Meera donned the now red and black armor—if you could call it that. It felt more like a fashion outfit. First of all, the hood was red, and then parts of the arms were also red, and below the waist, there used to be a portion of the armor that hung down to hide weapons and such that was also red.
"This is great."
"Really?" Yoana asked.
"No, she ruined it. When have you seen a red and black assassin tromping around? I'm going to stick out like a sore thumb. Actually, exactly like a sore thumb."
"I haven't seen any assassins," Yoana muttered.
"What?"
"I think it brings out the color of your eyes." She did her best not to look Meera in the eyes. "At least, that is what the seamstress says."
"I ought to knock some sense in her head. She ruined a perfectly good armor."
"I'm sorry. If you want, I'll go have it changed."
"It's fine. It's getting late. If I leave any later, that golem will be damn near invisible to fight, and I cannot afford to lose another day." Meera sighed, breathing out her anger. "Thanks for everything."
Yoana smiled. "Best of luck, Meera."
Meera nodded her thanks, walked out the door, and found herself face-to-face with the entire village of Cliffmere. Yoana's Gran, Edna, stood at the front of the meager crowd.
"We came to wish you luck, dearie," Edna said. "We'll pray to Mirithia that you succeed, for both our sakes."
Then the rest of the women jumped in, saying their goodbyes and wishing her well. Meera thanked them and moved for the woods. She reached a small stream, which she didn't remember, but she was unconscious on her way in.
She hopped over the stream and was at the forest's edge in no time. She readied a chakram in her right hand, activated Eagle Eye and Nimble Ears, and stepped into the woods. The dry leaves crunched underfoot. The crickets had begun to chirp. An owl hooted in the distance, and overhead, Mirithia was brightening with each passing moment. Night was about to begin in full swing.
The forest got eerily silent. Meera stopped and surveyed her surroundings. She didn't see anything, but she knew it was coming.
She heard the voice of something crystalizing behind her, like the sound of water freezing into crisp ice. The golem didn't roar like its brethren. It simply swung its club-like arm at her. She used Shadow Step and moved out of its range.
As she appeared in her desired spot, she saw the monstrosity. It was bigger than the last golems she had fought. Its head touched the branches of the tree. It was wider than two trunks of the big trees around them. Worst of all, this one had a neck, so it could turn its head without turning its body, which would be a problem.
The golem stared and then vanished. Meera knew it was coming for her, so she vanished too and appeared where the golem was standing, while the golem appeared right beside her, arm coming down on her. She barely avoided the blow as the heavy mirror club smashed into the ground, throwing up dirt.
Meera used this chance to activate Primal Power and punched the creature's arm with her chakram. Thanks to her Mirror Affinity and increased levels. Her chakram went in around its elbow.
It brought its other arm down on her, but leaving her chakram in its arm, she Stepped on the other side of the golem's arm and recalled her chakram. Her weapon began cutting through the golem's massive arm, and given its lack of fingers, it couldn't pull it out.
It was about to lose its arm when the golem appeared on the other side of Meera, and her chakram flew back out the way she had wedged it, leaving its arm intact. She groaned but didn't have time to lament as the golem shot a massive spinning star from its chest.
Meera had to Step away, but the golem came with her, again appearing almost right on top of her. How is this thing doing that? How does it know where I will go?
Instead of waiting for the golem to act, she raised an arm and showered the golem's head with a Mirror Shard Barrage. She hadn't used the skill before, but it had been used on her many times by the golems, so she knew what was to be expected. A barrage of sharp mirror shards, most of them in the form of triangles, shot out of Meera's hand.
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It took the golem a moment to form a mirror shield. Meera stopped her attack instead of trying to power through the shield. By the time the golem's shield dissolved, she had Stepped in the shade of a massive tree behind the golem's back.
She had expected the golem to follow as it had done before, but it didn't. The golem didn't realize where she had gone. It looked left and right. It gave Meera a moment to think. The golem had a teleporting skill and something that let it target her.
She didn't have much time before the golem figured out where she was, and she couldn't keep fighting with the thing on top of her, constantly trying to bash her head in. She had already shown one of her new skills, and the golem would be wary of it.
Mirror Shard Barrage would be devastating at that close range against a flesh-and-blood opponent, but this thing hardly had any scratches. She decided to use the tactic she had used against the Umbraclaw Vath but a little differently.
She took off all her seven chakrams and embedded them in seven tree trunks around her. She stepped out of the tree's shadow and first used Identity on the golem.
[Mirror Golem – Level 93]
Meera's eyes widened. It was almost as strong as the Alpha Ape, they had fought way back, and back then, she had help. But she had to go through this one to get to the witch, so she whistled and waved at the golem. "Looking for me?"
The golem twisted its body to her. Its face held many scratches from her Mirror Shard Barrage, making Meera smile.
The golem roared and rushed towards her. For the first time, it didn't teleport. It made Meera frown. She was right there, the golem could have, but it opted to run.
Meera was ready for it. She used Shadow Step to move away. She landed in the middle of the small clearing. Her seven chakram waited for the golem.
Meera waited until it was close enough. The golem formed two sharp, spinning stars, one on each hand, and let them rip.
Meera just sidestepped them. Her speed had gotten fast enough that she could do this now. Then she raised her hand, ready to use Mirror Shard Barrage, but the golem suspected the move and vanished only to appear beside one of the trees with her chakrams.
Meera frowned and turned her hand to the golem, but it moved again to the next chakram. Meera gasped. That's how it knew where I was going to be.
The golem's skill lets it transport to other mirrors. Meera's chakrams were made of mirrors, so the golem could only teleport to them. She noted not using Mirror Shard Barrage as it gave the golem many more targets to teleport. Instead, she recalled the very chakram he was standing in front of. The chakram hit the golem in the back, staggering it forward.
She stepped toward the golem while activating Primal Power. She recalled a chakram to her hand and punched it in its chest. The force of the blow made it stagger backward, and Meera left her chakram in its chest. Instead, she focused on the one on its back and pulled that one toward her. Her sharp disc began spinning and chewing through the Mirror Golem. It formed cracks on the golem's back, which snaked outward.
The golem once again teleported away to another chakram. Meera smirked and shot that chakram into its back as well. Once again, the golem staggered forward. She used Shadow Step, recalled a chakram, and punched at it.
But she should have known that these things learn attack patterns too fast. The golem met her punch with one of its own. They clashed mirror arm and mirror chakram. She strained against the golem, but Power was never really her forte. She was sent flying into a tree.
All the breath left her body as she slid down the tree. Before she had a moment's respite, the golem was on top of her. She still had her chakram in her hand. She Stepped above into the tree branches and dropped on the golem's head.
Another strategy, this thing knew as she had used it on its brothers. He raised an arm to protect its head—the one with the deep cut in it. So, instead of punching its head, she wedged her chakram deep in the thing's arm.
It couldn't feel pain but could tell when it was about to lose an arm and how that would be bad for it. Meera jumped off and sprinted to the other side. She recalled her chakram that was embedded in the creature's chest, which did its thing. She could play this game this way, where she could recall the one in its chest when she faced her back and vice versa. But that would take too long, and she was worried about one skill that she knew this golem had because she had it too—Mirror Blast.
I must end it fast, or I might make a mistake that will cost me dearly.
She smiled as a plan formulated in her head thanks to Ambush Tactics and Tactician's Gaze. She formed a mirror shield before her as she ran to conceal her movement. The golem shot it with a mirror star. But Meera was no longer behind the mirror. Instead, she stepped in front of the golem and used a new skill Disorienting Glare.
A bright white light shot out of her eyes. The golem staggered back a few steps, but it was blind. That was all Meera needed. She Stepped to the golem's shoulder, formed a shield on each side of her, and used Mirror Blast.
Light and mirrors exploded out of her. A couple of her shields were decimated immediately, but the ones that held contained the blast. This skill took a chunk of her Mana, but it did the trick. By the time, the light subsided, half the golem's head was missing.
Meera triumphantly jumped off the thing as it fell to its knees. But even then, it seemed, the golem was not done. It punched at her, and she raised a shield, which gave her that life-saving moment she needed to jump away.
Meera was getting angry now. That last attack should have killed the golem. She Stepped to each tree that still held her chakram, in rapid succession, collected them and came upon the golem's back. With Primal Power, she punched them all into its already cracking back.
The golem began to glow, much like she had when she used Mirror Blast. She stepped behind a tree and activated three layers of mirror shields just in time as the golem unleashed Mirror Blast.
The tree behind her blew to splinters, but her shields held even after the tree had a gaping hole in it. Meera let her shields dissolve and recalled her chakrams, and this time it didn't take them long to drill through the golem's back. All five of them broke the monster together, shattering it to pieces.