“No wonder why I felt so much rage coming off of you,” Passion’s laughing voice broke through as I resurfaced yet again. “To be so shamefully defeated by your potential wielded in the hands of another must make you incensed. What have you been doing all this time? Just smashing things with full force and praying your stats can back up your fists?”
Another victory ended just out of reach. The margins were becoming thinner, I could feel it inside. Only a couple hits landing differently and my first victory in days would return to me.
That bright light of hope did not burn away the shadow of anger that I felt at the pointed words leaving Passion’s mouth. Everything the Folly said was like a hammer smashing perfectly into a nail. That was only made more embarrassing by the fact that Passion personally watched me die dozens more times since their arrival. I did feel like I did not properly understand my own body well enough.
But, that begged the question, who did?
“It’s good to be challenged like this,” I said between my clenched teeth.
I stretched my body and got my blood flowing again. It was a luxury I was able to enjoy upon the Folly’s arrival. Passion did not like being interrupted and would suspend the clone’s movements until they were satisfied.
“A good beating is like medicine,” Passion agreed. “You really don’t know just how weak you are until someone dismantles you piece by piece. Though, at this point, I hope that this medicinal violence doesn’t lead to an overdose.”
“No such thing as too much of a good thing,” I quipped like an American soldier talking about Nazi mortars during the Battle of the Bulge. “But, I was meaning to ask. Weren’t you a bearded sea captain last time I met you?”
“Oh, I suppose you’re right,” Passion commented, running her hand along her feminine form. “I have a habit of cycling through some of my favorite humans every time I appear. Try to preserve their memory and the like. Why? Is this one more pleasing to you? Do you have an urge to try to make some demigods with me?”
“Isn’t that Ecstasy’s realm?”
“All climax and no foreplay, that one,” Passion said with a dismissive wave. “All right, hurry up. I’d like to see you win at least once before I have to go. You won’t want to know how the others will tease you if I tell them I stood here for days on end to watch you get beaten to a pulp by a clone.”
“I’m getting close,” I said, readying myself.
“Say whatever you need to if it lets you keep hope.”
I raised my fists and readied myself as Passion undid the spell that trapped the clone in suspended animation. Without wasting a moment, we charged each other for what I hoped was the decisive fight to change my winds of fortune.
“Wow, that one was brutal,” Passion commented.
I sputtered awake and instantly readied my body. I could feel it. I was getting closer and closer and closer. That one had to have been a single strike that separated us. I felt my knuckles brush dangerously close to the clone’s body.
“This time I’ll do it,” I announced.
The next thing I knew, I regained consciousness right before I breached the surface. Was I countered? I remember seeing the kill shot only for the clone to brush it away. I didn’t even see which appendage killed me.
“I don’t think you are as close to victory as you believe yourself to be,” Passion’s voice echoed throughout the cave. “I can keep your clone in place if you need some time to think it over.”
“I thought you weren’t going to help,” I spat.
“I’m beginning to fear that your performance is leaving me with little choice,” Passion said with a sigh. “I didn’t come here expecting such a one-sided beatdown at the hand of yourself. A strong foe, sure, but your identical copy? It’s embarrassing. Did I really give you such a great ability to keep you from experiencing your first death through a technicality? Maybe I should take it back.”
“One-sided?” I roared.
Passion and I clearly weren’t watching the same fight. I could bring my clone to dangerously low health; within a strong hit of killing them. The issue was that bringing them to that state weighed a heavy toll on my body. Powerful strikes sapped at my energy and brought me to the brink.
But that was the joy of a battle to the death, wasn’t it? Both parties needed to be driven to their final scraps of energy and launch a final, desperate attack that would be worthy of memory by all those that experienced it. Yet, strangely, it felt like the clone always had an additional gear beyond the one that I was able to achieve. Each decisive showdown tilted in its favor at the last second.
First, it was ideal stat spreads. But, I changed my stats to give myself as much life and power that I could muster.
Then, it was technique. They used the moves I did with more ability than I did. Each attack they delivered was always the same as the best I ever performed the move. They punched and kicked and elbowed at my peak level with robotic consistency. But, that was to my benefit. Seeing my own musculature perform the attacks better informed how I did it myself to the point that I could match them strike for strike.
What was it now? A more consistent use of the Grand Master’s power? That wasn’t something that I was interested in mastering. Had they adjusted their stats to move slightly quicker than I could?
There had to be some component that I was overlooking. Or, perhaps, the margins were so paper thin that continuously honing what I had would eventually take me over this obstacle.
I ran at my clone to push it further.
“Don’t you know your weak points?” Passion asked as I resurfaced yet again.
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“Of course I do,” I spat out some excess blood from my mouth. Another battle determined by a final attack that didn’t fall my way.
My weak points were no different than anyone else. Joints, head, and vital organs. Blows to those areas would do the most damage and go the furthest to build gradual advantages over the course of the fight.
“It doesn’t seem like the two of you are hitting the same parts,” Passion observed, stepping forth from the shadows to walk beside the clone. “I wonder how much you know about your current body at all.”
I was about to dismiss Passion’s statement, but I held my words. My eyes passed over my clone’s identical body. Was there something that I wasn’t considering? Was there something that the clone was exploring that I wasn’t aware of? I couldn’t be sure. The recent fights were ending with a decisive blow that would turn the lights off in my head and send me back down into the drink.
“I’ll pay more attention to its targets,” I said, placing my fists up in a ready position.
“No idea what the fuck you were doing before this, but alright,” Passion said with a shrug before turning to mist.
The clone and I charged each other. Before we reached the other, we spread our wings and took to the air. I struck their elbow which they blocked by swinging it down to meet my fist. Their tail sliced into my wing. But, I had managed to rapidly increase my health enough to absorb much of the hit without sustaining too much damage.
I continued to press into their joints and torso. Some landed while some were dodged or deflected. The only part of it that was completely defended was the head.
It was a target that I had given up on a long time ago. Now, I would only send a few feints towards its face to keep the defense honest. I learned the hard way that it was not the type of fighter that I could lull into a false sense of security before bashing its skull off its shoulders with a devastating punch.
Our exchange of blows continued as we flew around the dome like a pair of quarreling crows. Blood dripped from my body as the clone struck a point between my chest scales and abdominal scales.
A dull pain rushed through my body as I grabbed onto the clone and rushed down to the cave floor. I maximized my agility to blitz to the ground like a warhead. Right before impact, the both of us maximized our body stat and rumbled the entire cave. A spray of water went in every direction.
The clone bounced in the air and I clocked it in the chest with all the power that I could muster. I smashed into their braced arms and sent them into the opposite cave wall. It bounced off of the walls as I sprinted at it at full speed.
It smashed its feet into the ground and leapt as high into the air as it could before my heavy fist crashed into the wall where it had just been. A shaking overtook the cavern as the clone flew high above me.
I flew after the clone as quickly as I could. A flicker of light sparked over the clone’s shoulder. I clenched my eyes shut and turned my head. I created my own [Torchlight]. Last time I closed my eyes without activating my own, it turned out to be a feint that turned me into a popped meat balloon.
My health was maximized as my shoulder rammed through the place where the clone was flying and I collided with the cave’s ceiling. I opened my eyes in time to deliver a strike to the clone’s knee while it scraped against my wings.
It flew away from me to create space and I pursued it relentlessly. However, even with high speed investments, I couldn’t seem to keep up anymore. My wings had taken a beating through that pair of slashes. I could still fly without issue, but my maximum potential had been taken from me entirely.
I released another [Torchlight] and angled my body to where I believed the clone would shift to. I swung slightly down and backwards. I had seen the clone move enough to start getting a feel for where it would move.
My intuition did not fail me. I felt the impact of scale on scale as I drove the both of us into the side wall. I kept [Torchlight] on and swung my tail where I thought I felt the clone’s wings. The thinner membrane turned to ribbons between my claws.
I felt teeth dig into my side. I turned off [Torchlight] and raised my Body stat considerably before returning the bite. I only got a bit of health back before it freed itself from my grasp and kicked me away for good measure.
It tried to flap its wings, but the damage prevented it from maintaining altitude. Instead of allowing itself to be a sitting duck, it dropped back into the water like a falling boulder into a lake.
A large splash covered its position and forced me to take to the air to avoid an attack hidden beneath the spray of water. My feeling was correct as I saw a tail slash blindly through the splash like a barbed tentacle. It flailed worthlessly around before quickly being withdrawn to hide its position.
I flew around the side of the wall before landing at a full sprint. My wings were no longer going to generate enough speed to land the blow I was hoping for. Water spray billowed behind me like tire smoke.
The clone stood on the other end and started running in kind. In a split second, we were about to collide with each other at speed. I pulled my fist back behind me and readied my strike. This time, I was going to do it. I felt good, I had the upper hand, and my punch had good form to deliver a powerful mana-infused strike directly into the clone’s center of mass.
And then I felt it.
A tightness in my body from the strike between my torso and abdomen. Why had I never noticed that this strike was placed in a perfect place to disrupt the harmony in my posture? My speed and power were about to be greatly diminished by this nagging wound.
I couldn’t stop the momentum in time to shift my body weight to strike with my left hand. I stomped as hard as I could and pivoted into a spin around my plant foot. It was too late to prevent my own death. But, this time, I would have my satisfaction.
My left elbow struck with full power and my torso was destroyed with a textbook right hook. I smiled as consciousness faded from my body and I landed face first into the cold water.
The elbow released mana.
“You learned something!” Passion exclaimed.
The queen of furs stepped out of thin air to step over the obliterated body of the clone. Only the bottom half remained. The top half was turned to a paste that floated in the pool.
“Of course, it was still only a draw,” Passion added as they allowed the clone to be taken by the depths. “Not nearly good enough to be allowed to leave this place.”
“But, it is the first time I’ve killed it in some time,” I said with a satisfied smile.
“Well, I do admit that I have a little hope that you’ll be back out to terrorize the world soon. I would just advise not to take too long. One’s perception of time can change a great deal with repetition taking over their mind.”
“Is that why you are here wasting time?” A snide voice asked.
An attractive blonde man wearing a suit and tie directly out of Charles’ wardrobe descended from the ceiling. Their feet didn’t touch the water below as if to say they wouldn’t dare soil their appearance with the filth of the physical world.
“Were you watching as well, Control?” I asked with a sour expression.
“Watching? You were the one that was rattling my realms with your terrible battles against my puppet. The rest didn’t want me to interfere until you had tied at least once.”
Of course. Now that I thought of it, Control was the most likely source of a Dungeon like this where someone’s body was piloted to a beyond perfect degree. However, the sourness of our first meeting made me less than pleased that it had been them teaching me all of these invaluable lessons.
“Thank you for your wisdom,” I said with a clench of my teeth.
“It knows manners,” Control said with a chuckle. “As for you, Passion, don’t you know that it’s impolite to keep others waiting.”
“Do you really think this visit will be any different than the rest?” Passion said with a sigh.
“We owe them the basic courtesy to try,” Control replied. “So long, Ishmael. I hope that you reach your epiphany soon enough so that you can stop shaking my peace. Honestly, who lobotomizes themselves to meditate?”
Control turned to mist and their presence disappeared entirely. Passion groaned and looked towards me. Slowly, they too, turned into mist.
“Well, off to business. Try not to advance too far, I will miss it while we’re gone.”
“Where are you going?” I asked curiously.
“Private matters,” Passion replied as the clone rose from the water. “Focus on your own shit.”