The spawned copies of Arthur's shadows rushed Garnet from every direction. But, Garnet could feel their presence approaching. The aura they gave off allowed her to even tell which one was going to arrive first based on how close their aura was. Even though there were eight of them, it was stupid to send all of them to attack at once because they would just interfere with each other. So, they attacked in sequence.
Garnet struck each one in the torso with a powerful palm strike as they approached, forcing them to retreat. "Is that all?" Garnet asked.
This even made Arthur surprised. It was clear that Garnet's abilities far surpassed what Arthur thought it was. If Arthur was a high level Guide, Garnet was going to be more than a match for several of them at a time. "Call: Minotaur King!"
A humanoid bull about twice the size of a person with brown skin and far more muscles appeared. There was a ring on its nose and it carried an enormous sword in its hands. As it raised its sword, burning wings appeared on its back and a halo of flames appeared around its head.
ROAR. The Minotaur King released a powerful roar that emitted a powerful wind pressure. It charged towards Garnet. Garnet struck the torso of the Minotaur King, sending it flying back.
One of Arthur's shadows immediately appeared just to the side of Garnet and another appeared right above her. They had used the Minotaur King to expose an opening.
"Ki Burst!" BANG. The two shadows were evaporated.
Garnet had completely outclassed Arthur. There was nothing he could do to penetrate her defenses. Arthur fell to his knees as the last shadow was taken out. “You’re so strong already…” said Arthur. The sweat from his forehead dripped down as he struggled to stand.
It was clear that Garnet was stronger than what Arthur had thought. On top of that, Garnet had not used any secondary transformations either. She had won through pure fighting power.
“But I’m not done yet!” said Arthur. He squeezed his hand tightly and blood began to flow. “Armament: Doppelganger!” The shadows that emerged from his body were even darker than usual. They were also armed this time with blood red armor made of a familiar looking flexible metal that seemed to perfectly wrap around his body. His aura strengthened even further.
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The doppelgangers spawned from his body no longer went down with a single hit. On top of that, they seemed a little different. It was as if each one was unique or had their own types of transformations. Garnet had to rely on multiple doppelgangers to take down each one.
“This is the true might of a high level Guide!” Arthur exclaimed. “This is the might that you have to be able to resist!”
Garnet punched as hard and as fast as she could while trying to summon more doppelgangers. But, her concentration was waning. It was difficult to concentrate on the fight while trying to command doppelgangers to attack as well. Somehow, Arthur was able to do it with his doppelgangers though.
Arthur’s doppelgangers were much more coordinated than Yarik’s clones. The Guides that relied on clones only thought similarly, but it felt like Arthur’s doppelgangers were sharing a single hive mind.
Level Up: Doppelganger (Level 2)
Your doppelgangers now possess 10% of your maximum HP and no longer go down in one hit. Each of them can also transform up to one of your transformations.
Suddenly, the three doppelgangers that appeared before Garnet took after her existing transformations: Nine Tailed Fox, Fairy, and Queen of the Night. They were once again superior to Arthur’s doppelgangers.
The clash of their doppelgangers had drawn the attention of everyone else around them. Han Dou Gu and the others could only watch from a distance as their immense power seemed to shake the very ground they stood on.
Yet, Arthur was the one who was struggling. The high level Guide who was so confident of his abilities was falling behind now as Garnet’s abilities seemed to improve more and more the longer the fight went on.
Arthur gathered the doppelgangers into his hand, concentrating them into a black ball of pure energy in the palm of his hand. “Ha!” he shouted as he released it. An enormous beam of pitch black energy vaporized Garnet’s doppelgangers.
“Water Wall!” An enormous wave of water appeared between Garnet and Arthur. The wall of water was being evaporated by the black beam, but the black beam was also shrinking in size as the water absorbed the full impact of the blast.
“Ugh…” Arthur groaned as he fell to his knees. The armor around his body shattered into black mist as he returned to his original form. “It looks like you were tougher than I thought. Once again, I underestimated a Hero.”
“You did fine,” said Garnet. “That was a lot more than I expected.”
“Your ability to endure in a fight is incredible,” said Arthur. “Far greater than any Hero I have encountered. You just might be able to survive the Trial of the Forbidden City.”
“What Trial?” Garnet asked.
“Unlike Constantinople, the Forbidden City will not submit to the Hero so easily,” Arthur explained. “You will have to prove yourself to the Five Elemental Guardians there.”
That would have to wait though. The Golden Dragon needed to be taken care of first.