“Where did you go?” Elisa said. “You looked like saw a ghost, and we couldn’t get you to hear anything we were saying.”

“It was Quill. He showed me something I didn’t like and took a hit for it. Where is this place? Another illusion?” Marco asked.

“I think it’s real.” Aethe shot an arrow at one of the mansion’s windows. It shattered. “I’m almost sure. There’s something about it. We might have reached the eye of the storm.”

“It would make sense if he was filling up this space with more personalized things. That can’t have been cheap,” Elisa said. “And he has to maintain what’s out there, still. He might just be out of power.”

“Not out.” The door opened, and through it walked Quill. He had changed somewhat since last they saw him. The change that had created his claws seemed to have radiated inward from his hands. He had turned darker, mostly, not in a natural shade but in a way something like what Marco would have expected a lizard specialized in nighttime hunting to look like. He was scaled, even, at least up to where his arms disappeared behind his shoulders. “Just a bit constrained now, really. Honestly, Marco, I expected that last illusion to allow me to kill you. Do you really care about your friends so little that the sight of them dead affects you not at all?”

“Oh, that’s what he did,” Elisa said. “It makes sense why Marco looked that way now. No, he cares about us, Quill. I know what you are trying to do, but Marco almost got scared. It being about us is a compliment.”

“Well, let’s talk, then. I’m obviously very powerful here. Strong beyond measure. Nearly invincible. Your crew isn’t weak, exactly, but I think you’ll find a deal is the only way you are going to survive this. I’m prepared to offer you much in return for your service…”

Elisa held up a hand, palm out. Quill saw it and frowned.

“You have something to say?”

“No, not exactly.” Elisa smiled brightly. “I just got tired of listening to you. Aethe, shoot him with arrows.”

Aethe didn’t have to be told twice. The air filled with bow fire as quickly as Quill’s face filled with rage, just before he winked out of existence and showed up a foot or so away from where he had been standing. Aethe had spread out her arrows a bit, and Quill had to block a few with a clawed hand, but he was otherwise unhurt.

In the meantime, Marco and Riv were charging. They crossed the gap quickly, both striking out hard only to have Quill shift in space again, showing up at their flank and slashing at Riv before leaping back out of the way. That last motion confirmed that he was not that weak when it came to fighting, as did the fact that he had really injured Riv. The fact that he had shifted in space so fast to dodge them was more concerning though. It hadn’t taken time. He was simply in one place in that moment and not in the next.

“Still illusions!” Elisa called. “He’s not moving! He’s just not always where he seems to be!”

Marco lowered his brow and tried to figure out the best way to deal with something like that as Riv took the shorter path, shrugged, and spun in a full circle with his club extended. Halfway through it, he hit something, causing an image of Quill several feet away to dissipate as a newer, much more solid version jumped into being at the point of impact. Marco shot his gun at Quill several times, hurting him very little but hopefully giving him a little more discouragement from trying the same thing again. By the time he got close to the new image, Quill had time to throw up another version of reality, one where Marco’s sword cut harmlessly through the air where the man should have been before he slashed at his neck again from the shadows.

Marco only just caught the claw that came after him by guessing that Quill would attack from his off-hand side and trusting in that instinct. He pushed out his pistol a moment later, letting a zero-distance shot pound into a body he couldn’t be entirely sure was there. It hit, punching into Quill’s stomach hard and sending him staggering back. It hurt him, just not nearly as much as Marco had hoped it would. Marco was, after all, supposed to be overpowered by now. He had just upgraded all his equipment again. He was a higher level than made sense for how long he had been adventuring. Quill had taken a hit, sure, but it was just a hit. It didn’t shatter him. It didn’t even seriously wound him, and Marco wouldn’t be able to do another hit like it for a while.

“Got them!” Marco heard Aethe yell from the house. “Just all of them?”

This text was taken from NovelBin. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Yes!” Elisa was filling as much of the air around herself with lightning as she could. “Keep going!”

Marco reacted instinctively to the activity, ignoring his version of Quill as he sprinted back to Elisa just as Quill warped into her range, ignored her lightning, and punched out at her with his claws. He blocked them, but Quill darted away before he could counterattack.

“Be careful, Elisa! Stay near Riv.”

“It’s okay, Marcos.” She smiled. “Besides, something should be happening soon. Even if Aethe has bad luck, it’s coming.”

“What’s coming?”

“Yes!” Aethe yelled. “That’s great!”

“That. Remember, we know what drawer Quill keeps his skill crystals in.”

Quill roared in rage as he took in that statement, and an arrow zoomed towards his neck. This was one of Aethe’s charged shots, but as expected, he phased from one spot to another as it came in. Less than expected was what Aethe did about it. The arrow suddenly burst into several lesser arrows, spreading out over a distance of five or ten feet and catching the newly materialized Quill three or four times before he had a chance to cover up.

Marco had been taking swipes every time he could, hoping to get lucky. As Quill finally staggered without a chance to hide himself in illusion, Marco made the best of his seconds with concentrated fire from his pistol and repeated stabs from his rapier. Quill weathered them well, but not perfectly, snarling as he leapt back straight into one of Riv’s most hopeful haymaker club swings. He was batted off center again, ate a fully charged arrow from Aethe, a rare blast of cold from Elisa, and a few more musket shots from Marco himself. For the first time in the fight, Marco saw concern in Quill’s eyes.

“He’s overleveled. But that doesn’t matter if he can’t hit us,” Elisa said. “Just try to make sure Aethe has plenty of chances to hit him, okay? Whatever you have to do, just get him to stand still.”

“You used cold. You hardly ever do. Why?” Marco asked.

“Because I can’t use fire!” Elisa said. “And I think not lightning either.”

Marco hardly had to try to give Aethe the shots she needed. Apparently whatever was driving that cluster arrow let her make space in the explosion for her friends, or else did that automatically. The main thing Marco had to do was pepper the air with his musket until one of the shots accidentally revealed Quill’s position, and he’d take arrow fire. Elisa blanketed the area with low-powered elemental frost, which sometimes revealed him too. Even Riv, batting the air like a full-powered idiot, revealed him once by catching him with a lucky shot during one of Quill’s dodges. Aethe got more than a few shots in then, firing into Quill again and again.

“It’s because it doesn’t cost us anything,” Elisa said. “He’s not regenerating fast. He doesn’t seem to have much in the way of battle skills. You aren’t risking yourself getting hit, and none of us are doing anything that could hurt the others. Look at him. He’s ragged.”

Quill really was. He was breaking down in more ways than one now. When he did manage some tricky misdirection, he was slower than he needed to be to get much out of it. What little damage he did inflict, Elisa was able to cure. He was getting bashed around, beaten up, and smacked with arrows at all turns. If it went on like this much longer, he wouldn’t survive.

“That’s enough, I think.” Quill finally stopped. “You know what kills me? I’m going to have to burn years of progress here. You’ve forced me. You kept your little powers a secret long enough for me to give you a chance to figure out mine, you sank nearly every one of my ships, and you destroyed my island. Now you are forcing me to do another thing.”

All over Quill’s body, his scales and disfigurations started to glow violet before sinking down into his skin. Marco tried to do what he could to stop whatever process this was, but Quill smacked him backwards like he was a child fighting an adult. Every wound on Quill’s body closed as the altered parts of him began to return to normal. By the end of the process, nothing was left but his claws.

“I really do think I’ve seen all of your tricks now. And I’ve noticed something important. Your team isn’t really much without you, is it? Strong as you are, you aren’t much without them, either. It leaves me with one clear choice,” Quill laughed.

Quill snapped his fingers and the world turned white.

“Truth zone,” Quill said. “It’s a stupid name.”

“Where are my friends?” Marco dared a glance behind him, but his team was gone. Everything was gone. “What is this?”

“It’s the highest level skill this class ever gave me. Don’t be fooled by the name. This zone isn’t about knowing the truth or learning it. It’s a place where I am truth. Where truth follows my commands, as it always should have. It costs a tremendous amount of magical power, Marco. More than you’ve generated in your entire life. I scrimped and saved for this. You should be proud you are making me use it.”

Quill snapped his fingers once, then again. With each snap, another one of him appeared.

“Only one of you is the true Quill, then?” Marco scoffed. “Not much of a trick.”

“Oh, no, poor boy.” Quill smiled as all three of his bodies spoke in unison, then attacked from three different angles. Marco managed to block two of them before the third ripped his chest from shoulder to shoulder. “The truth of this place, right now, is that I’m fighting you, and that I’m going to win.”

For the next ten or twelve seconds, Marco found himself batted around the battlefield. He occasionally got a stab in with his rapier, but it hardly mattered. Quill was faster, stronger, and more durable. One of him would have likely been enough to hurt Marco, but there were now three of him in play. Quill seemed to like going for the eyes, which Marco couldn’t allow to happen. Blocking there left the rest of his body wide open, and within those ten seconds Marco became of a mess of blood, cuts and pain. Not only would he lose this fight, it wouldn’t even take long.

Still, he kept on. Elisa was out there. She’d figure something out.