Fate of Pandora - Book I

Beware The Copycat

"Help, help me! This man keeps chasing me!" Arika was running away from a strange and suspicious looking man. She was very glad to see everybody already at their meeting point.

She slid behind Luna and Lukas as the stalker approached.

"I was coming here when this man randomly appeared and began following me everywhere. I don't know what he wants, but I have a bad feeling about him," she whimpered with a look of fear in her eyes. She didn't know why she didn't want to face this stranger alone; she somehow knew she shouldn't.

The man didn't seem bothered that the girl managed to find help, and continued walking slowly toward the group.

The closer he got, the more perplexed the teenagers became. "Is it even human?" Lukas asked, disturbed.

There was definitely something wrong with that man. His general appearance was of a human man wearing a large overcoat, boots, glasses, and a hat. But the thing was, underneath all of the clothing he didn't look like a man at all, but rather something solid black – like a shadow that had come to life, and was now walking on its own under the summer sun.

Whatever the creature was, it sure could grin.

"I am sure it is not human," Jay said firmly, her eyes suddenly changing to a yellowish color.

When the shadow man was close to them, Coalt stepped forward and stood in his way. "Excuse me, sir. Is there any problem that we might help you with? What do you want?" he asked, glaring at him.

"Oh, this must be my lucky day. All of them. It is all of them here. Uhuhuh," the shadow man said, his grin getting wider.

Coalt narrowed his eyes and, without a second thought, he aimed a punch to the stranger's face. He missed, however. The man was fast and grabbed Coalt's arm.

"Ohohoho. I managed to find the last ones. The last ones!" he said in a strange childish tone. "And I will kill them all. All for me." Suddenly, the shadowy figure took a form. It looked like a mirrored version of Coalt, still holding his arm tightly, and grinning wide with black eyes and glowing white pupils.

"What the hell?" Coalt tried to get free from his image's hold when shadowy tendrils started to surround his arm. They were like claws cutting his skin, all the way from his hand to his shoulder. Lukas and Luna stopped the attack with their quick reactions. They both punched the creature and it landed heavily on the ground a few meters away.

"Coalt, are you okay?" Lukas shook the older boy until Coalt finally snapped out of his confusion. The young man was paralyzed after the bizarre sight of his own image attacking himself.

Then Coalt flinched after trying to move his injured arm. "That thing cut my entire arm!" The cuts weren't deep, but they were bleeding more than normal; it felt like huge paper cuts. Damn it! I need both arms to use the scythe, he thought before conjuring his god's powers. He would have to find another way to help.

The group was ready and attacked the shadowy figure. However, all of them were having the same problem Coalt had trying to land a single hit on it. The moment Lukas tried to punch the figure, a mirrored, dark Lukas countered with the same attack. When Luna tried to use her arrows to attack from far away, the shadow would change to her figure and quickly dodge the arrows. Even Arika, being the fastest, had her speed copied by the shadowy figure. Meanwhile, the monster was constantly sending shadow tendrils to creep up and hurt them.

It didn't matter who attacked it, the shadow would copy them in a blink of an eye and counterattack at the same level or dodge.

Everyone gained a few scratches; the tendrils were hard to escape, but no one was as bad off as Coalt, who was too stubborn to sit away from the fight. He tried to attack with fireballs, only to be countered with black fire balls from his dark image.