Time Looped

“Stoner, what took you so long?”

Three sets of eyes turned in Will’s direction as he entered the girls’ bathroom. Part of him urged sharing the discovery he’d made. Getting the first permanent reward was a big deal, especially since there was a good chance it involved the use of the fragment. At the same time, he felt he couldn’t.

Having the ability to challenge monsters he’d previously faced presented too much of an advantage, and not just for him. Everyone would be able to acquire a lot more practice, figure out all enemies; weaknesses, and potentially even obtain more items from loot drops.

“My bad.” Will tossed the fragment to Helen. “Parts of the floor were gone.”

Alex audibly snorted at the joke. That only made Will feel worse. It wasn't even that he was able to take advantage of his new ability to obtain new items. Helen was needed to loot defeated monsters, and Jace had to be there to say exactly what they had obtained.

In a few loops, he told himself. He was going to tell them in a few loops.

“You were right,” Helen said as additional explanations emerged on the school map.

Glancing at it, Will could see the numbers four, five, and six.

“Must be the hint mirrors,” the girl noted. “Everything else seems the same.” She scrolled around.

“Next loop, we’ll have to check those out.”

“Why not now?” she pulled the fragment away and glanced over her shoulder. “There’s time.”

Not too long ago, it was Helen that had insisted that they take a pause after the fight. What was more, she had insisted on a pause of several loops before they went on with the tutorial. Getting her class weapon had dramatically changed that. Not that Will could blame her. He knew exactly what she felt. Even now, he was considering sharing his find just for the opportunity to get a second poison dagger.

In the end, everyone agreed not to waste the opportunity, especially now that they had figured out so much.

The basement was the first to get remapped. In the process, two more things were discovered. Apparently, the map could be revealed in any mirror, as long as it was Helen doing the initialization. That saved the effort of having to go back to the bathroom mirrors to check on discovery updates.

It was soon revealed that the basement only had two mirror rooms, one of which had a WOLF mirror. The mirror in the janitor’s storage room was viewed as common and had no additional explanations associated with it. Interestingly enough, hidden mirrors, even cleared ones, weren’t indicated at all.

The second revelation was that the fragment had the ability to copy hints present in other mirrors. It was Jace who found that after asking Helen to go through the tutorial hints again. It was at that point that they found that a set of new hints relating to the rogue class had been added.

“You were right,” Helen admitted after marking the mirror in the nurse’s office. “Having a map is useful. It also shows which rooms we’ve cleared.”

“Pity we can’t stash our weapons in there,” the jock said. “So, what now? We go on or we try to get another weapon.”

“Take a guess.” Will glanced at him.

“Why?” Jace crossed his arms. “So, we got fucked last time. Big deal. You two have weapons now, and muffin boy has enough class to make an army.”

“For real, bro?” Alex shook his head. “Mirror images are fragile. Will be a big oof to rely on them.”

“I can handle it.” Helen tapped on the massive sword she was carrying.

Will remained conflicted. Eternity had clearly stated that the weapons would help them against the boss, and seeing how they changed the outcome of a fight, one couldn’t disagree. There was a very good chance that the poison dagger had slowed down the knight’s reactions just enough for Helen to get the upper hand. Naturally, the group’s efforts were also a deciding factor.

“Alright,” the boy said after a while. “It’ll probably get more difficult further on. Just one thing, though. If we fail, take a rest. Deal?”

“Sure thing, bro.” Alex nodded.

“Whatever, man.” Jace shrugged, looking away.

“Helen?” Will turned to the girl.

“I won’t lose.” The girl tightened her grip round the sword’s hilt.

Her answer was a bit too noncommittal for Will’s liking, but at least he had an excuse to stop should it come to that. At the end of the day, all four of them were needed to engage with the tutorial.

Slowly, the four made their way to the killer room. Will put their chance of succeeding roughly at one to four. While it was true that two of them had weapons now, they still hadn’t figured out what methods the cactus used to kill them off so fast. All that was known from their current encounters was that the monster had thorns, darts, and vines, each of which killed at a single hit.

Will looked at the door.

“We know that traps are useless,” he noted.

“Harsh, bro,” Alex whispered.

“It didn’t have armor.” Helen readied her weapon. “I should be able to take it with one hit.”

“Where do you strike, though?” Will asked. “We’re not sure where it attacks from. It’s not on the walls, we checked last time.”

“Didn’t look like it was on the floor,” Jace added. “Maybe the ceiling?”

The idea had some merit. None of them remembered looking there.

“What if it’s on something else?” Alex asked. “Nothing says that hidden mirrors must be part of the room.”

“They have to be. Unattached mirrors don’t count,” Helen reminded.

“Huh-uh,” the goofballs hook his head. “The wolf mirrors upstairs aren’t attached. They’re part of the furniture.”

Technically, that was true. It was also true that they didn’t exactly fall into the unattached category, either. Even worse, size wasn’t a factor, either. All the monsters, without exception, were significantly larger than the mirrors they had emerged from. If taken to the extreme, it was possible that the giant thorn monster came out of a coin-sized mirror hidden in a non-obvious place. The only firm rule was that it had to reflect Helen.

“Doesn’t matter.” Helen shoved the mirror fragment into Jace’s hands, then grabbed the hilt of the massive sword with both hands. “I’ll break the door down. Will will move me out of danger if it attacks.”

“You’re a bit heavier with that sword,” the boy said.

“Big oof, bro,” Alex chuckled. “Never call a girl fat.”

The comment was ignored.

“Just one hit,” Helen repeated.

“One hit…” Will nodded.

As Helen faced the door, Alex created ten of his mirror copies. Jace, in the meantime, stepped up to the door and disassembled the hinges. All that remained now was the final move.

“Remember what you said,” Will whispered as he stood behind the girl. “We rest after this.”

“Only if I fail.”

The girl took a deep breath, then charged forward.

KNIGHT’s BASH

Damage increased by 500%

Door shattered

The door burst into pieces as the girl kicked right in the middle. Even before her action was over, her sword had swung, doing a vertical chop. The dark blade cut through the ceiling and door frame as it went further into the room.

Then, Will saw it.

What the hell? he thought. How could it be possible that he hadn’t noticed before? How was it possible that no one had? The mirror wasn’t in the room; it was part of the room, covering the entire ceiling like a dark cloud.

All it would have taken was for someone to shine a flashlight up to see the cloudy matt surface. Yet, how could they? In all their loops, mirrors were always placed on walls. It was the knight that had broken the pattern, and even that had cost them an entire loop. With a mirror so big that didn’t contrast with the surface it was placed on, the cactus could emerge from anywhere and no doubt it had.

A thorny vine emerged from a section of the ceiling, aimed straight at Helen’s head. At this point, the girl was too far in the room for him to help her evade the attack. There was only one remaining option.

“Above!” he shouted, throwing his poison dagger at the vine.

The blade bounced off the vine as if it were made of metal. Thankfully, in doing so, it managed to divert the attack from Helen.

Making use of the inertia, the girl slammed her foot, making it sink into the concrete of the floor, then twisted around, spinning the blade in full force. The vine snapped like a twig on contact, falling to the floor. Unfortunately, that only caused ten more to emerge.

“Get out of there!” Will shouted, drawing one of his throwing knives.

Alexes poured into the geography class. Although fast, they were too fragile to do any damage, so they just leaped in the way of the fines, creating a living shield around Helen.

“Go, sis,” one of them managed to say before being punctured by a cluster of vines a few feet away from her.

Gritting her teeth, the girl swung the blade around her again—cutting a few vines and shattering several more copies of the goofball in the process. The entire row of windows shattered, spilling glass outside the building. It was a safe bet that even if the monster didn’t kill them; the loop was effectively over. Such an amount of attention was certain to attract police, media, and everyone else in the next half hour at most.

Will felt conflicted. He could easily end the loop here and now, but at the same time, he also wanted to see what weapon the monster would drop. Plus, one more elite down meant one less obstacle for their next exploration loop.

Damn it, he said to himself, then leaped into the room.

“What are you doing?!” Jace shouted.

“Stay in the corridor!” Will yelled back. His eyes darted from spot to spot as he scrambled to find where his poison dagger was at. A vine shot out from the ceiling, aimed straight for his head, but was narrowly avoided.

“Why are you here?” Helen asked, as she sliced the vine that had tried to kill him. “You’ll end the loop!”

There was no time to react or even be angry about it. The plan that Will had come up with was insane enough. To have a chance of going on with it, he needed his dagger.

More mirror copies entered the room, creating a distraction for the cactus. Helen, too, kept on cutting vines left and right, her aggression shielding her from attacks.

Come on! Come on! Come on! Will looked all over the floor. It had to be there!

Suddenly, there was a faint glint in the darkness. The light from Helen’s headlamp must have reflected off an object, revealing it to the boy. It seemed as fate or pure luck. Either way, it was exactly what he needed.

Evading another vine, Will rolled along the floor to where the dagger lay. Now, the really absurd plan of his could take place. Snatching the weapon, he held his breath and used a rogue ability to leap into the ceiling.

Someone shouted, but the words were too distorted for him to hear what they meant. For a fraction of a second, Will saw himself flying straight at him, then everything changed as the mirror rippled away before him, like a melting plastic wrapper.

An eternity of fog and reflections extended as far as the eye could see, simultaneously making up everything and nothing. Like a bubble encompassing the universe, it connected everything to everything and also to itself. And within that special paradox, the true form of the giant cactus lived.

Here, it was both smaller and far larger than Will remembered it from their previous encounter. Hundreds of eyes stared at him, hidden between countless rows of thorns, both hateful and afraid. Vines the size of towers emerged from the massive torso, shooting down, like dozens of others already had. Each one of them had the strength to shred the boy to threads, yet none of them could.

Although surrounded by nothing, Will felt that his reactions were faster than ever before. Twisting his body with ease, he evaded the attacks, as if he were flailing in weightlessness. Moments later, he saw it—the creature’s weaknesses. There were hundreds of them—the space between the thorns and the eyes scattered all over his body.

“Hide from this!” Will threw his dagger.

Thousands of thorns burst out of the thorny body in response, yet they were doomed to fail. Will could tell that even those that would hit him were several fractions too slow. Still, there was no way anyone would make use of this. With his death, everyone’s loop would end, even if he’d restart with the knowledge that he’d managed to kill it first.

No one will believe me, the boy thought. At least there’s next time.

ROGUE moving beyond limits.

A message covered the whole of infinity.

Just as it did, Will’s dagger hit its target. The massive thorn entity shook violently, then froze completely static. What was more, all the thorns that had been shot out also froze, remaining motionless in space, as if trapped between existence and non-existence.

Returning ROGUE to eternity.