The Novel's Draft

I had no mana left.

He must have realised this because in the next moment an ember of flame ignited on his hero blade.

"Excaliburn." The clone swung horizontally.

An arc of flame shot outwards towards me.

"Scales... protect me." The dragon scales that I sent out flew towards me, becoming a wall that was just enough to protect me.

The flame diminished but the clone continued unleashing multiple arcs of flame.

There weren’t enough dragon scales for me to use.

Thankfully, it seemed that my clone only had a small fraction of dragon scales.

If he uses strengthening of the scales then it will trouble me.

The dragon scales were being pushed back, I took a step back as it did because of how smouldering hot it is.

After a while, it finally stopped.

"Come on me, is this really all you have to offer?" The copy scoffed.

Making the dragon scales turn back into a cloak to protect me, the fire hero sword was standing on its last legs.

"She would be really disappointed, by she I mean Alleu–"

Stepping forward, I stabbed at his head but he dodged it with ease.

"Getting angry now? It’s alright, you don’t have to be angry any more. Because there is no escape." The copy raised his blade, and in the next moment my right eye shuddered.

Multiple sword strikes in a circular motion were about to strike me.

Parrying the attacks, I managed to deflect every single one.

True swordsmanship is truly a league of its own.

My unity with the blade was perfect, as if it was a limb of my own.

Ah... my body feels so light.

Tilting back, a horizontal slash missed my chest.

Leaning forward, I swung upwards which nearly landed but the copy had dodged.

"Tell me Ring, what are you planning to do once you leave this place... Kill the author? How will you get to do that when you don’t know their location? You are flawed, Ring." His eyes looked down at me, by tilting his head slightly upwards.

"Impact line."

Seeing his blade downwards, I scraped it to the side by raising my blade slightly above my head and pointing it diagonally to the ground.

Once it scraped to the ground, I sliced at his neck.

Letting go of his sword, my copy dodged the attack by moving back.

Ducking low to the ground, he kicked at his sword in a way that it redirected back to himself.

Catching his sword, my copy stabbed towards my neck.

Turning my body to face my side, the sword thrust missed.

Exchanging sword strikes, our bodies moved in unison as we dodged and countered.

Sparks of metal flew around.

Just as my blade was about to cut at his neck, my rear foot staggered which caused me to miss the attack.

Seeing this, my clone threw a kick at my side.

Collapsing to the ground, I stood up using my sword.

My body wasn’t able to dodge that attack.

I couldn’t lean back since it would still reach me.

Even if I ducked down, my head would have been the thing that was kicked.

My hands were also extended and by the time I pulled back my hands to deflect the kick would have already landed.

The best I could do was block it with my shoulder.

"Are you happy, Ring." My copy stood over me, "You... no, we. We aren’t even sure if the transportation to the real world is even real or not. Not only that but we have no idea whether the transportation could take more than one person."

Standing up, I looked at him with a somber look.

"Yeah... so what of it..?" My voice was horse, the blood that I coughed up dried up, irritating my throat.

"Hah, unbelievable. Now you can go all by yourself to the real world, are you not happy that there is nothing that can no longer drag you down?" The fake Ring looked behind me, "Looks like there’s two more deadbeats."

Stepping to block his view to see Vertere and Acro, I started attacking him.

Parrying my attacks, my vision was beginning to blur.

Squinting to focus my eyes, it barely did anything.

His blade nearly sliced my head, but I narrowly dodged, a few strands of my hair got cut off in the exchange.

Things can’t keep going on like this, even though my stats had reached an exponential amount, the fatigue was too weakening.

My copy on the other hand was powerful, his body was full of vigor.

I can’t keep this up any longer.

I noticed that every time he swung his sword, his attacks were gradually stronger than the last.

"Mrgh!" I winced, barely being able to parry an attack to the side.

After a while, one of his slashes that I barely dodged cut through the wind, cleaving through the crater.

The skies rumbled with lightning.

Shit.

If that attack had landed on me then I would have died.

Seeing what he was about to do with my right eye, I called out:

"Scales, protect Vertere and Acro..!"

The dragon scales flew off my body, leaving me completely exposed.

The scales are likely not to last long when it comes to blocking his attacks.

The attack from earlier grazed a scale that was on my sleeve.

Looking down with my peripheral vision, a part of the scale dropped to the floor.

Without a beat of rest, my copy continued slashing with a barrage of attacks.

The attacks ripped through space, making the ground break.

Dodging the attacks, each attack held devastating power.

Looking over at Vertere and Acro, the dragon scales were slowly crumbling as they kept absorbing attacks.

I need a new way for me to stop his attacks.

Damn it... think!

A strategy, something viable.

Clawing through my mind, something clicked.

Slowly stepping closer to him, I needed to move quicker to dodge.

Stabbing the sword forward, my copy’s face grimaced.