---James---

James punched a sandbag with every ounce of his strength.

He imagined his opponent was ripping his kinetic force away – and when digging into his retaliation skill James ripped the force back.

It was his. His force.

Digging a hand into the broken wall beside him even as he redirected the force he had just gathered into his strike, James ripped a massive chunk of clay and stone and flung it towards the doppleganger – flicking haste for a microsecond as he did.

Fuck did ripping a wall apart with his bare hands feel satisfying.

James felt his skills strain and attempt to break repeatedly as he flung them through paces they never were meant to go through.

His copy grabbed the chucked chunk of wall almost contemptuously flinging it up in the air and then telekinetically smashed it down towards James like a comet.

[Haste] again.

James flung himself to the side and dashed forward to punch again This time trying to hold as much of the kinetic energy as he could on his own side. [Retaliatory strike] creaked and splintered in his mind the system forced to glue it back together again and again as he refused the break.

The fake wasn’t him. James knew this for one single reason. The fake had broken into magic and only magic. He had taunted that fact near the start of the fight as if him giving up on his full goal really made him stronger than James.

The fake had given up as far as he was concerned.

Blurring many times faster than James fully [haste]'d, his copy crouched and then punched upwards with all his might.

James transferred some of the force to his shirt causing it to rip and fly off his back even as he stole part of the power for himself filling the bottomless pit of [retaliatory strike].

Despite both of those drains, the attack was still strong enough to send James flying straight up in the air. High, up higher than the house beside him his center crumpled and internally bleeding. His entire chest and stomach felt bruised and yet…his weakened mutation seemed to be doing something. It pulled residual mana into his body and reinforced it somehow.

James fell downwards kicking towards his copy like a falling hammer.

His doppelganger seemed surprised at the amount of force he flung, even as he ripped some of the force away and slid back.

James landed heavily – all the wind kicked out of him even as he lunged once again.

He could do this. He could beat himself. It was just like working out. You pushed past and beat your previous record. Or something –His copy ripped his own chunk of wall out and flung it at James even as he was halfway towards him.

James raised an arm.

The impact flung him back and this time James felt the crack of a bone in his arm splintering.

Should have spent a bit more of my body stats on defense.

In front of him his copy blurred once again leaping at least twice as high as James had gone – almost like he was making a point – then twisted mid air and accelerated towards James's feet first.

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[Haste] again.

James pushed off the chunk of wall in front of him with supernatural speed and reactions causing the strike aimed at his head to smash through his shoulder instead. His doppelganger’s foot actually broke through James’s skin and bone ripping the flesh out of its socket.

James – still running [haste] Dodged back and to the side as he watched his copy’s arm twist and implode.

Hah!

James grabbed the hunk of his arm and used it as a bat to try and smash Doppel James's face as they finished landing and tried to react to their own arm being damaged.

Dopple James blurred under the strike and jumped backwards, his head flipping between his own missing arm and James’s bloody implement.

His eyes narrowed even as he made to punch James again.

James could not claim he was winning. He couldn’t even claim he was holding his own – and yet he pushed past all of that with pure stubbornness. He wasn’t fighting himself. He was fighting a fake who had given up – a copy with an altered version of his skillset but not as much drive.

His copy flickered in that moment parts of his body turning to smoke.

James used that moment of weakness to dodge his doppelganger's punch and watched as out of the corner of his eyes Maddison’s doppelganger appeared to almost melt in a bloody mess down the street.

Maddy looked even worse off than he did – she was missing both legs and the entire street around her was covered in copious amounts of blood.

With a roar, doppel James blurred across the street and grabbed a curtain from the house they had smashed together.

Twisting it quickly, his copy made a fabric rope – the curtain twisting like a snake in the doppelgangers one existing arm. The copy shook his makeshift rope and blurred towards him once again.

Only I can take advantage of the surroundings! That's not fair! James didn't like how innovative his copy was acting.

“If I can’t kill you I just have to tie you down before I find the real boss. I wonder if Maddy’s copy is the big bad of the dungeon…what do you think mini me?” Dopple James spoke even as he jumped the rope wiggling about in the air like a snake.

A distant shout and rush of warm healing crossed James. Quickly shoving his arm back he tried to reattach it while jumping to the side.

The healing wave was indiscriminate – damn, Maddy seemed to be healing his clone as well – but James felt a muted wave of feeling return to his one side. His one arm was back!

...maybe he shouldn't punch anything with this arm just yet but damn, He wouldn't have to go through a one handed state again. Healing was convienent.

Doppel James flickered and shifted to even more smoke, even as he wrapped James in rope and flung him into the wall.

“Fuck!” His doppelganger yelled even as he finished vanishing – the smoke flowing away in all directions.

James groaned as he found the wall crumbling behind him. His body tipped forward – still restrained and slammed onto the ground.

He had lost. If his doppelganger hadn’t melted into smoke just then…he would have been captured once again by the bastard.

James bashed his head into the ground slightly in disappointment trying to wiggle out of the tightly knotted rope.

Floor one clear

Description: Survived an assault from a powerful you.

Feat: Beat Root C using Choice S while under-levelled, disadvantaged and receiving only light assistance.

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Stat: +27 free body power

Stat: +27 free body speed

Stat: +27 free body defense

James looked at the free stats hungrily barely paying attention to the second box. He was going to optimize the use of each and every one of those stats. That was a massive massive jump...even more than his last dungeon. Was this dungeon a higher level? Well. Not going to complain about strength.

James did a double take at the second box he had skimmed, a sinking feeling rushing though his veins.

You have witnessed the future. You have witnessed a future you don't desire but will find yourself chained to it all the same.

A prophecy has just been made. You will break into magic within three weeks time.

And then you will fail to fight yourself, finding your choice lacking.

Life isn't fair James. Submit to reality.

Without magic I bet you don't even know why this is happening to you.