The introduction of dual-wielding swords had completely changed the way Ran and his doppelganger fought.
If their previous performance was like figure skating, then this was more like break dancing, figuratively speaking of course.
Their movements had suddenly become much faster, more ferocious and erratic, and while not as complex as it was previously, it was much more exhausting.
Actually, because the illusion had been caused by a spiritual gas made from an herb, it didn't really involve soul juice. Well, the illusion was affected by the runes that used soul juice as a power source, but the illusion itself wasn't.
Therefore, because what they were fighting wasn't soul juice, they didn't use soul juice either. Rather, they would only feel mental fatigue, but they were still far from this point. Basically, they were just imagining or simulating this fight in Ran's head.
In fact, in the beginning, they were both incredibly sloppy in their use of dual swords, but as time progressed, they got better and better. A competition was then birthed into existence; who would be better in using their weapons? It was quite inconsistent for once, as sometimes one would come to a small epiphany and surpass the other. The other would then closely follow and sometimes surpass the other, and the cycle continues.
At this point, they had fought for roughly twenty, in illusion, minutes and there was still no conclusion.
Now, they began reintroducing previous mechanisms to try to overtake one another.
Sometimes, they would steal each other's momentum, stopping them in their tracks while empowering themselves at the same time to try and hack their head off. Other times, they would accidentally do it at the same time, leaving them both frozen for a second. They would then look at each other awkwardly with their mouths twitching.
In one instance, Ran had combined the ideas behind the strangling ball and the beads. He had transferred the beads into the doppelganger body randomly, before making a ball in midair and hacking it. The kinetic had transferred into the beads, but the doppelganger was startled and didn't know which one it would come out of, so he just protected his brain. The result was his left arm splitting in half from the inside.
The second time Ran did this, the doppelganger had resolved to handle all the beads at the same time, but when trying it, he figured it was too slow and his other arm blew off.
So the third time Ran had done this, rather than trying to destroy them, the doppelganger directly transferred them into Ran's body. Ran then learned the exact same thing, transferring them back.
This continued back and forth, all while their swords slammed into each other, but there was no resolution to this problem. They ended up moving on, though they would sometimes try to sneak one in every now and then.
In another instance, right when Ran was going to land an attack, the doppelganger shrouded himself in his juice. So, like what had happened when Ran fought the swordfish, the sword and resulting attack slipped into the juice and, like a portal, was teleported into Rans body. His right lung had been punctured.
Even crazier, the doppelganger then took the opportunity to stab himself, puncturing Rans left lung.
It had been a point of contention as to whether Ran would die, and at the time, Ran wanted to attack again out of frustration before calming himself. Afterwards, he also shrouded himself as he healed, and even started stabbing himself as well.
While he swore to never become a masochist, this ended up as a competition to find the heavyweight champion of masochists. Though, I guess none of them are since there is no self-harm or pain happening. So, they stabbed themselves in all kinds of places, and of course, it included the important areas such as the neck and head. A single swipe at these areas would spell a permanent death with no respawns, but like the creepy people that they were, they outdid themselves.
They began completely filling their heads and necks with soul juice in order to avoid their would-be sudden deaths, and soon enough, this encompassed other parts of their bodies.
Eventually, their entire bodies, from head to toe, from hair to nail, were saturated with soul juice… and this was where shit got weird.
Their bodies abruptly became illusory, and they would appear to often flicker in and out of existence.
Their eyes almost popped out of their sockets from the sheer shock, turning their jaws into gaping holes.
But, I don't blame them, for they had accomplished something amazing.
They had created their very first skill.
Yes, I said they created a skill. Okay, actually, it was a simple skill. The most simple and elementary skill.
The soul avatar.
The literal embodiment of your soul's properties in your physical body.
However, with how simple it was, it wasn't original and too many had done so in the past.
As for why it was so simple; it was literally just filling your entire body in flowing soul juice, how much more simple can it get? A skill usually focuses on one point of the body, like veins or organs, so the difference was clear.
What was amazing was how they came upon this purely by chance. Well, not exactly, it was mostly the properties of their sigils that eventually led to this, so actually it would happen at some point.
This was even more so considering the fact Ran was a human (and half koi). Since they have sigils and runes, humans don't put nearly as much emphasis on skills when they can just make rune formations. This was especially so here since the humans on this planet were still riding the high of having sigils and runes, so humans using skills wasn't even a thought.
And considering how simple it was, most other races pretty much ignored it too! It was one of those things that because it was so simple and easily understood, it was either severely undervalued or outright discarded. This was sad as it was practically fundamental as well as really useful.
In the end, only a few individuals use this skill, and if they recognize the value in it, they wouldn't share it with anyone but the most trustworthy.
After all, it was pretty much universal and it had little downsides, the only one being the rapid consumption of soul juice. Of course, they wouldn't want to boost the strength of their enemies, so they avoid teaching it to laymen who are potential leakers. And because a skill was internal, it was hard to see in the first place.
All of this is to say… well nothing really; I just wanted to provide context.
Anyway, the shock had been too much for them, and they stopped stabbing themselves. They circled around each other, observing closely, before poking and prodding at each other.
They noticed their fingers went right through their bodies, it was like they were an illusion, or a hologram. They were there and not there at the same time. The next few minutes were spent like this—experimenting on each other excitedly, like they would do with a new toy.
But no matter what they did, nothing affected them, and they determined that they were practically impervious to every kind of damage. The only way to bypass it would be, like always, if the opponent had an absolute advantage; aka, being a few ranks ahead. If the soul juice was too strong and further developed, it could directly fight off the opposition, which was also soul juice. No matter what, everything revolved around soul juice, so it was the ultimate decider.
And now, with the both of them being invincible in this specific situation, they had entered another impasse.
They could only reluctantly repeal their skill and continue their previous fight.
Now, the third act began.