Chương 220

"The Mirror of the Abyss," Thalassa said, his voice dropping slightly.

"When I took the trial many years ago, I walked into that room and found myself staring at myself." Rudra raised an eyebrow.

"A copy?"

"A perfect reflection," Thalassa nodded grimly.

"It had my body. It had my spear. It knew every single martial art technique I had ever practiced and was as proficient in it as myself. Not to mention it was as fast and strong as I was. Fighting it was a nightmare. How do you defeat an enemy who knows exactly what you are going to do before you even do it?"

"How long did it take you?" Kratos asked, lifting his heavy head from the wooden floorboards. Thalassa sighed.

"Three days. I fought my shadow for three days straight. We traded blows until we were both completely out of stamina and bleeding from a hundred cuts. I only won because the reflection slipped on the wet stone, and I managed to strike its chest. It was blind luck. The trial is meant to be a grueling battle of absolute attrition. It forces you to fight until you have nothing left." Rudra looked down at the dark metal of his staff. A perfect copy. That meant it would have his stats, his items and his skills.

"Sounds like a massive headache," Rudra grinned. The boat bumped against a solid surface. Rudra looked over the edge. The eleventh trial was just a massive, perfectly flat square of polished black obsidian jutting out of the ocean. Just a monolithic, windowless cube of a temple sitting right in the center of the black stone.

"Here we are," Thalassa said, pulling the oars in. Rudra stood up and cracked his neck.

"I'll be right back."

"Take your time," Kratos yawned, curling up on the wooden floorboards.

"I will be taking a nap." Rudra stepped off the boat. His boots clicked loudly against the smooth obsidian. He walked up to the entrance of the cube. There were no heavy wooden doors this time. It was just an open, dark archway leading inside. He didn't bother buffing up heavily. He just gripped Extortion and walked through the archway. [You have entered the Eleventh Trial of the Orca Archipelago!] The inside of the temple was exactly like the outside.

It was a massive, perfectly square room made of smooth black stone. There were no pillars or decorations. The only difference was the floor. It was covered in exactly one inch of still, completely black water. Rudra stepped forward. His boot splashed lightly in the shallow water. The sound echoed loudly off the bare walls. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the water in the exact center of the room began to ripple. Rudra stopped walking. He rested both hands on his staff and watched.

The black water bubbled upward, fighting against gravity. It formed a thick, liquid pillar. The pillar began to shift and mold itself. Arms pulled out of the mass. Legs formed. A heavy trench coat made of dark liquid took shape. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Within seconds, the water completely solidified. Standing ten yards away was a perfect, dark-liquid copy of Rudra. It had the exact same height and the exact same build.

The clone was completely featureless—no eyes or mouth—just a smooth, glassy black face. But in its hands, it held a perfect, liquid-black replica of Extortion. [Abyss Clone]"Let's get this over with," Rudra muttered. He rushed forward and swung Extortion in a heavy, horizontal arc, aiming right for the clone's ribs. The clone rushed forward at the exact same time. It swung its liquid staff in the exact same arc. CLANG. The real dark metal and the liquid metal slammed together in the dead center of the room.

A shockwave rippled through the shallow water on the floor, spraying black mist into the air. Rudra felt the force travel up his arms. He didn't push the clone back, and the clone didn't push him back. They were deadlocked. Rudra pulled back and thrust the tip of the staff forward. The clone parried it perfectly. Rudra activated [Mumud's Weapon Enchant]. The black staff hummed with blue magical energy. A split second later, the clone's staff glowed with the exact same blue energy.

"Okay," Rudra breathed.

"You're fast." He dropped into his stance and triggered [Avalanche]. He brought the staff down in a blur. The clone raised its weapon and caught the blow. But Rudra didn't stop. He used the recoil to spin the staff, accelerating the next hit. He swung again. The clone swung back. It was using [Avalanche] too. Thwack. Clack. CRACK. Sparks flew as the two staves collided over and over. The cavern echoed with the deafening sound of heavy impacts.

Because they were both landing hits on each other's blocks, their [Avalanche] passives began to stack. Their swing speeds increased by 70%. Then 140%. But it didn't stop there. [Saint's Momentum has been triggered.] The exclusive class trait woke up for both of them. Because they were infinitely chaining their attacks without resetting their stances, their physical damage multipliers and damage reduction began to continuously tick upward.

This also resulted in his boots [Boots of Kurson]'s effect being applied as well, causing his agility to double within 10 consecutive hits. They became absolute blurs. The air in the room whistled and popped. The shallow black water around their feet was violently blown away by the wind pressure of their swings, leaving a perfectly dry circle of stone beneath them. Rudra's [Super Sensitivity] was working overtime sending warning after warning, informing him of the exact angle and timing of the clone's next strike.

He adjusted his grip, moving to block. But the clone adjusted at the exact same time. It clearly had [Super Sensitivity] as well. It read Rudra's block and shifted its swing by a fraction of an inch to compensate. SMASH. Their weapons collided again. The force was getting ridiculous. The [Saint's Momentum] multiplier was stacking dangerously high. If either of them actually landed a clean hit right now, it would be catastrophic. Rudra gritted his teeth.

He pulled back, poured mana into his staff, and swung downward. [Thunderfall]. Raw blue electricity erupted from his weapon. The clone mirrored him perfectly. It swung downward, its staff exploding with identical blue lightning. The two overhead strikes met in the air. KABOOM. The lightning canceled out. The resulting shockwave threw them both backward. Rudra's boots skidded across the wet stone. The clone slid back the exact same distance.

They stood ten yards apart, perfectly mirroring each other's heavy breathing. Rudra wiped a drop of black water off his cheek. Thalassa was right. This was a nightmare. The clone knew his exact reach. It knew his exact timing. It knew how he liked to chain his combos. Every time Rudra tried to build momentum, the clone met him with equal force. If he kept fighting by the book, using his perfectly practiced staff techniques, he was going to be stuck in this room for three days.