Arlon knew one thing for sure—these monsters didn't care about each other.
No matter how many of them he picked off, no matter how much he manipulated the battlefield, they wouldn't change their behavior.
There was no camaraderie, no instinct to protect one another. Divide-and-conquer tactics would be aningless.
They would just keep attacking, individually or in groups, without concern for losses.
The boss was an even greater problem. Ti magic didn't work on her. He had already tested that when he tried Slow earlier.
So, he couldn't use sothing like Super Haste on the boss to make her hit a wall or sothing.
That alone made this fight drastically harder.
And while a Silence spell like the ones in those gas would have been invaluable right now—sothing to shut down her endless casting—he didn't know of any such magic.
If he had access to sothing like that, this fight would already be much easier. But he wasn't discouraged. He had sothing else.
He raised his hand and cast a spell he hadn't used in a long ti. Doppelganger.
Two copies of himself ford beside him, identical in appearance but slightly lesser in power.
This spell had been with him for a long ti, but during his closed training, he had refined it, strengthening it.
She was against him investing ti in it. She had outright told him that Doppelganger was a weak spell, that it wasn't worth improving.
But Arlon couldn't afford to discard anything.
He had no idea how long it would take for him to reach the kind of power he needed to survive, so every tool, no matter how small, was valuable.
Also, unlike Agema, he wasn't a genius. So what Agema called trash could be a treasure for him.
If this was Agema, she's probably already stronger than the boss in front of , Arlon thought.
The two copies stood beside him, their power at 80% of his own. They weren't just cannon fodder; they were real threats.
But he couldn't just use them as bait. The boss was a mage, and from what he had observed so far, she likely had the ability to see through illusions or fakes.
Even if she didn't, she was too intelligent to fall for such a simple trick. Still, the copies were useful.
They could clear out the lesser monsters and keep his back covered.
The boss's lips curled into a small, knowing smile.
She gripped her branch-like staff and swung it slowly while looking at Arlon—not at his copies, but at him, as if she saw sothing beyond the physical battle in front of her.
That was when he noticed sothing strange.
The staff disappeared.
A fraction of a second later, it reappeared—right in front of one of his copies. And then it struck.
The staff went straight through the doppelganger's chest, dispersing it instantly.
Arlon imdiately understood what had happened. The boss had used so form of teleportation spell, but not on herself—on her weapon.
She had sent her staff directly into his clone's body, bypassing any need for movent or aim. It was a clean, precise kill.
A weapon teleportation spell.
Arlon's eyes narrowed.
Even though he had experinted with fusing teleportation magic with his own spells, he had never considered using it this way.
The concept was simple, but the execution required an insane level of control. His current mastery over teleportation wasn't on the sa level as hers.
If he tried to replicate her move right now, his sword would likely blink to the wrong place, or worse, not move at all.
Still, this was a problem.
His doppelganger spell cost more mana than most of his standard spells. If he kept resummoning his clones every ti she took them out, he would lose the attrition battle.
He had to be more careful.
He replaced the copy that died for this ti and sent the two far away from the boss monster.
They could start fighting the normal monsters.
If they could reduce the enemy numbers even slightly, it would be worth it.
But Arlon didn't let his guard down.
The boss had gone out of her way to eliminate his copy. That ant she was targeting him with intent.
She wasn't just fighting mindlessly—she was reading his moves, predicting his strategies, and adapting.
She had looked at him while taking out his copy, so she was also cunning. He couldn't afford to lose focus.
Taking a defensive stance, Arlon prepared his next move.
It was actually similar to her teleportation attack, but instead of using a weapon, he was going to manipulate his own body.
Without hesitation, he charged toward the boss, activating both Haste and Ironbound Surge. His speed surged, and he moved like a blur, closing the distance in an instant.
But the boss simply blinked away.
Arlon now knew that her best attribute was probably spatial magic since she blinked whenever she was in danger, which could otherwise drain her mana.
Of course.
Arlon kept running toward her, adjusting his angle with each teleport she made. The pattern was becoming clearer.
The way she blinked wasn't entirely random. She had a preference—she always moved to a location that gave her the most visibility over the battlefield.
He was studying her.
Each ti she blinked, she thought she was putting distance between them. But in reality, she was giving him data.
After several blinks, Arlon had gathered enough information.
Now, he was ready to act.
His eyes glead with anticipation. Blink Baiting.
If she followed the pattern he predicted, she would soon reach a point where her available escape routes were limited.
And once that happened, she would have to teleport to a location of his choosing.
He cast Doppelganger again.
But this ti, he did it silently.
He could still summon two Doppelgangers at the sa ti. But an opportunity had arised.
After the boss had killed one of his Doppelgangers, instead of resummoning it, he had summoned an illusion.
Normally, the boss could easily see through it. But since Arlon had sent them to the normal monsters, she didn't realize it.
This was a gamble, and it had worked. Arlon hadn't spent the mana he was supposed to.
But now, it was ti for a bigger gamble. He got his other Doppelganger killed, and now, there weren't any real Doppelgangers out.
So, he resummoned the two Doppelgangers.
Instead of placing them directly beside him, where she could see them, he placed them behind the remaining non-humanoid monsters while they were on the run and blinking.
He knew she could see through simple illusions, but she wasn't omniscient. If she didn't actively focus on sothing, she wouldn't notice.
She blinked again—just as he expected.
Now, she was running out of safe positions.
Another blink.
This ti, she reappeared at the exact spot Arlon had been waiting for.
And that was when the trap sprung.
His hidden doppelgangers struck from behind. One slashed at her leg while the other swung for her shoulder.
Even though their attacks were only 80% as strong as his own, they were still dangerous enough to do real damage.
The boss's body twisted unnaturally as she tried to react, but she had just teleported—she had no ti to counterattack properly.
The first doppelganger's blade cut deep into her thigh, drawing dark crimson blood.
The second slashed her shoulder, sending another arc of blood spraying across the air.
A direct hit.
Arlon closed in, following up with a devastating strike of his own. His sword, glowing with an unnatural radiance, slashed toward her midsection.
She barely managed to twist her staff in ti, deflecting the full force of his strike, but the sheer impact sent her crashing into the ground.
For the first ti, the boss showed an expression other than cold calculation.
Pain.
She breathed heavily, staring at Arlon with a newfound intensity.
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