The Doppelgänger faded away, dissolving like a mirage. Ronnie felt someone invisible pass next to him and at the same moment a level twenty-five player with the alias Destroyer with two katars in his hands made of black steel and a half-length body flew forward like lightning, throwing the invisible enemy a couple of yards away. From the heavy collision, the fog cleared and Ronnie examined the mysterious player. The “agility” stat, as expected, was twenty, the magic was pumped up to one. He dressed in black rags, under which a light steel alloy armor was visible. The red scarf wrapped around his neck fluttered in the wind. He had long gray hair on his head, some of which stood up straight, and the rest covered one red eye. A strange purple liquid, very similar to poison, was dripping from the katars.
“Oh-ho! Someone didn’t have enough strength!”
“A strong son of a bitch!”
“You don’t take risks; you don’t drink vodka.”
Xenonna rested the butt of the SVT-40 on her right shoulder, took aim, said that the first shot was hers and shot the stunned doppelgänger. A 7.62 x 54 mm bullet, with a speed no less than the Barrett’s, whistled past her comrades and almost pierced the enemy’s head, but the wind aura repelled it. Less than a second later, Destroyer’s figure appeared in front of it, and made several precise lunges. The Doppelgänger dodged everything—its eyes did not leave the blades of the katars - then it jumped to the side trying to break the distance, but the trained player of the “assassin” class did not retreat and used the “Furious Rhythm” skill and conducted a series of supersonic attacks aiming at different points on the opponent’s body. The unidentified monster twisted the pole at such speed that the eyes did not have time to follow. Everyone in the const party gasped at what was happening.
The Doppelgänger gathered air magic in its free hand and threw Destroyer a few yards back and strained its ears, a click. The machine gunner touched the trigger and bullets rained down on the enemy. It without hesitation morphed its shoulder into an exact copy of WildDron’s shield and absorbed two bursts fired from Denzie’s DP-27. Ronnie sat down in the Bedouin pose, took aim and supported the const party with fire. He won’t be able to keep track of all the attacks. The Doppelgänger heard another click, but it didn’t have time to do anything about it. It flew four yards back and hit its back against the wall of a house. All the members of Guild 666 paid attention to Ronnie’s rifle for the first time and looked at him with a look of complete surprise. Xenonna’s mouth opened and did not close at all.
“What the hell is in your hands?” she asked with a cry. “Where does such power come from?”
Ronnie did not answer, took aim and fired another shot, and it pressed the Doppelgänger into the wall. Three cartridges left. Destroyer with the words: “Don’t even hope for the first glass. It has always been, is and will be mine!” threw four throwing knives, the first two with explosives, the rest with deadly poison, and after the explosion he ran up to the weakened monster, cut at his legs - the blades did not penetrate the armor - then hit the head. All to no avail. Then the “assassin” used the magic spell “wind speed” and, flickering with white flashes, moved in zigzags, showering the target from all sides with stabbing blows. Xenonna and Denzie cheered in order to support their comrade, but the smile faded from their faces as soon as they saw that the Doppelgänger, twisting the pole, repelled one attack after another, and then it flashed purple eyes, moved slightly, and plunged the edge of the pole into Destroyer’s stomach and threw him a couple of yards away. The assassin sobbed and arched and could not get up.
“Fuck me!” Xenonna swore. “How does this bastard fight so well! This is simply unthinkable!”
DP-27 in Denzie hands started firing, bullets rushed forward. The Doppelgänger did not even look at the attack and transformed his body and flew away in a flock of crows that headed to the back of their formation.
“Fucking amazing. It can also turn into this shit!” Xennona continued to swear. “I wonder what it can’t do?”
“Destroyer, how are you?” WildDron asked and saw the assassin raise his hand and twist his palm, drawing an infinity sign in the air. “Ho–ho, that’s my boy!”
Fremaho - a guild magician dressed in a long white hoodie and a gray Van Dyck beard - threw a flask of napalm under him, folded his hands in a prayer pose and transformed the flame into a dozen fire pillars that burned one bird after another. Umka stood next to him and protected him. It was a red–skinned old Indian, about seventy years old, in traditional clothes and a headdress with Morndaenka feathers (black hunters, according to AI, are a kind of dangerous birds that like to attack strong opponents in a huge flock, they were last seen on the southern coast of the continent five hundred miles from Otron, approximate cost one pen 2.500.000 CP). He spun around on his axis with two one-handed swords in his hands. Yet the Doppelgänger had given him a surprise. He materialized in a new humanoid form behind him. This time, the monster’s body was covered with rags and bandages. His palms tightly gripped the shaft of a scythe. On his head was a black, non-translucent veil with a golden crown. He stopped the whirlwind of blades with his hand, jumped and locked his powerful legs around Umka’s neck and did a somersault, and if not for the magician’s protective field, the head would have fallen off his shoulders.
Xenonna fired two aimed shots and wounded the creature. It jumped back and tried to disappear. Guild 666‘s sniper did not lose her head and pulled out a water bottle from her waist bag and opened it and threw it at Fremaho, who sprayed drops in all directions and discovered the Doppelgänger hidden body. Denzie fired the last clip at the enemy while it threw the scythe and hit the ground with its palm and lifted a huge block of earth with gravity magic, which absorbed all the bullets. The fighting took place at full steam. Ronnie and WildDron were left behind. Destroyer was at his limit.
Fremaho prepared for a new attack. He touched the flames and formed a spell, as he unexpectedly noticed the Doppelgänger attack from behind, but it was too late, because the scythe blade flashed before his eyes. Ronnie and WildDron turned away, just not to see this primal beheading.
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“Bastard!” WildDron shouted, and Ronnie was warped by his pronunciation.
“I wouldn’t drink to the repose today!”
“Gather yourselves, comrades!”
Umka, paralyzed by what he saw, hesitated and did not have time to come to the magician’s aid, and the enemy was already rushing towards him at full speed. The Doppelgänger transformed into a heavy knight with thick white armor, repelled the stabbing blow of a one-handed sword with a magic shoulder pad, grabbed the opponent’s hand, broke his wrist, and in a U-turn struck a cutting blow with a two-handed sword. Umka, moaning in pain, twisted and freed himself from the vice and jumped aside and did not notice how he stepped on the trap of the icy aura, slowing down his movements.
“He creates spells out of nothing!” Destroyer shouted.
The Doppelgänger headed towards the wounded swordsman. Denzie took a spare Colt M1911 out of his holster and started shooting, but the wind aura changed the trajectory of the bullets. Xenonna lay down on the ground and took aim and shot at the monster. He did not react in time and flew five yards away. Ronnie also wanted to support with fire, but WildDron stopped him and told him not to waste large-caliber cartridges. They would still be useful.
Umka took the chance and got out of the trap and used “Wind Speed” and “Furious Rhythm” at the same time. He closed the distance at supersonic speed and jumped, attacking the Doppelgänger from above. The enemy transformed into a high-speed form with a sakkat on its head. Its body seemed to triple after each movement. It dodged, repelled several melee attacks. Other’s eyes did not have time to catch what was happening. The Doppelgänger outsmarted Umka in the next attack. When the Indian unleashed a flurry of blows, the monster, knowing about his broken wrist, concentrated black magic around the shaft of its weapon. It spun the pole with an eight and, in a turn, with a short but powerful movement, struck the wounded swordsman on the right side, knocking down his rhythm. Umka received a “short stun” debuff. The Doppelgänger continued the attack. It made several pirouettes, whirling past the immobilized enemy and, without looking back, poked the swordsman with the tip of the pole. The Indian saw how the metal point came out through his chest and went back. He felt a burning pain and clutched at his heart. Umka’s eyes darkened, and he fell and crumbled to dust.
“Holy shit! We need to run!” Xenonna shouted. “This guy is too tough for us.”
“No risk, no vodka,” said WildDron. “Run to me as fast as possible.”
“If he’s too tough for us, he’s too tough for everyone,” the machine gunner said and twisted his face. This time, it expressed genuine anger and hatred.
Xenonna and Denzie used a Furious Rhythm and ran away from the scene of the massacre. WildDron jumped forward and used “Irritation”. The Doppelgänger darted and circled around him, attacking from behind and in front, first with a pole, then with claws, then with swords. Nevertheless, a bulletproof tank died hard. Denzie and Xenonna supported their leader with fire. Ronnie swore, said, “To hell with him,” and took aim and fired a third bullet. The monster flew away and, before it had time to recover, it saw a three-hundred-kilogram carcass of a full-metal Santa falling on it, laughing and hooting. Zweihänder’s blade tried to cut the enemy’s body from the left shoulder to the hip bone, but no luck. The Doppelgänger’s sakkat turned into a huge anvil and blocked the blow. The sword strike left a scratch behind. A black sphere flew out of the monster’s belly, which lifted WildDron five yards up and threw it towards Denzie with a gravitational wave. He raised his head and the last thing he saw was his friend kicking in the air like a baby in a crib.
Xenonna wrinkled her face from what she saw and lifted her upper lip and cursed. The Doppelgänger rose and transformed the anvil into a head, with four eyes following every movement of the remaining opponents. At the same time, its body transformed into a form with a scythe. Xenonna fired two more shots. It dodged the bullets and called the sphere back to it, then took it in its hands and squeezed it between two palms - threw the scythe to the ground. Holographic stones of blue-white colors with different inscriptions and connected with each other by a magic ribbon appeared around it. Ancient runic magic, which all the survivors saw for the first time, split the sphere into a couple of hundred small needles, and then released them forward. Black rods with a pointed end fell in a frenzied squall into the fragile body of the woman. Xenonna disconnected.
Destroyer recovered and gathered his will into a fist and began a fresh attack and threw a smoke bomb. Ten seconds later, he found himself in front of the Doppelgänger and, using the last drops of mana, cast the spell “Whirlwind of Blades” and spun around himself with hurricane speed. The monster raised the scythe, changed its shape to a shield, absorbed the blow, then returned the weapon back, with the help of the spell “Furious Rhythm” instantly appeared in front of the exhausted assassin, knocked him completely off balance the blow of the snaith on the head and chopped the blade from the bottom up and left two halves from Destroyer, which burned and disappeared a second later.
Ronnie, realizing that he had very little cartridges, retreated and called WildDron to cover him from behind. The grave silence fell for a split second, and in that moment Ronnie heard a distant bell ringing.
The square flowed into a long avenue, from which the training base was just around the corner, and their help will come regardless of the will of others. The Doppelgänger surveyed the area and used magic. Solid clay walls with the faces of screaming people blocked all entrances and exits. WildDron put up a shield in front of him and ordered him not to stop. He ran to ram, wanted to break through the wall with his gigantic strength and did not expect at all that this would be a distraction. A thin stream of water escaped from the fountain standing in the very center of the square. The beam was much stronger than Ronnie had expected. WildDron’s heavy armor did not save its owner from the spell. The attack hit him in the back and punctured his right lung. He stopped, dropped his weapon, and clutched at the through wound. The second beam damaged the colon. The full-metal Santa groaned and fell and smelled feces. Ronnie pulled out a resuscitating syringe, stuck it in the neck of his dying partner and said: “You’ll owe me one, lie down.”
There was no more water in the fountain. Ronnie lay down on the ground, looked through the scope at a distance of a few inches. The target was ~100 yards away. The penultimate bullet shot forward. Black smoke escaped from the compensator, and flames from the muzzle. Although the Doppelgänger was watching the sniper, it turned out to be too slow and felt a burning pain in its stomach before the echo of the shot thundered around. It fell down and began to regenerate. Ronnie noticed the enemy was running on fumes. Maybe it will be possible to finish it off with the last attack. The monster also realized this and disappeared. Ronnie cursed, got up, walked over to WildDron. He was still breathing, raised his thumb up and spoke with difficulty: “I’m fine, boy. Just kill that bastard.” The clay walls went back underground. The way was open.
“Don’t doubt it, I’ll kill it,” Ronnie replied and looked towards the training base and towards the water tower and hesitated and thought: fuck it, it’s mine.