Facing yourself

They stared at the grass clones in their presence, and Tenebrea wasn't having it. She immediately slashed her scythe. The identical version of her also slashed her scythe, and it looked like it would have been a stalemate; it ought to have been.

The grass "clone" was immediately bisected and disintegrated. Tenebrea had added a bit of her chaos energy to the scythe, causing the elements holding the grass clone to misbehave and scatter. Tenebrea went forward, leaving behind only a sentence.

"This can also be a test. Before you can beat your enemy, you need to know your weaknesses by facing yourself. Beat the things in front of you, and you will become far stronger than you already are, including you, Ana."

Anastasia looked like a girl who had been wronged. She pouted as Tenebrea left them behind.

Facing the clones, her pout changed to one of anger. Behind her, the plants started to wilt, and then they became red like blood. Anastasia retreated far away, causing her clone to follow her. She knew if there was a battle, it would affect the young ones.

Julius, Maverick, Talia, Scarlet, and Davina each faced their clones and immediately wielded their weapons. Julius readied his hammer with a tense expression. Scarlet faced her bow, Talia's trident was already in hand, and Davina had equipped the misshapen voodoo staff.

Immediately, everyone went their own way, with only Julius running forward to attack.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

Every attack he dropped was blocked by the grass clone. He enhanced his speed drastically, but the shocking thing is that the grass clone also had the attribute of sound. It matched him to the tee. He attacked; it blocked; he blocked; it attacked. That was the cycle.

Scarlet and her clone were jumping on trees, firing arrows at each other. Although the clone did not have the crimson cinder, the flame it emitted was almost as hot as the cinder, causing Scarlet a huge headache. Her arrows were sliced through the middle while she dodged the arrows shot by the clone.

Maverick and its clone were tusk-in-tusk matched. They pushed each other and actually fought like the beasts they were. Maverick's eyes and skin were already blood red, and his size had gradually increased while the clone's eyes were glowing green.

Davina's curses did not work on the clone, as it was not technically alive. Blindness, confusion, and heart attack were all skills that did not work, so Davina felt confused. The clone was actually different and did not use curses but instead threw in other attributes like wind, fire, water, and others. Davina was steadily being pushed back and even injured.

Talia was also having a similar issue as the rest of them. There were five Talias and five clones all fighting each other, or at least it looked that way. Only the actual Talia and clone's attacks connected; the others passed through themselves as they were just light mirages.

The battle worth watching was definitely Anastasia versus her clone. If you say the battle between the disciples was like watching toned warriors fight for their lives, then the fight between Anastasia and the clone was like a battle of great beings.

Anastasia looked far different from what she normally looked like. Around the disciples, she oozed a motherly charm sometimes, while other times she just seemed like a nanny, but now facing this foe, her hair had turned blood red, she had a pair of crimson wings, and around her, the green grass had turned red and grown thorny, and they seemed ready to attack.

The clone also looked the same, but instead of the red Anastasia oozed, the clone was giving off normal plant-attribute energy. They attacked each other.

Anastasia slashed continuously with the already-grown claws on her hands, as the thorny grass had wrapped up the clone faster than it could react. Anastasia was going all out from the beginning. The clone could not move for a couple seconds until the vines wrapped around it started to turn green once more.

Seeing this, Ana pierced her hands through the chest of the clone, but there was no life source, no heart, and no core, so how was this thing even alive in the first place?

The clone held the hand that was in its chest. Anastasia's hand was crushed by the raw power it released. The clone then pulled Anastasia's arm from her body. Anastasia watched the arm leave like it was not hers in the first place.

The clone threw the arm far away and moved to attack Ana again, but this time Ana had a smile on her face.

"Making my job easier, eh?" Blood droplets were floating around the clone. They then started to move together, and soon a long, curved sword was where Anastasia's arm formally was.

She dashed forward and slashed, but the clone formed a shield, blocking the attack. A spear was also formed, and it was now stabbing at Ana. A hand caught the spear at the shaft.

The grass clone finally showed expression. It was surprised as to who would try to help Ana. It looked down and saw that it was Ana's severed arm that was actually holding the spear.

"Vampires don't need their body parts to be attached." The arm then broke the spear and stabbed it into the head of the grass clone.

The clone squirmed and soon disintegrated. Anastasia released a sigh of relief as she felt it was over, but before she could even move forward. The grass clone reformed.

It was the same scene happening with them all. The disciples and Maverick had managed to triumph over their foes, and they also thought it was over and they could join Tenebrea, but the clones reformed again, looking like they did not just fight a battle.

"What?? Is this a lost cause?" Julius yelled, wanting to pull out his hair.

"I don't think teacher would give us a battle we can't win." Davina was the most injured, but she still stood strong.

Blades came out from the sides of Scarlet's bow and ignited. She was ready to go into close combat. Maverick dragged its front foot on the ground, ready to charge. Talia twirled her trident while Anastasia gritted her teeth as she was once again stopped from meeting her queen.

They all lunged forward once again to start the attack.