Something needed to change, certainly, but Noble wasn't sure what. The Other Noble was picking up skills at a frightening speed, like a child soaking in all the information around her. Noble only had to make a move once for that tactic to be useless going forward.
Child of Promise was learning things as well. Her copy had a sharp blade and an even sharper tongue. Noble almost wished she hadn't told the Nothing Creature to be more creative.
The insults hurled her way would have put the ancient writer Shakespeare to shame.
Did they have an equivalent in this Realm? It didn't matter. Noble took the verbal barbs and used them to fuel her.
Thankfully, the Other knew nothing of her real family, so the insults were mainly centered around her fighting style.
"Your technique is like glass, fragile and easily broken." The Other taunted.
"And yet you have not broken me," Noble rejoined as she feinted before striking from the opposite direction. "What does that say about you?"
The two blades clashed, and the Other pushed against her opponent, sending them both into an overhead roll as they struggled for power.
"I'm not falling for that," the Other replied, preparing to dodge in case Noble elected to head butt her again. The Nothing Creature only had her looks to ingratiate her with the Saint, so she was reluctant to have her face marred any more than it was. Unlike Mae, who seemed to have an affinity for the dark mist of Nothingness, the Other Noble received no help from the strange clouds. Without the mirror or Mae to claim them, the Nothing simply evaporated into…nothing.
Instead of latching onto the bizarreness of the situation, Noble clung to the Other's words instead.
"Falling, you say? If you insist!" Locking her blade's hilt with the relic's, Noble turned the sword to one side to avoid the devastating shockwave. Then she pulled both herself and the copy into a spiral toward the ground.
They spun in dizzying circles, Noble directing their path toward the mirror lake. The copy had not experienced the horrors in the deep. Perhaps they would find the Other a delicacy.
However, it seemed like the men of her cohort had the same idea. Rushing down the hill, Roan and Aether were leading the Remnant on a trek toward the glassy water.
Noble adjusted her trajectory, but the copy sensed the sudden change. The Other turned to view the scene below with keen interest.
With Aether's assistance, the two men ran across the surface of the water. The Dragon pursued, stopping at the edge to flame at the fleeing pair. But the light was a beacon in the darkness, and the creatures of the deep were like moths to the flame.
Tentacles flew out in every direction to grab the Dragon's neck. But the Prince was too quick. He pulled away from the barrage and snapped at the limb which came too close to his jaws.
Somehow, the men avoided the mayhem and veered down the shore to make landfall again.
'That's unfortunate…'
Noble was not sad that her cohort members were safe, but she was very unhappy that it had been for naught. The dragon was unharmed by the monsters, and worse than that, her trick had been prematurely revealed.
The Other's mouth twisted into a cruel smile.
"Wanting someone else to do your dirty work?"
Noble arched her brow. "Who me? I thought you might be in the mood for a swim."
The Other reached past the swords to claw out the original's eyes. Her nail grazed Noble's cheek.
Lodging her knee against the copy, Child of Promise disengaged her sword. She pushed the reflection toward the water.
The Other Noble caught her enemy's foot, dragging them both into the water.
Darkness enveloped them.
Holding her breath, Noble activated her second sight. Her unseeing eyes went wide.
Coming at her through the water was her copy, her blade millimetres from Noble's neck.
Unable to lift her Zenith in time, Noble raised her gauntlet to deflect the blade. She batted it to the side, aiming for the sweet spot on the blade with a not-so-gentle tap. The shockwave activated, but instead of obliterating Noble, it blew back in the face of the Nothing Creature. Noble felt another presence moving toward them at a rapid pace. At least one of the monsters of the deep was heading their way. The Other seemed aware of it too, bending her legs awkwardly and kicking like a frog.
Noble swam too, but unlike the people of Northgate, she had not practiced extensively when she was young. Her skills were adequate but rudimentary, and her levitation was dampened by the heavy liquid.
The creature of the deep, on the other hand, was in its element. Noble struggled for the surface, but a tentacle wrapped around her middle tightly.
She cried out, releasing precious bubbles of air into the water.
The tentacle continued to dash through the lake, wrapping the Other in its grasp as well. The two women crashed into one another, their bodies colliding in another swirl of bubbles. For once, the Other was more concerned with her survival than she was with Noble's destruction.
After all, there would be no replacing her if they both died here. As the monster began to pull them into the deep, the pair came to a joint decision.
Without a word—the ladies had no breath left—they raised their swords and stabbed at the tentacle in unison. The Zenith dug into the slimy flesh, tearing deep and poisoning the wound. At the same moment, the relic added to the Zenith's work, magnifying its stroke and severing the tentacle from the creature of the deep.
Feeling the long arm around her waist slacken, Noble slipped away and used her Hummingbird's Wings to propel her through the frigid water. Blood enveloped her, making her almost lose her bearings.
Yet her second sight saved her in the end. Finding the surface, Noble broke through and took to the air. She retched, spilling the water back into its source.
Her lungs were on fire, gasping for air and aching to rid themselves of the damage she had done to them. Thankfully, she was a Master, and her body could withstand that kind of torture. That didn't make it pleasant, though.
Below her, the water seemed to boil. Noble watched with grim anticipation.
The Other had not yet breached the surface, and each passing moment gave Noble hope that her ill-fated plan had actually worked.
The water parted, and six arms flew into the sky like snakes. They struggled to grasp the small woman who broke the surface with them.
The Other soared above them, thumbing her nose at the corrupted creature who could no longer reach her.
She looked at Noble. There was no goodwill in the copy's face about their cooperative escape.
The battle was on once more.
Noble felt a sense of hopelessness grip her heart. The Other was tenacious, and Noble wasn't sure how many more tricks she had up her sleeve.
She was tired. She was injured. She was growing weaker every moment.
Looking at the sky, Noble knew she was almost out of time.