"all this talk about calvus and vora, you guys are about to see what I was dealing with fighting Levy." copper spoke seeing the red fire glowing on her fur. it was the exact thing that changed the course of their battle.
Calvus images surrounded Levy and vora at once. they were both separated a good distance from each other but with the way calvus ability worked he could face both at once if his focus was sharp enough like it was now. the thing was though calvus now knew vora's ability was more trouble than he thought and so he opted to try and take out Levy first but also needed to keep vora busy as well. this was his dilemma.
even though he could somewhat be in two places at once he knew it would be hard to handle them both unless he used his hammer to its full potential and that's what he was currently trying to do.
switching from image to image around Levy. calvus was swiftly looking for an opening and once he saw one he faked a punch from one image while appearing on her back side swinging his hammer but to his surprise a red flame surfed and moved through her fur reaching her unprotected area before he made contact. the flame stopped the hammer and levy turned around with a spinning back claw almost digging into the left side of his face. luckily he was quick enough to react repositioning himself with an image that was attacking her lower half kicking her knee.
While this was happening he would transfer to one of his images that had vora surrounded and make fake attacks just trying to keep her in position and occupied while his true target was Levy. every after image disappearing and reappearing around her was just a decoy. vora felt this was the case because she could see Levy getting attacked while the ones fighting her were practically striking to miss on purpose. each time she attacked them her attacks would phase through unless she caught calvus himself attacking.
vora didn't mind to simply dodge an attack here and there and decided not to use her ability because the truth was she had to recoup a bit. she had been using her powers for a while including the fight with berry and jolly. she felt calvus little tactic would backfire after some of her energy returned. her arm had almost healed completely from fighting jolly their were just scars with patches of fur missing around it but her natural mongrel ability to heal had come into play a while ago.
seconds passed and calvus was now ready to put his true plan into action. suddenly every afterimage now had a hammer in their hands extending their reach. this surprised them both. they knew he could make images of himself but not of his weapon. calvus eyes vibrated with a pale white and and somewhat transparent aura as his images began to speed up and throw full combinations at levy.
usually his images would perform simple attacks like a punch or a kick that did nothing but trick his opponent unless he transfered his real body to that particular image. in this particular time they all had a hammer and now we're throwing fighting combinations. the only draw back to this was his number of images were reduced to four
he had two around and attacking vora while his original self and two more attacked levy. with the increased combinations of attack being thrown and calvus switching from image to image so fast Levy began having a hard time keeping up with which attacks were coming from the real calvus. she had been hit by the hammer and pushed back several times already but still held her ground.
the red fire moved blocking all of calvus real attacks at the beginning but once calvus reduced his images and started doing attack combinations it became like trying to catch a real ghost. she tried her white flames but each time they simply phased through the image of calvus because he would transfer away to another. she even tried surrounding herself with the white flames as well and let calvus attack right into her hand but that failed as well.
Levy turned to her blue flames that had incredible heat and found that it affected calvus with his choices to attack but it still wasn't enough. Levy couldn't understand it, she was sure her attacks were fast enough to catch him a few times because she too was pushing her speed to its limits. her agility was amazing and so she could twist turn and flip and would do so creating space but each time she did an image of calvus was on her tail like a diaper on a babies ass.
"so have you guys noticed yet." steel asked copper and jolly.
"yea calvus speed has increased dramatically." answered copper
Jolly stood up getting closer to the screen. "yes, calvus speed has increased but he's still slower with his attacks then Levy. the only real thing that has increased is his speed to switch from one image to another. when he does become solid again through one of his images his attack is still slower. " jolly said watching closely.
"well you're half right,but look closer and remember what I told you about his hammer. he hasn't thrown a single punch even if the opportunity presented itself. why is that." steel asked them.
it took a min to understand what steel was getting at but watching the fight even more closely jolly realized something.
"wait, is she hesitating with each attack" he spoke in confusion.
"close enough,I guess I'll spill the rest of it. you see that hammer is an enchanted weapon. you're right, In terms of actual striking speed Levy has the edge but she's being delayed even if she beats calvus to his position of attack. the hammer is affecting her reaction time not her actual speed." steel explained.
"so you're telling me calvus only has the upper hand because of her delayed reaction." copper chimes in asking.
"hell no, just think about it for a min. with the type of ability he has its the perfect combination. hell it's already a challenge keeping up with his images and sensing where he will attack from with how his ability work alone so if you add the fact the bastard can also delay your reaction by seconds than it makes it even more difficult. "
"oh, by the way that's not all that damn hammer does and the second effect is even worse and also aids his ability. the thing is I believe his hammer has a condition. I could be wrong but when I was fighting him I pushed him this far as well but like I said he only used three images. I believe he has to hit his opponent with the hammer a certain amount of times before the enchanted skill can be activated. I mean I don't know much about enchanted weapons but this was my conclusion from our fight."
copper and jolly looked at eachother with their mouths to the floor. "well fuck,that bastard is that strong and he's younger than all of us. not to mention he already has an enchanted weapon. copper said annoyed.
"age doesn't matter,and don't forget his father is sir Hughes. I'm sure sir hughes put him through hell and back to achieve what he has so far. the amount of concentration it takes to control those images and precise locations while fighting and using them to his will must be extremely tiring." steel says.
"yea, I wonder how long he can keep this up. I believe vora is just gathering her energy back as well." spoke jolly.
"yes I see that as well, she's the toughest and so calvus is trying to get Levy out of the picture first."
"well he better hurry. the final ring is about to begin." jolly says responding to steel.
"I know I should have hit him, what the hell is going on. is it more to his ability because I'm sure he's manipulating my reaction to his real attacks somehow." Levy said to herself.
After getting hit four more times levy's eyesight began to waver. she suddenly saw one afterimage split into two more. the second part of calvus hammer was a skill that made an opponent see double. this skill is what really turned the table for him in fights. delayed reaction on top of seeing double along with calvus ability worked hand in hand overly well to the point it was ludicrous.
"the hell is going on. I thought his images could only split from his original self not the fake images he's creating." she said frustrated letting out a loud roar.
she began swinging and attacking every image that moved including ones that weren't actually there which created a timely open for the real calvus to get in two big hits that sent her flying.
the crowd gasped with confusion seeing what occurred. on their end Levy swung at an image and then swung on absolutely nothing but air. on her side she was attacking an image she believed calvus was transferring to. she didn't notice she was seeing double that wasn't really there at all and assumed calvus was just producing more images of himself but that wasn't the case.
"it's happening now you guys. calvus enchanted weapon's second skill is making his opponent see double."
jolly and copper nearly fell on their faces hearing this. "the hell did you just say. hmph, you heard me right jolly, Levy is seeing double now and don't even realize it."
"so that's why she attacked the air just then, she thinks it's just more afterimages but there are still only two she's facing that calvus is switching back and forth from." jolly said In disbelief.
"yes, and as you can still see her reaction time is still delayed as well leaving her open way longer than before resulting in critical hits. that's how that fucker got me and by the time I knew what was happening it was far too late." steel also added.