Race against time

Talion had finally reached the fortress of Núrn, arriving to a camp of orcs.

He had decided on specifically branding captains after he takes the fortress from the overlord, luckily he'd known that they were his allies otherwise he'd make the same mistake as the original Talion and waste time via trying to take it forcefully.

He would still need a showcase of his power for the grunts to follow though, so branding a few captains then finally taking the fortress 'forcefully' would be ideal.

'Talion, captains are nearby, multiple.' Celebrimbor alerted Talion.

"Where?" He whispered to his companion, after crouching down and hiding inside shrubs.

'They seem to be relaxed around a fire, one is nearby a grog barrel, possibly drunk.' Talion nodded and sneaked around until he climbed up a building to oversee these four captains.

He stood atop the building, just behind above a captain. He inhaled and exhaled and jumped right on top of him.

"Ergh!?" The three other captains were surprised by the emergence of this manswine.

*Shiiing* A high pitched sound was emitted from the man they had just seen, he then stood up quickly and aimed his arm as if a bow was in its' place.

A ghostly arrow flew at the direction of the captain near the grog barrel who braced for the impact, unfortunately he guarded the wrong way as he was blown away by the explosion of the grog barrel, setting the orc alight.

Nearby grunts emerged after hearing the explosion, first to respond were the defenders who guarded where they were at.

"RAGHHH!" A savage roar was heard from the flaming orc who sprinted right towards Talion, aiming to tackle him to the ground.

Talion rolled to the side then shot an arrow which froze the orcs' foot to the ground.

A spear was then lodged onto his back, turning around to see a javelin thrower readying another projectile.

He rolled to the side once again to dodge, but as he stood up, he was slammed by a shield before getting hit in the stomach by the handle of the spear and dropped to the ground on the opposite side of the orc.

'There's too many of them, seems I have to help.' Celebrimbor stated as Talion was replaced by the blue wraith, bow in hand.

Time slowed down into slow motion, an arrow manifested in Celebrimbors' right hand, placed into the bow and fired.

Clones appeared, doing the same as the original, arrows pierced right through the heads of the grunts while captains were hit multiple times on the leg, torso and a few on the arms.

Talions' form appeared once more as time sped up to normal, orcs dropping to the ground lifelessly while captains cried out in pain.

He walked right onto an orc captain and placed his hand on his face.

"Abandon your master and serve me!" His voice replaced by Celebrimbor.

"My loyalty is to the Dark lord!" In pain, but determined respone of the orc to the command of Celebrimbor.

'Seems we found one with an iron will, hopefully none others would be like this.'

"Indeed." Talion agreed with Celebrimbor, his right hand now placed on the throat as he applied pressure, utterly decimating the head of said orc captain.

He continued on branding the other orc captains, fortunately for Talion, none others possessed the rare trait of iron will.

"Hoo... now then..." Talion heaved a sigh when he had completed his task, he looked towards the kneeling orc captains.

"What does the Bright lord command?" The orc captain at the front spoke out, seeing him to be more loyal than other captains he'd taken control of.

"Retreat, amass an army to form a siege on this fortress, not enough to take it but enough to intimidate those grunts to submitting." He ordered out to the captains who'd nodded, they split off in several directions, some going to garrisons while others straight up going to the fortress.

'Brûz will provide a useful ally but I suggest you to execute him when the fortress has been taken or our enemy is defeated, a powerful ally is of no use in the long run if their loyalty lies not in us.' Celebrimbor suggested to his companion.

"Fine, the opponent he'd be facing would prove to be useful in numbers for our goal, while Brûz would make up for it in quality." He accepted the suggestion and ran for the arena, possibly interrupt it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I can see that his focus is on numbers... I could wait for him to gather all the orcs of Núrn and consume them all in one swoop however my powers would work the same regardless. Time for the gravewalker to meet the grave." The Blacklight virus had landed in the furthest part of Núrn's outskirts while parts of his 'body' observed it.

A figure suddenly smashed the ground he was in, a familiar hooded man, as if staring in a mirror.

"Well well well... Now there's two of us?" The true Alex chuckled, inside though, he's curious of what led to this development.

"What, you think that separating a large part of your biomass, with our virus, wouldn't lead to something unexpected? It's completely different in Manhattan, this is a world, not a city. Your control has waned due to the far distance, same would've happened if you sent out your Evolved too far." The second explained to the curious Blacklight.

"So you're my child then? Something closer than Evolved or Prototypes?" The original Alex placed his hand on his chin while the other circled around him.

"They were always your children, though only the virus inside them, same with that Bluelight however, I'm an exact clone of you. There is no advantages between us, none that we know of at least." His arms turned into Claws after finishing his explanation.

"Since you're my exact clone, you would know that your biomass would be much lower than the original correct? Let's see how much biomass required for you to take form then." A vicious smile appeared on Alex as he turned his arms into Claws as well.

(I'll address the true as Alex while the fake as Blacklight.)

Alex lunged at the imposter, who sidestepped and slashed at Alex's torso but he bent his back inhumanely like a 90° bend.

He grabbed the Claw arm in the swing as he carried Blacklight over him and slammed the head of fake into the ground, cracking it.

Blacklight withdrew from their clash and distanced himself, preparing for another.

Alex turned his right arm into the Blade while Blacklight turned his arms into Hammerfists.

"Are we doing this rock, paper, scissors style like in the game now?" Alex questioned himself who responded with, "Maybe." With a familiar smirk.

Alex dashed at Blacklight with his Blade at the ready while the former prepared a stance very similar to an absurdly useful power of James Heller.

Alex swung horizontally at Blacklight who formed the biomass shield of James Heller which caused the Blade to slice a bit of it due to the anti armor effect of it.

He removed his Blade arm and turned his arms into Hammerfists as he smashed the shield repeatedly.

The shield broke into pieces as the once former absurdly tough spiky shield fell onto the ground.

Blacklight launched a powerful punch at Alex who barely managed to duck under it, he retaliated by slamming his Hammerfists on his stomach, causing the former to launch into the sky.

Alex formed his arms into Musclemass to prepare when he drops until Blacklight just glided until he landed on a tree.

"Seems I still can't handle you, I'll just defest you later once our fight is in a more even ground."

"And why would I let you escape?" Alex confidently stated his ability to pursue him when the former just smiled in turn.

"Because your focus isn't me." He disappeared in a flash of blue, while the original Alex answered, "Guess you've been sure about that ." He just smiled before he left to enter Núrnen.