So far, this dungeon had used its space warping nonsense to create mazes and to confuse and unnerve me.

This time, it was using it against me directly, by making my own attacks a danger to me if I wasn’t careful enough.

The shark, still covered in fire, recovered and floated back into the middle of the room and flew in circles with its own doppelganger – also on fire. They were in the prime spot where if I were to shoot more fire at them and they dodged, the fire would fly straight at me.

That was so rude.

I gripped my naginata and began planning out all the possible ways I could fight the double boss when they did something I didn’t expect.

The fire covering them suddenly receded onto their backs, as if being sucked away by something. I noticed a second later that the devices on their backs had tiny hatches in it where the fire disappeared. The hatches then slid shut again once the fire was all gone.

I blinked in surprise and realized that neither of the sharks wasn’t actually injured in the slightest. Not even the tiniest of burns marred their bodies.

What the heck? Were they super durable as well? Or had their sci-fi device healed them or something?

What the hell was I supposed to do, then?! Even ignoring the mirroring gimmick, this already felt way too difficult!

Okay, calm down. I probably had to target that device. Break it somehow.

The two sharks then separated and I kept a close eye on the one closer to me as I backed up. A moment later, the cannon on its back began charging once again and I grit my teeth and prepared to dodge.

But for some reason, the cannon wasn’t aimed at me. In fact, it was aimed at… my doppelganger!

My head whipped around and I saw the other shark’s cannon aimed at me. Just before it fired, I readjusted my stance and leapt out of the way moments before the laser tore through the air with a roar, leaving behind only the smell of ozone.

A moment later, the shark who had shot me began charging… at my doppelganger.

My head whipped around at the shark closer to me and instead of dodging, I jabbed my naginata straight into its mouth as it barreled toward me.

But to my surprise, my weapon’s blade clinked and got reflected by some kind of barrier covering the shark’s body; I stumbled back with a yelp as my weapon dropped out of my hands.

My eyes widened as the sharp row of teeth closed in on me, and for a split second, I was sure that I was going to die. The jaws would tear into me and I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t recover in time to successfully dodge–

I activated Bullet Time, spun out of the way, and then let time return to normal as the shark crashed to the spot right next to me.

Just like last time, it gave me no chance to counterattack as it flapped its reptilian wings and rose into the air once more.

I gasped as a chill went down my spine at the close call.

If I hadn’t suddenly remembered about my bracelet…

I mentally slapped myself to refocus and cry about this later.

While the sharks reconvened in the middle, I scrambled to retrieve my naginata again before facing the two sharks circling each other, preparing for their next laser shot.

But then, contrary to my expectations, instead of separating to shoot lasers at me, they slowly flew past each other vertically, straight into the pools, and vanished into the death water with a pair of splashes.

I grit my teeth and nervously backed away from the pools while keeping a wary eye on the one on the ceiling, expecting the sharks to reemerge at any second.

Then, to my confusion, the surface of the pools began to glow a little. It got brighter and brighter and I noticed that the glow came from a specific spot in the pool–

My eyes widened in realization and I hurled myself to the side moments before lasers shot from the pools, flew past each other, and the one coming from above vaporized the spot where I’d just stood.

Luckily, I knew better what to expect now and was ready when they reemerged from the pools and charged at me. The drops of death water splashing on my skin burned, but I grit my teeth and expertly sidestepped the shark, before manually feeding my naginata Ether – without Craftsman! – and jabbing it into the device on the shark’s back.

I made a sizable dent and the shark growled in agitation as it flew back to the center to meet its twin.

My eyes narrowed at the small sparks their dented devices gave off.

That was their weakness, wasn’t it? Or rather, I probably needed to destroy that thing first before I could attack the sharks. Those devices had to be what made them immune to my attacks.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The sharks split off and the one closer to me began charging its lasers in my direction again. I breathed in and spat a small Flame Bullet at its cannon rather than the shark itself and then quickly sprinted to the side to avoid the incoming shot.

Unfortunately, the fireball didn’t reach it before the cannon fired and completely erased it out of the air.

Luckily for me, though, I knew how to dodge the lasers now, and easily side-stepped the searing beam of death. I just had to abruptly stop running and jump back right before it fired.

The smell of ozone and the heat right in front of me wasn’t exactly calming, though.

The shark swept down at me once more and I quickly took two steps to the side before executing the plan I’d come up with.

I activated Bullet Time again. Just long enough to give myself time to electrify and ignite my naginata’s blade, jump on top of its wing mid-flap, and then bring my weapon down on the device strapped to its back with as much force as I could.

I released Bullet Time the moment I hit the device and immediately fell off its wing; my butt hit the ground as the thing blew up and the shark roared in anger. I scrambled back up as fast as I could.

It took off toward the middle to meet up with its own doppelganger once more and I couldn’t help but smirk at the pair of smoke trails coming from their backs.

The smoke trails were also happily wafting past each other, both seemingly following their own sense of gravity. Because why not?

According to its pattern, now would be the time where it would charge up its laser to fire at me again, but its device had been smashed to pieces, so I fully expected it to do something else.

It didn’t disappoint.

The shark duo roared again, making me clench my teeth, and then proceeded to dunk themselves back into the death water.

I frowned, wondering whether they could still shoot their lasers even if their cannons were half-broken. Maybe I needed to do even more damage to them to disable them completely?

But no, rather than lasers shooting out of the pools again, something else happened.

The entire room trembled, as if space itself shook, and then reality rippled.

I gasped and stumbled back as the dizziness hit me and I only managed to barely hold onto my naginata.

My eyes widened as I saw the room change like a mirage.

Two of the walls surrounding the pools disappeared and were replaced by another pair of identical pools.

There were also two more of my doppelgangers gaping at the spectacle.

Which meant that–

“Oh, no…” I mumbled just as four sharks emerged from the pools and began flying around one another in the middle of the room in a mesmerizing pattern.

I stared at them in horror and couldn’t help but hysterically think ‘Oh, look, it’s phase two of the boss fight’.

Then I noticed that their backs weren’t smoking anymore. In fact, there was a completely different device strapped to it. Instead of a single cannon, there was a whole array of them.

I realized what those likely were and I couldn’t help but pale.

The quartet of sharks finally separated, each flew to the side, in such a way that if I tried shooting any of them it would carry the danger of hitting one of my clones, and then roared at me.

I steeled myself, preparing to jump out of the way of the inevitable barrage just as the first set of swoosh sounds resounded and a rocket shot out of one of the holes in the shark’s rocket array.

I immediately jumped back and the rocket hit the ground and exploded.

Then it shot another and another, faster and faster, eventually raining hell down on me.

By the third rocket, I could no longer keep up and decided to instead create a flame screen with Fire Breath in front of myself, hoping to detonate the rockets early. It luckily worked just as I’d intended, and once the first rocket exploded mid-air, it created a chain reaction and caught most of the others as well.

Just as the barrage stopped, I found myself faced with a much larger projectile – the shark itself – and unfortunately, due to all the smoke from the explosions, he got way too close to me and I wasn’t in a good enough position to properly dodge.

I activated bullet time once more and jumped over its wing while smacking the rocket array with my flaming naginata.

Time resumed and I scrambled to pull the bucket out of my backpack to refill some of my Ether, since I really didn’t want to run out right now.

As I devoured the life ooze, the four sharks met in the middle once more, giving me some time to recover. I also noticed that I’d managed to destroy one of the rocket holes in their arrays.

I probably needed to destroy all of them again, though. That would be really difficult, since I only had a good chance to deal damage whenever they charged at me. Ranged attacks weren’t very feasible, either, since they carried the danger of hitting myself and the Flame Bullets weren’t fast and precise enough anyway.

Although…

Okay, this was going to be incredibly risky, but prolonging this fight was potentially even riskier since it meant more chances for the shark to successfully chomp on me, so…

I quickly put the bucket back, dropped my naginata on the ground, and pulled out my water gun from the backpack.

“It’s shark season, chat,” I murmured in a daze, still ignoring chat going nuts. I had no time for distractions.

The sharks separated and one of them – not the closest one to me – faced me.

Before it could start firing at me, I picked one of the sharks that wasn’t exactly between me and one of my doppelgangers, stepped to the side a little just to make extra sure I wouldn’t shoot myself, set my feet, took aim, and pressed the trigger.

The quartet of booms echoed in the room and I ground my feet against the ground to stop the recoil from tossing me backward like a ragdoll again.

A split second later, there was a pained roar and another explosion as the rocket arrays on all the sharks blew up, knocking the sharks in four different directions as it sprayed metallic debris everywhere.

Luckily, none of it hit me and other than the Ether drain, I was still no worse for wear.

My eyes widened at that.

That had been way easier than trying to melee the thing. Why hadn’t I done this sooner? Just one or two more shots and I could maybe even finish them right now!

I quickly reached into my backpack, into the bucket, and grabbed a handful of ooze to stuff into my mouth before preparing for the killing shot.

But before I could, the sharks dunked themselves into the pools once more.

I growled but kept my position, ready to snipe the sharks out of the air as soon as they reappeared.

Unfortunately, something else happened.

The space rippled once more and reality shifted, making me snap my eyes shut and grit my teeth. When I opened my eyes again, the remaining two walls of the room had been turned into copies of the ground floor as well.

Two more pools and two more doppelgangers. It was like I was inside a cube of mirrors. Except all of the reflections were very real and any one of them getting shot would mean me getting shot as well.

I stared in horror at the spectacle.

Keeping up with two was annoying, I’d handle four of them only because I’d ended it in one cycle, but now–

“God. Fucking–” I began to swear moments before six sharks emerged from the pools and began circling around the middle.

I immediately took aim, but then hesitated when I saw one of my doppelgangers through the mass of shark fins and wings on the other side.

Dammit!