Akhil hovered in the center of the swirling white void, his expression unreadable. To anyone else, this was a psychological nightmare, but to him, it was just another mechanical hurdle he had cleared a dozen times in the game.

The Fog of Mirrors wasn't actually an illusion; it was a biological construct controlled by creatures known as Mistwisps. These tiny, near-invisible specks of golden light floated within the vapor, acting as sensors that recorded a player's movements and appearance to construct the clones..

'They are very troublesome if you don't know how to deal with them,' Akhil thought, keeping his breathing steady. 'They don't attack until you do because they lack a consciousness of their own—they simply copy whatever abilities you use. But that predictability is exactly how I'll end this.'

He closed his eyes, cutting off the visual feed that the Mistwisps relied on to refine the clones' appearances. Relying on his sharp senses he looked past the crowd of clones around him, he recalled the fundamental weakness of the swarm. Mistwisps operated on a hive mind; whether there were thousands or millions of them, they were all tethered to a single, centralized Beast Core.

They always hid that core in the most logical place to avoid detection: inside the "primary" clone positioned at the very back of the group, furthest from the initial point of contact.

But with senses as sharp as Akhil, finding the primary clone was no more than child's play.

Akhil's internal radar pinged. His eyes snapped open, glowing with a cold, crimson light as he locked onto the specific duplicate of himself standing in the shadows of the trees... With his heat vision, he could clearly see the beast core radiating in its chest.

Without a second thought, and before the clones could even twitch to mimic his momentum, he flicked his wrist.

[Skill: Blood Spike]

A jagged, obsidian-red bolt of condensed blood shot forward like a railgun round. It tore through the atmosphere with a sharp whistle, bypassing the front-line clones entirely.

CRACK!

The spike pierced the chest of the rear clone with pinpoint accuracy. Instead of blood, a shower of golden sparks erupted from the wound as the hidden Beast Core shattered into a million pieces.

Almost instantly, the surroundings changed. The clones began to dissolve like salt in water, their forms collapsing back into harmless golden dust. The oppressive, thick fog that had swallowed the forest floor began to thin, losing its predatory edge and drifting away into the high mountain peaks.

Akhil landed softly on the now-visible path, his gaze immediately going to his map.

{Fog of Mirrors: Cleared}

{Remaining Participants: 52}

"Well... that was just as easy as I expected," Akhil muttered to himself, shifting his gaze to the thick wall of fog still swirling just a few yards ahead. Unlike his own area, which had cleared, the section occupied by the orcs was a chaotic storm of white vapor and screaming voices.

"Attack from the back!"

"Sir Gon, there's more of them! They just keep coming!"

"They can use our abilities too?! This is a cheat... how are we supposed to deal with this?"

The sounds of frantic combat were quickly replaced by the sounds of internal collapse.

"Why did I even follow you here?"

"Sir Gon! How did you convince us to join you in this death trap?" one of the orcs shouted, his voice cracking with genuine terror as he parried a blow from his own double.

"Trust me, this is something we can deal with! You just have to keep protecting me!" Gon's voice shrieked back, sounding just as scared as his subordinates.

"What the fuck? We should risk our own lives just to protect you while you hide in the middle?" another orc roared in fury.

Akhil could hear the voices of despair mixed with bitter complaints echoing through the trees, and he let out a long, weary sigh. It seemed that under the intense pressure of a life-or-death scenario, Gon's "brainwashing" or charisma was finally fracturing. When the orcs faced their own mirrors, they were forced to face the reality of their own weakness—and Gon's cowardice.

'It seems his ability breaks under intense pressure,' Akhil thought, facepalming. He felt a fleeting moment of pity for the old orc, followed quickly by his usual pragmatic coldness. 'I would've loved to let themselves struggle with this more, but they didn't come here in their right senses ... The person who caused this was Gon' just the thought of the name, left a frown on his face.

But it didn't last.

A wicked smile played across his lips. 'I would love to deal with Gon myself, but I'm fairly certain those orcs will handle him once they realize he has no plan. A little nudge in the right direction should do.'

Akhil didn't waste another second. He didn't use the Blood Spike again; instead, he surged forward into the fog surrounding the orc group. He moved like a ghost, his eyes fixed on the golden glimmer of the Mistwisp Core hidden behind the mirror-version of Gon.

With a blurred movement, Akhil sliced through the air. He didn't even look at the orcs as he passed them, his blade shattering the core with a resonant ping.

The fog around the orcs instantly dissolved, revealing the bloody, panting group.

"What happened, how did it all disappear? " They looked around confusedly wondering where the entire fog had disappeared to.

"I destroyed the beast" Akhil said calmly, landing in their midst.

All the orcs quickly turned in the direction of the voice, startled as they saw the figure.

"Sir Nexus!" Surprise mixed with relief filled their voices as they saw him.

"Thank you so much for saving us! We were completely surrounded, we didn't know what type of beast that was" one of the orcs said bowing his head in gratitude.

"You all should head back to the camp, it's dangerous here" Akhil said sternly, then his gaze shifted sharply to Gon, like a dagger tearing through the air.

"Gon, using your abilities to deceive people for your greed isn't the best. You should be punished for this, but I'll leave that decision to those who you brought along."

"Nex—" Gon started but he didn't complete his sentence as Akhil scoffed coldly before flying away without throwing the group a second glance.

The other orcs paused for a moment, still slightly confused.

They were all standing in a circle, their weapons drawn, but instead of looking for more monsters, their eyes were all locked onto Gon, who was trembling in the center.

"So you were the one who caused this?!" They asked, their brows furrowing with anger.

"Wait! I can explain" Gon yelled as he scrambled to find his way up, but the group rounded him up from all sides.

Akhil glanced back at the scene, a satisfied smile forming on his face, 'Maybe I should start dealing with everyone I've ever had a problem with'

.On the other side of the Dark Mountains, the pristine appearance Marcus had fought so hard to maintain was utterly gone. His group had been swallowed by the mirror fog, and unlike Akhil, they had no prior knowledge of the Mistwisps.

The scene was a chaotic bloodbath. The mercenaries were being torn apart by their own mirrored abilities, their screams echoing through the white void. Marcus stayed crouched in the absolute center of his Level 3 guard detail, his eyes wide and darting with terror. Every time a puppet fell, he felt a flicker of his own power diminish, yet he didn't lift a finger to help.

"Keep fighting! You, move to the left! Shield me!" he shrieked, his voice cracking with cowardice. He barked orders from the back like a frantic overseer, using his puppets as human sandbags to block the strikes meant for him.

Finally, one of the Level 3 mutants, a silent warrior with enhanced perception, managed to track the golden trail of the hive mind. With a desperate, powerful surge of mana, the mutant lunged past the clones and smashed the core of the Mistwisp hidden in the shadows.

The fog vanished instantly.

The remaining mercenaries stood amidst the bodies of their fallen comrades, panting and covered in gore.

Marcus stood up, dusting off his leather suit and straightening his tie as if he hadn't just been trembling on the ground. Seeing the threat was gone, his false confidence flooded back into him like a toxic tide.

"See? A minor setback," Marcus declared, stepping over a corpse. "Let's continue! We're losing time!"

Akhil hovered in the sky, but he had come to a complete halt. He stared down at the clearing that marked the entrance to the next trap zone, a deep frown creasing his brows.

Below him, the path widened into a massive, circular arena of cracked obsidian stone. There was no fog, and barely any trees in the area and the mountains in the area parted to show the large center.

{You have entered the inner region} the system announced.

'I hated this part in the game,' Akhil thought, his jaw tightening.

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