Clara had little experience in this field. After all, there were many people who don’t even believe doppelgangers exist. And yet she found herself upon a lair of them. She knew it was a lair and not a temporary home with how many half dead adventurers she had to heal.

  She steps forwards, deeper into the lair, when she finds a perfectly healthy person walking about. They were acting as though they were scared, but Clara hit an Analyze, and saw it say they were real.

  But her very core said otherwise. The behaviors seemed natural, but not for someone supposed to be scared. Especially since the location she was in was full of death. It would be a fear of death, something she works with constantly.

  But that person was scared of something else. Certainly not death, their words were shaking sure, but whatever was truly behind the flesh was uninjured. Was pretending to be instead.

  Clara shot out, and bashed whatever the hell the beast was head in. And the System let her know what it was when she did.

  [Doppelganger killed!]

  [+1 EXP]

  She shuddered as she collapsed against a wall. She actually killed one of those monsters, but she had to control her breath here…

  42 - False Person

  She approached Bariton carefully, his muttering grew fainter as someone got closer. Alarms were ringing in Clara’s mind as she approached slowly. Bariton was more careful than this, Bariton hadn’t known whether it was Clara or a fake approaching him.

  But he seemed hurt, not physically, Clara would’ve been able to fix him easily if that was the case. Shammus walked up alongside her, which made Clara even more suspicious of this Bariton.

  Shammus got a bit too close, and Bariton acted fast with a knife to Shammus’s throat, parried quickly by the golden and white one. Shammus attacked back, more swiftly but it was parried as well as Bariton slid back.

  “Fake.” Shammus said, his voice cold. His voice terrifying, as though a hunter talking to prey as he stood. Clara knew what she had to do, as she cast some buffs on Shammus and Pallad.

  The two rushed forward; not yet faster than she could see, but certainly faster than she could track. And her buffs only raised the bar of their movements. Judine seemed to slow down whatever the hell they were fighting.

  Clara, after casting all her buffs, had begun to launch little spikes of Light towards the beast. Not to hit it, but to limit its range of movement, and as such it was hit a few more times by Shammus and Pallad.

  Pallad’s strikes left it crying out as the flesh rotted from it. Shammus’s strikes sometimes left it with clean lacerations, or with burning meat. The beast tried to flee, before it quickly cast aside its form.

  It held just a small silhouette, but it was practically glowing from the golden blood spilling forth from its chest and limbs. Clara cast out the chains she used against the mage, which locked its movement further, or more specifically its capability to attack.

  The fight was raging, Pallad and Shammus left her range, but she stepped forward to force them back in. The thing broke the chain after sustaining enough damage, but the attacks it did were immediately healed away.

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  The two were fine, but the red covering the floor stated that the battle was tougher than it looked. Clara approached to ensure there were no lasting injuries. Pallad’s insistence that he was fine, along with Shammus’s slapping away of her hand left her to nod.

  Judine stepped forward, and patted her shoulder lightly. Clara looked up to meet Judine’s yellow eyes, before she simply just gestured for the search to continue, now with a time limit.

  “I remember reading about Doppelgangers many a time.” Shammus begins speaking as they walk deeper into the cavern. “They usually live in packs, but they spread out and bring others to their layer by casting a spell to make them pass out.”

  “And, if it could cause Bariton to pass out…” Shammus shudders, probably thinking about what it could do. They keep walking forward before finding a large city, its streets full of soldiers. There wasn’t a single civilian, or at least unarmed person.

  A loud sound rings out, as two swords clash over and over. It was actually slow compared to Shammus and Pallad attacking the doppelganger, but it was rhythmic. It was capable of being followed by Clara’s eyes, and it was clear that it was a duel.

  Or a performance, the two were fighting, but one’s attacks were more dangerous, more filled with will to kill, while the other’s parries were carefully timed to tire the opponent and evade real damage by glancing the blows off to the side at the height.

  The rhythm was simple, and it was slowing at the same time. Suddenly, an opening was exploited by the defending man, and the other collapsed holding onto the slowly outspilling red. The defending man bowed down as the crowd cheered.

  It was odd. It felt wrong, and Judine had to grab her shoulder to stop her from rushing in to heal the bleeding out loser. Shammus steps forward an exchange of whispers are brought between the victor and himself.

  He steps back towards the party, but before he can mutter, a loud trumpet blares. Clara, Pallad, and Judine all have to cover their ears from it. A tall woman walks outwards, clearly elven in nature.

  She held a crown of light on her head. It seemed to spike upwards, and she looked right at Clara. Clara felt a shudder down her spine, but when she looked over at Shammus he had a light smile.

  She looked back at the woman and noticed the white hair, and the scowl she bore. “Do you know her?” Clara asks Shammus, who simply shakes his head.

  “Not someone I would. But… I think I know our way to Bariton.”

  Clara’s eyes lit up for just a second, before realizing where Shammus was going with this, just before the elf’s speech had begun to ring out.

  “Your daily attempts to duel me shall commence shortly, but first, I’d like to set forth a few challengers.” The elf began, slowly walking down. Her sword glowed a bright gleam, and she had two other elves, one with black hair, and the other with pink hair.

  “You’re planning on duelling her?!” Clara managed to get out, before suddenly the one with black hair was in front of her.

  The pink hair was in front of Pallad and Shammus, and Judine… Was gone.

  “Oh, you are planning on duelling the queen?” The elven man with pink hair simply muttered, facing Shammus and Clara, eying her. Clara had only now been able to notice the smaller set of eyes on that man’s face.

  “Ha! You’ll have to defeat us first!” The black haired one steps back ever so slightly, their stance open. It seemed like Clara was going to be fighting a bruiser… Or another support member.

  She had to pray for that option.

  “These exalted guests were brought to us by Painted the World Red themselves! And of course, with these people, we need to show them our true hospitality now don’t we?”

  The crowd cheered and the one with four eyes cracked their neck. The black haired one simply cracks their knuckles as a secondary pair of arms spreads out from their abdomen. Clara’s curiosity spiked, but was killed instantly as they blew a kiss.

  Clara wanted to kill this arrogant bastard now. Shammus tosses her a simple machete, but it would last for this fight at the very least, and she took on the best combat stance she knew. She certainly wasn’t built for hand on hand combat, but she just has to stall for whatever Judine was doing.

  And stall she shall.