Andie took a deep breath. It had been a little over a minute since her mirror image had attacked her out of the blue, and so far the fight was going well. Too well. Suspiciously well. She found her gaze being drawn to a splotch of shadowy goo on her sword - the same kind that oozed out of Nightmares and seeped into the cracks of broken mindscapes. The stuff had been leaking out of imitation Andie whenever she should have bled, and it unsettled Andie. “You… don’t go down easy, huh?”
Imitation Andie casually picked up her own severed arm and reattached it. This was neither the first nor the worst injury she’d walked off during her fight with true Andie. “No, you just have a screwed up sense of how hard it is to kill a semi-physical representation of thoughts, emotions, and other abstract constructs.”
“Well, yeah. Of course it’s hard. You can’t normally stab clinical depression in the face, that’s why we don’t have battle psychiatrists.” Andie slashed off her evil twin’s arm again, so she couldn’t pick up her sword. Again, the fight was going ominously well. Dark Andie was slower, less alert, and all around physically weaker. Even the previously intimidating slashy sword beam power she had used to beat the Drugmare turned out to be less useful than normal Andie’s road-of-fire power. Its course was easy enough to predict that Andie could dodge it before imitation Andie had finished shooting it, and normal Andie was fast enough that she could usually reach her evil twin before the power even finished activating. In comparison, the extra mobility granted by a magic road made of flames was invaluable. “But I can stab clinical depression, I can stab it right in its horrible, ugly face. So it’s easy for me.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“No, no it is not. It is easy for you to kill Nightmares. Because you do not damage them, but purify them. If you tried to harm them with anything other than your Courage… the wound would hardly last a second.” Imitation Andie smirked. “See, that is the first of your weaknesses. You rely on your powers as a dreamwalker so much that you’re helpless when your enemy is immune to said powers.” Her smirk spread out into a horrible grin, lined with pointed, shark like teeth. “And, of course, dreamwalkers such as ourselves are immune to any direct mental attacks.”
“So, magic mind powers don’t work on dreamwalkers?” Andie slashed her evil alternate across the chest, nearly cleaving her in half. “Then it seems we’re at a stalemate, since neither of us can kill the other.”
“…I never said I couldn’t kill you. See, that’s your second weakness: You are so incredibly fragile that I don’t need to purify - or in my case, corrupt - you in order to kill you. I only have to hit you until you break.” An unhinged cackle leaked out of imitation Andie’s mouth. “All because you are made out of ego, out of the vain desire to constantly be exactly who you think you ought to be. It is quite amazing, is it not? The power granted by pretending you are something you are not.” Imitation Andie waited as normal Andie closed in for another strike, then threw a punch. It wasn’t any faster than her previous punches, but it felt faster. “But it is quite exhausting. I know you are tired from keeping up the facade, but I am feeling just fine. I am perfect just the way I am. I am an athletic and academic genius, I am a goddamn chosen one - and have the face to match. I don’t need to keep up a facade, so I can do this alllll night.”