The ground beneath Alex let out a loud crunch. Large fractures spiderwebbed out from beneath him like breaking glass as an intense buzzing noise filled the air. Pressure bore down on Alex from all sides and he threw himself to the side moments before the very air where he'd been standing seemed to collapse with a flash of moonlight. A small section of the world bent in on itself, twisting and warping as it was pulled into a point like a crumpled napkin.
Fragments of the ground shattered and fell away, leaving a gaping hole in the ground. Alex couldn't tell where it led to — he could only even make it out from the rest of the dark trial dimension by the swirls of moonlight twisting up from the warped air above it.
What the hell kind of magic is that?
Keeper's lone eye bore down on him like the moon itself. The monster hadn't even moved from its spot. Two glowing orbs still hovered above its hands, lying in wait — and a humming picked up in Alex's ears again.
He burst into motion, sprinting for Keeper as fast as his legs would take him. A hum built in Alex's ears again and he abruptly jerked to the side, zigzagging as a flash of light went off at his back.
There were only a brief few moments of warning before each detonation, and Alex wasn't eager to find out what Keeper's magic would do to his body if he got caught in it.
The System lets me heal from a lot, but if I get caught in the middle of one of those, I'm dead. There won't be anything left of me to heal.
Cracks raced out across the ground in front of Alex. His eyes widened and he suppressed a curse. He wasn't up against some idiot. Keeper was predicting his movements — and his foot was already heading straight for the blast zone.
A blur of silver flashed to his side as his cloak shot out and drove into the ground. He grabbed onto it with his free hand as it ripped him off his feet and just barely out of the path of the explosion.
Alex hit the ground running, the chainsword in his other hand rumbling in anticipation. Spark advanced on Keeper from the opposite direction in a blur. His shadow ran alongside him as the three of them all collapsed on the floating monster, arriving before it at the same time.
Keeper turned one of his hands over.
Alex's stomach lurched into his throat as the world abruptly reversed polarity. His feet flew out from under him as gravity shifted paths and solid ground beneath his feet was suddenly above his head. His arms pinwheeled as he attempted to keep his balance, but there was no balance to keep.
He plummeted downward, into the sky that was now inexplicably below him.
Keeper had literally turned the world on its head.
The world shifted again, no more than a few moments after the first one. The ground and sky took their proper places back and a powerful force wrapped around Alex, yanking him down with far more force than there should have been.
His cloak wrapped around his body an instant before he slammed into the ground with a crunch. Pain exploded through his body and the breath was knocked from his lungs in a surprised burst of air.
Alex coughed, his cloak unwrapping as his hands drove into the ground and he pushed himself up. He'd definitely fractured something, but his body was empowered by Princess' powers. It was already knitting itself back together.
A rush of energy flowed into him. It seemed the Spark had faced the same attack he had — but the monster hadn't been nearly as resilient. The Knight Wraith was dead.
Shit. What kind of bullshit magic is this? It's so fucking cool. Would be cooler if it wasn't directed at me, but seriously.
Alex rose back to his feet, shaking his arms off as he stared at Keeper, who watched him silently.
"You're nowhere near cool enough for your magic," Alex rasped, wiping his mouth with the back of a hand. "I don't suppose I get to learn it if I kill you?"
"Kill you? Or learn your magic?"
Fractures raced through the ground beneath Alex. He lurched out of the way a moment before a detonation went off, ripping through another portion of the trial dimension's floor. There were quite a few holes in it now.
Keeper was literally ripping the dimension apart around them. If the fight continued at this rate, Alex was pretty sure he'd end up accidentally tripping and falling into one of the holes.
The longer it goes on, the worse it's going to get. Keeper can float. I can't. I have to find a way to take him out before there's nothing left to stand on.
Alex burst into a charge again. A fracture split through reality in front of him and his cloak shot out, letting him vault clean past it. The whump of collapsing space and the flash of moonlight that marked Keeper's magic went off beneath him.
Any satisfaction that had been building up from the dodge met a swift and painful end when Alex realized there was still a hum in the air. His eyes widened.
There was another fracture splitting the ground he was currently flying right toward. Keeper could cast more than one explosion at a time. He'd been completely played.
Well, damn. That's embarrassing.
He couldn't dodge in time. His cloak wrapped around his upper body and he braced himself, gritting his teeth.
There was a loud crunch, followed by a flash of pain — and then nothing.
Alex hit the ground, his sword skittering from his grip. The cloak melted into a pool of mercury that sank into the ground around him and something wet prickled against his back. He tried to push himself up to no avail.
"Your spine is gone," Keeper observed from above Alex, peering down at him with its singular eye. "Mobility is no longer possible."
I wouldn't be so sure.
Magic was draining out of him at an alarming rate as Princess' magic worked to heal him. Keeper didn't know the full extent of his healing properties, but if the monster was about to monologue, then Alex had absolutely no plans of stopping it.
"Then come closer so I can stab you," Alex said through gritted teeth.
A flash of moonlight lit the darkness, followed by a hole forming directly below Alex's chainsword. It plummeted into it and vanished from sight.
"That was just petty," Alex complained.
"Yes," Keeper said. The two orbs of moonlight floating above its hands shimmered with molten energy. "It seems the trial is at its conclusion."
"I don't recall saying I was done."
Alex felt his toe twitch. He tried to keep the grin from crossing his face — and he failed.
A hum filled the air around him. Pressure tickled his skin as cracks split the ground beneath him. Keeper tilted its head to the side.
"You will not have an option. The trial ends with your death."
"Or yours," Alex said, driving his hands down and throwing himself to the side. He rolled across the ground, tucking his limbs close to his body as a brilliant crack split the silence of the Trial dimension.
He rolled to his feet, unharmed, and rose before Keeper, not sitting around to give the monster time to react. The time for holding back was well past. He had to finish the fight as fast as he possibly could.
Alex reached for his magical energy. The serious damage he'd sustained had heavily drained him, but there was still enough — and he hadn't even touched his Qi yet. It was time for that to change. He wasn't going to win this fight while holding back.
His eyes met the lone silver orb in Keeper's face.
Then he activated Encore.
Alex pumped the ability full of every scrap of Qi he had, not taking any chances with it. His best opportunity to take the win was a surprise attack and he wasn't going to get a better opportunity than this.
The air before him shattered. Darkness bubbled at his feet and electricity arced and popped at his side.
Alex's monsters begun to emerge — but not in their normal forms.
In Princess' place came a warped, centipede-like creature. Its body dripped with thick drops of black sludge. Violet energy danced like crackling lightning behind thick plates of black carapace, and a twisted white mask covered the monster's face where its mouth should have been. Dozens of sharp, jagged legs jutted from Princess' body, which was now easily four times longer than Alex was tall. Her entire body crackled with Riftwarped Qi.
From a pool of shadow beside her rose Spark. The hollow suit of armor that made up the Knight Wraith pulsed with veins of purple Qi. Instead of standing crouched on all fours like Spark normally tended to do, his Qi-empowered form stood tall on two feet. Shadows twisted up from the ground and gathered around his arms, shifting and twisting like a mirage in the desert.
And then there was Glint.
His cloak-wing snapped out to the side, his silver body shimmering as jagged shards of mirrored glass jutted out from it in a shimmering sea. It wasn't alone. A second wing jutted from his back, made entirely of glass glowing with hissing Riftwarped Qi. His arms were crossed before his chest like those of a man wrapped in the peace of death.
And for a moment, Keeper's expression flickered in unease.
Alex didn't wait for anything else. He only had one chance at this. He had to kill Keeper in the next move. There were no other options left to him. This was what he'd been saving up for throughout the entire trial.
As one, all of his monsters attacked.