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1054 Words
Liz and Matt had doubts when Susanne refused any extra potions beyond the initial dose and all the talismans, but Aster seemed to understand, at least a bit. This place was less personal to them. It was a place to find treasure, gather new skills, and grow stronger. Nothing more.
Susanne briefly glanced down at their respective armors. Her reflection still had the functioning growth armor, while she was stuck with some looted armor from a few floors ago that mostly fit her thanks to Matt’s efforts. The growth armor was potent, and her own was somewhat more geared toward defending against ranged attacks, but that ultimately didn’t matter.
The strength of her convictions and mastery of her blade would decide this fight, not some fancy suit of armor.
She had been hoping for Folded Reflections since she had heard about it. The reward was incredible, obviously, but that was the least important part. Susanne needed to prove to everyone, most importantly herself, that she would forge herself anew with each challenge conquered, each skill mastered, and each enemy slain. That she could wade through a planet filled with death and walk out the other end unbroken at a Tier few others had. There was nothing more direct to prove that than fighting your own past, literally for the challenge, and overcoming it for the reward.
She was here to test her mettle and her metal, to prove that she would always come back stronger and batter down any threat or challenge. To prove that she wouldn’t let her past define her, that she would never back down, and that she would never falter.
Her manifestation was escalating in power as she focused, and as it reached new heights, both she and her clone activated [Iron Skin] at the same time, with the metal racing out from her steel gray eyes to cover her body.
The final fight of its life had begun.
Her clone opened with the same move it almost always did—s***h its blade to turn invisible and cut through space. It was odd learning that she was predictable, but she’d been able to adjust from the last half-dozen times that she had fought her reflections, whereas this copy hadn’t.
She swung out with her own sword, aiming at the spot she predicted her copy would make an appearance.
Her blade impacted with something, and she knew she had been correct.
The copy reappeared as [Cracked Second Wind] knit its flesh back together and lunged at her, this time fully visible.
She backed up and blocked the blow to savor the feeling of her Concept manifestation clashing with another.
It wasn’t like the feeling of a blade hitting another blade. Instead, it was similar to when she battered down someone else’s Concept, though not quite identical. A manifestation was more solid than that.
A tiny bit more real.
She had fought others with weapon manifestations a couple of times at Carol’s behest, but they were all at a much greater Tier than her, and she hadn’t been able to feel this unique sensation then. Her previous reflections had given her a similar experience, but none of them had quite so solid a Manifestation.
Each time she experienced the clash, she was able to refine her blade, feeling its weaknesses like never before through her reflection.
Two inches from the top of her blade on the left side, there was a spot that had stung like a sore tooth during the impact.
Taking that knowledge, she polished her manifestation to remove that weakness, even as she threw herself at her Minkalla copy.
At first, they fought with purely their mundane blade skills, but that only lasted until she forced her copy back through her potion enhanced strength, and it decided to cast [Wind Cutter] at her.
Susanne cut the attack in half with a single swing of her blade, then followed up with [Dash] and used the boost in speed to close the gap between herself and her copy.
As she brought her blade around in a heavy swing, she smiled as her copy back-stepped just enough to dodge the blade while preparing to rush back in. But instead, Susanne cast [Mana Blade] to extend her weapon.
Her reflection seemed surprised by the move, but it summoned a second copy of her Concept manifestation and blocked the now larger descending blade. Meanwhile, the fake Susanne’s main blade lunged forward, trying to impale her original.
Using her own Concept to create a second version of her blade as well, Susanne blocked the lunge and cast [Counter]. The spell repelled the blade with explosive force, and Susanne used her main blade to cut out in retaliation, but her reflection used its own [Counter] to block the blow.
Not wanting the skirmish to fall into a stalemate of [Counters] until one of them ran out of mana, Susanne cast [Fire Burst] and allowed the explosion of flames to wash over her copy.
While it worked, the reflection had its own defenses, even if it didn’t have [Fire Manipulation], so it was only singed by the blast.
Her reflection cast [Dash] and [Hypersonic Edge] as the flames washed away.
[Fleet Feet] enhanced her footwork, and she sidestepped and then ducked under the swipe of her copy’s weapon while lunging forward and casting [Mana Thrust].
She nearly cut the reflection in half with the attack, but it managed to block her blow, so they fell back into a stalemate.
Susanne retreated a few steps and cast [Momentum Overcharge], allowing the spell to steal some of her speed, and when it had a good bit of energy stored up, she cast [Dash] to close the gap once again. As her blade came around, she unleashed [Momentum Overcharge], and when her blade impacted her copy’s, she overpowered the upraised sword and smashed both of their blades into the copy’s chest.
She was sure that it was going to kill the copy, but [Phantom Armor] sprung up and took the brunt of the blow, to her irritation. Susanne definitely hadn’t had the skill active when they entered the floor, which meant it must have cast it sometime during this very fight. But that told her that the mirror was lower on mana than she was.
That was useful information.
- Writer
