The mimic construct flashed to life next to Ray himself. A blob of deep blue energy that slowly revolved round and round as though unsure what form to take.

  Ray tried to gather his thoughts. It was getting hard to breathe, the pain intensifying every second. Was this what Marcus and Gritty had faced when trying to enter this domain? It was unbearable.

  Stone…

  Gritty was kneeling next to him. “Focus, wingman.” Her words warbled in and out of his consciousness. “I can try to get the bones on you, but it’ll be much faster with your mimic.”

  Ray was pretty sure he had gone crazy because none of that made a lick of sense to him. He was sure he saw another figure come stand next to them, before saying something unintelligible and quickly dashing away. What?

  A notification popped up, but even that was hard to focus on. At least it shed some light as to what was going on.

  [Eternal Pulse—Dungeon Obstacle]

  Grave Atmosphere

  Not all environments are suited for every living thing. This was the tenet drawn upon by the dungeon to deter any would-be intruders. What need is there for guardians and protectors when the dungeon itself becomes inhospitable. To that end, the Vine-Choked Valley choked the very space to ensure none but its stony constructs could exist.

  Stone…

  Ray closed his eyes to help himself focus. Stone. Wasn’t it all around him in this dungeon? The petrified vines on the walls, the corpses turned into statues in their clutches, the Gargoyles with their rocky bodies lumbering about. It wasn’t difficult at all to make the Imitator construct figure out the form it needed to take.

  The new thing was that this form had to be something for Ray himself to use. Directly. With a force of will, he commanded the Imitator construct to cover him, which it did.

  In less than a minute, Ray was covered first by the gloopy feeling of the mimic’s normal body, before a sudden weight grew strong all over him. But with it, the pain started receding quickly. The shocks and jolts of agony retreated so fast, it was almost like he had imagined them.

  With a groan, he did his best to get himself to his feet. It was hard. Ray wasn’t tired. He just weighed a lot more than usual.

  Because, as Gritty had asked, he was now clad in pure stone.

  “Why… are we doing this again?” he asked. “Actually, can you start from the top?”

  He had to clear his throat to get his voice to work properly. The aftershocks of the sudden pain were still clinging to his body.

  “Because this purple haze won’t let anyone through unless they’ve got enough of any kind of stone on them,” Gritty said. “You alright, though? I didn’t realize it was going to get that bad inside.”

  Ray nodded tiredly, focusing on what was going on ahead of him. He didn’t believe he had killed the Galiant with that one blow, even if his spell had carved a humongous hole through the alien’s body.

  But there was no need to worry that he had gotten up only to be squashed by his boulder-like opponent. The Galiant was still down.

  Thanks to a dozen portals around him, spewing a dozen massive tentacles that kept the Galinat trapped to the ground.

  “I’ll be fine,” Ray said. “Anyway… where’s Marcus? And more importantly…” He started looking around. “Where’s Sameer?”

  “Uh… long story.”

  Ray was patient, so he stood and listened to everything that had happened after they had parted from that zone where they had confronted Team Albatross together.

  Gritty and Marcus had been able to get through the vast majority of the dungeon from that point without much trouble. The real obstacle before them came in the shape of the purple haze. They had experimented and found that the dungeon was indeed killing anything that didn’t have stone in or on it as soon as it entered the purple haze’s confines.

  As was proven a little later when the Galiant went through without a hitch. They hadn’t seen where the Sylvan was.

  Gritty had next devised the plan that bone somehow counted as stone, so they could cover themselves in it and proceed. If Ray had been asked, that seemed like a stupid way to get killed.

  But it had worked. Gritty had an ability to essentially calcify any bones she called forth to make it stronger, and that did count as stone. For the dungeon’s purposes, at least. So, she and Marcus had been able to get past the Dungeon Obstacle.

  Only to come face to face with a battle between Sameer and the Galiant.

  “Why you hesitating?” Ray asked as Gritty’s tale came to an abrupt stop.

  Before she could answer, a loud laugh rolled over them. An annoyingly familiar one. Sameer popped out of one of his portals, striding towards them with smuggest of expressions and his hands clasped behind him, every step oozing insufferableness.

  “Well, well, looks like your friend wasn’t lying,” he said with a near-manic grin. “Although, I’m not sure you can call him a friend any longer.”

  Ray frowned at the guy. Then he frowned at Gritty. “What does he mean, Gritty?”

  “Uh…” She took a deep breath before sighing. “Marcus decided there was no time to waste, because Sameer was here alone so the rest of his team could already be at the dungeon boss.”

  “And?”

  “And he decided we had to get past the battle anyway we could. So he struck a deal with Sameer. That guy doesn’t care about any of us. He just wants to gut you, so Marcus decided he’d, uh, bring you here in return for Sameer letting us go forward.”

  Ray stared at Gritty. “You sold me out?”

  Gritty smiled widely at his expression, patting him on the shoulder a couple of times. “I’m sure you’ll have a fun time, wingman. Just don’t die before we’ve secured the treasure, alright?”

  And with that, she was gone, almost cheerily rushing away to wherever the dungeon boss room was supposed to be.

  Sameer laughed again as Gritty hightailed it out of there. “Beautiful.” He rubbed his eyes. “Really brings a tear to my eye to see bullies like you get betrayed. Ah, the world is good.”

  “Fuck off, Sameer. You’re one to talk, all alone here. Where are the rest of your teammates?”

  “They’re killing the boss. Unlike you and your little ragtag band, we’re pretty good at this whole dungeon-clearing business.”

  “Really? You’re the good ones? After losing to me and my team at the last dungeon we were in together and at the auction too?” Ray tutted, waving a dismissive hand. “Pretty sure your pals left you here so you don’t screw it up for them like you did the last time.”

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Tell yourself whatever you want. You’re going to die here. Your blathering doesn’t matter.”

  Ray sighed. “Do we really have to fight? Didn’t I beat you once already? You’re going to lose again and the only thing you’ll accomplish is wasting my time.”

  “Shut up.”

  Something Ray had said had clearly gotten under Sameer’s skin because the portals that popped to life around them flashed with ferocity. Two blasted scorching lava, while a second unleashed gale-force winds.

  Ray was already flying away with Soaring Wings on his back. The best way of dealing with Sameer was by keeping moving, staying agile.

  The weight of the extra stone thanks to the Imitator construct covering him was making it a little harder than before. At least he was able to modify it to a lighter version without the dungeon trying to kill him again with the purple gas everywhere.

  As Ray moved, he fired off his counterattacks. Draconic maws around his hands blasted compressed blue flames at his opponent, while summoned constructs attempted the same, swinging in close with their mouths brimming with fire.

  Sameer didn’t even bother dodging. Ray’s attacks reached him but never did any damage. He was covered with more of his portals, all of which swallowed up anything Ray flung in his direction, reverting them towards their owner from other portals around the battlefield. It was pretty evident Ray wasn’t going to land a single blow without a surprise.

  Just like their previous encounter.

  “Don’t you dare think it’s going to be the same as last time,” Sameer yelled.

  He was doing his best to prove his statement. More and more portals were appearing everywhere, shooting various powers that Ray had to evade. At times, he was forced to use Temporal Passage to get away. There was just too much shit flying everywhere.

  At times, he wished he had some cool time power that could simply stop anything trying to attack him from existing. Eliza had something like that, didn’t she? Why couldn’t he get something like that? But his new class wasn’t really about time. No, it was the life cycle of things that he could truly manipulate, even if some of his spells had tricky names.

  Ray focused. He needed just one opportunity. Sameer would no doubt be wary of what he had suffered in their last battle.

  But Ray was capable of a lot more.

  When he summoned his constructs next, Ray applied more Aeon Mana to Resurrect Recollect. This led to the constructs fully forming into Windbanes, posing a greater danger to Sameer as they couldn’t be killed with a single bolt of lightning or a stray spray of fire.

  However, Sameer had his own counters. Just as he had at the auction, he created new portals that brought down monstrous creatures from… wherever it was his portals led.

  “Two can play the little summoning trick,” Sameer said.

  Ray just disappeared with a quick use of Temporal Passage. All the attacks were providing him with a weird cover. So much dust everywhere, so much stray light. It would be hard to spot anything specifically, especially if it moved too fast.

  Which was what gave Ray the chance to summon another Imitator construct and immediately order it to take his form, sending it out to fight against Sameer on his behalf.

  Ray grinned. Sounded like Sameer had fallen for it.

  Another Resurrect Recollect constructed yet another Imitator. This one Ray threw over himself and the first Imitator, making sure he was more or less invisible. He realized the trick was similar to the one he had used the first time, but he was hoping he could make it work.

  “You think this is going to work again?” Sameer asked with a shout.

  Ray, still invisible, appeared out of the smoke and dust. His eyes widened. The Imitator construct had already fallen. What? He had specifically ordered it to survive as long as it could.

  His other constructs weren’t doing much better. Sameer’s summoned monsters had killed several of his constructs, even after he had applied more Aeon Mana to make them stronger.

  No time. There was no time to waste.

  Ray ordered his other constructs to swoop to their main target, ignoring the enemy summons if need be.

  The surviving spectral Windbanes all roared and flew straight at Sameer. They didn’t reach him, of course. Harried by the other summons, with more portals popping up to belch their blistering power, every single remaining construct died and fell apart.

  But not before one of them got close enough.

  Close enough for Ray to use Temporal Passage. The world shifted in less than an instant. Ray was in position, right where he needed to be, his hand already calling up Core Deconstruction.

  Just as the spark of white energy materialized in his hand, however, Sameer disappeared into one of his portals.

  Ray cursed. At the same time, more portals opened up all around him. Everywhere, covering nearly everything he could see. They ringed the entire battlefield like an impassable wall, bounding a huge area around him, fencing him in.

  He couldn’t even fly up and over them as an even greater number of the portals popped up overhead, joining together to form one enormous rent in the air. A huge hole in the sky that was, unlike the rest, complete dark. Almost as though—

  Ray realized what was happening a split second before the foot of a mountain landed through the portal to crush everything in the vicinity.

  Sameer grinned. Bastard. Bastard. He was finally down, finally gone. finally dead. Holy hell, it had been such a long time coming.

  He wanted to laugh. Tricks and deceptions. Of course. That’s all the asshole called Raymond ever knew to do, so naturally, Sameer had given him a taste of his own foul medicine. A quick teleport out of the area before enclosing everything with his portals, making sure Raymond had no way of escaping.

  And then he had summoned an entire fucking cliff to crush everything.

  Sameer had to give it to that bully. He wouldn’t ever admit it out loud of course, but Raymond had pushed him to use the largest Rent he had created yet. Sameer hadn’t even known he could stitch seventeen different Rents together to create one, massive portal. His previous record had been twelve.

  But it had worked. He had known the bastard could teleport, but he had covered a large enough area. There was nowhere for Raymond to teleport to.

  Even if he tried to appear next to his teammates, just as he had done to get here, he would have failed. They were in the boss room now. One couldn’t just teleport inside boss rooms. No, Raymond had to be dead. Finally. Good riddance.

  As the other fencing portals disappeared, Sameer appreciated his ingenuity. The proof of it stood right before him. A massive cliff stretching up and up, its heights disappearing into the huge Rent he had stitched together.

  He patted his summoned cliff of grey stone like a pet. “Good work, my—”

  Sameer frowned. It was uneven. Instead of being summoned down to stand entirely vertical, the cliff was at an angle. Listing ever so slightly to one side. Ah. Ah.

  He checked the cliff bottom. Right. There was that unfortunate other guy caught in the middle of their fight. That Galiant. He had kept the alien trapped with the tentacles from another sequence of Rents. It made sense the cliff couldn’t crush the boulderlike body of the Galiant. For all Sameer knew, the Galiant might be made of even stronger stone than his summoned cliff.

  “Whatever,” Sameer muttered.

  He sent his summons away. The cliff disappeared, pulled back inside the huge Rent, which broke apart afterwards and dissipated to nothing. Now, to find Raymond’s bloodstain. His skin danced with the prospect of finding the squished remains and…

  Sameer frowned. Where was it? Where the fuck was all the blood and flesh and crushed bones? Where was it?

  Wherever he looked, he didn’t see it. Nothing. No blood anywhere. No signs of death. No. No. Sameer clenched his hands into fists. Where were the remains of the corpse that he was supposed to be seeing? No blood anywhere on the ground or the walls, no fleshy or bony bits, no—

  “Looking for me?”

  Sameer froze. His spine turned rigid as an iron rod, every muscle tensing and relaxing over and over until he felt like he’d have a seizure.

  He twisted around, his eyes livid, his fingers contorting like they were possessed.

  Raymond was slowly standing up from within the Galiant. From inside the alien. From the huge, flaming hole Raymond himself had carved out within the alien’s body before their battle had begun. No way.

  No fucking way.

  “I’ll admit,” Raymond said, laughing a little. “You almost had me there. Real mean trick to summon an entire mountain to crush me. You had a lot of faith I couldn’t teleport anywhere far enough to survive, and you were almost right.” He pointed a smug thumb back. “But you kind of forgot I had my defence right there.”

  Sameer’s mouth worked, unable to form a reply. The way that bastard was looking at him, as though he had foreseen Sameer’s attack and already knew of multiple ways to protect himself.

  No. Impossible. He might have defensive constructs and summons, but nothing would have withstood an entire cliff being dropped on it. No stupid shield or shell. Nothing. Sameer refused to believe Raymond had some other secret he could have used in case the Galiant hadn’t been fortunately here.

  “Fine,” Sameer said. His voice was steady, steely, and full of promise. Just what it needed to be. “I’ll kill you the old-fashioned way. You want to die the hard way? I’ll oblige.”

  Raymond’s lips curved up. “I’ll keep an eye out for any cliffs about to fall on me.”

  Sameer raised his hand as tension threaded through the air, Raymond tensing as they prepared to resume their battle.

  A strange spike spiralled in out of nowhere and punched through Raymond’s body like a ballista bolt. He didn’t even get to scream before he was blasted off his feet and crashed into the far wall.

  Honestly, being attacked out of nowhere wasn’t why Ray had decided to use yet another Imitator construct. Once he had spotted the cavity in the Galiant’s chest as his only recourse when Sameer dropped an entire fucking mountain on him, Ray found he had a surprisingly long time to think.

  Of course, he was tremendously lucky the Galiant was still even there. But he found he had enough time to decide how best to turn the tables on Sameer.

  By not coming out in the first place, and instead, creating another Imitator construct.

  Ray just hadn’t foreseen that it would also save him from getting ballista-bolted by a spiralling projection of Growth Mana cannoning in with a vengeance.

  He blinked as his Imitator construct simply disappeared. Then he winced. That crash sounded quite painful.

  Ray took a deep breath. A vicious argument had started outside the Galiant’s body. Maybe it was a sign that he had to get out himself.

  With a grunt, Ray started getting out. That was when the Galaint, silent so far and appearing more or less dead, rumbled to life.