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Teal feathers the size of swords drift onto the grass. The sun is eclipsed by the monster 3 times the size of a blue whale. The feathers have a paper texture, yearning to be filled with stories. Its body is as slender as a snake. It has a vulture's legs and one's neck, too. Eyes as vast as curiosity itself sit on the owl-shaped head. Staring deep into them, you see an oasis of stars and cosmic clouds. Celestial light circles its wings and neck as the ethereal energy fumes from the beast.

Kurt told me its name. It is a creature of astronomical magic. It can travel the cosmos and is the bringer of life and death. It is the reason only a handful have beaten this trial is this creature. The name of the beast is Decisive.

I have to beat a literal god to clear my debt. No worries... that's a lie, I'm shitting myself. The first time I ran onto this island, I saw the bird sleeping. I didn't want to let it one-shot me, so I sprinted to it and woke up back in the aisle. I cried for two weeks straight after. Not of fear or disappointment. Almost like my body was repenting from a cosmic sin.

This is my fourth time facing it. I only have one plan to face this. I just need one more step. Grass is kicked up in the air as I charge at the bird. It doesn't move. It looks down on me; I thought I was past this.

RYE

Moon kicks!

Moon Kicks

An attachment placed on shows will give you an aura around your body that lowers the gravity of that area to one-sixth its original force.

My body is lighter, so I leap into the air and swing my blade at its ankle. A gust of wind slams me when the monster flaps its wings. With low gravity, I can prevent much damage when my body crashes into the ground.

The monster's beak spears toward me. I hold my shield. Even at a lesser gravity, my feet break the ground below me as I dig deeper into the dirt from the impact. My arms struggle to hold the shield up. It feels like a mountain is about to crush me.

Either way, the final task is completed, and my plan can start. I can feel the mirror get heavier. I don't know how this will work, as it's my first time using the shield, but I hope it shouldn't be that hard.

From the mirror, a glass stop sign emerges from the goo and slams on the monster's beak, knocking it off balance. I move back as the shield becomes harder to hold up. Crawling out of my mirror is a Gorilla skeleton, STOP, but made of glass.

Two more follow behind it, and then a glass anaconda head is birthed from the shield. I drop to my knees as a mammoth pours out, with a tsunami of ghosts, vampires, sand golems, everything that I have a face now, but made of glass.

Battles Past Shield

A bracelet that produces a round mirror shield. It has two effects.

It will liquefy to reduce damage and absorb the blows. Once a day, the mirror can release copies of anything that has hit the shield. Their strength is proportional to the force of the original impact.

The final creature emerges from the shield. The monster steps back as its eyes widen while it stares at a glass replica of itself. The bird's feather rises as he bellows a screech that shakes the island, and the sky rips, revealing the space and stars that sound the trials. The island crumbles at this beast's voice as chunks of the meadow fall into the cosmic sea.

My army charges at the beast. It takes a while for my plans to be in tune. Sometimes I get lucky, and they work the first time. I don't know if it will now. The phantoms are crushed under the bird's talons, but the rest survive.

I jump in the fray as I ride the mammoth's back. The snakehead gently grabs me in its mouth and launches me toward the beast's back. I stab my sword as it lets out a loud screech. I never thought a blade so small could cause this much pain. I don't let up as I stab and stab.

As my blade embedded itself in, the bird launched into the air. I hold on to my life as we leave the island and enter the cosmos. My breath is visible, and my fingers start to numb. I hear a second screech as the glass duplicate slams its body into the beast.

The fake bird gently grabs me on its feet off its back and flies toward the island. The beast carves its talons on the glass fake's back. I hold tight onto the glass feat as I yell.

RYE

Moon Kicks!

Our crash landing is lightened by the impact, leaves a crater on the ground, and my glass clone loses a wing. My mind jumps to all the steps I should take, and all the possible failures take hold of me. My chest grows heavy. I have to keep fighting this?. I thought I was past this. The all-consuming fear. Not of death but of what could go wrong. I mean, right after I thought about jumping on its back, I thought of a hundred ways that would get me killed.

The real beast lands. Its eyes sparkle like the cosmic sky above. A Ray of energy burst out of its eyes, hitting my fake beast's only good wing. The class fractiles float down like snow.

IT HAS LASER VISION!

I guarantee this can destroy this planet with ease... yet when I first entered the island, it never turned to me. Each time, it waited for me to make a move. It waited.