The bisected corpse of Kash sizzled with remaining lightning energy, the Red Dragon having already dissipated.
The body started vibrating at a quicker and quicker rate until it dissipated into pure electricity, seeping through the ground
“Clever,” said Knife Guy.
Electricity coursed through the graphite ground, electrocuting Knife Guy, who nearly dropped his namesake weapon. A form made from pure electricity phased through the carbon plain, bursting through into the air. It coalesced into a human appearance.
“You didn’t think I would go down that easily, did you?” asked Kash.
“Actually, I did,” remarked Knife Guy. “You’re not very strong.”
He once again bisected Kash with a single stroke of the knife.
This time, Kash didn’t bother disguising what he was about to do. The body instantly dissipated into electricity and went back into the ground.
Kash had transmuted his entire being into pure lightning. Not only were his speed and strength heightened, his mind, which ran off of electricity, was much faster. His gambit with the lightning clones had paid off, proving two useful pieces of information.
One, that every time Knife Guy teleported to someone’s location following that person’s declaration that they were alone, he grew stronger. And two, Knife Guy’s slashes were enhanced even if he was attacking a different lightning clone than the one that had declared his solitude.
After Kash’s second declaration of him being alone, he realized what the trigger for Knife Guy’s teleportation was. On impulse, he divested 2% of his Hibiscan energy into keeping a lightning clone on the surface, while the rest of his body transformed into a pure lightning state and hid in the layers of graphite. However, he only had a 50% retrieval rate of Hibiscan energy from dead lightning clones. Thus, making two of them cost 4% and he only got back 2%. Kash was down to 98% of his normal Hibiscan energy. It was well worth it, in his opinion, because he learned Knife Guy’s tricks at almost no cost to himself.
He burst from the graphite, the dual light from his pure lightning form and the Red Dragon suddenly illuminating the carbon plain. Each of the lightning clones was just a different body that was each controlled by him, so he could choose to send the Red Dragon to any one of them.
As he left the ground, he split into six copies. He fired a Red Dragon enhanced extra-speed lightning bolt at Knife Guy, then transferred the Red Dragon to every single one of the other clones in succession and had them fire their own bolts. Knife Guy chose to block the discharges by wrapping the meat worm around him, each strike hitting within a second of the others.
It shrieked in agony and molted six layers onto the floor. It was barely smaller than before, just enough to be noticeable. It looked like wearing it down would be a viable plan.
“That’s enough,” declared Knife Guy, and cast off the meat worm. “Meat worm, grow!”
Kash couldn’t see anything, instead only hearing a grotesque sound that could only be the ripping and tearing of flesh. He merged back into one form and threw a bolt of lightning at the meat worm to get a sense of how large it had become. The bolt missed. Frustrated, he lobbed dozens of bolts charged with the Red Dragon’s speed in every direction.
The meat worm whipped its head against Kash, sending him flying. When had it snuck up behind him? Kash quickly got a hold of his momentum, slowing down. He started charging up ball lightning. He wouldn’t create a defensive lightning sphere, instead waiting for the meat worm to come for him.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
It whistled through the air and smacked him, but Kash was ready this time, and hit it with a partially-charged ball lightning strengthened by the Red Dragon.
The meat worm was catapulted away, shedding layers as it went.
“Let’s finish this,” said Kash.
“Dimension Expulsion: Shifting Interlocking Hyper-sphere of Lightning.”
Kash and Knife Guy were encased in a churning bubble of lightning. Kash immediately hit Knife Guy with a barrage of thousands of bolts, each one charged with the Red Dragon’s strength. Knife Guy tried in vain to dodge, but the effect of Kash’s Dimension Expulsion was that all lightning attacks would hit instantly.
Seeing it wasn’t working, Knife Guy swung the knife out and rotated in place, cutting the entire domain in half. The remnants of the coursing lightning didn’t just fizzle out, though. Instead, Kash directed it at Knife Guy, who, surrounded by it on all sides, could only dodge a scant few of the bolts.
Astonishing! Knife Guy could completely neutralize Kash’s Dimension Expulsion merely by cutting it. How was that knife so powerful?
“Yeah, I’m stronger than you thought,” mocked Knife Guy. “Your Dimension Expulsion was a failure.”
In Kash’s opinion, it was a success. Kash had done a ton of damage to Knife Guy, as evidenced by his entire body being completely charred and scorched by the lightning. Knife Guy was barely standing, even nearly falling to the floor a few times now.
“You are hopelessly outmatched, and you don’t even know why,” he continued.
Kash, not bothering to respond, threw several more bolts of lightning, but Knife Guy didn’t bother dodging and merely tanked the hits while swinging the knife. Kash also chose not to move out of the way, instead fortifying his lightning transmuted Hibiscan energy. The knife could sever the entire body of a 2% Hibiscan energy duplicate, but did almost nothing to a 98% Hibiscan energy Kash.
Knife Guy wavered, almost collapsing. He barely even had the strength to lift his knife now.
“How pitiful,” he muttered.
The most feared assassin of the Umbra Crimers. The killer so deadly they still told tales of when he killed the entire leadership of the Kambili Sect a hundred years ago for reasons yet unknown. Few people dared to call him by his real name out of superstition that he might appear. Amusingly, Kash now knew that that rumor was somewhat based in truth.
And look at how weak he was. A smoldering near-corpse whose strongest strikes barely even cut Kash. He was filled with rage that this opponent thought he was good enough to fight him.
“Your life is nothing!” Kash declared, lightning striking the ground behind him.
“You serve ZERO purpose!”
“You should kill yourself NOW!” he finished.
Knife Guy’s body tumbled down, the knife falling to the ground.
Portal after portal opened up, identical copies of Knife Guy stepping through. In total, there must have been at least three or four dozen.
The knife spun up off the graphite sheets and floated in the air. For the first time, Kash saw that it had a mouth.
“You see, Kash, I’m not a guy with a knife. I’m not even a knife with a guy. I’m a knife with many guys.”
Kash, reflexively, tried to open a portal of his own. It sputtered out and died. The Umbra Crimers must have set up anti-portal wards before the fight.
Kash kept a calm expression while counting the Knife Guys. Or, should he say, the Knife Clones. The knife itself was the real Knife Guy. There were 53 of them, and from what Hibiscan emanations he could sense, their power was either Jaja or Eugene rank.
He forced himself to look at them, truly look at them. Whenever he looked at the first Knife Clone, his gaze slid off and he didn’t notice anything, mentally registering it as being a normal looking guy who happened to have a knife. It must have been some sort of effect placed upon them.
Kash stared at the 53 horrors in front of him, and then glanced back down at the first Knife Clone. They all had bodies composed of serrated metal, hundreds of knives sticking out at odd angles. Their facial features were merely lines carved into the metal, fake eyes, noses, and mouths.
Kash had no easy solution to this problem. If he stayed in one body, he would get overwhelmed by the tide of duplicate Knife Clones. On the other hand, if he split into many clones, they would each be weak enough to the point where Knife Guy could slash them from afar and do real damage. Kash was torn with indecision.
Every Knife Clone grinned in unison.
“Don’t be cowardly. Let’s fight.” said Knife Guy.