Elin felt the sweat as it dripped off of her face. She'd stopped trying to use Sacred Shot against the doppelganger because it was clearly not having that much of an effect on the doppelganger. Plus, the doppelganger had stopped using it as well. Both were able to heal what they other did easily enough, which made it all the more aggravating to Elin.
In the end, she started using what little she'd learned from Kim about fighting hand-to-hand, but even now she was hardly making any headway. It not only confused her, but added to her aggravation. True, she was fighting in a dress not meant to be worn into combat, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel like that shouldn't matter.
At the same time, she couldn't help but remember how Kim had a difficult time fighting the doppelganger when they were fighting the goblins and Kim was much better at fighting like this than Elin was, yet she seemed to be at a standstill with this doppelganger. Elin wasn't sure whether or not it was because it was essentially a younger doppelganger than the one Kim fought or if it merely copied the abilities and capabilities of whoever it turned into.
Elin thought about taking the dress off just so she wouldn't be weighed down by it, but she didn't like the thought of Jonas or Elmo coming back and seeing her completely naked if she hadn't been able to finish off the doppelganger before that. Part of her was starting to not care about that possibility, but it was a very small part of her. She also worried what Kim would think if she learned she had done that. Yet at the same time, she couldn't help but not want anything to happen to the dress. She'd only gotten it earlier in the day, but she was already fond of it and wanted to keep it like it was currently.
Elin gasped for breath as she pulled away from fighting the doppelganger for a moment. Her doppelganger seemed to need to catch its breath as well. Then even as Elin healed what little damage the doppelganger had inflicted on Elin, she saw the doppelganger doing the same.
Elin sighed. She couldn't say how long they'd been fighting like this already, but it was clear that neither of them were making any headway on defeating the other. Which only made Elin want to scream and pull at her hair in frustration. She'd wanted to be able to do this on her own, but the longer this went on for, the less confident she was about it.
She'd left her staff at the inn because she hadn't thought that anything like this would occur, so she didn't even have that to work with. Which was what she credited her surviving against the goblins that one time when she had to fight them by herself. Even though she'd used her Sacred Shot spell then, it wasn't having as much effect as she had thought it would here. She couldn't understand what the difference was. Which only fueled her frustration at her current situation.
When she'd regained her breath, she moved in again, swinging her fist at her doppelganger, who blocked her strike even as it swung its fist at her. Elin had no problem blocking the strike and tried grabbing the doppelganger to pull it forward and off balance, but it merely slipped out of Elin's grip before she could get a solid hold on the doppelganger and swung around, to throw a back hand strike with it's fist at Elin.
Elin was able to dodge it and tried throwing another punch at the doppelganger, this time aiming for its throat, but her attack was swiftly blocked. This dance continued back and forth, with neither side getting a solid hit on the other. Although, an occasional stirke would land, more by accident than intention.
While Elin could feel herself starting to fall apart and was ready to just start attacking the doppelganger, dropping all attempts to dodge or block the other's strikes, she could also see the doppelganger was feeling much the same way. Not that it helped Elin's mood any. She was still unhappy with herself for not being able to at least do more than she had already.
So wrapped up in her thoughts that she lost track of where she was stepping. Then as she accidentally stepped on the hem of her skirt, she threw herself off balance as her foot held the skirt firm which then meant that it didn't have as much fabric to extend in the direction she was wanting to go.
Then before she knew it, she fell hard on her back against the ground, which the doppelganger was quick to seize the opportunity and put its knee on her chest to hold her down as it started raining punches on her face, which she held her arms in front of to keep the blows from doing any real damage to her face.
Then as she tried to think of a way out of this situation quickly, she felt her mind draw a blank. That she couldn't think of anything to do in order to at least return the tables to where they both didn't have an advantage or disadvantage. She couldn't say if anything she did would work or that it wouldn't. She only knew that if she didn't try to do something to change the tables, she really would lose this fight.
Yet, her arms were the only things that were that were keeping the doppelganger's punches from doing any real damage. Her legs were too far away from the doppelganger to do anything and Elin wasn't flexible enough to give her legs added reach. Although, she couldn't help but kick herself mentally as the idle thought went through her mind about her being happy that the dress didn't tear when she'd tripped over it by stepping on the hem.
While she liked the dress, she couldn't say that it was the most important thing to her right at that moment. Winning the fight was certainly more important to her, since losing the fight meant that she was more than likely going be killed. Something she'd really not like to have happen to her.
An idea came to mind suddenly, although she couldn't say how how likely it was going to work. Just that it wasn't something she thought the doppelganger would expect. Nor was it something that required her arms or legs to be free and in reach of her opponent.
"Sacred Shot!" Elin cried, focusing on the doppelganger who was still holding Elin down with a knee on her chest.
The magical energy coalesced in front of her and shot towards the doppelganger, hitting it in the face. It wasn't quite where Elin had wanted to hit, but at least it was a hit. Although, the only effect it seemed to have was to cause the doppelganger to pause in its assault on Elin for a moment. Which resumed when the doppelganger was able to regain its senses.
However, Elin realized that if it was going to work, she'd need to send out more than one at a time. It wasn't something that would just allow her to get out from this position with just one strike. Instead, she was probably going to need to send several of her Sacred Shots at the doppelganger one right after another. It might tax her MP reserves, which she couldn't say how much she had at the moment, but survival was what was most important at the moment. As long as she didn't accidentally go over the limit of her MP, then she'd be fine so long as she was able to get on her feet again.
"Sacred Shot! Sacred Shot! Sacred Shot!" Elin kept crying out, feeling her MP drain out of her like water out of a hole in a bucket.
However, when she felt the doppelganger's weight on her chest lighten a little, she stopped using her Sacred Shot spell and instead tried to push the doppelganger off of her entirely. As the doppelganger's knee slid off of Elin, she quickly sat up and got to her feet, trying to kick the doppelganger before it recovered.
Which missed as the doppelganger rolled back, away from Elin before it got to its feet as well. Elin couldn't help but feel like she'd lost more in that overall exchange than the doppelganger had. Maybe she was wrong, but she was sure that her MP was nearly out and she didn't want to even risk healing herself. However, the doppelganger clearly had to have more MP at that moment, and even if it healed itself, it would still be at a better position than Elin was herself right then.
At that time, for some reason an old memory came to her. It was that of one of the soldiers who had sworn loyalty to her father had come back from training once where a staff had hit him in the throat. Elin did what she could to watch, despite everyone who wasn't attending to the soldier trying to keep her away.
The healer had expressed worry about the soldier being able to talk again, and even Elin could see that the soldier couldn't speak after that. Although, his voice eventually returned, it was after weeks, with the healer frequently checking on him.
Then as Elin looked at the doppelganger, she realized what she needed to do was to prevent her double from being able to use spells. Which meant she had to target her throat. Not that any ideas of what else to do came to mind, since she was sure that it wasn't going to be that simple. Especially since she wasn't that experienced with fighting in general anyway.
However, she knew that if she didn't do something soon, she was likely to end up losing this fight. Which wasn't something she was interested in doing. If for Kim if not for herself.
So, before she couldn't talk herself out of it, she quickly charged at the doppelganger again. Though, she made it look like she was aiming for the targets she'd always gone after before, she was primarily trying to get as close as she could so her attacks on the doppelganger's throat would be less likely to be blocked. She knew that she had to succeed at this if she was going to have any chance at beating the doppelganger.