Water Droplet

An intense urge to seize Jamie’s neck, which is facing my dagger, and snap it overwhelms my heart. But thanks to my indomitable courage, I was able to suppress the berserker’s instinct.

Recklessly reaching out in a grappling situation could potentially ruin my stance. There’s also the possibility of a doppelganger appearing from behind, so the longer the confrontation continues, the more disadvantageous it is for me.

Quickly judging the situation, I forcefully push away the dagger, and my eyes lock with Jamie’s in mid-air as he pulls his body back to create distance like me. Anticipating a follow-up attack, I tense my thighs, but the opponent doesn’t move at all.

“Hahaha, huhehe…!!!”

Jamie, who was laughing while clutching his stomach with the hand holding the dagger as if he had heard a funny joke, widens his eyes and stretches the corners of his mouth long.

“Cute, so cute! Not understanding the essence of madness and stupidly suppressing it, you look like you’re in heat! I, I’m so excited! Huut hueu heut…!”

Jamie, spewing out insane mockery, isn’t throwing a clown’s joke. He’s really starting to proudly present the thickly bulging front of his pants.

Frowning at the disgusting sight, I throw the dagger I was holding to the side and pick up the Spear of Destruction. I’ve gained the speed to react to ambushes, so now I just need to create distance again and continue the battle utilizing the advantage of space magic.

Unlike me, who doesn’t let go of the tension of battle, Jamie doesn’t seem to care about my attack at all, as he plops down on the floor and laughs loudly with his head tilted towards the sky, showing his uvula.

“Kyahahaha, you caught up to me? With just that much madness…?! Huut hueu heueut…!”

The words that came out of Jamie’s throat seemed to have unpleasantness sticking to them. Jamie, who stopped laughing, scratched his forehead with the tip of the dagger with an expression full of contempt.

“This is absurd.”

Blood streamed down as the blade tore through his skin, but Jamie, who didn’t even blink an eye as if he couldn’t feel the pain, didn’t stop scratching his forehead with the dagger and stared at me. Then, with a spiteful smile, he began to speak.

“Madness, you see. The moment you try to control it, it becomes useless. Freedom is the essence of madness.”

The playful voice changed. Hidden in the low voice was something seething, rather than calmness.

Jamie, who got up, inserted the tip of the dagger between the torn skin of his forehead. The clown makeup is dyed red with the flowing blood.

“If you completely entrust your body to madness, you see. All your nerves burn with madness. You become a body that can never go back to the way it was.”

Jamie, who lifted his skin with the dagger, tapped the exposed bone.

“Instead, all the problems in your head become faint. It gives you the freedom to escape from things like order and chaos, the absolute laws of the universe.”

A strange distortion occurred behind Jamie. Like a heat haze, the space rippled and the spatial coordinates collapsed. It’s similar to the phenomenon I experienced when I fought Dwinnim.

“…Chaos?”

Whether he heard my muttering, Jamie twisted the corners of his mouth.

“You should call it pure madness that has swallowed even chaos.”

When Jamie spread his arms, the faintly remaining blood mist disappeared cleanly with a huge gust of wind. Scattered pieces of flesh and blood began to move on their own and clump together into human-shaped masses.

“Madness is a wave. It just spreads.”

Jamie’s voice is heard from behind. And immediately to my right, what was a mass becomes Jamie, gets up, and smiles only with his mouth.

“Madness absorbs each other like water droplets and increases in size.”

Before I knew it, the surroundings were filled with dozens of Jamies. It seemed like he was creating doppelgangers using the corpses.

“I wonder, if our madness meets, who will be eaten? Hueheuheut!”

Even if there are dozens of Jamies around, finding the main body wasn’t difficult. There was only one place where there were no spatial coordinates. The torn forehead was also one of the clues to finding the main body.

I gripped the Spear of Destruction tightly. Thanks to the activation of Combat Continuation, the injuries on my thighs and back have disappeared, and my movements are light. As I lowered the tip of the spear towards the floor and recognized all the spatial coordinates around me, I felt someone take a step towards me.

Thwack―――!

I created a dimensional passage behind the doppelganger that approached with space magic and blew its head off.

Jamie, with his arms crossed, twisted the corners of his mouth at me.

“Fighting endlessly with countless me isn’t bad either.”

There is an absolute difference in numbers that cannot be overcome with just one spear. Because the gap that appears the moment you swing the spear to stop the enemies attacking from all directions at the same time is inevitable. It was also the reason why I repeatedly failed the second trial challenge.

But now it’s not like there’s no way at all. I’ve never used it in actual combat, but I’ve been practicing the feeling whenever I have time. I plant the Spear of Destruction on the ground and manipulate magic power to realize the spear in my head.

“Well, try to withstand the wave of madness.”

In an instant, all of Jamie’s doppelgangers rushed towards me. With the calmness created by indomitable courage, I read the surrounding free space and realize the phenomenon of attack that the Shadow Spear will create.

I created dimensional exits around my body without any gaps. The total number of dimensional passages that can be created to the maximum by gathering all the magic power is 16. That alone is enough as a fortress to deal with enemies rushing in from all directions.

The number of exits created was 16. The number of dimensional entrances connected to it was only one. Before, I had to recover the spear that had entered the dimensional passage and attack using the passage connected to another exit, but now I didn’t have to.

The biggest reason I wanted to get the Shadow Spear was… because it doesn’t have an original form, so I can realize it so that it can be increased to dozens of spear blades.

If the Spear of Destruction is a single-shot sniper rifle focused on destructive power, the Shadow Spear is like an automatic shotgun with high stopping power against multiple targets.

I swung the Shadow Spear towards a single dimensional entrance. Then, countless spear tips that came out of the exit through the 16 connected dimensional passages were embedded in the foreheads of the rushing doppelgangers.

Carddeudeuk―――!

“Kyahahaha!!!”

“Hueueuhuehit!”

Even if their skulls were shattered and their brains were flowing out, Jamie’s doppelgangers rushed towards me endlessly. But I killed all the doppelgangers rushing in from all directions by simply repeating the stabbing. It was literally crushing.

“Hoo, a spear that increases to dozens… I wasn’t the only one who increased. Hueueut!”

Jamie, muttering like that, started approaching with frivolous steps as if he was excited. His face looks like he’s genuinely happy to be fighting me.

“Then, shall we end this useless war of attrition here?”

I released all the dimensional exits that I had created around me. My vision clears, and I stare at Jamie, who is approaching with a relaxed gait, with cold eyes.

While reviewing the fight with Dwinnim, I prepared for a fight in a situation where I couldn’t use space magic. I reach into the space warehouse and take out the bag where I put the seeds.

Even if it’s a flat land where I can’t use terrain, I have a way. When I judge calmly, my win rate increases if I fight in the only battlefield for me by any means.

While putting the bag around my waist, I pick up the Spear of Destruction that I had planted on the ground and hold it up. At the same time, I secretly put magic power into one of the seeds I had hidden in my palm and dropped it into the hole in the floor created by the spear tip and erased the traces.

When I held out the spear forward, Jamie started moving, judging that the preparation was complete. Not even the sound of stepping on the ground is heard, it just feels like the wind is moving.

I quickly swung the spear that I had held out forward for checking, but there is no sensation felt at the tip of the spear. As I busily moved my legs to pull my body to the side, a dagger flew from the space where there was nothing until just now.

As I deflected the dagger, Jamie, as if he had predicted the result in advance, caught the dagger in mid-air and swung the dagger with the same speed.

Kangkangkang―――!

Sparks and intense collision sounds erupted from the instantaneous three-hit combo. As I took a step back to create distance, Jamie held the dagger upside down in a stance with a low center of gravity like a frog.

Jamie’s heels shattered the road surface and rushed towards me at an incredible speed. Even though the berserker’s effect was activated, I couldn’t keep up with the movement for a moment.

The moment Jamie took two steps, I thrust the spear that I had pulled into my arms forward with intense momentum.

Clang―!

Jamie’s momentum, which had been rushing fiercely, falters for a moment when defending. Taking advantage of that moment, I give up the advantage of distance and instead narrow the distance with quick steps.

A powerful blow filled with the power of destruction aimed for Jamie’s neck. Jamie, who was seen in my vision, was desperately raising the dagger to block the attack.

However, the dagger did not protect his neck and went straight up. Feeling a sense of incongruity at the bizarre sight of allowing a fatal attack, I hurriedly stopped the attack and changed my stance to respond to the variable.

Something flashed at the end of my vision for a moment.

Fwoosh―!

“Keueueuk…!!!”

Thanks to changing my stance, I avoided a fatal wound, but the dagger grazed my left eye. The one who launched the surprise attack was Jamie’s doppelganger that appeared from the left.

“Hahueut! I told you that deception is the basis of a clown!”

It was a mistake. I had the naive thought that Jamie had turned all the nearby corpses into doppelgangers. The rush was just a trick to hide the process of creating the doppelganger.

My stance was slightly broken because I stabbed the spear into the forehead of the doppelganger who was trying to attack again. Not missing that gap, Jamie stepped forward to launch an attack. And that place was where I had put the seed in the hole a little while ago.

Peusyusyut―――!

“Euek…!!!”

Like a landmine, a huge vine sprang up from the ground where he stepped and wrapped around Jamie’s legs. It was a rare plant called Monster Hell that I had newly added to the seed bag.

Although I was caught off guard by the unexpected surprise attack, the reason I gave up the advantage of distance and deliberately narrowed the distance was to induce Jamie’s rushing direction towards the side where I had hidden the seed.

I’m confident in lying too.