Meat Clones

"Let there be darkness!" I shouted the spell, still in the air.

My body turned black abruptly, the dark covering looked like armor, from which a dangerous glow emanated.

In this armor, I was not afraid to engage in close combat with the enemy, since the darkness itself had a negative effect on many things. Under its influence, metals corroded, flesh rotted, and the earth dried up.

Swooping down from a height onto a bunch of clones, I cut them apart with a scythe of darkness, which caused their bodies to be cut in two. A dark film formed at the site of the damage, capturing more and more flesh, preventing it from recovering.

Several meat clones connected with each other, creating a giant that rushed at me, raising his right arm up to strike.

"Darkosphere!" I chanted a spell.

A ball the size of an adult's fist appeared in my free hand, which I threw towards the giant.

To my surprise, the pile of meat, instead of taking the blow, dodged, creating an opening in the place where the dark sphere was supposed to hit, through which my attack passed.

I decided to deal with the enemy in a more direct way, rushing at him with a scythe at the ready. I accelerated myself with magic, and at the most crucial moment I struck the fat body, ripping open his stomach. The wound quickly became covered with a dark film and began to fester.

At that moment, his hand landed on the ground, causing a powerful jolt that threw me to the side, as I lost my balance after striking.

Seracin had already covered himself and his horse with bone armor. In his hands was a somewhat thick bone spear covered with spikes.

Together with it, he rode around the field, sweeping away clones or impaling them on a spear. However, it didn't help much since they didn't die. Instead, they clung to Seracin's weapon, trying to prevent him from using it.

When this happened, he would simply throw away his old spear and create a new one.

Maximilian was covered in fire, which forced the clones to act cautiously.

He burst into a small crowd of enemies, brandishing his sword, which was answered by a barrage of bone punches and whips.

"The aura of incineration!" he shouted, after which the flames of his body swelled tens of meters. The fire took over the ground beneath him and the enemies around him, setting fire and melting everything that came under the attack radius.

A few seconds later, when the spell ended, dozens of clones around him turned into charred skeletons that could no longer stand and collapsed to the ground, turning into ashes.

The young Nycteris galloped from side to side, keeping her distance from the enemies and shooting enchanted arrows. Some of them led to frostbite, some to explosions.

The attacks from underground stopped, as Gwanrom, using telekinesis magic, pressed the surface deeper into the ground, crushing the roots of the flesh and preventing new ones from making their way to the battle.

A single military man used a rifle, shooting back at enemies and keeping his distance, as Veronica does, but less deftly.

The children of the aristocrats decided not to get involved and covered themselves and their coachman with an energy field.

At some point, only six of the clones remained. Apparently, it was unrealistic for the enemy to effectively manage such a large crowd, so as a result there were so many left. Now he could manage them better.

The giant's body, half-damaged, separated from the rotting part, taking on a familiar appearance. It was Father Bill!

He covered his body with bone armor, which became strikingly reminiscent of our Father's armor. Next, it turned red, becoming indistinguishable from the original.

I used my spiritual vision and determined that it was him. He is the original body of the flesh mage.

Suddenly, he turned around and rushed into the depths of the forest. I took off and rushed after him, ignoring Gwan's cry that he did not rule the land in regions far from the battlefield.

Right now, I had two tasks in front of me: to eliminate the mage responsible for the disaster and prepare his DNA material with soul specimen, because there is a high probability that the parasites will break out of the city and we will need to create a medicine or relays to control the parasites.

I couldn't let the original escape.

***

After the treacherous Samuel left, only five people remained, excluding two teenagers.

In front of Seracin stood a figure in red armor and a walnut-shaped helmet. It wasn't Father Bill, but one of their sisters in the Order, Agnes Turphy.

In front of Maximilian, when the dust settled, Anji appeared, this time in her normal form.

Veronica's opponent turned out to be Vector, Gwan had to face Skell, and the remaining soldier exchanged glances with a two-faced creature that vaguely resembled his two recently deceased comrades.

Agnes's right hand turned into a sword and her left into a shield as Seracin rushed towards her, preparing to strike with his spear.

When he was close enough, Agnes raised her shield, nevertheless she was thrown back, but she did not fall, as her feet quickly dug into the ground, creating a good support.

When Seracin made a second lunge, Agnes ducked and struck the horse's leg with a heavy shield, crushing both the bone armor and the animal's limb, which caused animal to fall and send Seracin flying at high speed.

He fell to the ground, then somersaulted several times and rolled his body across the grass, collecting dirt. In the end, he somehow got up, preparing for a new onslaught.

At that moment, Max, looking in Anji's direction, experienced a different range of emotions, from anger to fear.

He was angry that some unknown flesh mage was using his friend's face as his weapon, but he was also scared of the perceived naturalness of her new appearance. She really looked like herself, as if she had been resurrected.

She didn't attack or say anything, as if she expected Max to take the first action, but he stood rooted to the spot, clutching his sword in his hands. He didn't want to attack, still not reconciled to the loss of Anji.

The clone, similar to Vector, did not wait and immediately headed towards Veronica, but she quickly retreated, supporting her retreat with a volley of arrows.

Very soon Vector changed his hand, creating a bone crossbow and began to shoot with it. When the bone bolts hit the trees, they easily pierced the bark halfway inside.

Soon, the second hand turned into a crossbow, which is why Veronica simply did not have time to make a shot.

At some point in the fight, she noticed Max and Anji. Realizing that the clone was distracting her partner, she shouted, "It's fake, wake up!"

She could shoot, causing serious damage to the clone, but this could seriously affect Max's emotional state, since he saw the real Anji in the decoy.

Instead, she decided to focus on Max himself, to help him get out of a state of forgetfulness. However, after she shouted out the words about falsehood, the shelling from Vector only intensified.

One of the bolts hit her left thigh, piercing through it, which greatly slowed down her movement speed. In the current situation, when her life depended on agility, this blow was fatal.

But Max still listened to Veronica and was able to forget about his pain at least for the duration of the battle. He rushed towards Vector, who quickly retreated and fired back without finishing Veronica.

She had a chance to take a break, but she did not take her eyes off Anji, who continued to stand in the same place as before.

At the same time, Gwanrom, the man with the most useful ability for mass team battles, could not help the team in any way.

The fact is that the roots of the parasite have so far tried to break out, despite the pressure exerted by Gwan. He had to pay a lot of attention to this issue, because otherwise a huge number of spikes or other similar things could break out of the ground, greatly complicating the situation.

But he also realized that either decoy-Skell or other meat clone would try to attack him, and he had no defense.

He looked to his left, meeting the gaze of one of Count Velgri's offspring.

Perhaps it was because of their observation that no one had attacked him yet.

As soon as this thought flashed through Gwan's head, a bone bolt flew in his direction. Gwanrom's reaction speed was only enough to realize this, and not to stop the bolt.

But, nevertheless, he was not injured. He looked to his right. A bone bolt hovered in the air, as if held by someone's energy. He turned back to the young aristocrat, and one of them, the one whose gaze he've been met, with a cane in his hands and sharp features, nodded at him. Gwan nodded back.

Suddenly, a rifle shot was heard, aimed in the direction from which the bolt had come. Most likely, the shooter missed, and even if he hit, it would not cause significant harm to the clone.

"I'll cover you," said a soldier in green camouflage running up to me with a gunshot.

I nodded, continuing to diligently restrain the parasite's roots. Nevertheless, despite the support, I had an incomprehensible feeling from the inside, as if I was missing something.