Duskbound

Velik froze in place and peered around, half-expecting his doppelganger to jump out from behind a tree and run him through. When that didn't immediately happen, he took a cautious step into the champion's domain. Usually, the monster announced its presence right away, with the only exception he knew of being that spider that had been a speedy ambush specialist.

What if this thing mirrors my own abilities? [Apex Hunter] folded [Stealth] into itself. Maybe it's stalking me.

That was an alarming line of reasoning, if only because he doubted that the monster would also mimic his equipment and that it wouldn't compensate in some other way. Thus far, he'd defeated every champion he'd come up against. By that logic, he was stronger than them. If this champion mimicked his stats, then it was the most powerful creature he'd ever faced.

That was a surprisingly sobering thought to contemplate.

But this all supposes I'm right about something pretending to be me in this domain. And… can it make a system message do that? Shouldn't it say what the monster's really called?

He figured he'd find out soon enough. Whether the monster was his twin or not, it would attack him eventually, and probably in the next minute. He strode through the trees, spear in hand and eye flicking between the twilight shadows. There were a thousand places a human could hide in any forest, and with trees so big that their trunks were three feet wide, it was as easy as simply stepping behind one in this place.

The soft, scraping sound of dried leaves being dragged across the ground came to him, and Velik spun to face that direction. For a moment, he imagined it to be a stray breeze rustling the detritus around a thin tree, but he immediately realized his mistake.

That's not a tree. It's got fur on it. It's… a leg, the size of a tree? What the…

It was the sleek, short black fur that confused him, so solid that in the evening shadows, it had taken him a moment to sort out that it wasn't just a smooth-bored tree. His eyes followed the limb up to a massive chest, easily twenty feet off the ground and covered with a much thicker ruff. The monster padded forward a step, coming out from behind the tree far enough for Velik to see its other leg.

How the fuck is that me?!

It was a great wolf, four times his height and probably twenty times his weight. Its eyes glowed red in the shadows and its mouth hung open to reveal teeth longer than his forearm. Those teeth were like shards of obsidian darkness, gleaming in the dying light. Well, I get the Black Fang part, at least. Makes more sense than it ever did for me.

The wolf's massive head swung around to peer at Velik and its lips peeled back. A low growl rumbled through the air, so heavy that it shook tree branches and vibrated through Velik's chest. He didn't need to glance down at the compass held in his left hand to confirm that the needle was pointing right at this monster.

Instead, he slipped it into his pocket, spared a moment to hope he didn't break this one, and took up his spear in both hands. Hunter and monster—[The Black Fang] and the Black Fang—regarded each other silently. The wolf was easily the largest monster he'd ever seen, and [Apex Hunter] didn't like his odds of victory. There was no doubt it was over level 40. The smart thing to do was to run. He was only a few feet from the edge of the champion's domain.

The creak of splitting timber filled the air as the wolf shouldered a tree aside and crouched low. Crimson eyes stared down at him, and Velik found a strange sense of kinship in that gaze. They were two predators who could not share anything, not a territory and certainly not a name.

"Time to settle who's really worthy of the title, don't you think?" he asked as he took a step forward.

He blurred forward, his spear leading the way and [Kinetic Charge] primed to release a devastating opener. Halfway there, he slipped sideways just in time to avoid being crushed under a massive paw, then twisted into a jump that threw his legs out to keep him in the air above the nails that swiped sideways. His spear flicked out, a metal tongue with a razor edge, and scored a line of black blood through the thick fur.

His feet were back under him before he even started to come back down, but that wasn't enough to save him. Quick as a flash, the wolf's paw swung back the other way. It smacked into him like a runaway wagon and threw him through the air. Velik tumbled end over end in three complete circuits before he even hit the dirt thirty feet away.

Fucking. Ow.

[Apex Hunter] screamed at him to move, and Velik didn't stop to question that. He threw himself into a roll that ended behind a tree just in time to avoid a lunging bite from the wolf's great maw. Its obsidian teeth smacked closed around the tree, crunching through it with no discernable effort and ripping out a mouthful. The remainder wasn't strong enough to support the tree's weight, leaving Velik to scramble out from under it before it toppled over and crushed him.

He jabbed his spear out, finally releasing [Kinetic Charge], and drove it into the wolf's snout before it could recover from its missed bite. It flinched back, a somewhat incongruous movement on such a large monster, but Velik knew it was more from the surprise sting than from being injured.

They split apart, both eyeing the other warily, and with a bit more respect now that they'd begun to take each other's measure. The wolf was every bit as strong as Velik had suspected it would be, and surprisingly agile on top of that. It was vicious and aggressive, more than willing to take a hit to dish one out.

If it got its jaws around him, that would probably be the end of the fight, which put Velik in the awkward position of needing to either end the fight in a quick, decisive blow, or giving his counterpart the slow death of a thousand cuts while fighting defensively. I'm not even sure I have a real choice. Even with [Kinetic Charge], I'm having trouble actually cutting through it. That hit to the paw was barely a scratch.

His one advantage was that this arena favored him. That ran counter to what he knew about champions, but he wasn't going to complain about the other Black Fang having a handicap. It was too big to easily move through the trees, and he was every bit as fast as the monster, which gave him the edge in mobility.

Velik darted through the shadows, seeking to lead the wolf on a chase where it would get itself stuck, even if only for a moment. Pushing over a tree wasn't easy, not even for something close to thirty feet tall, and if it gave him an opening, Velik was going to take it.

He led it on a chase through the trees, but the wolf was smart enough not to wedge itself where it couldn't fit. It pursued him, all snapping jaws and savage nails raking deep gouges in the dirt as he dodged out of the way. The more they fought, the better a feel Velik got for its tactics and abilities.

I can win this. Just be patient. Don't make mistakes.

That was what he thought until the third time he looped around one particularly huge specimen of a tree. It was easily eight feet wide, big enough that not even the champion elite could knock it over. He must have frustrated his opponent, but it suddenly shifted focus. Instead of attacking Velik, it raked its nails across the tree's bole and left a line of burning acid scoring the bark.

It hissed and popped as it ate through the wood, and when the acid fizzled out a few seconds later, the tree had a noticeable chunk burned out of it. A few more hits like that might be enough to bring even it down.

Was that [Venom Slash]? It even has access to the same selection of class skills as me?

There were dozens of skills for [The Black Fang], and Velik assumed his counterpart had at least five skill slots. Not even looking at what it might have merged together, he could think of at least three other skills off the top of his head that he had no interest in being the target of.

A second [Venom Slash] scored the tree, prompting Velik to flee around its bulk. His spear trailed behind him, its head sharpened to a slashing edge and whipping around in a smooth arc the instant he sensed the wolf pivot to lunge at him. The wolf caught it between two teeth, jerking Velik to a halt and forcing him to either abandon the weapon or let himself get pinned.

Neither was an acceptable option, so he created a new one. [Phalanx] roared to life, four phantasmal spears appearing to surround him. They wouldn't be strong enough to block an attack, not from this champion, but they were flashy enough that when they dove straight for the wolf's eyes, it jerked backwards.

Unfortunately, it didn't release the spear from its jaws. Velik tried to twist it to drag across vulnerable flesh, but the teeth clamped down on it were too tight. Giving that up, he activated the weapon's [Shape Shifting] to thin the head down in an attempt to slip it free.

That worked, but he knew he was in trouble the moment he took his first step away. One of the wolf's front paws was just to his left. Its teeth were feet from him; its hot breath rolled across his face. His phantasmal spears failed to penetrate even the relatively soft mass of the wolf's eyes, and Velik recognized the distinctive muscular pop of a familiar skill activating.

Before he could so much as take a second step, the wolf used [Serpent Strike]. Its neck stretched forward, jaws open, and its teeth closed down on Velik.

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