Surga Utopia & Elora Griffin
'Doppelganger III'
(BGM - Haste)
There was something truly fascinating about observing the struggle of a human being, or rather, the pure determination that forced a person to keep moving forward in spite of the odds. Her body barely functional, and the limbs she was forcing to move shaking with each and every step, the young woman that was nevertheless moving at a sprint had never once considered running away from her opponent.
Having already made the decision to defeat her fake and find her friend, she had never had any room for such thoughts from the start. It would certainly be easier to give up, with her entire nervous system rebelling in sheer agony, the purest forms of pain wracking her body in waves, she still crosses the distance between herself and her fake in the blink of an eye, her fist, the only part of her that wasn't shaking, darting out to smash into the false one's face.
But...
...It's not like she can hit the doppelganger.
Having observed their comparative speeds from the start, the simple fact of the matter was that the fake one was faster. Having been able to pick the battlefield by sheer virtue of being so fast as to leave her real self no time to call out for anyone else or risk losing her, the doll-like being manages to twist out of the way of the strike even in her shock, eyes now both confident and wary.
Failing her attack, the real Elora should fall.
Even darting across the clearing like that in her condition had already been an impressive feat, asking for any more would be completely unreasonable from any point of view.
But...
Catching herself immediately, teeth set in a fierce scowl, the blonde strikes out with her fist again.
And again.
And again.
The fake dodges like a shadow.
Disappearing at the moment of impact, leaving behind only an afterimage to take the strike in it's place, the clone is not something that can be hit, a representation of it's self as something "above humans."
But... Somehow...
Each dodge...
Was less and less perfect.
To an inexperienced observer, it would look like the fake was purposefully dodging everything at the last moment to mock the real one, but...
No... That wasn't it...
Rather...
The real one was getting closer and closer to her with each repeated swing of her fists.
Just by a little bit, but...
Striking again and again, driven by her resolve, her willpower, to at least strike this thing a single time before she collapses, the young woman hits her limit but keeps the gas pedal down, going beyond what her body dictates she can because she feels that she must.
And there, in that moment, the twelfth attempt...
There's a crashing sound, like a car slamming into a building, as the fist of the real slams into the face of the fake.
The fake is hit so hard, that for a moment, her figure flickers to something else.
A featureless doll, a shimmer in reality comes with each hit that follows, revealing it again and again, for longer and longer periods of time as the tables are turned, and bounded field or not, the real Elora steadily pummels her fake into submission, a decisive win for a human overcoming a monster. There's nothing the fake can seemingly do, stunned with each fist, from blows that get heavier and heavier as time goes on, the once proud and giggling clone is slammed into the ground with supernatural force, a panel in it's chest opening to reveal-
(BGM Off)
Wait-
Sensing a hint of divine power, Surga Utopia steps between the two without thinking about it.
There was a cannon.
A fragment of divine power, of something similar to the Fate Awakened Crystal inside of the apparent doll, and some sort of cannon pointed in Elora's direction, the only reason she hadn't been obliterated by the apparently divine counterattack was...
"Surga...?"
"What... Are you supposed to be?"
Because you had instinctively deflected it into the sky with your arm, the surface of your skin momentarily burned as the low-tier divine blast, a simple mass of divine power, soared off past the sky and into the depths of space.
"..."
The doll still on the ground, questioning your existence even as it's mechanical limbs whirl and shift...
You're left to wonder...
How exactly to proceed from here...