CHAPTER 313: ARENA (1)

Nathan blinked. "Us?"

Merlin understood immediately.

"The core," he said. "We aim for the core."

Every Warden Construct had one, a small sphere at the center of its chest armor.

But the minefield of restrictions made hitting it nearly impossible.

Still...

Merlin took a breath.

Wind wrapped around his legs.

Lightning flickered in his fingers, even if sluggish.

Nathan nodded, dark energy coiling around his daggers.

"Let’s do it."

The Warden raised its halberd.

Merlin ran.

The world blurred around him as he twisted through narrow corridors, dodging debris, using small bursts of wind to redirect his momentum.

Nathan mirrored him on the opposite flank, steps silent, daggers glowing.

The Warden tracked Merlin first.

It swung—

The blade screeched through stone, chasing after him.

"Now!" Merlin shouted.

He kicked off a pillar—

Launching himself upward—

The Warden looked up.

Nathan slid behind it, daggers crossing.

"Dark Sever!"

He stabbed upward, under the lower back plates—

The shock of the hit made the Warden freeze for a fraction of a second.

Just long enough—

For Merlin to twist in midair and slam lightning into his hand.

Lightning Pinpoint, Restricted Form.

He struck the small gap between the chest plates—

"Pierce!"

CRACK—KRRRRSH!

Lightning exploded inward, blowing apart the core housing.

The Warden froze.

Cracks spread across its armor like shattered glass.

Elara thrust her spear forward, mana sharpening the tip.

"Finish!"

The spear pierced the collapsing core.

BOOM—BOOOOM!

The Warden shattered into fragments of fading light.

Silence followed.

The group stood still for several seconds, chests rising and falling.

Seraphina exhaled shakily. "Three down."

Ethan dropped onto a rock. "Three to go. Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful."

Adrian laughed breathlessly. "That thing was tougher than some fourth-year dueling instructors."

Elara walked over to Merlin. "You okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

Nathan grinned, nudging him. "We make a good team, huh?"

Merlin smirked lightly. "When you aren’t almost getting cleaved in half, sure."

They laughed, tired, but relieved.

A bright sigil appeared under their feet.

The arena began dissolving.

The light faded.

And when Merlin opened his eyes, the world was wrong.

The battlefield wasn’t an arena or forest or field.

It was a limitless black chamber, its floor polished like obsidian glass.

Hundreds, no, thousands, of floating shards hovered in the air like suspended raindrops, each one reflecting warped, distorted images of everyone in the group.

Nathan shuddered. "This place gives me the creeps."

Liliana hugged her arms. "It feels... alive."

Seraphina glared at the air. "This is illusion-type mana. High-grade."

Elara stepped closer to Merlin. "Stay alert. We don’t know the trigger."

But as soon as she spoke—

The shards trembled.

And then, slowly... chillingly...

They formed bodies.

Reflections peeled off the glass, stepping into reality one by one, until twelve tall mirrored figures stood in a circle around the group.

Each figure was humanoid, faceless, made entirely of reflective silver-black glass, their limbs jointed like marionettes. Their bodies pulsed with pale cyan light, the same color as the battle exam sigils.

Adrian raised his axe. "Okay, I’ll bite... what the hell are these?"

Merlin answered quietly:

"Mirror Sentinels.

High-speed constructs. They copy movement patterns, not mana."

Nathan grinned nervously. "Meaning...?"

"Meaning they mimic our fighting styles," Merlin added, "but not our magic."

Ethan sighed. "So basically... copies of us but without spells?"

"No," Seraphina said. Her voice tightened. "Not copies of us."

She looked up.

At the mirrors.

Where their reflections shifted.

And shifted again—

Until the reflections standing inside the shards looked exactly like Merlin, Nathan, Elara, Seraphina, Adrian, Liliana, Ethan, and the others.

Except their eyes glowed white.

And the expressions were wrong.

Empty.

Devoid of soul.

Ethan’s voice cracked. "...Oh hell no."

Adrian’s grip tightened. "So we’re fighting ourselves."

Liliana whispered, "This... might be our hardest fight yet."

Elara’s gaze flicked toward Merlin.

For a moment, her expression softened.

"Don’t let them separate us."

Merlin nodded—

And then the reflections moved.

FAST.

Mirror Merlin lunged straight at him, lightning crackling over its glass-like skin — perfectly mimicking Merlin’s posture and stance, but with no hesitation, no restraint.

Merlin barely dodged as the clone flickered past him, a distorted echo of his own teleport-style footwork.

Nathan’s clone appeared behind him, twin daggers rushing toward Nathan’s throat.

"Hey—HEY! That’s MY move!"

Nathan barely deflected it.

Adrian slammed his axe down on his own clone—

CLANG!

The blow echoed like striking a cathedral bell.

The clone didn’t budge.

Adrian was sent stumbling back.

"What—?! That thing weighs a damn ton!"

Seraphina formed an ice barrier to block her clone—

The clone shattered it instantly with a perfectly mirrored ice blade.

Seraphina gasped. "It copied my casting speed—?!"

Liliana’s clone rushed her with vines formed from shimmering glass threads.

Elara’s clone spun its spear like a storm.

Perfect precision.

No emotion.

Ethan ducked a flaming slash from his doppelgänger. "Okay, this is officially the worst test EVER!"

Merlin leaped back, releasing a burst of wind to gain distance—

His clone did the same, matching the angle, power, and timing exactly.

’Damn... these are better than I expected.’

The Mirror Hall wasn’t designed to test brute force.

It was designed to test resolve.

If the students hesitated when facing their own faces —

They’d lose.

Merlin steadied his breathing.

"Elara! On me!"

She broke through the clash with her clone, spinning to Merlin’s side. "Plan?"

He met her violet eyes.

"We break their synchronization."

"How?"

"By doing something we would NEVER do."

Elara stared for half a second—

Then her eyes widened.

"Got it."

Merlin turned, facing his mirrored self.

The clone rushed—

Merlin dropped his stance entirely.

His arms at his sides.

Feet loose.

Center of gravity open.

Elara shouted, "NOW!"

Her spear shot forward — but not toward the clone.

She stabbed at Merlin.

Or rather—

The clone thought she did.

Mirror Merlin flickered sideways to intercept the phantom attack—

Exactly as the real Merlin predicted.

The instant its stance opened—

Merlin twisted, placing a hand on the clone’s chest.

"Wind Compression—Break."

BOOOOM!

The internal shockwave blasted the glass construct backward, shattering half its torso.

The cracks spread.

Lightning traced through Merlin’s fingers.

He slammed his palm into the fissures.

CRAAASH!

Mirror Merlin exploded into fragments.

The others froze, shocked.

Nathan shouted, "WE CAN BREAK THEM WHEN THEIR TIMING IS THROWN OFF!"

Adrian grinned savagely. "THEN LET’S SCREW UP THEIR TIMING!"

Ethan lit his sword. "So basically— fight like idiots?"

"NO," Seraphina snapped. "Fight unpredictably."

Liliana beamed. "Finally something I’m good at!"

They moved.

Adrian charged his clone head-on—

Then suddenly threw his axe at Liliana instead.

Liliana shrieked.

Her clone reacted—

And Adrian PUNCHED his own clone in the face.

SHATTER!

Nathan dropped onto his hands and kicked upward like a breakdancer.

His clone failed to sync—

Seraphina froze it—

Elara smashed it apart.

Ethan pretended to trip.

His clone mirrored the stumble—

Ethan ignited the ground beneath it.

BOOM!

Liliana ran in zigzags, giggling like a maniac.

Her clone hesitated—

Too confused.

A vine snared its leg.

Merlin finished it with a lightning burst.

One by one—

The clones fell.

Until only shards remained drifting through the air like silver snow.

Silence returned.

Seraphina caught her breath.

"That... was horrible."