The faint smile Luis had worn faded as the exhaustion caught up to him all at once. His arm trembled, not violently, but enough that the shield's surface rippled slightly as the aura maintaining it thinned.

Sera noticed.

"Sit," she said. "You're running on fumes."

Luis hesitated, then let the shield fall. The construct of aura inside the shield dispersed into fading strands of aura.

He lowered himself to the ground and crossed his legs, resting his hands on his knees.

"Meditate," Sera continued. "Recover your aura. We're not done."

Luis nodded and closed his eyes.

This time, there was no frustration in the motion.

His breathing slowed naturally, not because he forced it to, but because his body demanded it. Aura circulation had become familiar enough that he could feel where it was thin like pressure lines stretched too far.

He didn't try to pull aura in.

He let it settle.

As his awareness widened, the Shadow Prison felt distant again. Present, but muted. The darkness no longer pressed against his senses the way it had earlier. It simply existed.

And in that quiet, a memory surfaced.

Taran.

Not a face. Not a voice.

Just a moment.

Running.

Luis's own feet pounding the ground, aura flaring unevenly as he chased something he didn't fully understand. The feeling of being behind—not slow exactly, but outpaced in awareness.

Then the moment snapped shut.

Luis inhaled.

That was enough.

His jaw tightened slightly, not in anger, but in resolve.

He wasn't here to feel bad about it.

He was here to make sure it didn't happen again

Aura gathered steadily, responding to his intent without resistance. Not full. Not even close. But workable.

Luis opened his eyes.

Sera was already watching.

"Up," she said. "Shield."

Luis stood, grabbed the shield and infused it with less aura this time, not flooding it the way he had earlier.

The surface shimmered firm, controlled

"Good," Sera said. "You don't need excess. You need consistency."

The Shadow Prison shifted again.

This time, the structure was different.

The platforms were closer together, stacked in uneven layers, connected by narrow bridges that twisted and overlapped. Pillars were fewer, but taller, creating vertical blind spots rather than horizontal ones.

Luis scanned the layout automatically.

Two figures stepped forward.

Two shadow clones.

Both copies of him.

"You will chase them with your clones this time."

The shadow clones moved immediately, splitting apart without hesitation one darting upward along a spiraling ramp, the other dropping low and vanishing behind overlapping platforms.

Luis felt the pressure spike instantly.

Two targets.

Two moving patterns.

His mind reached for the familiar solution.

Clones.

He summoned three autonomous clones in a flash of shadow.

"Intercept," he said aloud.

"You have to tag them both within five seconds of each other." Sera's voice echoed

The autonomous clones moved but the moment stretched too thin.

Luis ran after the lower shadow clone, eyes flicking upward every half second to track the second. His clones mirrored his divided attention, adjusting constantly, overcorrecting in response to his shifting commands.

It fell apart fast.

One clone mistimed a leap and dissolved on impact. Another hesitated, caught between two possible paths. The third chased too aggressively, committing to a route that left an opening behind it.

The upper shadow clone slipped through.

The lower one doubled back.

Luis skidded to a stop, breath sharp.

The shield flickered.

"Reset," Sera said calmly.

The Shadow Prison rewound itself.

Platforms returned. Clones reformed.

Luis exhaled slowly.

It was too hard to adjust to catching two shadow clones within five seconds of each other and these shadow clones were faster and smarter.

Again.

This time, he tried to compensate.

He issued clearer commands. Shorter ones. He didn't chase immediately, instead positioning himself centrally to react to either clone.

It helped.

Slightly.

He managed to force one shadow clone into a dead end but lost track of the second long enough for it to slip past his formation entirely.

Failure.

Again.

Minutes passed.

Sweat dripped down his temple, blurring his vision. His aura dipped lower each time he reissued commands mid-movement. He could feel the drain now not exhaustion, but inefficiency.

Too many thoughts.

Too many corrections.

The problem wasn't speed.

It was overlap.

Luis slowed to a stop as the shadow clones reset once more.

Think.

He replayed the movements in his mind, not as a chase, but as a system.

Two targets.

Three clones.

One him.

That was the issue.

He was treating himself as the core processor tracking everything, adjusting everything, deciding everything.

It was inefficient.

Luis summoned his clones again but didn't move.

Before they fully formed, he gave them a single mental command.

Mirror patterns.

The clones solidified, already in motion.

Luis felt the difference immediately.

The strain was still there but it was distributed.

Each clone locked onto a shadow clone, tracking movement patterns instead of chasing blindly. Luis didn't interfere. He didn't correct.

He moved last.

Not to chase but to close gaps.

The first shadow clone tried to bait a pursuit.

Luis ignored it.

The second attempted a vertical escape.

One clone adjusted instantly, cutting off the upper route without instruction.

Luis moved to the midpoint, shield steady, aura thin but controlled.

The pressure shifted.

For the first time, he wasn't reacting.

He was overseeing

The first shadow clone hesitated just long enough.

Luis didn't command.

He waited.

One of his clones adjusted its angle instinctively, herding the target toward the center.

Luis surged forward with his Tempest Flow blessing and tagged it.

One down.

The remaining shadow clone accelerated, changing tactics, weaving sharply between platforms.

Luis felt the familiar urge rise to jump in, to micromanage.

He resisted.

"Luis," Sera said suddenly. "You're running out of time."

His pulse spiked.

"You're already late," she added mildly.

Luis's breath hitched.

His shield wavered.

The shadow clone exploited it immediately, slipping past one clone and forcing a sudden redirection.

Aura flared as Luis instinctively prepared to intervene.

No.

He stopped himself.

"Maintain," he said aloud. "Don't chase."

The clone obeyed.

Luis adjusted his own path instead, cutting across a higher platform to limit escape routes rather than closing distance.

The shadow clone ran out of space.

It dissolved.

Luis ran out of time.

Five seconds had gone by.

He barely registered it.

The moment the pressure released, his legs gave out.

He dropped onto his back, chest heaving, staring up at the endless darkness.

His clones faded silently.

Sera didn't speak right away.

Luis lay there, breathing hard, muscles trembling with delayed fatigue.

"Fuck" Luis whispered

Sera raised an eyebrow outside the shadow prison. "Where did you learn that?"

"It's just something Taran used to say a lot."

Then Luis thoughts went back to the game of tag.

"It wasn't harder to tag two shadow clones," he said quietly. "I was just… doing too much."

"Yes," Sera replied. "You were trying to be everywhere."

Luis swallowed.

"With two targets, I can't chase," he continued. "I can't command everything either. I have to… decide what not to do."

Sera stepped closer, her presence a subtle shift in the Shadow Prison.

"Exactly," she said. "Power isn't about adding more actions. It's about removing unnecessary ones."

Luis closed his eyes briefly.

The image of Taran flickered again shorter this time.

Luis opened his eyes.

"Get up," Sera said. "One more round. Two clones again."

Luis smiled faintly despite the exhaustion.

"Yeah," he said. "I know."

He pushed himself to his feet.

Training wasn't finished.

But now, he understood what he was actually training for.

"Luis," Sera's voice cut in suddenly, light but pointed. "You might want to hurry."

Luis glanced instinctively toward where her voice echoed from.

"Dinner's soon," she added. "You really don't want to be late. Your mother would be… quite upset."

His heart jumped

Panic flared sharp and sudden.

Too fast.

The shield wavered.

The shadow clone took advantage instantly, slipping past the edge of his formation.

"Shit."

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