School Transmigration: I, Chosen as the Saint by Dragons at the Start-Chapter 224 --Owen’s Doppelganger

"You don’t actually need such a ward," Owen told Laubus.

"Let go of the cowardice in your heart. In real combat, no one cheers for you, nor do you need anyone to. Relying on Hajir, you’ll never be able to exert your full strength because he’s just a part of you."

"You’re right, thank you." Laubus, utterly drained, walked off the arena.

Rose, witnessing the scene, chuckled and spoke to the air beside her, "Your doppelganger just said something quite philosophical."

"After all, he is part of me." Owen, invisible, laughed softly, adding, "But such a technique really does take a toll on oneself."

For the quarterfinals, Owen was scheduled for the last match.

The seven who had advanced were Skes, Moxis, Jolna, Elvan, Goden, Laine, and Hammer.

Their strength was indeed a notch above the rest.

It’s worth noting that Moxis was injured in the hand by one of the masked knifemen during the match.

Thus, none of the three masked knifemen survived, and their deaths were particularly gruesome.

Such is the fate of those who cross the nobility in the City of Two, a common sight.

Owen intended to use the Doppelganger Technique again in the quarterfinals, feeling he hadn’t yet mastered the nuances of this spell.

There are many aspects of the Doppelganger Technique that need refining.

After reabsorbing his doppelganger last time, he experienced a headache for fifteen minutes as the memories of the doppelganger flooded into his mind, causing temporary confusion.

This was the side effect even when Owen was merely observing.

If the memories were completely foreign, Owen couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t suffer from a split personality.

However, this also reveals a significant advantage of the Doppelganger Technique: if one successfully reabsorbs a doppelganger, they can gain the combat experience, insights, techniques, intelligence, and even newly acquired skills from the doppelganger.

This could greatly benefit one’s cultivation, making it a priority for Owen to refine further.

So, the figure currently on the arena is still, in a sense, Owen’s doppelganger, which, in many ways, is also Owen since their memories and experiences are nearly identical.

Owen’s opponent is a formidable assassin known as "Hundred Faces," who wears a bizarre mask.

As soon as Hundred Faces enters the arena, he says to Owen, "Yesterday, you completely shattered my disciple’s will to fight. He no longer wishes to practice my arcana."

"Which disciple of yours?" Owen inquired.

"Of course, Laubus, whom you defeated in the round of sixteen."

"Oh, so it means he has found his true path and has stopped using those sinister techniques?"

"Hmph, calling my art sinister? Then I’ll show you what real sinister is."

Before Hundred Faces could finish his sentence, dozens of figures emerged from beneath the ground of the arena.

Each wore a strange mask, giving the vast arena a ghastly and eerie atmosphere.

Since the quarterfinals only required eight matches, the organizers had removed the wooden boards used for division, and now, with dozens of figures spread out, the arena didn’t seem too crowded.

No, more accurately, it was dozens of corpses.

These "people" who sprang from the ground made absolutely no sound.

"You really have a taste for the macabre."

"Heh, caught on, have you?" Hundred Faces licked his lips, saying, "I haven’t broken any rules, though. These are corpses, my weapons."

He inserted a finger into the skull of one of the walking corpses, continuing, "Inside here are all my memories. You’re fighting against forty-nine versions of me."

"Oh, facing forty-nine doses of disgust simultaneously, that’s really going to be the death of me," Owen remarked, even as a few of the walking corpses began their tentative attacks on him.

Owen unsheathed his Ice sword to meet the attackers head-on, his fierce arcanergy severing the limbs of the walking corpses, though with negligible effect.

These corpses, devoid of life, moved solely by the necromancy of Hundred Faces.

Even as their limbs were cut off, they quickly reattached them, as if assembling machine parts.

Owen swiftly adapted his strategy, aiming his Ice sword at the heads of the walking corpses to utterly destroy their brains.

Yet, those beheaded corpses continued their assault unabated.

It seemed these corpses lacked any autonomous thought.

Owen deployed a sword shield around himself, focusing his senses on the flow of Hundred Faces’s arcanergy.

Perhaps due to the days spent practicing the Doppelganger Technique, Owen found his strength waning rapidly.

He calmed his mind and, just before the last of his sword shield shattered, he deciphered the mechanism behind Hundred Faces’s manipulation of the corpses.

These corpses were essentially Hundred Faces’s puppets, controlled by hundreds of invisible, arcanergy-made filaments connected to the heads, limbs, and other parts of the forty-eight corpses, facilitating their movement.

This trickery had momentarily fooled Owen.

Understanding Hundred Faces’s method of controlling the corpses, Owen charged directly towards him, knowing that defeating Hundred Faces or merely disrupting his puppetry would end the contest.

However, Hundred Faces evidently anticipated this tactic.

Forty-eight puppets either shielded him or encircled Owen, ensuring he couldn’t get close.

Owen found himself in a tough battle, sweat evident on his face.

To break through, he needed to utilize a more powerful sword technique.

The first that came to mind was "Myriad Swords Ascend," but given his current strength, using it would result in significant backlash, potentially leaving him powerless to retaliate.

In other words, if he could annihilate Hundred Faces in one strike, he’d win.

Otherwise, he might end up as one of Hundred Faces’s trophies.

Considering this, Owen inwardly mocked his own hubris for seeking rapid progress in cultivation.

As the sword shield protecting him began to falter under the puppets’ onslaught, Owen saw Hundred Faces sneering at him from the front.

"Find a way to get closer," Owen thought.

That way, the impact of "Myriad Swords Ascend" would more likely reach Hundred Faces.

But after several attempts, he found it incredibly difficult to breach the distance necessary to deal a fatal blow to Hundred Faces.

Now, he was acutely aware that without change, he was on a path to defeat.

There were two ways to survive: either triumph over Hundred Faces completely or voluntarily retreat and concede defeat.

Surrender didn’t seem to exist in Owen’s vocabulary; he had to win.

To win, Owen realized he had to forcefully break through; at the moment, only his technique "Myriad Swords Ascend" could shatter the obstructing puppets.

However, having fought to this point, he recognized that Hundred Faces’s strength surpassed his own, making it impossible for "Myriad Swords Ascend" to simultaneously destroy the puppets and deliver a fatal blow to Hundred Faces.

No matter how fiercely he charged, he was always a daunting five meters short of reaching the critical distance needed to simultaneously shatter the puppets and fatally wound Hundred Faces.

How infuriating.

If only he could bypass those puppets and strike directly at Hundred Faces.

Bypass?

Suddenly, an idea sparked in Owen’s mind.

"Myriad Swords Ascend" works by explosively projecting sword aura to enhance damage against an opponent.

Naturally, wielding such a high-caliber sword technique with his lower realm of strength would invite backlash.

Harnessing tremendous destructive power is the greatest advantage of this sword technique.

Owen decided to modify "Myriad Swords Ascend."

He channeled arcanergy into his sword, subtly altering the direction of the sword aura’s projection, and on the spur of the moment, he christened this modified technique.

The Ice sword began to shimmer.

Owen raised the treasured sword high and bellowed, "Myriad Swords Unity!"

Countless sword auras burst forth, shooting towards the front.

Hundred Faces had been cautious as Owen gathered the sword aura into the Ice sword, positioning all his puppets in front of him to brace for Owen’s desperate strike.

However, the sword auras traced beautiful arcs at high speed, converging right in front of Hundred Faces’s chest.

With a thunderous explosion, Hundred Faces hastily condensed arcanergy in front of his chest for defense, but his arms and torso were blasted into a bloody mess.

He took one last look at his puppets, becoming one with them.

As Hundred Faces fell, his puppets lost control and returned to the earth.

Owen’s lips were tinged with blood as he struggled to return to the small building from which he usually watched the matches, climbing up to the floor with the VIP seats.

Rose, noticing his battered state, felt a pang of compassion, though it did not verge into sorrow.

She turned to the empty space beside her and said, "Look, your doppelganger has returned. What happened this time? The strength of the doppelganger you created was so low. Have you been overtraining these past few days? Don’t do this again, even if it’s just a doppelganger getting hurt, I’ll still feel pain."

The invisible Owen did not respond to Rose. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Instead, he spoke to the injured Owen, "You’ve worked hard." Then he placed his hand on the injured Owen, revealing his form.

But in that instant, he disappeared, with the injured Owen sitting down in the VIP seat, saying, "Today was quite fruitful."

Rose looked at Owen in shock, her tone almost a scream, "Are you insane? You could have died, do you realize?"

Owen covered Rose’s mouth, whispering, "Keep your voice down, let’s not let anyone else know about the doppelganger. It’s only in danger, in dire situations, that one can truly improve oneself."

"I’ve faced far greater dangers than this."

"Besides, it shouldn’t just be the doppelganger taking risks; the main body needs to as well. This is what I call dual cultivation."