Two spells shot past Azalea as she jumped back to the safety of the line, Shiora stepping forward to give her cover. Together, they forced back the two players who were trying to cut her down. A second later, the bright blue scaly hide of the coatl Malivex filled her vision as the beast dove into the army, missing her by a few feet but taking out two players who couldn’t get out of the way in time.
Off to the side, Matlin was contending with Caius and two players she didn’t recognize. The three of them had the enemy leader surrounded, but he was fending them off, his large shield blocking each attack that was sent his way, and his heavy sword made sure they didn’t stay within reach for too long. Normally, Azalea would have kept a buff up on Caius and the others to ensure the fight was stacked in their favor, but the debuff from Malivex’s spray attack was still active. All she’d managed to do was lessen it from critical to moderate. Which meant that, alone, Caius would fall to Matlin quickly.
They’d gotten a rather nasty shock shortly after Malivex’s appearance when it burrowed into the ground like the other ‘great worm’ that Matlin had summoned in the raid where he’d first appeared. Combined with its poisonous spray and the ability to eat two or three of them in a single swallow, he was a real threat.
But the fight had been going on for a while now, and it was clear that the players had gotten used to the beast’s attack patterns. Malivex was claiming fewer victims each time he appeared, and the disparity in numbers between adventurers and Terrians was shrinking by the minute. It had seemed really bad at the start when Malivex had first come down from the sky. But if she looked at the bigger picture, their odds were back to about even.
“Not that we want to be even,” she muttered quietly, grunting as another player shouldered past her, rushing at the cluster of bandits in front of them. The poor fool didn’t last long before a spell hit him in the side, and he keeled over, erupting into a pile of coins.
“What was that?” Shiora asked, having to shout to be heard over the chaotic fight around them.
“I said our numbers are about even!” She called back. One of the bandits that had been giving her some trouble finally gave her an opening. With a leap of exaltation in her chest, she slammed a fireball right into his chest that exploded him and two bandits beside him.
“Maybe in numbers,” he commented dryly, as yet another player from their side charged into their death. “They might be getting better at the fighting part, but they don’t understand tactics.”
A sharp sound of laughter came from the side, either Oscar or Riley, she couldn’t be sure. She couldn’t suppress a grin at Shiora’s comment. “True. But we’ve nearly got the bandits wiped out now. Then we can focus on him.”
She didn’t have to specify who she meant. The entire battle had begun to shift around Matlin and Caius, though none of them could get closer with the host of bandits that stood in the way, doing their best to kill all the players. At least, she reflected, there weren’t any more players on the enemy’s side now. The last adventurer, a competent fighter, had lost a rather short and vicious duel against Shiora nearly twenty minutes ago.
Just then, Malivex appeared again, but before he could take a player down, a spell shot from the back of the player’s ranks, hitting it in the eye and forcing it to retreat behind its allies. Had that been good aim, or a lucky hit? Another spell appeared, a whirling stormcloud. A familiar spell to her. It produced four forked lightning bolts, each striking a different bandit in the front line and stunning them. One was killed immediately, and the others were unable to recover before a player struck them down.
“That’s my spell!” She shouted, wondering how the unseen player could have learned that spell. She’d made sure to practice it in private only, where no other players could have seen her using it. She was sure that even her guild didn’t know it existed. It was a unique enough spell that nobody should have been able to come up with it at the same time, surely.
“Azalea? How did you get over there so fast?” That was Riley’s voice. But he was looking to the right and behind, from where that spell had appeared. Azalea opened her mouth to call back, but then… she heard her own voice answering.
“Just hang on a second!” Another spell, this one consisting of a whip made of fire, lashed out and grabbed Malivex as it appeared again. The beast was much heavier than the caster was, however, and the next thing Azalea knew, she was flying through the air directly toward the huge coatl. Except that it wasn’t her. This mysterious player might have looked like her, but the real Azalea was standing in the front lines.
The fake Azalea rode the movement of the beast, clutching the fire whip tightly until they’d managed to land on the coatl’s back, anchoring her place with a spear thrust through the bright blue scales. Both forces seemed to pause to watch this stranger, who rode on Malivex’s back as easy as if they’d been born to. Malivex, feeling the impact of her body and the piercing pain of her attack, let out a roar of fury, and thrashed around on the ground, trying and failing to dislodge its unexpected rider.
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The real Azalea lost track of the stranger for a few seconds as the fight ramped up around her again, and a bandit very nearly caught her off guard. She danced back a pace or two, putting some distance between his sword and her body, then thrust her spear forward, pushing him back. He charged in again, undaunted, following her into the gap she’d previously held. She would have expected him to slash to either side, widening the opening he found himself in. But he didn’t, continuing to follow her.
She waited for him to swing again, ducking low and spinning. She was sure it wasn’t as graceful as when Shiora had done it, but she managed to smash the blunt end of her spear into the man’s knees, swiping out his legs. Completing the move was easier than she would have expected. Jumping over his prone frame, she thrust her spear down, still in that same spin, and turned to face the bandit army again seconds later, filling the gap.
Malivex had finally had enough of his tormenter and let out a roar of frustration before slamming itself down into the earth and burrowing out of sight. The fake Azalea released the fire whip and jumped free, wrenching their spear out of the blue scales. Whether intentionally or by sheer coincidence, they landed mere feet away from where the real Azalea stood, rolling to absorb the shock of the landing, then popped up on their feet, looking a little winded but otherwise normal, as if they hadn’t just finished an impromptu rodeo with a giant mythical beast.
“Who the hell are you?” Azalea shouted, staring at the stranger. Now that they were closer, there was no doubt about it. This person had copied her exactly. Every aspect of her outfit, weaponry, and, it seemed, her spells. “How did you copy me?”
“That’s just my ability,” the stranger said. She even used Azalea’s own voice. “I won’t explain it later, but I have a message for you.”
And suddenly, she knew. She wasn’t sure how the dots were connected so quickly in her mind, but she knew straight away. “You were pretending to be Riley earlier, weren’t you?”
She didn’t really need confirmation, but the stranger still nodded. It was strange to see such a coy smile on her face, she thought. “Like I said, it’s my ability. Now can I pass a message on to you or not?”
Dozens of feet away, there was a massive eruption of earth as Malivex appeared once again. Dust was thrown everywhere for several seconds, and by the time it had cleared, the other player that had copied her appearance lowered the disguise. What stood in her place was… another woman. Or a man. Azalea couldn’t be sure. The body was the epitome of genderless, with no defining curves that could give her an answer either way. And the face was covered by a simple mask. Even when they spoke, their voice gave nothing away.
“There is an army of players coming this way,” they offered. Azalea could see the name above their head had changed now as well. Anasuya. There was no clan tag offered. Their title was Faceless. Were they a player, or a Terrian? “From Dawnbreak City. They’re pissed that you raided their territory, and they formed an alliance to come wipe you out.”
In spite of the furious battle going on around them, Azalea let out a low laugh. “They clearly haven’t heard about what’s going on here, then. We don’t have anything for them to wipe out. And if we don’t win this battle, we’ll never rebuild. They’re marching for nothing.”
Anasuya offered her an indifferent shrug. “That is not of my concern. I was hired to bring you a message. I’ve brought the message. My obligations in this matter have been fulfilled.”
“You came all the way out here into a battle just to pass along a message?” Azalea asked, flabbergasted. “That’s such a pointless risk. Who hired you?”
“I cannot tell you that.”
“You mean you won’t.”
Even though the face was hidden by a mask, Azalea was sure Anasuya was smiling at her. “You’re right, I won’t. But you’re wrong if I just came here to deliver a message.”
Azalea opened her mouth to speak again, but Anasuya had transformed before she could utter another word. This time, they turned into a player she didn’t recognize and now spoke with a man’s voice. “I couldn’t resist taking part in this fight either, you know.”
Anasuya launched themselves into the fight with gusto then, surprising the remaining bandits that formed what was now a very thin front line. Whatever player they were copying had a few nice spells at their disposal, all with short ranges and powerful output. All around them, the players saw the hole the copycat carved in the enemy forces, and let out a roar of triumph. Somehow, in the time she’d spoken to this strange character, the battle had shifted even further in favor of the players, and they were close to victory.
“You may not like it,” Shiora said at her side, “but they’ve got the right idea. I think it’s high time we put an end to this.”
Azalea shook her head, grinning in spite of herself. She couldn’t agree more, she thought. She tightened the grip on her spear and lifted her free hand. “Well then, let’s put an end to it.”
Moving together, with Riley and Oscar moving closer to complete a hasty formation, they charged forward at the remaining bandits, for a final, mighty push. As it had before, throwing herself head-first into a fight wiped away all other concerns in her mind. She couldn’t care about the problems of the outside world or even the thoughts that clouded her mind when she was fighting. Maybe this was why Caius loved it so much, she thought. Or maybe it was just the fighting that spoke so clearly to her.