With more than ten thousand Javelins at his side, James was more than ready for whatever attack came his way.

And yet, as prepared as he was for the unexpected, what he saw still surprised him.

The attackers finally showed themselves. There were five of them, and they were all … him.

“Man, this is just a never-ending chain of bullshit.” He sighed as he wondered just what the hell was going on.

But he didn’t have the time to theorize. Hundreds of dark javelins were already flying towards him.

“As if my battles weren’t confusing enough.” He spat as he began intercepting the dark javelins with his crimson ones.

The five enemies that looked like carbon copies of him were conjuring what looked like at least five Javelins per second. Luckily, with the tens of thousands that he had piled up, he was able to easily stop every single one before they hit the barrier.

“Ok, I’m usually against villainous monologues, but would you be so kind as to explain yourselves? I mean, I agree that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but you can’t just steal someone’s likeness and even powers and then stand there silently without saying a word.”

“Die.” The five shouted in unison as they sacrificed. They winced in pain, their faces twisted and contorted, but the rate at which they were conjuring Javelins had suddenly doubled.

“I see. I’m fighting a very talkative and well-spoken opponent again. Whoa, please stop it with the chatter, you’ll talk my ear off.” James rolled his eyes.

His opponents were weirdos again. He never actually fought normal foes. It was either mindless trash that never said a word, or villainous maniacs that spouted the most infantile, braindead crap that made him wish he was fighting mindless trash.

Still, while his opponents didn’t copy his gift of gab, and were just as boring as his other enemies, their identity sure was a puzzle.

They even copied his ability to sacrifice, and his [Reckless Abandon]. All of a sudden, he wasn’t able to intercept every Javelin anymore. It was only a tiny percentage of them, but they were still hitting the barrier.

“Let’s see if you can also dodge as well as me.” He grinned as he waved his hand, immediately launching an entire thousand Javelins at the five.

But obviously, life was never that easy. The five doppelgangers immediately began dodging just like how James used SARM to dodge, flying and contorting through the air at incredible speeds that could even handle the onslaught of Javelins bombarding them.

Just like how James used to fling himself several miles away to avoid any projectiles, so were they. It’s as if they copied every single one of his strategies.

“Ahh, you twats! That’s why the stalkers didn’t stop me sooner, isn’t it?!” His voice echoed through the skies again.

It wasn’t rocket science, there had to be a reason why these guys were able to copy all of his abilities.

He had a lot of run-ins with the Darkness ever since he came to this world, so it could have been any number of things that allowed them to copy him.

But while he couldn’t be sure, he was fairly confident that this is why the stalkers didn’t attack him sooner, before he destroyed dozens of cities.

They were studying him! Observing him intensely and relaying all the data. Every single one of his moves, his mannerisms, his likeness. Even their mana had a similar feel to his, the energy signatures were almost indistinguishable from his own.

While he wasn’t exactly happy about it, especially since this extreme invasion of privacy could have potentially devastating consequences that he didn’t even want to think about, there was one piece of good news.

As much as they tried copying him, they couldn’t become him entirely. There was one thing that nobody could really beat him in.

Mana! He probably had more than all five of his doppelgangers combined, and then some. And after the last two cities, he yet again greatly expanded the amount of mana he had available.

Even though they copied his spells perfectly, and their Javelins were not at all weaker than his own, his true strength never lay in his actual spells. If anything, they were quite crappy and something he hadn’t put nearly enough effort into.

Still, while he wasn’t exactly overwhelmed, this wasn’t going to be an easy fight either.

There were five of them, and there was just the one of him. Any of them was probably strong enough to wipe out all his friends within seconds, so he had to do this all by himself.

And while he didn’t think highly about his own spells, he was beginning to realize why they bothered copying them.

The five had already evaded all the Javelins. Even with SARM giving them the ability to home in on the target, it had been futile. Despite the thousand Javelins going after them, the five were completely unscathed.

James then decided to shoot two thousand of his Javelins at the targets. 400 Javelins were rushing at each one of them, surrounding them from all sides.

But despite the fact that the number of projectiles rocketing towards them had doubled, the five simply repeated the same dumb strategy of throwing themselves through the sky and dodging like they were having a seizure, until all 2000 of the Javelins had missed their target.

“So, this is how it feels to fight me, huh? I’m starting to hate myself.” James spat out in frustration.