I’ve Got A Bad Feeling

Nicolas had often heard the saying "your greatest enemy is yourself", but this was taking it too literally since an exact replica of him stood right before him and stared at him menacingly with gleaming red eyes.

Mimetrieze was now an exact copy of Nicolas, his red eyes being the only exception.

Yet every other thing from his face to his voice to his clothes and down to even his artifact. Mimetrieze had copied it all.

"So your ability lets you recreate the exact person whose blood you ingest right?" Nicolas rose to his feet.

"What a sly ability." He added still holding unto his bleeding wound in severe pain.

"You see, that's the beauty of it. Even if you know it's not going to make any difference—" The void beast wore a scornful smirk.

"Like now for instance, your death is already inevitable."

Nicolas let out a pained chuckle.

"I've already decided to die fighting here." His eyes gleamed with unshakable conviction. He would do anything possible to push himself to win at the very end.

"After all the fake never beats the original."

Mimetrieze blitz forward, covering their gap within moments. He then swung his katana through the air sending a loud echo through the cave as blade met blade.

Nicolas then clenched unto his artifact with more force, sending out a large explosion.

"Cerulean blast!" He yelled as his artifact emanated a blinding blue hue.

Mimetrieze was sent flying with little to no damage at all. 

'It seems his weapon isn't all that bad.' Nicolas cursed.

He fixed his leg tightly to the ground blasting into the air to meet his adversary.

In a wide arc Mimetrieze threw his blade sending it whistling towards Nicolas. The artifact hunter blocked it with a slash of his own sending the projected blade back into the hands of the void beast.

His katana glimmered a light red glow in the air and the vile beast brought it down, crashing his blade against Nicolas'

They both plummeted down as Nicolas struggled to keep Mimetrieze's blade off his.

His artifact shone once more, creating a blue blast to temporarily separate the two fighters.

They clashed, their blades colliding with one another again and again and again. 

Whilst they both stood unchanging in one position their blades moved at unreadable speeds leaving any one of them that blundered with slight cuts and bruises.

"Now I've finally gotten it." Mimetrieze yelled, his blade getting a red tint which slowly but rapidly began to grow.

Nicolas charged his artifact too and both blue and red streams of energy flowed from opposing sides of battle.

"CERULEAN!" They yelled in unison.

"BLAST!" 

The ground beneath their feet crumbled, being brought to ruin under the intense explosions from their attacks. These ruins left a cloud of dust in the air which slowly cleared to reveal the aftermath of the explosion.

Blood slowly dripped from Mimetrieze's blade as it stayed firmly fixed in Nicolas' belly.

"Great fight—but it's over human." Mimetrieze muttered, dragging out his katana for the definitive slash. 

But it was stuck, his blade refused to drag out. 

"I told you—" Nicolas let out a pained mutter.

"I'd judge your SINS! ALL OF YOU" He yelled holding unto Mimetriez's blade.

He then rose his artifact in the air releasing every ounce of energy that bore within it.

His azure blade glowed like never before exceeding the gleam of the rubies themselves then he brought it down towards Mimetrieze.

"Tch, Nicolas you bastard!" The void beast cursed in panic as he watched the large streams of blue energy quickly head towards him.

"CERULEAN EXPLOSION!"

In a flash the katana came down blowing up immediately on impact. The explosion being so great that even the katana was cracked beyond measure.

Nicolas finally heaved a sigh of relief.

'He couldn't have possibly survived that blas—' The artifact hunter paused mid thought shivering and heaving in large volumes of air as he slowly looked downwards.

"My hands!" He cried in pain, clenching unto his forearm. The lower part was gone. He staggered back nervously, before freezing in unbridled fear at the hearing of an even more dreadful curse.

"TIME'S UP." The grim voice of the chief surfaced as he held two arms holding a katana end by end.

He had cut off both Nicolas' arm which held Mimetriez's katana as well as the arm of the void beast as well. 

"That was for taking too long." He turned his attention to Mimetrieze who froze, paralyzed by fear.

"What was it you said? An insignificant human like you would judge me?"

He took slow steps towards a confused Nicolas that retreated back slowly, trying to evade the Void beast's presence.

"A Champion of Lord Zykoria?" He questioned aloud.

'What was happening?' Nicolas wondered in sheer terror.

'When did the other guy get here?'

'Did he block my attack without taking any damage whatsoever?'

'I—I have to run, run, run, run—'

"RUN YOU IDIOT!" Nicolas desperately tried to escape, bleeding from both his belly and his severed arm.

"Where is all that pride that once challenged me human?"

"I thought you meant to judge the fool and then I?"

"Or are your ideals shattered by the sheer weight of my presence."

"Answer me human!" He voiced in a slow yet threatening tone.

Nicolas crumpled to the ground, the cause being a mix of both blood loss and sheer terror. But the latter having a higher effect.

Nicolas's eyes roamed around the cave in search of his blade. His face immediately contorted into a grim expression of helplessness as he saw the beaten down metal that was his katana on the ground of the cave floor.

"Coming to think of it I haven't opened my eyes yet." Oneiros announced, slowly opening it up.

"Astravan—" 

"Astravan please clean up my mess." The artifact hunter cried out, doing the only thing he could now think of—

Embrace his imminent death.

With just a dreadful gaze from the chief Nicolas shook uncontrollably before bursting open right from his head to the rest of his body. Causing a mixture of both guts and bloody flesh to splash unto the cave floor, dessicrating the defiled cave even more.

All this was only from the intense peer of the chieftain. He was just that powerful.

He closed his gleaming red eyes then proceeded to walk away.

WHOOSH

The crimson door finally closed behind them.

"I guess it was a fake afterall." Mimetrieze muttered, eying the blade his former foe once clashed against him.

"Anyways." He sprang back up in lively fashion.

"I would have been cooked right there if not for you chief." The gleeful void beast proceeded to rejenerate his severed arm.

"So you really do care about my safety don't you chief?" Mimetrieze teased, thankful his life was saved.

"Don't push it fool." Oneiros gave him a stern look as they both headed out the cave.

"It might be your brain spraying out your head next time."

"Ehehe." Mimetrieze muttered nervously as he itched the side of his head.

"So have you found the right place for the plan?"

Oneiros paused, thinking for a second before speaking.

"It will require a place with enough people for the extraction."

"And I know just the right place." He opened up his bright red eyes donning a wide smile.

"ASTRAVAN'S TRICKSHOW!"

"But first— we feast on the fallen."

"Arrghhh." A young boy awoke, clenching his forehead tightly.

His Crimson red eyes glowed ever so lightly as he took in wide gasps of air.

"Trick what's going on?" A low inquisitive voice came from another room.

"Nothing master Astravan!" The boy gave a loud response.

He held his head once more as every fiber of his being cried out danger.

"WHY DO I HAVE A FEELING SOMETHING BAD IS GONNA HAPPEN."

"SOMETHING REALLY BAD."