Alex executed a series of stabs into the knight’s back, only to get slammed in the face by his elbow. The boy’s head was shattered instantly, turning into fragments of glass along with the rest of the body. Another mirror image slid along the floor, placing a trap fragment beneath the knight’s foot just as he was taking a step forward.
“Got him!” the second Alex said before he too was smashed to fragments.
For an instant, the knight faltered. The trap that had captured his foot prevented him from moving, giving Helen an opening.
KNIGHT’s BASH
Damage increased by 500%
Breastplate shattered
The girl slammed the fire extinguisher into the knight’s chest. For most opponents, that would have brought an end to the fight. Unfortunately for her, the enemy responded by an upward swing striking the red container out of her hands.
With a slight hiss, it hit the ceiling, ten feet away.
“Stoner, back me up.” On the other side of the corridor, Jace rushed forward.
What the heck are you doing? Will thought and followed.
As the knight struggled to break free of the trap he’d stepped in, the jock grabbed hold of his back protector, yanking it off as easily as one would peel off the top of a carton of yogurt. A shirt of ring-mail was revealed.
“Hit here!” Jace yelled, pulling two segments to the side. It wasn’t much space—just enough for a thin blade to squeeze through. It didn’t matter, though—thanks to his rogue’s sight, Will could see the weak spot.
A rush of adrenaline burst within him, slowing time down. Everything appeared as if moving through jelly. Grabbing the poison dagger with both hands, Will concentrated all his force on one single spot, then struck, plunging the dagger into the knight’s back.
QUICK JAB
Damage increased by 200%
Wound inflicted
Just a wound after all that? Will was hoping that he’d pierce the knight’s heart, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. After all, he’d managed to inflict a wound. Now all that remained was to make sure that no one died before the knight could.
“Grab me!” he told the jock.
The knight slammed the floor with his sword, shattering Alex’s trap, but at that point, Will had already leaped away to safety, taking Jace along with him.
“Sis!” A copy of Alex ran along the corridor, tossing the spiked bat to the girl. “You’ll need this.”
One glance at the knight’s sword was enough to make anyone think differently. On the other hand, a flimsy weapon was better than no weapon at all.
More mirror traps slid along the corridor, creating an invisible barrier between the knight and the three boys.
“Drag it on!” Will shouted. “I’ve poisoned him. All we need to do is—”
Before he could finish, the knight twisted around and threw his sword right at the boy’s head. Within fractions of a second, several hundred loops flashed before Will’s eyes. Suddenly, the threat of death seemed all too real.
His evasion instinct kicked in, causing him to move just enough to avoid a fatal outcome. The sword slammed into the wall, sinking all the way to the hilt.
KNIGHT’s BASH
Damage increased by 500%
Helmet shattered
Helen slammed the bat into the knight’s head, breaking it in the process.
“Bro, are you okay?” Alex rushed to Will, or maybe a mirror image of his.
In his current state, Will’s heart was beating too fast for him to make sense of things. He just stared blankly at everything going on, as if the loop had ended and he was watching a sort of reenactment of it.
“What…” he began.
“You’re fine, man,” Jace joined in. “We’re safe.”
The phrase registered, causing Will to nod. Slowly, his mind and body got in sync with reality. In a matter of seconds, he had gone from the euphoria of adrenalin success to mortal fear to a discorporate experience. Slowly, he moved the fingers of his hand just to make sure that things were real. By all accounts, it seemed to be.
Thirty feet away, the knight and Helen were continuing their fight. Lacking their weapons, they had resorted to hand-to-hand. Both had the same skills, both were determined to win, but even with a poison knife in the back, the knight had an advantage.
“Send more copies,” Will said, returning to his former mental state.
“No way, bro. I’m out of shards,” the goofball replied.
“Then get some from the bathroom.” Will looked at both of them. “Hurry!” he took out every knife and scalpel he had.
The knight’s head was undefended now, providing him with a perfect target. The boy took a step forward then held his breath and threw a knife aimed at the knight’s neck.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Far too slow, the knife missed its target by inches, flying past further down the corridor.
Maintaining his concentration, Will took another knife and tried again. One after the other, a series of knives flew down the corridor. Each of them went to the exact spot he intended, yet never fast enough to hit their target. In the fight between two knights, the enemy’s head—and all the rest of his body—would constantly shift, making any form of prediction impossible.
Just a bit closer, Will gritted his teeth.
In his mind, he tried to envision how and where the dark knight would move. Despite all the speed and destructive punches destroying the floor and walls, there was a pattern. Each action was a reaction to Helen’s movements. If Will could read those, he’d be able to read her opponent. And after spending so many loops fighting alongside her, he had come to certain conclusions.
“Left, left, right,” the boy whispered to himself and threw his next to last knife.
The weapon bounced off the ring-mail, less than two inches below the neck. It was a close miss, but still a miss.
“Right, right, down, left,” Will said again and did his final throw.
This time it hit its target, striking the left side of the knight’s face., just above the cheek.
I did it, Will thought, almost in disbelief.
The sound of shattered glass came from the bathroom, followed immediately by dozens of Alex copies that rushed into the corridor. With the knight helmetless, they, too, had a point for attack, which they immediately attempted, leaping all over him like locusts.
None of the copies remained whole for more than a second, but their efforts, when combined with the poison dagger and Helen’s bashes, ground down the monster bit by bit. More parts of armor would be shattered, revealing a nondescript human body. In many ways, it had the role of a mannequin—a means to keep the armor up.
KNIGHT’s BASH
Damage increased by 500%
Fatal wound
Helen landed a punch right in the middle of the knight’s chest. A loud crack followed. Her opponent remained in place, his motions abruptly stopping as if he’d been paralyzed. Then, three full seconds later, he collapsed.
“Is it over?” Jace asked from the boy’s bathroom.
Four copies of Alex stood over the knight’s corpse, knives at the ready.
“It’s over,” Helen said.
Although she didn’t show it, she had sustained quite a lot of damage as well. Will could see that her actions were a lot tenser than before, also she was keeping most of her weight off her left leg. Apparently, even her endurance skill had its limits.
Reaching down, she put her hand on the corpse's shoulder. The body flickered, then quickly faded away, leaving nothing but Will’s poison dagger.
The girl froze.
“No loot?” she turned to Will.
“It’s right here,” Jace said, standing by the sword in the wall. “Knight’s sword,” he continued. “Bla, bla. It’s indestructible and can cut through things.”
Said in such fashion, it didn’t sound much. Having seen it used first hand, there wasn’t a soul that would fall for the jock’s downplaying of its qualities.
“Bro!” Alex exclaimed. “The sword in the wall! That’s lit! Just like in King Arthur!”
“Idiot,” Helen said despite herself. “That was the sword in the stone.”
“So?” He shrugged. “This is a modern adaptation.”
One had to admit that even after everything, the goofball had an uncanny ability to lighten the mood. No wonder no one remained mad at him for long. He was just like a pretty squirrel who constantly made a mess and yet everyone forgave him moments later.
“Come on,” the goofball urged. “Do the thing.”
“I’m ignoring you,” the girl said adamantly.
“You know that you’ll need to pull it out if you want to keep it,” Jace said. “If you don’t want it, I can have it.”
The suggestion was more than a threat, causing the girl to hasten her pace and grab the sword out of the wall. Seeing her hold it was almost comical. The weapon was far taller than her and so wide that with a bit of effort she could use it as a shield.
Careful not to cause any further damage—not that it would matter at this point—Helen waved the sword about. It suited her perfectly, appearing no heavier than a feather. The tip made several circles in the air, then a line on the floor.
“How does it feel?” Will asked.
“Good,” she replied. “I’ll need to adjust.”
That was true. She didn’t use weapons in most of her loops. Even when fighting wolves, she had resorted to kicks and punches until Jace had provided her with a makeshift weapon.
“Let’s go to your mirror. I want to check something.”
Placing the sword in her inventory was just as impressive as he imagined. Several times, the girl slid the massive sword into the rippling piece of glass, then pulled it out again.
Looking at her inventory, though, there was one major difference; a key was present in one of the sixteen slots on the grid. Unlike the knight’s sword, there was a chain holding it in place.
Guess we know why you’re the keyholder, Will thought. “Put the fragment in,” he said.
Given that it too was an eternal item, one would expect that it could be placed in her inventory. The fact that it also provided a large part of their clues and tutorial instructions made the boy think that they might obtain more info in the process. Even he didn’t expect what followed.
Once the two mirrors came into contact, the inventory grid vanished, instantly replaced by a blueprint of the school.
Startled, Helen pulled the fragment back. The blueprint disappeared.
“Woah!” Alex said, moving in closer. “Put it back again.”
Helen did so, and the result was the same. There could be no doubt they had just discovered the map function. Several sets of fingers tapped and slid along the mirror in an attempt to control it like one would on a touch screen. It was only when Helen did so that the image reacted.
“Only the keyholder can control it,” Will said, more to himself than anyone else. “Try to zoom out,”
Holding the fragment with one hand, Helem did a pinching gesture on the mirror with the other. As expected, the plan of the school shrunk, revealing the outside of the building. Upon continuing further, the local streets came into view along with the shops and other structures, until finally a bounding circle emerged. That had to be the limits of the area. It was slightly larger than one might think, though not terribly so.
“Focus back on the school,” Alex said. “Maybe we’ll get to see which rooms we must go through.”
The suspicion was only partially correct. Of all the rooms, only those they had been to were displayed along with the permanent mirrors there; more specifically, those that Helen had been to. Both bathrooms were marked with the present location having the word KNIGHT written in bold, golden letters.
“At least we know where we’ve been,” Jace said. “Why doesn’t it say anything about your mirror?” He turned to Will.
“Don’t know. Maybe it only works for classes the keyholder has obtained.”
“Or maybe it’s for mirrors that the fragment has come into contact with,” Helen suggested.
Everyone looked at each other.
“Give it here,” Will asked. “I’ll go to my mirror and check. If it works, we’ll know it’s the fragment and not the keeper.”
“Err… we broke your mirror, bro,” Alex said with a guilty smile. “You’ll have to try next loop.”
“He can still try one of the other mirrors,” Helen insisted, giving him the fragment. Yet again, the map disappeared. “Check all the mirrors, then come back. We’ll be waiting.”
Alex and Jace were about to argue, but one look from the girl quickly made them forget their objections. It wasn’t a good idea to get on Helen before the fight against the knight. Now that she had obtained her weapon, they could expect a lot worse, at least for the next dozen loops.
Check the mirrors. Will ran down the corridor to the boys’ bathroom. Alex hadn’t exaggerated when he’d said that they’d fully destroyed his mirror. There wasn’t even a fragment remaining on the wall. Jace must have used his disassembly skill to take it all down, after which they had shattered it on the floor. It was remarkable how efficient the goofball had been—not a single fragment had been left. In contrast, the hidden mirror remained where it had been amid all the destruction.
“Check the mirrors,” Will whispered to himself as he quickly pressed the fragment against each of the three remaining bathroom mirrors in turn. If there was any effect, he wasn’t seeing it. Hopefully, there’s be some difference on the map.
Since the hidden mirror was also there, the boy decided to use this opportunity to the fullest and pressed the fragment against it as well.
ROOM REWARD (random)
RE-CHALLENGE (permanent): challenge an already defeated loot holder.
The mirror evaporated from the floor.