Time Looped

Running along rooftops while carrying an actual person would have been comic under ordinary circumstances. Eternity changed all that. As Will rushed in the direction of the billboard, Jace held a massive tower shield, protecting him from the occasional arrows that appeared out of nowhere. Up till now, most of the enemies they'd faced were versions of Jace and Will, but there were enough copies of the archer to make things dangerous.

"This better work, Stoner!" Jace hissed. Each shot had the force of a cannonball, almost causing his arms to go numb.

"Sure." Will kept going. The chances for success didn't seem terribly good, but he had beaten worse odds. Besides, he had the archer on his side.

Several more arrows flew towards him, predicting his path. A second set of arrows struck them, sending them off course.

Will concentrated on the path ahead. The failures below didn't seem to have noticed him. Sadly, the same couldn't be said for the archer failures. At her level, it stood to reason that the monsters would see through such tricks. That meant he had to be fast.

Another explosion shook the street. Dozens of failures died in an attempt to take Luke with them. The shock caused Will to lose his balance for a moment.

"Hey!" Jace shouted.

"Sorry."

Will leaped to the side, then kept going. He was almost at the billboard. All he had to do was take one final leap. It wasn't going to be easy, especially while carrying Jace; still, it had to be done.

"Sorry about this, man," Will said, then took a final leap.

With the second explosion, there were two buildings he had to jump over. That, of course, was impossible. What was possible was to split the task in two.

"Shadow wolf!" Will shouted.

The creature leaped out from the building's remains. The darkness allowed it to appear anywhere without issue.

Will landed on the back of the creature, then propelled himself further.

"I need some smoke!" He told Jace.

The jock tossed the device into the mass of crafters. Streaks of white smoke erupted with a hiss, filling up the area.

The rogue's foot landed on the billboard with a thump. The entire thing creaked. Before the boy leapt down beyond, he slammed Jace on the metal stand that held the billboard.

"Hold tight!" Will leaped down.

"Fucker!" Jace grabbed hold, struggling not to fall.

Will smashed the head of a failure as he landed at the back of the pack. The smoke kept the rest from seeing him, though he knew that was temporary. For the moment, they were too focused on the enemies on the other end of the street. Soon enough, they would realize another participant had entered the fray.

The blade cut through the fake Jace's waist, splitting him in two. Given the nature of the entity, that wasn't enough to kill it, but at least rendered it relatively inoffensive. Two more stood between Will and his target. From this distance, the glow made the entity look almost angelic; silvery light covered all the holes and deformations surrounding that particular Jace in a gentle aura.

You're nothing but a treasure chest! Will reminded himself as he swung his sword, slicing off another failure's head.

The decapitated entity froze like a statue. That only left one. Unfortunately, Will had also lost his element of surprise.

The remaining failure reached into its backpack.

That was new. Will didn't remember Jace resorting to such tricks. The jock must have developed them on his own time.

Without hesitation, the boy threw his sword right at the failure's chest.

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Severely weakened, the failure dropped the grenade to the ground. Will instantly plunged forward, grabbing it. Even if it didn't kill him at this range, it would cause enough noise to attract the rest of the creatures.

The ball of plastic broke down into lighters that poured down to the ground. Right at that moment, Will could feel his pulse in his throat. That was too close for comfort.

A dagger hit the boy on the forehead, bouncing off. The skill had saved him from failure, also acting as a wake-up call, letting him know that it wasn't over.

"Shit!" Will jumped to his feet, quickly drawing a new weapon from his mirror fragment.

Mentally, he was prepared to charge at the reward holder with a series of vertical and horizontal slashes… until he set eyes on his opponent.

"You?" he said out loud, looking at a version of himself.

The silver glow was unmistakably there, but no longer was surrounding a Jace. Will's own face looked back, smirking in his superiority.

Reaching into its mirror fragment, the failure took out a bow.

Will found himself unable to move. It wasn't a skill, but the realization that he had completely misread the situation. The reward holders weren't common failures like in the eye challenge, they were hidden bosses.

Arrows pierced the smoke at Will's back, aimed at the silver failure.

Using his bow, the entity deflected them, then quickly leaped back and fired several arrows of his own. Projectiles hit one another, bursting into splinters on the spot.

"Snap out of it!" The archer's voice filled the air.

There was no telling where exactly it came from, but was enough to spring Will into action. Fear and doubt vanished, like a veil falling off the boy's eyes.

Will drew several knives from his belt and threw them at the silver failure. They were effortlessly deflected, though managed to create a slight opening in the enemy's defenses. That was precisely what the rogue was aiming for.

Releasing his weapon, he reached into the mirror fragment and drew out the binding chain. It was outright insane how powerful the weapon was, considering it had been obtained in the tutorial. While lacking the ability to kill, it could imprison any opponent, making them vulnerable to any subsequent attack.

Got you! Will thought, spinning the chain around him. The end went towards the enemy's foot. Moments before it came into contact, the silver failure jumped up into the air.

A new volley of arrows followed, aimed at Will. A substantial part of them were deflected by the archer. The rest Will managed to dodge, thanks to his evasion skill.

"Behind you!" The archer shouted just as another copy of Will leaped out from the mist.

The attacker was far away. Evading him would be easy, especially with the archer backing him up. Unfortunately, Will's innate reflexes kicked in right at the wrong moment.

Spinning around, the boy entangled his attacker with the chain.

"No!" Will pulled the chain in an attempt to shake it loose.

Several arrows struck the head of the captured failure, killing it on the spot, but it was already too late. One glance over the shoulder confirmed Will's fear—the silver failure had fled.

"Get out of here!" The archer's voice sounded. "I'll find you."

"I'll get Jace." Will looked up at the billboard. The smoke was making it difficult to see, so he dashed several steps away from the crowd. Then he saw it—the jock's lifeless body. Close to a dozen arrows had pierced him, turning him into a permanent fixture. Based on their angle, the only place they could have come was the ground.

I killed him, Will thought.

It had happened so fast that the rogue hadn't even noticed. For that matter, it didn't look like Jace had, either. The boy had his back to the attacker, probably being in the process of pulling himself up when he'd been hit. Leaving him there was a mistake; in fact, taking him along in the first place was a mistake. If Will had just left him on the rooftop after leaving the street, none of this would have happened.

You should have been able to handle it! He shouted on the inside. The jock had proven himself to be resourceful, too resourceful in some aspects, and yet had let himself get killed by a failure boss.

For over a minute, Will kept running, with no goal in mind. All he could see was the chance he missed.

It had been a good plan. He had reached the target without issue. And yet he had failed to deal the final blow. If only he had gotten a bit more support, or if he had used the blight knife right off. There always was the chance that the enemy would evade the attack, but it couldn't have been worse than what had just happened. Maybe Jace would have died. Now, there were only three of them left to complete the challenge.

The pain in his chest got stronger and stronger until, finally, Will was forced to stop. As he did, he made sure to pick a spot that was equally well protected from above and below.

"Fuck!" He slammed his hands on the building wall, cracking it in two spots.

It wasn't the first time he had been in a tough situation; it wouldn't even be the first time he'd failed a challenge, yet for some reason this cut too deep.

Calm. Will tried to relax his breathing.

Not all was lost. He was still alive, so there was hope. Better yet, so were the archer and her brother. Now that they had caught sight of the target, it would be a simple matter of killing him. All he had to do was stay alive and not do anything as risky as what he just had.

"That was dumb," a voice said from the window.

Will instinctively drew a weapon, only to see Luke sitting on the frame. The disapproval in his eyes was difficult to miss.

"Yeah." Will nodded. "Don't know what happened."

"You looked at him for too long," the enchanter replied as he walked in. "Don't do that again."

"Look at him?" Will asked, confused.

"High-level enchantment." Lucia entered through another window. "Bosses copy all class skills of the participants that enter."

Enchanting a person… The name said it all, but Will always expected such skills to be in the sage's domain.

"It'll pass in a bit." The girl looked out, checking if there were any failures nearby.

"I'm still affected?"

"High-level skills are high level." She put away her bow. "Wasn't all bad. We know where the prize is. All that's left is to catch him."

"They got Jace."

"He was expendable. Would have been nice if he had remained, but we're still fine."

So that was that. In some aspects, the girl reminded Will of Helen. Both of them had lost someone they cared deeply about and both of them were willing to do anything to get revenge.

"What happens when we take him out of eternity?" Will asked. "Does the loop end? Do we get back here?"

"Probably." The archer didn't sound particularly interested. Outside, the wind had picked up, breaking up into a nasty howl.

"What about our past selves? Do we hide from them?"

"Normals won't see us."

"Is it part of the skill?"

"Will, just shut up." The girl briskly turned around. "I know you're the rogue, but stay quiet." She paused a few seconds just to make sure her point got across. "It doesn't matter in the end. Eternity's rules are absolute. As long as we're careful, we'll be able to do what we need to do."

The warning was clear. Like her class, the archer went straight to the point, unwilling to be bogged down with details. A long time ago Helen had said that the class made the person. Back then, Will hadn't fully understood her. Now, he knew exactly what that meant, just like he knew Helen to be wrong. The classes added aspects of behavior, but it was more than that. People had to be accepted by a class before they were made part of eternity, and as Will had seen, the classes were picky.

"So, we track down the silver boss?" he asked, indicating he was ready to get going.

"Your enchantment must wear off first." The archer looked outside again. "After that, we go hunting."