Two days later
The Shadow Prison stretched endlessly around Luis, its darkness broken only by the shifting terrain that was shaped for Luis's training. Platforms hovered at staggered heights, narrow bridges twisted unpredictably between them, and vertical walls rose like jagged teeth from the abyss below.
Three figures moved through it.
Three shadow clones.
All copies of Luis.
Luis stood on a slanted platform near the center of the structure, shield infused and humming faintly with controlled aura. His breathing was steady, but only because he forced it to be. Sweat clung to his skin, soaking into his clothes.
"You're late," Sera's voice echoed calmly.
Luis didn't respond.
He already knew.
The moment the fifth second passed after tagging the first clone, the attempt was over.
Again.
The Shadow Prison reset.
Platforms reassembled. Distances corrected. The three shadow clones reformed several spans away, already shifting into motion.
Luis exhaled slowly.
Again.
He summoned his autonomous clones three of them this time, the maximum he could maintain, whenever Luis tried to summon a fourth one, all of the clones would collapse and when Luis asked for guidance from Aunt Sera she told him to figure it out himself. The autonomous clones emerged from quick flashes of light that appeared beside Luis.
"Positions," he said quietly.
The clones split, each tracking a different target.
All the shadow clones were in different corners of the platforms.
Luis took a deep breath before fully focusing on the locations of the autonomous clones. He did this because after successfully tagging two shadow clones. The arena had grown bigger making it impossible for Luis to keep an eye on all the shadow clones. Thus instead he focused on the locations of his autonomous clones using them as homing beacons to understand the vacinity the shadow clones would be in because Luis could feel a faint connection to each of his autonomous clones aura.
Luis couldn't just study the shadow clones to understand their movements anymore either. The shadow clones now would adapt to Luis adapting to his understanding of the shadow clones. Requiring Luis to issue commands constantly to his autonomous clones.
Luis cut paths. Closed gaps. Watched patterns. Slowly making all the shadow clones group up by herding them with his clones.
The first shadow clone feinted low, drawing one of Luis's clones with it. The second took advantage immediately, slipping upward through a blind spot between platforms. The third didn't move at all waiting.
Luis's autonomous clone moved on the third shadow clone, not tagging it but herding it closer.
Luis moved to cut off the path of the second shadow clone trying to keep it enclosed with the other shadow clones.
As Luis got close to cutting of the shadow clone. The clone didn't retreat the shadow clone instead ran straight into Luis's body tagging itself.
After a split second realisation dawned on him, Luis only had five seconds to tag the other two clones and since Luis had given the commands of herding the other two shadow clones, Luis's clones were too far they wouldn't be able to reach in time.
Luis just collapsed to the ground exhaustion hitting him. Luis groaned in annoyance and pain. The thought of the shadow clones now tagging themselves to make Luis lose was really frustrating.
This had been the entire day.
From the moment he'd woken up to the moment his aura had dipped dangerously low for the third time.
Three shadow clones.
Tag all three within five seconds of each other.
He'd succeeded with tagging two many times today but he could never get three.
After every failure the shadow clones would improve as well.
"Stop," Sera said at last.
The Shadow Prison froze mid-reset.
The shadow clones dissolved into smoke, fading back into the darkness.
Luis let the shield aura disperse, the aura unwinding without resistance. His arm dropped to his side immediately, fingers numb and unresponsive for a few seconds.
He got back up and sat down heavily on the edge of the platform, legs dangling over nothing.
Only then did the exhaustion hit him properly.
Not a crash.
A slow, spreading weight.
His head tipped back slightly as he stared into the endless black above.
Sera appeared beside him instead, her form resolving out of shadow with the same effortless calm she always carried. She looked exactly the same as she had that morning untouched by the hours that had worn him down.
"You didn't fail because you're weak," she said at last. "Or slow."
Luis let out a humorless breath.
"Could've fooled me."
"You failed because coordination scales poorly," Sera replied.
Luis turned his head slightly to look at her.
She gestured with one hand, and the Shadow Prison shifted again not into a course, but into a projection.
The training replayed itself in faint, translucent shadow.
Luis watched as a ghost of himself gave commands, hesitated, adjusted, corrected, redirected.
Again and again.
Sera pointed.
"Here," she said. "And here. And here."
Each moment she indicated was small. Almost insignificant on its own.
But together
"I stepped in too much sometimes and too little other times." Luis said slowly.
"Yes."
"Even when I didn't need to."
"Yes."
Luis closed his eyes briefly.
Three targets.
Three clones.
Himself.
Too many overlapping layers of control.
Sera nodded once.
"Coordination isn't about adding more actions," she said. "It's about removing yourself from places you don't belong."
Luis absorbed that in silence.
The frustration he'd felt all day hadn't been sharp. It had been dull, grinding, persistent. Like pushing against something immovable and not understanding why it wouldn't give.
Sera paused.
Then her tone shifted subtly, but enough that Luis noticed.
"Training is finished for today."