Chapter 176: Clash with The Gemini Twins

The final big show started.

Dr. Thorne stepped back as a faint, transparent energy shield started appearing around his console. He picked up a datapad, his face calm and showing no emotion.

The two Gemini moved as one. The one on the left raised his right hand, with his palm opened. At the same time, the one on the right raised his left hand.

There was no sound, no big flash of light. Two creatures just showed up in front of them, called out with a cold and quiet skill.

Jonah felt very scared. He saw dark copies of the things he had made. One was a huge, brute-like creature, built like Maul. Its eyes were not filled with rage but were plain lenses. The other was a creature like Nyx, its wings had sharp blades of white crystal.

“Maul, intercept!” Jonah yelled, his voice breaking the silence. “Vanessa, shield!”

His own Maul, the real one, appeared with a loud THUD, letting out a furious roar that was of pure rage. He charged forward, a true monster of body and rage.

But Thorne’s creatures didn’t charge him directly.

They went different ways. One turning left, the other turning right. They were surrounding him, moving to attack Jonah’s Maul from two sides at once. It was a simple tactic, executed with inhuman speed.

At the same time, the two white Nyx-copies shot into the air, their crystal wings making a buzzing sound.

FZZT! FZZT!

They both fired many sharp, crystal bits. One aimed at Vanessa from the front. The other went around her fast and aimed her from the back.

Vanessa threw up a glowing shield. “They’re coordinating!” she yelled.

CRACK!

Her shield, which could withstand a blow from a charging monster broke into many bits of light. The Nyx copies hit her shield from two directions at the same time. The simultaneous impacts created a vibration that her shield wasn’t able to handle.

Jonah and Vanessa were immediately on the defensive.

“Maul, pull back! Defend Vanessa!” Jonah commanded. His Maul, confused by the attack hitting him from both ways, made an angry roar and moved to stand in front of Vanessa.

But the Gemini were relentless. They kept hitting Maul’s tough hide from both sides. Their Nyx-copies flew through the air, firing endless crystal bits that forced Vanessa to create one shield after another, each one breaking almost as soon as it appeared.

It was a good show of skill. Every attack was supported. Every defense was turned into a weakness.

“Fascinating,” Dr. Thorne said from behind his shield, his voice calm as he took note on his datapad. “Your synergy relies on verbal commands and shared emotional states. It creates a response delay of approximately 0.3 seconds. My Gemini have no such delay.”

Jonah gritted his teeth, his thoughts moving fast. He needed to break their rhythm.

“Specter!” he whispered.

His Phantom Weaver appeared beside him, silent and deadly.

“Create an illusion of Maul,” Jonah commanded. “Send it at the one on the left. The real Maul will charge the one on the right. We split their focus!”

It was a good plan. A classic strategy.

Specter’s illusionary Maul appeared, roaring as it charged the Gemini on the left. At the same moment, the real Maul roared and charged the Gemini on the right.

But the Gemini did not fall for it.

The Gemini on the left, the one being charged by the illusion, didn’t even move. He simply stepped to his side. At the exact same time, the Gemini on the right, raised a hand. A wall of white energy shot up from the floor, blocking the real Maul’s path.

Jonah stared, his mind trying to process what had just happened. How could they react so precisely?

Then he saw it. The Gemini on the left had been looking at the illusion. But the one on the right had been looking at the real Maul. Because their minds were linked, they both saw through each other’s eyes. They had two sets of eyes, but only one, shared mind. What one saw, the other instantly knew.

Jonah started to feel scared. He finally understood the true horror of what he was facing.

He couldn’t think faster than it. He couldn’t fool it. Every plan he made was being figured out by one mind that saw the whole fight from two different sides at once. It was analyzing and countering his plans at twice the speed of a normal person.

“This isn’t working!” Vanessa cried out, sweat forming on her forehead. She was creating shields as fast as she could, but the Gemini’s Progeny were like tireless machines, breaking her defenses piece by piece.

“Their tactical analysis is flawless,” Thorne commented from the sideline, a sense of pride in his voice. “They have identified you, the Runic Engineer, as the primary defensive asset. They will keep attacking until you run out of energy.”

Jonah felt a rush of fear. He was outsmarted. Every move he made was instantly seen, understood, and stopped. The Gemini’s way of working together was like a wall he couldn’t break. He and Vanessa were being pushed into a corner, their own teamwork feeling slow against this cold, unnatural perfection.

The two brutes dispatched Jonah’s Maul with a final, coordinated blow that sent him dissolving into golden dust. The two Nyx-copies cornered Vanessa, their crystal shards pinning her in place.

They were cornered. Defenseless.

The two Gemini turned their blank, doll-like eyes toward Jonah. They raised their hands in perfect, mirrored synchrony, preparing for the final blow.

Jonah looked at their faces. He looked at Thorne, who was watching from the sidelines. And then he looked at Vanessa, who was breathing heavily but met his gaze with trust.

In that moment, Jonah realized that he had been trying to win a chess match against a supercomputer. He had been trying to fight logic with logic.

Their perfect synchrony was their greatest strength.

But maybe, just maybe, it was also their greatest weakness.

They were logical and predictable. They had no passion. They had no loyalty. They had no heart.

An illogical idea began to form in his mind. He couldn’t win by playing their game. He had to play his own. He had to stop fighting like a strategist… and start fighting like a human.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep