“Kill them.”

Alex reacted instantly by creating a lightning spell circle over his right hand, prepared for a movement skill from Rylan.

Jonathan’s team moved with practiced ease. Damien intercepted another elf who emerged from the smoke, wreathed in a golden barrier, while Martin and Leila engaged two more who appeared from behind them. The coordinated defense created an opening for Alex, but he could see that they were outnumbered.

“Go for the ritual!” Jonathan shouted as he swung his hatchet at the nearest elf. “We’ll hold them!”

Alex nodded and dodged the charge he’d been anticipating from Rylan, the big man’s momentum carrying him into a stack of supply crates. The elf who had been holding Rylan’s leash stepped forward, and golden light swirled in his hands.

Alex’s eyes widened, and he changed his aim from Rylan’s back to the elf that was casting magic toward him. The bolt crashed against the elf’s shield, and though it clearly left cracks in the barrier, the lightning skittered across the surface and dissipated beyond. The elf barely flinched.

“Such a waste,” the elf said in a melodic tone that somehow managed to drip with condescension. “To think that the elders considered him worthy of the Pattern. Worse yet, a mage who can’t even pierce a basic ward,” he sneered. “Fight my dog instead. That seems more to your Level.”

Behind him, Rylan rose from the wreckage of boxes, and his eyes spun around wildly in his head. He let out a yell, and Alex danced to his left with [Feather Step], attempting to angle himself to see both Rylan and the elf while hoping to create a path toward the ritual behind them at the same time.

Feinting toward the ritual, Alex used [Feather Step] to close the distance to the elf and punched forward with his right hand. As he did so, he activated the spatial ring on his finger to place his sword into his hand and thrust it toward the elf’s neck.

As expected, it struck the shield, which held firm. The elf crossed his arms and watched with amusement.

“Is that truly your best effort, human?”

Rylan charged again, and Alex activated his movement skill once more. This time, he scooped up a huge fallen piece of wood and created distance. Rylan swerved to follow, and the elf moved with them as well, eager to watch blood spill.

Alex breathed heavily as he landed and used a strategy that had worked well against the large man before. He spun a weight reducing ritual in between the two of them and waited until Rylan was close to drop the feather into it. He timed the swing of the huge piece of wood to collide with the warrior just as he stepped into the circle. Grunting with effort, he used all his Strength and leverage to swing into an object with little to no weight and sent the man flying into a tent, collapsing the structure around him.

The elf laughed. “At least you provide good entertainment!”

Alex didn’t waste the opening. While Rylan was struggling against the thick fabric of the tent and the elf was distracted, he quickly laid a lightning spell circle on the ground behind the elf. It was an effort to snake his thread that far, but he managed it quickly. He used one of the spell circle bases that he’d only used through theory and not in practice, but he saw it as his best chance to catch the elf off guard.

When he charged forward this time, he expected the same reaction from the elf. He held in a smile as the elf said, “You’re persistent; I’ll grant you that,” and watched impassively.

Alex struck the shield with his fist, but this time, he activated his [Spell Storage: Ward Drain Spell Circle] against the shield and followed up with [Mana Siphon] to pull on the ward as hard as he could. The elf’s eyes widened as he felt his ward weakening.

“What are you—”

Alex’s front kick connected solidly with the elf’s chest and sent him stumbling onto the waiting spell circle. Since he’d used the base of the alarm ritual, which was activated as someone crossed its threshold, the elf triggered it without Alex needing to. The lightning erupted upward and traveled along the sinewy sun elf’s body, crackling with magical energy that caused him to twitch and spasm on his feet.

Not even bothering to activate his movement skill, Alex dashed the few feet forward and lunged with his blade once more. It sunk to the hilt in the monster’s chest. The elf stared at him in disbelief and began to pull magic into his hands, but Alex twisted his hips and leaned his shoulder into the swing as he cut from the middle to the left of the elf’s body from the inside, killing it and causing it to collapse to the ground at his feet.

A yell of rage announced Rylan’s release from the tent, and he stood proudly with an item held over his head. Alex looked away from the Tyrant toward his group and saw them finishing up the fight with the elves. Glancing back at the bully that had needled him for so long, Alex shoved down the desire for a fight and made the decision to get to the ritual site as quickly as he could and knew that Jon and his team would handle Rylan.

He used his movement skill to dash toward the center of the camp but only made it twenty feet through the air before crashing into a shimmering barrier. Regaining his footing, Alex looked around quickly, confused.

“Well, well.” Rylan’s voice echoed through the space, followed by unhinged laughter. “The prodigy returns. Did you really think you could stop this? I- I knew that you’d try. We, and I- I will be the one to kill you, Moore. You thought you could fight against me? Stand on equal footing with ME?!” He slammed an abnormally large fist into his chest.

Jonathan arrived and slammed his weapons against the translucent wall. “Moore!”

Alex looked at the altered form of Rylan and back over his own shoulder to Jonathan. Their eyes met, and Alex shook his head once while allowing his Willpower to press down on his emotions. “Go find the last of the elves. Do what you can to stop them!” He stepped closer toward the barrier and activated [Spell Storage] to create the draining ritual, once again noting the lessened draw on his mana. He stuck his hand through it and began to drain the wards even as he felt his own spend to cast the skill.

Rylan sneered as he continued. “Pete lost his life because of you! You’re going to pay, and I’ll show you and everyone else who is stronger between us.”

Suddenly, a wave of crushing dread washed over Alex. The air around Rylan seemed to distort, and through his Heavenly Eye, Alex could see his mana flood out of his body in a blanket across the area. It pulsed outward, and the rune on his cheek flared to life.

“FEAR ME!” Rylan yelled in an unnaturally deep voice, the tendons and veins in his neck standing out from the strain. He started to walk forward as he saw it take effect on Alex.

Feeling his limbs grow heavy, his instincts screamed at him to flee. For a moment, he felt like his stomach had dropped, but then the anger replaced the fear, and Alex activated his new [Shrug Off] skill. The fear washed away, and Alex shrugged his shoulders as if willing the feeling to fall away from him.

Seeing that he was free of the effect, Rylan’s step faltered, and he paused a distance away.

Every fiber in Alex’s body wanted to fight Rylan, to attack him immediately and stop his odd, mad chittering. But he needed to break the wards and help Jonathan’s team stop the Ritual. He really didn’t have time to deal with Rylan’s shit.

“What are you even talking about, Rylan? What have they done to you? You literally got walked over here on a leash like a dog,” Alex split his consciousness with [Parallel Mind], let the mana threads fall from his hand to the ground, and started building ritual circles at his feet in preparation. As his mana topped off again from draining the wards, he began to push the excess into the ritual circles below him.

“Me? They didn’t do anything that I didn’t want them to,” Rylan said, cackling with more laughter, clearly deranged. His skin was bleeding in several places and looked to have cracks across its surface, almost like cuts in the paint on the side of a car. His right arm was larger than it should be, almost as if he’d been working out just that one arm and using some alien steroids at the same time.

"This isn't good, kid. They've… they've altered him with a living rune. It just doesn't make sense, though. Combining soul magic with runes is something that every Sun Elf should abhor the idea of, and on top of that, he should be completely mad, not talking nonsense about the two of you," Maelis said into Alex's mind. "Whatever was in his mind… whatever he latched on to… it must have been a powerful motivating force for him to even retain a sliver of his sanity."

Alex swallowed hard and looked at Rylan's face. His long, blonde hair was thinning and falling out, but what was left of it was dirty and clung to his face in a way that told Alex he hadn't bathed in days. On his cheek, there was a rune marking his face that seemed to be carved into it. The skin puckered and split away from the gashes, and Alex could see something in the opening that writhed and wriggled just beneath the skin. Purple veins stood out in a way that spidered out from the fresh, rune-shaped wound.

“They were never in control. Never in charge.” He slammed his right fist into his chest again. “I am now the peak of power, Alex! A mage could never understand… at least not without me showing you.” His smile turned vicious, and his body language shifted from twitching conversation to deadly intent without warning.

The man’s large frame launched at Alex, covering the twenty meters between them in an instant.

Alex barely had time to think before his body responded on instinct. He used [Feather Step] and pushed off while reaching into his spatial pouch. His mind worked in overdrive as he thought back to previous fights with Rylan and knew that the large man had just used one of his skills with a charge effect. Even then, he moved faster than Alex had ever seen.

Alex drifted along the ground and threw the reagents from his pouch onto the spot where he'd been standing. Right where Rylan was about to land.

Three ritual circles materialized in his mana sight. As Rylan's massive fist slammed into the warded wall where Alex had stood, he triggered the rituals. The impact sent echoing ripples across the barrier's surface, but a heartbeat later, twin explosions drowned out the crash.

He had laid three rituals, one for binding and two for explosions on either side of the larger man. Though he knew the bindings wouldn't restrain Rylan for long, they only needed to hold for a moment to let the deadly explosions do their work.

“Fuck,” Alex said to himself. He could hardly hear anything over the sound of his heart hammering in his chest, which somehow seemed to pulse loud enough to fill his ears.

Val, stay hidden for now. Last time, he targeted you, knowing it would get to me. Just stay on my shoulders for now, and I’ll dodge for the both of us.

He took a deep breath and used his Willpower to clamp down on his rising emotions, just as he had at the Guild headquarters. His mind cleared, and time seemed to slow as he surveyed his surroundings. The "cage" Rylan had created with the ward trap offered few areas of cover, just collapsed canvas tents scattered across packed dirt. A makeshift barricade of wooden supply crates stood to his right near the barrier's edge, while hard-packed forest floor stretched beneath them.

I need to end this fast. Every second I waste in here, that ritual progresses out there.

Not waiting for the smoke to clear, Alex drew his wand from the spatial ring with a flick of his wrist and channeled mana into it.

Through the falling dust and debris, a silhouette emerged. Rylan stood in the center of a crater, his massive form bleeding but seemingly unfazed. The binding threads had snapped against his Strength, and the rune carved into his cheek pulsed with a sickly violet light.

“Trying to kill me right out the gate?” Rylan’s laugh echoed across the space. “I’m almost impressed. There wasn’t any hesitation there.” He brushed dirt from his shoulder with exaggerated casualness. “But you’ll need to do better than that.”

Alex scanned Rylan as he sent a few covering bolts from his wand.

Alex’s eyes went wide as he saw Rylan’s changed status.

The Tyrant moved with a speed that surpassed anything Alex had seen so far. He pivoted and turned with an unnatural grace that seemed at odds with his bulky, deformed frame. The rune on his cheek pulsed again as he did so.

Alex's thoughts raced to the situation beyond the warded area. Even though he wanted revenge against Rylan, the elves' ritual continued with each passing moment he remained trapped here. Failure to stop it would have consequences far beyond his own survival.

The barrier around them pulsed, and Alex glimpsed unnatural energy coalescing toward the Rift outside. He needed to end the fight as quickly as possible.

“This is really not good,” Maelis said.

The world blurred around him as he darted backward, and the woosh of air from Rylan’s massive fist brushed his face as he leaped back again and avoided another blow.

No shit, you said that already.

Alex created distance and used his split consciousness while continuing to move. One half tracked Rylan's movements and kept their spacing wide while the other calmly assessed his arsenal of magic, weighing options and strategies.

“Yeah, keep on running, mage-boy!” Rylan’s voice called in a rasping voice. “Let’s see just how long you can be that slippery. All it’s going to take is me catching you one time!”

The ward dome trapped them both in the makeshift arena, and he only had about fifty yards across to move in a roughly circular shape. There was no way out and nowhere to hide that wasn’t completely obvious. With Rylan on the inside of the ring, Alex had to move nearly double the distance to stay ahead of the hulking figure.

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He ducked quickly behind a stack of supply crates to buy himself a few seconds. His first thought had been to create distance, but he could already hear Rylan bulldozing in his direction.

He activated [Mirage] and watched as the illusion materialized beside him. The mirage perfectly replicated his appearance, capturing even the odd way his celestial robes bunched around the military plate carrier. Like a puppeteer, he used his mind to raise the illusion's hands.

As soon as Rylan barreled around the side of the crates, Alex slipped around the far side of the stack.

Rylan’s gaze fixed on the mirage that looked like it was cowering, hands raised. But his face twisted into a knowing grin. “You think that trick will work on me again?” Rylan casually swiped his hand through the illusion and began throwing the crates around as if they were toy blocks. The illusion shattered with no resistance whatsoever, and without his direct control, it didn’t even flinch as it did so. “I’ve done my homework on you, Alex! Elana’s files on you were quite… informative. I know your whole playbook.”

Alex leaped backward again, his hands already weaving a new pattern. A plan began to form in his mind. If Rylan thought he knew all of Alex’s tactics, then he could use that confidence against the warrior, considering that he likely hadn’t seen his new magic used against the elf in the initial exchange.

Mana threads spiraled into a ritual circle beneath Rylan’s feet. The weight-increasing ritual was one that Rylan knew about, and it didn’t have a great effect on him even the first time he’d used it. Alex removed the heavy silver ball from his spatial pouch and threw it at the ritual circle.

It activated and took effect, working for a moment. Rylan’s forward momentum faltered, and his foot dragged against the ground. His movements slowed, and the thick muscles and veins in his neck could easily be seen as he struggled.

“Oh, come on,” Rylan quite easily cleared the boundary of the ritual, moving forward with barely labored steps. “My Strength was too high for that last time. Why do you think it would work this time? I’m stronger now than I was before!”

With a grunt, he pushed through the last few feet of the effect, and the rune on his face pulsed again. Laughing, Rylan took a deep breath and let his head roll back as if he were enjoying the power coursing through his body.

Alex didn’t waste the opportunity. He let the weight-increasing ritual go and quickly spun up the restraining ritual. Magical threads jumped up around Rylan’s feet and calves, which seemed to only make the deformed giant laugh harder.

While Rylan was gloating, Alex moved further back until he was close to the barrier and activated [Spell Storage], allowing him to almost instantly create another spell circle focused on siphoning the mana from the wards to refill his core.

He dismissed the blue window and knew that Rylan would soon get fed up with the cat-and-mouse game. Whatever the elves had done to him, it transformed him into something even more powerful than his already high level would suggest.

Worse still, the living rune's power wasn't simply enhancing Rylan's strength with each pulse and leaving him in a mindless rage. If he had fought with blind fury, Alex could have exploited that weakness, but instead, after each surge of energy from the rune, Rylan remained in control of his mind. Alex saw a calculating intelligence behind his eyes, even if it was tinged with madness.

“You know the interesting thing about this ‘gift’ from the elves?” Rylan called out. “They invited me to the Pattern and said that if I could hold on and just push through the pain, I’d become… something more.”

As if to demonstrate, Rylan suddenly hurled a crate, but not at Alex’s current position, instead at where he was about to dodge if he’d continued his own pattern of movement. The box crashed into the ground and shattered to send home the point.

“See?” Rylan’s face twisted. “Now I’ll be able to bring this back to the Guild, and we can start unlocking the powers of those who are deserving.”

Alex blinked at the monologue.

Does this maniac think he’s going to get out of here and just go back to living a normal life with the Guild?

"Rylan! The Sun Elves will try and carve out a section of our planet for themselves. That could mean killing or enslaving thousands, including your sister. Pete's death wasn't my fault, but even if he were still alive, there’s a chance he’d have to fight these elves.” Alex called, making one final attempt to get through to the warrior.

He briefly allowed himself to look past Rylan, but he couldn’t see Jonathan or his team anywhere. When Rylan just twitched and ignored Alex’s questions, he shook his head and realized it would only end one way.

Time to shift strategies.

Alex watched Rylan stalk forward, prepared for a spell. His twisted body seemed to grow stronger with each passing second, though Alex realized it was likely closer to the pulsing of the rune than fixed time.

When I move next, drop to the ground and use your illusion.

Alex sent his thoughts to Val, and the companion instantly understood his plan.

“What’s wrong, Alex?” Rylan taunted as he spread out his arms. “Running out of tricks already? I thought the great Alex Moore would put up more of a fight!”

Alex feinted to the right, allowing his disguised bond to slip to the ground just before he darted left. He drew Rylan’s attention and activated [Mirage] to replace the illusion of his cloak while Val used his [Create Illusion] to appear as a piece of debris from one of the shattered crates.

He worked on dancing to the side and back further, baiting Rylan into position, completely oblivious to the swap.

Alex slung several wand bolts at Rylan, which seemed not to do anything other than annoy the laughing man.

“Is that all—”

Val abandoned his disguise, his instinct for the timing in a fight growing sharper. His blue-scaled form erupted upward from directly behind Rylan, wings snapping open as he shot toward the exposed back of Tyrant’s head.

Val’s small body glowed as he gathered his personal mana and released his skill just as Rylan was turning to swat him away. Val used his [Mana Explosion] a mere foot from Rylan’s head and sent the other man flying into a collapsed tent.

Alex felt like it happened in slow motion. Despite the tight hold on his emotions, he felt a spike in his heart as Val got closer to Rylan. However, that feeling morphed into a small “o” shape in his mouth as he saw Rylan propelled with such force that he toppled head over heels across the small clearing, appearing to do a cartwheel around his oversized arm.

The blast wasn’t devastating, but it wasn’t meant to be. In fact, it was stronger than Alex had expected, though it accomplished exactly what they’d intended. It got Rylan off balance and created an opening. The young dragon flew upward and created space while Alex wove his magic.

The spell circle hummed to life as Alex ended his [Parallel Mind] skill, allowing access to his full mana pool to charge the spark rune. Within seconds, he completed the circle and pulsed his mana through it. The circle flashed into view, and as Alex thrust his palm forward, a bolt of lightning erupted from its center, striking Rylan between the shoulder blades just as he was regaining his footing.

The electricity arced across his body, and his massive frame convulsed. The warrior's muscles spasmed, and he screamed in pain as the current coursed through him. For a moment, Alex thought he’d won.

Then Rylan straightened and rolled his shoulders as if shaking off a minor annoyance. Just as quickly as the current had started, it died down and left smoke curling from Rylan’s clothes. Despite that, the man turned with the same twisted grin on his face as before.

“Is that all you’ve got?” he jeered. “I figured you had something up your sleeve, but was that really it? A baby version of the power you used in the valley? Ah, I see. The larger one takes too long to set up, doesn’t it?”

Valtherion swooped down and released a series of mana bolts that struck Rylan's head and chest. The companion was quick and darted away, and Alex didn't waste the second opening and spun a gust ritual into existence and blew into the back of it, allowing himself to easily amplify the bolts from the wand. His first shot struck Rylan in the chest. The empowered bolt hit with enough force to stagger the big man, but it was just blunt force that slapped against the slab of muscle.

He fired again, and each bolt cost him precious mana. He managed two more shots from the wand in his right hand and another lightning bolt spell circle with his left hand before he felt a piercing headache.

The barrage pushed Rylan back several steps, but the effects were diminishing. The rune on his face pulsed violently, and his recovery time grew shorter with each attack.

"My turn," Rylan said through gritted teeth. “Stop.” Unlike the first skill Rylan used, this one didn’t give any indicator of mana movement, and the word was spoken at a normal volume.

Despite his saying it normally, the word seemed to reverberate through Alex’s mind. His body froze mid-motion, and his muscles locked up. It felt as though invisible chains had wrapped around him. He fought against them, and he felt his Willpower pushing against the skill, though it felt different.

“Fantastic,” Rylan said as he stalked forward with slow steps. “The [Tyrant’s Command] is a new one. What do you think?” He approached Alex, who could only watch as his body refused to obey his desperate mental commands to just move.

“You feel how different it is, right? I created this one just for you!”

He mentally slammed into his [Shrug Off] skill but it refused to activate, still on cooldown. Alex forced his fear to still and ignored Rylan while focusing on pushing every bit of his Willpower against the skill.

Why isn’t it working!? My Willpower is way higher than his.

Maelis spoke up. “It’s your Willpower against existing magic, not a direct contest of wills. Push harder, kid. Push!”

With a tremendous effort, Alex managed to twitch his fingers as the mental chains began to crack. But it wasn’t fast enough.

Rylan’s massive fist slammed into Alex’s midsection with devastating force. The impact lifted him off his feet and sent him flying backward through the air. Pain exploded through his torso as he felt ribs crack from the blow.

He crashed to the ground and rolled several times before coming to a stop in a heap. Each breath sent daggers of pain through his chest. He glanced at his status window and saw that his health had dropped by more than half from the single punch.

Another hit like that, and I’m dead.

Alex struggled to his feet and pushed through the pain and coughing. Rylan charged forward again with the unnatural speed that came with a structured movement skill. Alex barely had time to activate his own in time, slipping to the side as Rylan's fist shattered the ground where he'd been standing.

He split his consciousness once more but felt a noticeable difference this time, as each half of his mind limited his total mental resources. Recognizing how low he was on mana, Alex darted toward the edge of the arena where his siphoning spell circle still hung in the air against the wall. Val provided cover while Alex slapped his hand against the surface and activated [Mana Siphon] again.

Instantly, he felt mana flooding back into his core and hoped desperately that the wards would crack. The sensation of fresh mana felt like a bucket of cold water was splashed over his migraine, though it did very little for his aching body.

“Running away again?” Rylan’s voice boomed across the enclosed space.

The taunt echoed around them, and Alex clenched his jaw in frustration. He looked around the area, scanning for his next step. Brute force clearly wasn’t working, and every attack seemed to make Rylan stronger as the rune on his cheek flashed.

Is magic empowering him? Like something that eats my magic? Maelis?

“It could be that,” Maelis answered in a clipped tone.

You don’t know?

“The living rune is corrupted. It’s unnatural and an abomination.” The anger in Maelis’s voice was surprising, but Alex groaned and rolled his eyes.

I don’t care if it’s the holy mark of a saint. Is it eating my magic and making him stronger?

“My best guess? Yes. You’re likely going to have to kill him without magic.”

A single hit, and his legs felt heavy, and he had one arm wrapped protectively around his stomach. Each breath sent waves of pain through his chest. Using [Feather Step], he put distance between himself and Rylan. He slipped behind a collapsed tent, offering a paltry amount of cover.

Rylan didn’t rush after him. Instead, he let out a mad cackle and began to circle the area with exaggerated casualness.

“Did that hurt, Alex?” he called. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long. Why rush it now?” He picked up a wooden crate and tossed it lazily in one hand like it weighed nothing

Alex coughed and peered around the edge of the fallen canvas. The Tyrant was strutting around now, clearly savoring his advantage.

“You know,” Rylan continued as he hurled the crate toward Alex’s hiding spot. “I could end this already. But where‘s the fun in that?”

Alex retreated further to the side of the tent and desperately searched for a new strategy while fighting through the pain. Nothing in his current arsenal seemed effective against Rylan, and while they’d gone toe-to-toe in previous fights, Alex wasn’t sure how he’d fare against the empowered version of Rylan.

Despite his mind moving at unnatural speeds and in two different lines of thought, he felt stumped.

Sweat trickled down his temples as he heard Rylan’s footsteps start again. The Tyrant picked up another crate and lazily threw it toward the tent.

“Come out, Alex!” Rylan’s voice took on a sing-song tone. “I’m done chasing you around. Stop hiding and face your fate.”

Fuck me. I can fight, but how is he just eating magic?

He reached into his spatial pouch and pulled out his jian, looking at the blade with a bit of skepticism. While he had kept up his morning training on most days, it wasn’t his preferred weapon lately by any means. It felt wrong to take things to a physical contest, and he didn’t think that he’d last more than a few blows.

“The living rune adapts to a person, though with the corrupted form this has taken, they did something to it. If he was able to hold on to his sanity, he must have held on to something. If I had to guess from his fighting style, he doesn’t like mages?”

He hates mages. He hates me.

“Well, then I’d guess he held onto his hate for you and mages as the rune attempted to alter his body. It could easily have taken on some anti-magic effects.”

Alex groaned in frustration, taking the time behind the tent to pull a potion from his ring and take several swigs from it.

I need something new… something he hasn’t seen before, that’ll let me close the distance.

The [Mirage] skill had largely proven useless, but Alex knew he could control it, at least in some jerky motions, if he focused on it.

All I need is a split second of a distraction…

It would be a gamble, but he thought through his plan and decided to take his chance.

“Come on…”

With his split consciousness, Alex activated [Mirage] and watched as the illusory duplicate appeared beside him, perfectly still. His heart hammered, and he focused his desperate concentration on the image and attempted to clamp his will down on it.

The pressure was immense, and he gripped the mirage with his mind like a vise, trying to will his stat-enhanced mind to control each minute aspect of the mirage and force it to move naturally. But the harder he squeezed, the more odd and rigid the puppet-like illusion became.

Sweat slipped into his eyes, blurring his vision. He blinked rapidly, frustrated by the resistance he felt. Then, as he was about to attempt to push even harder, he sensed something unexpected. There was a gentle pull against his mind, almost like the mirage skill was tugging on it.

Instinctively, Alex loosened his mental grip. Instead of fighting against the sensation, he allowed his mind to follow the subtle thread of connection, and his Willpower shifted from forcing control to guiding it.

The collapsed tent was thrown to the side and ripped away without warning. Rylan stood there, his massive frame casting a shadow over Alex from the elven sun that hung overhead.

“Found you,” he said with that twisted grin on his face.

The mirage dissipated as Alex’s concentration broke. He dove to the side as Rylan’s fist obliterated the spot where he’d been crouching. Rolling to his feet, Alex activated his movement skill to put distance between them and darted across the open area.

But even as he moved, his mind raced. That sensation he’d felt was a familiar pull between two skills. It wasn’t random and he was certain that it was a certain kind of synergy between his split mind and [Mirage].

Rylan laughed and threw a box after Alex as he created more space to think. The idea of combining the two skills hadn’t occurred to him in that way before. He’d used one to control the other but not to work in concert together. His mind halted as he thought back to the last time he’d attempted to combine two synergistic skills in a clever way.

He almost broke out into a cold sweat at the thought of being swept away by the System to have his skills torn away without a chance to object.

Fuck me, would it punish me again?

“What are you saying, brat?”

Funny. Maelis, remember how I said I got you? I combined two skills, and the System intervened. It took one of my skills to prevent me from doing it again and removed some of my gains. How often does something like that happen?

“Huh? Never. Why would the System do that? Its entire purpose is to allow you to progress. People combine skills all the time. Skill Merging is a known System feature, if rare.”

Alex didn’t answer, pushing the thoughts away and nodding to himself. If that instance was truly an outlier, then he couldn’t let himself be held back from innovating combinations with his skills out of fear of the System. The combination of these two skills shouldn’t grant him instant knowledge four tiers above his own, anyway.

Now standing in the open, Alex faced Rylan. The Tyrant slowed, perhaps suspicious of Alex’s sudden resolve.

“Giving up?”

Alex took a deep breath and did his best to relax his posture and put Rylan on edge, expecting a trap or rituals laid on the ground. He activated [Mirage] again, creating another image beside himself. This time, instead of trying to force the illusion to move, he looked for and focused on the subtle pull he’d felt before. With [Parallel Mind] active, he allowed one-half of his consciousness to follow the connection and allowed it to flow into the mirage rather than fight to control it.

Alex stepped to his right and directly behind the Mirage. Without warning, something shifted in his perception.

The world blurred momentarily, and his vision doubled in a nauseating swirl of color and light. Then, abruptly, his vision returned… though with a large difference.

Alex gasped as his consciousness slipped into the mirage. He remained aware of his physical body, standing behind his own image, staring at the back of his head, but simultaneously, he saw through the illusion’s eyes and was looking at Rylan. He shifted the mirage’s hand in a fluid, perfect motion in time with his real body.

Two perspectives. Two Alexes. One mind split in two.