As the personas kept appearing, Zarina stepped back slightly. I scanned around the crowd and noticed something strange.
Neither I nor Zarina was among them.
Of course it made sense for me. Someone like me on a battlefield would just stand there and do nothing. But as for Zarina... I couldn't help but wonder why ?
I turned to Sheng Yue and Arlo,
"What are we going to do now ?"
Sheng Yue shrugged,
"As if I know ! I'm a pilot ! I don't even know why I was summoned as a persona, but hey ! On the bright side, I'm considered as useful."
Shin Hayato quickly stepped in front of us, positioning himself between the personas and the rest of us.
The personas stood still, silent and unmoving.
Varelius tilted his head,
"I suppose they won't attack unless we strike first."
Just as we thought we were save, I looked up and froze in an instant.
I shouted,
"Narin is missing !"
Everyone turned to me in confusion.
I tried to piece it together. How could someone who was wrapped tightly in filaments escape ?
As I continued to think of it, I finally remembered. His wings had been retracted.
That could only mean one thing. He had unsheathed the blades from his wings and sliced through the filaments.
Before I could warn them, Narin suddenly ambushed me. He slammed me to the ground, grabbed one of his blades, and aimed straight for my head.
Varelius turned and threw his Replica Shard toward me,
"Aléssio ! Catch !"
I tried to grab it but Narin deflected it aside. I kept dodging by twisting my head left and right, barely avoiding each strike.
Desperate, I kicked his legs and lunged forward, biting at his injured neck.
He bit his lip and flinched, then drove his blade into my shoulders, pinning me down again.
I screamed, forcing back the tears that were threatening to fall.
Just as he raised the blade toward my chest, Sheng Yue struck.
She jabbed his neck again with the Replica Shard.
Narin screamed and spun, kicking her away,
"Damn you teamers ! Personas, attack them ! Now !"
The personas shifted into motion, taking combat stances. There were multiple copies of the same individuals filling the battlefield, making it nearly impossible to tell who was real.
Varelius shouted, turning to Zarina,
"Zarina ! Take them away ! It'll be easier if—"
Narin quickly hovered into the air, blades in hand.
As he threw the blades, Shin Hayato slammed his fist into the ground, sending a shockwave that disrupted Narin's balance.
Even so, Narin quickly recovered and unleashed a swarm of blades toward his teammates.
Skov switched to his Energy Bow, firing rapidly to deflect the blades with the energy arrows.
As Skov tried to deflect the blades, a persona's arrow struck his shoulder, breaking his focus.
Taking the chance, Narin threw more blades at the filaments, sliced through the filaments, freeing Htet Naing and the other man.
Cassandra turned to me and shouted,
"Aléssio ! Any plans !?"
I shook my head violently and looked at Sheng Yue,
"We need to take down Narin first."
Sheng Yue glared at me,
"First, we're supposed to be in the back line. Second, how do we even know which one is real !?"
I gritted my teeth. There were too many copies of Narin.
As Shin Hayato's copy slammed his fist on the ground, everyone except the personas were knocked back slightly.
The anonymous person grabbed his mechanical warhammer and was about to slammed it.
As it was about to hit the ground, Cassandra kicked his face, making him gripping on the warhammer tighter and giving him a slight bruise.
As he tried to regained consciousness, Varelius lunged at him and kick his stomach, making him spit and throw up as his back hit the wall.
As the others were busy with their fight, I quickly dragged Zarina and gathered with Arlo and Sheng Yue.
I asked them, panic settled, I know I shouldn't do this mid battle as the advantage of death will increase,
"What're we supposed to do now !?"
Arlo suddenly pulled out the folded Illusion Cloak he had all along,
"I have this."
Sheng Yue dropped her jaws immediately and wanted to shake Arlo,
"You !"
I immediately snatched it and handed it to Zarina,
"Can you sneak up on them and wrapped them with your filaments ?"
She shooked her head as she grabbed it gently,
"I'll ended up wrapping everyone. Plus, I can only help if I know where their location is from my hearin—"
A blade was suddenly thrown to Zarina's left arm, making her yelped in pain. With a little time to react, the blade was embedded to her elbow pit.
She held on the blade and groaned, slowly pulling it out. As she finally pulled it out, another blade went flying. Not one, but three.
I quickly yanked her to hide behind me. Closing my eyes and flinching slightly. I wouldn't dare to let anyone die unless it's me.
As I thought it was my end, energy arrows flew to where the blades are, redirecting its direction and ended up against the walls.
I slowly opened my eyes and steal the chance to grabbed the blades before tossing it to Sheng Yue's direction.
I crouched and snatched the blade that Zarina pulled out from her arm,
"Cassandra ! Catch !"
Without even turning back, she grabbed it by the handle and continued to fight that anonymous man. She dodged the warhammer's attack perfectly.
After all, if we were hit by that huge thing, our jaw would've been broken.
I sighed in relief, if the warhammer wasn't heavy, Cassandra wouldn't have the chance to even dodge a single swing.
I quickly turned to Sheng Yue and extended my hand,
"I'm going to take that Replica Shard and you can have these three blades."
Sheng Yue blinked in disbelief,
"You sure ? What're you gonna do with that Replica Shard ? Plus it's going to make things chaos !"
I smirked and snatched it alongside the Illusion Cloak that Arlo was holding,
"I know my plan even if it sounds stupid."
Sheng Yue shrugged and smiled at me,
"Alright then, if you die, it's not my fault."
I smiled and turned to Zarina and Arlo,
"Can you two take care of each other while me and Sheng Yue try to find a way to take Narin down ?"
Arlo nodded, followed by Zarina. I wore the Illusion Cloak and vanished into thin air. Sheng Yue followed my distortion from a further distant.
I roamed around the current battle, dodging every attacks and blades that flew to my direction.
No one seemed to be bothered to look at a distortion roaming around in the midst of the battlefield.
As I continued to walk around, I noticed there were only five or ten Narin there.
One of them must be real or so I thought.
In the midst of the battle, Cassandra continued to land a kick on that anonymous person's stomach.
Cornered and desperate, he panted and gripped on the warhammer before slamming it to the ground.
Varelius immediately lunged to where the warhammer is, trying to hold it back from dropping down to the floor.
Shin Hayato turned, shouted and slipped away to Varelius' direction,
"Cassandra ! Help Skov in fighting Htet Naing and his copies !"
Cassandra nodded and moved quietly like a trained ninja, ambushing Skov and slicing the head.
As I was momentarily shocked, I realized, that Skov was just a persona as it glitched away.
I shook my head and continued moving to differentiate which is the real Narin,
"Nearly got me there..."
But as I continued walking, I slowly noticed a something.
The personas weren't moving normally at all.
They walked in slight distortion.
They movements stuttered, like pictures moving frame by frame, inconsistent and imperfect. Glitching and fading for a moment each second before they attack.
I wanted to tell to Sheng Yue until I realized that such small details can't be seen by directly.
Even so, I wanted to proof my point without making anyone skeptical.
I pulled out my ChronoLume and switched it to the [Camera Mode], scanning the battlefield.
Surprisingly, when I scanned through the chaos, the screen showed arrows and boxes that labeled each person.
Some were written as [Undetected].
Some were written as [Human].
My eyes widened as I finally connected the pieces.
I rushed to Sheng Yue, grabbed her by the arm, and pulled her out of the fight.
She looked at me in shock and confused,
"What the hell happened ?"
I gripped her shoulder,
"Give me your unit code."
She blinked,
"What unit code ? We're unit 20 !"
I shook my head and snatched her Holotag,
"This !"
I pointed at the Holotag that has her unit code written as [U20-04-PIL].
She smiled and scratched her head awkwardly,
"Huh... never noticed that before..."
I flicked her forehead, slightly making her fall back,
"Because you never pay attention !"
But now that I thought of it, I never noticed that too until I looked at my Holotag that was hanging on my uniform. Odd.
Sheng Yue decided to stop her confusion and turned serious,
"So what is that code supposed to do ?"
I explained as fast as I could,
"So I don't have to call your name ! If I just call you by your unit code, it'll be safer and we can ambush them !"
She nodded and made her mouth into an 'O',
"So what other discoveries did you make ?"
I showed her the ChronoLume results of which is human and which is a persona. As she finally understood, she lit up and gave a thumbs up.
She looked at the results one more time,
"Our main target is Narin right ? So basically, the real Narin isn't here."
I nodded and asked,
"Do you know where he would most likely went ?"
She smiled with proudness beaming all over, pointing at herself by the chest,
"As a pilot and a navigator with an insane skills of locatin—"
I cut her sentence and sighed,
"Hurry up."
She pouted and crossed her arms,
"You're no fun."
I forced a smile, of course, her cockiness and childish behavior will be the death of both of us by now.
She finally put her hands by the side and grabbed my arm, running and turning to each corridors, getting further and further from the battlefield.
As we arrived in front of a door, Sheng Yue stopped abruptly.
I tilted my head as I saw HoloSign saying [Supply Room],
"Why are we here ?"
She stood in front of the switch beside the door,
"Think about it. Three members and non of them are medics. Basically this three people will definitely bring medical stuffs here."
I hesitated but decided to nod anyways,
"It makes sense but what if he went to the communication room or somethin—"
She turned to me dead serious,
"Now I ask you, why do you decide to come despite you can't fight ?"
I stood still. My heart pounded rapidly as cold sweat dropped. My eyes widened slightly. A question I didn't expect that she would ask.
I quickly try to compose myself and smile,
"I will be there to support you, of course."
She looked at me in confusion or maybe disgust,
"And in what way ?"
I went silent.
Completely silent.
Another question that felt like an insult, telling me that I'm not someone strong. I only know how to follow orders like a dog. My life had always been controlled as an actor and by my parents.
She sighed,
"Forget it. Now tell me why are we ambushing him instead of joining the battle."
I calm myself down, trying to keep myself compose,
"Well he is the only one who can regenerate bunch of weapons from that wing. And from what I analysed, if you got a damage on your real body, the personas will get your damage too."
She nodded and held on the blades I gave her,
"Once I opened this gate, I'm going to strike his neck again."
As the door slowly glided open, Narin's back was faced to us.
He was drenched in sweat, panting as he held a gas tube from the table.
He gurgled as he collapsed on the ground, sitting and gripped on the edges of the table,
"Damn that pilot... damn that mechanic..."
He suddenly slammed his fist on the table, switching to his native language,
"ไอ้ช่างไร้ประโยชน์ ! (Ai chāng rāi-pra-yōt !)"
Sheng Yue silently walked in. I followed behind her as we get closer to him.
Without any words, Sheng Yue stabbed his shoulder with one blade.
Narin widened his eyes as blood spat from his mouth. He coughed violently before slowly turning at us, eyes shaking.
He yelled at us, anger and hatred in his eyes as he slowly stood up,
"Damn you—"
Sheng Yue stabbed another blade on his legs.
He screamed in pain. With such weak state, I signalled Sheng Yue to kick him unconscious instead.
She nodded, kicking his head. Slowly and slowly, his vision blurred and his breathing pace slowed down. His head dropped down as Sheng Yue moved back.
Even if he is my opponent, I couldn't help feel guilty. His neck was injured, he can't breathe well. Now this ?
I got closer to him and poked him by the face,
"I suppose that his personas should be all gone by now. After all he is unconscious. That'll make things easier for them."
I placed him near the corner of the wall and took off the wings he carried on his back. After that, I went to the locker that was filled with Illusion Cloak in it and handed it to Sheng Yue.
I extended that wing and asked,
"Do you want it ?"
She tilted her head and crossed her arms,
"Can you throw blades ?"
I shook my head and grabbed my ChronoLume,
"Wait a moment please."
I snapped a picture of that wing on my camera mode and placed the picture to an album called [Weapons].
She looked at what I'm doing and asked,
"Seriously ? During this moment you'll analyze it ?"
I smiled, typing to rename the picture to [Wing of Severance],
"Not analyzing it now. This thing is very unique to me. That's why I decided to take a picture of it."
She shrugged and wore the Illusion Cloak I gave her,
"Alright, do as you please Blondie."
As we walked away, I looked behind at Narin one last time before pressing the [Close] button on the switch before I turned to Sheng Yue and handed the Wings of Severance to her.
The door glided to seal the room as we walked away to help the rest in the battle.
As I continued to run, I felt very guilty and sad. My heart felt heavy. I felt like I had done something that I wasn't supposed to do.
Even so, I kept walking, thinking to myself. Am I a bad person for hurting someone for others to win ?
I shook it off and rushed to where the battle continued. Protecting those who I cared the most are more meaningful, right?