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He\'s already Novice 9, and without the monsters in the Mirrorlands to power-level him. He must have just been fighting people and monsters this whole time… but the threat from them is comparatively lower. The only way Diego could have gotten this strong is if he didn\'t advance his Mind Palace at all, and is dumping all his power into leveling up.

The huge man reached down and pulled a rock free of the ground. It didn\'t look like he was any more interested in settling things peacefully now than he had been before.

Alex burst into motion and his monsters followed after him. Standing around in one place would just make him an easy target.

If he wanted to keep climbing the leaderboard, he was going to have to deal with Diego. It wasn\'t lost on him that the last fight he\'d had with the massive man had nearly ended in both of their deaths — and that fight had been a two versus one.

But things are different now. He might be stronger, but so am I — and unlike him, I\'ve been leveling my Mind Palace and I\'ve got a whole lot more tricks than I did the last time around.

Diego hurled the stone. It streaked through the air like a cannonball, but Alex wasn\'t a slow-moving target. The rock slammed into the hill a fair distance away from him with a loud crunch and Alex\'s charge continued, unhindered.

Another stone hurtled in his direction. Alex slipped out of the way a second time, but this one passed a little too close to comfort. Diego must have been a baseball player before the apocalypse had rolled around. His aim was terrifyingly good.

Alex reached the bottom of the hill Diego stood on and started up it. But, even as he ran, he was more than aware that there was no way he\'d be fast enough to dodge a rock when running up an incline directly in front of Diego.

It would clip him at the very least — and at the speed that Diego was throwing the rocks, getting hit would probably be enough to take out an entire arm if it didn\'t kill him straight out. That wasn\'t even to mention that Alex couldn\'t afford to spend every last scrap of energy he had on this fight.

You\'re a roadblock in my path, not my goal.

"Spark," Alex ordered between breaths. Hedging his bets would only stall the fight out. He needed to be decisive. "Block the stone for me."

Diego rose up above Alex, having claimed another rock. He reared back. The Echo Wraith lurched forward, its stormy form darting past Alex and appearing before him. With a roar, Diego flung his makeshift weapon.

It whistled through the air and slammed into the Echo Wraith even as Alex threw himself into a dive. Chitinous armor shattered. The stone burst out the back of the monster like a bullet. With a loud crackle of energy and a pop of blue lightning, the Echo Wraith crumbled to dust.

Alex rolled to his feet and continued his charge alongside Glint. Power poured into his body, granting him Spark\'s powers — and then he crested the top of the hill and found himself face-to-face with Diego.

Anger and fear mixed on the large man\'s face. He took a step back and raised his hands, flexing them into fists. "You came back. Sharp, painful, little man. I am glad. We did not get to finish what we started. I hate leaving things unfinished."

"Says the one that ran away," Alex countered, circling around Diego as he waited for an opening. He hadn\'t forgotten just how fast his opponent was — and that had been several ranks ago. Now, he had no idea how strong Diego had actually gotten.

"Phil always said I shouldn\'t face problems I\'m not ready for before I\'m ready for \'em," Diego said, cracking his neck. Silver crawled across his skin and covered his body. "But I\'m ready for you now."

The huge man drove his foot into the ground. Dirt exploded upward in a line toward Alex as steel spines burst free of it, traveling out in a wave to impale him. Alex\'s flung himself to the side, activating Spark\'s powers to leave his shadow back where he\'d been standing.

He hit the ground in a roll and shot to his feet. Diego\'s foot slammed down on the dirt beside him and he swung a meaty fist at Alex\'s head. Alex ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding the strike. Wind howled past his head and he skipped back, not even bothering to try and punch Diego — he knew all too well how effective the man\'s metallic skin was.

"You know the drill, Glint," Alex said, dodging out of the way of another blow and stepping under Diego\'s arms, trying to keep behind him. He reached within himself and drew on his power.

The Shardwalker leapt and a strand of energy connected to him as Alex activated Rift Flood. Power poured out of his body and into the Shardwalker.

Glint warped midway through the air. The glass blades jutting from his body jerked outward and expanded. His mouth grew, flooded with enormous, glistening fangs. The Shardwalker\'s eyes turned a shimmering reddish-purple and power twisted within the mirrors covering him.

Fear flickered in Diego\'s eyes. He staggered back and swung an arm to bat Glint from the sky, lifting the other one to protect his face.

Alex thrust his hands forward and drew on more of the magic he\'d been saving to activate Funhouse. The air around Diego cracked. Fractures jerked and raced through reality, quickly expanding to surround the large man.

Diego\'s eyes widened in surprise and confusion and his body twisted like it had been put through a blender. Shapes and colors mixed and swirled within the large area of warped Space. Diego stumbled forward, suddenly finding himself facing away from Glint.

Alex dropped the spell right before Glint passed through it.

The Shardwalker slammed into Diego\'s back. His empowered claws ripped into his huge back, shrieking as they met steel — and tearing deep into it. A scream of pain tore from Diego\'s mouth.

He reached back and grabbed Glint before the Shardwalker could dodge out of the way. Glass crunched and shards drove into Diego\'s palm, piercing through his reinforced skin and sending blood splattering across the ground. He ripped Glint off his back and lifted the monster in the air before him.

Alex gritted his teeth and drew on his magic again. Diego stumbled as the air around him shattered into fragments once more. His foot slammed down and he swayed, nearly losing his balance. The surprise cost him his grip on Glint, who dropped to the ground and skipped to safety.

"Stop that!" Diego snarled. He lurched for Alex, extending his hand to reach for his face. The giant of a man moved with terrifying speed, closing what little distance there was between them in the blink of an eye.

If Alex had just been a normal human, the blow would have connected.

But, unlike Diego, Alex had been putting power into his Mind Palace. He didn\'t have any abilities that made him stronger or faster, but his very body was upgraded, and that included his reaction speed.

Alex swapped spots with his shadow. Diego\'s hand drove through a cloud of inky darkness, closing down on nothing, and he let out a snarl of frustration that quickly turned into another scream as Glint leapt onto him.

Diego had gotten stronger — but so had Alex and Glint. And, unfortunately for the huge man, it looked like he hadn\'t invested too much effort into reinforcing his defenses. Perhaps they\'d been enough against the other people he\'d been killing.

Glint was not most people.

Diego let out an agonized scream as Glint ripped into him. The big man\'s ability wasn\'t strong enough to keep the Shardwalker\'s Rift-empowered claws from cutting straight through it and, below the metal, Diego had nothing but normal human flesh.

The huge man grabbed Glint, ignoring the glass shards that ripped through his hand, and threw the monster to the side with a scream. Diego took a step back and nearly lost his balance as his foot found the edge of the hill where it came to a sharp stop.

He glanced over his shoulder, then looked back to Alex and Glint. Fury twisted his features and he let out a bellowing roar.

The massive man lowered his shoulders and charged. He extended his arms to either side, covering as much ground as he could as he raced toward Glint. The Shardwalker dipped out of the way, avoiding Diego\'s grasp, but Diego made no move to slow his charge.

He hadn\'t been aiming for Glint. He\'d been going for the source of his troubles.

Alex tried to dodge out of the way, but Diego moved too quickly. He snagged Alex\'s wrist and his huge hand clamped down around it in an instant. Bone cracked. Alex hissed in pain as pain raced down his arm and he was yanked into the air like a doll.

"Got you," Diego snarled — and Alex\'s foot whipped up and struck him in the chin.

Diego\'s head snapped back and he let out a startled cry of pain. The blow had been a lot stronger than what he\'d been expecting. His grip slacked for a moment, but it tightened again before Alex could escape.

Alex\'s jaw clenched as more bones cracked in his wrist.

Glint leapt at Diego. The large man swung his hand again, and this time, Alex couldn\'t stop him. His blow connected directly with the Shardwalker.

Glass and metal shrieked against each other. Blood sprayed from several deep wounds that the Shardwalker raked across Diego\'s arm. Glint slammed down onto the ground, several of his shards shattering, and Diego drove his foot down on top of him.

Bloodstained glass shards carved up and burst out of the top of Diego\'s foot. They scraped against bone and burst from its top like a bloody flower. Diego howled in pain. He yanked his foot away, blood already pouring from it, and leaned heavily on his good leg.

Diego\'s hate-filled gaze lifted up to Alex. Wide lips pulled apart in a snarl of pain and fury. His grip tightened on the captured arm. Pain tore through Alex\'s entire body and it took everything he had to keep from screaming in pain.

"Now it is your turn. You can\'t hurt me anymore, small—"

Power rushed into Alex\'s body, but he didn\'t even let it finish arriving before he shoved it back out. Glistening shards ripped out from his injured arm and tore into Diego\'s skin. They bit deep into his palm and burst free from the other side, splattering blood across the ground.

Diego screamed and yanked his hand back. The hand that was — unfortunately — pinned to Alex\'s arm.

The world turned upside down. Alex sailed through the air. The shards jutting from his body finally snapped and the sky turned to grass. He slammed into the ground.

Darkness flashed at the edges of his vision. Pain ripped through his nervous system. His head pounded and blood slammed in his ears. Alex shoved himself to his feet, but it felt like he had been spun in a thousand circles.

Diego\'s furious form danced before him like a mirage. Blood ran down the man\'s palm in thin rivers to drip to the ground at his feet. He was swaying in the wind — or perhaps that was Alex. He couldn\'t tell which.

"No more touching," Diego said. His voice was distant, like it had come from a mile away.

His injured foot lifted into the air.

It drove down. Diego\'s agonized cry of pain was followed by a wave of jagged metal spikes that erupted from the ground and shot out toward Alex.

Panic pushed past his disorientation and Alex yanked on his power.

The world snapped as he shifted, swapping locations with his shadow once more. Diego let out a furious curse and spun back to Alex.

With a snarl, the large man limped, ran toward him, extending his hands once more. Blood splattered across the ground with every step he took. Even with the injury to his foot, he moved with the speed of a charging bull.

Alex thrust his good arm forward and yanked on his reserves once more. The air before him warped and cracked. Diego\'s eyes widened in recognition, but he was moving too fast to slow down in time.

The space expanded to Diego\'s size, draining almost every last scrap of energy that Alex had left to work with. It swallowed Diego and spat him back out, sending him careening to the side.

Diego tripped over his own feet and fell face-first into the ground. His sheer weight was enough to crack his nose as it hit the floor. He let out a muffled cry of pain. Diego rolled over, blood splattering all around him.

His chest rose and fell in large, infuriated breaths. He shoved himself upright, features twisted in intense agony.

"No more," Diego hissed, blood dripping down his face as he advanced, half-limping with every step. He didn\'t charge again. Alex tried to keep the distortion between them, but Diego was aware of it now. His fists tightened at his sides.

Alex drew his shadow back to him with a thought. He stepped around the distortion, leaving the shadow behind him. From his palm, he formed a thin, pointed mirror shard. Alex snapped it off and held it between two fingers in a tight grip. Diego spotted the blade and smirked.

"No more tricks. You will die now," Diego said. He stepped around the warped portion of space and reached out, his hand blotting out the moonlight shining down from above.

Alex reared back and flung the shard in his hands with all his might. Diego flinched back, but the glistening blade wasn\'t heading in his direction. Alex hadn\'t been aiming at him at all. He was repeating a motion he\'d already practiced hundreds of times that very night with the help of a crumpled up dollar. He\'d thrown the mirror shard straight at the edge of a single, familiar fragment in Funhouse\'s cracked domain.