Chapter 396 - Power and Technique (Patreon)

Zeke came in low, but the Mirror King swept its sword down to knock his hammer off course. Then, it aimed a kick at Zeke’s face, connecting with his chin with enough force to send him staggering backwards. Without missing a beat, the monster seized upon that small advantage and thrust its sword into Zeke’s abdomen.

Normally, he could take such a blow without issue. However, the long, thin blade was possessed of the same draining force inherent in the shards of the Mirror King’s copies. It sliced through Zeke’s armored body without issue, when the monster retracted it a moment later, it snatched away Zeke’s vitality and mana, wounding him much more than any mere stab could.

He fell to one knee as he gasped for breath, but that brief moment of weakness was nearly enough to get him killed. The Mirror King hadn’t remained idle. Instead, it sent its sword in a long, sweeping arc meant to decapitate Zeke. Seeing the glittering blade coming, Zeke narrowly managed to dodge aside, though the weapon did clip his shoulder along the way. And just like before, it took an outsized portion of his vitality with it.

Desperately, Zeke embraced [Cambion’s Awakening], but he knew it wouldn’t be enough. Not unless he could use the demonic version, which was impossible because he had already drained the area of ambient corruption. He sent his golems scrambling to block the Mirror King’s next attack; he didn’t think they would slow the monster down very much, but he needed a second or two to recover his feet.

The three living statues of [Colossal Legion] strode forward, and to predictable results. The Mirror King moved like flowing water, slicing them apart in the space of only a few scant seconds. They fell to pieces, then dissipated into motes of mana. Usually, the golems could regenerate from any damage, but they’d never been taken apart so thoroughly. Zeke could only hope that they would recover.

Not that he had time to think about that, because even as he pushed himself upright, the Mirror King slithered forward, its sword held high.

Zeke embraced [Weight of Two Worlds], and the Mirror King stumbled. Seeing that, he pounced, aiming a quick jab at the slender creature. It was like hitting a brick wall, and Zeke’s hammer vibrated painfully as it rebounded. The Mirror King recovered quickly, turning the minor stumble into another thrust that Zeke barely avoided by leaping backward. But the monster wouldn’t be denied, and he pursued without hesitation.

What followed was a furious exchange where Zeke did everything he could to block or avoid the Mirror King’s swift strikes. He failed almost as often as he succeeded, and when he finally managed to disengage – by kicking the Mirror King’s feet out from under it – he sported more than a handful of shallow wounds.

Normally, such minor injuries wouldn’t have been a problem, but each time the sword landed, it dragged a good portion of Zeke’s life energy and mana away.

Tightening his fists on the hammer’s grip, Zeke faced off with he Mirror King once again. The monstrously slim figure held itself with haughty arrogance as it extended its blade toward Zeke and laughed.

“As I said – you are no more than a brute,” it sneered, its voice like cracking glass. “A worthless piece of trash who’s so bogged down by –”

It was at that moment that Zeke used [Center of Gravity]. The monster fell toward him, and Zeke met its descent with a vicious uppercut that sent it flipping backwards through the air. It tumbled across the floor, end over end, until it hit one of the cathedral’s now-featureless pillars.

Zeke used the ability again before the Mirror King could recover, but this time, it managed to grab hold of the pillar and keep itself from falling into another devastating blow. If Zeke had been at full power, he would have kept it up, but because of the persistent drains on his mana, he couldn’t keep it going. So, before he ran himself completely dry, he let it drop.

Once again, the pair of combatants faced off – one slender and bearing a crystalline sword, the other bulky and wielding a brutish hammer.

Zeke was the first to act, and he raced forward with thundering steps that cracked tiles with every footfall. The Mirror King did the same, though its steps were light, almost as if it barely even existed.

Even as they clashed, resuming their fight, another battle raged behind them. Light flashed, vines slithered, and Jasper’s songs overwhelmed every other sound as the rest of the group fought against the golden angels.

But Zeke couldn’t spare any attention for them. Instead, he had everything he could handle with the Mirror King. More than he could bear, really. He persisted, though, taking the hits he couldn’t avoid and attacking any opening the monster presented. Even so, he knew he was outmatched. The creature was too skilled. Too quick.

Zeke’s efforts only delayed the inevitable.

He tried to measure his own attacks and utilize a similar strategy to what he’d employed against Silas Martel back at the Portal of Ascension. However, even that was only met with moderate success. The reality was that he simply wasn’t good enough.

In the back of his mind, Zeke realized that he’d let his training fall by the wayside. Before, he’d spent so much time trying to hone his technique, but every since his ascension, he’d focused more on the other facets of his progression. He’d gained levels. He had developed his runecrafting abilities. And he had made great strides regarding his more esoteric techniques and the application of his Will.

But his hammer-work had lagged far behind. Never was that clearer than as he faced off against the Mirror King. There and then, he vowed to rectify that mistake. He just needed to survive long enough to implement that plan.

To that end, he persisted, hoping that his efforts were having more of an effect on the Mirror King. And given the amount of power and Will he’d put into the [Hell Geyser], it wasn’t really unreasonable.

Long minutes passed as the two furiously exchanged blows. Sometimes, Zeke got the upper hand, which he used to pummel the creature into the ground or send it flying across the landscape. But more often, the Mirror King held the advantage, which it used to slowly whittle Zeke down, one shallow cut after another.

And it was working, too. With every passing second, he felt a little weaker. It would take hours to completely drain him, but the Mirror King seemed in no hurry to hasten Zeke’s demise. Instead, it was patient to the point of placidity, a demeanor that stood in stark contrast to Zeke’s building desperation.

Vaguely, Zeke was aware of the others fighting their own battle, but he couldn’t spare much attention for them, except to acknowledge that if he fell, the others wouldn’t survive much longer. So, he leaned into that role, channeling some of his old, discarded notions of sacrificing everything to protect his friends.

But instead of hefting a shield, as he’d mistakenly done before, he went on the attack, taking the hits his companions couldn’t endure. In a lot of ways, it was a perfect analogy for Zeke’s entire journey. He wasn’t really all that special. He wasn’t smarter than most. Others had more overtly useful skills. And he certainly wasn’t as proficient a warrior as some of the people he’d seen.

Instead, he could endure like no other.

So, pulsing with [Cambion’s Awakening], he pulled on every bit of mana at his disposal. It didn’t matter if it was from his own personal reserves – which were dwindling by the minute – or the ambient mana that suffused everything. Nor did it matter if it was earth-attuned, corrupted, or something else. He drank it all, consuming it and converting the energy into healing.

And to his surprise, it worked – to a degree, at least. It wasn’t as effective as if he’d used something more pure, but the blend was enough to keep him from bottoming out.

The Mirror King noticed, too, and for the first time, its calm, collected, and calculating demeanor wavered, giving way to irritation. Still, the pair clashed over and over again until, at last, Zeke saw a real opening.

He pounced, swinging his hammer in a ferocious overhand attack that should have hit the Mirror King in the shoulder. But it missed.

Zeke’s hammer thundered into the floor, shattering the tiles and digging a small crater into the foundation. Meanwhile, the Mirror King, having slid to the side, aimed a backhanded sword strike at Zeke’s unprotected neck. The blade whipped ahead with unmatched speed and inevitable precision. Zeke tried to dodge, but he was off-balance and far too slow. His fate was already sealed; he only had to wait for the blow to fall.

But then something hit the Mirror King with the force of a speeding truck, sending it sprawling to the floor. A moment later, a giant, black-and-red hand materialized, then fell upon the monster, slashing deep into its slender body. A second after that, a series of thorny vines snaked up from the floor and wrapped around the creature’s legs before a lance of pure light hit it directly in the head.

All the while, a rousing beat filled the air, suffusing Zeke with adrenaline.

Eta shouted, “I can’t hold it in place for much longer!”

“One more second!” came Sasha’s reply.

And true to her word, mana swirled in the air before solidifying into a huge ball of dense energy. It swept down, enveloping the struggling but immobile Mirror King. It detonated, exploding with the kind of force Zeke usually only saw when he used [Unleash Momentum] at full power.

The impact sent everyone flying backward.

Well, everyone but the Mirror King, who was at the epicenter of the explosion.

For a long few seconds, Zeke struggled to get his brain moving, but slowly, as the ringing in his ears faded, he managed to wrap his mind around what had just happened. His companions had come to his rescue. Even as he’d tried to shield them from danger, they’d saved his life.

But he knew the fight wasn’t over.

The Mirror King was still alive. So, Zeke pushed himself to his feet and looked around at the carnage.  For as far as he could see, he was surrounded by piles of golden, glass shards. Some of them still quivered with mana, but for the most part, they were entirely dormant. And in the distance – maybe a hundred-and-fifty feet away – Zeke saw something trying to climb out of the crater Sasha’s spell had created.

Zeke marshalled his remaining energy and strode forward, hammer in hand. Soon, he was joined by Pudge. Then Jasper. And finally, Silik. Eta and Sasha were both alive, but they kept their distance. Neither was a front-line fighter, after all.

With heavy footsteps, Zeke approached the crater and the fallen Mirror King. Its body was like a pane of shattered glass, shifting with the reflected carnage all around. It crawled forward, still trying to put up a fight. That it had survived so much damage was a minor miracle, but one Zeke couldn’t bring himself to appreciate. Instead, he loomed over the fallen monster and hefted his hammer.

It fell with inevitable weight, further shattering the monster’s body. The Mirror King screeched, its voice sounding like breaking glass. Zeke ignored it as he brought his hammer around for another blow. Before he struck, Silik aimed a [Spear of Memories] at its face. Zeke adjusted his aim, his hammer falling on the same spot.

The Mirror King shattered further.

Before the next blow, Pudge brought [Netherclaw] to bear.

Still, the Mirror King survived.

[Hellfire] came next. Then Jasper’s [Dissonance]. And finally, Zeke infused his hammer with the tiniest sliver of his Will. At last, the Mirror King fell silent, its body erupting into a thousand shards of glass.

For the barest of seconds, Zeke half expected it to be another attack. However, he quickly recognized the huge influx of kill energy for what it was, and, finally, he let his shoulders sag in exhaustion.

Because the moment the Mirror King had died, he’d gotten a few notifications. The first concerned his ascension to level forty-nine, though that was probably the least important, as far as he was concerned. If it had been level fifty, it might’ve garnered a little more of his attention. He quickly allocated his attribute points, then moved on to the next notification:

Congratulations! You have completed the dungeon, Hall of Mirrors! Rewards: Minor Attribute Crystal, Potion of Evolution

With that, Zeke looked around at his companions and asked, “Anyone know what a Potion of Evolution is supposed to be?”

Eveline let out a mental sigh, then said, “You’ll be able to see it when you exit the dungeon.”

“Oh. Right,” Zeke said. “Speaking of…”

“The exit is right over there,” she said, giving an unspoken indication toward the throne. It had been torn asunder by the battle, but like everywhere else, it was practically buried beneath gold shards of glass.

“What happened?” Zeke asked aloud.

“Every time you did damage to the Mirror King, it shattered some of the golden angels,” Eta answered. She and Sasha had approached while the others finished the Mirror King off. “We killed a lot of them, too. I think they were linked somehow. When one took damage, the other did, too.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

Then, Zeke knelt beside the monster and looted it. Vaguely, he was aware of taking all the glass, but he didn’t know what use any of it might be. He would have to inspect it later.

“So, we’re done here, right?” he asked.

The others agreed that they were. Looking back, it felt like he’d spent years in the dungeon, and though he hadn’t progressed nearly as much as he had in the troll caves, it somehow felt more impactful.

“Let’s go,” he said, turning toward the doorframe that had appeared near the destroyed throne. “And next time I suggest we enter a dungeon, I expect all of you to tell me how stupid I am.”

“I tried in the very beginning,” Eveline said.

“Shut up,” was his reply.

“I’m just saying – I told you so.”

“So you’ve said. Multiple times.”

“Maybe you’ll listen to me from now on.”

“Probably not.”

She let out a long-suffering sigh as Zeke led the others toward the portal. And then, without further delay, he stepped through, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, he found himself back in the real world.