I was near my death in my previous life, shit am I dieing''

As Xander had these thoughts he felt a strange feeling from the head of the metal giant a few metres away from him.Xander turned towards the head and saw a giant red and blue sphere inside its head with cables connected to it and on the sphere runes he did not understand.

'If I can draw some of that power I can heal my body'

Xander crawled on the ground slowly until he reached the head and got inside.He stretched out his hand to touched the sphere and as soon as he did the energy began to fill his body. His eyes turned blue and red, runes of blue and red covered his body.Xander felt that he had absorbed enough energy to heal his body and so tried to pull his hand away but he could not.The more he tried to remove his hand the more the sphere strongly held it like a magnet.

'I cant pull away my hand, its probably a function to make sure the connection to the energy core does not disconnect easily, but if I can keep taking the energy my body will overload and explode, what should I do?'

'Wait this energy is a type of mana what if I use this to create a foundation for my mana and mana vessel. If I can circulate it to forcefully open my mana gates I can create a mana heart which my body can currently handle then store all the other mana in a sealed state just below where my mana heart will be.If I can store all the mana energy that was enough to move an ancient mechanical giant my vessel will forcefully expand and reach the level of dragons in terms of mana storage'

Xander calmed down and controlled his breathing.He began moving the strange mana energy throughout his body forcefully opening all his mana gates.He screamed in pain as the mana moved in his body.He kept on moving the mana and as he did his vessel became stronger and expanded unnatural .

'This hurts like hell but I have to endure it until I absorb all the mana'

An hour and another and another passed with Xander absorbing and circulating the raw mana under great pain.To Xander it felt like the mana was endless but he consistently absorbed and c and circulated it through out his body.

'I don't even know how many hours have passed'

More hours passed and then Xander felt that the raw mana was nearing its complete depletion and then he completely absorbed all of it.He set in a lotus style, closed his eyes and began to concentrate.

'Okay then through circulating the mana throughout my body my vessel has become vast, now I need to form a mana heart and seal the rest.'

Xander directed the mana to form circles around his heart and managed to create four circles around his heart.He then directed the vast remaining mana to the area below his mana heart.

'I will use the same method I used in my previous life to store holy power, lets hope my vessel is strong and vast enough to hold the mana'

The mana spiralled becoming compressed and sealed within Xander's body.He stayed like that for a full day and and the mana energy got completely sealed below just below his mana heart.