They scrambled to both sides, Kurt was being circled by the two cats. How did they not know there were two of them?
They were mostly back, but had dirty white underbellies. Kurt could see their muscles flex with great strength. A pounce with two paws with claws coming at your face is bad enough, but four?
They were fast, the plan, the plan, dodging it. Kurt was already mobile, the entire thing was not going to plan at all, suddenly one of the cats pounced at him, and he instinctively swung the spear in his hand to swat it away. Using the strength he gained from the Faye blessing. When he struck the cat, it dematerialized, and gave no resistance, the power he was using caught Kurt off balance without anything there he stumbled.
Damn it, one of them isn't even real. And I won't know which one. Kurt somehow realized immediately, but the other cat came from his left. Kurt threw up his shield in time, blocking the swipe from the cat. But, the claw penetrated the shield attached to his arm, and the claws pierced him. And the shield can't stop the claws at all, of course.
However this meant the claw was stuck to the shield as well, giving Kurt the ability to swing his arm while attached to the Copy Cat, as he named it. The cat flew away from Kurt. This gave Kurt the time to take the shield off his arm and hold the handle in his hand, it may not stop the claw but at least I'm not just giving the cat my arm now, he winched as the pain from the claw finally struck his endorphin fueled battle.
Well, it's definitely worse than fighting one cat and better than fighting two. And cougar, or mountain lion may be a better term here. Copy Cougar? No, this stupid to be thinking about. He closed one eye then the other, thinking maybe it was about the blinking.
It wasn't, it was just so fast that if you blinked you'd miss the cat separating into two forms, one real one an illusion.
This time Kurt guessed right and was able to give the cat a good strike, the problem was he was going to have to make a big thrust at one of them to actually kill it. And that would leave him open to the other one.
Not giving him much of a choice, Kurt chose wrong, and hit the phantom cat, or rather passed through it, and somehow was able to roll away from a swipe of the real one. He had to give power or the real cat wouldn't be affected.
After a few more volleys, Kurt was cut up, his shield was basically just the handle and worked more like a brass knuckle than a shield. Kurt was losing, he knew if he was absolutely sure which was which he could put his spear right through one of their heads.
Perfect copies. Or were they, it was like some of his mana was starting to push his eyes to see something else. He heard a whisper that sounded like Layla, but it was so soft he couldn't make out what it said, or hear it well at all. There was a slight almost impossible to see glow inside one of them.
But did that mean it was the real one or the illusion?
Then both jumped at him and pushed him into the wall, which broke apart, Kurt was able to use the confusion of it breaking to throw the cat off his body into the secret room, but not without getting some claw marks on him. And one of the claws dug into his chest, slicing it open.
As Kurt held his bleeding chest, he could see it again the faint light in one of the cats. He had figured it out too, which was which. Throwing the cat he realized that one did not glow, the illusion was glowing.
That should be enough, but the Cat was already pouncing at him before he could get to his feet, the crumbled wall led to a small passageway that opened up to a larger room.
Even though Kurt could see it, seeing it was actually a problem it took some focus. He needed to know to make the strike possible. And then he realized, this was the plan. He immediately started striking the cat as it was pouncing at him.
After seven pouncing of both the cat and his copy, Kurt could see it, the cat was getting tired, the illusion glowed brighter, and wasn't as perfect to begin with. It was losing steam. And finally it happened.
The cat split apart, and immediately both cat started panting, that was enough for Kurt to gain proper footing, enough to strike true, and know for sure, which cat was which.
And, digging in his heel Kurt used all the strength from himself and his mana. And and thrusted his spear right into the cat maw, and threw the back of its skull, the fight was over. Kurt was still moving forward on pure adrenaline. And hit a table in the back of the room, saw a cup starting to fall over and for some reason reacted to stop it falling over out of instinct, Kurt grabbed it.
The cup was ornate, the creature fell lifeless to the ground. Pulling the cup up, Kurt thought 'don't mind if I do' and drank greedily. Why did he want to do that so much? But it was delicious, like the perfect reward for a warrior who just claimed his first victory, slamming the cup on the table. Kurt felt glorious. He was victorious, he could get home but home felt so mundane now. He jumped, just for the hell of it. Then his heart gave a deep and powerful beat, is this a heart attack, as the next pulse dropped him to his knees. "What's happening, was it poison, after all that my idiot self just drank the poison didn't I?" Kurt said, thinking it was going to be his last words.