Yep, More New Glitches

Soft breezes gently glided through the grassy plains not too far outside the city borders, brushing through the four of us as we scouted around for the perfect spot to train. We eventually picked a flat terrain with no environmental obstacles to worry about and started right away.

“The way these gloves work is that they adapt to whatever abilities the wearer already has,” I said, closing and opening my palms. “People without any magic would be able to use basic elemental powers, but those with their own special skills usually get their powers enhanced.”

“Oh boy, wouldn’t that mean your powers would get even more chaotic?” asked Dahlian.

“I… don’t know, but it’s supposed to improve my control, so I’m really hoping that’s not the case. Honestly, I don’t even know if these gloves can handle it. Worst-case scenario, I’ll probably blow up the whole place.” Like I did in the tutorial zone.

“So that’s why you’ve waited to ask for my help,” said Ashrenne, rubbing her chin. “Alright, I get the gist of it now.”

With a bit of magic, Ashrenne conjured a few dozen training dummies made of sticks and hay and lined them up in front of me. She walked away and stood with Dahlian and Sloane at a safe distance, arms crossed.

Speaking of Sloane, he yawned and promptly lay down. “Wake me up if anything happens,” he said, sleep slowly taking over. “And I’ll… just use… my magic… to heal…” He went limp and snored away, softly mumbling in his blissful sleep.

“Did he agree to join us just so he can take a nap on the grass?” asked Dahlian.

“Yeah, probably,” said Ashrenne. “It’s fine. Let him be.”

“Eh, whatever.” Dahlian, shrugging. “Anyway, hit ‘em with your best shots, Haruma!”

I took a deep breath and drew my sword out of my head. Static cracked and danced around the blade the more I pulled until it finally slid off my head clean. I flourished my sword around before I broke into a sprint.

With a grunt, I swung my blade, and for a moment—only for a brief moment—it stayed in my grasp, tingling and trembling as if it was delaying the inevitable.

“Woah, I think it’s wor—”

I didn’t even get to finish my sentence before it phased out of my hand again, glitching and teleporting around as usual, already cutting down a few training dummies in the process.

And yet, unlike the previous incidents, after every teleportation, the sword… miraculously left some sort of static imprint, like a glitchy shadow, on the spot like a frame stuck in time. Each teleportation kept adding to the piles of imprints, and one of them happened to appear in front of me.

I cautiously grasped the shadowy imprint, and believe it or not, my sword returned in my hands, and the other imprints disintegrated into the air.

“Wooahh,” said Dahlian, stars twinkling over his pink eyes. “That was so flashy!”

“Tell me about it,” I said, staring at my sword in awe. I looked back at the training dummies and charged again. I leapt and swung my blade down, slicing down one of my targets.

I looked down on the ground as it rumbled and rippled before dashing away, and the very spot I’d dived my sword into started to swell before a flurry of blades shot out right-side up into its usual fountain.

This time, the blades started diving back down, all targeting the same spot it sprouted out of and crashing into it, generating a dust of clouds in its spot.

“Damn!” said Ashrenne. “That dummy got shredded like a brick of cheese!”

“Cheese…” Dahlian started drooling. “Don’t mention food, Boss. I’m getting hungry now.” He started glancing around, particularly at the trees. “By the way, you didn’t happen to see any deer or boars around, did you?”

“Did you also agree to tag along with us just so you’d hunt for food?!” asked Ashrenne.

He whistled and looked away. “N-no, I also want to see some action too…”

“Riiight. Well, do whatever you want, I guess.”

“Heheh, if you insist!” He twirled around and leapt into the thicket. “Be right back!”

I wiped some sweat off my brow and flourished my blade into a new stance.

So far, I'd used my regular sword slash and dive skills. The newest skill the player should learn by now would be…

“Here goes nothing,” I said, targeting another dummy. “Take this!”

I swung my blade diagonally upward, slashing the ground along with the dummy and kicking up some grass blades. I spun around quickly and thrusted my blade forward, stabbing my target straight through its trunk.

At first, nothing happened.

But then I pulled out my blade, and to my surprise, my sword left a realistic imprint. Like a literal copy and paste scenario, my blade copied itself and left it inside my target.

I gawked at my sword and the copy stuck in the dummy. “This is…”

Another classic type of glitch: Item duplication. I guess that kind of glitch was bound to happen eventually.

I gripped tightly and performed the diagonal slash and stab combo again, duplicating yet another sword into a different spot. Out of curiosity, I tried pulling out one of the duplicated swords, but it glitched out, started teleporting away like it always did, and left new imprints as well.

At this rate, these glitches stopped fazing me anymore, so I simply stared in hopes I could learn their patterns.

At one point, it swung dangerously close, so I promptly dodged out of the way and, of course, randomly teleported around.

Imagine my surprise when I started leaving copies of myself after every teleportation. Just like how my sword left imprints, my dodge left glitched-out clones frozen in time after every teleportation.

“This style… This looks like a technique I’ve seen from one of the clans of the Oborowa army during the war,” Ashrenne murmured, gazing in awe. “Could it be that his curse came from such a place? Hmm, what was that clan’s name again…?”

“Whoa, that’s nuts!” said Dahlian, his mouth full of meat. “Now he's cloning everything!”

“Gyah?!” Ashrenne jumped away. “Since when did you come back?!”

“Just now.” He offered her a chunk of raw meat. “I’ve caught some deer. Want some?”

She scrunched her face. “Uhh, no thanks.”

He shrugged and started chomping away. “Your loss.”

A few seconds passed before I teleported to ground level, allowing me to slide through the dirt, stumbling around a bit, and stopping the glitch. “Phew!” I said, patting my chest. “Seems like I can stop myself by force landing…”

I looked up, gawking at the clones as they all mimicked my actions. “What the?! They’re still up there!” I moved my arms around, and my clones continued to copy me, still stuck in their awkward positions mid-air. “Woah, this is getting freaky now. They’re all copying me!”

A massive light bulb lit up in my head, a bright and somewhat unsettling lightbulb at that.

If they mimicked my every move, then what if… I drew my sword and slashed?

My common sense told me that it was an incredibly dangerous idea to test it out, but my curiosity as a software engineer and gamer argued otherwise.

Besides, even if I got stabbed, I’d still be fine, right?

With that thought, I wiped off some sweat from my brow, reluctantly stepped forward, and gave it a shot.