---James---

James was knocked down over a hundred meters with a particularly fast boulder.

He growled. Not. Good. Enough.

Glancing up he squinted and tried to replicate Troy’s sunglass-like sight. Draw some photons away…reflect the strongest ones. He couldn’t see them or even really feel them…

But by focusing he could feel their movement. As soon as he started he could continue…and now he could see his temporary partner better.

There.

And of course as soon as he could see better James noticed the kid was about to be hit by a boulder! James wouldn’t be able to make it in time.

A flicker and suddenly Troy was…made of light?

The kid shone. He was momentarily incorporeal.

The boulder which had been a sure hit passed through the figure without a scratch. James smacked the boulder away and released a breath he hadn’t even known he’d been holding. He truly began to relax for the first time.

He wasn’t…he wasn’t doing some sort of escort mission. Troy could stand on his own. This was more like his adventure with Richard…

Reorienting and running back up, James drew even with the man of light jogging into place.

“That’s a neat trick” James complemented the figure who was already fading back to normal.

“It's my avatar” Troy spoke after a pause a faint sense of pride rising from him.

I have to do something like that? How do I even go about starting that?

“I’m my mana and by shifting myself closer to mana I can…well you saw. That was the longest attempt yet. I’m sure I’ll be able to hold it for longer soon.”

James glanced about and noticed how the incredibly smooth bottom to the cliff had changed – it had become rough and broken the further up they had come. Like the bottom was specifically designed to discourage climbing but if you pushed through it didn’t care anymore.

Slowly he allowed gravity a hold over himself once more rock climbing for real this time. Troy didn’t seem to care he was no longer ‘cheating’ but…this was pretty fun?

Free climbing. The fear of falling was non existent when James could just catch himself but… feeling his body hugging the stone – his hands griping miniscule cracks and ledges. Even with the safety net this high up there was a thrill. One that vanished when he was flying for whatever reason.

It was fun.

James tossed himself to the side – cheating a tiny bit to drag his body back to the surface and narrowly slid past another streak of stone.

He preferred taking the boulders head on, but every one he diverted pushed him back. It was annoying and James was in the zone and dodging was…also valid.

Using nothing but his hands and arms to climb then shifting to just his feet for a moment before falling off, James worked his body carefully.

“So what do you think we will find at the top of this cliff?” James asked, once again reaching out.

It was hard to be the one to initiate conversations but…he felt comfortable and every time he reached out he felt how he was growing more confident. He was growing in more than one way.

“Maybe a…smoky boss? Giant incense stick? Every dungeon I’ve been in has some sort of theme and there’s at least a 75% chance the boss will match the mobs and theme of the dungeon…”

James laughed. “It’s probably another mirrored version of us. I’m getting good at squashing the fakes.”

As if angry at James’s flippant attitude, a massive presence squeezed in on him.

A prickle began to spread across his body. A steady prickle of pins and needles that caused his fingers to slip and his body to fall backwards off the cliff.

Shit.

With a concentrated shift, James pulled the push of gravity sideways once again.

He slid, painfully scraping his chest and stomach before halting his fall.

“What happened?” Troy called down spinning around and holding himself up by one arm melted into the stone behind him.

Show off.

James walked upwards once again feeling about his body with his mana. James stepped silently past Troy and took the lead. James took a moment before responding the pair climbing in silence.

“I’m…being attacked somehow?” James spoke trying to figure out where the prickling was coming from.

Troy was silent for a bit and then spoke up. “What does it feel like?”

“Like TV static was turned into needles and shoved in my bones” James tried to articulate the feeling even as he probed and pushed mana about. There was a sort of…resonance? Was it like a sonic attack? Some sort of radiation or something?

No…it definitely wasn’t passing in from outside it was sort of appearing inside of him from some direction he couldn’t wrap his head around.

“Well I definitely don’t feel anything, It can’t be because of how high we are – is it related to your time limit?” Troy responded after a moment.

“Maybe? James looked out for a moment at the surroundings. They were…maybe a kilometer up? Quite a distance for less than twenty minutes of climbing – there was no way a regular human could have climbed this far so fast…but really this was nothing more than a fraction of the distance they had to travel.

The surroundings spread away in all directions. Grass on one side, a forest on the other, an incredibly small town with teeny tiny houses directly below them. The big difference was how the world just…continued on. The forest spread endlessly into the distance. The planes and hills spread endlessly. It all looked more and more fake the further out it went. The distances…started to feel like they were propped up somehow. The horizon looked strangely stretched.

How far upwards did they have to go? They had definitely climbed quite a ways and yet…had they really come this far?

At his question his AI began to pump out numbers. Based on the angle of light and estimated distance they had undergone they…had at least 9 kilometers to go. This cliff was taller than mount Everest! The top of the sheer rock disappeared into clouds and its height was only really guessed from the side and shadow.

They wouldn’t reach that in an hour, not at their current pace.

“Let's speed up,” James spoke and began to pull himself upwards – the fun jog and quick scramble becoming a near upwards sprint.

Troy began to fall behind – James caught a frustrated grimace after glancing back and moments later his new friend began to darken. Troy began moving almost as if he were swimming through the wall – taking more and more risks his arms and legs melting through huge strips of stone as he leapt upwards again and again.

James slowed slightly to match – his friend was putting in this much effort after all. A rising helpless feeling of frustration was beginning to build the longer he felt about at the damage however.

He…he was able to control movement. Everything moved. Even if he couldn’t see it.

The only way he could be attacked…the only way something could be appearing in his body was if it moved from somewhere else to right here.

Even if it was moving through some sort of other dimension it was still moving. It was somewhere else and then was here. That was movement!

If instead there was something invisible inside of him moving about and attacking him…well in that case it was moving about his body!

There was no way he shouldn’t be able to defend against this no matter what was actually happening. It just didn’t make sense.

A boulder appeared while James was particularly engrossed and he had less than a second to slap it away.

James fell – shooting past Troy and dropping dozens of meters in a moment. His frustration was bubbling up.

James fell and…let himself continue to fall.

The tingle had been adding up becoming debilitatingly painful. It was compounding. The pain not going away – his body becoming more and more damaged on the microscopic level.

Everything was adding up.

How long had it been? There was no way to tell –

His AI chimed in helpfully explaining it had been 52 minutes since he had gotten the hour time limit.

There was a way to tell and it sucked. He was going to fail.

This sort of attack…this sucked. It was unfair – It was like the photoshop mantisbear. It didn’t make sense except even that had some sort of rule.

Some esoteric mumbo jumbo.

It all just sucked.

James twisted half-heartedly and began to jog upwards his vision blurry. Was…was this it?

Disappointing.

Hadn’t…Hadn’t R told him the dungeon wouldn’t have been able to do shit to him?

James wouldn’t even care if he had some way to fight back. He should be able to fight back! He should be able to move this! All of this!

Suddenly the tingle stopped.

For a single second all the pain that had been building was reset. James felt a spike of warmth…of healing that reminded him of Maddy. Had she somehow reached him up here?

The tingle started up again but much diminished from before.

James’s mind was suddenly clear. He had a second shot. He had no clue how she’d healed him from down there – maybe she had left some delayed activation healing or something that triggered when he was in danger.

Healing was always appreciated.

Anyways, the prickling damage.

Maybe it was like the boulders…it was moving too fast for him to get the spikes in the moment they appeared. The fact it was appearing from a weird direction didn’t matter, it was just that he wasn’t good enough yet.

James climbed and fell twice more before something snapped inside of him. His mana was bursting – he had absorbed so much from the boulders his body felt that familiar bloated buzzing.

Earlier…

When he successfully dimmed the light…he was moving something so much faster than these silly boulders.

Why had that worked?

Well…because when he started diverting photons he just continued. Like a man standing in the middle of the road directing cars to the side. He just continued sending them to the other lane.

Every time he diverted a boulder in comparison, the act happened in microseconds… but he was doing it from scratch each time. He was actively grabbing and shoving stuff to the side.

He needed to start moving it away before it arrived.

And…he had already proved he could do that with the light.

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The light was much much less mana to move but…if he extended that to something as powerful as his split second boulder slaps?

Just…do that but stronger.

James focused on the feelings of his mana. He swapped to aether just to see how that lens considered the problem – and immediately switched back after his epiphany was nearly snuffed out.

Staring upward James climbed slowly waiting for another boulder. Why when I want them are they not here?

An agonizing minute of silence passed before James spotted a distant shape. As soon as he noticed it James focused.

Direct the movement away.

This…this skill to twist the movement. Start it up without assigning the thing to move yet.

James continued to focus and swirl his mana about. Everything was done by feel – his thought process quickly reached a point where it would be hard for him to describe exactly how he was twisting his magic the way he was.

James reached upwards, far far sooner than he could start effecting the stone. It continued falling towards him unchanged.

Almost in slow motion, the boulder grew bigger and bigger and then it was within range.

James saw the boulder twist under an inch away from his fingers ripping to the side at a right angle. He hadn’t done anything…he’d simply continued to do something.

James’s mana was visible in the air – a slight shimmer extending out from his body in all directions.

The boulder flung out into space and James was not tossed downwards.

Progress.

Sadly because of how he had focused on simply diverting the obstacle he hadn’t stolen any energy from this shot.

And even more concerningly – James’s continuous defense was eating through his expanded store of mana quickly. This would end soon. Seconds.

Why was it spending so mana to hold? It…it wasn’t doing anything?

James didn’t understand why exactly he was leaking mana so quickly. It really was simple. He could effect things inside of his body and directly about it…like…like he had an aura or something.

That…that was his area of control.

That was his…domain.

Was that why he was spending so much mana? He was currently using an avatar like Troy had done and it would end soon?

But it wasn’t currently doing anything. It should not cost this much. Was it something about limits or some sort of opportunity cost about how strong a continuous defense was?

That was dumb. Aether wouldn’t be this picky.

Yet another boulder – one of the endless rain of annoying lumps of stone dropped towards James and frustration continuing to cloud his thoughts he reached out. James raised his hand and willed his domain to absorb. Absorb and…continue…continue until he could figure out how to fix this.

His domain was him. His domain activation was him but better.

And so James did the thing he could already do. Just…better.

As much as possible. Every little scrap I can. Every little scrap that exists in that stupid stone that is in my way.

The boulder landed.

Larger than a bus, the lump of stone impacted James’s outstretched arm and suddenly froze.

And all the energy filled his domain. It squeezed into his circuit and…burst it.

Hundreds of blood vessels exploded as James pushed everything into it. a qualitative concentration of energy filled his vessels but…it was too much too soon.

The air about him filled with a mist of blood as James felt mana flood every pore of his skin and every strand of muscle. His body popped…and his domain crystalized.

James began to fall. His body was shredded and more importantly sharp stabs of pain hammered against his twin cores. He was dangerously close to killing himself with his own skills.

James didn’t have to wait for the dungeon to kill him – he’d do it himself!

Still…the weak and whiny thoughts and worries were banished.

James felt completely and utterly in control.

That feeling he’d been striving for had suddenly been reached.

With a twist, James stopped his fall and then reversed it.

His body was barely listening to him and yet his mana…it responded to every want and wish the moment he had it.

The prickling damage – it was still here but James felt every single prick and slowly adapted. It took less than a minute of distracted concentration before James managed it. He grabbed every stab and pushed it away as soon as it appeared.

No…he pushed away every stab before it appeared – the attacks diverted as soon as he could effect them.

James rocketed up to Troy’s location, a single outstretched hand tagging his side.

His absolute control struggled for a moment as he attempted to lift Troy’s whole body and then suddenly pushed through.

Soon Troy was flying upwards as well – his friends shout causing James to laugh suddenly.

“Come on, Lets push through this last stretch!”

His mana was still dropping but the early leaking rush had dropped to a healthy trickle. He…he had done it. He felt great.

The pair flew upwards popping through two clouds and then suddenly…they were there.

The top of the cliff.

Except…instead of a ledge or a cave or the ceiling of this dungeon what James saw was a pair of lips.

A massive stone pair of lips directly under two massive eyes.

Pushing away from the wall to gain a sense of perspective James pulled backwards holding Troy under one arm.

There was a head at the top of the cliff.

Like mount Rushmore or…yeah. Like mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore but a dick!

The head looked apathetic and arrogant – roughly fifty meters from top to bottom and forty wide. Its shoulders were the top of the cliff extending out in either directly as far as James could see.

And staring across at him the stone head blinked.

James drifted backwards slightly in surprise.

The head stared at James like he was nothing more than a bug. The head…wasn’t impressed. It didn’t even care.

Above and behind the head a field of boulders extended in all directions.

James continued to stare at the head before suddenly hoisting Troy upwards and pointing forward. “Think that’s the boss we came to find isn’t it?” James spoke gesturing forward.

“Do you get turned on by putting people in danger? Feeling in control and dangling people over the edge – because honestly I don’t swing that way. Put me the fuck down – “ Troy paused as he spotted the head for the first time and James winced.

“Sorry, I…sorry” James began to float back towards the wall making to bring troy down on top of the wall. He’d overstepped. They weren’t that close and he hadn’t warned Troy about the flight…

For some reason Troy also winced – then tensed. Directly where James had been meaning to fly Troy down a massive hand lay in wait.

Twisting at the last moment to pick another spot, James saw the stone hand begin to raise up and follow.

Another hand and another appeared even as James steadied Troy and tossed him forward twisting to meet the slap of a massive hand.

James confidently twisted his domain to divert the slap and yet the hand hit harder than he was expecting a deep reverberation running out as soon as it impacted him.

Like the slight resistance from Troy but magnified many times, James’s confident block did remain firm…but not without cost.

James felt a wave of pinpricking sparks rush over his body and in the end he let the slap continue through pushing him back to safety.

Smacked backwards like a fly James slowed down and stopped around seventy meters from the face.

It continued to stare impassively – not a trace of emotion crossing its stony expression. James stretched – using his affinity as much as his muscles to twist his arm as if winding back for a punch. Blood leaked down his side and James focused pushing his will about so none of the leaks continued. Manually moving his blood about until his body remembered how to do it properly James went back to ignoring the damage his body was enduring.

Finally a flicker of something crossed the mountain face and a blue box flickered across to James’s sight.

Run back to the stage now mortal, I am not an obstacle to be faced. You are…not my equal even if my lesson seems to be sticking. Congratulations, you beat the third floor! Your rewards should be good when you get out - reaching a secret area and all that.

Behind the head a streak of brilliant light flashed forward – a brilliant rainbow arrow burrowing into the back of Fate’s head.

The arrow disappeared into the rock – it must have sunk a dozen meters into the stone and yet…the head continued to stare impassively at James as if ignoring the pest behind it.

Despite the heads apparent disinterest, several stone hands reached up, melting out of the stone to begin chasing Troy.

Six hands appeared – two began chucking stones while two chased and two moved in front. The pair in front slid down the wall and pushed out folding and crossing themselves in front of the face.

This head was making fun of them.

It was claiming it didn’t even need to use two of its hands to deal with them.

“You are just the final boss of a dungeon” James shrugged then shot forward.

I’m glad the dungeon has such a punchable face. Finally I have something I can attack.

James felt a rush of pinpricks – hundreds of times stronger than the previous waves – and yet…he didn’t care about power or quantity.

It didn’t matter how fast or strong something moved at him…he just had to move it away and he'd already figured out how to move these points.

James punched – portioning a good amount of mana into the action – and heard the most satisfying crunch as his fist connected.

A large crack shot sideways in both directions as James redirected the damage his hand would have suffered inwards.

Double tap.

Pushing back James dodged the hands swipe and stared in satisfaction at the crack.

Damn that felt good.

To you I am a god

The box appeared – a faint annoyance coming across in the text despite the face’s continued almost bored gaze.

“I just punched a god? I should record this and show my friend later…” James laughed prodding his AI to start storing the scene.

James felt relaxed. This…this wasn’t a impossible challenge. The bullshit attack appearing from nowhere wasn’t there anymore. He had something to punch – he was more powerful than he had ever been.

The crack he had put upon the stone face rippled and melted.

Within moments all sign of his attack was gone and yet James maintained his optimism.

So the stone giant could heal…didn’t change anything. Sure it did make the fight a bit more annoying…but James felt confident. How deep into the mountain was its body sunk? It seemed like the giant had some stone manipulation powers…hiding up here out of danger and tossing shit down on everyone. Anyone who attacked from so far away was cowardly and weak...

James dashed forward punching the face several times in quick succession – parrying a swipe from the hand to refill his energy then darting about to pummel stone from a different angle.

Large chunks fell off the face falling into the distance and James grinned despite himself. He didn’t know how much damage he had really done but damn was this ever satisfying.

A bit more punching and then he could find Troy and figure out a more effective attack.

James twisted one of the slapping hands towards the face causing the giant to slap itself. A thundering crack rang out even as a huge chunk of dense almost fleshy stone flew up into the air.

James darted up to grab the chunk of face grabbing it in both hands and aiming downwards.

I’m going to bash his face with his face…

The mountain’s expression changed for the first time. Its thin smile twisted into a wide grin inhumanly wide and warped with how shattered the stone was.

I think you are misunderstanding something mortal.

Suddenly with deep grinding rumble the entire cliff face began to bend towards James. As far as he could see in either direction the landscape…bent. The lip began to travel towards him even as he gained some distance – and it kept coming. Stone moving further and further towards his position. So...So much stone.

Like the mountain itself was leaning forward, the face just continued to move – two, three hundred meters forward the mountain draggoned its broken face continuing to grin inhumanly wide.

Countless boulders began to fall off the ‘shoulders’, of the mountain rolling off the sloped top and falling to the ground below.

“I’m not…stuck in some ‘mountain’” – the air ripped apart with the sheer volume of sound being produced. James’s ears nearly burst before he added sound protection to his domain moving the vibrations to a manageable level.

“I ‘am’ this ‘mountain’” fate rumbled, the air creating vacuums with each wave.

Leaning back into place, fate finished in blue boxes.

I repeat. Your final trial is to escape. My defeat isn’t on the table. My core is several leagues away. My domain dormant and asleep. If I stop pulling my punches, you’ll shatter so stop. Overstepping. Mortal.

…

What.

…

The...whole mountain? The one we've been climbing for an hour?

...

Fates hands began to shape stone as if they were creating snowballs – quickly moulding more ammo to replace all that it had lost.

How…how was James supposed to fight a mountain?

This face…James was pretty sure he could break off the head if that’s all he had to do. He could…he could.

He could go down fighting. Escape…escape was such a weak sounding word. One of his very first things since arriving in the tutorial was to run away from a fight. Call it a tactical retreat but…fuck it just seemed so weak. What was the point of gaining this much strength if he had to slink away from something stronger?

James was going to fight, even if he had to go down fighting…

James suddenly spotted Troy.

He had gone into his light body when fate had spoken and jabbed his feet into the cliff face to prevent himself from falling off when fate leaned forward…

But he looked so small standing there in the expanse of stone.

James had liked hanging out with the light archer. He’d even started considering him a friend…was he really stupid enough to throw this friend to his death just for stupid pride?

Really…if James framed it as him saving someone…well then it wasn’t a cowardly retreat it was a protective retreat.

Yeah…

James stared at the massive chunk of ‘face’ in his hands. He considered tossing it aside but felt strangely possessive over it.

The stone was heavy…it was increasing his flight cost fourfold at least…but he wanted it. Finally James made up his mind and flew over to the top of the cliff. Moving up over the lip and crossing the distance to Troy James flew unmolested.

He arrived above the archer and paused for a second. Why was this awkward?

“Hey…Sorry I flew you up without permission. Want to try fighting the mountain or…”

Troy nodded furiously then as if realizing that wasn’t a response made a pained sort of face and responded quietly. “Yeah, sorry for snapping, lets go before daddy moai changes his mind.”

Troy reached hesitantly upwards a anxious expression on his face. James reached down and hoisted extending his aura around his friend and lightening his load.

Quickly flying down the pair fell towards the ground in silence – and roughly five seconds down the boulders began to fall.

Fall…and then rocket. Fate’s judgement fell like rain more and more boulders pitched downwards at faster and faster speeds and with a greater frequency than six arms should have been possible – who cared if the mountain had been holding back. If it could have thrown boulders faster, if it had more arms…

A particularly fast stone clipped James’s side – the projectile brushing his defenses and then slowing down and ripping away,

James’s pool was refilled.

He could have fought…if anything he should have tried. Look how strong he was?

Suddenly without warning or weakness James’s leg disappeared – sliced clean through from within and tossed to the winds.

It felt similar to the pinprick attacks…the strange prickles he had learned to protect against…just different. Hundreds of times stronger – a slice instead of a thousand tiny slabs.

James quickly stemmed the tied of blood rushing out of his severed leg. Manually looping blood back into his stump James gritted his teeth and shoved a feeling of the strange esoteric movement into his domain.

“I get it” James growled his lip curling as he approached the ground. A slicing attack similar to the one that had instantly taken his leg hit his arm from some unknown direction but was diverted.

“I get it…that could have gone for my head or more importantly my cores. I get it – James spotted Maddy and Jess retreating towards the cliff face. They were nearly at the entrance now – seemed they were being attacked by villagers?

Angling himself towards the pair James felt Troy shifting under his arm before with surprising speed dozens of arrows began to shoot away from them.

Coming down like a fighter jet James twisted his shard of face squinting at the cave entrance.

“Coming through!” He called even as Troy picked off half the villagers with pinpoint headshots.

Landing at an angle and skid James threw all the excess momentum from his landing into the air about pushing back the remaining villagers and watching as his friends made it into the exit.

Turning James was just in time to see the sky itself falling behind them.

Stone covered the entire sky coming down faster and faster.

Looking about one last time James angled his face shard like a mover fitting a bedframe through a door and stepped into the passage.

He felt stronger than ever.

But it wasn’t strong enough.