BANG CLANNNG BANG The attacks are coming from all directions; it is not just the icy copies that had been attacking me, but also the Bearman, whose attacks are relentless and dangerous; I might be willing to miss the attack of the icy copies, but I would never let the Bearman strike me. Those attacks are not the ones you could take on, even with very defensive armor. I have already destroyed more than two hundred of its copies, but they kept coming, and not wildly; the Bearman is directing them in a way that they will act as obstruction while it gets a shot at me. Till now, not even a single attack of it has succeeded yet, but it could at any time. The attacks from the forest are continuing, and some of them are really strong, nearly taking me to the wonderland. I think I have fought enough and should finish the battles as soon as possible, or I will regret it. To be honest, I don't want to end the battle yet; I have just started to get the hang of the power, and I want to till I get complete control over it. Not to mention, I am having fun; I have always dreamed of fighting with such power, and now, I am getting an opportunity to do that. 'I wish I hadn't been fighting in such a dangerous environment,' I thought and started final preparations. Seconds passed, and I continued to destroy one icy copy after another; soon, I finished with them all and turned to Grimm, who was hiding in its domain, but its position was never a secret to me. "It is time you die, Grimm," I said and appeared next to it and attacked it with all twelve of my vine hands, each holding a powerful artifact in them. CLANNNG! At the first clash, the Grimm became visible with alarm in its eyes and opened its mouth, but soon its gaze fell on the eleven hands coming at it, and its alarm grew big. The alarm in its eyes turned to hate and anger, and it moved its halberd to defend itself, but I already studied it and knew what it could do as I caged its weapon with three of my hands while other hands moved toward its body. SLASH SLASH SLASH It had a powerful defense, but my hands tore through it and began to slash across its body. It tried to dodge, but it turned fruitless as hands extended and came from every direction, not giving it a chance to dodge, much less run away, which it was trying to. Seeing the injuries piling on its body, I couldn't help but feel ecstatic. I have always wanted to kill the Grimm in such a way, and now I am doing that. Hun! As more and more injuries piled across its body, I began to feel more and more happy, but after some time, the happiness seemed to feel sort of empty; I was not feeling the content as I did when I beat the Grimm to this stage and when I thought that another question had popped into my mind. 'Why am I wasting time doing such things when I have a quick way to deal with it?' I asked myself, and immediately, my eyes went wide. 'Fuck, I got affected,' I realized and immediately began to activate the formations but stopped immediately as I realized I was an illusion and those would not help. Instead, I tried to contact my clone, but to my horror, I could not. It horrified my mind because I realized how strong this dream which I have been trapped in is; it is not letting me contact the part of my own soul. If I couldn't contact the clone, there was no I could sense my soul, and when I tried, it held, but I could not sense it at all. I am scared shitless right now because I am not alone. I am fighting a life-and-death battle against the Bearman, and it would love nothing than kill me. There is only one thing that could save me from this dream and the thing I could rely on to stay alive, my clones. I hope they will keep me alive and also help me in getting out of the dream; keeping me alive is more important because as long as I am alive, I can find a way to get out of here, and I have already begun. The first rule of getting out of the dream is realizing you are in a dream; while I have realized that, getting out wouldn't be easy. Before, this dream wasn't controlled by someone but formed by magical and chemical energies; as long as they were in my system and kept coming to my system, it would be hard to get out. It will be hard but not impossible; many people who have gone through this challenge have fallen into such a dream, and few were even gotten out of it. They have shared some tips, and with my knowledge of things, I am confident I will be able to get out, even if magical and chemical energies keep affecting me; the only thing I need is time, and I hope my clones will give me that. With that, I began to completely focus on breaking out of the dream; the first measures of contacting my clone, soul, and core had failed, and now, I am trying the other measure; the first among them was doing the opposite in the dream. I know what the dream is showing me; the ideal battle that I desire, weapon to weapon without underhanded means. This is just stupid, one should use whatever one has to kill the enemy, and I always run by that philosophy, but the heart is not always rational; it sometimes wants to do things that defy common sense. So, I started to do the opposite; I did not only begin to use the most underhanded means I have but also started to fight the way I had never done. Immediately, I began to feel the resistance and compulsion doubled down on me, wanting me to get immersed in the desired battle of my heart, but I refused and used all my willpower to do the opposite. At first, there was no change, but as time passed, I felt the change in my dream; I felt it weakening in some ways and getting stronger in some. It weakened its power as compulsion bore down on me at full force; it is very hard to resist it, but I did and continued with my ways. BOOOOM! It felt like hours passed when suddenly, I heard a loud boom, and the dream exploded like pieces of a mirror, bringing me to reality. The force that broke came from my soul; my clone seemed to have used a pretty powerful measures to bring me out. As I had come to myself, I saw the things that shocked me. I saw Bearman covered in all three elemental energies, fire, frost, and lightning; they were covering its whole body, making it look like a demon on the rampage, and it is considering my state. I am injured, bleeding from nearly every part of my body, but still alive. My clones had taken control of the twelve hands and had been fighting it, but not well enough to keep me without injuries, but I didn't mind. As they have kept me alive, and that is all that matters.