Zoe was getting pretty tired of dying. She had long since lost count of the number of times she had failed to defeat her copy. She was pretty sure she had now been fighting for longer than she had previously been alive.

It didn’t help that the terrain kept changing. It was never the same two time in a row, though that wasn’t to say there weren’t similarities. Even with settings spanning from deep, murky grottos to floating fields of asteroid-like rocks, you started to run out of truly unique ideas after the first few hundred fights.

And it never stopped. There were no breaks—if her mirror wanted to talk, then she would do so while stabbing her. It was fairly fortunate that with each death Zoe’s stamina completely reset. At first, Zoe had made considerable progress by maxing out all of her abilities. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t help her once she finally got back to the real world. Also, that happened quite early on, so all of her progress since then had been in the form of skill.

But no matter what tactics she used, no matter which weapons she mastered, it always seemed like her double was two steps ahead. It was annoying, because even though the other Zoe was more powerful, the difference in raw strength wasn’t nearly as large as Zoe initially imagined. No—her twin was mostly just better. Thinking back, it reminded her of sparring with Andric.

The most annoying ability that the other Zoe possessed was some kind of temporary barrier. Whenever it was activated, her opponent instantly became shielded with a layer of ghastly, shimmery film that completely protected her from any attack. Whenever Zoe tried to ask for details about it, her mirror refused to explain.

But Zoe had still learned some things fairly quickly. The first was that blocking any attack would empower her opponent for a relatively short duration afterward. Also, the stronger the attack, the more powerful the applied buff seemed to be. After falling victim to this trick far more times than she would care to admit, Zoe learned that the trick was to not attack her copy at all while the shield was up. While its duration was variable, it never lasted terribly long.

It was still really annoying though. Even if Zoe had learned how to avoid making the fight even more difficult by attacking it, it still forced her to cease any offensive—which was especially annoying if she were already in mid-swing.

The other really annoying thing was the mana draining ability. This one was more subtle and took Zoe even longer to figure out. When she did, it made a lot of things make sense.

Basically, the other Zoe could gain mana by inflicting damage. Zoe wasn’t quite sure about the mechanics governing its activation, because it didn’t seem to always happen. However, it meant that slipping up and getting injured had a high likelihood of making things exponentially worse—as it gave her opponent the ability to unleash even more powerful attacks even more frequently. It often ended up becoming a kind of feedback loop, where a single bad blow ultimately led to Zoe powerlessly defending against an increasingly powerful opponent.

The only other ability of note—or at least, that Zoe was aware of—was the shapeshifting. While it was far less potent, and therefore, less annoying than the first two, it was one that really excited her. Every so often, the other Zoe would undergo a radical transformation, catching her off-guard.

There did seem to be a heavy time restriction on it, however, as the other Zoe didn’t use it in the majority of the fights.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

In any case, the abilities may be annoying now, but there was a major upside. Once Zoe finally won, they would be hers. She hoped that they would continue to grow in power, and that her twin was only using what she would immediately have access to. Honestly, it’s going to be kind of sad if this is what my ultimate peak looks like.

But all of this wasn’t what Zoe thought about most of the time. In fact, sometimes she died simply because she was distracted by her own thoughts. Of course, when that happened, her mirror would be sure to make the next run even more brutal. Then, Zoe would get pissed and try even harder for a while. Either way, it seemed to play into the other Zoe’s plan.

So when Zoe finally won, she didn’t even realize it for some time. As her wounded copy tumbled over the edge of the cliff face, Zoe prepared herself for the counter attack. At first, she expected her twin to immediately dash back up. When that didn’t happen, she actually got a bit nervous. While it was rare, it wouldn’t be the first time that her opponent staged a lengthy campaign of terror. Like some kind of one-on-one guerilla warfare.

When Zoe appeared back in the cafe, the first thing she did was dash to the right, followed by kicking a chair into the other Zoe with the help of a dose of {Kinetic Manipulation}. It took her a moment and several reassurances from her former opponent that she really was done.

Rolling her eyes, the other Zoe scoffed. “To be fair, I don’t know if I should actually give it to you. It was technically gravity, you know.”

“If it was just gravity, you would have healed up just fine,” Zoe retorted. “I must have made you use up all of your mana first. So really, gravity is the kill-stealer.” She paused. “Also, gravity wasn’t the one who pushed you off.”

“Whatever.” Taking a seat again, the other Zoe just stared for a moment. “Alright. Good luck I guess.”

“Wait!” She blinked as Zoe held up her claws. “I need to at least see what my new class and abilities are. I have like five mana and I’m about to be beheaded! You can’t just send me back like this.”

“Hmm.” Tilting her head, her copy considered. “Well, actually, I can.” As reality warped around them for the final time, the other Zoe sighed. “Try not to die. I kind of liked being me, so I hope you’ll get to enjoy being me too.”

Zoe didn’t have much time to process that because there was a very dangerous Astral Knight standing over her. There was also a flood of system notifications, but the space magic blade about to hit her neck had slightly higher priority.

She still didn’t have enough mana to dash, and despite her immense physical power she still wasn’t quite fast enough to roll. Acting on instinct, Zoe consumed every last bit of her mana.

For a fraction of a second her entire body flickered with a ghastly, shimmering glow.

{Corrupted Spirit Shield has leveled up! Corrupted Spirit Shield is now level 2.}

The blade shattered.

A surge of power arced through Zoe’s entire body and soul. Unfortunately, there wasn’t all that much she could actually do with it. But at the same time, the remnants of her opponent’s destroyed astral magic were right there. After so many deaths, manipulating such a dense and close amount of raw mana was fairly trivial.

{Mana Manipulation has gained multiple levels! Mana Manipulation is now level 20.}

{Mana Manipulation has reached Tier 1. New ability options are available.}

{+120 Mana}

Zoe was already dashing away by the time her opponent had recovered from the surprise. Skimming over her system notifications at the same time as she prepared to dash again, Zoe found the one she was most interested in.

{You have chosen the path Life Mage.}

{Life Mage has been corrupted into Growth Mage.}

Of course, the astral knight wasn’t just sitting around—he was already emerging from a new rift with an attack aimed at Zoe’s head. But Zoe already knew that as well. In fact, she didn’t have to even look to know exactly where he was headed. A new ability, perhaps?

In any case, it wasn’t very hard to dodge. As the man reoriented, Zoe flexed her tail. Let’s try this again.