Scarlet

I can’t help but glance at the half a dozen clones of Abigail made out of mental energy standing around her at the ready to attack.

Since when could she summon clones?

“It’s possible she’s been hiding the skill till now,” Tar answers. “Or she just bought it before this fight.”

Damnit, this makes things complicated. My original plan was to summon my blood shadow right before she uses that signature skill of hers, as I know she’s gonna try using it. And I’ll let my blood shadow take the blow since she’s always open to attack on a cooldown after using it.

But with these clones of hers…

“Don’t change your plan just yet,” Tar says, making my eyes narrow right when we both begin manifesting blades in the air above us. “Since she has six clones, each clone is most likely a lot weaker in comparison. She should also has less control over them than you have over your blood shadow due to their numbers.”

Oh? That’s good then. I can continue as planned.

Both me and Lost send our blades at each other, the blades clashing in the air and letting mine ever so slowly push against hers.

Right. And my power capability is Tier A, so my magical skills are stronger than hers even on the same level.

Speaking of her level though, I can’t determine it at all. Is that because she doesn’t use mana?

“You’re correct,” Tar says, making my frown grow deeper.

That’s annoying.

I begin sprinting straight towards her at the same time as her clones rush towards me, and the moment one of her clones reaches me, I bat its calf aside when it tries to spin around and send a kick straight at me. And to both my and Abigail’s surprise, the forearm I use to block the kick simply cracks the clone’s leg while sending the clone flying away from me.

Huh.

That thing was weak.

I hear Tar snorting in my head.

Hey, it’s not my fault I was expecting it to be strong!

“Scarlet, you’re a half demon with strength quite a bit greater than the average human Guardian fighting against weaker clones of a mental magic user who likely has either completely average or even below average strength,” Tar lays it out for me, making me blink for a moment before I grin.

So it’s time to punch some clones!

“Yes, that it is,” Tar says with more than a little amusement in his voice.

Then a wave of pain and white noise assails my head for a few seconds before fading again, almost making me drop to my knees.

“Fuck,” I mutter, wondering just how much pain that must have been for it to get past pain diffusion and the fifty percent pain limiter to cause that much. But I quickly react to a kick being sent my way by a clone by swiping my shifted arm away from my head towards it, sending the thing flying with a crack going across the thing’s torso.

I then raise my head to scowl at Abigail, who looks rather shocked that I was able to react to that hit despite her little mental spike attack – or at least that’s what I’m assuming it was.

“Well, now you’ve experienced a mental attack,” Tar says bluntly. “How do you feel?”

Like I don’t ever want to be hit by another one again.

“Understandable,” he says while sending me the feeling of nodding in a sagely manner.

I ignore him as I activate blood sacrifice and begin tearing apart the clones, briefly taking note of how they don’t seem to be affecting Abigail very much. Meaning that her clones don’t cause her mental backlash like mine.

“Well, your clone is a lot stronger than hers,” Tar says, which has me wanting to smirk in my moment of pride.

Until another mental spike comes, making me actually growl out loud at the pain.

“That’s getting annoying,” I growl after finishing off the last clone and turning my focus solely on the girl.

She’s not preparing her signature skill yet, probably because she knows I won’t give her the time to finish it. And if she misses or fails in using it? She won’t have any chance at winning.

From what I’ve seen of her in Fractures through videos online, she takes a backlash from that skill in the form of paralysis and mind blank, making her unable to move for nearly half a minute after using it. Which is a glaring flaw, but a much needed one to balance out such a powerful skill.

I myself have no confidence in taking a hit from it and surviving, so it’s extremely powerful.

Very much a finishing move though. Or a last ditch one, where everything else has failed.

Something that I wouldn’t mind having now that I think about it. But I’m pretty sure those skills are more common in Class II. So I’ll probably get one then.

Abigail grimaces as she sees me beginning to step closer towards her, and she uses that damned awful mental spike skill again. But this time I manage to continue walking despite that, briefly wondering how often she can actually use that skill.

Then she suddenly coats herself in that purple mental energy barrier before waving her hand, sending an arc of mental energy towards me. And I don’t bother blocking or countering it, instead opting to dodge out of the way. But when I direct my focus back on her again, I find her already sending another my way. So I continue dodging one after another.

Eventually, after I roll across the ground to dodge an arc, she begins summoning more clones, which is incredibly annoying.

My eyes widen though when I see her suddenly stretch her arm out forward before gripping her hand in a fist, making all of the six clones turn into purple lights that fly into her fist.

Oh shit. That can’t be good.

She suddenly grins as she tosses the ball of glowing purple energy into the air once, then twice, and then suddenly tosses it straight at me, the ball spreading out to form some sort of large net full of spikes pointed directly towards me.

Not good at all.