Chapter 162: Stalemate
Elin felt the sweat as it dripped off of her face. She'd stopped trying to use Sacred Shot against the doppelganger because it was clearly not having that much of an effect on the doppelganger. Plus, the doppelganger had stopped using it as well. Both were able to heal what they other did easily enough, which made it all the more aggravating to Elin.
In the end, she started using what little she'd learned from Kim about fighting hand-to-hand, but even now she was hardly making any headway. It not only confused her, but added to her aggravation. True, she was fighting in a dress not meant to be worn into combat, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel like that shouldn't matter.
At the same time, she couldn't help but remember how Kim had a difficult time fighting the doppelganger when they were fighting the goblins and Kim was much better at fighting like this than Elin was, yet she seemed to be at a standstill with this doppelganger. Elin wasn't sure whether or not it was because it was essentially a younger doppelganger than the one Kim fought or if it merely copied the abilities and capabilities of whoever it turned into.
Elin thought about taking the dress off just so she wouldn't be weighed down by it, but she didn't like the thought of Jonas or Elmo coming back and seeing her completely naked if she hadn't been able to finish off the doppelganger before that. Part of her was starting to not care about that possibility, but it was a very small part of her. She also worried what Kim would think if she learned she had done that. Yet at the same time, she couldn't help but not want anything to happen to the dress. She'd only gotten it earlier in the day, but she was already fond of it and wanted to keep it like it was currently.
Elin gasped for breath as she pulled away from fighting the doppelganger for a moment. Her doppelganger seemed to need to catch its breath as well. Then even as Elin healed what little damage the doppelganger had inflicted on Elin, she saw the doppelganger doing the same.
Elin sighed. She couldn't say how long they'd been fighting like this already, but it was clear that neither of them were making any headway on defeating the other. Which only made Elin want to scream and pull at her hair in frustration. She'd wanted to be able to do this on her own, but the longer this went on for, the less confident she was about it.
She'd left her staff at the inn because she hadn't thought that anything like this would occur, so she didn't even have that to work with. Which was what she credited her surviving against the goblins that one time when she had to fight them by herself. Even though she'd used her Sacred Shot spell then, it wasn't having as much effect as she had thought it would here. She couldn't understand what the difference was. Which only fueled her frustration at her current situation.
When she'd regained her breath, she moved in again, swinging her fist at her doppelganger, who blocked her strike even as it swung its fist at her. Elin had no problem blocking the strike and tried grabbing the doppelganger to pull it forward and off balance, but it merely slipped out of Elin's grip before she could get a solid hold on the doppelganger and swung around, to throw a back hand strike with it's fist at Elin.
Elin was able to dodge it and tried throwing another punch at the doppelganger, this time aiming for its throat, but her attack was swiftly blocked. This dance continued back and forth, with neither side getting a solid hit on the other. Although, an occasional stirke would land, more by accident than intention.