The man who stepped out was wearing the same armor that I did. He had the same face, hair, and weapon. About the only thing different was the expression on his face, which looked cruel and slightly sadistic. He moved forward with a grace that I didn’t possess, laughing as he moved. I held up my sword, a grimace on my face.
Then, I looked back and shot Celeste a dirty look. “Celeste!”
“S-sorry, Master! I just said it out loud!” Celeste responded with tears in her eyes.
An evil grin remains on my doppelganger’s face as he slowly walks towards us. Due to the size of the room, he was still a long distance away, but he was quickly closing it. He lifted up his hand and glanced down at his body, examining it with a kind of interest.
“Heroes are truly a masochistic lot. I have taken many forms over the years, but it takes a certain kind of person to make their opponent themselves.”
“No, that was an accident! I want a redo!”
“This is the form I will fight you in. Let your own choices be your undoing!”
“Guys, that is not me! It’s very sweet you think that I won’t hurt you, but this guy doesn’t care if you get hurt or not. So, we have to fight him together and hold nothing back.”
“Hehehe… is that how you think this battle will go down?” He chuckled again, shaking his head.
“Why?” I demanded worriedly. “Are you saying you’re not really me? You’re just wearing that skin? Why the heck do you bother having us pick if you’re just going to do whatever you feel like?”
“Don’t get me wrong! I am you in every sense of the word. I have your body and I also have your status. Perhaps, you just don’t appreciate how powerful you really are. I am you, but that doesn’t mean I have to act foolishly like you. I can access any skill you have, all of your many jobs. So naturally, I am just a better version than you will ever be!”
“Even if you say that…” I responded bitterly, “If you have my strength, even if you are better at using it than I am, you can only be so strong. That means that I can defeat you. Since it’s six on one, you’re already completely outnumbered. There is no way you can defeat all of us. I don’t believe I’m so powerful that I could defeat all of my girls at once!”
“No…” He shook his head with a sigh. “You’re right, I’m not so powerful that I can beat all of you at once. After all, you’ve trained your girls well, and they’re not weak. However, they won’t be a problem, and you will die here.
“W-why is that?” I suddenly started to get a bad feeling as he walked the last few steps until he was directly in front of us, where a single leap forward would be enough to attack with his blade.
“Because… I already said. I have all of your skills.” He chuckled. “Slave Order, Stay out of this fight, ladies.”
All the girls suddenly found themselves compelled to stay back, and my face started to turn white. It turned out when you were fighting yourself, you really could only depend on your own ability!