Crusader King-Chapter 141: Two-faced lie(5)

Cades looked at the steadfastly standing opponent a few feet away from him, the opponent that seemed to not take Cades serious in any way, the opponent that seemed as if he had almost been playing with Cades until now, and he began to call for his active, quickly feeling the lightning rise from the depths of his body, into his arms and, finally, it spread out, rushing towards the false him in thick and powerful strands that seemed to ooze of pure mana, something to be expected as he had put as much as he could into it, well, as much as he could muster in a single second, which was about a fifth of his entire mana pool, a drying feeling, but not too bad.

As the thick white strands, something that had changed from before, rushed towards his enemy Cades was almost certain of victory, until he noticed that his opponent was still standing completely still, steadfast as an island in the ocean that had been waiting for millennia, until it heaved it's sword upwards, incredibly fast, holding it above himself as if to block, something he had already done while the lightning was still coursing through Cades, the very instance that his opponent seemed to know as well as he himself did, as if he hoped to block the active.

But instead of just hoping, something actually happened, something that scared the sh#t out of the still watching Cades, the Cades that had begun to think of actives as almost absolute, the Cades that had begun to stop using his own magic and almost completely relied on actives during fights because they could be casted so fast and were much more efficient in relation to mana, something every normal magician had to worry about often, but he had been exempt from this worry for quite some time, but now, he was feeling terror, pure despair at the sight of an overwhelmingly better opponent, not a stronger, not a faster opponent, no, simply an opponent that was overwhelmingly better at fighting, strategizing, even just moving, a version of him that was better in fighting basically.

And as such, he watched as the white, thick strands of lightning were met by thinner strands of lightning that seemed to connect with them, forcing their way into the sword he was currently holding, the sword that became scolding hot just a second later from the way his false copy was holding it, something that he had already come to know to his own suffrage.

Finally, as all of the lightning had vanished into the blade of his opponent, that opponent heaved his blade upwards, and those very same lightning strands from before, white as a piece of paper and glowing as powerfully as multiple suns, into the air, dispersing it in a kind of tree with wide, powerful twigs, a thick strand that held itself together using the inherent quality of the active, and completely intimidated the real Cades that had now began to doubt if he was even the real one, despairing at seeing the seemingly absolute difference between himself and himself, at least for a second, until he managed to catch himself once more, stopping his soul from falling into the abyss of pure terror.

But before he could completely return form the bottomless abyss he suddenly felt something hit him in the back, something relatively weak, not enough to really hurt him, but something that was strong enough to make him stumble and disorient him for just the fraction of a moment, enough for his opponent, the better version of himself, to move forward, blade ready to rip him apart, still as greedy for his flesh as all the times before when the opponent would've been able to slay him with ease but had simply let him be.

He didn't know what to do, he was scared, he was panicking at the thought of that blade ripping through his flesh, a feeling Cades knew very well to hurt like hell, but then, he had a second of enlightenment, a singular moment that would probably save him, he remembered something he had just recently received, something that would probably save his life in this situation, something that should be able to allow him to get a grip and meet the coming blade with at least a bit of steadfastness, and also something that explained why his opponent had always seemed so stupidly steadfast in everything he, or Cades, or a copy, or whatever it was, had done.

His new active, the one he had gained from the false spider that had almost killed him using it's huge and powerful body, the active that allowed his feet to stick to the ground using magic, he had to use that active, he had just realized that, and he had realized, just a singular moment later, that he truly had to do it as fast as he could.

Activating the active he finally stopped falling backwards and looked up, expecting a powerful blade to be about to rip him apart, but instead, he was met with a flat wall of iron, and for just a moment, he was dumbfounded, before the flat side of his opponent's blade crashed into his face, causing a stabbing pain to resonate where his nose should have been, most likely obliterating it into pieces, and causing him to taste mouth within his open mouth that was now screaming in surprise, but at least the attack wasn't enough to knock him out.

After his opponents first attack, when Cades finally recovered and was able to see, having completely let his guard down to really any attack by the monster that was acting as him, he was suddenly scared, feeling that something was off. ƒrēenovelkiss.com

Finally, when he felt a neck on the back of his neck, around where his nape should be located, he realized it, he realized that his opponent had the warp-step, and he realized that the monster had his hand around his neck, and just a moment later he realized that something was happening.

A stream of energy shot into his neck and began to boil his backside for just a instance until he suddenly stopped seeing, with his entire world turning into a clash between three colours, silver, orange and violet, as he was suddenly having to fight against foreign and yet known mana, powerful mana that was trying to destroy him.

The attack had been controlled, barely enough to make him faint, but he knew that such a unconscious state like this took especially long, and as such, he felt both fear and relief as he fell down, very single thought he had been harbouring leaving his practically lifeless body.