Chapter 80: The Downfall of The Reinhardt Family Household: Part Two

“I must admit, I’m surprised, number one. I didn’t expect the strongest surbodinate of the Reinhardt Family to be such a fucking weeb, naming a Spell like that. You know, the show hasn’t aired in centuries, right?”

“I’m a fan of classics. It’s a classic. And classics never die, kid.” Taipan readily defends himself. Ironically, he’s also attacking. Him alongside his clone.

“I made sure to keep my eyes locked intently on both of them when he created the “Shadow Clone”, so I can tell which one is the real Taipan and which isn’t. But it’s odd, him and his clone, they’re both equally as fast and strong as he was when he was still fighting me alone. I for sure thought he’d be slower or something, since there’s two of him now but that isn’t the case in the slightest.”

“It seems the only thing that has decreased is his Mana. By roughly about half, if I’m not mistaken.”

“You see it, too?” Hearing Dawn say that slightly confirms for me that one of the Skills she might have inherited from me could be Soul-Piercing Eyes.

“Yes.” She agrees. “It really is a very powerful Spell. He uses his Mana to not only duplicate himself but his Stats as well, so his clone doesn’t fall behind, and so that he can also still fight at full strength. It seems almost unfair for his opponents.”

“Tell me about it.”

~Clank!~

~Ting!~

~Clank!~

Our weapons clash incessantly as we’re locked in a two on one battle.

To my right and to my left are my opponents. And they’re not making shit easy for me. Taipan, from my left, launches a barrage of slashes with overpowering vigor while his clone does the same from my right.

I dodge and parry their attack to the best of my current capabilities, but some actually land. Just not enough to cut through my clothes and reach my skin, only shredding them here and there. I’ve activated all my A-Rank and above Skills, save for the ones I got from Amaruq, excluding Soul Freeze. I’m moving faster than I’ve ever moved since becoming a Warrior and yet…

“I’m still lagging behind. What a pain.”

The battle goes on. Shockwaves emerging with every exchange, the snowy planes getting more and more ruined as time passes. The battle moves from the planes to the trees, each stray slash cutting a fair share of them down.

I dash above to create some distance and hopefully hinder my opponents’ momentum to boot. It doesn’t work. They cut through branch after branch after branch to get to me, closing the attempted distance instantly. The clone draws close, flipping along the trees to then jump up high and come back down with powerful force to deliver a double descending slash with his daggers.

I immediately block, seeing as I haven’t enough time to dodge, positioning my daggers horizontally in front of my chest.

The impact sends me flying, my back crashing against multiple trees without my body losing momentum in the slightest.

“Kkark!” I cough out a bit of blood and heal almost immediately. My body finally begins to slow down as I’m forced back to the large expanse of the crater I made when I was fighting Amaruq.

I slide back against the snow and plunge my daggers to the ground to finally stop. Then I look ahead. Here comes Taipan and his damned clone.

“No, wait…”

Only it’s not one clone that’s following close now. It’s two.

“No way-”

Before I can even register what’s happening, the two clones turn to three, then four, then five. His Mana just keeps building up around him, separating from him and turning into a duplicate. Up until there’s a total of ten Taipans. Each with a mind of their own, and each as strong and fast as the original.

“This isn’t fair.” Is the only thought I have left to cross my mind.

But Taipan doesn’t even give me a chance to gather myself as he attacks me along with his nine other selves, each exuding roughly about a tenth of his original Mana.

“Fine then. Think I’m scared of you? I’LL TAKE ALL OF YOU ON! BE IT TEN OR A HUNDRED!” I roar as I circulate my Mana with the use of Cultivator, then manipulate that Mana to coat the Emerald Twin Fangs. Afterwards, I use Zeus for the first time ever since obtaining it. The daggers start to emit white lightning, bolts jolting around them incessantly. I let go of the daggers, freeing their handles from my grips as they fall only for me to catch them at the ends of their chains. Then, I dash towards my ten foes, my speed increasing by the moment.

They immediately surround me once they get close enough to attack. In response, I twist and flip, launching elongated slashes with my daggers all the while. Their parried and returned to me but I don’t let up as I swing them around and send them back.

~Ting!~

~Ting!~

~Ting!~

Multiple blades continually clash and clash again as if a war of swords is taking place. I escape my encirclement by jumping and flipping over a few clones. One follows immediately, throwing one of his daggers at me.

“!?”

In a fit of pure adrenaline, I dodge it by titling my head to my right then follow up by swinging Right Fang’s chain straight behind me as if to cause Right Fang to chase after the dagger that’s been thrown by the clone. All in basically an instant, the chain circles around the daggers handle, causing Right Fang to tap it as a-

~Clank!~

-Sound results from the impact while I pull back the chain and swing it towards the clone. Wiggling it as I do, the chain releases the dagger it caught and throws it at a great speed towards the clone. His head explodes from the impact, like a black balloon being popped open and his body dissipates, along with the dagger still in his hand and the one thrown back before hitting anyone else.

“One down, nine to go.” I observe as I dash towards the remaining clones and Taipan himself. I can still see him clearly, what with never having deactivated Soul-Piercing Eyes. He’s just in between the small crowd of clones, not charging ahead, not cowering in the back. Just strategically attacking in the most advantageous way he can think of. One that allows him to use his clones as canon fodder and at the same time not have his vision hindered.

One of the clones then attacks me head on. I pull the ends of the chains connected to my daggers towards me and catch my daggers by their handles as they’re sent hurling straight at me. And then, me and the clone instantly clash. We struggle against each other for a bit, until I emit the lightning surrounding my daggers to envelope him and electrocute him all over.

“Kaargh!” He wails as his body dissipates, turning into a dark silhouette that disappears as if blown by the wind. Now there’s eight of them left. Four of that eight come up to my right, left, front and back and then attack simultaneously.

I dash towards the one to my front. He responds by thrusting his right dagger straight at me, directed towards my face. I release my right dagger, letting it fall so I can catch it by its chain’s end. Then I raise my right hand, chain and dagger in tow as I swing it to the left, wrapping Right Fang’s chain completely around my neck only to catch the short blade’s handle with my left hand, resting it on my left shoulder. I then tilt my head to the side to avoid the clone’s attack, tangling my right arm with his to then wrap my palm around the back of his neck. With a heave and ho, I pull back my arm and slide my right leg to the side to come in front of him. An action that spins his whole body forward and sends his ass flying to clash with the clone behind me.

Ignoring the crunching sound resulting from the impact, I release Right Fang from my left hand by swaying the blade to the side, causing it to spin back around my neck, unwrapping its chain from my neck only for me to catch it once my neck is fully released, the blade whooshing briefly to the right only to be pulled back as it grazes the ground a little, sliding along the snow. I then turn anti-clockwise after grabbing Left Fang by its chain and swing both daggers around with me as I spin.

Left Fang swiftly slides against the wind and comes back around to behead the clone to my left. The blade doesn’t stop though as it continues to attack the clone that was on my right and is now on my left, followed by Right Fang to boot.

~Clank!~

~Clank!~

He parries both attacks by raising his daggers up to his head’s level. The Fangs bounce off his daggers and I pull them back to catch them by their handles. I look to my front, the clone I sent flying earlier ended up dying along with the one he crashed into as a result of the daggers they held impaling each other’s wielders, themselves, simultaneously. Similarly, the clone I’ve just beheaded has also dissipated.

Now only five Taipans remain.

“Hah… You know, a part of me was afraid, you’d simply create more clones if I just killed them. But it seems my worries were unwarranted. Though it’s a powerful Spell, it takes a lot out of you, doesn’t it?” I ask looking at my opponent and his four remaining clones. “Seems it doesn’t duplicate all your Stats. Only Strength, Speed and Intelligence, I would guess. Of course, if it was able to duplicate your Health Stat, you’d basically have infinite stamina, and well… that’d just be cheating.” I add with a condescending smirk.

“Cheating?” He echoes. “This coming from an F-Rank who can fight on equal footing with high level Warriors? Laughable.”

“But you’re not laughing.” I observe with a drained expression.

“And as for the topic of exhaustion. I don’t think you, of all people, have the right to say anything.” .

“Fuck… he’s right. I feel like I might pass out any second right now with how tapped out I am.” I admit internally. “Seems my attempt at regulating my breathing to not seem as tired as I actually am, only served to make it easier to tell for a Warrior of this jackass’s caliber. As much as I hate to admit.” I’ve never used this many Skills at once before. Furthermore, it’s not just my A-Rank and above Skills that are active right now.

“There’s also Brawler, Zeus, Hypermove and the Overseer Spell.”

“You’re right.” I say to Taipan. “You’re fucking right and I hate it. So let’s get this over with already. Since we’re both tired.”

“Agreed.” He says with a small condescending chuckle.

“Holy shit, and I thought he was allergic to laughter.”

I faintly hear Dawn softly giggle at my internal statement as Taipan continues.

“It’s time for me to really go all out.” He says.

In the blink of an eye, he disappears, along with his clones. Then before I even realize it, they’re surrounding me in mid-air, all of them, ready to attack.

“Fuck!”

I desperately dodge each of them one after the other, though poorly, as all their attacks succeed in slashing me all over. The first clone comes down from my right side. I move back to evade him, but he slashes my chest, leaving a mark through my shirt, cutting my tie in half. The second clone comes down from my left. I turn anti-clockwise to evade, but he leaves a scar across my right cheek. Having spun a full 180, allowing the one that was behind me to now be in front of me, he comes crashing down straight ahead. I turn anti-clockwise once again to evade him but he succeeds in slashing through my shirt and across my stomach.

Then comes the forth at an angle that can allow him to decapitate me if I’m not careful, I step to my left as quick as I possibly can, but his attack leaves a long scar across the right side of my neck, forcing me to slide to meet the last one to attack. Taipan himself. He comes at a great speed to deliver a downward double slash with his daggers. Ignoring all the growing pain invading my body, I jump, spinning horizontally to dodge his attack but to no avail. One of his daggers cuts right through my left arm, between my elbow and shoulder, while the other dagger cuts through my left thigh, both blades sinking so deep that they even reach my bones. “Urk!” I squint, but try to keep my momentum as I continue spinning over Taipan. Of which I succeed. As for landing back down safely, however… well that’s a different story.

I fall on my back, thanking the soft snow for breaking my fall as best as possible. Little do I know, my opponent, or opponents, aren’t done with me yet. Looking up, I see them, already in the air, ready to cut me down as they land. I quickly roll my body away from them, successful evading their joined attack.

Then afterwards, I push down on the snow and jolt my body upwards, using Gale Blaze to hurl me higher, only to deactivate the Spell immediately after. Then I flip back to land safely on the ground a fair distance away from Taipan and his clones. I look ahead towards my duplicated foe. He’s still coming. I then stand up straight-“Kuek!”-only to fail to do so almost immediately as my body forces itself to kneel down.

“Too many Skills… activated… adding… Gale Blaze… even if… briefly…” I grunt, struggling to even control my breathing. “Not just that… my body…”

“It seems you’ve been poisoned, Master.” Says Dawn telepathically, her voice laced with genuine aching worry. “Please, Master! Let me-”

“No! Stay… in… Item… Space.” I manage to order through the pain. Dawn obeys, with obvious pain struck silence. It’s worse than when I fought Amaruq. A poison attack that affects your Spiritual Body. “What a… pain.” Literally. I use Cultivator like I’ve never used Cultivator before, enveloping my body with my Mana and forcing said-Mana to take control of my weakened body. With a final deep grunt, I hoist myself up. But as I focus my eyes, a dagger reveals itself about five centimetres in front of my face. Held by number one. Held by Taipan.

~Swoop!~

He misses, though barely. A result of me quickly tilting my head and bending backwards to avoid my head getting cut in half. Only, now my forehead is bleeding. A result of the blade having successfully peeled off a piece of my skin in its way. Ignoring my growing blindness from the red fluid dripping down over my eyes, I dash towards the three clones still coming at me, leaving Taipan behind me. My speed increases significantly, no rather, exponentially, throwing the clones off.

The reason for that is Fury of Dantian. For the very first time, I use the Skill’s Mana amplification function. My Mana Capacity increases seven fold. Going from over twelve million, to over eighty million. I then use Cultivator to recklessly transfer all that Mana towards my Hypermove Skill, further amplifying its exponential increase on my overall speed. I don’t even have time to quantify how fast I’m going.

In an instant, all four clones get sliced in half, dissipating like black mist in the process.

I simply stand there afterwards, then slightly turn my head back to look at Taipan. The only one left. My mind is in a haze. My vision is blurry. But I can see him. Or rather, sense him.

He attacks. Moving faster than he ever has before. I attack back, moving faster than I ever have before. We clash, harder than ever before, as a great and powerful shockwave emerges between us.

~Booom!!!~

Threatening to blow us far away from each other but we stand firm. The shockwave spreads out, creating an even larger crater than the one I created when I fought Amaruq. One that wipes out all that’s left of the forest.

As we continue to wrestle with our daggers, the resulting force warps the very gravity around us, levitating us up as we start to spin around. Clouds forming as multiple lightning bolts start striking down incessantly and similarly striking out from the gravitational field surrounding us. I push forward with all my strength, and he does the same as we continue wrestling.

Then, in the end, he overpowers me. Pushing back with all his might, he hurls me away, sending me flying straight towards the mountains. But just when I think he’s done, he slowly raises his right dagger to point it at me, then launches a Special Attack for the second time since this battle started.

“Venomous Redemption.” He slowly utters.

Then… myself, and the very mountains I’m flying towards behind me, the clouds. Everything in front of him… gets sliced to pieces.

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