Two Kims

Kim made a few experimental swings of her sword at what was before her. Each swing was countered with precision and the same speed that Kim herself was capable of, their blades ringing with each impact. Elin didn't like the looks of this. If something went wrong, she wasn't sure that she'd be able to get to Kim in time to heal her. Then there was the doubts in her own mind of if she'd be able to help at all.

From everything she could see about the doppelganger, it appeared that both were equally matched. Elin felt herself break out into cold sweat as she watched helplessly as Kim began trading serious blows with the other Kim. Elin wasn't sure what there was that she could do and suddenly found herself short of breath, her ears starting to hurt with how loud the ringing of the blades were getting.

Elmo quickly moved over to her and spoke softly to her. "Take deep breaths. You're hyperventilating. Slow your breathing," he said, sounding like he was struggling to keep it together himself.

Somehow, she found comfort in that knowledge. Relief that she wasn't the only one finding it difficult to be left as purely an observer, unable to do anything to help. That realization also made it easier for her to slow her breathing down, which also eased her heartrate. Which then let her realize something else that she found unpleasant.

"Ugh," Elin remarked as she realized the dress she was wearing had suddenly turned a bright yellow. "I hate yellow."

"It's not so bad," Elmo said. "At least it'll change to a different color once your feelings change."

While she knew that Elmo was trying to be helpful, she couldn't help but find herself annoyed at him. Maybe it was because of the color of her dress or something else, but she wasn't interested in that. What she most wanted was to find some way that she could help out Kim.

When it was clear to both Kims that neither were going to get an actual hit on the other at the rate they were going, the both suddenly started to enter into a combat dance. Or whatever Kim's dancing skill was called, Elin thought to herself.

It didn't take long before she lost track of which Kim was which. Both seemed to move at blinding speeds that made Elin feel dizzy herself. She suddenly wondered if Jonas would be able to help out, even with the Kims moving as they werel. She would also expect that he'd be able to keep track of which Kim was which, regardless of how much of a blur they were moving in.

As she had that thought, she glanced around, suddenly wondering where Jonas was. Had he decided that he couldn't help Kim himself and so went somewhere else? In a way, it made sense to her. After all, it would at least get her mind off of worrying about Kim.

Yet, as she turned to head towards the stairs, if only to see what else might be up there, she saw the blurred shape of one of the Kims' sword break through the other's guard and pause briefly in the air, mid-motion, before slicing into the belly of the other Kim. Meanwhile, the other Kim ran her own sword straight through the chest of the other Elin.

It took Elin a few minutes to realize she was screaming herself. Regardless of which was the real Kim, she could tell that her Kim was seriously injured at best.

Ignoring any possible danger, she ran over ot see if there was anything she could do. She could only hope that it wasn't her Kim who had been run through by the other. She clung to the desperate hope that it was her Kim who was still alive.

That said, she was having trouble keeping that Kim's intestines from spilling out of her opened belly. After a few minutes of trying to put her intestines back in her open belly, Elin suddenly remembered about her magic.

Elin closed her eyes and did her best to slow her breathing. She wouldn't do Kim any good being like she was at the moment. Although, she could still feel her heart beating like a rhythmic hammer beating nails in somewhere.

"Minor Heal," Elin whispered, hoping against hope that this would work. "Minor Heal. Minor Heal."

Elin lost track of how many times she used her healing spell, though she was vaguely aware of the dangers that still existed about using up too much of her MP. However, all that mattered to her at that moment was doing everything she could to save Kim. If she had to give her own life for that, she was fine with that. Although, she couldn't help but smile to herself as she thought about how Kim would react to hearing that.

She paused briefly when she saw that Kim's intestines were in fact being pulled back into her body from Elin's healing spells. Elin felt relief at that and used her healing spell twice more, only to find that she had in fact run out of MP.

She found herself suddenly seized by sensation she remembered the last time she'd run out of MP when trying to cast spells. At first she felt faint. Then it moved on to her body feeling like it wanted to fall apart at the seams, or joints, and the sensation of nausea. Then she began to feel the tremors in her body that quicly became uncontrollable, followed by the loss of her muscle control and could only feel mortification as she felt her body relieving itself at that moment. However, that was the least of her concerns as she began to experience vertigo again while convulsing on the ground before darkness swallowed her again.

+++

Elmo felt helpless. It wasn't until after he'd lost track of which Kim was which that he realized that he could have tried using scorch to maybe injure the doppelganger to give Kim and advantage. Yet, now he couldn't do anything as he watched Elin convulsing on the ground in front of him. He could remember the lsat time this had happened, only at least then Kim wasn't in such critical condition, nor were they in the kind of danger they were in a the moment.

Elmo watched as Kim's intestines were retracted into her lower abdomen while the cut was sealing itself. Then at the same time, the other Kim was slowly changing back to the form it held before it had become a carbon copy of Kim.

It took Elmo a few minutes of watching this happen for him to realize why Kim hadn't been cut in two, while the doppelganger had been able to be run through like it had been. It was so simple that he felt stupid that he hadn't remembered about it in the first place: Elin's Minor Protection spell had to have still been active on Kim when the fight had started.

Then as Kim's belly wound fully healed, she opened her eyes, like she was waking up from a nap or something. She looked around in confusion, though her expression turned horrified as she noticed how much of her blood was on her and around her. Then her expression changed again as she saw Elin, who was still shaking, though it was starting to die down.

Kim then looked up and as her eyes focused, she snapped at Elmo. "What happened?"

Elmo sighed and began to explain what happened after Kim had run the doppelganger through, killing It. How Elin used up all of her remaining MP to heal Kim's gut wound.

When he finished, Kim merely nodded. "I remember some of that, actually," Kim admitted, "but I wasn't sure if I blacked out for part of it or not."

"I'm hoping Elin won't be too much out of it when she comes around," Elmo said, glancing worriedly at Elin.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Kim said with confidence Elmo certainly didn't feel. "Where's Jonas?"

"Huh?" Elmo was surprised and he quickly glanced around. He actually hadn't thought about Jonas since they were fighting the hobgoblin. Though, he couldn't see Jonas anywhere.

Kim merely sighed. "Let's just hope he went up the stairs to see if there was anything up there to note," she said a moment before she yawned. "I guess being healed like that can really make a person tired."

Elmo nodded absently. While what Kim said made sense, he still would rather know exactly where Jonas was. That way he'd be able to be sure that nothing bad had happened to him. Having seen the doppelganger fight Kim made him worry about what dangers Jonas could potentially face, even just scouting up the stairs.

"We should wait here until he gets back," Kim told Elmo. "At the very least, it'll let us tend to Elin until she wakes up."

Elmo nodded, not able to think of anything to respond with. He just merely looked at Elin and hoped this wasn't an omen about their upcoming attempt at closing the portal.

The sound of something coming down the stairs drew both of their attention. Kim gripped her sword as she tried getting herself into a sitting position, though it looked like she was having difficulty to Elmo.

Though, both of them relaxed when Jonas came into view. Which meant they now knew where he had gone to. Hearing what he'd have to say would also give Elin more time to rest, although Elmo doubted that Jonas would have that much to tell them. Which meant that they'd need to wait a while longer for Elin to recover before they could continue on.