District 42-Chapter 130: Duplicates
Casper barely had stood from the ground after receiving that punch and was already losing the strength on his legs and falling again. He could not believe what his eyes were showing him.
The two figures of Freygar were walking towards him slowly, both with their fists clenched and with a cold look on their faces. Casper couldn’t stand against that situation, so he needed to step back sometimes. He was willing to look back and see how his men were doing, but unfortunately, he couldn’t avoid his gaze from those two. He felt that, if he did, he would surely die.
"What the heck does this man did? The smoke grenades were just to hid and don’t show what they were doing, that’s obvious, but the point is: what they did? How is it possible? Does he doubled only himself or all the other troops are doubled as well?"
One of the duplicates ran against him raising its arm. His movements were fast as always, and Casper barely forgot how sharpened his mind should be when fighting with someone like Freygar.
He avoided the punch with difficulty and needed to dodge once again when nearly hit in the face. Bit by bit, he resumed the rhythm of the fight and got used to it.
However, just as he was preparing himself to stop the defensive and go to the offensive, the other duplicate appeared suddenly in his field of view. He was on his flank, moving like a bullet towards him.
"He was rounding me all this while... Damn!" He parried a kick aimed towards him from Duplicate A, rotating the body just in time to hold the wrist of Duplicate B, preventing his punch to finish its motion.
A drop of sweat ran down his face, hanging on the point of his chin. The three of them got stable for a second, breathing in and out in the meantime. So suddenly as their silence, the action resumed again, the Duplicates began their synchronized attack towards Casper, and the White warrior displayed all his experience in martial arts dealing with both.
One could even find that Casper was being amazing while fighting against two duplicates of someone as powerful as an Aesir. However, looking at it technically, the soldier was in a serious pinch, and it would be troublesome to him to get out of that situation.
No matter how good he was at defending and dodging, no matter how many times he could still bear that battle, the time would come when he runs out of gas and his performance would low drastically. Also, even if his stamina keeps up, that fight would last forever, since he couldn’t find any openings to attack.
The two duplicates were pressuring him in a way that he couldn’t retaliate by any means. If he even tried, he would lose his pace and start to get hit. Once the first punch landed, his death was a certainty.
"I need to find a way out of this immediately! There is no way that I can keep up like this forever. Their coordination gets even more polished, it’s nearly perfect. I can feel like fighting with just one person that can be at two places at the same time." Casper’s face was getting into a different color. Soon, he would be completely purple. He was holding his breath since the two began their assault against him. He couldn’t even give time to himself to breathe. If he didn’t focus entirely on their movements and how to counter them, he wouldn’t be able to last for more time.
"If I want to win this battle I will need to be relentless. Precise, agile, and deadly. There is no time to slack. My comrades are needing my help there."
Casper gritted his teeth and clenched his fists hard. He knew that it would hurt at some point, but there was no way he could back away now or keep on the defensive forever and wait for all the prisoners to die.
Once Duplicate A attacked him, Casper swiftly dodged to the side and stepped forward. He positioned himself on his flank, right beside his stretched arm.
"One of his most amateur mistakes is to not pull your arm quickly after you punch!" He grabbed the duplicate’s arm in a way that clearly showed his intention to break it.
However, Duplicate B was already at range to reach and was going to attack Casper. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
The soldier used all his strength to twist the arm he was holding and put himself behind Duplicate A.
The other clone stopped the motion of his blow when he saw that he couldn’t reach Casper without attack his own partner. Casper smiled at that sight.
"So... you are the real one, right? One duplicate could be attacked, and even killed, easily if it meant to achieve victory, but you wouldn’t harm yourself, would you?" Casper whispered.
The soldier found it to be very lucky of him to catch the right one on the first try. However, even if he did catch the duplicate, it would still be troublesome to catch him without cause some harm to her, and the lack of worry to hurt her would be the clue he needed to find the real one.
"You don’t seem to be so tough at all. To be honest, if I was in your place, I would have had punched myself right on the face and broke one limb or two to not be discovered."
Casper applied a judo technique in Freygar, rotating his body and throwing him on the ground. Freygar’s back slammed the floor and he lost his breath.
The duplicate went to stop him, but her attack got countered at the right time. Casper smashed her mask with a punch that sent her flying backward, falling on the ground as well.
He took advantage of that time he gained to catch his breath and look around. The blood drained from his face when he saw that a lot of inmates were laying on the ground with their masks totally covered in blood, some unconscious, others moaning in pain, still awake. The ones that were still standing were fighting for their lives. The Ridires didn’t seem to plan to kill them immediately, just incapacitate to do it afterward.
"No. Hold on. There is still something I can do." He reached the master key in his pocket again.
Alfar’s group was still far away from there. If they could catch up, then it would be a good addition for their forces. The only thing he needed was that they could have won their fight.
"That’s the only way. There is nothing I can do besides it. I don’t have the strength to beat an entire troop of Ridires, nor a weapon to annihilate them. But... that’s the problem... if I can’t count on the help of my comrades now, what do I do? If they are still fighting for their lives, how can we get out of this situation?"
At that moment, Casper realized that he was facing something called destiny. Something he hated from the bottom of his heart. Because the soldier hated everything he could not change. He even denied the existence of fate various times in his life. He was a pretentious person, and no one with this personality would like to deal with something like fate.
So, when facing that situation, Casper’s mind tried stubbornly to negate that this sort of thing was happening to him. There should be another way around that he couldn’t see. The world was filled with possibilities, and find himself in a scenario where just existed one was too much for him.
"Maybe... that’s one of my biggest flaws... Damn it... Press this hell of a button... Press it, you coward! Let your fears behind you, learn how to count with other people around, stop to think that everyone will fail with you!"
Casper was someone who could do things that others couldn’t do, and even so, he wasn’t able to save the ones he treasured before, and couldn’t do it even in that new world. Always when he found himself helpless and weak like that, an unbearable feeling of regret dominated him, and again he remembered all the times he failed when he needed to count with others.
"Press it... Do it! Forget about everything that happened before! You are stronger than it, Casper!" He took the master key off his pocket and pressed its button, the holographic keyboard appeared in front of him.
The White warrior was about to type the command to send the signal to Alfar’s group again but got interrupted when someone bumped into him suddenly, preventing him do anything and making the master key fall from his hand.
"T-the duplicate? Or is it the real one? Damn, but I am sure I incapacitated them completely!" He looked to the person who did it. Freygar was standing there... but the other two of him were still laying on the ground.
