## **CHAPTER 128 — THE GUARDIAN THAT WOULDN'T WAIT**
Everything in the corridor happened too fast and too slow at the same time.
Buzz saw the guardian's limb rising again—long metal elbow bent in a shape no creature should own, blade shimmering with a thin line of living gold—and something snapped inside him like a cable finally pulled too tight.
He lunged.
Zza didn't even get a full scream out before Buzz slammed into the guardian with a sound that cracked through the corridor like someone dropping a mountain on a drum.
Metal rang.
Buzz's claws skidded across the guardian's plating, sparks flaring off its shell. He grabbed onto the thing's joint and yanked hard.
The guardian turned its head—if that twisted cylinder counted as a head—and faced him with a slow, unnatural calm. Like it wasn't rushing. Like it didn't have to.
Alma shouted behind him, "Buzz, get off that thing before it uses you for decoration!"
The guardian's second limb shot upward, joint clicking.
