Mirror Reflect

I was prepared for the biggest battle of my life. The pressure of it all made my hands shake while clinging to my spear, but my body attempted to adjust itself for the fearful jitters.

Uncle was next to me, so I wasn’t alone. But most of this battle would depend on me to pull my weight. I was worried that I might not be enough here.

“What are you waiting for?” Belphegor taunted us. “My arms grow weary from waiting.”

If we had an indefinite amount of time we could just turn lock him here forever, but we didn't have that. We had to make the first move since it was our turn.

Not wasting any more time, I blasted in at full speed, prompting Lord Sleepy Eyes to raise his shields.

My spear clashed against the metal protecting his arms. A shockwave of energy burst at the tip of my weapon, traveling down the shaft and cracking it into crystal pieces.

VWOOOW!

BOOM!

The energy continued to flow up into my arm, then it exploded in my stomach, forcing me back.

“Gah!” It felt like I’d just been impaled in the gut!

Uncle went in to retaliate, but his broadsword was blocked too. A similar burst of energy sent him flying.

“Uh!” He landed next to me.

“Uncle!” I picked him up. His armour had a huge gash in it and blood was flowing. “Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man! I’ll heal you up as fast as I can!”

My healing spell radiated light across Uncle’s torso, causing the wound to close up, but only slightly. In this dream human form he had, he was vulnerable to a lot of damage that would normally get shrugged off.

For both of us to be on the ground this early in the fight, the ever creeping fear of doom shook my resolve. We hit the enemy, but somehow it hurt us more.

Uncle was getting back up, holding a hand on his wound. “I feel like I just chopped myself in half…” he grunted.

“You have to remember you’re a human right now, so you can’t tank damage.”

“Yeah, right.” He nodded.

“C…can we still beat him?” I asked with a stutter in my voice.

Uncle nodded. “Come on. This fight's just getting started,” he smiled.

That confidence and courage was reeling me back from my doubt. It was only just the beginning.

If dad didn’t think I could defeat demons, he never would have trusted me with protecting humanity. There’s no way I’d be giving up this quickly.

To figure out what Belphegor was planning it required some experimenting. I had a few ideas, but I needed to confirm them.

I once more raced in, repairing my weapon with stardust energy and striking the demon lord's sheild. His reaction time was instant, like he predicted what I'd do.

The weapon reacted the same way as the first time it made contact. I dropped it though. The whole thing exploded, prompting me to regrow a new spear. The damage still shot back at me.

In that time, Belphegor waved his bat wings my way, sending a gust of darkness that easily toppled me over.

I get what happened when I hit him. I’d seen this occasionally in games before. Belphegor's shields were enchanted with a mirror effect. Any damage we did to those, or possibly to him at all, would just get reflected back at us. That’s why I felt like I was skewered, because my spear’s damage was reflected. Same thing happened to Uncle.

I always hated fighting people with mirror armour, because I could never figure out how to get around it. My go-to method was…well…I usually just hacked into the game and gave myself a weapon that negated the enchantment. But this was a real life battle and I couldn’t just hack into reality and give myself an advantage.

“Uncle, you know what’s going on, right?”

“Yes. He’s reflecting our damage back at us. It’s an ingenious strategy.”

Belphegor tiredly let out another yawn. “It’s too much work to fight a boring battle like this. I’d rather you both just defeat yourselves.”

I’d expect nothing less from Lord Sleepy Eyes!

This battle was going to quickly hit a standstill if we couldn’t do any damage. He wasn’t going to attack and we didn’t have anything to actually break through his mirror enchantment.

It made me realize how he wasn’t taking us serious. The power he had was so far beyond us that a simple mirror enchantment would be enough to do the job. It really wasn’t fair. This was the ultimate turtle strategy.

“Time’s running out,”  he reminded us. “What will you do?”

Stalling has been his whole strategy since the beginning. He knew we’d make it this far, he wouldn’t have set so many barriers if he didn’t. Maybe he did know what we were capable of?

I allocated more power to my combat mode. It was worth it to get more brain power and muscle strength.

Uncle and I communicated effectively in getting openings to hit Belphegor, but he’d always manage to escape our swings at optimal times. His flexibility was incredible. Anything else was blocked by his shields, causing major damage to reflect back at us.

We gave it one more try coordinating an attack, hoping it would be enough to at least see some visible damage to his flesh.

“Yalda, get around him!”

“Affirmative!”

Uncle swung his sword right over the demons head, causing him to instinctively dodge.

I rushed in and jabbed my spear forward. His shield rose up to meet my weapon. But then I missed on purpose, aiming for a different part of his body. Belphegor already had his other shield up.

Now Uncle had an opening. He used the momentum from his first attack to swing down on the demon, just bearly getting one good nick on him.

SLASH!

“Got you!” Uncle announced.

Unfortunately the demon didn’t seem phased in the slightest by the hit…

…at least not until the white flames of stardust started burning!

Twinkling fire lit across Belphegor's shoulders and he let out a minor grunt of pain. A small burn across his grey skin was a mark of our efforts.

A blast of darkness forced us both back, giving the demon lord a moment to recover. Even with all the work we put into getting one hit, he seemed to get over it quickly.

“Is that all? I expect more creativity out of you,” he said to me. “How long must I wait for your mind to shine?”

What was he talking about? That cryptic speak was strange…but specific.

“I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t. You’re thinking like a dreamless adult. Even the way you talk now disgusts me with how dry it is.”

“Dreamless adult…?”

Something about those words felt like a hint at what he wanted me to do. If that’s correct, he had an odd way of leading to his own demise.

Or perhaps, he wanted a challenge. It wasn’t unusual for opponents to seek out skilled individuals for competition.

But still, why?

Belphegor's demon allies reinforced him, adding a second layer of challenge to the fight. Uncle and I were on our guard, having a much easier time taking them on. We had to move Yamin and Marek around to protect them.

As the battle dragged on, the environment began to warp in favour of the demon lords movements. If we’d get close enough to hit, the ground would rise up and cause us to miss.

This illogical fighting style was stressing my Automated Attack Predictions Systems. I had to accommodate for the environment being inconsistent, unpredictable. Very little telegraphed when something was about to happen.

Even flying wasn’t any better. The air condensed into a solid force and shoved me back down to the ground.

If this was how Belphegor battled, he was creative. The worst part was that he hadn't even thrown a single punch. I had no idea what to expect when he got serious.