A blade of air split the air, inches away from Dallion’s toes. If Kallan’s shout hadn’t caused him to momentarily freeze, he would have received considerable damage, possibly even a fatal wound.

Instantly Dallion jumped back. A deep cut was visible on the crystal floor, several feet long. Whatever had caused it was sharp, long, and durable. Yet, why hadn’t there been any combat rectangles or defense markers? And above all, where was the thing that had attacked?

“Where’s it at?” Dallion shouted, aiming forward with his dartbow. The chamber was as empty as before.

Kallan didn’t respond, eyes darting from spot to spot throughout the chamber.

Dallion braced himself for further attacks, but none followed. Even so, he had no intention of taking the chance. Holding his breath, he squeezed the trigger. The bolt flew forward. Barely a few feet in flight, something slashed through it, slicing the projectile in two.

So that’s the trick, Dallion thought. There wasn’t a combat rectangle because the actual combat hadn’t started at. It was very much like the scylla during the dagger trial—while the massive creature had been dormant, all attacks against it didn’t count. This guardian was probably similar. If only Falkner or Nil were here, they would be able to guess what the creature was. Then again, the siblings were.

“What—”

“Mirror Widow!” Janna shouted. “That’s why we can’t see it. It’s covered in mirrors that make it invisible and act as a shield. Anything that approaches will be sliced.”

“Crap!” Kallan cursed.

What the heck is a Mirror Widow? Dallion wondered. If the name was to go by, it sounded like a spider with an invisible force field that sliced everything that approached. Definitely not a good last guardian to face. Dallion had never seen one, and unlike most of the creatures so far that had an Earth reference, this one was very much unique.

“Hold on a sec.” Jenna summoned her crossbow and shot at the center of the chamber some twenty feet in front of Dallion. A serious of blasts filled the air, like flower balloons exploding, after which dust and particles calmly fell to the floor.

There was a long moment of silence.

“Damn it!” Kallan slammed the crystal wall with his hand. “Why did it have to be a widow?!”

“Looks like there’s nothing we can do,” Janna said from the other side. “We’ll have to call this off.”

“Why?” Dallion asked. “What’s the big deal with a widow?”

Both siblings gave him a disapproving glance that couldn’t be mistaken even in the dimness. Dallion knew that look well—his high-school geography teacher would give him that look whenever he asked something considered stupid.

“I’ve never seen a Mirror Widow before,” he explained calmly. “What’s it like? Like a spider?”

“No, not like a spider…” Kallan sighed audibly. “It’s like an armored beetle. It has a very thick shell, spikes on its legs, and wings that let if fly about.”

“And the shields?”

“Scale membrane. Whenever it senses something close, the widow’s wings flash it, so that the guardian is protected.”

“Hmm.” An interesting dilemma.

“The problem is the membrane. It’s both invisible and hard as crystal. Even if we attack it from both sides, we won’t deal much damage.” The way Kallon said it suggested they had tried before and failed miserably.

“Yeah, this is better left for the higher levels. We still got two levels done, though. That’s something.”

“What if I can break the membrane?” Dallion asked. “What happens then?”

“You can’t break the membrane.” Kallan laughed.

“Just imagine I do. What will happen?”

“Well…” Kallan took a few moments to become serious. “If you break the membrane, which you can’t, the creature’s defenses will fall. The widow will wake up and will attack.”

“And we won’t have to deal with the membrane again?”

“It’s a onetime thing. Why? You’re not actually thinking of trying it, right?” There was a long pause. “Right?”

“Hey, it’s not like we have anything to lose.” Dallion holstered his dartbow. “If we quit or we zero health, there’s no difference. Why not try something weird before quitting?”

And here it was, the chance he was hoping to get. There were no guarantees that it would work, or that the party would survive even it did, but Dallion was damned if he wasn’t going to try something. As his father back on Earth had said, a person grows through failures. The important thing was to choose those failures.

“Okay.” Kallan said with some hesitation. “So, what do we do?”

“The beetle has two wings, right? So, if you two keep attacking it, that would let me approach the membrane without being sliced up, right?”

Kellan nodded.

“Great. How long can you keep that up? A minute, two?”

“Half a minute at most,” Janna replied.

It wasn’t as much as Dallion had hoped for, but plenty of time for what he had in mind.

“Okay, give me a minute to get ready.” He took a deep breath. “You up for this, Nox?” he whispered.

In his awakening room, Dallion could feel the cub mew in excitement. Apparently, all the talk of pets and items becoming like their owner was true—Nox was turning out to be a reckless little crackling.

“Remember, just a crack, don’t go wild on me.”

The following meow didn’t fill him with much confidence. At the end of the day, cats will be cats.

“Okay, start shooting!” Dallion shouted.

Moments later, each of the siblings shot a barrage of bolts from both sides of the chamber. To the naked eye it seemed as if they were shooting at nothing, but each time a bolt or bolt fragment neared the center of the chamber, it would be reduced to bits.

Dallion drew his harpsisword and started walking forward. Soon he was half a step away from the place of his nearly fatal incident. Now was the time to see whether all that Kallan had said was true. Slowly, Dallion extended his sword forward, then pushed against the air. The tip of the blade past the crack on the floor. Shortly after, it stopped, as if hitting something solid.

So far, so good. Now the really tricky part began.

“It’s all you, Nox,” he whispered, still pressing the sword against the invisible membrane. “Go for it.”

Not needing to be told twice, the crackling appeared in the darkness. Without hesitation, it leapt forward to the point at which the blade hit the membrane. The cub’s claws sunk into the air, making it hang three feet above the floor. The sight would have been hilarious if it wasn’t for the streams of bolts that were viciously sliced on both sides of the invisible guardian.

Dallion held his breath. Would the crackling be able to pull this off?

Moving into a comfortable position, Nox pulled out one of his paws from the membrane, then did the action that thousands of cat owners dread—it pressed against the surface, claws extended to the extreme, and moved his paw down. A sound that could only be described as a combination of cracking and tearing filled the air, distinctly audible above everything else. Then, moments later, a sliver of reality emerged.

Like a crack to another dimension, the sliver let Dallion see part of the action Mirror Widow. It was, as the siblings had said, like a beetle, but not only that… it was like a magnificent stag beetle, entirely made of mirrored crystal. If Dallion had a choice he would love to have such a creature as a familiar. Fighting it felt barbaric, the mere through that he would have to shatter such delicate beauty made Dallion cringe inside. Sadly, there was no other option.

“Get back, Nox,” Dallion ordered. The crackling had done its part. Now it was time for Dallion to finish it.

I want to attack, he thought.

A red path appeared in the air, guiding Dallion on how to strike to widen the crack. With a moment’s hesitation, that’s what he did.

“Darude!” Dallion shouted.

The harpsisword split the air, burying itself in the thin sliver. There was nothing elegant about it—just a barbaric hack chopping away at the invisible shell. The effects were immediate. The crack grew, encompassing the entire area around the beetle like a spider-web. For several seconds it held strong, attempting to maintain its integrity before shattering like a chandelier in a Hollywood action movie. Shards of invisibility fell to the ground, finally revealing the guardian they were here to face.

“Got you.” Dallion smiled.

COMBAT INITIATED

The membrane gone, bolts rained on the beetle. Most bounced off the shell, like toothpicks, but a few managed to accidentally hit some of the unprotected spots where the shell pieces met.

LEVEL 3 GUARDIAN

Species: Mirror Widow

Class: Crystal

Statistics: 97% HP

“Get away from there!” Janna shouted, while still shooting with the crossbow.

Dallion was only too happy to comply. Seeing the beetle in full was a lot more frightening than a partial glimpse. And the guardian didn’t disappoint, leaping into flight. Annoyed to have been awakened from its slumber, it quickly went on the offensive.

Hearing the buzzing, Dallion jumped flat on his face, then continued in a crawl towards the nearest wall in the chamber. The siblings had a similar idea, crouching against the walls, shields in front.

For several seconds, they all stood there, waiting for something to happen. None of them had faced a Mirror Guardian before, so none knew what to expect.

The beetle made three circles around the chamber, carefully observing its attackers. For a moment it seemed as if the entire party was out of reach, forcing the guardian to fly about in search of an opening. Then, without warning, the creature suddenly darted at Dallion.

Green markers appeared everywhere as well as several lines indicating the Mirror Widow’s target of attack. The lines were too large for Dallion to escape them, so he did the next best thing—tried to block with his buckler. That proved to be completely inefficient.

Once the crystal insect was close enough, its wings slashed at Dallion. The buckler was slit in two upon contact as the wing continued on, slicing off Dallion’s arm to the elbow.

SLICING WOUND

Health decreased by 40%

You are no longer able to make use of your LEFT ARM

BUCKLER DESTROYED

You are no longer able to make use of your buckler

What just happened? Dallion stared at his missing arm, trying to process things. His mind knew that this wasn’t by any means serious—just a disadvantage in the awakened realm that would have no effect in real life. Decades of time stent on Earth, though, made him panic at the sight. Instinct stronger than anything present in this world, made him turn pale, as dizziness grabbed hold.

Am I going to die? A voice whispered in his mind. There was no way he could survive without an arm. And what if he would be armless outside as well?

“Dallion!” Kallan shouted. The voice seemed so far away that it felt like a dream.

Moments later a serious of blasts followed, as the beetle was hit by a set of crossbow bolts. Dallion watched the guardian’s health drop by seventeen percent, then again by nine. At some other time, he might have even been impressed. Right now, though, he just stood there, motionless, his mind in a loop of panic.

“Snap out of it!” Janna jelled.

Snap out of what? Dallion wondered as the guardian flew away from him. Pleased with the effect of its attack, the creature focused on the remaining two targets. There was always time to return and finish Dallion later. In fact, Dallion was expecting it. Seeing no point in crouching against the wall, he stood up and made a few steps towards the center of the chamber.

He was just on borrowed time now. There was nothing that he could do with one hand and no guard skills. Come to think of it, it was rather funny—getting defeated by a crystal beetle wasn’t how he imagined it. Although—

You aren’t meant to end here, a voice said in his head. It was an unknown voice that he had never heard before. Dallion had no idea whose it was or where it came from. The only thing he did know was that it was neither Nox’ not was it any of his own thoughts.

Now get a grip and fight!

And that is exactly what Dallion did.