100\% Drop Rate: My Special Ability is Perfect Replication

Everything scattered in a burst of flames and ice. Steam flooded the air and dropped visibility, but Faust had already marked his enemies with Observe.

The ground cracked and split apart as the explosion pushed the flying castle to its limit. Rain formed rivers in the cracks. The overwhelming darkness only broke when lightning passed.

The three Puppet Knight captains rushed at him again, but something was different. They had discarded their weapons. Their crimson masks gleamed maliciously.

They jumped down on Faust and tried to hold him down, grappling, kicking, and driving their dripping fists into his face.

Faust barely reacted. The fists stung like punches from his little brother. Yet the ground cracked under the force behind those blows.

He wasn’t much stronger than them, but the Iron King Schema made anything a level below him pitifully weak.

Faust swung his arms, kicked widely, and twisted out of their grasps. His punches caved in their steel chests and sent them flying off the floating throne room. He swept one of the knights off its feet and threw it into its ally.

He raised his head and clicked his tongue. Vi’s Puppet mages surrounded him, flying through the air casually.

Their outstretched hands released beams of golden light that converged on him in a luminous explosion.

Faust was falling again. Rain descended with him. But he was unhurt. Using Pathfinder, he found a Narrow Path that led him to one of the floating blocks—the roof of one of the spires.

’What is Vi planning? She knows how Iron King works already.’

His question was answered the next moment.

A golden light pulsed, and Vi appeared with her giant silver octopus. Its tentacles lashed out around him, trapping him instantly. They glowed blue and purple in the darkness.

Faust only had a moment to react. He used two skills at the same time.

’Light Clones.’

’Shadow Step.’

The air popped around him with flashes of light as clones of Faust formed from nothing.

In the shadow of their arrival, Faust shadow-stepped above Vi—onto a floating stone block.

’Instance Replication!’

He replicated his fireball from earlier halfway through its flight.

BOOM!

A massive explosion rippled below, illuminating the entire castle for a moment. Steam flooded the air as fire met rain.

Faust was wondering if he got her when he felt heat spread across his skin. He hissed.

What was happening?

The jellyfish swung its silver tentacles through the air and parted the flames.

Vi sat on its head. Her clothes were on fire, but she seemed unbothered. Her skin was red and covered in some soot.

"Your Constitution is high. My damage reflection barely did anything to you."

More things to worry about. Including the revenge counter she’ll only use at the end.

"Come here," Vi said casually. The jellyfish tentacles lashed out toward him.

Faust leapt from his stone haven and flung out his Slime Tether. He swung through the rain, tracking the tentacles as they slammed through stone blocks and towers.

BOOM!

If that thing hit him, Faust doubted he’d get back up easily.

He pulled up and watched a tentacle slash through the air beneath him. The wind roared as it passed.

He released his tether and entered a Narrow Path. The rain and feeble lights retreated beyond the horizon of this dimension.

Dripping from head to toe, he ran to the exit and returned in front of Vi.

’Dark Maw. Rage Strike.’

His jackal dagger flared with dark energy. He swung tight and got close to grapple.

Vi caught his wrist and twisted the attack aside. But Faust shoulder-checked her back before driving his elbow into her jaw.

He didn’t feel the shoulder-check, but he felt the elbow. His head snapped back, bursting with pain.

Vi took the chance and slammed her palm into his belly. Golden light surged from it.

Faust cursed and used Unknown Trespasser.

A golden beam similar to what her puppets used poured from Vi’s hand, blinding him. The yield of the blast was larger than his body, cleaving across the sky more than fifty meters.

’It’s long range and powerful as hell. Even with its level reduced by the system.’

Faust phased through the blast, but Vi felt his disappearance and used another skill.

Pain erupted in Faust’s eyes. Every time he tried looking at her, his vision went red.

Unknown Trespasser ended. Vi turned to him with a smirk.

"My phantom pain skill requires contact, but I can choose it as ’repayment’ through my Schema when you look at me."

"You have a good variety of skills and Schemas," Vi commented. "So your combinations are unlimited."

Faust tried to say something, but Vi’s jellyfish slammed down on him.

BANG!

He smashed through the ground like it was paper, then through the floors of other sections of the castle.

He reached out and caught a stone wall he was falling past. His fingers tore deep gashes in the stone as his speed reduced.

Blood dripped from his head. His bones felt like needles slashing up his skin within.

"That hurt a lot more than I expected. Why am I not healing?"

"Blood Feud stops us from healing from injuries we deal to each other. But It might also be that Iron King Schema," Vi commented a few meters away.

She just appeared again. Her jellyfish swam around her, bathing Faust and the wall he held onto in dreamy lights.

"All Schemas have limitations. The system tries not to state them for some reasons, but most people find them naturally."

Despite his blinding pain and headache, he understood what she was saying.

Iron King’s limitation was that it made him a little bit weaker against stronger enemies.

The weakness wasn’t as strong as he would be against lower-level opponents.

But it was noticeable.

"Helpful Schema for a cowardly king, but not a fighter like you."

Faust pushed off the wall, disappearing as he entered a narrow path, then reappeared beside her, saying, "You talk too much."

They clashed again. Vi deflected his attacks with clinical brushes of her hand. Faust ripped forward, attacking with his daggers, knees, elbows, even going as far as to throw a headbutt.

Vi hung with it all. She didn’t let herself get stabbed, but she took her punches and kicks and reflected them back.

She took his headbutt with a smile. "Feisty, aren’t you!"

A moment later, Faust had to deal with his own headbutt to his nose.

"That’s so annoying," Faust muttered.

’Stance Break!’

He punched Vi’s guard directly and she faltered, briefly stunned. So his dagger surged forward and pierced her belly.

Blood poured over his hand, warm and thick like a syrup.

Vi staggered back, laughing at her wound. "You don’t hesitate, do you? This is your first time fighting to kill a person, and you strike with full bloodlust."

Faust glared at her. "Can you shut up?"