Lina thought this would be a simple fight, but Raja's essence was more difficult to deal with than she was expecting.
The first time she saw it, she figured that of the three clones, only one was real, but since she wasn't sure, she decided to watch.
When she confirmed that they were not three real clones, she decided to try the simplest thing, which was to grab the real clone.
She purposely left her leg unprotected to try to catch him by surprise with a backward jump, and although she managed to surprise him, she still couldn't catch him.
From then on, each time Raja attacked her, she got closer to holding him off.
...
While waiting for the next attack, Lina was thinking, 'From the looks of it, the part I don't protect always takes the hit, hmm. Strange, I find it pretty hard that it's just luck. Let's do a test.'
Lina shielded her head and chest, again leaving her leg exposed to the kick.
'Wait, wait, ... now!' thought Lina. Immediately, she crouched down and used the hand that was protecting her chest to grab the leg that was going to kick her.
'Gotcha!' thought Lina, but just when her hand should have made contact with the leg, to her surprise, it simply went through.
Right after that, the impact of a punch landed on her chest, but upon receiving this punch, Lina realized two things.
'That punch is weaker than normal. It seems that doing something he's not expecting gets in the way of him controlling his strength. Also, it doesn't feel like I got punched. The area of impact seemed larger than normal, like a kick.'
'The direction of the force is also strange. From the position his clone was in, the force should have been coming from top to bottom, but instead, it was horizontal.'
'If I try my luck and leave one side exposed, the blow always comes there. If I use the exposed place as bait and, before impact, defend myself there, the blow changes place and hits me at the exposed place anyway, but from what it seems, when that happens, the blow loses part of its strength.'
At this moment, Lina heard Raja talking about the nature of his essence and thought, 'He can switch places with any of the clones? I wonder if that's why the blow lost strength. Maybe that's the cost of switching places with his clones.'
Lina then got up and stood again, waiting while thinking, 'Calm down, Lina, let's not make a hasty decision. Think about everything that has happened so far. If he really can switch places with his clones, why did he dodge the first time I tried to grab him?'
'And even if the strength decreases with the swaps, that doesn't explain the direction of the strength. Hm, let's see if he really can swap places with his clones.'
Raja then advanced toward Lina again. The one behind her punched her back, the one on the left hit her face, and the one on the right punched towards her ribs.
Seeing where the attacks would hit, Lina decided to leave her back open while protecting the rest with her arms.
The punches were then about to hit when Lina suddenly moved, using the arm that was protecting her head to stop the punch to her back, but that wasn't the end of it.
A few moments after that, she changed her defense again, using the arm that was protecting her rib to protect her face, thus protecting her back and face.
The punches were then about to make contact when Lina again changed her defense, using the arm that would stop the attack on her back to block the punch to her rib, thus returning to her original defense, the only difference being the position of her arms, which were parallel on the diagonal, with the left arm defending the right side, and the right arm protecting the left side.
The moment she finished the movement, she felt the impact on her left arm, and as she blocked the blow for the first time, she realized that the place where the impact had occurred was not the same place where the clone's punch had hit her.
Seeing this, something clicked in her mind, 'So that was it. Not one of them was the real thing. They were all distractions. He simply hit his blow in the same place as any of his clones. That explains why the direction of force was wrong.'
Seeing that Lina, for the first time, blocked one of the blows, everyone in the bar became excited.
"Hahaha, I knew Lina wouldn't lose. She was just warming up. It's only a matter of time before she starts fighting back.", said one man, and soon after, he took half of his drink.
"That was pretty smart of her, changing her defense several times before the blow hit her."
"Yes, and although the idea is simple, it takes great reflexes to be able to change your defense right before impact.", said another man as he stroked his beard.
"But why didn't he just switch places with another clone as usual?", asked a woman confused by the situation.
"He probably doesn't have reflexes as good as Lina's. That's why, by changing her defense at the last possible moment, she caught him by surprise, leaving him no time to switch with one of the clones.", said the man with glasses.
...
'Damn.', Raja thought as his attack was stopped, 'She's starting to adapt to my fighting style, but if she thinks it's going to be that easy, she's dreaming. Even if there is a risk that she will discover that all the clones are fakes, I will delay my attack and hit her in the opening of her defense.'
'After a few rounds, she should realize the delay, but by then, it will be too late. We've been at this for a while, and she's already been beaten badly. She's probably pretty close to her limit.', Raja thought as he looked at Lina's back and did the same routine with his clones.
'Well, that makes it easier.', Lina thought as she looked at Raja's clones, 'If your essence depends on tricking my vision to work, then I just need to give it up.'
Lina then took a deep breath and closed her eyes, standing in the same spot, waiting for Raja to attack.
Seeing Lina close her eyes, everyone in the bar was surprised.
"What!!! Why is she closing her eyes?", asked the man leaning on his hand, who, in his fright, let his elbow slip off the table and almost fell to the floor.
Another man then held him up and said, scratching his head with his other hand, "I don't know, and why when she had just managed to block one of the attacks."
"Maybe she's just concentrating a little before she fights. After all, her reflex needs to stay fast to repeat what she just did.", said the bearded man.
Everyone agreed with what he had said, but even after a considerable time, she did not open her eyes, which left them very confused.
Raja was surprised to see Lina close her eyes, 'What is she trying to do?'
He decided to observe the situation a bit before acting, but even after a good while, she continued to keep her eyes closed, so he decided to keep doing the same.
...
"She closed her eyes ... hm, looks like she realized the trick behind his essence.", Gen said to Balkan as he looked at Lina.
"That seems to be the case.", replied Balkan, also looking at her, "Upon discovering that they were all fake and that the real one was invisible, she judged that seeing would only hinder her."
"But it still won't be easy.", said Gen.
"Yes.", replied Balkan.
"By closing her eyes, she avoids being fooled by the fake clones, but at the same time, she loses her only guide as to what her opponent is going to do.", said Gen.
"True, let's see what she plans to do about it.", Balkan said to Gen and turned his eyes to Lina.
...
Raja moved forward along with his clones. Even though Lina's eyes were closed, he decided to be cautious and made the same attack as before from three directions, with a kick from the back and two punches from the front.
As he advanced, he continued to watch Lina, figuring that at some point she would open her eyes, but it came to the point where his clones were about to hit her, and she still hadn't opened her eyes.
Raja then thought, 'Did I worry too much? Well, since she won't open her eyes, let's see how she will handle this situation.'
Raja arrived at Lina's side and prepared his attack. He decided to follow the clone that was on her left, aiming at her face, but something he didn't expect happened. In the middle of the path of his punch, Lina turned towards him and sent a punch in his direction.
Raja was already halfway there, and there was no stopping it. The punches from each of the two hit their targets.
Raja landed his punch on Lina's face, and she hit him in the chest.
Lina then took two steps back and stabilized herself, but since Raja was not expecting it, he fell to the ground.
Raja then thought, 'How did she know where I was?! It doesn't make sense! Even when she could see, she could never find me, and last time, she blocked it at random. Could it have something to do with an essence?'
After hitting him, Lina continued her attack, advancing toward Raja, and seeing this, he thought, 'She knows where I am! How is this possible!'
As she got close to him, she kicked him, causing him to have to defend himself with his arms.
After being hit, Raja was forced out of his invisibility, and as he appeared out of the wind, everyone was surprised.
At first, everyone was saddened by Lina's bad luck. After managing to block an attack for the first time, they thought that from then on, the situation would improve for her, but when she attacked for the first time in the whole fight, she again came to hit a clone, but then something strange happened.
She stepped back as if she had received the punch from the clone she attacked and then continued in the same direction as she punched and kicked in the air, which confused everyone. Still, a few seconds after her kick, something that no one expected happened.
Raja appeared out of nowhere with his arms in front of his chest, blocking Lina's kick.
"What just happened?" said a man, wide-eyed.
"He appeared out of nowhere like he was invisible.", said a bearded man.
"So that was it. From the beginning, none of these clones was the real thing. He was invisible from the beginning. Now it makes sense how he always hit the unprotected spot.", spoke the man with glasses.
Hearing the people talking, Lina decided to open her eyes, and in front of her, there was Raja.