Connor watched as the copy he had sent into the building stumbled her way to the other copies. At first, he assumed the stumble came from the punch or the rough landing. But then he noticed that all three of them were clutching their heads.
Daisy could split herself making her strength proportional to her copies, but other than that there were no known weaknesses. Until now that is.
All three were holding their heads with a hand, almost as if a dizzy spell overtook them. The one he had sent flying being disoriented made sense, but there was more.
All three simultaneously received damage to their head, but why? The answer was rather obvious; they felt the finishing blow of the destroyed copy.
Connor was standing up, deep in thought not even realizing he was until pain shot up his leg.
Must be excited to finish her off.
Favoring his injured leg, Connor looked up at the sky with a pained grimace. How could the day look so perfect while everything was falling apart? The sun was warm, the sky a calm blue, a gentle breeze drifting through the street. A peaceful world that didn't match the chaos inside him.
"Darling, are you not ready to give up?" All three Daisy's seemed concerned for his well-being, the act flawless. The giveaway was that they all got into fighting stances. She seemed excited to continue the fight.
More pressure found its way to Connor's shoulders.
How can she look so excited but concerned?
Connor began to shift his weight once more, taking slow steps testing out his injured leg. The pain was excruciating, but not enough to make him give up this fight.
"I never give up," Connor responded. How could he? He was the one that had to lead by example, show his younger siblings the ropes and lead an entire nation. He was not about to lose; he could not afford to lose.
Biting through the pain Connor dashed forward, fists raised and ready to strike. He was a natural with blades but that did not mean he was unskilled in other forms of martial arts.
The three did not wait for Connor to get to close, two of them flanked Connor each taking a side while the third ran straight to meet him. Connor threw the first punch; she blocked it, wasting no time she threw a punch of her own, forgoing her earlier attempts of trying to stab him barehanded.
he caught the blow with his forearm, and immediate switching targets, he went for the uninjured copy that went to his left. They entered a furious exchange of blows. Connor, not being limited to a third of his strength was overpowering her. Wills were powerful, but only reinforced, not enhance.
The exchange didn't last long as he soon had to move onto another target, losing ground in the progress as he had to adjust for the next exchange. Connor's primary goal right now was to make sure that he was only fighting one Daisy at a time, moving in ways that kept them from dog piling him. His second goal was to cause as much damage as possible in as little time as possible to slowly wear them down.
This meant that Connor now had to fight nonstop switching between opponents that could duplicate and heal with each death of a copy. Connor also figured that Daisy would not eliminate a copy as she would still feel the pain of killing a copy and risk giving him a point to exploit.
Daisy had a good battle sense; there was no way a veteran had failed to notice their opponent changing tactics the more they found out about her.
Although confident he could now finish her rather quickly with his father's ability, he refused. This was his fight and he would win this on his own, and unless Daisy had another trick up her sleeve this fight was over.
Or so he thought.
He put too much weight on his injured leg and collapsed backward. All three Daisies lunged at once. Connor rolled, avoiding all of their attacks.
Fighting and surviving many fights in the past had helped Connor hone his reflexes so even when he made a mistake, unless his opponent prioritized the situation to the fullest, he could make a quick recovery.
Standing as quickly as he could he glanced at his leg and winced when he saw how stained his pants where with a dark liquid, undoubtedly his own blood.
His heartbeat spiked. Panic clawed at him.
Now all three of the copies once again had united, they moved in a more coordinated way, negating the plan Connor had before.
No longer able to take them on one-on-one Connor could once again only focus on defending himself.
More pressure began to weigh him down, doubt, pain, exhaustion, fear. But he refused to call on his father's power. He'd made a promise to himself, and he would not break it.
Realizing that he was panicking, Connor took a deep breath and decided to gamble everything. Forgetting about defense, he lunged forward and grabbed one of the copies, not sure which, by the throat.
Squeezing as tightly as he could he decided to try and strangle a Daisy.
He knew this wouldn't kill the other copies, but he did know that if he managed to kill a copy this way they would feel every moment of it to. And working through strangulation was just about impossible.
Dying of asphyxiation was, after all, one of the most fear inducing and painful ways to die. It induced major panic, terror, and impending doom. But those were only the later feelings.
At first nothing major would happen, just discomfort. But as one would try and breathe, try to intake more air and realizing they couldn't, they resisted. Trying harder to escape, and in doing so they increased their heart rate, in turn raising blood pressure. When blood pressure increased, the body would call for more air, but now unable to get said air, they would resist even more.
Daisy, even if this was a copy, was no different than anyone else and she quickly fell into the pattern.
The one he had pinned began to fight back, scratching, punching kicking he legs. She forgot about her elegant woman act and just started trying to survive
The other two hammered him with kicks and punches but were dealing less damage than they should have. This was because he focused his will as thickly as he could all over his body, relying only on his strength to drain the life from this Daisy.
He could feel the panic setting in the other two as they began to attack more frantically, they're own will weakening as they did.
Soon enough the one he had pinned to the ground was faintly resisting, all life almost leaving her, and this was how Connor knew the other two were also about to crumble.
Afterall, they felt whatever killed a copy, and if a copy suffered for a long period of time before dying by one move, then it was just a weakness he had found and exploited.
The Daisy beneath him thrashed weakly in a weak attempt to break free, then went completely still. Cleanly snapping her neck to make sure she was dead, Connor turned to face the next Daisy. He stumbled as he stood, this time not because of his leg but because of the amount of damage that he sustained while chocking a copy.
Stabilizing himself, Connor watched on as the other two were clutching at their throats, coughing and wheezing. Forcing his was forward, fighting through the pain and the call to lay down, he made his way to the next one.
She was on the ground; all looks of elegance she had before were gone. Her face was bruised and blood streamed down her face. Her face purple from the feeling of suffocating. That moment of time probably was one of the most frighting moments of her life.
Fighting to breathe again despite not being able too, the panic settling in and ruining her rhythm, it truly must have made her feel helpless and weak.
Not showing weakness or pity for his opponent, Connor lifted his leg and brought it down with tremendous strength. The copy cried and clutched her leg, right above where he had shattered her knee. Reaching out he grabbed her by the hair and began to drag her to what he thought was the original.
He planned to kill them both next to one another. Who knew, maybe they both were the original and it would not matter who he killed first.
Either way, if one ran, he stood no chance of catching her. Just before reaching the original, her eyes widened in fear. She tried to stand and run, but Connor dove after her, tackling her to the ground.
There was no dignity in the fight that ensued. Both of them on the ground, rolling on top of one another for better leverage as they threw punches, both wanting to end the fight on top.
There were a couple things that worked in Connor's favor as he continued to fight to remain on top. The first was that he was still able to focus his will.
Daisy had experienced death several times in this altercation, but never truly dying. With the way she had experienced the last death, Connor was more surprised to see that she was manifesting will at all.
The second was that Connor didn't believe in dignity. If someone came after him or his family, he would fight back. Didn't matter if it was a female or male, at their strongest or weakest, if they posed a serious threat he would kill them.
Obviously Daisy believed otherwise. Everything about her, the way she spoke and the way she acted and dressed all spoke of royalty.
Dignity and honor did not matter in a fight to the death. But if you pushed Connor to this point, then you were obviously strong enough to demand his respect.
Respect was something that Connor gave willingly even if he never voiced it.
Daisy managed to roll over and was now on top landing majority of the blows. They did little to Connor as her will was scattered. But he couldn't help but feel something was wrong.
He continued to roll over again and began to land more blows with less resistance each time. Before long, each punch sprayed blood along the stones of the street.
Before long all resistance stopped, and Connor realized he was punching a body, no longer resisting or breathing.
Turning to where he left the last Daisy he worried she crawled away. He was unsure as to how much time passed from when he tackled Daisy down to the ground.
To his surprise the last one was sitting patiently in the middle of the road, right where he left her.
"You didn't run." It was not a question, but a statement. Daisy offered no defense just stared back at him. "You could have won, but you let me," he continued, "I won't ask why but it became obvious. You had more to give."
It was true, when there were three of them left and Connor had been trying to keep them separate, the other two kept their distance. Only engaging when Connor tried to shift targets.
Connor's entire belief of fighting was that he believed that fights should only be fought when fighting for something. By this logic, Daisy had been fighting for something but lost it as they had been fighting.
She still said nothing, just watching as he stumbled and wavered with every step he took towards her.
"I thank you, for letting me win I mean." She cracked a small smile but gave no other indication of acknowledging him.
"Make it painless, this is my last body." That's all she said before looking into the distance.
Connor could have made a million guesses as to what happened, but if he had to make a guess, it would be that somewhere else there was another one of her. But she had died, either to the hands of someone she trusted or failing so save them before dying herself.
Just before he got into arm's length of Daisy. She reached down to her heel, and removed a small knife, something that would have taken Connor by surprise had she used it. Just more proof she had been holding back for some reason.
Giving him the knife, Connor took it and weighed it in his hand for a moment. Making one quick slash across her neck, he watched as her lifeless body fell onto the stones.
"Still hate killing." He whispered to himself.
He would have taken her into custody if given the chance, but something told him she would kill if he left her alone. That and the fact that violence had to have broken out all over the city and he wouldn't have the chance to put her anywhere.
Taking a deep breath in, he gagged and almost threw up all over the street.
What wa-
Looking around him was absolute carnage. The buildings were all on fire and burning to the ground. Some already having collapsed. He had also inhaled more than the smoke of the fires.
The citizens that were nowhere to be seem where all over the pavement. Non on the road, though that was now slick with blood. The bodies were lined next to the houses and shops, and he assumed even more inside.
Looking up into the sky, all he could see was more smoke. Not only here in this district all over the city, as far as he could see. The clear blue sky was nowhere to be seen, the veil of smoke making it just about impossible to see through it.
The stench of blood was suffocating, and Connor began to cough and gag once more.
He glared at the corpses of all the Daisy's he had killed. "Just how strong where you. How strong could you possibly have been to keep the entire city under an illusion, and how long!" He yelled, knowing that she would never be answering his question.
He had begun to feel bad for causing her to die so painfully, but not anymore. No wonder she had seemed so weak during their fight. Maintaining this could not have been easy.
Connor was still a ways away from standing against an heir of her magnitude, but she was far stronger than any heir they had on record.
His hair stood in edge. What happened to my brothers! My sisters!
Running as fast as his bruised and battered body allowed, he began to make his way toward the northern side of the city, where his youngest siblings were bound to be. He prayed that his younger brothers were safe. They had to be.
Tim was where all the hunters normally gathered, he was probably the safest.
Thinking of Geo, he was a little worried because that was the only place where word of a fight came from. Possibly even worse than the commercial district if that was the case.
No, he's fine. He's got guards each on par with a knight with him. He has to be.
The rest were probably still in or nearby their house, where most of the guards would be.
Connor was moving as fast as he could, his heart fluttering with fear and worry for everyone in his family. He could not stop thinking of everything he did wrong. How he could have been faster, the better techniques that would have kept the fight in his favor.
Connor was yelling at himself as even more pressure weighed pushed him down. The most he's ever felt.