Way of the Knights

Chapter 249 - Doppelganger

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One year later after the Gentle Cradle Tribe's arrival at the kingdom.

We see Raven standing in front of a devastated place. His body was illusory at first but as time went on, he was slowly manifesting into reality. 

There is an unprecedented concentration in his face as he stared at the person in front of him. His breathing was slow but steady, he firmly gripped the handle of his hammer as he erased every distractions in his mind. Raven already learned his lesson to not underestimate this person in front of him. 

The person he's facing with was a male with a head full of blue hair and is gathered by a rubber band. He had this captivating eyes, sharp brows that pointed towards his temples. He had a strong jawline, thin lips, pearl white skin and muscular body. He wore a black standard training robes that hugged the muscles of his body. On his right hand, an enormous black hammer with hand like carvings. 

The first time that Raven saw him, he was stunned. But he immediately understood what was going on here. 

This pocket dimension that he entered inside the Crown Space was the tenth one, which means that it's a checkpoint. Inos did warn him that it will only get harder from each checkpoint but he wasn't expecting to fight himself. 

Yes, the challenger in the 10th pocket dimension was himself. Well, a better version of him to say the least.

Raven got his ass handed over to him multiple times by his own doppelganger. His death under the doppelganger's hands were like tasting his own medicine. Now he could totally understand the feeling of being crushed by the merciless weight of his hammer. 

This doppelganger was better than him in all aspects. Speed, reaction time, strength and even finesse. Not even after resorting to mere tricks was he able to last under its onslaught, and he had been fighting this doppelganger for at least a month straight now and he never won.

Nevertheless, Raven was learning, a feat that the doppelganger couldn't do. Along with constant training, he was able to adjust and last longer and longer under the fearsome onslaught of his doppelganger. 

His skills reached yet another level, so much to the point that he felt absolutely confident on taking this doppelganger down this time.

Once Raven's body completely materialized inside the pocket dimension, no words were said between him and his doppelganger. They immediately raised their hammers and proceed to kill each other. 

*Boom!* 

Explosions occurred around them. Both of them moved so fast that their bodies into nothing but blurs. Fist-shaped pillars descended and shattered the ground where they were standing. Chunks of rocks and debris flew everywhere, adding to the things that they have to evade. None of these two were holding back, each blows they threw at each other was meant to kill and if someone became even slightly distracted, that would mean the end. 

"Ten Smiting Arms." The doppelganger called out. 

Instantly, ten fist-shaped pillars manifested from the sky and crashed down like a meteor towards Raven. 

Raven tightened his grip on his hammer and swung his hammer up, he then softly called out: "Ten Overturning Sea Palms."

Beneath him, ten pillars presenting an open palm, rose up and met the crashing fist-shaped pillars. Each palms accurately neutralized the attack, causing him to be unharmed. 

Seeing that its attack failed, the doppelganger slammed the hammer on the ground and called out: "Land Shifting Two Arms." 

Behind the doppelganger, two ethereal hands materialized and punched the ground in front of him so hard that it shattered. Chunks of rocks flew forward and attempted to blow Raven away.

But before they could do so, Raven gripped the handle of his hammer using both of his hands and rose them up, yelling: "Two Arms: Defense."

The fist shaped pillars rose in front of him forming a cross that protected him from the flying chunks of rocks. Raven wasn't done, as he lifted the hammer and pointed it towards the doppelganger's direction, saying: "Ten Smiting Arms."

This was the same attack that the doppelganger did before. As the doppelganger saw the attack, it immediately performed evasive maneuvers to save itself from the falling fists. But Raven decided to pick up the pace so he performed another attack.

"Ten Arms: Twisting Decimation!" Raven swung his hammer forward as another set of ten arms manifested behind him and twisted amongst each other while flying forward. This attack almost resembled a genuine hurricane that flew forward while kicking up dust and debris along the way. 

The doppelganger's eyes contracted and immediately performed a defensive move: "Ten Arms: Defense!"

As ten arms covered his entire body to defend against Raven's onslaught, it wasn't aware that Raven was already gathering up momentum for another attack.

Using a large chunk of his Chaos Force, he raised his hammer and immediately ten arms materialized once more. This time however, they merged into one and become a single arm with an open palm and glowed with bronze finish. Raven's eyes shone as he called out: "Bronze Palm: Level the Hills!"

The palm immediately flew down and pressed the doppelganger who's still curled up in a defensive stance. The arms protecting it immediately shattered as the palm continuously pressed on the doppelganger, crushing it down like a bug. 

Raven felt that the doppelganger was resisting so he placed more force on his hammer and gnashed his teeth. He pushed down the hammer with an enormous force which caused the doppelganger's joints to give way and bear the full weight of the bronze palm. 

With one more push, Raven roared on top of his lungs and placed all of his pent up frustrations along with the finishing blow to end the battle. 

The ground shattered and the bronze palm made a ten meter dent on it. Raven was spent after delivering the last blow so he heaved huge gulps of air and kneeled on the ground while panting. He kept his eyes peeled since he still didn't have a clue whether the doppelganger truly died or not.

It turns out that he only needed to wait for a bit before knowing the answer.

From the dent where the doppelganger's body was, a few specks of light emerged and made way towards him. Upon seeing this, Raven immediately sighed in relief and collapsed on the ground while heaving gulps of air. He didn't need to go in there to check anymore since this specks of light is the proof that he succeeded on taking down the doppelganger.

"Raven: 1." He said, "Doppelganger: 99. Fuck." 

Raven laughed mirthlessly as he lied down. "Seriously, that fucker killed me 99 times! I kinda want a rematch honestly."

It was a hard earned victory but Raven was satisfied, he was just partially joking when he said that. As the specks of light arrived, it fused with his body and immediately Raven received a new set of knowledge. 

What he received was just the things that he learned from observing the techniques of the doppelganger. But since he just learned them from observation, Raven's version was flawed so to compensate for his 99 defeats against the doppelganger, he received the complete version of each moves plus some more that the doppelganger didn't have the chance to display. 

Raven sat up and took out some recovering medicines out of his spatial ring. While his body recovers, he studied the techniques he received and opened his eyes after a while.

"I thought that I have to merge Ten Arms to condense the Bronze Level attacks, it turns out that all I need to do control my Chaos Force and condense them. This means that I could create 10 Bronze Fists or Palms. If I merge two Bronze Fists, I could condense a Silver Fist. And if I condense five Silver Fist, I could produce a Golden Fist, that's awesome!"

"But practicing this would be a pain in the ass." Raven wryly smiled as his thoughts arrived at this point. "The Archaic Thousand Arms Hammer is already 100 tons in weight. When I condensed the Silver Palm earlier, the hammer weighed at least 500 tons which is something that I couldn't properly handle yet." He said as he touched his still aching arms. 

"I'm not even sure is I should try condensing the Golden Fist or Palm. If I would venture a guess, I feel that it will weigh at least 1,000 tons or more. Even I would be crushed under that weight so no thank you, I guess."

It also had to be mentioned that Raven's hammer increases in size as it's weight increases. Anyone who said that Raven was wielding a hunk of huge metal attached to stick wasn't lying. Paul, who's only second to Raven when it comes to raw strength, couldn't even lift his hammer properly.

While Raven was in the middle of a his stupor, a ghost materialized in front of him. Raven felt his presence and smiled: "Long time no see, Partner."

"Long time no see. Congratulations on clearing the second checkpoint partner.." Inos said as his form sat down in front of him.