As Earl made the pillar, Erin landed on top of it. She ran towards Earl, about to thrust with her rapier, when she was suddenly surrounded by 3 tall pale people. They all had ginger hair. Seemingly identical.
'There's no way I had completely ignored triplets, I would've remembered something like that,' Erin thought.
"Would you?" The system dryly commented.
Before she could reply, underneath her feet, several tiny pillars began to stab upwards. Not only that, but the 3 clones were all stabbing at her. It reminded her of the spiked machine at the beginning of the school year, except far more real.
[-2 HP]
[-2 HP]
[-2 HP]
[HP: 54/60]
Despite Erin's great speed, holding the umbrella while trying to dodge wasn't easy. A few cuts had managed to graze her. When watching one of the clones closely, she found an opening, and charged her rapier into them.
[+1 HP]
[HP: 55/60]
[Level 3 ability user killed]
[Clone defeated, only a fraction of the EXP will be given]
[+10 EXP]
[110/200 EXP]
The clone had dissipated into smoke, leaving only a pair of them alongside Earl.
'Only 10 EXP?!' Erin angrily thought, 'This system sucks!'
"Now now, lets be rational about this. You had only killed a clone, and they can be remade nearly an infinite amount of times. This had to be done for balancing reasons," The system replied.
Erin shook her head, 'Grr… I might have to use the shadow. The sooner I can finish this fight, the better.'
Right then, several arrows had landed onto one of the clones, forcing that one to dissipate.
"I got you!" Layla called out behind Erin.
"Oh so you think you've got me!?" The one who had cloned themselves angrily shouted.
[Inspect]
[Name: Pierogi]
[Ability: Level 3 Doppelganger]
[HP 29/30]
[Blood type A+]
As soon as Pierogi shouted that, another clone was created, surrounding the two of them.
Erin glanced behind herself, and saw Earl had somehow went behind their backs.
Layla gritted her teeth.
"We're surrounded."
Earl stomped onto the ground, and two large boulders formed beside him, and shifted into crude looking snakes.
Both of the earth snakes charged at Layla, but Erin used flashstep to stand in front of her. Imbuing her rapier with blood aura, she had managed to create an X slash on the two earth snakes, one after another.
[-2 HP]
[-2 HP]
[HP: 51/60]
'Red lines?' Earl had seen them as clear as day.
At first, Earl thought that this might've been the source of Erin's rumors. The ones where she had lost her ability. However, the fact that the red lines had come from her sword made him believe otherwise. Perhaps it was just an active ability of her weapon.
Despite this, the fact that Erin was still fighting him without using her strongest power, the ice ability, made him believe that the rumors really must be true.
Layla placed three arrows onto her bow, and fired them all. The arrows flew through the air, aiming at the doppelgangers.
The 3 Pierogi's sliced at them, then sprinted at Layla.
Before they could, Layla closed her fist, controlling the arrows to come back to her. They had stabbed into one of the doppelgangers back, causing it to dissipate.
Pierogi was in shock for a moment. They couldn't duplicate themselves instantly as their ability had a cool down. Regardless, the two clones charged, slicing at Layla.
She blocked with her bow, putting strain on her weapon. It wasn't meant to be used like this.
Pierogi thrusted their sword, which had cut Layla's arm badly.
'I need distance!' Layla shouted in her mind. She didn't have enough time to shoot.
Blocking another hit from a sword, Layla took out one of her steel arrows. That was when both of the clones had slashed downwards at the same time, snapping her bow in half.
As it fell from her grip, Layla was left with no choice. She lunged at one of the clones, arrow in hand, and stabbed them in the heart. She was thankful that her two beast arrows had given her a boost in strength.
The clone dissipated, but two more had replaced it.
With no bow, and the fact that she needed to fight up close, it was beginning to look dire. Thankfully, she had trained for this with Peter.
Lifting two arrows behind the clones, Layla stuck her tongue out at them, then began to run away.
'Wh—!? Did she just—? She blew me a raspberry! Who does she think she is?' Pierogi thought in their head.
They chased after Layla, taking the bait. Unbeknownst to them, two arrows were floating high above their heads. She continued to run, constantly glancing behind her.
'I need to make sure they land just right…' Layla concentrated. If the arrows didn't align perfectly when she dropped them, then she was done for.
While Layla was distracted looking at the arrows, she had stumbled on the sand, allowing the Pierogi's to catch up to her.
With no time left to waste, Layla dropped the arrows down, and they fell onto two of the clones. They had turned into smoke as the arrows had managed to cut deep inside their heads. Needless to say, it was a little gruesome.
Due to the nature of Pierogi's ability, they could switch their consciousness into each doppelganger at will. However, if their main consciousness was in a body that was killed, they would instantly switch to a new one, and the phantom pain would carry over.
The final Pierogi had stumbled from the pain of their clones getting killed, allowing Layla to take out a blue arrow. She felt its power going into her as she held it. Then, she threw it as hard as possible at their feet.
It embedded into the sand, and not long after, ice formed all over Pierogi's legs, trapping them. Looking down, they had realized what had stopped them.
'Freaking— I can't clone myself if there's something encasing me!' Pierogi angrily yelled in their mind.
"Damn you! You don't know how hard I have it!" Pierogi yelled at Layla, frantically waving their sword at her, "This was my one chance to overtake my cousin!"
Layla held her hands up, and stepped back. Even though they couldn't reach her, she'd rather not be anywhere near them.
'I didn't know I had it in me to go through with all of that… I can't believe the ice actually worked!' She thought, before taking in a deep breath.
Layla turned to look towards Erin, and the fight she was having with Earl. As much as she would've liked to help her out, she was out of MC, and didn't have her main weapon any more. That was then she realized something.
'I need grab the burningsnake crystal before anyone else does.'
—
Erin and Earl were clashing against one another, rapier against spiked bat. Despite Erin's strength, Earl shifted his bat to be smoother, sliding off of her blade. Then, he side stepped her, and swung his bat down.
Her agility outmatched his, so she quickly blocked with her rapier.
It was good timing that Erin had the rattaclaw armor made. It allowed her arms to be in the sunlight without any drawbacks. Not only that, but Fex's training had taught her how to fight with a rapier, namely, fencing techniques. Fencing mainly had you fight with one hand on your sword, and the other behind your back, which Erin was using to hold her umbrella.
Erin slashed at Earl, but he blocked with his earth bat, and retaliated with two swings. She was only able to block one.
[-5 HP]
[HP: 46/60]
Using another flash step, Erin had sprinted behind Earl, and thrusted the paleneedle.
[+2 HP]
[HP: 48/60]
Earl spun around, the earth bat shifting into a spiked one. She had to awkwardly block with her umbrella arm.
'That umbrella seems important,' Earl thought before a sinister smile formed on his mouth.