Ethan dragged his aching legs out of the library, muttering under his breath. "Prude. It's the 21st century. Even monks have needs."
Before he could even turn the corner to head back to his minimalist room and pass out, a shower of golden sparks erupted directly beneath his feet.
"Whoaâ"
The stone floor vanished. Ethan dropped like a rock, screaming as he plummeted through a dizzying tunnel of fractal light. He landed face-first on a surface that looked like the courtyard, but everything was tilted at a nauseating ninety-degree angle. The sky above was shattered into a kaleidoscope of shifting glass.
"Welcome to the Mirror Dimension," a calm voice echoed.
Ethan peeled his face off the ground, groaning as his already sore muscles protested. He looked up to see the Ancient One standing on the side of a buildingâhorizontallyâas casually as if she were waiting for a bus.
"Are the doors broken in this place?" Ethan grumbled, awkwardly scrambling to his feet. "You know, a simple 'Hey Ethan, come to the courtyard' would have worked. My legs are currently made of gelatin."
"I noticed," the Ancient One said, stepping off the building. The gravity seemed to bend around her, depositing her gently on the same plane as Ethan. "You have adopted a very... peculiar physical regimen. But while your body is exhausted, your innate magic is not. It is time to see what that internal well of yours can actually do."
[System Note: Boss fight triggered. Try to last longer than a cheap battery.]
"Wait, right now?" Ethan raised his hands defensively. "I haven't even stretchedâ"
The Ancient One didn't blink. She simply flicked her wrist.
The entire courtyard warped. The stone tiles beneath Ethan suddenly folded and snapped upward, turning into massive, jagged spikes rushing straight for his chest.
"Holy shit!"
Instinct, fueled by Dumbledore's battle experience, took over. Ethan didn't have time to visualize a complex multidimensional formula. He just drew from the warmth in his chest and thrust his hands out.
Protego!
He didn't shout the incantation, but the intent was there. Instead of a standard, flat Eldritch shield, a massive, domed barrier of thick, humming orange light erupted around him. The stone spikes slammed into the shield with a deafening crash and shattered into dust.
Ethan stood there, panting, his hands still raised. "Are you trying to kill me?!"
"If I were trying to kill you, Ethan, you would already be dead," the Ancient One said peacefully. She waved her hand again, and the shattered stones floating in the air reformed into dozens of hovering, sharp daggers. "You rely on instinct. It is fast, but it is messy. You are leaking too much energy."
She pointed a finger at him, and the daggers shot forward like bullets.
"Defend yourself, my disciple. Show me how much of that innate power you can actually control."
Ethan cursed loudly, throwing himself to the side as a stone dagger clipped his sleeve, tearing the fabric. This wasn't a training session. It was an extreme survival course. And the worst part? The blue screen popped up right in his line of sight.
[New Mission: Dodgeball with the Supreme]
[Objective: Survive the Ancient One's 'warm-up' for five minutes without getting skewered.]
[Reward: 200 System Points.]
[Failure Penalty: Extreme involuntary acupuncture.]
"Five minutes?!" Ethan yelled, throwing up another Eldritch-Protego shield as a dozen more daggers rained down on him. "I want to file a complaint with HR!"
The Ancient One just chuckled, the shifting glass of the Mirror Dimension folding around her as she prepared her next attack.
"Think fast, Ethan," she called out, her voice calm and irritatingly pleasant over the roar of the Mirror Dimension folding in on itself.
She pointed a finger, and the daggers whipped forward.
Ethan didn't think. He panicked.
"Holyâ"
He scrambled backward, his exhausted legs nearly betraying him. His muscle memory from a life of playing video games and dodging responsibilities kicked in, mixing with the basic Eldritch formulas that were now burned into his brain. He thrust both hands out.
Crack-crackle!
Two perfect, humming Tao Mandalasâglowing orange geometric shieldsâflared to life on his forearms. He held them up, crossing them over his face just as the first wave of daggers hit.
The thud-thud-thud was relentless, like rapid-fire hailstones striking sheet metal. Every impact sent a shockwave up Ethan's arms, but his innate magic held the constructs firm. He peered over the top of the shields just in time to see the Ancient One twist her hand.
The sky-shattered ground beneath his feet suddenly tilted forty-five degrees.
"Hey! Illegal gravity tampering!" Ethan yelled, losing his balance and sliding down the slick, geometric stone. He had to drop his shields just to grab onto a protruding ledge, dangling precariously over a void of kaleidoscope light.
Above him, the stone daggers reformed into a giant, jagged boulder.
"Defending is good," the Ancient One's voice echoed, seemingly from everywhere and nowhere. She was currently standing horizontally on the side of a nearby building, looking down at him. "But mobility is essential."
The boulder started to fall. Straight at him.
Ethan stared up, his eyes widening. "You have got to be kidding me."
Run. Run for your life. These words were echoing in his mind.
He remembered the chapter on Transmutation of Physical Coordinatesâor as he preferred to call it, 'Running Away Really Fast with Sparks.' Drawing heavily on the warm well in his chest, he pictured a point about twenty feet to his right on a stable piece of folding wall.
He pushed off the ledge, his hands flashing as he tried to mentally program a path. Instead of a graceful sorcerer leap, it looked more like a desperate, flailing leap of faith. Orange sparks trailed from his hands like a faulty firework as he desperately scrambled through the air.
He hit the folding wall hard, flat on his face, but he was clear of the boulder. The massive stone slammed into the ledge he'd been hanging from, shattering it with a boom that vibrated in his teeth.
Ethan rolled onto his back, panting, looking back at where he'd just been. "One minute... tell me that was at least one minute," he gasped, ignoring the System's ticking timer in his line of sight that showed only forty-five seconds had passed.
[System Note: That was... athletic. For a dying man. Forty-five seconds down, four minutes and fifteen seconds of torture to go. Try not to die; it really messes up my paperwork.]
"Better," the Ancient One's voice came from directly behind him.
Ethan yelped, trying to scramble up, but the Ancient One didn't attack. She just waved a hand, and the shattered stone dust floating in the air coalesced into dozens of thin, orange-glowing whips.
"Now, defend against binding," she said, and the whips shot forward, seeking his ankles, wrists, and neck.
This time, Ethan didn't use shields. He tried to mimic Mordo's lecture on Conjuring Offensive Whips. If he couldn't hide, he had to fight the bindings. He snapped his wrists, drawing on his internal magic to create two long, crackling Eldritch energy whips.
"Take that, you dimensional prude!" Ethan yelled, lashing out.
It was a total mess. He didn't have Mordo's technique. He was flailing the whips around like a kid with glow-sticks, nearly hitting himself twice. But the sheer output of raw, innate magic in his constructs was so high that they simply overpowered the Ancient One's thin, refined bindings. His chaotic lashing snapped her constructs on contact.
Up on the horizontal building side, the Ancient One's serene smile widened ever so slightly into a look of genuine surprise. He was sloppy, raw, and had absolutely zero technique. But his brute force magic was overwhelming.
She dropped to the ground, the gravity bending to her will, and snapped her fingers. The training session was over.
[Ding!]
[Mission Complete: Dodgeball with the Supreme]
[Reward: 200 System Points.]
[Current Balance: 240 Points.]
Ethan collapsed to the stone floor, his body officially shutting down. His lungs were burning, his muscles were screaming, and his vision was swimming.
"You are raw, Ethan," the Ancient One said, standing over him, her robes perfectly untouched, not even a speck of dust on her bald head. "You possess a tank of infinite water, but you only know how to throw the bucket at your enemies. Master Mordo will begin training you in proper, disciplined forms tomorrow. No more flailing."
She gestured, and the Mirror Dimension shattered like glass, dropping them back into the quiet, reality-approved courtyard.
"But first," she said, looking at him as he lay spread-eagled on the stone. "Wong has informed me that your... research interests in the library are highly inappropriate. You will apologize to him and clean the library floors for the next week. By hand. No magic."
Ethan raised a single, trembling finger. "Can I... file a grievance first?"
The Ancient One just smiled and walked away.