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ILIAS VAN PAYNE

And just like that, Trebor and I were separated from our group, dragged through a puddle into a dusty room with sandstone walls and floors. Judging from the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, it appeared that we were in some sort of small great hall. Only, the room was plastered with dozens and dozens of mirrors on the walls, floor, and ceiling.

"Greetings," the young man that kidnapped us said. "My name is Batta. You've figured out my reflection ability—Bad Moon Rising. This fishing rod is a cursed artifact I named Chase. I can control its line as intricately as I want. And it's indestructible too."

Batta was sitting on one side of the room with a circular mirror on the floor in front of him. He had a fishing line through it that escaped through the ceiling above us.

Adjacent to the wall he was at was a doorway with no door. What was left of its wooden remains had rotted away.

Trebor got onto his feet, readying his whip. "So you're our opponent. It'd be a pleasure to take you out."

Batta licked his lips and giggled before grabbing onto a lamp fixture on the wall. "Nope!"

From out of one of the mirrors on the wall opposite to the doorway, a man attired with a fuzzy hat came flying out.

He pointed towards the door and screamed the words, "Virtual Insanity!"

Suddenly, we were being pulled in the direction towards the door. I planted my feet into the floor to create friction, but it didn't even stick. I was lifted and was pulled all the same.

No, I wasn't being pulled or pushed towards the door. I was falling. For some reason, gravity wasn't pushing onto the floor but towards the door.

Trebor had figured this out before me. Or at least reacted faster. He had already whipped himself to the low-hanging chandelier.

Good, he can take care of himself. And I can hover. At the very least, I can't get hurt from the fall.

Just as I stabilized myself in the air, the man with the fuzzy hat tackled me into spinning out of control. He let go immediately, falling through the door and into the hallway.

Before he could plummet against the wall, he pressed the soles of his boots against the floor and stuck to it like a branch on the side of a cliff.

So he's the user of this gravity-bending ability.

Trebor extended his hand, allowing me to grab onto him.

Off to the side, Batta dangled from the lamp fixture, giggling.

"The new guy can change which direction gravity falls," Trebor mentioned. "It looks like he wants to fight us and leave Batta to continue picking off the others."

"Their plan is simple. They're using Batta to split and pit us against each other."

"Batta or the gravity guy, who do we take care of first?"

The gravity man looks like he was chosen to fight us. I can hover and fly to counter the change of gravity, but it takes me a few moments to do so. That's more than enough time for me to get taken advantage of. And not to mention Trebor. He was too proud of Whip It to carry a firearm and I don't think he knows any spells. But with Whip It, it can always whip its target accurately as long as it's within range. Even if he's falling, Trebor can always catch himself if there's something sticking out of the walls.

With Batta, he was what the Night Dancers' plans hinged on. If we left him alone, all he'd have to do is wait for the others to slip up. He'll drag them in here to fight another member whose ability counters theirs. There's also the fact that Batta doesn't seem to be a fighter within the group.

That makes it obvious then.

I pointed my staff at Batta. "We take care of him first."

Batta licked his lips, kicking up a mirror.

"Ilias, don't!" Trebor begged. "If you shoot or he blocks your attack with a mirror, your attack will travel through the reflection and out of any other mirrors here. There are dozens around the room and we can't predict where it'll come from!"

Suddenly, the hawk that had attacked us outside flew through the same mirror the gravity man leapt out of. An icicle formed on the wall and the bird snapped it off. The hawk grabbed it by its talons, which it aimed and dropped onto the chandelier's chain.

The ceiling light broke off, freefalling out of the room and into the hallway, dragging us along with it.

The hawk dove at me, spreading its talons.

"It's aiming for your eyes!" Trebor called out.

I called out Zenyatta in front of me and the moment I did, the hawk spun out of the way, flying past us into the hallway.

With no time to react, Trebor and I crashed into the wall as if it were the ground.

Batta waved at us from the room, orientated on the floor as it should've been. "Bye-bye!"

The gravity man put about ten metres of distance between us as he pointed towards the floor. "Virtual Insanity!"

Suddenly, gravity shifted again, reorientating the entire room back upright.

I think I'm starting to understand his ability.

"My name is Jay Kay and this here is War Machine." The gravity man stretched an arm to his side which the hawk perched onto. "I already told you. I'm your opponent."

I was right. That hawk was a real animal that was able to use jynx. Under normal circumstances, I'd assume it could only use elemental jynx but that category only allowed its user to bend and manipulate already existing elements.

Wind was always around us so it was easy to use wind jynx.

You needed some type of earth to manipulate.

Water had to be present for you to use it.

Fire was the only exception but only because you needed three things to start a fire. Oxygen, heat, and fuel. Oxygen was in the air. Heat was made using jynx. And the fuel was the user's mana.

For War Machine to create an icicle using regular elemental jynx, it needed an understanding of fire jynx. Contrary to popular belief, freezing things fell under fire jynx. We made fire using jynx to create heat. The cold was just a lack of it.

I had no problem with the hawk understanding this concept. Hawks, by nature, were intelligent animals and have been observed carrying burning sticks from lightning strikes and dropping them in areas with an abundance of prey. Once its prey was smoked out, it would then swoop in to snatch it.

What eliminated my belief of the hawk using elemental jynx was the fact we were in the desert. Even me, whose go-to spell was Water Cannon, wasn't able to gather enough moisture in the air to cast it.

There were only three possibilities.

One, the bird was a Stand user. However, this was highly unlikely as it would have to perform a ritual to do so. And as smart as hawks were (particularly this one), performing a ritual was a concept I don't think it could grasp.

Two, War marchine was using some sort of cursed artifact. In most cases, you needed to hold or grip a cursed artifact for its ability to activate. The exception was equipment which you needed to wear. Now, this hawk wasn't wearing any or holding any weapons.

So that meant it was three—it was its alchemy ability. It wasn't possible to summon actual objects using jynx. The closest thing was using arcane jynx to transmute your mana into something similar like a rope or shield. But it never took the physical texture or weight of one. Just the shape.

"That bird—War Machine," I said. "It has the ability to form icicles, but it can't do it in midair. Otherwise, it would've just shot us like arrows. No, it can only form icicles on solid stationary surfaces."

Jay Kay clapped before taking off his fuzzy hat and bowing. "Bravo! You got it right to the last detail. Its ability is named Ice Ice Baby."

"That thing can talk?" Trebor questioned.

"No, I named it for her."

Jay Kay pointed to the far end of the hall behind us. "Virtual Insanity."

Almost instantly, we began falling in the direction he pointed towards. At the end of the hall was an assortment of jagged icicles pointed upward.

They're trying to impale us.

"Trebor," I called to him calmly. "Can your whip catch and pull something before hitting the ground?"

"Easily. But I have to be able to catch that something."

"Good. Don't use your whip until I say so."

"We're free falling! When do you want me to use it if not now?"

"Right at the end of the hall, there's a doorway that looks like it leads to stairs. If we can dive into it, we'll be out of Jay Kay's vision. There's no way we can fight these two on their turf. It's a losing battle."

"Fine, I trust you."

"Good."

I waved my staff, using a burst of wind to send Trebor hurling towards the icicle faster than me. He spun out of control but would be impaled several seconds before I did.

"Ilias! You little shit!" Trebor screamed.

If I told him what I was going to do, he'd hesitate the little time we had. Jay Kay would've also heard.

The first step to tricking the enemy is to trick your allies.

"Zenyatta!" I called out my Stand. "Bubble him!"

Just before Trebor collided with the icicles, the bubble enveloped him, shattering the frozen spears and protecting him from the fall. Once he was on solid ground, I popped the bubble and sent another gust of wind to the side, sweeping him into the stairwell that was orientated correctly.

"You sly bastards!" Jay Kay screamed. "War Machine, go after them."

I spun to face our opponents and spotted War Machine diving for me.

Birds were only able to fly because they had hollow bones. This made them extremely light.

I sent an air slash towards the hawk but it extended its wings, spinning to dodge it. While its wings were spread out, I pointed my staff and sent a simple blast of air to send it upwards.

I could've killed it if I kept sending multiple air slashes over the course of several seconds, but I didn't have that luxury. Sending a large gust of air to blow it back to its owner would be enough for now.

"Trebor, now!"

Trebor cracked Whip It, capturing my ankle and yanking me into the stairwell with him. He caught me, rolling down the stairs to mitigate my momentum.

Without missing a beat, we got onto our feet and, instead of continuing down a linear path, we went to the level above and into its hallway.

"Why aren't we going down?" Trebor asked.

"They're expecting us to go down. As long as we find a way out, it doesn't matter how high we are."

We have to get out of this building and regroup with the others. The fastest way is jumping out of a window. I can hover to the ground and always bubble Trebor from the fall.

There were eight levels to this build including the dungeon. As far as we knew, we weren't in the first two nor the dungeon.

"I think Jay Kay can only change gravity indoors," Trebor suggested. "And only the room he's in. That's why when we fell into the hall, the room Batta was in went back to being upright."

"That's my guess as well. If he could change how gravity worked even when outside, why didn't he just make it so that gravity fell where we came back from? Because it's too strong. The restriction he gave himself was that he needs to be in a room."

"You've figured out his trigger too, right?"

I nodded. "He has to point with his index finger. Then whichever wall, ceiling, or floor he's pointing at becomes the 'ground' and gravity falls towards it."

"And he himself is exempted if he plants both his feet onto anything."

We now know of an additional two abilities and their strategy to take us down. Our wisest move was to rendezvous with the others and tell them about it.

"But what would happen if we ran into Jay Kay and War Machine again?" Trebor asked.

If our fight were to continue, they'd best us one way or another. Jay Kay isn't an up-close fighter which is why he sends his hawk after us.

There's only one way we can beat them.

We continued to race through the maze-like halls of the tomb, trying to find an exit within the darkness.

"It's simple," I told him. "We have to take this fight outside!"