Chapter 96: Chapter 92 – Mirror Match (Stage 3)

The doors were marked with a sea lion, a bipedal lizard in clothing, and a large manlike figure. It was pretty easy to figure out they needed to take the last door (“Yeti”), the sea lion door, and the kobold door.

When they walked through the kobold door, they found themselves in a cave. Unlike the last corridor, this one twisted and wound like an actual cave passageway, though the ground was still far too level to be purely natural. Echo was the first to hear noise in the distance, but as they got closer everyone could hear it - bellows, slams, high-pitched cheering, screams, and some barks that sounded very much like the sea lions.

A battle was happening up ahead.

The passageway opened up onto a large cavern. The cavern walls were rough, and there were few stalactites or stalagmites, though there were several columns off to the left of the entrance. It was not a pretty cave.

Serenity halted near the entrance. He could see bodies scattered across the floor.

Most of the bodies were kobolds, but he saw several large, white-furred piles and at least two sea lions. All of the larger bodies were surrounded by dead kobolds. Past the dead bodies, he could see two knots of fighting and a group of kobold archers. The fighting seemed to be kobolds attacking everything else.

As he watched, a yeti fell. He heard a cheer from the kobolds.

A minute later, he watched a yeti wander in from deeper in the cave and charge the kobolds. It tripped on something Serenity couldn’t make out and skidded to the knot of fighting kobolds and yeti. One of the kobolds stabbed it before it got up, but it was definitely still in the fight.

Serenity turned around. Everyone else was gawking the same way he had been. “I’m not sure if we should just watch or interfere. Probably we need to do something…”

After a few more minutes, it became clear that when the yetis and sea lions fell, they were replaced, but the kobolds weren’t.

“I think we’re supposed to help the kobolds.” Serenity readied his bow and some arrows. It was time to see if fire did any more to the yeti than lightning had. “Let’s stop the yeti first, they seem to be a bigger threat.”

Taller, at least. The sea lion bull was almost certainly more massive.

The first arrow scorched the yeti’s fur and pulled its attention away from the kobolds. It roared and charged.

And almost immediately tripped. The group was able to bring it down before it regained its feet.

The next two yeti did a little better, but still didn’t make it past halfway.

That only left two yeti standing - well, running at the group. They somehow avoided the traps until they were close, then slid on something coating the ground.

Serenity was glad he’d decided not to run in and attack. These kobolds had trapped everything.

The kobolds pelted one with arrows as it stood, leaving it dripping blood and roaring while the last yeti threw itself at the group. Serenity drew his shield from the Quick Belt and took the slam. It knocked him backwards and his ankles - hocks? - ached, but he halted the yeti and the shield took the claw strike. The yeti grabbed the side of the shield and started to yank it away from Serenity as Lancaster shot it in the head from a step away.

The yeti fell.

While Serenity’s attention was on the charging yeti, the last remaining yeti had turned back to the kobolds, tripped again, and was standing up. Echo and Moira shot it while Serenity traded weapons again.

Once the last yeti resembled a white-and-red pincushion, Serenity changed targets to the bull sea lion. The kobolds were keeping the cows busy, which made the bull an easy target. This time, he was able to safely rain arrows down on it instead of climbing on its back and clawing it to death.

Serenity was still a little amazed that had succeeded.

Shooting the bull was a much easier task. It still took a while, but with large numbers of kobolds and traps between the group and the sea lions, the outcome was never in doubt.

Once the sea lions were all down, the kobolds erupted in cheers. The only word Serenity could recognize was “DRAGON!”

They headed forward and the cheering kobolds gathered around. A smaller one with a bow walked up to Serenity. “Dragon! We celebrate! We gather and watch you defeat greatest enemy! Then feast!”

“Defeat greatest enemy? Do you mean the yeti?” Serenity didn’t think the battle was that impressive.

“Follow! We celebrate!” The kobold runt scurried away, followed by the other cheering kobolds. Serenity shrugged and followed. It didn’t sound like they intended harm, and if they did, well, kobolds weren’t usually that dangerous individually; it was traps and numbers that made them dangerous.

They were led through another winding passageway to a smaller cavern. Unlike the previous cavern, the walls were covered in multicolored flowstone and soda straw stalactites dripped into a pool of water that covered the right of the cave.

The kobolds stood in the shallow pool of water and waved the party onward. The runt ran up to them. “Greatest enemy! Win then feast!” He pointed towards the far end of the cavern, nodded frantically, then ran back to the pool of water.

As they approached the far end of the cave, they could see another group emerge from the darkness. There were five people, and all seemed human. It wasn’t until they got closer that Serenity could tell that the person in the lead was himself … as he’d been when he’d entered the dungeon, but completely black including the equipment. Human and with equipment far inferior to what he had now.

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The others were the rest of the group. They didn’t look as different, but the equipment made it clear that they were also from the beginning of the first level. Serenity was glad they were all shadow-creatures; he didn’t need the memory of killing his friends. Killing shadows shaped like them would be bad enough, but at least they didn’t have his friends’ faces.

Mirror-Serenity and Mirror-Lancaster charged, while Mirror-Echo and Mirror-Moira started shooting Rissa. Mirror-Rissa just stood there.

There wasn’t time to figure out how best to do this.

“Everyone concentrate on Echo! I’ll try to hold off the melee! Rissa, heal yourself!”

Serenity pulled out his naginata and set himself for Mirror-Lancaster’s charge. Mirror-Serenity would likely be more skilled and able to heal himself, but Mirror-Lancaster would have Skills. That meant Mirror-Lancaster would be easier to take out and a more immediate problem. He needed to reduce the front line fight to one on one so the others could handle the backline.

Mirror-Lancaster tried to stop just outside Serenity’s range, but misjudged the distance. Serenity could reach him if he lunged, but he wanted Lancaster coming at him; he needed to deal with that knockback skill first. He dug his claws into the rock surface.

It was too bad the knockback skill was stamina-based; his new reflection bracers wouldn’t work on it. It would have been useful to be able to make Lancaster knock himself back.

Serenity let Mirror-Serenity pass him as Mirror-Lancaster swept down with his sword. Serenity skidded backwards a few inches, but kept his balance as his claws cut through the rock, slowing his slide.

He was definitely going to have to do something nice for his feet after this fight. His toes hurt, and both of his legs felt strained.

Serenity took a step forward and lunged, taking Mirror-Lancaster by surprise. He buried the naginata in Mirror-Lancaster’s chest.

Leather armor simply wasn’t up to a Sharp point being shoved through it with Serenity’s strength.

Mirror-Lancaster wasn’t going to be a problem unless he had a healing spell or Mirror-Rissa was able to get to him in time. The naginata didn’t come out easily, but Serenity was able to free it and he used the blade to cut Mirror-Lancaster’s throat.

One down.

He turned and threw the naginata at Mirror-Serenity. He didn’t expect to take out his double, but if he caught him by surprise, he might be able to force the use of the emergency runes.

Mirror-Serenity had targeted Rissa as well. She blocked the first strike, but it left her out of position for the next blow.

Serenity’s throw hit the back of Mirror-Serenity’s head. There was an explosion of color that rippled across Mirror-Serenity’s head and upper body before vanishing right as Lancaster tackled him, knocking him away from Rissa.

“Echo’s down!” yelled Echo. Serenity had to glance over to be certain that it was his Echo yelling and Mirror-Echo that was down. “Swapping to Moira!”

Two down.

Serenity took the moment Mirror-Serenity needed to get up from the tackle to recover his naginata. It was a good weapon to use to hold someone off when what he needed was time and attrition. If he - or even he and Lancaster - could hold off Mirror-Serenity while the others took out Mirror-Moira and Mirror-Rissa, they’d be able to win.

Serenity couldn’t afford to get hit too much; Mirror-Serenity could probably heal, but Serenity couldn’t. His healing all seemed to disappear to maintain his body, even with as much mana as they’d been able to put into him when they weren’t fighting. He’d physically recovered, but he suspected that any extra he gathered was being stolen by his Aspect.

Serenity circled around Mirror-Serenity, placing himself in front of Rissa. He could hear Rissa muttering [Quick Heal]. She should be fine. Surely.

Mirror-Serenity stood and started to circle around to get at Rissa. Serenity knew that trick, and blocked the move with his naginata, forcing Mirror-Serenity to step back or be hit. “I’ve got this, get Mirror-Moira!”

Serenity was pinned down, protecting Rissa - but he had the better weapon for this and he knew the same tricks Mirror-Serenity did. Serenity could have hit Mirror-Serenity with a sacrifice move several times, but it wasn’t worth it. There was time. It wasn’t long before Echo called out “Moira down!”

Once Mirror-Rissa was down, they were all able to concentrate on Mirror-Serenity. He took longer than the rest of the team, because he blocked Serenity and Lancaster’s attacks and healed a lot before his healing ran out.

It was an ugly fight. Mirror-Serenity seemed to have Serenity’s full healing ability, and that meant he was emaciated before he stopped healing. Serenity was glad when it was over. He hoped he wouldn’t see the fight in his nightmares, but suspected he would.

Moments after Mirror-Serenity went down, cheering erupted behind them as the kobolds rushed forward. The runt ran up to Serenity. “Feast for winners!”

Serenity watched the kobolds run ahead of them. “You know, I always thought dungeon monsters weren’t real. I’m beginning to wonder about that assumption a bit. These kobolds are something else.”

Rissa hugged Serenity. She didn’t seem to have anything to say, but the hug was comforting. The hug reminded Serenity that she was there and it hadn't actually been his friends they'd fought. Everyone was safe.