Edryd's alternate snarled at me as a dog would to a potential threat, the anger in its eyes highlighted by the darkened circles that housed them.
As we began to circle each other, the crowd's thunderous roar began to grow mute in my ears as though time had come to a halt. Within the time it took me to blink, I saw its bared teeth shift into what I thought was a smirk, but I couldn't be sure from beneath its matted locks.
Fine. I'll make the first move. Let's see what you can do, I thought, pushing off my right foot and kicking up no small amount of ashen dust in my wake.
I hadn't realized it until that point, but all that time under Kalia's tutelage had drastically improved my base physical abilities, which were only augmented by the fifth stage. Within a heartbeat, I was already feeling the pull of my shoulders and twist of my hips to bring the blade down in a diagonal slash.
If I had to compare the feeling to anything, it was as if my body was reacting to my intentions before my own mind could catch up.
Well, that's new, I thought, seeing the alternate sidestep the blow entirely and bring its blade up to attempt one of its own.
It aimed the strike at my now-exposed neck, but I managed to duck beneath it and perform an uppercut in the opposite direction of my first strike, catching it off-guard. However, I knew that alone wouldn't be enough to stop it, because that was a move Ed was used to seeing me use. "Not bad," I muttered, pivoting on my left foot to push into another series of strikes aimed at its head, waist, and shoulder.
The alternate gritted its teeth against my barrage, but like Ed, it was exceptionally skilled at deflecting attacks while getting in more than a few of its own.
If I hadn't had all of that training with Mom and Kalia, this might have been a much tougher fight, I realized, grateful for the decade I'd spent with her and the others inside the dome.
However, there was one feeling I simply couldn't shake.
"What's wrong, Thoma? It doesn't look like you're giving it your all," it said with a derisive sneer, but when I didn't immediately respond, it clicked its tongue and shifted from defense to offense, aiming various strikes at my arms and torso that weren't particularly difficult to defend against.
As I observed the coreless creature mimic Ed's techniques with almost absolute precision, I couldn't help but feel my emotions welling up. It wasn't sadness, I realized, it was pity. It reminded me of the fight with him and Meliss, and it caused my focus to falter for just long enough for him to land a shallow cut across my cheek.
Thoma, focus! I heard Ysevel shouting in my mind, prompting my eyes to widen just in time to side-step a vertical slash that would have split my head in two. Allowing myself a moment to take a breath by backstepping a little, I could feel traces of worry through my connection with the others.
"Aw, are you feeling sorry for me? Why would you? After all, you're the one who killed the real me and stripped away any chances I had of being happy with Meliss because of your ridiculous little crusade," the alternate spat as it readjusted its grip on the sword, while I felt my brow furrow momentarily.
"I had no choice," I muttered, not fully believing my own words. The alternate chuckled and shook its head, spreading its arms widely in challenge.
"You always have a choice. Weren't you the one who taught me that when you brought Irun to my fucking doorstep? Do you know how much anger and hatred I felt for you both when I saw you walking side by side?" the alternate asked, launching another attack aimed at my stomach, then using the momentum from my deflection to bring the sword around into another sequence of diagonal slashes.
Even through his barrage of attacks and questions, I still had no answer for him. All I could do in that moment was figure out what I could do to win this fight and knock the creature unconscious.
Yes, that's right. It's not the real Ed. It's just his alternate. You already know this is how they are; spiteful, angry, envious, miserable bags of meat wearing faces and using voices that aren't theirs to own, I reassured myself.
With a heavy sigh and a slight shake of my head, I realized what I had to do as I took another few steps back and retracted my kataki blade back into the band around my wrist.
"Oho! Did I finally break you? Do you finally understand that you're not going to win this fight? You don't have the stomach to do it again, do you?" it said tauntingly.
The last question forced me to remember something Kanarin had taught me during our short exchange back in Polarion. The thought of it nearly brought a smile to my face when I came to the realization that I was, in fact, lacking.
I've been going about this all wrong and thinking far too much, I mentally chuckled at my own stupidity.
"That's where you're wrong, alternate," I emphasized the word, prompting it to give me a slightly confused and worried look. "If I really wanted to kill you, I would have done so again and again for as long as it was necessary. You might have rattled me a little with some of your earlier comments, but I know that's not how you really are," I continued, balling my fists at my sides.
"Not how I really am? Do you realize how much he's had to hide from you? How much anger? How much sorrow? How miserable he's been knowing that he won't catch up to you anytime soon? Are you really that blinded by your own prowess that you've ignored his feelings entirely?" the alternate asked, making me realize that it had slipped up when it used the term he instead of I.
There you are. That's the version of you I'm fighting, Ed, but that's not the real you. So, I'm going to apologize now for what I'm about to do, I thought just before dashing in.
I could feel everyone's concern that I was going in unarmed while the alternate still had its blade pointing at me, but I didn't care.
"You need to learn your place, alternate. After all, you've forgotten something important," I said, dodging the incoming strike to get on the outside of it and grabbing its wrist to control the blade. It released its grip on it, and just before it caught it with the other hand, I used my knee to strike the pommel, sending it high into the air above us.
"He's my best friend," I said with a smirk.
As the blade rose, I used a series of strikes aimed at its elbow, liver, solar plexus, neck, and ears in rapid succession to not allow it any time to understand what had just happened.
The moment it doubled over in pain, I struck it in the face with a squarely placed uppercut, causing blackened blood to pour from its nostrils like a waterfall.
It reeled back in pain, but swung at me wildly as it did so. I caught the blow on my raised arm and wrapped it over its shoulder as I stepped in to kick its legs out from under it, forcing its entire body to lie horizontally in mid air. With one final punch to its stomach, I slammed the creature into the ground with nearly all my might as I let out a grunt of exertion.
The impact kicked up a massive cloud of ashen dust, pierced only by the falling blade that I plucked out of the air and held it to the creature's neck in a single, smooth motion.
"Yield," I said coldly as I stared down at it imperiously. Its eyes were bulging from their sockets in a mixture of shock and pain as blood poured from its mouth, but I knew there was little more it could do than that.
"Yield," I said again in the same tone, prompting it to look at me with a mixture of fear and disbelief. "I'm not going to tell you a third time. Come quietly, and I won't have to knock you unconscious," I muttered. "N-Nev-...," it gurgled, making me sigh and quickly drop down to strike it in the temple with the pommel of the blade.
Should have listened to me, I thought, realizing the cloud of dust around me was beginning to settle.