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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/LiseEclaire on 2026-02-05 19:58:39+00:00.

MULTI SHOT

SPLINTER ARROW

Arrows burst, filling the air with hundreds of splinters. If combined with the destructive power of the knight’s skills, they could well destroy an entire city block. For this fight, though, Will had combined them with something more terrifying.

GUARDIAN SCARAB

The splinters transformed into hundreds of scarabs, joining the thousands that already existed. Individually, a scarab was annoying. In such a large group, it was lethal, especially against wood.

The druid had attempted to counter with fire blossoms blooming all over the branches. However, that was only a temporary solution. Will could always create more.

Outside the park, the city was undoubtedly in panic. It was impossible not to notice the devastation. If someone had missed the giant forest spontaneously emerging in the middle of the city, the smoke and fire couldn’t be ignored.

MOMENTARY PREDICTION

Will leaped to the side, evading the multitude of dryad attacks. The one flaw of his plan was the inability to switch between ranged and melee weapons. The dryads were too strong to ignore, and too fast to eliminate at the scale he needed. Even when he had managed to destroy one of them thanks to his splintering attacks, another would take its place.

Just show yourself! The boy shouted mentally.

This was supposed to be the easy part. All he wanted was just to have a chat, yet the druid stubbornly refused. For whatever reason, she was determined to kill him off in such a way that would make him give up on the idea of going after her again. This was way too much for crushing a rookie. More had to be in play.

Spenser, if this was all an exhibition match, I’ll kill you!

With so much at stake, Will seriously considered giving up. This was eternity, after all. There would be other things he could do to make up for his debt. The only thing that kept him from doing so was the fear of his own weakness. If he couldn’t deal with the druid, what chance did he stand against real threats?

“Shadow wolf!” Will shouted.

Immediately, the dryads fighting him leaped back. The slightest of opportunities formed. It would have been nice if the wolf had been here to lend some help. Having Will’s opponents fear the possibility was a close second.

Grabbing a new quiver from his mirror fragment, Will performed several more multi-shots. This time his goal was solely to create a passage through the burning forest. All he had to do to win this battle was to escape.

SPLINTER ARROW

GUARDIAN SCARAB

“Devour everything!” Will shouted.

To his surprise, all dryads spontaneously changed behavior. No longer focusing on him, they shifted their attention to the growing swarm of scarabs, attacking it with the ferocity of a restaurant owner waiting for a health inspector.

A thought suddenly flashed into Will’s mind. The druid was here. She had to be. Up to now he had always assumed that she would remain at a distance, but what if her class didn’t allow it? From what he had seen so far, the woman had the power to cause trees to sprout anywhere. But what if she actually needed physical contact to order the plants to change? After all, trees could spread below ground just as they could above. It would be easy for the druid to force a root to dig its way to any desired location, then have it surface into a new tree. Viewed from above, it seemed as if there was no connection. In truth, all he had to do was follow the roots to find out where she was, or at the very least where she had been.

Will aimed at the ground and released a dozen more arrows. Same as before, they were splintered and turned into scarabs. Only this time, the orders were different.

“Follow the roots,” he whispered.

Without a moment’s delay, the insects flew down, devouring the soil as they dug in deeper.

I hope this works, Will thought. It was a guess born out of desperation and some vague memory of plants from biology class.

The risk wasn’t too high. While he had entered the discomfort phase of prediction loops, he could possibly manage a few more before the pain seriously kicked in.

POISONED

PARALYZED

Flowers released new sorts of pollen in their attempt to affect Will. It was useless, though. The rogue class made him resistant, not to mention that the fire and scarabs diminished the action’s effectiveness.

Keeping an eye out for dryads, Will turned around and shot a new series of splintered arrows at a burning tree. Despite lacking the destructive force of the knight, the arrows still held a lot of destructive power, drilling through the wood already weakened by fire and insects.

Loud creaking sounds filled the air as the tree tumbled, falling to the ground. In another section of the park, the people were beyond terrified. Will, though, saw it as his way out.

Gripping his bow, the boy rushed towards the opening. No sooner had he done so than another tree sprouted, starting its ascent to fill the gap.

Too late. Will smiled. He had already reached the opening.

Branches shot out in an attempt to grab him, but the boy twisted midair, deflecting them with his arrows. Just a little more and he’d be free.

Never had the city seemed so welcoming. The grey glut of buildings and people, barely visible through the smoke, seemed calm, almost comfortable. Then, out of nowhere, he spotted them: small orange blocks of text shining in the distance.

Participants? Will wondered.

At this distance, he was unable to make out the classes, let alone the faces of the people they hovered over, but there could be no doubt that they were watching.

Two were on balconies, calmly observing the show. One more was on a rooftop. A decent distance separated all of them. Even during a spectacle such as this, they respected their territories. Was it the same each time there was a massive disturbance? Without the Eye of Insight, Will had no way of knowing.

Twisting around once more, he looked at the burning cluster of trees. It was too much to hope he’d learn where the roots led. Maybe if the scarabs could talk, they would have provided some useful info he could use in the next prediction loop.

Another large tree collapsed, taking with it several more. No longer able to withstand the fire and the fury of the scarabs, the forest collapsed in on itself. As they did, for a fraction of a second, Will spotted another block of text. This one was a lot closer than the rest. In fact, it was in the very park itself, right above a gazebo.

BLINDED

Everything went dark. Will reached for his face, trying to remove whatever was obscuring his vision. There was nothing there. He could feel his fingers touch his eyes. A moment later, he could feel nothing.

Ending prediction loop.

The shock of sudden blindness sent him jumping into the air. For a split-second, fear, stronger than death, had nested in his mind. It took several seconds for him to calm down. The end of the prediction loop had also removed his ailment. Not the fear, though. The mere notion of having to spend eternity in darkness sent shivers down his spine. Had the druid done that to him? Unlikely. If she were able, she would have used her skill on the archer back during their alliance. Yet, if not her, then who?

PREDICTION LOOP

Will started a new loop, then took another minute to calm down. If Alex were here, he’d probably say that he was rushing things again. Would he be right, though? If anything, Will thought he wasn’t moving fast enough. There were so many participants he didn’t know about. His current skills and abilities had allowed him to see them, only to see how weak he really was. Even worse, his seeing them suggested that they were also looking back. There was no way they could know he had the Eye of Insight, yet through his actions he had revealed he was more than a rookie.

“What was that?” Will asked the bathroom mirror. “What causes blindness?”

[Blindness is a permanent effect that remains until the end of the loop.

It is caused by a skill.]

So much for being helpful.

“Which class?”

The guide didn’t respond. The question was clearly too specific for an answer.

Four participants, Will said to himself.

Four people that he probably had never met, and one of them was capable of this. Maybe that was the power of the necromancer? It stood to reason, although Will would have imagined that the class’ main ability would be to raise skeletons to fight him, same as Alex used mirror copies or the enchanter used scarabs.

Adrenaline filled his veins even though he wasn’t in a fight. To stand a chance of reaching the reward phase, he’d have to find out everything about the four participants, including their mirrors. Odds were that the druid was among them. Who else would stay in a gazebo while the park was going up in flames?

Hands trembling, Will took hold of his mirror fragment.

I have access to a challenge merchant.

He messaged the druid. This time, the response came seconds later.

What are you offering?

That was unexpected. According to eternity’s rules, she wasn’t supposed to remember any of their previous meetings.

Access to the merchant for three purchases. In exchange for information.

While holding the fragment, Will slid his left hand along the bathroom mirror. His inventory continued to be filled with items. All of them were considered too valuable to throw away, even if they had long outli...

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