"If you even try to suggest stabbing yourself, I'm leaving you right bleeding here," Claire said flatly.
"I'm not completely insane," Alex said. The Ent swung at Glint again, but the Shardwalker dodged out of the way once more. "But don't you think we'd get a better reward if we won this with some sort of handicap? I'm not going to do this forever, but while the apocalypse is still fresh…"
"Yeah, yeah. Extra energy can make a huge difference when everyone still only has scraps to work with. I know," Claire admitted. "But what kind of hairbrained idiot makes a fight harder for themselves, though? You do realize that your life is the thing you're betting here, right?"
"We're in an apocalypse. It's getting bet anyway," Alex replied, his gaze focused on the Ent Harvester. "Might as well up the ante. It's not like I can lose anything more, so why not make the rewards better? Even if this fight isn't necessarily the biggest threat, not getting all the power we can could lead to us finding something too strong to defeat in the future. It's about more than the present."
Glint avoided another series of strikes from the Ent, keeping just out of range. Claire blew out a breath. "Well, shit. I can't believe you're making me admit this, but you've got a point. A stupid one. I don't think we should both do it, though. We need a way to make sure we can actually win this fight if things go wrong."
Alex looked to the sky. There weren't any City-Eaters in the area. As far as he could tell, aside from the Ent, the base of the mountain was actually rather empty of monsters. There was one thing he could do that immediately came to mind.
"Do you think you could kill that if you had to?" Alex asked.
"With how fast it is? Probably. It wouldn't be easy. Why?"
Alex steadied his nerves and flexed his fingers. His heart started to thump in anticipation of the upcoming fight. "I've got an idea. I'll probably need you to back me up, though. I might not be able to handle this on my own."
"Right. Whenever you're ready," Claire said, drawing her sword and lowering into a fighting stance. "And for the record, if this gets us killed, I'm haunting you."
"Glint, stand still."
The Shardwalker froze in place. An instant later, the Ent's claws carved straight through Glint. Claire let out a series of curses as Glint disintegrated, blowing away into energy that swirled into Alex.
"You got him killed on purpose?" Claire asked in disbelief. "That's a bit more than a tiny handicap, don't you think?"
"It's slow," Alex replied. He raised a hand and a spike of glass jutted out of his palm, glistening in the dull purple light that permeated the Mirrorlands. "Now get ready. I'll try to avoid its first attack. If we sandwich it, we'll have the best chance of taking it down. Two versus 1 is worse odds than 3 versus 1, so we should get better rewards for this."
The Ent lumbered in their direction. It let out a creaking groan as it drew closer. Claire shifted to the side and Alex took a step forward, drawing the monster's attention to himself.
It barely even acknowledged Claire as she looped around behind it. The monster's attention was fully focused on Alex. He grinned and waved to it.
"Come on, then. Let's—"
The Ent swung. Alex flung himself back, hitting the ground in a roll and springing back to his feet as a wave of adrenaline slammed into him. It was a whole lot easier to watch something else dodge the monster's attack than doing it himself.
More groans escaped the Ent's mouth as it lurched toward him, swinging again. Alex jumped back, making sure to leave enough space to keep out of the way of the monster's gangly arms.
Claire dashed at it from behind and brought her sword down on its back, carving through the wood with crunch. She leapt away as the Ent howled and spun in her direction. Alex took the opportunity to dart forward and drive his palm into its back, extending a mirror shard from his palm in the process.
The blade pierced deep into the monster and he snapped it off, already flinging himself away. No matter how slow the Ent Harvester was, its arms were still incredibly long. He wasn't a moment too soon. Thin fingers tore up the ground behind Alex, just barely missing his back.
He and Claire wove in and out, effectively nipping at the towering monster. None of their attacks were all that effective with the short amount of time they had to execute them, but striking it over and over again in the same area was having an effect remarkably reminiscent of chopping down a tree.
The Ent's body creaked dangerously with every step it took. It didn't seem even slightly concerned with its own health. It just kept swinging away, desperately trying to catch one of them off guard.
Alex's mirror blade carved across the Ent's already damaged side. It dug deep through the wood. Even as the Ent turned toward him, Claire thrust her blade into its other side. Alex worked his blade even deeper, wedging it into the Ent as hard as he could.
A loud snap split the air. The upper half of the Ent's body pitched back. Alex and Claire scrambled away as the huge piece of living lumber hit the ground with a resounding crash. For a brief second, the only sound was the sound of their labored breathing.
Cold energy drove into Alex's chest like a spike. He inhaled sharply as he felt power course through his body and gather in his soul. A wisp of smoldering brown fire rose up from the dead Ent's body and a grin stretched across his lips.
"See?" he asked, wiping his face with the back of a sleeve. "Tell me that wasn't a lot of energy. There's no way we would have gotten that much if we'd just had Glint handle it himself."
///Author's Note///
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