Chương 70: 70 Loop 2, Part 24

I raised my wand to match. Which was a problem, because the second I moved, my clone started casting. And I realized I needed to beat him to it." [Spark]," I said before he could cast." [Spark]," he repeated in my voice half a second later, with the same exact panicked intonation. The two spells collided in midair with a small pop and the smell of smoke. I cast [Gust] next, because maybe it'd shove him back and give me time to think. But of course, he cast the same damn thing.

And the two gusts of wind collided head-on. Both spells died immediately. My robe blew up over my face, and through [Wideview], I saw it do the same to him. Well, fuck. He had my spells, and my timing, and reacted exactly the same way I did.

"How you doing?"

"Doing great."

"You're copying me," I said. Mostly because when people talked, they got distracted. And when people got distracted, they made mistakes. But not me. I never made mistakes.

"Obviously." My clone smiled. The grin was feral and full of teeth.

"I don't smile like that. I barely smile at all. I've always considered it a point of pride."

"You'd know what your own smile looks like if you ever practiced." I floated a step back. And a thought came to me. If I was dealing with this guy, then what was going on with Axe, Flag, and Finn? I reached out to my [Soul Tether] and thought in his direction. Flag? You okay, buddy? Whoa, ho, ho. The wrong voice responded. A [Soul Tether], and a [Mana Tether]. He tilted my copied head at an angle Big Gym would have been proud of. And then he paused. There was a brief burst of confusion on his face.

For all he was pretending to be a clone of me, he didn't really have the mannerisms down. That was for sure. Very fascinating. And at your age, too. Hmmm. Did you know there's a whole family of tether spells? Of course you don't. You only know two. He laughed. It wasn't quite my laugh. I had gotten him talking. And now it was time to do what I did best. Blather on until my opponent made a mistake.

"It's called efficiency, dude."

"It's called the bare minimum," he retorted. He floated a step closer. So I floated farther back. This time, I was in for a long game of cat and mouse.

"You learned exactly what you needed to learn to create an army of golems, and you didn't bother to do more research to make them better. I know people like you. Too afraid of effort to ever justify more than the minimum needed to survive. What a sad, sad state of affairs." I started trying to come up with a plan. Because of [Wideview], I'd never hit a dead end. I kept floating backwards at the same pace my clone moved.

"I'm not afraid of work. I'm opposed to work. It's quite different. One's a phobia. The other's a policy, man."

"Sure, sure," he said. There was nothing mean in it, but it was certainly a dismissal.

"Whatever gets you through the day, Lazlo Yarrow. Nephew of Corwen Yarrow." There were a few things in this world that knocked me off my game. People being put in danger and no one helping. People in power abusing that power. And people threatening, or even just talking bad about, my friends and family. I didn't answer him. Not immediately. It felt like if I answered him, I'd be admitting it mattered to me. That would be giving him a jump on me instead of putting the ball in his court.

So I pretended I didn't hear him. I was annoyed I'd let Finn keep the map, but [Wideview] told me the hall behind me ran on for a good while yet. I didn't have to worry about running out of room.

"You don't have to look so constipated," the clone said.

"I knew your uncle, boy." Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"Everybody knows him, dude. You're not special. He runs the school above our heads."

"Oh, no. Not like that." Somehow, its already wild smile grew more feral.

"Corwen Yarrow has been through my halls many times." It was clear he was trying my tactics on me, so I needed to mix things up. I lifted my wand and just threw out a [Spark] to keep the clone on its toes. It rolled its eyes and swatted the spell away.

"And here I thought we were having an adult conversation."

"Yeah, but those are a lot of effort, and I'm not really sure it's worth it yet to talk with you." The talk so far had actually been pretty interesting, and I was curious about how well my uncle did in this place. But I wasn't quite sure if rage-baiting was the way to go. Then again, I also wasn't sure playing the curious nephew was worth it, either, especially given that I was pretending like I didn't care. But like any good villain, this dungeon liked to hear itself talk.

Despite my best efforts to derail the conversation, he put it right back on track.

"It is impressive how you manage to deflect and change a conversation. But as I am sure you will find, it is not the right way to beat a dungeon. Now, where was I?" He continued moving forward, keeping steady with my pace. Or maybe I was keeping steady with his.

"As I was saying, your uncle would get to the third floor. But he'd run out of time. The problem with expensive spells and large mana pools is the meditation, or sleep, required to refill your bar. It is fascinating to me how often he would do exactly those same things. He paused, and looked at me. I didn't like what I saw on his face: mix of cruelty and excitement.

"And then one day, he stopped trying to clear my floors."

"Sounds like my Uncle." I said.

"He probably found better things to do with his time."

"Then there's you. Backing down the hallway, waiting for me to make a mistake so that you don't have to put in real work. Should I let you wait to find out what's going to happen? Or spoil the ending right now?"

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess I die, or get tortured, or get tied up?" I paused for a moment and added, "Have you ever considered a career in giving unsolicited advice?"

"Not everything needs to be a joke." I shrugged.

"People like jokes, man."

"No. You like jokes. You use them to steer the conversation away from anything serious. Or toward topics you'd rather discuss."

"I don't know, man. Seems like the conversation's still right here."

"Sure. That's why you're getting annoyed at me."

"I'm not annoyed," I lied. It probably would have been more convincing if I hadn't thrown a spell at him two minutes ago.

"You've been doing this your entire life, haven't you?" He grinned that same feral grin.

"Call yourself lazy before anyone else gets the chance to call you something worse. You wear it as a badge of honor. That way, nobody ever notices you're actually good at things. So when you show bursts of effort and intelligence and work, you can play it off as if you weren't really trying at all." I kept floating backward. The corner was coming now. I'd have to make my move.

"So?" I said, a bit flippantly.

"So, nothing. It's a brilliant strategy. For handling people. But you aren't dealing with people. You're dealing with me." He spread his arms, and the water mirrors gave him an army. They rippled behind him. Hands pushing through, followed by arms and shoulders, and then faces that stretched out of the silvery water, turning into familiar shapes as they stepped free. First, one Lazlo walked onto the floor, and then another, and then six more. But within seconds, there were dozens of them.

Every one had my face, my robes, and that same fucking smile. They packed the area from wall to wall and immediately started moving. A whole crowd of me came straight toward… well, me, with their wands raised, spells blasting. I did the sensible thing. I turned the corner and moved. There was definitely no panicking involved. Of course, that was when I flew face-first into the wall that had not been there five seconds ago. My own face stared back at me from less than an arm's length away.

And then it, too, walked out of the wall. And then more and more appeared. I was surrounded. Fuck. Fuck.

"I'm suddenly having a very specific nightmare," I said. I glanced around, taking in the growing hordes and trying not to panic. I needed something, anything, to give me a moment and let me get my plan into action. I floated up into the air and cast [Slick] as the first of the clones made it past the corner. The spell spread across the stone between us in a thin, gleaming sheet. The first of the clones stepped onto the water, and nothing happened. It sank with a quick splash and walked on through to the other side.

I stared down at their feet. And then another clone stepped through. Its foot lost shape as it blurred into the puddle before pulling itself back together on the other side. Oh. Oh. Realization hit me. These clones weren't human. That was what the dungeon had meant. Right? Was he giving me a clue to solve this room? What the fuck? That made no damn sense. But I couldn't think of any other reason he'd say that. My plan faltered before it began and a new one started taking shape.

However, the second pause in my concentration had been enough for some of the water clones to catch up to me. I felt a wet, watery hand grip my ankle and yank down. Fuck. I fell flat on my face. But it was nice to have confirmation that they were, indeed, made of water. Because it meant I'd been fighting this entire fucking fight wrong. From the floor, I cast [Gust] and shot up toward the ceiling as the spell shook me from my captor's grip. Unfortunately, it proved to be too late to save me.

The clones stopped trying to climb each other and came up with a new plan. Almost like they were all one synchronized being, they collapsed into puddles and began merging together.