Chapter 16: Deepest desire
"If it’s like this, I have no choice. I have to take down this dummy doll again," he said with determination. "This time... I’ll make sure it’s shattered into pieces. I’m sure of it."
Confidently, Shaan swung his dual swords again and ran at full speed to knock out the doll for the second time. He once again used his spin attack technique, which had been his signature technique so far, but strangely, his confidence instantly crumbled when he realized that the dummy doll had evaded his attack with ease this time.
’Damn, but...but how is that possible? It worked before.’
Another misfortune struck: the dummy doll, which had previously shown no resistance at all, suddenly launched a counterattack and delivered a powerful blow toward Shaan—something completely beyond his expectations. The punch sent him crashing hard to the ground, his body slamming against the floor.
’What... what the heck is going on?"
"Don’t think that this dummy doll is just like the dummy doll you have fought before, Shaa." Mr. Maximus walked over to Shaan. "This dummy doll is different from other dummy dolls cause it has been equipped with a special system that is capable of storing the memory of every attack deployed by the attacker. That is the reason why, when you attack this dummy doll for the first time, it does not attack at all like a normal dummy doll. That’s because it’s memorizing and learning the enemy’s movements, so it can deliver an accurate attack to knock out its opponent. Interesting, isn’t it?"
’Oh my, so... so in other words. This dummy doll has learned my movements?’ Shaan tried to rise. "’Crap, it’s like I’m fighting myself.’
"This kind of dummy doll was deliberately made by the Prometheon Tech company because there were several cases of dark creatures having the ability to mimic the attacks of Daemonists, which would be very difficult to defeat," said Mr. Maximus in explanation. "Therefore, the company created a special dummy doll like this to make it easier for Daemonists to learn about this type of dark creature."
"B-But how can I beat it?"
"Although this dummy doll can copy the Daemonist’s attacks, there are ways around it. The first is that this dummy doll can only mimic the first one or two attacks that hit it, so if you want to defeat this thing, you have to come up with a lot of new moves so that your moves are not easy to learn. And lastly, you can just use your special skills because this thing can’t copy Daemonist special skills."