“Sern!” The Core shouted, jumping forward with his arms wide.

  I kicked the copy of myself in the face, knocking him on the ground. Even though I knew the Core had a metal body, the skin looked and felt like the real thing.

  How much practice would that have taken?

  “Get away from her, you monster!” The Core cried, pulling Crapshoveler from his inventory.

  Uh.

  I pulled Crapshoveler from my inventory.

  “How’d you do that?” I asked.

  The others of the party were glancing back and forth, not exactly sure what to do.

  Quin grimaced, adjusting his hold on Sern. “So, which of you is the Core?”

  “Him!”

  “Him!”

  Me and my look-alike glared at each other.

  “Ask me a question,” I said, nodding to Ardenidi.

  The Core frantically waved his hands, shouting in protest.

  Mall smiled. “Where did you and Sern go, just a few days ago?”

  “The dress shop,” I stated.

  “THE CORE CAN READ MINDS!” The Core groaned, dropping to his knees. “The more you talk, the more he knows!”

  “Wait…” Quin blinked. “What?”

  I squinted. “No he can’t.”

  “That would explain how it always found us,” Irion muttered. “But that rules any sort of questioning out. He’d know the answer before it came from our mouth.”

  “Not necessarily," The Core stated, “Only verbal questions. Its surface level mind reading is limited to just a couple feet.”

  The party took a couple steps away from us.

  “Wha—hey, he’s obviously lying!” I snapped. “He’s trying to take my respawn power!”

  “No, you're trying to take my respawn power!” The Core shouted, pointing his Crapshoveler toward me.

  “Please guys,” I pleaded. “That guy doesn’t even look like me!”

  The Core scoffed. “That’s your fault, shapeshifter.”

  Eere and Bruce took a couple more steps back.

  “I think you’re missing the point,” Ardenidi said, with a sigh. “If one of these two is the Core, then we’ve got bigger issues on our hands. This Core evaded death, then copied the body of one of our teammates, and now has the intelligence to pose as a living human being.”

  The Core held up a hand. “Relax. It’s just a spell that mimics voice and movements. Chameleon III or something.”

  Eere perked up, gesturing in the air.

  Quin translated with a huff. “Chameleon is a pretty strong spell. It hides its mana signature too, so you won’t know which of these is who until somebody decasts the spell. But it doesn’t necessarily take a greater intelligence to cast, no more than a mirror, really.”

  Harva nodded. “On it.”

  “That’s not the spell!” I snapped. “It’s metal, shaped to look like a person. He’s trying to get you to waste as much energy and mana as possible!”

  The rest of the party gave me a weird look.

  “Metal,” Bruce clarified. “Like, liquid metal?”

  “YES!” I hissed.

  He took a breath in, long and slow.

  Dexter mused to himself, stroking his chin. “You know, they could both be the Core, split in two.”

  Mall shivered.

  “If that were true, then the Core would’ve already won,” the Core said. “As it’d have killed Grind, taken his power, and then killed itself to restart the loop before it was in any danger.”

  I blinked. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  Cierin frowned, looking between the two of us. “I think it’s fairly obvious which of these two is actually Grind.” He jabbed a thumb at the Core. “Though I am curious how he got Sern—”

  “That beast knocked her unconscious!” The Core screamed, pointing dramatically in my direction. “He tried to eat her!”

  The party took a couple steps away from me, with Quin going the extra step to move himself between me and Sern.

  I groaned, face palming.

  “I’m confused,” Mall grumbled.

  Leo yawned, rubbing his eyes.

  Throttle jolted. “Whoa dude, kinda forget you were here.”

  “I was just taking a nap,” Leo grumbled, blinking hard. “And why are there two of the pipsqueak?”

  “Actually only one of them is the Core,” Harva stated. She grimaced, fumbling, and the spell collapsed. “The Core is using some sort of spell, but I’m having trouble getting rid of it. If it is Chameleon, then it's one of the strangest versions of it I’ve ever seen.”

  “See?” I shouted. “Metal! Not Chameleon!”

  Bruce rubbed his forehead. “You do realize how stupid that sounds, don’t you?”

  Leo hesitated. “Well if one’s made of metal, can’t we just stab them, then see how they bleed?”

  I paled. “Stab? What about just a little cut—”

  “I’ll do it!” The Core hissed, stepping forward. “I’ll do what it takes.”

  Leo stepped forward—-perhaps a little too eagerly, and flicked a dagger across the monster’s arm.

  Black blood ran down, collecting on the floor.

  “See?”

  “Oh yeah, the neurotoxin is both black and liquid,” I said to myself, muttering. “It could easily mimic blood, if the poison was dulled enough.”

  Leo gestured me forward.

  “Nope.” I said, chuckling nervously. “Not from you.”

  “I’ll do it,” Mall offered.

  The color drained from my face. “I think I’ll pass.”

  “Well, maybe-Grind, who would you trust to cut you?” Dexten chuckled.

  “Not you, buddy,” I said. “Bruce?”

  Bruce raised an eyebrow. “We’ve already seen that the other Grind doesn’t bleed metal, so is this necessary?"

  “Is anything necessary?” Throttle asked. “We could just kill the two of them.”

  The party paused for a moment.

  Leo perked up. “Hey, why don’t we do that—”

  “No!”

  “No!”

  I glanced to the side at the Core.

  “I gotta stay alive for Sern!” I hissed.

  “No, I gotta stay alive for Sern!” The Core hissed back.

  I blinked. “You are frustratingly good at this.”

  He blinked. “Thank…you?”

  “Well killing them is a bust,” Irion grumbled.

  Throttle shrugged. “Save it for plan B.”

  Ardenidi clasped her hands together, concentrating. She and Dexten shared a glance. “Go fifty feet out, then find something to write on. Paper would be best, if you had it.”

  Dexten obeyed, disappearing into the forest.

  She continued. “Dexten, now make a simple logistical problem, as simple or complex as you like. When you ask them, keep your distance.”

  After a couple long, long minutes of silence, Dexten finally came back with thin sheets of bark in each hand.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “I skinned a tree!” He cackled. “And I stole all the pens from the dungeon board, so we have that too!”

  Bruce bristled. “You’re the one who’s been doing that?”

  “Nooo.”

  “Those are hard to summon!” Bruce shouted.

  The Core cleared his throat. “Questions, please.”

  “Here you go,” Dexten said, handing one to each of us, winking at the Core. “They should be simple enough that even Grind could do them.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I whined.

  Dexten clicked his tongue. “Just answer the questions, maybe-Grind.”

  With a sigh, I looked at the questions I’d been given.

  You have five hundred apples. Jimmy has ten thousand. How many does Billy have?

  “Who has five hundred apples?” I grumbled, scribbling impossible in big letters over the piece of white bark.

  What is the GDP of every known area in Tetratera?

  I set the piece of bark down, covering my face in my hands.

  Eventually I just wrote I don’t know in little letters at the bottom.

  The last one was relatively simple.

  What is : 4 + 1 =

  I scribbled.

  What is : 4 + 1 = 3

  Hang on, was that a plus or a minus?

  I leaned closer.

  It was a plus symbol.

  “Well I feel stupid,” I chuckled, wiping the ink off.

  The ink, did in fact, not wipe off.

  “Uh oh,” I said. “I guess I could just scribble it out—”

  Dexten plucked the board from my hand, grinning like a lunatic. “Time’s up!”

  “B-but—you never set a time limit!” I snapped.

  The Core handed his board, flashing me a smug little smile. “I may not be the brightest bulb, but I can certainly answer basic math and geography.”

  Dexten cleared his throat and pointed to the Core. “Grind 1 got question A right, Grind 2 got question A wrong.” He flipped to the next piece. “Grind 1 got question A right, Grind 2 Got question A wrong—”

  “Those questions were impossible!” I said.

  “Exactly.” Dexten flipped the board around. “Grind 1 here demonstrated class and elegance as he critiqued each question, demonstrating the various ways that was a flawed way to test the intelligence of an individual, especially one without experience.”

  “W-we…” I stammered. “We were supposed to question the questions?”

  “Obviously.”

  He glanced at the third question, before bursting into laughter.

  “Grind 1, got it right…Grind 2,” Dexten tossed the piece of bark to the rest of the squad, who did their best to suppress a giggle. “Grind 2, today's just not your day, is it?”

  I flushed, snatching the bark back and shredding it into very many tiny little pieces. “I couldn’t read your stupid handwriting.”

  The Core clicked his tongue. “You’re not very good with numbers, are you?”

  “I’m fantastic with numbers!” I shouted.

  “So,” Throttle started, picking her teeth. “Which one are we going to kill?”

  “I’m not quite sure,” Dexten sighed. “Grind 1 is obviously far more intelligent, and however smart a two-star core is, I doubt it can compare to a human, and especially not to a human like Grind. That said, Grind does have occasional bursts of idiocy."

  “No I don't!” I snapped. “That was a perfectly reasonable struggle!”

  Dexten pursed his lips. “What do you guys think?”

  Ardenidi rose from her seat on the ground. “Well so far, Grind 2 has been arguing and protesting everything said or done, effectively stalling, while Grind 1 has offered various bits of helpful information, leading to the improved safety of the people around us.”

  “I don’t know,”Leo huffed. “Grind might have intentionally failed the test to try and stand out.” He hesitated for a moment. “But now that I say it, that sounds more like the kind of ‘intelligent planning’ a monster trying to fake intelligence would come up with.” Leo nodded. “Grind 1 is real, Grind 2 isn’t.”

  “But I’m the real Grind!” I groaned. “This is getting us nowhere!”

  “So, we doing another exam?” Dexten asked. “The last one was kinda fun.”

  Sern started waking up, before wincing, grabbing the bruise on your neck.

  “Sern!” I called. “Sern, could you help me out?”

  “Sern!” The Core called. “Stay away from us! That other Grind is the Core!”

  Mall and Quin glanced to each other. “That does sound like something Grind would say.”

  I blinked. “I guess it would be more considerate just to leave her out of this.”

  Sern ignored the Core’s order, walking over to him. She snuffled, wiping her face in her hands, before wanding over to the Core and giving him a hug.

  The Core sighed, patting Sern on the head. “I think this ‘test’ of ours is done.”

  “Sern?” I whimpered.

  How’d he trick her so fast?

  Was he sending her some secret instructions?

  “Enough of this!” Throttle shouted, jumping forward, pulling out a massive steel crossbow and leveling it to my head. “Look, if this is Grind then he’ll just respawn, if not he won’t.”

  She squeezed the trigger and fired.

  There was a sound of crunching metal as the bolt splintered against a shield.

  The Core sighed, one metal arm extended to block the shot, the other tightening around Sern.

  “What, surprised?” The Core asked, glancing at the rest of the party. “Take another step and the girl dies.”

  Sern flexed, crunching the monster’s side. Her hands ignited with blue fire, and the metal recoiled, shooting off and boiling.

  The Core howled in pain, lunging around toward Sern.

  He just…stopped, frozen in midair.

  Harva exhaled, dropping to the ground. “Finally.”

  A new notification hovered over the body.

  {Core : Chronostasis I : "It’s a really strong time freeze spell" (10:00)}

  The Core couldn’t so much as shake in protest. It was perfectly still exactly where it was, as the timer counted down.

  Sern wrenched the metal arm apart, nodding to herself.

  I blinked, glancing up to Throttle. She offered me a hand.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Please,” Throttle scoffed. “You didn’t actually think your entire team believed that thing, did you?”

  “You didn’t?”

  “Well, let's see, between the decades old monster core with magic, or a pipsqueak like yourself who's been around for what—a week?--- who would be more likely to bomb a test?” Throttle chuckled, planting her hands on her hips. “Of course I knew you were you.”

  I frowned. “I wasn’t trying to fail.”

  “Besides, the Core called itself ‘it,’” Dexten said, grinning, “and you always call monsters like their humans, not things.”

  “They’re humanoid, at least,” I stated. “But it's not something I even consciously do.”

  “See!” Dexten cackled. “Once it was obvious, Ardenidi had Harva start casting Chronostasis, and then it was just a matter of stalling as long as possible.”

  “Wait,” Leo blinked hard, poking the statue of metal. “He’s not a Grind?” He glanced at me. “He’s Grind?”

  Leo groaned.

  “Of course, we didn’t tell all of the people in the team,” Dexten whispered.

  “I see,” I said. “So then Throttle, you must’ve jumped in to bait the Core out, right?”

  She hesitated. “Grind…nobody told me about the plan.”

  “But you knew I was me, right?”

  She wavered. “Mostly.”

  “But you weren’t actually trying to kill me, right?”

  Throttle walked away.

  I let out a sigh. “All’s well that ends well, I guess.”

  “Speaking of ending well,” Quin cackled, stuffing RuptorShrooms down the Core’s frozen throat. “This fellow beat a poor innocent girl, didn’t he? He deserves to go out with a bang.”

  “Sern!” I jolted to focus, running toward her, checking her neck, arms, and hands. “Sern, look at me, what were you thinking, fighting that thing?”

  Sern huffed, crossing her arms, waiting for something…oh.

  “Thank you for helping me, Sern,” I said, softening. “It was sweet. But it was dangerous too.”

  She tapped her nose, smiling.

  I laughed. “He smelled funny? The Core was made of metal and toxins, so that sounds about right.”

  Bruce was scratching his head, inspecting the rippling patterns of silver and iron tissue. “How did it make a recreation so lifelike? And the blood, even if it is fake, has the same color and consistency, implying that the Core has at least a basic grasp of chemistry, or it couldn’t have created anything.”

  Ardenidi stood beside him, running her hands over the textured skin. “This Core must have spent a long, long time refining its stolen abilities.”

  Harva shuddered. “Guys, the stasis is about to break.”

  {Core : Chronostasis I (3:00)}

  Quin grinned, shoving in the last shrooms and closing the Core’s mouth shut. “What are we waiting for?”

  We all sprinted a good distance away, deep into the surrounding forest.

  Harva released her ability, and the metal Core sprang back to life.

  We plugged our ears and braced for impact.

  And we kept bracing, for the next minute.

  I unplugged one ear. “Quin? You primed the RuptorShrooms, right?”

  He blinked. “---primed?”

  “They’re like grenades," I stated. “But instead of pulling a pin, you twist the cap, and then they explode."

  “Oh yeah,” Quin said. “Huh. So, if I didn’t do anything, what would happen?”

  There was a moment of silence.

  “Well, if the Core digests them, it’d start growing stable RuptorShroom fungi,” I said.

  The other members of the party were starting to catch on, judging from the way they started breathing a little faster, turning pale.

  “Quin,” I asked. “Exactly how many RuptorShrooms did the Core just digest?”

  He started counting on his fingers. “Fifteen? That isn’t so bad, right? I think I took Aredendidi’s twenty too, so that’d be…thirty-five? But it’s only thirty five little mushrooms.”

  “Thirty five legendary mushrooms?” I asked.

  A shadow rose over the forest, billowing out from the trees.

  It was about the size of a New York city skyscraper, covered in massive pockets of overgrown red fungi, attached to a body of dirt, clay, and metal. That body had no eyes and one enormous gaping mouth, filled with silver needles, dripping buckets of neurotoxin onto the forest floor, wilting entire trees in a matter of seconds.

  Quin swallowed hard. “We’re so, so dead.”