Chapter 106: The Mirror Duel, A Flawless Execution
Levi toggled on his [Siphon Aura]. The green light wrapped around his boots, draining 2 Mana every second.
He tightened his grip on his weapon. He had no True Damage artillery to rely on. He had no gravity snares to slow the boss down. He had to beat this thing with pure, unfiltered mechanics.
"Let’s see who plays the class better," Levi said.
**
The Echo of the Hollow didn’t just run across the arena. It blurred out of existence.
The shadow-clone used its own version of [Hollow’s Traverse].
Levi didn’t even see the boss move. The air directly behind his back violently displaced. The Echo teleported flawlessly, appearing directly in Levi’s blind spot, already swinging its massive scythe in a brutal horizontal cleave aimed right at Levi’s spine.
Levi didn’t have time to turn around. His 1,736 Speed was incredibly fast, but the teleport completely bypassed standard reaction times.
"Platinum Ward of the Abyss!" Levi roared.
His massive 10,110 HP shield locked into place just a millisecond before the Echo’s blade connected.
The heavy scythe slammed into the black hole shield.
The VR pain engine sent a jarring, heavy vibration right through Levi’s boots. The system processed the defensive math instantly.
Echo ATK (6,000) minus Levi DEF (1,354) equaled 4,646 incoming damage. Levi’s Diamond-tier necklace cut that exactly in half.
[-2,323]
The massive hit slammed into the 10,110 HP shield, dropping it to 7,787 HP. The barrier violently rippled, but it held firm.
The exact millisecond the scythe bounced off the shield, the Platinum Ward’s reflection passive triggered. The shield captured 20% of the *unmitigated* 6,000 physical attack. Twenty percent of 6,000 was exactly 1,200.
A violent, dark-purple shockwave exploded out from Levi’s shield and slammed directly back into the Echo’s chest.
[-1,200 True Damage]
The corrupted red text popped up over the boss’s head. The Echo actually staggered backward, its attack animation violently canceled as it swallowed 1,200 points of completely unblockable damage.
Levi spun around. He didn’t waste a single frame.
"My turn," Levi snarled.
He gripped his Platinum Scythe of the Eclipse and unleashed a rapid flurry of basic physical strikes. His 1,736 Speed made him a glitching black shadow. He hacked into the Echo’s dark armor, swinging the heavy blade three times in less than a second.
[-3,487] [-3,487] [-3,487]
The raw damage chunked the boss’s 300,000 HP pool. But more importantly, Levi’s Platinum weapon had a 25% Lifesteal passive. He hadn’t taken any actual health damage yet, so the massive bursts of green healing numbers just over-capped his 26,180 HP bar uselessly.
The scythe’s passive bleed triggered. The tiny teardrop icon popped up over the Echo’s helmet, ticking for 5 true damage per second.
The Echo recovered from the stagger instantly. It didn’t retreat. It just swung back.
The duel turned into an absolute, high-speed nightmare of clashing metal and dark magic. They were two identical classes fighting with the exact same toolkit.
The Echo swept its scythe low. Levi jumped completely over the blade, his boots clearing the dark metal by an inch, and brought his own scythe crashing down on the boss’s shoulder. The Echo used Phantom Step, blinking three meters to the right, and launched a spinning counter-attack.
Levi used [Hollow’s Traverse], burning 50 Mana to teleport right through the spinning blade, reappearing behind the boss.
"Hollow’s Guillotine!" Levi shouted.
He dumped 100 Mana. The scythe erupted in a blinding dark-gold aura. He ripped the blade in a massive ten-meter cone directly into the Echo’s back.
[-15,268]
The huge red number exploded into the air. The Echo roared, stumbling forward. The broken shield debuff popped up over its head, shredding another 20% of its remaining armor.
But Levi’s mana pool was taking a massive hit.
He started the fight with 5,160 Mana. Between the 500 Mana shield, the 50 Mana teleport, the 100 Mana Guillotine, and the constant 2 Mana per second drain from Siphon Aura, his fuel tank was bleeding out. He needed to keep exactly 500 Mana in absolute reserve. If his shield broke and he couldn’t recast it, the Echo would butcher him.
He pulled a Greater Mana Potion from his quick-belt, popping the cork with his thumb and chugging the blue liquid while sliding away from a heavy overhead crash.
The Echo didn’t let up. It cast its own version of Guillotine. A massive dark-gold cone erupted from the boss’s scythe, covering half the arena.
Levi couldn’t teleport out of the way in time. The attack slammed directly into his Platinum Ward.
[-4,500]
The dark-matter shield violently shattered into black glass. The remaining damage bled right through and hit his actual health pool.
[-1,200]
Levi’s health bar dropped to roughly 24,980. The VR pain engine sent a horrible burning sensation across his chest, but he completely ignored it.
He didn’t recast the shield immediately to save mana. He just dashed forward.
"I can heal that in one swing," Levi smirked.
He landed a basic attack. 3,487 damage dealt. His 25% Lifesteal instantly triggered, feeding 871 health back into his pool. He swung twice more, completely erasing the damage and locking his health back at a perfect 26,180.
His sustain was absolutely flawless. As long as he kept attacking, he was functionally immortal.
Outside the purple energy barrier, Isolde was standing perfectly still. Her hands were pressed flat against the digital glass. Her blank, robotic eyes were tracking Levi’s HP bar with obsessive, terrifying intensity. She didn’t blink. She just watched the math bounce back and forth.
The fight dragged on for ten grueling minutes.
It was a war of absolute mechanical perfection. Levi parried, dodged, and teleported. He kept the defense shred active with Guillotine and maintained his true-damage bleed. The VR stamina engine was brutal. His real-world arms felt like they were filled with wet cement, and sweat stung his eyes inside the helmet.
The Echo’s massive 300,000 HP pool was slowly, agonizingly melting down.
150,000. 100,000. 70,000.
Levi wove three basic attacks, dodging a horizontal cleave by leaning entirely backward. He popped his last mana potion, keeping his pool hovering right around 800.
He watched the red health bar above the Echo.
60,000. 55,000. 50,000.
"There it is," Levi gasped, his virtual lungs burning.
Fifty thousand was exactly 20% of the boss’s maximum health. The execution threshold was met.
The Echo raised its scythe for another massive, room-wide Guillotine cast.
Levi didn’t run. He planted his boots directly in front of the boss.
"Soul Harvest."
Levi dumped 50 Mana. The shadowy aura wrapping around his avatar violently detached. It shot high into the dark ceiling of the arena, compressing and expanding until it formed a massive, pitch-black spectral guillotine blade directly over the Echo’s head.
The Echo’s attack animation tried to resolve, its scythe swinging forward.
But Levi’s class mechanic was absolute. The massive spectral scythe dropped. It completely overpowered the clone’s attack, slamming straight down and cleanly decapitating the Elite shadow.
The Echo’s scythe clattered harmlessly against the stone floor. The boss’s headless body froze for a fraction of a second before violently shattering into millions of glowing blue polygons.
[System Notification: Target Executed. Movement skill cooldowns reset.]
Levi collapsed onto his knees, dropping his Platinum scythe onto the floor with a loud clang. He toggled off his Siphon Aura, letting his head hang down as he sucked in massive breaths of air.
He had proven his mechanical mastery. He didn’t need Isolde’s True Damage to win. He had beaten the mirror match entirely on his own.
The dark purple energy barrier surrounding the arena violently flickered and dissolved, vanishing into the air.
Isolde instantly rushed forward, her gray cloak snapping behind her. She didn’t say a word. She just dropped to her knees next to him and stared at his fully topped-off health bar.
Before Levi could even speak, the system interface erupted into a blinding cascade of golden notifications.
[Trial Completed.]
—
The headless body of the Echo froze for a fraction of a second before it violently shattered. Millions of glowing blue polygons exploded across the stone floor, lighting up the dark room.
The massive, shadow-armored clone was dead.
Before the digital dust even settled, the remains of the Echo dissolved into a thick stream of pitch-black energy. It didn’t form a loot box. It shot directly across the arena and slammed straight into Levi’s chest.
The dark purple energy barrier that surrounded the trial room violently flickered. With a sound like shattering glass, the barrier dissolved, vanishing entirely into the cold air.
Isolde instantly rushed forward. Her plain gray cloak snapped behind her as she crossed the stone floor. She didn’t say a single word. She just dropped to her knees right next to where Levi was kneeling and hovered her bare hands over his Obsidian Carapace armor.
Her blank, robotic eyes rapidly scanned his avatar.