The reflections walked out of the mirror, and moved to stand in front of us. They looked exactly as we did, even wearing the same confused expressions we were as we all stared at one another. The Tib’s raised their shields in suspicion of on another, our Millicent started making arcane gestures behind her back which meant theirs was too, the Patience’s were sizing one another up while slowly moving their daggers into position, the Nica’s were staring at one another with their bowstrings drawn ready to fire on one another, the Tristus’ were admiring one another and winking. I looked at myself, and opened my mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a voice that seemed to come from behind the mirror versions.

“Fight,” it said. I felt power in the voice and I saw the alternate versions of the party’s eyes all cloud over and their stances become more aggressive. All except for the copy of me, which simply looked at the others in confusion.

The mirror Nica loosed an arrow, and our Nica dodged, loosing her own. The mirror Tib charged with his shield high and his sword ready. Tib caught him on his own shield, and they struck each other with such force that it sounded as if a gong had been rung. Millicent and her duplicate seemed to be doing nothing at first glance, but their mouths were moving and their hand gesturing rapidly in a way that indicated a rapid exchange of spells and counterspells. I could see the earth at each of their feet, shifting slightly as spikes began to form, then crumbled, or small rocks began to coalesce into larger ones, before crumbling quickly to dust. Patience and her duplicate were leaping toward each other, swinging at one another’s weak spots, and doing their best to kill each other. Tristus was, well, running from himself. If everyone else hadn’t been locked in a brutal combat, it would’ve been enough to make me laugh.

I looked at my own mirror-clone and saw him looking at the other fighters with the same confusion and interest I had been. He hadn’t moved, and turned his eyes to look at me.

“rehto hcae llik ot gniog ew era ,os?” He asked, at least it was in the tone of a question.

“What?”

“Tahw?”

I sighed, communication clearly wasn’t possible. I heard a scream, and noticed that Tristus had been captured by his duplicate and was being pummeled ferociously. I moved toward them.

“Please stop, this is the least fun choice of things we could be doing right now,” yelled Tristus, curled into the fetal position, doing his best to cover his vitals.

I raised my sword to strike his attacker, and found my blow blocked by my own duplicate.

“Pots!” He yelled.

I hesitated, and he moved to drag his version of Tristus off of mine. That version of Tristus struggled and attacked, and even tried to bite my mirror version, who looked increasingly distressed.

I took out my dagger and handed it to my version of Tristus. He looked up at me and my eyes met his for a moment. He nodded and took the dagger wordlessly.

I pointed my sword at my mirror version. “Camroc,” I said, guessing his name. He looked up from his struggle and I gestured with my sword for him to let his version of Tristus go.

He lifted his own sword with a defiant look on his face and shook his head.

I grimaced, and leapt at him, trying to cut him and the mirror version of Tristus down at the same time. He pushed his Tristus out of the way, and used a partial flash step to dodge my blow, then cast a partial stone-toss to blast dust into my face. I threw myself backward by instinct, narrowly avoiding his followup strike. I cast partial grease under each of his feet, but he grabbed my arm before he could slip and tried to headbutt me. Rather than be cowed, I simply returned the headbutt full force and we were both knocked backwards.

I saw stars, and chose that moment to activate both of my new Martial Powers at the same time. Everything around me seemed to slow down, and simultaneously I sped up. I could feel an intense rush of energy all throughout my body and I moved to use it immediately, sending out a series of strikes with a greater alacrity and skill then I ever had before. Unfortunately, but also predictably, my copy had the same idea.

We exchange a series of lightning quick blows. Dodging one another’s strikes by less than inches, and using reduced flash steps to make narrow adjustments. As we fought, I realized that I was an absolutely filthy fighter. We exchanged attempted eye gouging, kicks to the groin, cuts at the forehead to cause blood to get into each other’s eyes, blows to the knees, and dozens of feints. In the middle of all of this, I had a strange revelation. It may have been brought on by the use of my new Martial Powers causing my brain to go into overdrive, or perhaps it was simply the madness of the situation I found myself in forcing my mind to push things to the forefront. The question was simple, with the new mana system, could I still use regents? They were no longer required, but what if I tried to use them anyway?

A notification appeared in my vision as I attempted to use flash step while actively focusing on the featherpouch I kept at my belt.

Congratulations! You’ve gained the ability Use Regents!

Use Regents- When casting a spell utilizing the regents the were formerly required for it, mana cost is reduced by 50%

I smiled, and threw myself back into combat with my double, but this time I started spending my mana far more recklessly. I cast several heavily reduced fireballs to force him to change his footing, I began greasing his hands in order to reduce his grip, and I placed invisible steps in random areas all around him that he continuously bumped into. The combination of all of that created an opening, and I stabbed forward, burying my sword in my own chest all the way to the hilt. My eyes met his and I felt the smile I’d been wearing fall from my face, no longer sustained by the thrill of combat, and tempered by the sight of the light leaving my own eyes.

“Enod llew,” he said, then his body dispersed into particles of light.

I deactivated my Combat Powers, and fell to my knees as the fatigue of their use caught up with me. My stamina bar was down to less than 20%, and as I caught my breath I looked around to see how everyone else was doing. Tristus was kneeling, stonefaced, in front of his own body, my dagger in his grip, now covered in blood. The body of the other Tristus faded into light even as I looked at them. I realized at that moment, that in spite of the fact that the mirror versions of us looked the same, it was actually easy to tell who was who as their outfits were arranged in the opposite way and their entire stance was off, which made determining who was who was almost instinctual.

The rest of my companions were still locked in their respective struggles. I dragged myself to my feet, and decided that the smartest move would be to target Mirricent first. I pulled a javelin from my pack, and threw it with all my strength directly at her. She reacted, but was too distracted by her ongoing struggle with my Millicent to do so quickly, and the javelin pierced her arm. Shortly after that a series of spikes extended from the ground, impaling her. I looked to my Millicent to see her dazed and staring off into the distance as Tristus and I had when our own clones were defeated.

I moved on to Nica’s copy, they were exchanging arrows, dodging behind cover, and occasionally stopping each other from picking other targets. I knew I could never win a distance fight with Nica, so I closed in quickly. Unable to stop me, while avoiding the other Nica’s arrows, she chose not to, and let an arrow embed itself in her gut while firing one at me. I activated adrenaline and concentration for just a moment, catching the arrow with the additional added speed of my Left Hand Free ability. With the distance close I made a wide swipe, slicing her bow in half and cutting deeply into her chest.

The mirror version of Tiberius roared, and broke off from his copy to charge me. Tib was an honest, good fighter. That was unfortunate for his clone. I used what was left of my mana to dodge a downward strike and appeared behind him. I slid my shortsword between the slots of his armor and punctured his kidney, then stepped backward to let him fall.

That just left Patience. My Patience was cornered, but still putting up a good fight against herself. I knew from my own sparring matches that I couldn’t beat Patience with guile, so I went with strength. I attacked her from behind with straightforward, powerful strikes. She dodged, but was unable to counterattack. Once she was off balance enough, my own Patience struck, and buried her dagger in her own back.

I watched for a moment as that other version of her faded into motes of light and she took on the same shocked expression as the others. Once she was gone the mirror shattered, and fell to the floor. I watched as the blood that had stained me from the fight also drifted into light, and faded away. After that I made my way to the wall and vomited.