Summary[]
The group met Skellington, an elder skeleton who is supposed to help them with their powers. A hard battle awaits them...
Chapter 16: Fighting with the fakers[]
The group followed Skellington up the stairs. "Are we there yet?" Will muttered. "I am tired of the underground!" Daniel walked silent. "We are almost there, benders." Skellington said. "That`s the third time, gramps." Skull mourned. "I see light ahead!" Alyssa suddenly shouted. Everyone raised their speed and ran up the rest of the stairs, revealing a weird sight.
It looked like four biomes: a beach, a volcano, mycelium land, and a mineshaft collided and interfused with each other. "what is this?" Daniel wondered. "The area your powers will be unfold." Skellington replied. "So, but where are `our clones`, mister?" Daniel said.
"The clones will appear by Replica Summon." Skull said. "Replica- what?" Will seemed confused. "Replica Summon is a process where a shady clone of a person is created. It can use all powers and skills of its original, if the original was at full health." "So, basically we fight ourselves, but like in totally refreshed state." Mary tried to put it together. "Yes." Skellington answered. "Stand in a line and hold your hands." "Why do we need to?" Alyssa asked. "So the process doesn`t consume too much energy." Skull said.
Later, the benders stood in a line: Alyssa, Daniel, Will, Mary. Skellington suddenly was enveloped in a dark cloud. He seemed to be fully concentrating. After that, four creatures appeared: a spear-wielding in the mineshaft, a swordsman shadow on the beach, a bow wielder in the mycelium, and a tomahawk shadow in the volcano. "So, these are our opponents." Will muttered. "They may appear stronger than you feel, benders, but they are only in equal strength. You should be able to overcome them." "So," Alyssa took out her spear, Will loaded an arrow, Daniel took his sword and Mary swung her axe. "Let`s do this!" And the benders charged at their clones:
The clone Mary lit herself on flames and charged forward, leaving a trail of fire. The real Mary jumped into the air, focused and was on fire herself. As a flaming rocket, she hit her clone. The clone retaliated taking a deep breath. Suddenly, she shot fire out of her mouth. Mary was surprised: "Wait, I have fire breath. Let me try." Mary herself took a deep breath, but that wasn`t all. She jumped into the air and charged at her clone, opened her mouth, and a big fire energy beam fired at the clone, which immediately combusted.
During that, The fake Alyssa spun the spear in her hands and earthen fists charged at high-speed out of the ground, but Alyssa jumped over everyone and hit the ground with her spear, resulting into her clone getting hit by a spire. Afterwards, the clone did a rapid spin and was enveloped in a vine storm. She walked towards the real Alyssa who couldn`t stop the vines. She got slapped by all vines and knocked back. With that, Alyssa got another idea. She thought back to the moment she felt the dark energy back in the jungle. She imagined her own energy flowing into the earth. And as she opened her eyes, she saw that she opened a fissure. The clone didn`t fall in, but Alyssa was prepared. She created two earth walls and clapped her hands. The walls imitated their motion, resulting into the clone getting smashed around. Then, the clone fell into the fissure, which was sealed afterwards.
Meanwhile, the clone Will made a high jump into the air and shot shady arrows. Wind explosions hit the ground and Will got an idea. He canalized his powers and also jumped into the air, took out his bow and shot, with no arrow loaded. He was worried if his plan failed, but suddenly he saw an arrow combusting out of pure wind energy flying at his clone. The clone appeared surprised, but Will repeated shooting wind arrows. As the clone was almost at the ground, Will had another idea. He charged up again and flew into the air and enveloped in wind, he dove to the ground in high-speed. His clone got hit by the attack, and got sliced apart by the wind, its shadow disappearing. Will noticed Alyssa and Mary already being done with their clones and so, they watched Daniel:
Daniel ran towards his clone, who only focused and swung his sword a couple times. Water edges charged at Daniel, but he always stopped and blocked. He swung his sword and to his surprise, another water edge was created, charging at his clone. The clone got hit, but it only crippled him. Daniel took his hands and loaded water energy between them and fired at his clone. Surprisingly, the blasts were accurate and close to the clone, though archery never was Daniel`s strong point. The clone suddenly flooded away and flowed through the underground, Daniel thought. Or he had the power of teleportation. But the underground theory was right, as the clone appeared out of the ground behind him and fired water energy at Daniel`s face. Who was blinded for a second, which the clone used to charge at him. Regaining eyesight, Daniel blocked and flooded himself away, having a plan. He appeared out of the ground again and mauled his clone with savage sword attacks, which took him out.
"Ah, you have defeated the replicas." Skellington looked quite satisfied. "That was hard, but I feel the new power." Alyssa scorned. "And now what?" Daniel wondered. "It`s nighttime. You can rest here." Skull said. "And tomorrow, we can go to the mountains of Cryo and retrieve the third shard. Sounds like a plan to me." Will said. Mary yawned and leaned against Will. "I would really love some sleep first." Daniel`s eyes were heavy. "Me too. Man, I`m tired...." Alyssa grinned at the sight of Mary and Will. "So, Will and I can eat something, Daniel and Mary can go to bed. Don`t worry, we bring you some food afterwards. "Let`s go." Mary muttered and walked back into Skellington`s house...
After the eating, everyone was in bed, refreshing from the battle with their clones. They have grown stronger, but this night wields a vision and the following days have hard trails waiting for them....