Rex watches with his eyebrows raised to the peak and wide-opened eyes as the two mounting streams of blood took the form of two figures, the crimson color soon slowly fades and turns into a bronze skin color.
Observing the two figures unfolding into their forms, he can't help but gasp in surprise.
Both figures take only a couple of seconds before they finally turned into their form completely, and both of them take the form of Rex's Werewolf form. Even as his eyes inspected them, Rex feels like he was looking in a mirror.
From the presence, the two curving back horns, and even their postures are identical to him.
'Not possible... this can't be possible...', Rex thought in aghast.
Although he has already readied himself to take on whatever the third obstacle might be, he has never anticipated that he would be fighting himself, two of himself matter of fact. It really surprised him to his core as he didn't realize that he was taking a couple of steps back.
A rocky sound can be heard, Rex looks back and find himself at the edge of the mountain peak.
Rex's legs are moving on their own and now he's already at the edge almost falling down, a bead of cold sweat drizzle down the side of his face before he looks back at the two figures. Out of nowhere, he feels his breath stuck in his throat when the two figures raised their face to look at him.
"How about it? Are you confident in taking on two of yourselves...?"
While sitting on his eldrich throne, Kaiser commented with a cheeky smile on his face.
Knowing that he has taken Rex by surprise by creating two identical illusions that are similar more than just in appearance alone, he can't help but take pleasure from Rex's expression. It's a sight that he has never seen before.
Gritting his teeth, Rex take a stand and went into his battle position, 'They can't exactly copy me'
'I refuse to believe that they are exactly the same as me'
Doubting that the two figures have the completely same power that he had, Rex slowly circulates his energy anticipating an attack. But then his eyes dilated once against seeing the two figures activate the Blood Moon King Mark, Red Force, and Berserker's Curse skill just the same as he did just now.
But as he was carefully sizing the two figures up, he suddenly turns his head to the side briefly.
Although he was inside Kaiser's realm which should be separate from the outside world, Rex can feel that something is wrong with the outside world. Feeling the pain that attacks his inside that doesn't belong to him, he can't help but frown.
'Adhara, can you hear me? Are you okay?', Rex tries to reach out to Adhara through telepathy.
Since she has beaten Gistella fair and square due to her Proxy of the Omicron bloodline, she now ranks first in the battle prowess hierarchy. Due to that, Rex should be able to contact her through telepathy but he received no answer.
It seems he can't use telepathy through this place, but he worries that Adhara might be in trouble.
'Wait for me, I'll get this done quickly and get out'
Rex then fixated his attention back on the two figures before he lowers his stance and roared.
"What are you waiting for? Come at me!"
Immediately after he said that his eardrums rattled when two sonic booms blasted the air.
'They're fast! As fast as me!', Rex exclaimed inside his head as his eyes tries to follow the two figures' movement, both of them instantly went to either side of him and mantled their claws with red energy that is all too familiar.
Clang!
Clang!
Rex raised his claws to block the two consecutive attacks from the side with his eyes turning red.
Although he was doubtful about the two figures thinking that they might only be able to use his Blood Moon King Mark power, he started to realize that he was wrong, 'Executor Slash! I got that skill from the system but they also can do it!'
Despite being able to activate the Berserker's Curse skill, he's still doubtful of the two figures.
Berserker's Curse skill is a skill that can't be enhanced by the system and he got it from Jarvald, Rex is not that surprised since he already expected that Kaiser can replicate that skill easily. But Executor Slash is a completely different case.
It's a skill that he got from Bertolf, but it has been enhanced by the system.
Now he's basically forced to believe that these two figures are completely identical to him in terms of appearance and power, he doesn't want to believe it but the proof is right in front of him, displayed vividly like clear water.
Rex can't react before he suddenly feels a sting on the back of his leg and suddenly got flung away.
"Gaargh!!"
With blazing-fast speed, the two figures are able to coordinate with each other and aimed at different parts, one aimed for his legs while the other punched him on the chest using the Force Beam skill that harnessed the Red Force to the maximum.
Blood forces its way out of Rex's mouth as he got sent rolling to the side and almost falls down.
Rex held on the edge of the mountain peak before he sensed the two figures are already heading towards him once again, he clenched his teeth and pulls himself up before his eyes landed on the two figures that are a couple of inches away from him.
Each of the muscles in their arms bulged, he can see it clearly.
Not wanting to lose out to the two figures' aggressiveness that matches his own, Rex tries to be creative by redirecting the fist that is heading toward his face to the other figure on the right's face and jumped to dodge a sweeping kick amplified with a red force that intends to break his knees.
Using his right leg, he sent a jumping roundhouse kick right at the figure on the left.
Although that needs a couple of steps, he did it in a fraction of a second, this is a high-paced fight.
With such a decisive movement harnessing every ounce of his battle experience as a Werewolf and as a specialized aggressive close-quarter combat fighter from the military, this should be able to garner him a few hits to the two figures.
But as if the three of them has the exact thought, each of their strikes missed the target.
Swoosh!
Powerful winds follow the trajectory of their attacks as the three of them missed, their auras then suddenly become sharper at the exact same time before they follow the flow of their bodies and launch an attack, having exactly the same thought in their minds. Rex gritted his teeth as his chest was scratched and his chin got hit by an uppercut kick.
Simultaneously, Rex is able to land a punch on the one on the left and kicks the one on the right.
Bam!
Bam!
The three of them got sent crashing in opposite directions before stomping the ground and standing their ground, Rex looks at the wounds he suffered before looking back at the two figures. 'How can I win this... we have exactly the same thought and instincts'
Rex can't help but complained in his head as it's impossible to beat the two figures.
Wanting to know more of what they have and also the fact that he's in a pinch situation earlier, Rex activates his Extreme Sense skill right after he missed wanting to catch the two figures off guard. But he was surprised to find that the two figures also has the same idea as him.
Despite being able to land a hit, Rex suffered twice as much damage as the two figures.
One against two is a clear disadvantage especially when he's fighting two of himself, one is already hard enough but two is beyond him. No matter what he tries, he would definitely suffer twice as much damage every time they clash.
Looking at the two figures intending to attack once again, Rex lowers his stance and frowns.
'Just what can I do in this situation, I have absolutely no notion to win...'
~
Meanwhile, back to the castle.
Adhara is currently looking forward with a troubled expression, her body is not responding properly and she didn't realize that she just crashed onto the castle's wall and bounced off of it. If she crashes onto the castle's wall, then she must go through the barrier surrounding the castle.
Now she just realized it when she saw the barrier is torn open due to that cursed beam earlier.
Unlike Rex who is the owner of the castle and is instantly recognized by the castle, Adhara is only allowed access to the castle and the castle needs a few seconds to acknowledge her presence. Being flung away by the cursed beam is too fast for the castle to acknowledge her.
Because of that, the barrier that should let her go through turns solid and block her.
While desperately trying to stand up with trembling legs, Adhara's shock didn't end at the torn barrier as she also saw an unbelievable scene where the other cursed creatures are slightly bowing submissively at the cursed creature that just emerge from the forest.
It's clear now that the gathering of cursed creatures is caused by this cursed creature.
Flunra said earlier during the meeting that the gathering of the cursed creatures at the western part of the Humming Damned Forest can only be caused by two things, it's either there's a cursed object or there's a cursed creature commanding them.
By the looks of it, the answer should be the latter.
Just as she regain back her feet a figure landed beside her and help her straighten up, it was Gistella that seems to be forcing herself to move and help despite still experiencing the backlash from the Nightmare Negation she cast on Rex to help him sleep.
"Why are they after the castle?", Gistella asked with a frown.
Adhara replied by shaking her head before she pointed at the flying cursed creature that should be commanded of these cursed creatures, "I don't know, but I think that one is leading the cursed creatures"
Upon hearing this, Gistella trains her eyes forward to see the cursed creature she pointed at.
Emerging from the forest with a loud buzzing sound due to the flapping of its wings is a cursed creature that has a woman's body and also features of a bee such as a stinger, antennas, and six pointy legs that can definitely be used to impale anything it wants.
Bringing a disastrous presence with it, Gistella and Adhara know that this cursed creature is trouble.
Ignoring the other cursed creatures that seem to pay their respect to the cursed bee, its stinger suddenly curved and pointed at the both of them before gathering a ball of cursed energy at its tip.
Gistella didn't sit idle as she instantly stands in front of Adhara and creates a blue barrier.
Although her eyes are fixated on the cursed energy ball that is concentrating on the stinger's tip, Gistella widened her eyes when a force suddenly pushes her back suddenly. It was the cursed beam, but it was very fast, even Gistella's eyes can't see its trajectory.
Bam!
Thankfully, the barrier is able to block the cursed beam, at least that's what Gistelal thought at first.
Swish!
Despite being able to block the cursed beam that travels faster than the eyes can see, the blue barrier that she conjured slowly got corrupted and turned black. It then just decayed and melted away, and falls to the ground like a lump of liquid.
Upon realizing this, Gistella frowned, "Adhara we need to move and take that thing down"
"I will put many layers of barrier around us as we make our way to that cursed bee, taking it down will definitely dissuade the other cursed creatures from attacking us", she added firmly, they need to do something in order to protect the castle.
Shame awaits them if when Rex came back, the castle is in ruin, especially for Adhara.
But just as she said that the both of them froze in their spots when they saw many cursed creatures poke out of the forest. Each of them is not a weak cursed creature, they are at least at the level of the Elemental Curse cursed creatures and the cat-like cursed creatures from earlier.
Gistella's confidence that they can take the cursed bee on vanished instantly.
Swish!
"Haarghh!"
Out of nowhere, she feels the same numbing sensation that Adhara felt earlier as she crashed back and onto the castle's wall, she kneels on all four while looking at the ground realizing that her entire body has turned stiff.
"Gistella! Can you still move?!", Adhara asked in worry, the both of them can't go down.
With quite a bit of difficulty, Gistella turns her head to look at Adhara with a pale expression. She shakes her head finding that her nervous system also got crippled, the cursed beam is too fast for them to react.
Realizing that they both are unable to move properly, Adhara gritted her teeth, 'What now...'
'Should we really flee? There's nothing we can do except flee right now, but I don't want to let Rex down when he entrusted the castle to me! I don't want to flee', she thought determinedly, but the situation is looking bleak.
But then suddenly, her eyes widened when she saw dozens of projectiles fly past the open field.
These projectiles turns out to be dark arrows which caught Adahra by surprise, many cursed creatures got sniped on the head and the cursed bee also was forced to raise its arms to block the incoming arrow.
Looking to the side, Adhara's eyes lit up, "Are they helping us...?"
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