I Reject Quests

"You can say all the nonsense you want. However, you can never deny the fact that your end is near. Even if you tried to run away now, you can't. Do you know why? Because my three squad mates are coming from three separate directions. It would be a miracle for you to escape." The hologram Banci said from behind.

When Rewen was about to open his mouth, he sensed something coming and swung the sword.

"Clang*

Rewen got up and picked the arrow. "Wow, this is garbage as well. Do you buy weapons from the gutter?" As a blacksmith, he has the right to criticize weapons. 

Another arrow flew off towards his direction.

Rewen was wondering what to do with this when it missed its target!

"Looks like I overestimated you. I'm counting to three. If you don't come, I'll come to you myself." Rewen said, then sat back on the fallen tree.

"3."

"2."

As he was about to say "1", the hologram Banci raised his right arm which had an arrow towards Rewen's head. He had missed the arrow on purpose. He knew that his opponent had let his guard down so he had to strike while his guard was down. 

When the arrow was about to hit Rewen's hit, it was suddenly grabbed by a single hand. He saw his opponent turn around with a carefree smile. "I have got a question to ask. Can you not pick a stone or anything to hit me? Why do you always need to have a weapon? Wait, perhaps not exactly weapons. It's like you are allowed to touch only a fe-"

*Swish*

Another arrow flew towards Rewen's direction which he effortlessly dodged. "Damn it, don't interrupt. Where was I? Ah yes, it's like you are allowed to touch only a few things. Is that right?"

Banci let the arrow go. "It's right." There was no point in lying. He knew that his opponent wouldn't believe him if he lied.

Rewen took the arrow and threw it in the ground. "I have another question. Why did you seem so frightened while I was falling from the tree? You are like a hologram who can only carry certain things. In that case, even if I tried to cut off your neck, I couldn't. Why were you so frightened? There is only one reason I can think of."

The hologram Banci's eyes squinted. 'That was a miscalculation from my part. I should have stayed in the original…'

"You could switch bodies with the original! Not only could you make an empty clone of yourself that could carry certain things, you can also decide which body you want to go, which also means that you don't have two consciousnesses. Since you seem to be actively listening to me a few seconds ago when the arrow came, that should have been enough to prove that my hypothesis of you not having two consciousness is quite possibly false…"

The hologram quietly stared at him. He didn't shoot another arrow because he knew it was useless.

"However, what if your body and consciousness are two separate entities? While you were paying attention to me without saying any words, you had secretly transferred your body to your hologram self for a short while to shoot an arrow by sending your consciousness to the original body. This way, your hologram, no, clone self could still appear to have consciousness. Of course, these are all hypotheses." After fighting with that weird skill for a while, Rewen had somewhat figured out how that worked.

"Are you still going to hide after all this?" He then turned to Banci's clone and smiled. 

Banci's face twisted, bursting out in loud laughter. However, that laugh didn't come from the clone. It came from behind. Banci's clone was already disintegrated.

Turning back, he saw Banci standing seven meters away from him with a crazed smile on his face. "To figure out everything of my [Weeping Ghost], you are a worthy opponent. Since it's a fight you want, a fight is what you get. Don't regret it later though!" He sprinted off towards Rewen's direction with not a single weapon on his hand. 

Rewen dropped the sword and arrow on his hand and he too, dashed towards his opponent's direction.

As they neared each other, they began to analyze their opponent's body movements.

'What will be the first strike? No matter if it's a straight or a kick, I have to take the opportunity…' Banci, having faced many battles, calmly made a decision to opt for defense.

Rewen, on the other hand, decided to go for offense. 'What should I do? A punch is too predictable and a kick won't work because he seemed prepared to face a kick." He had long noticed that his opponent's movement on the right leg was a bit unsynchronized with the left which means that he was either planning to throw a kick or planning to step back immediately if he sees a round kick coming to his ears. 'Which means that I can only do this.'

Banci came to a stop when the distance between them was less than a meter. 'His legs are tight and hands are raised… he is going for a punch.' He grinned inwardly and made preparations to block his punch.

'The arm has not yet folded. What is he planning?' 

Rewen took his left leg forward, pulled his arm like he was planning for a punch ignoring the block his opponent made on his face.

By the time Banci realized something was wrong, it was too late. 'It isn't a punch. It's an elbow strike!' His left side of the head was hit by it. In pain, his guard with his hands fell down. Taking a step back, he clutched the part where he was hit with the elbow.

'Oh no!' Realizing his guard was down, he quickly tried to take another step back.

Unfortunately, a tight fist appeared in front of his eyes. 'I couldn't dodge it. It's possible that I might even lose the fight if I get hit by this.' 

Rewen's punch went through his body as if his body was a smoke. He took back his punch, chuckled, then jumped a few steps back.

"As a Rank 1 Mage, you should have never picked a close-combat fight with a F-grade Martial Artist." He commented, before looking around only to find that Banci's body had disappeared again.

An arrow flew past him. 

"Are we still playing this game? Just when I finally thought I could get to fight for real, you pussied out." He went back to sit on the fallen tree taking the sword he dropped earlier on his right hand.

*Clang*

Yawning, he didn't even have the mood to say anything funny. 

However, his eyes suddenly became bright when he saw Banci coming out and staring at him without any expression. "So you decided to come out again? What are we doing this time? Oh, huh." He noticed a saber on his opponent's hand and his smile widened. 

He himself didn't know why but he was very much looking forward to fighting. "A saber this time. Good choice. It's effective against a swor-" He couldn't finish speaking because he saw the Banci who was staring at him suddenly dashed towards him.

Rewen didn't waste any time and got up taking a stance with his stance. 'Horizontal or vertical? It's an empty clone so I could only snatch the saber from him. If it's a horizontal strike, it would be difficult but I think I can manage if it's a vertical strike. From his body movements, I'm seventy percent certain it's a vertical.' He prepared to do the same thing. 'Dropping the sword, then go for the hand of the Banci.'

When the clone Banci neared close enough, he struck down the saber over his opponent's head. Having seen this coming, Rewen went to grab the saber but…

Unlike the last time, he could feel Banci's hand gripping the saber. 'Shit! He transferred both his body and consciousness into this clone.' With a side movement, the saber barely missed his body.

Banci's expression was the same. After missing the strike, he didn't pull in for another strike. Rather, he dropped his Saber and punched Rewen's abdomen.

"Kuh!" Clutching his stomach in pain, he quickly tried to think of an idea. 'Huh? An arrow? Where did it come from?' Looking at his side, he saw an arrow incoming. 'I can dodge this. If the arrow is coming, that means that the clone doesn't have the consciousness.' 

However, he soon found himself in an incomprehensible situation. 

The clone that was expected to be still had stretched his arm for a punch.

'Could it be that the body and consciousness got transferred to the clone right after the arrow was shot? That's… impossible. I can't dodge it. If I try to dodge the arrow, the punch will come and I'll possibly be hit by the arrow. If I try to dodge the punch, I will get hit by the arrow nevertheless.'

Rewen found himself in a predicament.