Orion closed the distance between him and his shadowy clone instantly.

While the other seemed to observe his movements, it remained still, waiting for the moment to strike back.

Now in range, Orion threw a punch toward the demonic Orion, in hope of striking it down rapidly.

'How's that?'

The clone barely moved. Instead, it let the punch meet its cheek without being fazed by it.

"I can't use the Arm Overdrive, I should have kn-"

*BAM*

While Orion rapidly removed his hand from the clone's face, and tried to put some distance between them, the tail came crashing on his side, sending him flying in the distance.

His body rolled a few times in the grass, before he stopped by slamming his hands on the ground. After ripping the grass out of the dirt in a long trail, he glared at his clone, who glanced at him from the same position.

A white glow disappeared from his side, where he suffered from the impact.

'That's a level of strength similar to Elliott. Just one strike made me realize how lacking I am without my usual powers. What am I supposed to do without them?'

He tried to think about a way to deal with the demonic clone, but the enemy let him no time to do so.

It vanished from his spot after flapping its big wings, and leaped toward Orion.

"Sh-"

The clone grabbed Orion's head with one hand, spun around twice, before throwing him in the distance.

While Orion was trying to stabilize himself in the air, the clone pointed at him.

With no time to adjust to the rapid succession of attacks, he was barely understanding what was happening. From the tip of the clone's finger, a dark orb appeared.

Orion's feet touched the ground and slid for a moment, before the clone flicked the orb.

It began to writhe, bubble, and swell, until it exploded into a large beam of dark matter, directly aimed at Orion.

'Do I jump away?! Or...'

With no time to think, Orion followed his instincts and jumped on the side to roll out of the way. Though, his reaction time ended up being a little too late.

"Aaa-"

He rolled on the ground, grabbing his right leg. When he looked at it, everything past his knee had been disintegrated.

"Damn it! Damn it!"

The pain was just as bad as when he broke his bones in the past, but an injury like that would take at least a minute to heal.

What was on his mind, although, was the clone. In such a bad situation, he was an easy target.

'Huh?'

Confused, Orion noticed the clone simply observing him, with no intent to pursue him.

'What is happening? Why isn't it finishing me?'

His leg began to reform from nothing. Light magic traced the outline of his missing leg, before forming the bones, muscles, veins, and nerves from within. The only thing he couldn't recreate was his blood, but his heart was already working plenty toward pumping enough to sustain his body.

After a minute of intense staring, Orion's leg completely healed, as if the previous attack never happened.

But the moment the white magic stopped, the clone returned on the offensive.

"What do you want from me?!"

Orion barely dodged the grabbing hand closing on his face, and slid away. He took this opportunity to strike back at his clone by tackling its side.

"I've caught you, no-"

An elbow slammed on his nape, making him lose consciousness for a split second, before the tail slammed him upward on his ribs.

His body went flying a few meters above the ground, before crashing down in a cloud of dust.

"Cough!"

Blood dripped from his mouth, as he had trouble breathing due to his broken ribs. Once again, the clone stopped from attacking and simply watched.

Once again, Orion healed his broken body while glaring at his demonic self.

'It's... toying with me.'

Having trouble to focus on his thoughts thanks to being hit on the nape, he kept his thinking to a bare minimum for now.

His body healed again, before the clone appeared in front of Orion, using its speed to mimic the warping ability Orion used in the past.

It threw a punch that he somehow managed to dodge.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Orion tried his best to avoid the punches thrown at him. They were incredibly fast, so fast his eyes could barely follow them. They grazed his face, his shoulders, and his neck.

He knew that just one would be enough to break his jaw with a single strike.

"!"

Suddenly, the clone attacked with the back of its hand in a large motion, expected to hit Orion's cheek.

Seeing the telegraphed motion, he crouched. The hand grazed the top of his head, removing some strands of hair in the process.

Yet, it wasn't the end. Orion blinked and looked forward in hope of taking this moment to turn the table on the clone, but what he saw destroyed that hope.

The clone was already in a motion to kick him. Its foot touched Orion's chest, and pushed down.

It slammed Orion into the ground, creating a large pressure that cracked the ground into a spider-web pattern.

"Ka-ha!"

All the air in Orion's lungs were forced outside, before he coughed a large quantity of blood out of his mouth.

"W...hat...in...the..."

He couldn't understand why this thing was so strong. His eyes trembled, unable to focus on the figure trampling him. Still, he forced his eyes to focus.

That's when he really understood. He was fighting himself.

Not a simple clone, but a perfect copy of himself, with more power than him. Everything he used against it would be rendered useless, as it used the same tactics, baiting him to act in certain ways.

"Ha...haha... Cough..."

Orion began to heal once again. The clone flapped its wings, and distanced himself from him in a split second.

"How am I... supposed to fight a stronger version of myself... when I'm this weak?"

He sat on the ground while holding his chest.

"This isn't even a fight. I cannot find a single opportunity to land a strike against it."

While fumbling a little, Orion stood up. He wasn't completely healed yet, which meant the other Orion would simply watch until the moment he was done.

Its piercing gray eyes kept looking at him, like a mindless beast, watching his every move.

Even if it was a perfect clone of him with instincts as good as the real one, Orion noticed that it had no intellect.

'I could use it... or not. I don't have the capacities to use it against its instincts.'

'It's also using its tail as a weapon. I'm lacking that.'

He opened his free hand, and tried to invoke Alcyone, in vain. Light magic refused to gather to form his trusty crossbow.

"As expected..."

With a sad smile, he closed his hand. He then frowned, and looked at his opponent.

'Maybe I relied too much on Alcyone until now. No, not only on it. I relied too much on my given power.'

'I was proud of my strength and stamina, but when it came to it, I truly was a fool.'

"Haaaaa~"

Orion breathed out a long cloud of heated air. His body had healed, which meant the next battle was about to begin.

"Karteira, I will borrow your fighting style for a moment."

He closed his eyes, and recalled everything he experienced from training with her. Her stance, her moves, her strikes, everything that was unrelated to her scorpion tail.

When he opened them, he clenched his fists, dragged one foot behind him, and glared at the clone.

"Come."

His words weren't repeated twice. The clone leaped at Orion, stopped in front of him, and punched at his face with everything it had.

"Kh!"

With one arm, Orion blocked the hit. Without Karteira's plates to transfer the shock, his arm broke. Still, he endured the hit, and barely flinched. He immediately healed his broken arm, while throwing the free one toward the clone's chest in an uppercut.

The tail slammed on the ground, before being directed at the punch to stop it.

Expecting something like this, Orion stopped his strike, took a step back, and chose to crouch. The tail moved past where he was standing, confirming that the tail was also meant to strike his chest.

The next step was to avoid getting crushed by the clone's stomp. Orion noticed its right foot being lifted off the ground, and took his chance.

'Now!'

He swiped his leg in a circular motion, trying to take its balance away. The clone flapped its wings, before it disappeared from its spot, leaving Orion to swipe the air.

"Where- Gah!"

When he searched for it, it had moved behind him. The moment Orion turned around, it grabbed his throat, lifting him in the air, where his feet dangled above the ground.

"Release...me!"

The two stared at each other for a minute, before the clone clenched its free hand. It was ready to punch Orion straight in his face, without holding back.

'This is going to kill me. I'm sure of it.'

'What unfair challenge. It's impossible to win in these conditions. If it was mirroring myself as I was now, I could probably win.'

Orion clenched his fists with frustration. He was having difficult to breathe, and had lost hope in fighting back.

'This feels the same as when I saw Elliott. I am powerless...'

"..."

The clone glared at Orion. It seemed incredibly dissatisfied.

'What do you want from me? To strike back? Only to be beaten again?'

He smiled.

"So...rry. I'm not into... masochistic... tendencies."

It closed its eyes, and dropped its head. Its face turned sideways, before it opened its eyes.

'Those eyes... I don't understand.'

Feeling that there was more to it than the eyes met, Orion began to think rapidly.

'This copy of myself isn't trying to kill me. It either wants to tell me something, or teach me something?'

'...'

Orion looked lifted his hands, and placed them on the clone's arm holding his throat. On one hand, he had a white star.

And on the other, he had black star.

"!"

He gritted his teeth in anger.

'Am I stupid?!'

With shame, Orion opened his mouth.

"Grant me your power!"

At first, nothing happened.

Until his fist began to glow a black hue. It expanded to his body, covering it from head to toe.

The clone removed his grip, before Orion fell to the ground. It took a few steps back with a smile on its face.

"I am a fool. I have been undertaking a trial to awaken my demon blood, yet, I've relied entirely on my angel blood so far."

"Light doesn't mix well with darkness, still, I have both in me. Forgetting one is an insult to my origins."

Covered in dark flames, Orion's voice escaped from this fascinating sight.

"You are me, and I am you. What you can do, I can also do."

"Conquer your fears. Conquer yourself."

With his determination set, the flames dissipated.

"Because it is the path I will follow!"

A large pillar of darkness rose from the ground, into the sky.

Half of the sky recovered its blue color, while the other half remained red. Everything behind Orion recovered its normal color, with the grass turning green again. Only what was behind the clone remained red and covered in darkness.

When the darkness subsided, Orion appeared from its center. Ink black draconic wings sprouted from his back. Horns exuding a sense of overwhelming power, and a dragon tail that could snap a tree in half just by slamming it against its trunk.

His reptilian eyes were the same as his mother, except they were gray.

"You, and me. One last time."

Orion pointed his left fist toward his clone, before it got covered in a dark flame.

"..."

The clone took the same stance, and prepared its attack.

They leaped at toward each other. Crossing each other, they exchanged positions, before turning once again.

Encountering one last time at the center of the plane, where colors conflicted against one another, Orion and his clone exchanged a flurry of devastating blows that ripped the air and destroyed the ground.

Their tails countered each other's, and their fists crashed against the other.

Orion countered one of the fists of his clone by using Karteira's fighting style without hindering his own style, and redirected it above his shoulder. He clenched his left hand, covered in a dark flame, and threw an uppercut straight into his clone's chest.

His fist met its target, creating a blast of pressurized air that traveled a long-distance behind the clone's back, ripping the grass from its roots.

As the clone fell to the ground and began to disintegrate into dark particles, Orion stared at the sky.

"..."

"Thank you."

The plane began to shatter, as Orion successfully won against himself, and learned an important lesson.