Mimic at Midnight
The black clad humanoid stood stock still, never moving an inch ever since its first appearance. Those jade white, almost glowing eyes of his stared fixedly, seemingly out into space. It gave off a feeling of absentmindedness, a complacent creature who knew not what occurred around him.
In contrast to this type of carefree disposition, the atmosphere it gave off was the complete opposite. An oppressive feeling that was capable of drowning a person with ease. The shadows around the room seemingly danced and rattled with his will, contrasting the Mimic’s own statue-esque appearance.
It’s level wasn’t high, nor did it look aesthetically threatening, yet the danger level, that feeling of odd incongruity was the highest I’ve ever felt in my life. It wasn’t fear, more like an odd dissonance that I felt whenever I looked at it.
No matter how I viewed it, this thing… it looked too much like me.
The other two besides me also noticed this odd resemblance, but they were far too busy to delve deeply into the matter. Unlike me, they felt genuine fear. A fear that resounded and shook their very core with a heavy sense of dread.
Their eyes were widened like saucers, while a faint trembling could be seen in each of their shoulders. From the ghastly pale expressions they donned, it felt as if they would up and run away at any moment now. The only thing rooting them in place was the same heavy feeling that caused their fear in the first place.
They dared not utter a single word, as a deathly quiet silence permeated within the Cafeteria.
I don’t know how much time passed. It felt both eternally long, yet infinitely short at the same time. In that brief passage of time, the Elite Shadow monster had not moved a single inch, yet the heavy feeling only increased. I don’t know since when, but my hand had already curled up around my dagger, poised, ready, glinting with faint moonlight and the intention to kill.
Despite the time, that could have no more been a minute, that had passed, it felt as if the current situation had and would persist for all eternity. As if nothing else ever and will exist, it was as if my past, present, and future all compromised of this oppressive, eternal silence.
A silence so heavy, so profound, that I-
Tchi!
In an instantaneous moment, that quite, oppressive tranquility shattered. The Mimic suddenly bolted forward, its foot heavily pushing down at the still wet floor beneath it. Its body zoomed closer, almost whistling through the stagnant air.
My hands moved before my mind could even formulate a thought. The dagger in my hand traced through the night light, right before it hit empty air.
The Mimic had moved too fast. I was too late. I had missed.
It continued to close the gap between us. In a span of two breathes, it had already drawn near enough that, had it been a normal human, its breath would have certainly irked against my skin.
The Mimic was running forward, directly in the open space between the President’s group of two and me.
The slack grasp I had on my rope instantly tightened. I yanked at the less than half inch thick string with a force that could rip apart metal. The attached dagger, the very same one that I had thrown previously, instantly back tracked, as it followed the rope and whizzed towards the back of the Mimic.
At the same time, the Mimic’s forward momentum instantly shifted. Its neck slightly tilted to the right, and after making an almost 90 degree turn, bolted towards the President’s group. In that same instant, its speed exponentially increased, and its body surged forth with greater momentum and velocity.
The sight of it running brought an odd sense of familiarity to me. Its movements were grossly identical to my own. In fact, it felt as if… as if…
… He was using my own skill, [Rushing Dash], to close that insignificant gap.
In no time, the Mimic was upon them. It rushed towards the Library girl. The Library girl’s eyes widened like inflated balloons, as she could only stare agape at the approaching calamity, a mixture of fear and shock swirling around her head. Much less react, she could not even utter a scream of protest.
From less than a meter away, the Mimic’s arm shot straight out, and at the tip of his outstretched hand, a black dagger, clad and molded by the very shadows around it, materialized. He gripped the new weapon and thrusted forward with almost frightening accuracy, and equally as frightening intention.
At the same time, my wrists slightly shook, and the dagger I controlled instantly shifted directions. The blade arced wide in the air and moved towards the mimic’s exposed back, its bladed edge traveling at a speed that far exceeded current human capability. Like the crack of a whip, I brought the glinting metal down upon it.
In a singular moment, my dagger pierced the Mimic’s shoulder blade. Driven by momentum, the dagger lodged itself deep into the Mimic’s upper body. Also at the same time, the Mimic’s own dagger had pierced the Library Girl’s body. Whether through a stroke of sheer luck, or last minute impulse, the girl’s body slightly shifted to the side, and the Mimic’s obsidian dagger pierced her shoulder, instead of her heart, where it was originally aimed at.
The girl let out a pain filled cry, while fresh hot tears collected near the corners of her eyes. At the same time, before the Mimic could do anything further, I yanked backwards, the dagger that had entered its back at an odd angle complied as it moved towards me. The mimic’s body was dragged a good 10 feet away from its original spot before the dagger harmlessly exited its newly created wound.
I threw a sidelong glance over to the newly injured girl. Her face was a contortion of pain, and her breath was ragged and hot. She grasped desperately at her wound, the blood had long seeped her uniform a scarlet red.
“Keep pressure on it, but don’t be so absentminded next time.” I instructed with a voice as low as a whisper. “The battle’s just getting started.”
I caught the retracting blade with my open palm just as the Mimic staggered to maintain its footing.
Once it did, it turned its neck slightly to glimpse at the wound on its back. Its blank, structureless face showed no reaction whatsoever to the injury that had not a single drop of blood. The Mimic then craned its neck once more, this time towards my direction.
It stared, unblinking for an excruciatingly short amount of time. Afterwards, the dagger it held dematerialized from the blade down, only to materialize another weapon not a second later.
This time, the weapon in its hand was irritatingly similar to my own. Another black, obsidian dagger which was connected on one end to a less than half inch thick night black rope.
Without so much as a warning, the Mimic began leisurely spinning the rope in its hands, the bladed edge of the dagger whistling through the air along the way. It began a rather casual march forward, its eyes once more, conveying that same sense of heavy dread.
After spinning its weapon a few more times, it suddenly reared its head to glare at the duo besides me. Once again, it attacked, this time, controlling the rope-dagger to fly directly for the girl. The dagger was aimed precisely at her throat.
“It’s very stubborn….” I muttered low under my breath, just as I retaliated.
My hands flickered slightly, before my own dagger flew. I did not aim to obstruct the blade, mostly since it was moving a bit too fast even for me. Instead, my blade flew and directly severed the taut string that connected the dagger.
The dagger, having lost its guide, flew past the Library girl’s neck. Despite everything, the blade still held enormous power, the wind pressure alone was enough to make the girl jump back in fright.
Having lost its weapon, I used this opportunity to quickly close the gap between the Mimic and I.
As I ran, my dagger was a blur. It flew ahead of me and directly towards the Monster. The blade struck out at the monster repeatedly, almost like a whip, before it came crashing down with a metallic jitter. The tip left numerous lacerations on its black clad body.
Despite that though, I could feel that, even with all the weight of my blows, my attacks were ultimately ineffective. It felt as if I was striking forged iron. As if a massively constructed fortress was erected over the Mimic’s skin.
And my hypothesis wasn’t that far off either, I intuitively felt that this Mimic, this look-alike was currently using my very own [Hard-Scale] skill!
It received each of my attacks with the same look of callous disregard it had originally maintained. Each of my blows left behind a small indentation on its skin, and it wasn’t as if I did no damage, after all, I could see its HP slowly dwindle down with each successive strike, but the rate at which it decreased, and the total damage it received was far too low.
After numerous strikes, the Mimic finally moved. Its body swerved to the right, then to the left. its head bobbed ever so slightly, while its chest and upper body moved with the wind. It began dodging my dagger with minimal margin of error. What made this worse was that its movements were almost near identical to my own. A rough, unhoned movement. Sometimes it would move excessively to one side, while other times its arm or leg would stick out unconsciously.
Its moves were rough yet unfeathered. Each habit I had unconsciously formed throughout this month was plainly apparent in the Mimic’s actions. It was using a complete carbon copy of my self developed movement skills, complete with my own quirks and habits.
After dodging numerous strikes successively, it suddenly rushed forward. Going by its speed, I could tell that it had activated [Rushing Dash]. Its nightblack figure grew larger and larger as it neared. I forcibly rotated my upper body to the right, briefly brushing past the monster with only a fraction of an inch of breathing room.
Unfortunately, the Mimic’s forward assault came to an abrupt stop just as it brushed past me. Stopping [Rushing Dash] half way into the skill was something I had painstakingly learned throughout all this time… seeing it being mimicked so casually… well, it felt a bit unfair.
The Mimic’s body turned to face me. The rotation of its hips followed through to its right fist, just as that same fist struck out directly towards my upper abdomen.
“Guh-”
The impact was heavy and felt as if a ten ton sledgehammer had embedded itself deep into my chest. I could feel, from the unnatural sturdiness of its fists, that it had used [Hard Scale] to increase its damage potential.
My body flew a good 5 feet back, barely managing to maintain my balance as I came to a sliding stop on the still wet floor beneath. That blow just now… even though it was supposedly a copy of me (even down to its level), I undoubtedly felt that the power it displayed was without a doubt much stronger than my own.
This was the effect of the 50% stat increase. This was the strength of a me who was 1.5 times stronger than me. Thankfully though, given my inherit stat buffs from all the various assortment of equipment I currently donned, this difference was negated. Rather, I felt as if, with the right weapon, my strength still exceeded the mimic’s.
Of course, this realization brought me some sense of comfort, but I was quickly forced to swallow down that feeling just as I saw the Mimic move. Once again activating [Rushing Dash], it flew threw the room… directly heading once again for the President’s group of two.
After two failed attempts, the Library girl and the teacher weren’t as unprepared as before. They gripped their weapons, ready to receive the incoming assault, but they did not dare to attack themselves. Rather, they couldn’t. The oppressive feeling the mimic let out was far stronger now than before, especially now that it was actively attacking.
I also used [Rushing Dash] and chased after the Mimic, but as expected, given its head start, I had no chance of catching up. The Mimic quickly closed the gap between it and the others in the span of two breaths. Its leg flew out towards the teacher’s stomach, using the poor man’s body both as a backboard to stop its dash, as well as an outlet for its aggression.
With the combined momentum of [Rushing Dash] in effect, the teacher’s body limply flew through the room. His grip on his sword loosened just as his body crashed into the wall behind him. He was a good 15 feet away from his original position.
He hit the far away wall with a resounding thud. His body was half embedded into the wall, while his hand hung limply at his side. The weapon he had used up until now fell helplessly on the floor with a dull and somber clang.
The Mimic then reared its attention to the other person. The girl bit down on her lip harshly as her body moved forward. Driven by the primal instinct to survive, she took the initiative and attacked. Her weapon slashed into an arc and honed in on the Mimic’s exposed abdomen.
Much less avoid, the Mimic did not move in the face of this assault. It used [Hard Scale] and received the blunt weapon’s imposing strike with a sense of casual disregard.
The girl’s weapon, filled with all of her power and momentum came to an abrupt stop on the Mimic’s abdomen. Its white-jade eyes looked down on her, as if implying “is this all?”
The girl retracted her blade and prepared to strike out again. By this point I had already closed the gap between the Mimic and I, and was fully prepared to strike out, this time with my strength oriented boken. At the same time, the Mimic’s eyes glinted harshly in the dead of the night. In its hands, a pitch black dagger once again materialized, and, while giving off a feeling of well practiced motion, its blade struck out and aimed directly for the girl’s neck.
I stabbed my boken directly at the base of his spine. The Mimic’s body tumbled and slid across the wettened floor. Its blade, the same one that had been filled with killing intent not a moment before, quickly flew out of his hand.
I breathed in a sigh of heavy relief as I glanced briefly at the Library Girl. Her face was deathly pale. Her body could not even shake nor tremble, while her fists could only grip tightly onto her weapon with ice white knuckles, as if her whole arm had gone into rigor mortis and was now incapable of movement.
I could tell instinctively that that strike that the Mimic had planned was another skill. One I was greatly familiar with. My most used and most relied skill. It had planned on directly severing the girl’s neck using my [Dissect].
Realizing this, my face darkened, while I unconsciously grimaced. I came to the conclusion that, this Mimic was definitely too dangerous. At the very least, it was far too dangerous to fight it especially with my current teammates.
With the current power disparity, if they were to fight, it would be like feeding sheep to a hungry wolf. After all, I was stronger than these two. And by extension, the mimic was stronger as well.
If you were to ask me if I could defeat the two from the President’s group by myself, then I would say yes. I could beat them. I could kill them. I could very much do all that with ease. I knew my own strengths and limitations very well after all, thus it was an easy enough conclusion to come to. And since I was far too familiar with this all too well, then the next decision was equally as easy to make.
In this battle, I would have to fight alone.
The other two, in the face of this type of monster would not be much help. Rather, they would more likely end up being hindrances rather than supports. This was already apparent from the previous exchanges that took place.
Coming to this conclusion, the grip on my dagger tightened as I took a trepid step forward.
“Oi, girl,” I called out from behind. “Don’t interfere anymore. Go take that teacher and move far away for a moment.- ”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
I could hear her frantic stammering, but I ignored it.
My bated breath exhaled exaggeratedly as I crouched down and prepared a stance.
“-Otherwise, I won’t be able to guarantee that you won’t die.”
With that, My feet kicked off the ground and I zoomed forward. [Rushing Dash] activated and my speed exponentially increased. My blurring figure chased the Mimic’s still recovering form.
It took a quick glance in my direction before it materialized a Night black longsword. As the gap between us closed, my body once again lunged, increasing my already blistering speed for a fraction of a second. The boken in my hand thrusted out, directly aiming at the Mimic’s exposed head.
The monster responded with a swift swivel of his neck, barely avoiding the life threatening blow by a mere fraction of a centimeter. The Mimic then followed up with a vertical slash upwards with his materialized long sword.
Its 1.5 meter bladed edge whistled through the air. Its direction and aim was squarely focused on my neck.
Grimacing, I forcibly twisted my body in mid air. I held the boken up to receive the incoming hit. Upon impact, the blade slid uselessly against the wooden weapon’s almost elastic surface.
Not giving it time to recover its stance, I then took another step forward the moment my feet hit the ground. The boken that was stanced low besides my left hip instantly blurred as it soared through the night and honed in on the Monster’s exposed side.
As if anticipating this, the Mimic once again maneuvered its body at an almost impossible angle and once again dodged by a hair’s breadth. It leapt backwards in an attempt to widen the gap between us.
Of course, I did not allow it to do such a thing. My body immediately followed. Ironically, I was like the Mimic’s constant shadow, following and pursuing him with every step of its retreat. It never went no more than 2 feet away from me before I was already upon it.
I sent out a flurry of blows in my desperate pursuit. A mixture of heavy strikes with my boken in one hand, as well as sharp, precision stabs with the dagger in the other. In the long time that I’ve been here, I’ve painstakingly practiced using two weapons at the same time. As expected, such a feat was much harder than it looks, but due to my effort, I could now just barely use my Boken and dagger in unison.
I stabbed, sliced, thrusted, and sweeped. Each and every one of my blows interlayered with heavy killing intent.
The Mimic, as if it had the eyes of a god and the reflexes of a drugged up mouse, avoided each and every one of my attacks. Its body, as lithe as a bee and as light as a feather, nimbly dodged and avoided, all at a hair’s breadth of space, no more, and no less. It anticipated every move I took, and knew what I was about to do even before I was prepared to do it.
In shorter words, it had my fighting style ingrained deep into its cerebrum.
After a series of vain attempts, the Mimic finally retaliated.
Shuu-
With the pitch black longsword in one hand, it sweeped towards me, the blade fully aimed at my neck.
I leaned and ducked my body forward, barely avoiding. I could feel the cold shiver of metal pass through my neck, just as I saw a growing dot of darkness approach my crouched face.
Instantly, I threw my body to the side, barely avoiding the incoming knee that the Mimic had attacked with. I rolled once on the still wet floor before I pushed myself off the ground with all four limbs. In the next instant, a long sword came crashing down right where I had previously been.
I regained my footing just in time as the Mimic began its retaliation. It attacked me, all with irritatingly familiar tactics and movement patterns. Of course, I dodged and avoided, much to the same way the Mimic dodged and avoided my earlier attack.
Between the two of us, man and monster, original and copy, we began an exchange of futile attacks. Everyone of our attacks missed, and we dodged each of our opponent’s strikes. It was an even match. With the monster’s 50% stat increase, as well as my equipment bonuses, even our stats were roughly the same.
After a while, I imagined that our fight was entering a stalemate, but I was sourly proven wrong in the next instant.
My latest attack caused the Mimic to jump backwards, landing on a shaded location of the room. The instant that its foot touched shadow, its figure blurred for a moment. In the span of less than a breath, the Mimic had almost instantaneously re-appeared behind me.
“!!!”
I frantically glanced at it from my peripheral vision, just in time to see its long sword enter my exposed flesh. The metallic burning pain was an almost instantaneous sensation.
I repressed a howl of agony that was bubbling in the pit of my stomach, as I frantically leapt away from danger. Luckily, I was able to avoid the worst outcome of having my entire body sliced in half, but the gash it left on my latissimus dorsi was deep, and definitely not superficial.
What’s more, I could tell that that latest strike of his was one that utilized the [Dissect] skill. I confirmed this with the [Laceration] status effect that hovered gloomily in my status panel. In other words, it was a failed [Amputation] attempt.
I took several steps back and increased the distance between the Mimic and I. I shot it a death glare, while my face contorted into a frown.
That attack, no, it was more like a movement skill… It suddenly vanished in the shadows and re-appeared almost instantaneously behind me. That… that was definitely something I was not capable of. This realization, this knowledge that the Mimic had other moves, other capabilities besides the ones it copied from me filled me with a heavy sense of apprehension.
The Mimic once again rushed forward. Unlike its previous attempts, it did not use [Rushing Dash], rather, it ran at its maximum speed and after a span of 4 breaths, closed the distance between us.
The long sword in its hands thrusted outward towards me. The attack was more of a probing one, rather than one that aimed to kill. I avoided the hit with a leap to the side, although, much to my chagrin, the moment I moved, the burning sensation on my side spiked up.
With a grimace, I counterattacked and thrusted outwards with my boken. The Mimic stepped backwards, and its foot touched shadow once more.
Once again, its body momentarily flickered before it completely vanished before my eyes. My mind instantly alerted me of the danger. I did not know where it would reappear, but I did know that my current position was its target.
With a grunt, I threw my body to the side. At the same time, the Mimic appeared above my previous location. Using its weight as an added factor, its long sword blurred downward, only to chip at the tiled floor beneath it.
I wiped a cold sweat away from my strained eyes, as I saw the Mimic regain its posture and turned towards me. Even before it attacked my body was moving. I continually leapt backwards, the Mimic, as expected followed suit. In no time, I was once again back at the center of the cafeteria. The main reason for this was because this spot was where the moon leaked into the windows and lit up the room the brightest.
In other words, the center of the room was the spot with the least amount of shadows.
As I avoided another attack, I felt my throat ache with cold exhaustion. My limbs and body were gradually growing heavier. My stamina was depleting. I did not know for how long my fight had taken place, but what I was most certain of was that I would not last any longer.
What made this situation even worse was that, in comparison, the Mimic had plenty of stamina to spare. As expected, in this sort of situation, the 50% stat boosts shined the brightest not with regular stats, but gauging stats like stamina, and hp.
If I had any stamina potions to spare, then this match may have turned my way, but as of right now, that was sourly not the case.
Sensing my weakness, the Mimic’s actions suddenly intensified. It began using every one of its skills without reserve. I was left to frantically dodge and avoid. Unfortunately, my draining stamina affected my movement, and I could do nothing but take a few of the more difficult attacks.
In a mere 30 seconds, my body became riddled in superficial wounds, but my hp had decreased by a full 20%. What’s more, that huge [Laceration] injury on my side was slowly draining and crippling me.
My mind was strained, and my body even more so.
I saw, with wide, clear, albeit tired eyes, the edge of the Mimic’s longsword growing larger and larger as it approached. In that instant, for that split moment, a deep tremor welled up in my heart.
I did not want to die. I did not want to die. It was natural, but I did not want to die. I wanted to live, to survive, to defeat and kill this copy cat who had put me in this type of shitty, desperate situation.
To survive, to live, I was prepared to do anything for this base primal instinct.
My body did not move. Unlike the previous game of cat and mouse, I did not follow with the usual routine, instead, my body stayed stationary, no, rather than unmoving, it was more like I invited the oncoming attack.
I did not back up, but rather, I moved forward, directly into the tip of the sword.
With a wet squelching sound, followed with an indescribable burning sensation, the long sword penetrated my right shoulder. The moment it did so, for the first time, the Mimic’s movements hiccuped as it momentarily paused.
It had fully expected its attack to miss. Like usual, it expected it, yet I denied those expectations.
With the sword piercing my shoulder, the normal reaction would be to step back and remove the blade. I did not do that. Instead, with a heavy step, I moved forward. The pitch black blade sunk deeper into my shoulder. The tip of the sword protruded out of my back as I continued to walk forward.
Once again, the Mimic was confused. As a being whose mind was almost completely identical to my own in terms of battle, such a suicidal action was out of its expectations. After all, normally, I would not do such a thing.
Yet right now, the reality was that a blade was pierced in my shoulder and I completely accepted it.
I did not shut off my pain using [Sensory Remapping], instead, I merely forced it down, taking another step forward. When I had gotten as close as possible with the still shocked Mimic, the hand that wielded the boken loosened and dropped the wooden weapon. Instead, it blurred and in the next instant, that hand gripped tightly at the Mimic’s shoulder.
Like a clamp, I held the Monster in place.
A flash of realization gleamed in the Mimic’s eyes, but by this point it was already too late. My remaining hand, the one that held my dagger, [Efhermet] flashed, and struck out at the Mimic’s neck. I could feel the resistance from [Hard Scale], but my attack did not stop there.
I reared my hand back once more, and slashed. A slash interlayered with [Dissect], it produced a heavy metallic scraping sound as the edge of my dagger impacted the [Hard Scale] clad skin on its neck.
This carbon copy was something completely identical to me. It had my skills, my levels, my stats, even a shadow of my appearance.
SHI!
Another strike. I felt its neck give way as a slight, bloodless indentation appeared on its neck.
This monster was identical to me, yet at the same time it was not me. It had a major flaw.
SHI!
The indentation grew deeper. My hand continued to move, as if I were cutting down a tree trunk with an axe.
SHI!
As I fought with this monster, I learned a crucial flaw in its design; it did not feel emotion. It was so close to identical, but at the same time, so far away. It knew my every move, yet at the same time, never knew my intentions.
SHI!
Because of this flaw, it could not predict this unexpected result.
SHI!
It raised its arm up to guard its neck. This was fruitless. Now, I simply needed to [Dissect] its arm along with its neck.
SHI!
A series of actions that diverted from the norm.
SHI!
Its arm fell off.
SHI!
It could not react to this. It could not react to something driven by the primal emotion that welled up in my soul.
SHI!
The instinct to survive.
SHI!
This was something that this creature did not have.
SHI!
Thus-
SHI!
-It died.
The Mimic’s head toppled to the floor. My grip on the creature’s shoulder finally loosened, and not a moment sooner, its body also flopped down besides its severed head.
The aching of my body intensified. In that short span it took to kill the monster, I had received numerous new wounds. As expected, from such a proximity, it was simply impossible to expect the Mimic to simply stay put and not retaliate.
By the end of it all, my hp was down to 10%.
It was a close match, but in the end, I won.
My victory though, rather than through sheer luck or guts, was much more calculated than it seemed.
While I held the Mimic down, I attacked the same spot repeatedly. In contrast, the Mimic's attacks were much more erratic. While I solely focused on striking its neck, building up critical hit after critical hit, the Mimic was simply desperate, attacking whatever body part came into his view.
Of course, despite that, during the last few moments of the fight, it had been close. Dangerously so. With both of us using [Hard Scale], it had turned into a sort of war of attrition. A war that I overcame.
My legs wobbled, just as my knees gave out. I fell to the floor, almost at the same time the monster’s body began disintegrating. Along with it, the sword embedded in my shoulder also slowly unraveled.
Achievement: You have slain an elite monster.
The elite monster: [Shadow Mimic] was a species leader. For defeating a species leader, Shadow Lurkers will no longer spawn within the dungeon.
Reward(s):
+2000 exp
+25 unallocated points
With the sudden appearance of the pop up window, the last vestiges of the Mimic’s body completely disintegrated, and I let out a long bated sigh of relief. Doing so, I could feel a pool of blood beginning to congregate in my mouth.
I spat the blood out, and took another breath of stale air. I tilted my head slightly to look at the previous spot where the mimic had died.
In that empty, dry stained floor were one… two distinct skill books.
*****
Author's Note: After along time, we are approaching the end of the "School Arc". At first, this was meant to be "BOOK 1", but along the way, it became an "Arc" due to its size. Well, just a bit more guys.
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