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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/LiseEclaire on 2025-06-12 16:10:05+00:00.

Aircraft were scrambled and sent to investigate the unusual cluster of trees that remained in the middle of the city. For the most part, they had lost their regenerative properties and could easily be cut down, yet no one dared to do so without prior planning. Handling the chaos was bad enough without the fear of an enormous tree toppling on top of a city block.

What few knew was that things were only going to get worse again. Although the wave of destruction seemed to have ended, the city remained in the eye of the hurricane. With the arrival of noon, the invasion requirements would be met and all the participants would have access to Earth once more. Then the clashes would resume only with a far greater ferocity.

Standing at the window of a rather well-off apartment, Will kept on looking at the trees. They seemed almost beautiful in the calm, completely out of place.

According to his mirror fragment, a few minutes remained until the usual three challenges became visible. They were identical to the ones that he had seen before the time rewind. Yet, none of them seemed remotely interesting. The real challenge was yet to appear, and it had some pretty hefty requirements. From what Lucia had explained, five participants had to be killed in a particular spot for the challenge to be even accessible. Counting the lancer, only four of the alliance had been eliminated at the proper location: Spenser, Helen, the lancer, and the acrobat. The druid, as it turned out, had been beyond the circle, forcing the group to wait till someone from another realm arrived.

“What’s your class?” Will asked Lukas.

As skilled as the boy had been, he didn’t give off the vibe of being the person in charge.

The boy gave him a bored look, then went back to playing a dame on his phone. Neither of the archers were particularly communicative, and after everything that had happened, neither was Jace. Normally, he’d be the first to spread insults and persist with stupid questions, but right now he was silently observing, waiting for something to happen… just like Will.

“There can’t be two archers,” Will pressed on.

“He’s an enchanter,” Lucia said in an annoyed voice.

That made a lot of sense. It explained how the bow had the properties it did. On the other hand, Lukas had performed his last kills with a random bow that Jace had made. There certainly was more to it, but even this was the start.

“Crafter, enchanter, and a rogue,” Will said. “Must be one tough challenge. Will we be fine with just you?”

“Hey, I can fight a lot better than you!” Lukas jumped to his feet. “Talk on and—”

A single snap from the girl made him stop mid-sentence. Whatever had happened in the past, it was clear that he both admired and feared his sister. If Will were to guess, it had to do with the death of the original archer.

“What was his name?” he asked. “You can at least tell me that.”

“Gabriel,” the girl replied. “Get ready.”

That was her diplomatic way of telling him to stop with the questions. Will and Jace were never meant to do any fighting. That posed the question what exactly their role would be during the challenge. It was a given that their classes were needed to trigger the challenge, and Will was needed for using the time rewind skill after the challenge was over, but what happened in the meantime?

“So, this is it?” Jace asked. “The final loop?”

“For you,” the archer replied. “If all goes well.”

“And I won’t remember any of this?”

The prolonged pause put both Will and the jock on edge.

“If that’s what you want,” she replied. “You’ll lose your skills as well.”

“Weren’t eternity skills lost outside of eternity?” Will butt in.

“Not those. All the other skills you’ve gained. Knowledge acquired, experiences lived. Everything that took place while you were in eternity would be torn away.”

The manner in which she spoke suggested that she had seen that happen before. It couldn’t have been nice. If Will was given the same choice, he would have asked to keep everything experienced the same way Jess and Ely had. Maybe there would be a few moments of regret about what he had lost now and again, but even with all the dangers, pain, and hardships, he found that there were a lot of good things as well. Also, it was the hardships that had made him grow. Right now, he didn’t feel like an ordinary high-schooler, but a lot older. Back before the loops, his parents had kept repeating that hardships built character. Will couldn’t remember their faces, but remembered despising that comment. Having experienced it himself, he saw that they were right. Unlike them, though, he was given the unique chance to become aware of that before it got too late.

Noon came, and with it, the mirrors that marked the start of the fighting. There seemed to be less of them than before. From what Will could make out, the distribution wasn’t the same across the city.

Grabbing her bow, the archer started shooting in the air. Even with all his current skills, Will wasn’t able to spot the targets she was aiming at. The explosions suggested that she hit her mark, even if that mark wasn’t always to kill.

Not too long ago, Will thought that it was through his own efforts that he had avoided getting struck. Now, with his memories back, he could see that was far from the truth. That was the difference between a ranker and a common participant.

“We got one,” Luke said with a streak of enthusiasm. “Goblin.”

“Not those fuckers.” Jace grumbled, still going to the window to try and see.

“A knight,” the enchanter said. “That’s lucky.”

Right, Will thought. The nature of knights was to protect and destroy. The goblin felt compelled to charge at the source of the arrows, regardless if he had backing or not.

“Let’s go.” Luke glanced at Will, then leaped out of the window.

So much for the weaker part of the team staying behind. Taking a deep breath, Will followed.

It was of note that the skills that Luke displayed were nearly identical to Will’s own. If one didn’t know better, he’d think that there were two rogues running about, but it was all a trick.

“It’s the shoes, right?” Will asked, doing his best to keep up. “The skill is in the shoes.”

Luke glanced over his shoulder. The action in itself told Will that he was right.

“That’s cool. Did you put skills on all your clothes?”

The question earned a brief chuckle, only to be interrupted by a massive sword flying at the pair.

Both twisted midair, evading the sword by inches.

Holy shit! Will thought.

The weapon was massive, the length of a small bus and almost as wide. Missing its target, it continued onwards, slicing through several buildings until the resistance finally killed off the inertia, leaving it stuck in an office building.

“To the rooftops!” Will shouted as he landed on a nearby building.

If their opponent wasn’t worried about losing such a weapon, it meant that he had just as powerful ones in his inventory.

Barely had he shouted the order than another sword flew at him, splitting the building he was on in two, like a birthday cake. Leaping to the side, Will evaded the attack with ease.

“Head for the ring,” the enchanter shouted.

It was impossible to tell where their foe was exactly, but based on the trajectory of the blades, one could get a few ideas. Going by conventional logic, all that Will had to do was keep running forward in order to force the goblin knight to climb the ring of trees for a better vantage point.

As he was running the calculations in his head, an aircraft exploded high in the sky. Some of the other participants had already gone on the offensive, targeting anything of annoyance. The remaining participants had already gone through this several times and knew exactly what to expect. All this was just clearing the scene before the real fights began.

Luke reached into his pocket and threw a handful of coins into the air. Each of them suddenly sprawled wings, flying off into the distance.

ENCHANTMENT ACTIVATION

The coins spontaneously grew, doubling in size every second until they reached the size of cars. Like scarabs with dime and quarter markings, they scattered, only to have several of them be struck with a new variety of giant swords.

“There!” Will spotted the goblin. Unlike most goblins he’d faced so far, this one looked rather slicked, covered from head to toe in glowing silver armor.

Not a single arrow passed anywhere close, making the creature focus all his attention on the scarabs and the ones accompanying them.

If the enchanter class had such skills, Will definitely wanted to find the mirror. Although, would it even be needed? According to Lucia, thrusting Danny out of eternity would allow Jace to escape as well. If that were so, Will could ask for the same.

In the distance, green flames confused an entire building, officially putting an end to the tentative calm. The screams of sirens filled the air again. The only reason that fewer people were panicking was because most of them were still indoors from this morning’s events.

Almost there! Will told himself, as the two of them sprinted onwards along the rooftops. There wasn’t a particular destination they were heading to. The only goal was to put the ring of trees between them and the knight. Then, it happened.

The goblin misinterpreted their intentions completely. In his mind, the boys wanted to use the trees as a shelter so they could use concealment skills to crawl to safety and hide until others of their party came to their …

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