7/23

Studio 20, South side of Skull Mountain Island, Kongoro Village

5:55 PM

Shade Doppelganger. Tier 6. It's you, kinda.

Possible Loot: Shadow Stone Bracelet

Shade Doppelganger. Tier 5. It's your fiance. Kinda.

Possible Loot: Cosplay.

Shade Doppelganger. Tier 5. You probably only know a fraction of what his arrows are capable of.

Possible Loot: Shadow arrows.

Shade Doppelganger. Tier 4. He has death magic instead of life magic.

Possible Loot: Dark Rite Scroll.

Shade Doppelganger. Tier 4. She plays music backwards. It sounds awful.

Possible Loot: Enuz Tfosorcim.

The shadow me holds his 12 foot long sword out and points at me. It's a challenge. Fuck that.

I calmly say into my comm, "shadow copies of us, village west side. Avoid the shadow me if possible. Quins, stay hidden until we need you."

The shadow me shakes his head because I'm not taking his bait. I need three seconds to change forms. And I need to change forms.

The Sun Wolf armor, and accompanying spells and abilities, are focused on single target damage and tanking. The goal is to hit hard and get the enemy's attention. Fight a foe solo while my allies take on smaller foes or attack from the flanks. Sun Wolf mode doesn't even use telekinesis because the goal is to keep the enemy's eyes on me, rather than glancing at floating weapons and allies who might be near them.

This me is in Sun Wolf armor, as am I. We're probably going to be evenly matched. Which is bad for me. It's probably 10 to 20 seconds before Mercy, Odysseus and Ivy get here. Shadow Mercy, Shadow Quins and Shadow Odysseus are all capable of shredding me with ranged attacks if I get entangled with Shadow me.

So, what do I do? I know fighting myself fair and square is a bad idea. If I were shadow me, I'd charge me while setting up my allies for their attacks. I'd expect anything that Solar magic and Sun Wolf can dish out. What wouldn't I expect?

I run away. Specifically, I fly backwards at a low angle so I fly into the straw roof of a hut. Shadow me races after. Shadow Quins and Odysseus open fire. I burst through the other side of the roof, spraying straw. Shadow Smite enhanced bullets punch through the roof, several of them hitting my armor. Each shot cracks my armor leaving a golf ball sized hole in it. I drop behind the hut. An arrow whizzes overhead, plinks into another hut, then explodes into green acidic mist which starts to dissolve the hut. That wasn't Shadow Quins missing, I know he doesn't miss. He just cut off further escape.

Lunar Mind! Chimerablood Rise!

Unbreakable crystal. The moon beetle strikes!

My Sun Wolf armor pops off, then disappears as Lunar Beetle armor shimmers in, then snaps onto my body. This armor resembles high tech samurai armor, with metal plates replaced with thin, teal (light gray in here) crystal. Lunar Beetle is made to tank and engage with multiple opponents at once. To tackle 5 competent opponents I need to be in the right form, and in the right mindset.

A dozen katana slide down, as if being unsheathed from the air right above me. My telekinesis holds them in a circle around me as I wait for just a split second and, as I'd expect, shadow me catches up with me.

He appears on my left as I've got my back to the hut wall. His massive great sword slashes horizontally, chopping through the hut wall and hurtling towards me. Shredded straw flies. Two of my katanas form an X and catch his blade between them, sending the sound of clashing of steel through the village. As his massively powerful swing pushes my katanas back, I send four more katanas thrusting straight at shadow me. He dodges to my left, pulling back his sword, but I anticipated his move and could strike. Of course he'd anticipate my move to take advantage of his dodge, so instead, I do something else he's not expecting.

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I run away again. Specifically I run around the hut and back towards shadow Odysseus, Quins and Ivy. I don't see shadow Mercy. Shadow Ivy is playing music, something played backwards, from the sounds of it. It hurts my head. Feels like I'm not regenerating Arcana right now. I pull my dozen katanas to my side, reel my arm back, and prepare to fling them at my shadow teammates. Shadow Mercy is, from what my radar is telling me, probably above me. Her Oni Hacker Warlock outfit doesn't let her fly, per se, but she can float indefinitely by "being as light as data."

I dash forward, expecting an attack from above, but it doesn't come. I glance up to see Mercy and shadow Mercy clashing mid-air, their laser encircled staves sending out sparks when they touch. I hear my Ivy start up AC/DC. I hear Odysseus open fire on someone, probably shadow me. My team is here. My teammates have my back.

I rush forward even as shadow Odysseus fires at me. I take the enhanced bullets, relying on Lunar Beetle's superior armor. Bullets punch into, but not through, the armor. The crystal plates shatter but stay in place. I see shadow Quins pull back an arrow.

"Quins!" I shout into my comm. Shadow Quins's arrow shoots forward and I see it fly several feet before it's struck from the side by a different, non-shadow arrow, shattering both into splinters. That was a fucking good shot! Shadow Quins looks to the jungle where Quins is. They both release a shot at each other that turns into a volley of arrows, firing what Quins calls his "shotgun arrow." Three arrows punch into shadow Quins as I reach the shadow archer and slash through him with four swords. The shadow creature puffs away into smoke, dropping a handful of arrows behind. I don't know how Quins fared.

I'm right next to shadow Odysseus and shadow Ivy now. Shadow OD turns and aims his rifle right at my head as an arrow flies into his neck, then sends a wave of flame out in all directions, scorching shadow OD. I guess my Quins is okay! I cut down shadow Ivy as she tries to whip me. Shadow Odysseus begins to chant backwards to heal himself.

The gunfire from back behind the hut has stopped. That's bad, probably. I leave shadow Odysseus to Quins and fly up to get a look at how things are going back there. Shadow me looks banged up, but still alive. He swings his great sword at Odysseus.

I fucked up. I didn't protect my teammates well enough. And Odysseus is going to die because of it.

My Mercy's data streams, shaped like bamboo spears, shoot up from the ground at Odysseus's feet, forming a sort of cage around him. Shadow me's sword hits the data streams and stops for a split second. A split second long enough for six of my katanas to fire freezing Eclipse Beams at shadow me. Crystal shards appear across his armor. He steps back, which shatters the crystals, and some of his armor falls away revealing smoke within.

Mercy just saved Odysseus, taking her focus away from her fight. I have my teammate's back. Shadow Mercy tries to spear my Mercy, but I send six katanas up to stab the air between the two Mercys, and shadow Mercy takes a flying step back. My other katanas fly over to harass shadow me, peppering him with icy Lunar energy beams. By now he's dodging and blocking them with his sword, but that still keeps him defensive.

I know very well that making one big sword out of magic makes it stronger than 10 regular swords made out of magic. His blade has more force behind it, and can push my katanas around, but breaking them still takes a lot of-

Shadow Mercy strikes directly at the katanas in front of her and three shatter from the blow. Well shit, she's strong! Shadow me creates another great sword in his other hand, casually dual wielding 12 foot blades. He also strikes at the katanas in front of him, sweeping left and right to shatter them into crystal fragments. This is perfectly okay, as it gives Odysseus time to GTFO, retreating behind a different hut.

An arrow from Quins slams into shadow Mercy's right leg, then streams acid down her thigh, quickly melting the leg off. I have to hold my vomit and horror as something that looks a lot like my Mercy loses a limb in what must be an awful manner. A whip flicks up and catches shadow Mercy's other foot, and Ivy yanks shadow Mercy to the ground.

So here's the thing about magical flight. When you're hovering, you have no momentum or effectively any weight. So it's actually super easy to push or throw or pull someone who's magically flying and not expecting an attack. If she were expecting it, shadow Mercy could probably just fly up, away from Ivy, and counter the force. But surprise attacks are a mother fucker. And thus shadow Mercy hits the dirt, landing right next to her melted off leg.

My Mercy drops to the ground, then dashes towards shadow me. I let my remaining katanas shatter and summon six spears and six small round shields. The spears all thrust downward into fallen shadow Mercy. I try not to watch as I kill her.

The six shields fly off towards shadow me, who's now fighting Mercy. He swings downward with both great swords as Mercy tries to block with her staff. Shadow flames erupt from his sword strikes and engulf the staff. Mercy lets her weapon drop and leaps back. The six shields take up position in front of her. I charge over. Odysseus opens fire from behind cover. An arrow from Quins arcs high above us before suddenly spinning and dive bombing shadow me. We've got this.

Over a hundred pitch black stars spin around shadow Jun and deflect bullets and the drill arrow. Ahh shit. Black stars fly into my shields and they shatter like dinner plates. Mercy dives to her left as the stars continue through, several of them cutting into her right arm and back. Each impact leaves a fist sized wound. Mercy collapses to the ground, face down. The stars the punched through her suddenly stop, then begin to-

6th Step, Astral Pathbreaker!

My own white stars intercept and block shadow me's execution attack. His head snaps up at me. His stars and my stars hurtle towards each other, meeting in the air between us. Each time one collides with the other, sparks and the sounds of arc welding fill the air. Our stars clash and spin around each other, sending a shower of sparks to the ground, looking like shimmering fireworks.

It's an almost beautiful moment cut short by Odysseus firing his Smite rounds into shadow me's back, and at the same time an arrow punches into one of the spots where he's missing armor. It turns into a concrete cube, pulling shadow me forward. A whip cracks, snaps around his neck and then spikes suddenly stab out from the whip. I think they went right through his neck. Shadow me drops to his knees. He looks up at me.

I knew I'd get shredded by enemy teammates if I got into a one on one fight with me. I just hadn't expected him to not come to the same realization.

Shadow me puffs away into smoke, dropping a small ring and a crap load of currency behind. I ignore that and rush to my injured fiancé.

Odysseus is already there. He's playing his most powerful recovery invocation on his phone, which he keeps strapped to his left arm. A small white fairy, wreathed in a soft pink light, circles Mercy as her wounds heal. Odysseus nods at me. "She's bloody and groaning, but nothing vital was hit. She'll live. We'll all live."

As he says it, I know the words he's not saying. We'll all live this time.

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