Time Looped

Will kept staring at the mirror that had appeared. It was just as large as any he had seen, glowing in a faint purple light. The disturbing thing was that, unlike all other mirrors so far, this had sprouted from the dead goblin knight's corpse.

"Haven't seen that before," Will said. Usually, he was prompted to choose after the start of the challenge.

"What?" Luke asked.

"It's that… nothing."

The enchanter looked at the mirror, then at Will again.

"You can see it?" Luke pressed on.

The druid woman had told Will that it was always prudent to keep the extent of his skills secret. Anyone could tell that was a good idea. Yet, once under suspicion, he had to give up something.

"Which side—" Will began.

"—of the mirror?" The other finished for him. "You got that on your first challenge phase?"

"Yeah?"

"That's lucky. Way lucky."

"Is it that rare?"

"For someone like you, yes. It's just rankers that—"

"He's not interested in that," a firm female voice made the boy stop. Lucia and Jace had finally arrived at the scene. Considering the intensifying explosions in the city, it was not a moment too soon. "Choose the side."

Initially, Will thought she was addressing him. Before he could take a step, Luke was already near the mirror. Gently, the enchanter placed his hand on the reflective surface and pushed.

The mirror spun around, revealing a single keyhole in the middle.

That was a possibility Will hadn't considered. So far, he had relied on eternity to give him the choice after entering. Apparently, it was also possible to do it beforehand.

"Your turn," the archer told Jace.

The jock looked at the mirror, then shook his head.

"I've only done weapons before." He took out a knife from his mirror fragment. "Not even sure how this would work."

"Get the size right. Luke will do the rest."

Jace looked at the girl with a mixture of amusement and annoyance, making it difficult to tell whether he'd want to hit her or hit on her. Ultimately, he went towards the mirror.

The knife transformed, turning into an old-style key with a wooden head. There was an amount of charm in it making it feel at home in a tourist or antique shop.

Thinking nothing of it, the jock tossed it to Luke.

So, that's how you do it. Will thought.

It was a neat skill, which once again seemed overpowered. There didn't seem to be any time or use limitations. Luke was, in effect, copying the skill of another class without restrictions. As long as the item was at hand, there was virtually no difference.

"Here goes." The boy slid the key in the keyhole.

The entire mirror rippled, then pulled the key in. Once it had vanished completely, Lukas placed his hand on it.

The sound of sirens and explosions abruptly stopped. Gone was the faint smell of smoke and petrol in the air, along with the ring of trees that, until recently, surrounded the spot. Simultaneously, the sun had also gone. The entire city was suddenly submerged in a dusky twilight.

"Everyone have night vision?" the archer asked.

Jace shook his head.

The enchanter reached into his mirror fragment and tossed a pair of glasses at him.

"What the fuck?" The jock looked at the glasses. They were the cheap plastic type that children would wear on Halloween when they couldn't find anything else. "I'm not wearing that!"

"There's no one to see you," Will said.

For a moment, it might have felt like a dig, but even in the dim light, one could quickly tell it was the objective truth. The city around them, while seemingly there, was all in ruins. Will could feel the same sense of decay that he had felt back when he had gone with Daniel to find the eye.

"What's this place?" he asked.

"It's a gathering spot," the archer replied. "Hidden challenge rewards that haven't been claimed are stored here."

That explained why there were twenty-nine left. Someone must have taken at least one. Could that have been the lost eye?

"I hope you're right, Stoner." Jace put on the glasses. "For your sake."

The wind blew through the deserted buildings, creating an annoying high pitched how like a whistle. Other than the radio tower missing, there didn't seem to be any direct destruction. Rather, it was as if the city had gone through accelerated decay. Back before the loops, Will remembered watching pseudo documentaries that explained in great detail what would happen to a city should humans suddenly vanish. This was nothing of the sort. Neither plants nor animals had invaded. As far as he could tell, even insects weren't present. Everything had simply deteriorated in perfectly sterile fashion.

"We're not the first ones here," Will noted, spotting a barricade or furniture and shopping carts not too far away. The traces of fighting almost seemed fresh: knives were clearly visible sticking out from the debris. "Are they failures?"

Upon hearing that word, Lucia and her brother looked at each other.

"Something like that," she replied vaguely.

"What are failures?" Jace asked.

Will didn't answer, keeping his eyes locked on the archer's expression. Mentioning the failures was a mistake.

"What are fucking failures?" the jock raised his voice.

An arrow shot from a distant building provided the answer. It never hit its target, being intercepted by one shot by the archer, but at that moment the enemy became visible, revealing a second archer. The girl was a lot messier that Lucia, her clothes covered with dirt and dust. A gaping hole could clearly be seen on her stomach all that distance away. Nonetheless, she was still holding an archer's bow and clearly had the skills to use it.

"Fucking zombies?!" Jace managed to say.

Several streams of arrows filled the air, as Luke also joined in. The fake archer tried to hold off the attacks by targeting the arrows aimed at her. The attempt quickly failed, as she was only able to handle half of the projectiles.

Seconds after the sneak attack had taken place, the failed archer collapsed on the building rooftop, pierced by several dozen arrows.

"Not zombies," the archer replied. "Failed versions of us."

"Mirror copies?" the jock asked.

"Versions," the girl corrected. "Like the versions of us after the end of the loop. Just different."

"Okay." Jace walked up to her. "Different how?"

"They're all the versions of us that were killed," Will said.

The explanation proved sufficient, for there were no further questions.

"Lucia will take care of them," Luke said, breaking the brief silence. "We just have to find the target and get the skill."

"If you're going to tell him, just tell him." Will drew a knight's sword from his mirror fragment. He still wasn't thrilled that Jace had kept secrets from him working with Alex and the archer, but he disliked the girl's attitude more. Being cautious was one thing. Putting everything at risk because of over-caution was something completely different.

"Fair," she said. "The targets are hidden among the failures. The rewards are hidden within them. The moment we kill it, we gain the prize. All we have to do is keep Will alive till we find the right one."

The implication was clear: Will was non-expendable. Jace had already done his part and from here on it didn't particularly matter whether he survived or not. As long as Will was there to see things through, the jock was still going to get his reward, in this loop or the next. If Stone was to fail, though, they'd have to wait for the next contest phase, at least.

"How do we know?" Will asked. "There are twenty-nine rewards. We need the time rewind one."

"Luke's here for that," the archer replied. "When you see a silver go, go for that failure."

With that, the hunt began. It was a somewhat familiar experience. In this realm, both groups were simultaneously hunters and hunted. The failure's only goal was to destroy the originals, regardless if they gained any satisfaction in the action or not. In turn, the four participants had to search the city in order to find the elusive prize bosses. The only consolation was that the enemies didn't believe in remaining hidden for long. The moment they got any somewhat adequate opportunity to attack, they did so either alone or in large numbers.

"Fuckers!" Jace cursed beneath his breath.

Explosions were rattling the street. The issue was that while the jock's failures were using his skills to create and throw grenades, there was nothing that he could do in return. A prize-holder had been spotted among the crowd and it wasn't the one the group was seeking. If they were to kill it, even by accident, the challenge would end and they'd only get some no doubt precious, yet useless in the circumstances, skill.

Arrows fell like rain, striking dozens of crafters, yet that didn't seem to affect the numbers at all.

"Hold tight." Will grabbed the jock beneath the armpits and leaped up onto one of the stable buildings. It was a risky move.

With enemy archers, any high spot made them easy targets. Sadly, the alternative was worse.

"What level are you?" he asked Jace.

"Huh?" the other responded.

"The failures are your level. So, what are you?"

"Four." Jace replied. "Five." He added in a few seconds.

Will had his doubts. His hope was that the jock wasn't lying too much. Facing high-level crafters was no joke. Facing archers was bad enough, although for some reason the enemies didn't feel remotely as destructive as Lucia. So far, their arrows proved incapable of destroying buildings; they acted just like normal projectiles… very precise normal projectiles.

A small swarm of scarabs rose into the air, flying off towards the cluster of failures. Lucas was resorting to his defense skills. The failures likely quickly understood what he was going for, targeting the large insects with grenades and flamethrowers. The moment a scarab was hit, it instantly exploded in a burst of white light.

"Go for the airport!" Lucia shouted.

Will didn't need telling twice, yet just as he was about to grab Jace and leap away from the scene, he caught sight of something.

Three of the failures in the crowd had started to glow. Two were enveloped in a faint purple light indicating they held hidden boss skills. The third one, however, was surrounded by a whitish light. In all honesty, Will couldn't be certain whether that was the silver that the archer had warned him about or just a plain white light. The difference was subtle even in the best of conditions. What he knew was that they couldn't afford to ignore it.

"I see him!" he shouted. "Silver glow."

Mentally, he prepared himself to hear the inevitable reaction that the glow wasn't silver but platinum, or something equally as nitpicky. To his surprise, no such thing occurred.

"Get away!" the archer shouted. "There's too many to reach him."

Too many? Will wondered. Maybe for the archer and her brother. The pair were still stuck in the street below. If they were to stop shooting now, the mass of enemies would overrun them and floor the entire block with grenades. The same couldn't be said for him and Jace, though. Using his concealment skill, there was a good chance that he could reach the building next to the target and kill him off with a blight knife.

Will looked around, mentally creating a path he had to follow. A lot of the buildings near the failures had suffered significant damage due to the grenades. At least one was flimsy to the extreme. Even a pigeon would cause it to topple over should it land on what was left. If one were to jump over it, though, there was a billboard frame that could probably withstand his weight for long enough to perform the kill.

"Jace, do you trust me?" Will asked in the fashion one did before doing something outright crazy.

"Fuck no!" the other replied without hesitation. "But it can't be much worse than all this."

"Right." Will smirked, then grabbed the jock again and leaped in the direction of the failures.