Chapter 159: Turning the Tables
Kim couldn't help but start to get worried. Her sword was starting to get slick from the sweat on her palm. If she didn't have her shield, she was sure that she'd have been killed a while ago. She hadn't been able o land any actual blows on either of the doppelgangers facing her, not that she let that bother her. Sometimes the first time her sword makes contact with an opponent is the last. As such she merely needed to bide her time while she waited for an opening.
Assuming she lived that long. She wasn't sure how the doppelganger had managed to slip past her in order to attack her from the other side, all she knew was that there had been two on one side of her, then suddenly there was one on each side of her. Which was also cutting of any chance for escape, but all she could say about it was that when they moved, they moved fast. As it is, she wasn't sure how long she'd be able to keep this up. If it was just one of them she had to face at a time, then maybe she'd be able to handle them, but with the changes here, she wasn't optimistic about her chances.
She could already feel her body start to slow down from being tired. Perhaps if she hadn't had to expend so much stamina when she'd been trying to get through the front doors, then maybe she wouldn't be so tired right now.
Not that she could imagine any other course of action at that time. She hadn' realized how much of a death trap that route had been. All she could have been sure of was that she didn't want whoever was in charge to think that she was going to try another route and send people around to try and intercept her.
Kim felt her breath catch in her throat as she barely blocked a swing from the doppelganger on her right. She wished she could face them from the same direction, so she didn't have to fight from this awkward position. Her shield was primarily dealing with whatever attacks the doppelganger on her left sent her way, though she was confident that only using her shied in that manner was a stop-gap measure at best. If she didn't deal with the doppelganger on her right soon, she was sure the other doppelganger was going to figure out how to get past her shield. Once that happened, she knew her end would be quick.
Suddenly the doppelganger to her right stumbled. Or maybe staggered would be the right word, Kim mused as she saw the opening that the circumstances opened up for her. Her blade swung towards the doppelganger's chest, though Kim had to distance herself from the fact that it was currently copying her, which in a way meant she was swinging her sword at her own chest.
If she allowed that thought to persist, she knew it would wear her down mentally faster than her stamina was being depleted. As such, she had to continually remind herself that it wasn't her that she was fighting, but rather doppelgangers. Or if she wanted to take a Dune perspective, she could imagine that she was fighting Tleilaxu face dancers. It didn't really help, but it at least distracted her mind a little from seeing her own image one her opponent's faces.
Her blade started to bite through the breastplate of the doppelganger's armor, when it regained its balance and raised its sword to stop Kim's strike from going any deeper. Yet, Kim was sure the damage had already been done.
Blood was flowing out of the wound, much more freely than it would be if it was merely a cut that would require stitches. Kim doubted that her strike had reached the lung, but she couldn't say how close it had come.