176 Identity (2/2)

I nodded, and without another word, I launched myself forward with my falchion raised high in one hand.

Fake Luca didn't move. He waited for me to get in range and then blocked my downward swing with a cross block using both his shadowblades.

\”Are you really going to hurt me, Dean?\” Luca asked in his normal voice, the one filled with worry.

Then the creepy smile was back, and with it was that hollow clown laugh, \”Ha-ha-ha-ha!\”

At the end of the laughter though, I detected the exhaling of a deep breath, the kind a practitioner used right before launching an attack.

If that little hint wasn't enough, Fool's Insight revealed the minuscule movements his body made in the moments right before his attack came, allowing me to predict the future a second or five ahead.

I pulled back just in time as his kris dagger came sliding into the space where my stomach was only a second ago. Then I feinted pushing forward but pulled back just as his kris sword came crashing down the space where my head was a moment earlier, leaving him slightly off balance.

In that gap between his last attack and his next one, I managed to charge in, shoulder first. I shoved fake Luca back with my right shoulder and then swung my sword arm forward in a rising arc that would have impressed a golf pro.

Swing and swish. My sword's shadowblade went up, cutting into the scale mail armor I'd spent hard-earned money gifting Luca just a few weeks ago. Man, this bastard imposter was going to pay.

Unexpectedly, fake Luca didn't pull away as far as I thought he would so he did take more damage than I predicted, but that meant he was close enough to counter which is why I felt a stinging sensation pierce my side.

My eyes caught his left arm's movement in the last second which is how I managed to twist to the left and avoid the dagger plunging straight into me.

Following the motion of my shoulders, I went a full hundred-and-eighty degree turn and sent my falchion snaking into fake Luca's side.

He stepped back to avoid it. I stepped forward in response.

Then, with a twist of my wrist, I sent that sideward slash hurtling in the other direction.

I felt my falchion connect a second time with fake Luca's body and smelled the iron scent of blood as it leaked out of the second cut I'd given him.

Wouldn't you know it; the fake bastard was willing to take that hit just to catch me unaware from above. His sword-arm came crashing down on my shoulder and it would have been a deathblow if Fool's Insight hadn't warned me in time.

My sense gift really was a cheat, and I could understand why guys like Chris Pint and Rita the Inquisitor were held in such high regard. If a noob sense knight like me could walk away from critical attacks like I just did, then the sense knights who'd been at it longer could probably have dodged it all together without getting hurt.

Unfortunately, I wasn't at their level yet, and so I did feel the cut that bit deep into my shoulder.

\”Argh! Muddamit!\” I roared in pain.

Then I pulled away just as he launched an attack with his dagger.

One step, two steps, and then a third long step out of his reach. After making sure there was a good enough distance between us, I inspected my two wounds.

The one on my right side was a shallow stab that barely scratched me but the second one cut deep into my left shoulder. Not only did it hurt to high heaven but it also made my left hand all but useless.

\”Sh**, you're good,\” I admitted to fake Luca. \”But you're not Luca-good.\”

\”Dean… why do you keep insisting I'm not who I'm supposed to be?\” Luca asked with a curious expression on his face.

It was honestly annoying to see. He had two larger wounds than me with blood pouring out of the deep cuts I gouged into him but the dude didn't even look like he was in pain.

\”For one thing, Luca would be screaming curses at me right now for taking a sparring session into this kind of dangerous fight,\” I reasoned.

\”F**k you, Dean! You hurt me!\” fake Luca yelled in obvious mimicry of what I'd just said.

It was that grotesque smile again, and the sight of it was really grating on my nerves.

\”And if you were Luca, I'd have been beaten by now,\” I added. \”Or didn't you know that I've never won a serious fight against him in all the years we've trained together.\”

That was a fact that I mentioned much, much earlier in the story, I believe. And it was still true to this day. Even with Fool's Insight, I still couldn't beat my little brother in a sparring match.

\”I know that, Dean,\” Luca grinned that malicious grin. \”But this isn't just a regular spar. It's a battle to the death.\”

\”Wipe that smile off my brother's face, bastard!\” I growled.

\”You're losing your calm, Dean,\” fake Luca responded. \”Didn't dad tell you never to lose your calm in a fight?\”

\”My dad also told me to kick the butt of anyone who hurts my family,\” I countered. \”So how about we put our cards on the table, hashashin…\”

I wasn't sure it would affect him, but the sudden change in expression, the raising of an eyebrow and slight frown that appeared on his face, that was just more proof that fake Luca wasn't Luca.

\”You think I'm the hashashin?\” Luca asked, tilting his head as he did.

\”A master of disguise and able to blend in any scenario,\” I enumerated. \”Isn't that how you guys are?\”

He failed to respond.

At the corner of my eye, I saw Aurana leaning over Edo, whispering arcane words I couldn't quite hear. Ashley stood in front of her, ready to defend the princess if it came to it.

I turned my focus back on fake Luca who was kind enough to wait for me, and said, \”I assume the real Luca is still in the infirmary where I left him…\”

My brow furrowed heavily.

\”He was knocked out from all the healing… doc said that someone did a number on him… signs of a mental attack as well as a physical one…\” I explained as rationally as I could. \”I should have known you were an imposter the moment you showed up at the tower looking all better… but you acted exactly like him and you even have his memories… Honestly, I'm impressed.\”

Finally, instead of continuing to lie in my face, fake Luca acknowledged my deductions with a slight bow of his head.

\”Yes, I am the hashashin,\” he admitted in a deep voice that didn't belong to my brother. \”And your brother lives because he was not the one I came to kill.\”

He raised his sword and pointed it at me which was right around the time where I began to feel the numbness affecting my shoulder spread out to the rest of my body. I stumbled in place, my vision swimming suddenly.

That's when I remembered what happened to Edo, and I sighed, \”Poison...\”

\”You are not on my list,\” he said matter-of-factly. \”But if you do not step aside now and allow me to fulfill my contract then your death will be excruciatingly painful… that is my promise.\”