Chapter 141: Damon vs Anastasia 3

‎**8 days earlier**

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‎Damon laid on the ground in one of the training halls gasping for breath after a particularly grueling training session in the gravity room.

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‎And as usual, his entire body was slick with sweat, and not a single fibre of his being didn’t feel like it just went through a meat grinder. He continued to lie there for the next hour or so, various thoughts flashing through his mind at staggering speeds.

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‎Damon had been brainstorming on ways he could beat Anastasia, Rose, and Alistair if they he got a match fixed with any of them during the upcoming midterms. And just like before, he got stumped on one fact; speed.

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‎Damon was exceedingly fast, but he was nowhere near people like Levi or Rose who could boost themselves with their elemental abilities. Not to talk of Anastasia and Alistair who were a rank above him, and were no slouches either.

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‎The only way Damon could come match up against them were his reflections. But that wasn’t also a viable option. A single powerful reflection could rob him off of eighty percent of his mana. Once that reflection got destroyed, which he was sure would happen in a fight against any of those three, he’d be a sitting block.

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‎After a long brainstorming session, he finally came up with a way. It was pretty simple actually, and Damon cursed himself for not having figured it out way earlier. A regular reflection lasted only five days, and that was when it didn’t utilize aether for anything other than existing.

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‎So if Damon made a reflection with arguably twenty times the aether of a regular reflection, it was going to last hell of a long time wasn’t it? Damon played the idea for a long while in his his head before deciding he had rested enough, and exited the training room to head for the dorms.

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‎Once Damon reached the dorms, he had his dinner as it was already night, and by then his aether had almost fully recovered from his earlier training session and the aether recovery potion he’d chugged down. He then began to try out the feasibility of his plan.

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‎With a tug of his will, another him manifested beside him, albeit a much stronger one. Without a word spoken, the reflection moved to the side of the living room, and sat crosslegged before the glass wall and closed his eyes in meditation.

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‎For the next four hours or so as Damon’s aether recovered, he observed the amount of aether the reflection expended just by existing. And to his satisfaction, it was meager by all margins, in fact, the aether would last well over a month before being exhausted as long as the reflection did nothing.

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‎”I see.” Damon’s eyes glinted as a wide grin slowly crept up his lips. Without hesitation, another one of the ’prime reflections’ as Damon came to call them. Just like before, the reflection sat in meditation beside the first one.

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‎”Hahahahaha!” Damon couldn’t control his laughter. If he abused aether recovery potions, he could make at least three of such reflections every day and leave them on standby. At this rate, he’d have around twenty plus by the time the midterms came.

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‎Then, he could just create fodder reflections and swap them with the prime ones. “I never knew I had this genius in me.” he chuckled wildly. “Wait what am I saying?” he frowned. “Ive always been a genius. That’s right, I’ve always had it in me.” he nodded to himself as if in confirmation.

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‎His wide grin came back. “None of them will see this coming.”

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‎***Present day***

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‎That was how Damon was able to create his prime reflections five times at once without worrying about the constraints of aether. That was how he’d defeated Levi, and at the end of his fight with Rose, he’d made a fodder reflection which instantly swapped with a prime one back at his dorm, before backhanding Rose into the walls of the stands.

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‎Currently however, even though he started with using five of his prime reflections, Anastasia had destroyed one and always managed to be slipping through the other four by a wide margin.

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‎Anastasia had a pretty troublesome ability, one Damon was inclined to believe was too powerful for a… ’what was her physique rank again?’ Damon frowned. That’s right, he never really knew her unique physique rank or potential. Still, a dangerous thought occured to Damon. ’Could she possess…?’ He began, but quickly shook his head with a wry chuckle.

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‎What were the odds? There were practically zero to none odds that Anastasia possessed an Omega ranked physique even with her clearly absurd ability. If that were true, Damon would eat his head.

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‎Turning his attention back to the fight, one of the four reflections emitting a dark aura had managed to land a cut on Anastasia’s cheek, drawing a bit of blood.

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‎Anastasia jumped backwards, brought her hand to the small cut on her face before clicking her tongue.

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‎”Tsk, troublesome pests.” she muttered.

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‎‎Meanwhile Damon who heard her, smiled sinisterly. “Troublesome pests huh, if four of me are troublesome pests, what are ten of me?”Damon muttered as six more reflections appeared beside him, and disappeared again in that same moment.

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‎BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

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‎The air displaced from their movements blew Damon’s hair wildly. It was still somewhat disorienting, Damon himself, the original body, couldn’t perceive the movement speed of his reflections, but at the same time could because he could perceive the world from their perspective. It was as disorienting as awe inspiring.

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‎The new reflections reappeared and mixed seamlessly with the former ones, standing united against Anastasia.

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‎After a short staring contest, All the Damons and Anastasia clashed in a series of unending sparks, each one sending a wave of force so intense that the very atmosphere shuddered.

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‎”Severing jet wheel.”

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‎A multitude of blue slashes tinted with a scarlet hue appeared everywhere in front of Anastasia, her movements swift and deadly. Hundreds of lethal slashes were unleashed in the blink of an eye, streaks of blue sparks filling her front.

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‎[Mirage steps]

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‎Damon’s response to that was to utilize the mirage steps to the max. The previous figures of the ten Damons seemingly turned uncountable as the tangible one got lost in a series of afterimages. They all dodged or tanked the attacks with their sword using precise movements.

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‎Their every step light against the earth, leveraging the minimal gaps in between the net of Anastasia’s devastating slashes, perfectly parrying almost every attack, or successfully avoiding them.

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‎Unfortunately, Anastasia was still quite powerful and faster than the individual reflections. While the reflections had their attention on the hundreds of attacks, she swiftly disengaged and with a burst of speed appeared before one of them.

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‎The reflection tried to react, but Anastasia’s ability didn’t let him. In one powerful swing, she split the reflection from the shoulder down.

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‎Crack!

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‎It shattered shortly after. Five other reflections were already surrounding Anastasia not even a moment after.

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‎Anastasia’s figure moved like seamless waves, evading a an overhead slash that threatened to cut her in two. Then swiftly spun around with a high pressured water her of water running around the blade of her sword.

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‎”Flowing jet wheel.”

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‎All Damons were forced to jump back to avoid it, but suddenly slowed, and Anastasia took full advantage of her ability’s effect. She zeroed in on one of the reflections and carved it up. The reflection soon shattered in motes of light.

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‎After that, the fight got high paced and intense. The reflections took care not to enter Anastasia’s range all at once, but always kept close to be able to ambush her in case she got into an unfavourable condition.

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‎The ground shattered and crumbled beneath the immense pressure, fragments of debris disintegrating into dust as multiple streaks of black and a streak of scarlet raced through the arena like speedster incarnates.

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‎Sword met sword, and sometimes sword met flesh. It was Damon’s flesh of course but it was still flesh.

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‎Anastasia raised her sword in the direction of the reflections and swung as hard as she could.

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‎”Stillwater severance.”

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‎The reflections responded in kind. “Fall.”

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‎Supreme cutting energy meant supreme cutting energy. The shockwave expanded outward, annihilating the ground in the stadium, and further deepening the gorge in which they were now fighting. The ground quaked and the sky seemed to split, a maelstrom of force blew outwards.

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‎Inside the clouds of debris, One of the reflections sensed something and rapidly sucked down, but the moment the projectile passed overhead, he realized it was merely a stone. His eyes widened as Anastasia appeared above him, and separated his from his body.

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‎Furious arcs of wind blades soon dispersed the cloud of dust, only for Damon to see Anastasia streaking towards his main body so fast that his reflections wouldn’t get to her before she got to him.

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‎Damon- the main body, his eyes widened. His reaction was a bit faster due to the fact that his reflections had sensed Anastasia’s movements before he did. He brought both his forearms together, where braces with purple inscriptions inscribed onto them laid.

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‎However, his movements slowed the moment the braces were just short of clashing, as Anastasia had come closer to him and thus had him in her range.

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‎Even though, it was too late. Before Anastasia could get to Damon, the braces met with a sonorous clang like that of a bell chime, followed by;

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‎BOOOOM!

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