Fighting one’s doppelganger was, as Lukas soon found out, an eerie experience. There was something utterly wrong about seeing one’s face on the opposing end of one’s blade. The fact that the Monster’s fighting style mirrored his own perfectly— blades held in a reverse grip, copying his own posture —didn’t help matters any.

A mirror image, in every sense of the term.

Still, a job was a job. No point in complaining about it. Not if he wanted to keep wearing T-shirts and pants.

Lukas moved.

Clang!

He parried the incoming blow with effortless ease and thrust his blade forward, eager to hack through the Monster’s metallic chest—

Clang!

His attack was parried with blades similar to his own.

Lukas scowled, before leaping back.

After spending all this time fighting monsters that lashed out blindly with their claws or bones or tentacles, trading blows with something of this nature was a surprisingly frustrating experience.

“It is learning from you.”

So I’ve noticed.

The longer it went, the more frustrating the fight became. Every time their blades clashed, the doppelganger matched his style just a tiny bit more.

Every time he hacked and parried, it learned more.

Every time he failed to score a killing blow, the next one became even tougher.

Every second this fight dragged on, the Monster became a tiny step closer to Lukas Aguilar.

I need to end it. And end it fast!

Pushing himself with a minor Burst, Lukas struck, his blade streaking towards the doppelganger’s neck, aiming to separate its head from the rest of its body. The copy of him widened its eyes in surprise, and came down with an overhead blow aiming straight for his own neck.

Lukas swerved his blade just in time and—

Clang!

BURST!

As the aqāru blade shattered like glass, Lukas pushed his own forward, coming inches within the range of his opponent’s neck, only for a wall of aqāru to manifest in between. Lukas rushed forward and slammed a full-powered kick at the doppelganger’s genitals, tearing off its right leg and much of its hip with a single swipe.

A new leg reformed before the torn appendage hit the floor.

Damn it.

“I’m learning,” the Crypt grinned. “But do not forget, Big Brother, I am also a shapeshifter.”

“What you are is a huge pain in my ass,” Lukas grimaced, throwing himself back as the Crypt sent a pulverizing blast of raw kinetic energy in his direction. He could have tried fighting bare-handed with this imitation, using the Pammachon style Inanna had imprinted on him, but doing so recklessly could get him killed. Especially considering his opponent could morph any part of his body into a murder weapon.

He glanced at his temporary teammates from the corner of his eye.

All four of them were surrounded by a myriad of monsters whose bodies were carved of aqāru. From azolgs to slippery eight-legged hounds, the anomaly conjured every low-to-mid-tier monster— creatures with low reproduction costs —and sent them to kill or be killed at the hands of the prey. Of course, these were all monsters he could have easily dealt with, allowing Tanya and her crowd a shot at his doppelganger. Maybe a switch was in order—

His thoughts screeched to a halt as the floor beneath his feet began to crumble. Fearing an earthquake, Lukas leapt further away, only to realize the trap for what it was. An immense wall of stone sprouted from the ground— the Crypt’s Anomalous power in action —and slammed itself into the ceiling, separating him from his teammates.

Something told him that if he punched his way through it, another wall would quickly take its place.

He was well and truly alone.

“Well, aren't you a jealous one?” Lukas scoffed, and found his doppelganger—

—Pouting?

“…”

“Has anyone told you it’s rude to ignore someone when they are trying to murder you?”

“Eh, no,” Lukas replied, amused by the surrealism of the conversation. “I don’t believe anyone has.”

“Well, it is. The only one you need to focus on right now is me, Big Brother.”

“Sorry, you’re not blonde or busty enough to be my type.”

“The Aggravation,” it replied, tilting its head. “I watched the two of you. She tried to kill you twice. You tried to kill her twice.”

“What are you, my stalker?” Lukas grumbled.

“I do not understand,” his doppelganger went on, a look of perplexion on his visage. “Her powers are unique. She would make an excellent addition to your Monster Prototype Array, yet you keep her alive. Not out of need, but because you want to. What is so special about this specimen?”

“Well, for starters, she has a killer rack.”

“Ah,” the shapeshifter replied, now enlightened. “Perhaps I can make things more interesting for you then.”

Its features began to change, morphing into a more familiar humanoid form. Legs became thinner, body lithe and well-curved, and its chest expanded into a generous set of—

Lukas gawked as Tanya winked at him. A naked carbon-copy of Tanya, sporting a jaunty grin on its face.

It began to saucily saunter towards him, Tanya’s normally aloof exterior absent, replaced by something different. Something hungry, confident, unrepentant. A single hand on its hip, It tilted its head and addressed him, its voice tinged with cold, metallic overtones.

“Is this more to your liking?”

Lukas glanced back at the wall, now firmly grateful it was in the way.

“You just had to make it weird.”

Tanya stood with her eyes closed as she descended into reflection. She could sense the monsters prowling around her, the aqāru in them eliciting a negative reaction from Ezzeron. Why? She did not know. But she too— or perhaps the Ice in her —reacted strongly to the liquid metal’s presence. She had felt a tiny amount of repulsion towards Lukas’s little pet, but it was too insignificant to register at the time.

She had far more pressing issues at the time.

Now, however, as she stood surrounded by foes on all sides, she could clearly feel it. Whatever this liquid metal was, it had powerful anti-spirit properties. Perhaps she could take some of it with her for experimentation? Lukas did not seem to be the type to sacrifice his cat for her own intellectual pursuits.

Focus, she chided herself.

Her eyes snapped wide open. No more reservations. No more holding back for the sake of holding back. The battle was hers to win now, and she would guide it to whatever conclusion she deemed fit.

“Watch carefully,” she exhaled, her words a slow, steady breath. “This is how I truly fight.”

To their credit, her teammates didn’t so much as flinch at her declaration. Especially with her past now known to them.

Maybe she did have a future with them after all.

“I’m going to say this once,” Tanya coldly said, a thin layer of frost coating her entire form. “Stay dead.”

Two hounds came from her left, their speeds reducing them to black blurs. A single spider-like creature crawled towards her from behind. Several of those rats dug into the soul, out of reach but ready to pounce upon her from under her feet.

So many against one.

It was a splendid assault. A superb attempt to take her down before she could react. But for all their coordination and numbers, it could not compensate for the fact that they were a second too slow.

Icicles shot outward from her frosty exterior with extreme precision, honing in on the creatures. The hounds were decapitated before they could get anywhere near her. The rats were frozen the moment they peeked their heads out of the floor. The spider had a thick ice shard piercing through its abdomen.

Facing one of the larger monsters, Tanya raised a single hand.

“ASSANTIUS!”

It was sent flying like a ragdoll.

She turned towards her last opponent— a vicious elephantine creature with several pairs of tusks and vines of metallic cords that slashed at her with blades at the tips.

Lukas would probably appreciate them.

With a single slash, she brought Ezzeron’s unforgiving power upon it, decapitating the creature with a single strike. The entire exchange, start to finish, barely took ten seconds, and not a hair was out of place on her head.

Tanya turned towards her compatriots, and found three blank looks.

“Was that up to your expectations?”

This is going nowhere.

Lukas became increasingly dissatisfied as he slashed and parried his opponent. Yet, no matter what he tried, it all ended the same way.

Every time he hacked into its metal flesh, more would proliferate and cease the wound.

Every time he cut off a limb, a new one would instantly take its place.

Every time he surprised it, the doppelganger would adjust accordingly and learn from it, careful not to make the same mistake twice.

There was simply no way to kill it. But there was something about its demeanor that stank to high heaven.

It wouldn’t let me switch with the others.

“And why do you think that is?”

Lukas fought purely on instinct as his mind raced to come up with an answer. And as the implications finally hit him, making him lose his concentration for half a second, the Crypt gained enough of an opportunity to come hacking towards him with its dual daggers. He didn’t so much as register the grazing wound with Neural Suppression acting at maximum capacity, but he managed to move out of reach before the injury deepened.

“The longer you delay, the closer it gets to perfection.”

Are you sure?

“The more you fight it as yourself, the faster it learns. It is an Omphalos. Its speed at gathering information and skills overwhelms your own by magnitudes.”

It was comforting to know his resident goddess’s thoughts were along the same vein as his. Still…

But what if I can’t control myself?

“We wouldn’t know until you try, now will we?”

Dodging the next blow, Lukas allowed the fractured blades in his hands to fall to the ground— his plan wouldn’t need them anyway. He stared at this monster who seemingly refused to kill him. Not because of mercy, not because of respect, and certainly not because it couldn’t.

Had this been a serious fight, he’d have been decapitated.

But it wasn’t.

No, this was just a game. A game in which one side desperately tried to outwit the other, while the other side constantly grew stronger and stronger, learning from its own limitations. While the Crypt could end the farce at any moment, it hadn’t yet.

Much like a bored cat that wanted to play with its prey.

And it was this flash of insight that formed the barebones of a plan in Lukas’s mind.

In order to improve itself, the Crypt was using a human mind— his mind —as a role model. And the results were there before his eyes to see. It was playing, taking unnecessary risks, taunting its enemy, offering careless banter. Arrogance and pride dominated its actions, two remarkably human traits in action.

They were traits he was intimately familiar with. But more importantly, he also knew how to take advantage of them should an enemy have them. All he needed now was the right weapon.

Or rather… the right monster.

Luckily for him, he had a lot of monsters in his arsenal.

Hundreds of different images flashed across his Mind’s Eye in less than a second, eagerly answering his intent. For someone who had never done this before, Lukas was amazed at how intuitive the process was. It was like exercising an old, unused muscle. With conscious effort, Lukas mentally parsed through the Monster Prototypes to find the one most suited to the task.

Most of them were discarded preemptively, for he needed something to counter the monster’s most significant trait— its incredible regeneration.

But what?

What do I have? What can—

“Tired already, Big Brother?” the Crypt asked, lazily peering at him. In a pale imitation of his own actions, it had let go of its dual daggers, which turned to liquid aqāru upon hitting the ground and merged with the rest of him. “Maybe some rest is in order. And refreshment. I wonder…”

Its grin turned scandalous as it smiled at him, weighing its large, luscious naked breasts in its two hands.

“Is it these you’re so distracted by?”

But Lukas easily ignored it, his mind far too focused elsewhere. He was racing though the Monster Prototype Array, anxiously looking for just the right trait to counter the Monster.

Kasha— fire-spirit of the volcanoes. Fire affinity. Yokai. It was a good choice. A great one, even. Fire was deadly against this creature, but here in close quarters, fumes from burnt mercury would become toxic for him. He’d be long dead before he managed to completely destroy the genius loci.

Lukas’s thoughts then lingered on Rathelid, a monster with extreme poisonous abilities. But there was no point in belching poison, only to lose his mouth in the process. Like every prior option, it was discarded as he moved on.

Orocoran— reptile of the west. Extreme ground affinity. This would allow him to escape and take time to come up with something new, but the risk was far too great. Rejected.

Neothelid— a slippery eel like creature. Powers of lightning. Possible, but it didn’t give him a strong feeling.

Tens, dozens, one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, six hundred, DAMN IT—

Just what could he use?

A familiar prototype flitted through his mind. Khorkhoi— immense regeneration powers, capable of matching the doppelganger in physical strength. Of course, it came at the cost of his own sanity. It could tear and blast the monster, only for the monster to reform. It would lead to a drawn out battle of attrition, but not a victory. Regrettably, he had to discard it as well.

It just wasn’t enough. He needed something better. Something more useful. Something—

A smile broke out on Lukas’s face.

“You’ve amused me enough, Crypt of Fiendish Worms. Let me return the favor.”

The doppelganger of Tanya tilted its head. “What do you mean?”

“This!” he maniacally grinned, and the Omphalos in him took over.

Optimum Monster Prototype Identified.

Found— KIRIN

Auto-activate. Fight process calculated. Intercept Routines.

…

…

ENACT.