Jin was in a sticky situation. A creature, looming in the darkness of the room, and brimming with malice wanted him dead. He shoved his curiosities aside and started ambling toward the creature, his dagger at his side.

As he ambled toward it, as if fearless, it hollered at him. Jin, eyes kept to slits, continued to amble toward it. As if intimated, the creature hesitated.

But eventually, it lunged toward him again, opening its mouth. Jin quickly dashed left. The creature missed him, gnashing its draws at nothing but air. Jin used this as an opportunity to slash his blade at the beast.

The dagger quickly hurtled toward it but missed. The creature had once again gotten away using teleportation. Similarly, Jin had slashed at nothing but air. Irritated, he knotted his brows as the creature reappeared in front of him. "Teleportation sucks when you're not the one," he dashed toward the creature, "using it!" he snapped, thrusting his blade at the beast.

The creature, as expected, had disappeared as soon as the attack was performed. But Jin didn't accept it. As soon as the creature reappeared, he tossed his pupils toward it and dashed toward its precise location, slashing his dagger again.

The creature had teleported away once more. But Jin acted assiduously; using his dash to go after it. The same thing cycled itself, refusing to foil. It repeated again, and again until the room was filled with clusters of blurs and warping sounds.

After two minutes of chase, a clone hopped out of Jin's body as he slashed his dagger. The beast disappeared, and reappeared, expecting Jin to take the same amount of average time to relocate it. When suddenly, the clone kicked it to its body from the time it had reappeared.

As soon as it had received the hit, it quickly relocated again. But once it had done so, the real Jin didn't dash this time but threw his dagger at it. The dagger went spinning toward it in circles. Then before it could dodge in time, the dagger penetrated its face, nearly getting to its brain. It whined loudly and relocated again.

Jin closed his hand and the dagger—which was still in the creature's body—had suddenly reappeared in his palm again. The creature, infuriated, teleported to Jin this time and gnashed its draws at him.

Jin dashed right; slamming into a wall. The creature's draws clicked. Jin quickly side-kicked it to its body. The impact had it sent rolling on the floor toward the clone. The clone stomped on its head. A whine escaped its throat spasmodically. It quickly teleported away.

Jin used the time to look at his system screen.

[Untamed Servant's HP: 26 / 37]

'It has the exact same max HP I have at my disposal," Jin thought, 'yet I'm so much better. These clones are so much help.' He manifested a smirk on his face, a corner of his lips quirking up.

Suddenly, the beast, on its four legs glowed green, and another, identical beast appeared next to it. Jin's smirk fell. And it wasn't satisfied there, for it then fell to a loathsome scowl.

"This is gonna be much harder than I thought," he said, glaring at the two creatures in his presence.

***

On the other side of the locked door was none other than Ashton and the, again, unbidden Syliva. They were both shaken by the sounds coming from the room in which Jin loitered.

It's been three minutes since Jin had strangely locked the room, and hadn't disclosed to them the problem. Three minutes of loud earthshaking bangs—it was only at this time that Sylvia had, alas, decided to ask Jin about the problem.

She leaned toward the door; hearing strange warping sounds. Then, she parted her lips.

"Jin, are you alright in there?" Sylvia and—unexpectedly—Ashton uttered in precise unison.

They both turned their heads toward each other until their eyes met. Apparently, the fact that they hadn't said anything was also bothering Ashton. He quickly looked away as his cheeks flushed. Sylvia had simply assumed that he was shy, and looked away as well.

Ashton blushed because of Sylvia's eyes. That and the fact that he had not stood so close to a girl before, with, of course, the exception of his "ungrateful" dearest mother.

Sylvia wanted to flee to her brother, but she felt reluctant, knowing that Jin wasn't yet his old self. She took it that he was still experiencing trauma after being witness to heartbreaking betrayal. He hadn't left yet only because she wanted the see that "old Jin". Hands down, since the new one was so ... scary.

Having not heard a response from Jin, Sylvia had repeated her question. Only this time, louder. "Jin!? Are you alright in there!?"

***

[Your HP: 24 / 37]

[Untamed Beast's HP: 15 / 37]

Jin was standing amidst a room filled with clones of the creature and clones of himself. Figures were all over, filling up the room—clustering it in every corner. The green glow in his eyes was beginning to fade. He was constantly panting.

Jin hadn't gotten a single scratch yet. Only his dumb clones akin to NPCs in a game were the ones to blame for missing points from his health bar. It was a mistake making so many clones. His control over the clones was now significantly weaker.

He was constantly taking damage since his Health was shared with the said clones. But this ... this was a battle of numbers. Jin was the one who had started and he intended to be the one to finish it as well.

Jin furrowed his brows. "There are twelve figures in here, and then there are the originals—me and the beast. I'm at my limit when it comes to producing clones, same goes for you too, doesn't it?"

Jin, in the middle of a room that was now a battlefield, looked through the gaps and spaces of fighting figures and sporadic blurs and motions he could not predict. Only one of these figures could've been the real thing. And he had eyes on the one just standing there—menacing—like him. Their green glowing eyes met, and they intensely looked daggers into each other's soul.

They both had the same max health. The same clone ability. The same speed. For what was one, was now two; now that the creature existed. Two clone users, two fast beings, two beasts. But ... there could only be one winner.