"-!"
"-!"
I jumped back, while the other me mirrored my movements. I couldn't help but groan in exasperation, and he groaned, too.
'Great, a boss fight...and worse of all, it's a mirror fight.'
I had heard, sometimes, that there could be particularly strong Abnormalities hiding away within the core rooms of Dungeons. I had never seen one in person, however, till now...
And of all the fights I could've had to deal with...a mirror match.
'Didn't even bring a weapon with me...'
I grumble, as I get myself ready to fight. The other me did as well, and I was already pushing my mind to the brink to try and think of some way to win this.
To be frank, I was already at a disadvantage. Noticing an important detail: while I was roughed up, starving, thirsty, and exhausted from my trek in the cave...the other 'me' looked fresh and new.
Thankfully, I hadn't carried weapons since I entered the cave...however, this 'me' had the flashlight I had lost along the way stowed in his pocket.
From all of this, I figured that this 'me' wasn't just any version of me, but the 'me' just before I entered this cave.
Which meant...I was completely fucked.
The doppelganger, easily sensing the vulnerability in my thoughts, rushed forward with unsurprising speed - he was fast, but I knew my own speed well. He jabbed at my face, but I easily slapped it away with my left hand, twisting my body and attempting to elbow him.
He blocked by dropping his own elbow, and quickly stepped back to regain his posture.
I stepped in, throwing a kick at his side. He slipped under and tackled me before I could do anything else, easily sending me to the ground. I couldn't put up enough strength against his charge to keep on my feet.
Now on the ground, he sent a punch reeling towards my face, but I managed to turn my head to dodge. Expecting this, he had already thrown his right fist out immediately after. I wasn't able to move in time, and it caught my face with a clean right.
"GRRRAH!"
With a yell of force, I pulled a desperate move, throwing all of my body weight to the side and forcing the doppelganger off of me. I wanted to reverse the position to beat him up, too, but again, my strength was lacking.
He just rolled away, mostly unscathed, and got back up. Before I could scramble onto my feet he ran over and caught me with a brutal kick that dug into my face, sending my body flipping backwards.
I crashed against the hard cave wall, and I could feel the air leaving my lungs.
'S-Shit, I hit hard...'
The doppelganger immediately ran over, following up by stomping on my now-collapsed form. I grunted and groaned, balling up to protect my vitals. As if frustrated by my attempt at survival, each kick only became more vicious, now aiming at my ribs and the back of my head.
I needed to think, and fast, because I could feel the end of my consciousness approaching. Passing out here wasn't a loss - it was death. And death meant starting all over again in another Regression.
Think. Think.
'How do I defeat a me that's in a better condition, physically, mentally, and emotionally? Shit, this cave really is relentless...and damn it, everything hurts...'
For some reason, in this moment of desperation, I began to think back to Viola and her words.
'All it means to 'kill' is that, in the game of life and death, you win. Haha...maybe it's just in the nature of a student to keep following their master's teachings, no matter what.'
Even while the doppelganger rained kicks on my body, I still had enough energy to shout-
"You failed her...YOU FAILED ALL OF THEM, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"
I shouted, loud enough to make the cave walls echo with my voice. The doppelganger paused with momentary hesitation and...something like guilt clouding its' eyes. It really was a copy, all the way down to the mental flaws that I had. There was no way it wouldn't stop after hearing something like that from 'itself'.
While it did hurt me to say those words...I had had plenty of time to think over them in the darkness. This 'me' was probably just forced to truly process them just now. It was the 'me' that had been running away from them, instead of being forced to confront them in the darkness.
That small gap between the current me, and the me that had entered this cave - that was my chance. My chance to defeat myself.
Ignoring the pain, I screamed at the top of my lungs, forcing myself up to tackle it by the waist. It rolled over, tumbling against the rough stone as I coughed, managing to finally catch my breath. Everything felt wrong all over.
I rose to my feet, looking over at the 'me' that was now sprawled out on the floor. The doppelganger grit his teeth and stood up, meaning to charge me again - then I brought up my next winning item, the flashlight that had been on his waist.
The tackle hadn't been meaningless. In that momentary struggle, I had snatched it out of his pocket to use for myself. His advantage had become my advantage, and he'd come to regret the carelessness his one moment of hesitation brought.
He had only a moment to recognize it, before the blinding bright light was already piercing his eyes.
I lunged forward as he stumbled on his feet from the momentary blindness, slamming the hard titanium frame of the small flashlight right up into his jaw. There was a loud, sickening crack, and the viciousness of the blow combined with his own body weight that had been sailing forward sent him reeling backwards onto the ground, hard.
He groaned, and just like he was on me, I was on top of him. I continued ruthlessly smashing the flashlight into his skull, uncaring of how my knuckles split and of how the device started cracking and bending into pieces.
I didn't stop until I felt the doppelganger stop moving...then I sighed, falling over to the side and off the thing that had pretended to me, taking a deep breath.
Somewhere along the way, the fake flashlight had dissipated...and looking over, the doppelganger's body was disappearing too.
That was a real fight with a doppelganger...there was no deep overcoming of myself, or becoming stronger in the moment...I just used his own advantages and flaws against him. Because I knew them well...he just hadn't experienced what I had in this damn cave yet.
It was weird, thinking about the doppelganger as a real alternate version of me, so I decided to dismiss it. I took a few more minutes laying there, catching my breath with my battered, bruised body, before I finally stood up, struggling to stay on my feet as I snatched the core and crushed it in my palm. A full clear, complete...
'...is there really no way to get back to the hideout other than walking?'
I couldn't help but think, as I was was slowly transported out of the dungeon, encircled by an ethereal purple glow.
-----
['Jay' POV]
'Should I perhaps change my clothing...? A nun's outfit? No, but I'm so used to wearing the priestly garbs...but it's doubtless that it'd be easier to seduce him if I were to wear female clothing...'
I sighed, shaking my head at my ridiculous thoughts. Weirdly enough, my cheeks also felt hot, but I didn't understand why.
'I'm not sure what's more ridiculous, the fact that I only know about priest and nun-wear, or that I'm considering making it look more risque for the sake of one person...ahh...it's all for the Saintess in the end!'
Speaking of...
I looked over at her...she really was looking worse and worse for wear by the second. She barely looked to be conscious by now...
'Maybe he didn't make it-'
Just as that thought began to enter my mind, I heard the clicking of a nearby door. I didn't have much other than a small survival knife, so I readied that...only to see a familiar face appear in the door, slowly making their way into the hideout.
"Mr...Manager?"
His clothes were fine, but you could see the blood seeping through them...he definitely had some strong clothing, but it didn't protect him from whatever damage he received. There were an uncountable amount of bruises and discolored spots, and his breathing seemed ragged, his hair disheveled
Still, in his hands, were the most important things. The multi-colored shining crystals, generally just known as 'materials' by the few that had begun going into the dungeons already.
"I brought...the damn...materials."
He spoke, and then collapsed right then and then.
"Manager..." The Saintess, barely conscious, murmured his name, her voice hazy like someone at the peak of a fever. She gave the man a worried look, but she didn't even have enough mental energy to think too much about another person, at this point.
Then, just like that, I now had two passed out people in front of me. Two patients, and I was definitely no doctor. I felt another sigh coming on, but managed to hold it in.
"I guess I have my work cut out for me..."
The Saintess had held on beautifully, as she always did, and although I wasn't sure of how to feel about him, seeing Mr. Manager's condition after successfully bringing back the materials told me that he certainly was someone who could be trusted, if nothing else.
It was time for me to do my part.