Alric seemed confused by Hirrus’ reaction, which was to run towards the town.

“What the fuck are you doing?” the adventurer demanded as he sprinted after him.

The question was almost beneath Hirrus’ notice.

It seemed obvious what he was doing.

But Hirrus had to entertain the idea that he was overestimating Alric’s understanding.

“Rumi’s hirelings have put resources before me,” Hirrus explained as he continued his charge towards the burning town. “I intend to destroy them, so that they can’t be used again elsewhere.”

“How do you even know that’s how it works?” Alric shot back. “Maybe once they let things loose, they can’t get them back? Have you ever thought of that?”

Hirrus had, in fact, considered the option. But there was something else he was loath to admit to aloud.

He wanted to fight whatever beasts they had unleashed here. Wanted to test his mettle. Tear down what Rumi and his ilk had built.

They might represent additional resources of his own in turn - Arcana and equipment - that he might find a use for. Even if it only represented a little more gear for Alric, even just a little bit better gear might help Alric survive if another threat of Hirrus’ caliber took a swing at him.

But there was another reason. One that he struggled to admit even to himself.

Fighting the three-headed beast Krazaj had felt liberating.

After dealing with adventurers for so long, there had been something satisfying about facing a foe he could understand and predict. But more than that, it was a novelty to the point of enjoyment to battle against a foe he didn’t hate. Hirrus was able to throw himself into the fight without being drowned in his own rage.

Deep down, he wanted to chase that feeling.

Hirrus declined to respond to Alric as they entered the burning town. Holding his breath for a moment got him through the thickest part of the flames, where he could see that most of the central area of the town had been entirely flattened.

He could also see why.

There were two huge monsters. They were circling each other, posturing and taking testing swipes. As they went, they crashed into what few remains were left of the buildings present, demolishing and flattening them without a second thought.

As he looked, Hirrus saw their names and health percentages.

The nearest of the two was a huge twisted lizard-monster. Its body looked like that of a bloated rat, but covered in brown-gray scales, studded with little hooked black horns. The creature’s legs were thick and visibly muscled, giving it the strength to support its oversized body. Its neck ran upright from the front of its body, and had a disturbing ridged appearance that made it seem like there was a ribcage inside it. A head at the top was mostly just a huge mouth, glowing with sinister energy and filled with jagged and uneven teeth. One or more of the dark scales above the huge maw may have been eyes, but if it was, it was tiny and beady, dramatically out of proportion with the rest of its body.

Archaeotitan

94%

The second was an enormous crustacean with a shell of barnacle-encrusted metal. It was the larger of the two, with eight insect-like legs and two enormous claws, along with a segmented tail curled underneath it. Beady stalk eyes blinked at the other monster, the blinking motion shrinking and expanding the eyes in a way that was unmanageably creepy. It had two huge antennae that were nearly the length of its body, and they whipped around, flapping against its foe and its surroundings in a way that seemed to not be doing damage, but from their size and speed, looked like they might be able to send a human-sized foe to the ground in a single strike. Glowing green ooze dribbled from between the plates on its face that must have been covering its mouth.

Kodetlan, God of Penance

98%

“Let them fight,” Alric said somberly. His tone changed back to normal as he continued: “they’re clearly dealing with themselves just fine. We don’t need to be here.”

“Look closer,” Hirrus said. “They’ve been at this long enough to obliterate the remains of this town, and yet they’ve barely scratched each other.” He readied his blade. “There might eventually be a victor, but not for days. And during the course of this battle, they’d demolish the entire countryside.”

Alric grimaced and crossed his arms, clearly unconvinced.

“If we try to continue up the Hari Path without dealing with them,” Hirrus said, “then they’ll be at our backs if Rumi’s forces seek to overwhelm us. We can deal with them now, or we can deal with them then. But then will be more dangerous.”

“Fine,” Alric grumbled, drawing his dagger. “We can take a proactive approach.”

Hirrus thought it was kind of silly that the adventurer drew his weapon, as if he was going to contribute to the fight.

But he said nothing about it.

He didn’t want to make Alric feel bad.

Hirrus’ first thought was to reach for what had become his usual opening move. He was about to activate Going Ape, Pumped Kicks, and Iron Typhoon, with the intent to rush in and batter the monsters into submission.

But this was an opportunity.

Hirrus stepped forward.

And then he stepped forward again.

And then he stepped forward a third time.

And with each step, he left behind a portion of himself.

Fidelis’s Arcana, Reflected Echo, let Hirrus generate a number of something called Echoes. Each one borrowed a small percentage of his maximum HP, and would only deal a fraction of his normal damage. But they were in all other ways identical to himself. The only way for a foe to determine which one was him would be if he struck that enemy, revealing himself by doing much more significant damage.

What was strangest, though, was that Hirrus’ awareness expanded. He wasn’t just in his own body. The Echoes were also himself at the same time.

He suddenly had three extra right hands.

Eight eyes and ears at once.

It was an overwhelming assault on his senses.

Each Echo only took about seven percent of his hit points, and the Arcana would return those hit points when the Echo ended, whether or not it still had the extra health when it either expired or was defeated. That was how Fidelis had produced thirteen of them - that would be the limit of what a health bar could sustain.

What stunned him was how Fidelis could manage inhabiting this many bodies at one time. Hirrus was overwhelmed with four bodies.

All he could figure was that Fidelis had practiced with this power for a long time before meeting Hirrus.

Hirrus decided that he had to limit himself for now before trying to employ the Arcana to its full potential. If used well, he could imagine the power it might represent in a fight. But until he had practice to match Fidelis’ mastery, he was going to put himself in more danger using it than ignoring it.

As he acclimated himself to the new power, he saw - through eight eyes - the two beasts fighting each other. Archaeotitan seemed to be physically weaker, as when the giant crustacean lunged forward, the bloated lizard monster was battered back by its claws, even as it tried to trade blows using its massive glowing jaws.

“Holy fuckshit ass balls?” Alric cursed. “What did you do?”

Hirrus was briefly overcome with vertigo as all four of his heads turned at once to face the adventurer. He had to focus for a moment to separate his own body from the Echoes. He pointed the Echoes’ heads back at the monster battle, and kept only his own body’s attention on Alric.

“This was Fidelis’s power,” Hirrus said, trying to acclimate himself to looking in multiple directions at once. “The guild master of the Last of the Strong split himself into many bodies to fight me.”

“Why the fuck did you never do this before?” Alric demanded. “This is fucking broken.”

“It’s complicated,” Hirrus said, finding the real struggle in talking while he had three extra mouths that weren’t moving. “And a complication. I am… Inside all of these bodies at once. It’s…”

“Weird?” Alric said. “Oh, wait, no, is it cool?”

“Challenging,” Hirrus said at last. With an effort of will, he made one of the Echoes turn around and face in another direction. It was difficult to make it walk forward without moving the other three bodies. But he could do it.

He made it move towards the nearest half-burnt ruin that had once been a building.

“What are you doing with that one?” Alric asked.

“I’m going to try to use it to search for survivors,” Hirrus said, finding the split of his focus slowly improving with time and practice. “I don’t know if anyone is still here, but if they are, they might need help getting clear of the fight to come.”

Alric struck a pose, his dagger held up defensively. “And what do you want me to do?”

“Nothing. I need to get used to using this ability,” Hirrus said, turning his body to match the two remaining echoes. “If you don’t mind, stand back, don’t die, and let me practice.”

The adventurer looked like he wanted to argue, but the loud thump from the two monsters fighting ahead must have made him still his tongue.

Hirrus readied his hooked blade. Two of the Echoes did as well with their own.

At the same time, he split his focus, directing the third echo to move into the burning building to hunt for survivors. It was an immense mental strain, but he could do it.

The question was, as he charged forward with three bodies, could he maintain it while fighting two building-sized monsters at once?