The Over-Break System

-You have selected the Grandmaster Difficulty, adjusting the settings and parameters for your Tribulation Quest.-

-Tribulation Quest: Mirror's Image.-

-Confident, cocky, intelligent, and arrogance are all attributes necessary when fighting tooth and nail to become the best. However, these aspects of yourself have become a wall you must pass to advance. As such, your Opponent for this Tribulation is yourself. Your Opponent will be set to Level 35/70 in all Classes and the Primary level of Tier-3, and you will have four hours to defeat them.-

Exhaling shakily, Cynrik allowed a sinister grin to creep upon his lips; when push came to shove, no member of MyrkLys was as much of a Battle junkie as Cynrik. Standing on the precipice of a battle against an opponent who would know his every move, he felt his adrenaline spike massively.

-You will be moved to the battle arena in 30 seconds; prepare yourself.-

Closing his eyes and dropping his head, Cynrik peeked at the two nervous ravens on either side of him and reached out to pet both of their heads.

"Hit 'em hard, hit 'em fast, leave nothing to chance. They will fight like us and know our every move, so let's change the script. Our only chance is a full frontal assault sweep through our Opponent with everything we've got. If he doesn't have your mirror images, blast them with a full-power Omnipoison bomb, and I will follow suit with my own."

"Cheepcaw!"

"Cawchiip!"

Both Sie and Vii put on their game faces and stared forward since that was what their Papa was doing.

-Moving you to the battle arena in 5 seconds.-

'Tobs, play the epic version of Fade to Black.' When the timer was about to hit zero, Cynrik gave his command for BGM and was instantly teleported to an arena resembling the ancient roman Coliseum.

,m -Now playing "Fade to Black_B13a" by Shirō Sagisu.- *I am posting the version in question on Discord.*

Three things happened simultaneously when Cynrik, Sie, and Vii appeared in the Arena. The first was the rhythmic and powerful music that started blaring in Cynrik's head.

The second was the meeting of eyes between Mirror Cynrik(M-Cyn) and the real one. In that instant, the real Cynrik noticed considerable differences between how his Mirror Image carried himself and how he appeared to be wearing a replica of the same gear he had equipped.

In addition to the battle damage to M-Cyn's gear, he has a severe scar running from the top of his left eyebrow to the right side of his chin.

M-Cyn's hair, too, had changed considerably. The highlights in his hair were gone, and now they looked more like Benny's hair, where each strand appeared to be one of four different colors: black, purple, red, or light green. It was evident that his Affinities had increased dramatically.

The subtle look of pain on M-Cyn's face couldn't be hidden from the real Cynrik, and following his line of sight, he noticed that his counterpart was gazing at Vii and Sie with a sorrowful and pained expression.

This bit of information was nearly mind-breaking for Cynrik. For him to look at the Ravens with such vivid expressions signified something horrible must have occurred, but more than that, it indicated there was more to this Mirror Image of himself than met the eye.

While pushing that thought to the back of his mind, the third event occurred, launching four Omnipoison attacks, two from the ravens and two from Cynrik.

For Vii and Sie, all they did was take to the sky, open their beaks, and spit out two condensed globular masses of tri-colored goo. Meanwhile, Cynrik flicked his wrists at a downward angle and twisted them counterclockwise, causing two tubes to pop out from the top of the gauntlets on his wrists. Next, he pointed them forward, pulsed a bit of Mana into his Assassins tools, and launched two projectiles from the top of his forearms.

Half a second later, all four attacks landed on M-Cyn, and he was shrouded in a menacing poison cloud.

No words needed to be spoken between Cynrik and his Ravens as all three gained dominant positioning, circling the clouded M-Cyn, but this was soon proven not to be a good idea.

The instant the three got into position, a wave of DarkFire blasted the Omnipoison cloud apart, sending arcs of Mana at each of the birds in the sky and Cynrik on the ground.

Luckily, Vii and Sie had been prepared for a counter-attack and effortlessly glided out of the way of these powerful burst attacks. Even Cynrik took evasive maneuvers by diving into the Shadow Realm with [Shadow Leap] only to reappear a fraction of a second later, right in the path of M-Cyn, who dashed forward and close-lined Cynrik in the chest, flinging him across the Arena and into the wall of the Coliseum.

"I don't know how you got here, nor why Viisaus and Sielu are alive, but it is my mission to stop you here. You will need to do better…

BOOM

Before M-Cyn could finish his overconfident statement, his upper body rocked to the left as his feet left the ground. Receiving a devastating hit, M-Cyn broke the sound Barrier and flew into a wall on the opposite side of the Arena.

The attack had come from Vii. Vii gained speed and dove straight down after seeing his Papa flung through the air like a ragdoll. Pulling up mere centimeters from the ground, he used a combination of his weight and momentum to deliver a powerful tackle into the right flank of M-Cyn before swooping back into the air.

BOOM, BOOM BOOM BOOM

Once back in the air, Vii, alongside Sie, unleashed a torrent of Mana Slashes, utilizing their wings to bombard M-Cyn, who was embedded in the wall at the moment.

Watching from the opposite side of the Arena, Cynrik collected himself, shook off the cobwebs forming in his head, and sunk into the Shadow Realm again.

Unfortunately, upon touching down in the world of black and white, he was met by a figure flashing in front of him and delivering a palm strike into his chest, robbing Cynrik of the air in his lungs and flinging him helplessly through the void.

Spinning in the air and getting his bearings, Cynrik extended his arms and flicked his wrists, discharging both grappling hooks, which caught on a solid fixture. Next, he allowed his body to soar backward until the cables went taught before slingshotting himself back at his Opponent.

'As expected, he activated [Mana Sight] and saw me slip away before following suit. This way, he could ignore the attacks of Vii and Sie while singling me out.' Finishing his arc, Cynrik catapulted his body through the air, flicked his wrists to draw in both cables instantly, and drew both of his Kodachi.

Racing toward M-Cyn, Cynrik watched with focused eyes as his Opponent unsheathed the dual Kodachis on his hip and back and had to fight back the urge to click his tongue.

Both blades were covered in battle scars, from missing chips to cracks. It was clear that M-Cyn had been to hell and back in some war. Not so unsurprisingly, though, was that the two weapons, even though worse for wear, held up when they met the still new versions in Cynrik's hands.

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG.

Flitting nearly too fast to see, Cynrik and M-Cyn traded blows, with neither gaining the upper hand. Their minds were spinning on overdrive as they calculated each strike before throwing it in a manner that wouldn't be easily read.

To make matters worse, since the two knew each move and attack pattern by heart, the order of strikes weren't set in stone, and more often than not, they would string together attacks without thinking, moving purely on instinct as this was the best way to fight against someone who knew everything about you.

Back and forth, Cynrik and M-Cyn moved across the Shadow Realm until Cynrik became aware of something off about his Mirror Image.

'His left arm is injured, and it isn't a superficial wound. Every time our blades connect, he rolls the left Kodachi to redistribute the force of impact.' Kicking off an inky black tree, Cynrik put his weight behind an overhand attack with the longer Kodachi in his left hand, and when M-Cyn brought his weapon up to block the strike, Cynrik's pupils constricted.

Although heavily disguised behind a muscle twitch, he spotted the slight dip in M-Cyn's shoulder and the limp roll of his wrist when deflecting the attack.

Quickly activating [Detect Weakness], Cynrik's eyes lit up with minute thin red lines and several dots, pointing out the precise spots that could be considered M-Cyn's weakness.

To his surprise, the entire left side of M-Cyn's body lit up like a Christmas tree, with hundreds of micro red dots followed by an extensive line running the length of M-Cyn's entire left arm.

Sensing something wrong, Cynrik focused on the lines with [Mana Sight] and was horrified by what he saw.

Usually, when he looked at his arms with the ocular skill, it lit up with the markings of his Húðflúr; however, when it came to M-Cyn, it was another story entirely.

The best way to describe what Cynrik saw was utter chaos. Instead of being stationary, markings covering his fingertips up his forearm, M-Cyn's Húðflúr ran up his arm, neck, and down his ribs.

Only, instead of being the standard thrumming marks, the ones on M-Cyn's left side squirmed and appeared to be in agony as they ran up and down the Mirror image's body. Most notably, they weren't blue or even the odd shade of purple representing Odinforce; instead, they were blood red.

"What the fuck," the words left Cynrik's lips in a mutter as M-Cyn's body tensed up, and he jumped backward with all his might to put distance between himself and Cynrik.

"Sigh, you know better…we know better than to get distracted in battle." Wearing an aged look well beyond his years, M-Cyn, who only appeared to be a couple of years older than Cynrik, shook his head and sheathed the Kodachi in his left hand back on his hip before gripping the shorter one with both hands in a kendo style.

"The jig is up; I knew it wouldn't take long for you to notice," M-Cyn said while wearing a bitter smile.

"It's the result of pushing our Húðflúr too far, way beyond their limits to the point that they begin self-destructing. They go entirely out of control and end up causing a backlash that has lasted me for over two years." Stepping forward, M-Cyn appeared before Cynrik and brought down his blade using all of his ability, only to crash into a cross block from Cynrik.

"I assume the event that pushed you to that point has something to do with Vii and Sie?" Staring emotionlessly at his Mirror Image, Cynrik stepped into his blades and shoulder rammed them upward, breaking M-Cyn's stance before spinning and side kicking him in the left side of his body.

The attack forced M-Cyn back while causing him to wince sharply.

"You can say that, but it was much worse than you can imagine. Unfortunately, due to specific rules and restraints on me, I can't tell you anything about it, not that it would matter." M-Cyn stated with a frown as he shook out his left arm.

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