From the front doors, Lucien stepped out, but he wasn’t alone. Beside him was a tall, imposing warrior with long, flowing red hair, clad in crimson armor and holding a katana.
This was his summon.
Behind them, dozens of figures began pouring out in rapid succession, and then dozens more followed.
League mbers appearing one after another in such overwhelming numbers that it beca imdiately clear sothing was wrong.
There were too many of them.
Eduardo’s eyes narrowed as he watched the crowd multiply before him. His team had stopped their advance several ters from the house, each of them tensing as they registered what they were seeing.
Hector’s summon, Morthorz, was responsible for this.
The shapeshifting spirit’s ultimate skill allowed it to recreate perfect visual duplicates of anyone its summoner had encountered. And right now, that skill was being used to flood the battlefield with fake copies of every League mber present.
Multiple Lucienes side by side. Several Donovans in their werewolf forms prowled at different points. There were several Martinas appeared scattered throughout the growing crowd, each one holding an identical staff.
The duplicates continued spreading outward in a loose formation, filling the space between the manor and Eduardo’s team until there were easily over a hundred figures standing before them.
Then sothing more changed.
The eyes of so of the duplicates began glowing with an eerie light, and their forms shimred as they reshaped themselves.
These copies were now perfect duplicates of Eduardo’s team, staring back at them.
Percival looked puzzled as he saw multiple versions of himself grinning mockingly from within the crowd.
Joe, watching from his elevated position, looked just as confused as he swept his scope across the chaotic mass of bodies. This was exactly the kind of counter-strategy that would neutralize a long-range marksman.
"Tch, Hector...." Joe whispered. He couldn’t tell which ones were real anymore
Unfortunately, this thod taken by Hector was due to Donovan’s warning that a ranger was sowhere in the distance, taking clean shots, and had already taken down Reyener and Greta.
Back on the ground, the massive crowd of duplicates suddenly surged forward as one, charging toward Eduardo and his team in an overwhelming wave.
At that exact sa mont, one figure broke away from the mass and launched herself into the air.
Martina, the real one, rose rapidly into the sky as a flight spell propelled her higher and higher above the battlefield.
Joe’s scope tracked her movent instantly, and his finger pulled the trigger.
The bullet left Katarina’s barrel and streaked through the air toward the ascending caster.
But just as it was about to make contact, a translucent light blue barrier materialized around Martina’s body.
The bullet struck the shield’s surface and ricocheted off, deflecting away at an angle before disappearing into the distance.
With Donovan’s warning, she too was prepared for this.
Joe cursed again and adjusted his aim.
By then, Martina had already gained significant altitude. She halted at a certain point and thrust her staff upward, striking the invisible barrier of the Reverse Bind Sealing spell overhead.
The impact sent a visible shockwave rippling across the surface of the spatial barrier. Electric-like sparks crackled along the point of contact where her staff t the seal.
There was a blue magic circle glowing brightly over the head of Martina’s staff as she struck again and again, each impact sending more lightning-like energy cascading across the barrier’s surface.
The entire sealing spell reverberated from the assault.
Valerie, who had been the last to enter the compound, imdiately felt the destabilization. She lifted her head toward where Martina was attacking the barrier from within.
If that caster kept hamring away at it like that, the seal would eventually break.
Valerie raised a hand before her and whispered, "Seal Gravity."
Red magic circles ford over her palms, then collapsed inward around her body. The effect lifted her feet off the ground as the gravitational force acting on her had been placed under seal.
She rose into the air, ascending rapidly to intercept Martina before she could compromise the barrier any further.
-
anwhile, on the ground, the massive wave of duplicates had crashed into Eduardo’s team.
The werewolves had all transford into their full wolf forms by this point. Their heightened senses allowed them to imdiately distinguish between the fake duplicates and the real League mbers hidden among them.
The scent signatures on the duds were all identical, but the real mbers gave off distinct individual scents.
Percival’s claws tore through a cluster of fake Hectors that had surrounded him. Each one dispersed into wisps of violet smoke the mont his strikes connected, confirming they held no substance or power behind them.
He pivoted and destroyed three more duplicates in rapid succession, clearing a path through the crowd as he searched for genuine threats.
Then his eyes widened as bis senses alerted him to a sudden movent from behind
The real Donovan, in his full brown-furred werewolf form, had leaped high into the air from sowhere within the mass of duplicates.
His trajectory carried him directly toward Percival’s position, with both arms raised above his head as he descended.
Percival barely had ti to turn his head toward the threat before Donovan’s fists ca crashing down upon him.
But his cousins acted in the nick of ti.
Both of lvin’s sons blurred in from percival’s sides, intercepting Donovan mid-descent. They each raised both hands to catch one of Donovan’s fists, and the impact when all three collided sent a shockwave exploding outward in all directions.
The ground beneath them cracked and cratered from the force as the shockwave cleared away nearby duplicates like leaves in a storm.
When the debris settled, both cousins were visible with their teeth gritted, straining visibly as they held Donovan’s fists in place. Their feet had been driven several inches into the ground from absorbing the impact.
This was the difference in raw power between two A-tier warriors and a single S-tier at his peak.
Donovan grinned down at both of them, clearly enjoying the sight of their struggle against his strength.
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