“Careful, bro!” Alex emerged beside Will, blocking the thief’s attack just as fast as the other had struck.

The two knives let out a spark when they hit one another. Neither shattered, just as their owners remained whole. If they were simple mirror copies, they would have shattered upon contact. That was the greatest weakness of that skill: one could create a massive army, but each of its members would be more fragile than glass.

Seeing that he didn’t have the upper hand, the thief leaped back. He was immediately followed by all of his mirror copies, which dispersed, moving away from one another. A forest of thieves had formed, with every single one of them just as likely being the real thing.

“I thought you stayed behind,” Will said, putting his back against Alex’s.

“The class is all about deception, bro,” the other said with a grin. “Never trust anything you see.”

No wonder the boy was so good at keeping secrets. Thinking about it, maybe he was too good. There was no telling how many loops he had observed Helen and Will, always doing the same actions time after time again. Will would never manage to remain so consistent.

Several of the thief copies disappeared, emerging feet away. They were stopped by the goofball’s copies, yet one look was enough to show they were outnumbered.

“What happened with your army?” Will asked, looking around in an attempt to determine who was their real enemy.

“Not infinite, bro. I stopped making them when I joined you. Had to leave a few to keep things safe in the corridor.”

“Give me a knife.”

Alex handed a proper knife to Will, who threw it at the nearest target. The copy shattered, as everyone expected. The knife, on the other hand, fell on the floor intact.

“Get ready,” Will whispered. “We’ll take them on one by one.”

“Won’t work, bro. Deception is just one skill.”

“If I step into a trap, you’ll help me break loose.”

“Not about traps. There are things I can’t save you from.”

“Then why isn’t he using them on me?”

“You haven’t given him an opening. If he makes the first move, he’ll lose. If I was a bit faster, I’d have gotten him.”

A duel of thieves—the perfect stalemate. No wonder that Alex never made the first move. To a certain degree, their opponent was the same. Will suspected that he could have emerged on his own the instant Helen had found the mirror, but he preferred to let the others act first. That way, he could wait, observe, and prepare. He’d probably listen in to their conversations and quickly come to the conclusion that all he needed to do in order to win was kill Jace.

Will glanced at the entrance mirror. There was no telling what was going on back there. With her current skills and experience, there was a good chance that Helen was handling things, and still there was just enough doubt to cause concern.

Without warning, six copies of the thief appeared around Will. They had to be using a skill to do so, for the boy never noticed them approaching until they were there. To his relief, their other actions were considerably slower.

Evading the initial wave of attacks, the boy struck two of them in the neck in rapid succession.

QUICK JAB

Damage increased by 200%

The copies shattered in unison. Yet, when Will attempted to stab the first, he found that he no longer held the dagger.

SNATCH

Damage negated.

Dagger snatched from target.

Alex joined in, striking one of the remaining copies. His hand clearly made contact, yet the entity didn’t shatter, leaping back completely unharmed instead.

“Careful, bro.” The goofball tossed Will his dagger. “Hold tight to your things.” He then proceeded to attack his opponent again, this time reducing him to mirror fragments.

Will didn’t pause to ask the question. Grabbing the weapon midair, he followed up with several more attacks. Two more copies were shattered. The last one, however, managed to get out of reach fast enough to remain whole.

“What happened?” He glanced at Alex, at the first moment of calm.

“Snatching,” the other replied. “Risky, but useful. Doesn’t hurt, but you get to grab something from your target.”

Will looked at the dagger in his hand. He hadn’t felt a thing. How was it possible for them to have snatched the weapon from his hand without him even suspecting? Clearly, Alex hadn’t exaggerated when he’d said that the thief class had far more dangerous skills.

“Anything else I should know?” He fastened his grip round the weapon’s hilt.

“Nah, I think that’s the best he got, bro.”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

That was a relief of sorts. It still didn’t make things easier. From here on both sides had engaged in a cat-and-mouse game in which the one to make the first move was at a disadvantage. If Helen were here, things might be different. There was no way anyone could snatch the massive sword from her hands.

“Can you make your copies tell Helen to come here?”

“Huh?” several Alexes asked. “I don’t control them, bro. They're just a fragile version of me. It’s not like we’re twins or anything.”

There went one plan. If they were to win, they had to defeat the thief on their own, but how could they? This was his room—his small sliver of eternity. Here he had the advantage, allowing him to achieve a lot more than any normal loop participant. Or was that the case? Alex had mentioned that the greatest weapons in a thief’s arsenal were deception and surprise. What if being in the room came at a disadvantage that was merely difficult to spot?

Thinking back, the snake had attempted to pull Helen into its mirror, but that might not have been its actual goal. It was just as logical to assume that it was purely wanted to squish her and that was its best opportunity. The knight had definitely preferred to fight in the open, and the thorn monster—it was hiding in the mirror realm to conceal its own weakness.

“Try making a copy!” Will turned to his friend.

“Bro, I’m out of fragments.”

“I know, just try it.”

“How? I need fragments to—”

“We’re in a mirror!” Will cut him short. “Just do it!”

For a split second one of the thieves turned his head, focusing on Alex. It was as if an invisible mental confrontation was taking place. Then, seemingly at the exact same moment, all hell broke loose.

Hundreds of copies streamed out of Alex, dashing in all directions like a waterfall. Hundreds of thieves also did the same, pouring out from the real opponent.

Unwilling to be in the middle of this, Will leaped away, just as the two bases of entities clashed into one another. The sound of shattering glass was everywhere. A border of perpetual mirror shards emerged as copies pressed against one another, neither side able to get the advantage.

If only I had taken the chain, Will thought. As things stood, spinning it around would have been the perfect weapon for this battlefield. Then suddenly it hit him. There was no reason he couldn’t get it here. If this entire realm acted as a mirror—any mirror—it had to share the same properties of all the rest.

Landing on the floor, the boy tapped on the white surface.

“Please work,” he whispered. “Show me my inventory.”

There was a momentary flash, after which the whiteness of a section of the floor subsided, creating a reflective grid.

“Yes!” Will reached down into the square that contained the chain. His hand sank in with ease. Feeling around to make sure not to wound himself on a spike, he then grabbed hold of a link and pulled the chain out.

The result was utterly unexpected. Flexible as a whip, the chain emerged, ten times longer than it was before. Will could no longer feel the weight of the weapon, as if it were made of cotton. Wasting no time, he spun it around above his head.

At its present length, the end of the chain slashed into the wave of mirror copies, shattering them by the dozen.

“Careful, bro!” Alex shouted. “You smashed more of mine than his!”

Will didn’t respond. Another thought had just come to mind. It was rather risky, but he felt it was the right move. Besides, it was high time he started relying on his instincts and taking charge. A leader had to act like a leader, and while overconfidence wasn’t always the best adviser, being timid had helped him achieve far less.

Increasing the speed of his spinning, the boy aimed for the thief. There was every chance that the one creating the copies was just another fake. However, he was as good a point of reference as any.

“Let’s see you get out of this.” Will released the chain.

Swishing through the air, the weapon shattered everything along its path, like a giant metal serpent devouring all that stood before it.

In several seconds, hundreds of thief copies were no more, as the head of the chain slammed into its target. To no surprise, that turned out to be a copy as well, leaving the chain to continue on its path of destruction. In shattering that specific copy, though, Will had also paused the enemy’s ability to create copies. It only lasted a moment; a few seconds later, another copy continued the process, but those few seconds were more than enough to break the stalemate.

The flow of Alex’s copies surged, engulfing the thief’s armies like water melting ice. For close to five seconds more, the elite opponent tried to compensate. Seeing it was hopeless, he quickly changed approach, resorting to other skills.

A small circle of destruction emerged in the mass of copies, as dozens of them were killed through a method Will couldn’t even determine. It was a risky move, creating a vulnerability—the single figure left in the center of destruction. There was only a split second for the boy to react before his opponent could vanish, disappearing among the copies, and Will took it.

The poison dagger split the air, striking the target in the neck.

This time, there was no shattering. The human form stumbled, making an attempt to turn and look at the person who had killed him.

LETHALLY POISONED

The effects of the dagger prevented that from happening. A moment later, the room disappeared. Will found himself on the floor of the storage room, with all office and storage materials scattered on the floor.

“Sorry, bro!” Alex almost shouted, quickly leaping two steps back. “Didn’t mean to—” he stopped upon seeing Will a few steps away, standing upright.

Curiosity made both boys look down on the floor, which is where they saw it—the body of the thief lying lifelessly on the floor. That wasn’t all; the body was wrapped in the spiked chain.

“Bro! That was lit!” Alex said. “For real!”

Everything had moved so fast that Will still couldn’t believe it was over. Seeing the results, he had to acknowledge it. Just to be sure, he looked at the mirror. The green glint over it confirmed that they had indeed won.

“What happened?” Helen became visible in the corridor, her sword in the air and ready to strike.

“No!” Alex raised his hands. “Don’t chop! We won.”

The girl looked at him, then turned to Will. If there was a moment for her to be tempted to accidentally swing her sword through him, this was it. The green glow of the mirror, though, changed her mind.

“Took you a while,” she said. “I had already killed everything here.” Lowering her weapon, she moved closer. “What was it like in there?”

“It was like the wolf challenge,” Will replied. “Just with him.”

“And a hundred thousand copies,” Alex eagerly added.

“Yeah, right.” The girl smirked. “At least you got the weapon.” She bent down and placed her hand on the thief’s back. To little surprise, the body faded away, only leaving the knife belt behind.

“A belt?” Will asked.

“Fire, bro!” Alex said, grabbing the item. “Major OP! It’s a knife belt, and it has mirror blades in it? I bet each of them has a special power and if I combine them all, I get a lion sword!”

“Alex, that’s…” Helen began. Seeing Will shake his head, she abruptly stopped. “Jace will know what they do. Meanwhile—” she took a step towards the mirror.

“Wait!” Will grabbed her shoulder. “Not yet. Try using the fragment piece.”

“I was going to,” the girl said, as she glanced at his hand.

“Right.” Will pulled it off. “Sorry about that.”

When the two mirrors made contact, a message appeared on the screen.

ROOM REWARD (random)

WOUND TOLERANCE: One wound you receive doesn’t count.

Given that she was the keyholder, this was quite good as far as rewards went. At the same time, Will couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed. He was so certain that it had to be a permanent reward. The fact that it wasn’t only meant that he had been very, very lucky.