Villain Origin : Every Crime I Commit Helps Me Level Up-Chapter 35: Moonlit Duel 2

"Impressive approach," Victor said, his voice reverberating from multiple directions at once. "But ultimately predictable."

André’s eyes darted between the multiple Victors, each one perfectly mirroring the original’s posture and expression. His instincts couldn’t distinguish which was real—they all registered as threats.

"Fuck," André muttered under his breath, shifting his stance to defend from all angles. The silver wounds across his body pulsed with cold fire, slowing his movements slightly.

The Victor directly in front of him tilted his head. "Confused? Don’t be. I am everywhere the moonlight touches." As he spoke, the clones began to spread out, surrounding André in a perfect circle. Each raised their hands in unison, moonlight gathering between their palms.

André’s Keen Instincts flared with warning—danger from every direction. He tensed, muscles coiling to spring, but there was nowhere to go. The warehouse floor around him was bathed in criss-crossing beams of moonlight, forming a net of silver that would allow no escape.

"The difference between us," all the Victors spoke in unison, their voices layering into a haunting chorus, "is that I understand what it means to be a vessel. You’re merely playing at power."

André’s jaw clenched. "Spare me the lecture," he growled, eyes frantically scanning for any tell—any slight difference that would reveal the real Victor.

"Very well."

The circle of Victors closed their hands simultaneously, and the warehouse exploded into blinding light. Dozens of moonlight blades materialized in the air, surrounding André in a sphere of deadly silver edges. They hung suspended for a terrible moment before converging on him from all directions.

André’s Keen Instincts went into overdrive. Time seemed to slow as his perception heightened, the trajectory of each blade becoming visible to him as lines of intent. He twisted his body into the narrowest possible profile, his supernatural awareness allowing him to find the minuscule gaps between the converging blades.

Three slipped past his defense, opening fresh wounds across his chest, shoulder, and thigh. The silver light spilled from the cuts, more intense than before, sending waves of unnatural cold through his body.

[SYSTEM ALERT]

> HP: 76/130

> Warning: Lunar Damage – Reduces Healing Rate by 20%

> Caution: Multiple wounds detected – Movement impaired by 10%

Andre stumbled as he landed, one knee hitting the concrete floor. His breath came in ragged gasps, body still processing the shock of the attack. The circle of Victors watched him with identical expressions of clinical interest.

"Still standing," one of the Victors noted, genuine surprise in his voice. "Most vessels would be dead by now."

André forced himself back to his feet, ignoring the burning cold radiating from his wounds. "I’m not most vessels," he snarled, eyes darting between the identical figures.

Victor—all of them—smiled. "No. You’re not. Which makes this..." The circle of clones began to move, circling André like predators, "...educational."

Without warning, two of the Victors on opposite sides launched forward simultaneously. André pivoted, Keen Instincts telling him both were threats, but he couldn’t face both directions at once. He chose the one to his right, bracing for impact.

His fist passed through empty air as the clone dissolved into silver mist. Before he could recover, a blast of concentrated moonlight struck him from behind, sending him sprawling across the warehouse floor.

André rolled with the impact, coming back to his feet with practiced efficiency despite the pain lancing through his body. Blood and silver light mingled on the concrete where he’d fallen.

"Pathetic," the Victors said in unison.

André wiped blood from his mouth, his eyes hardening. "You talk too much."

The circle of Victors began to rotate faster, their forms blurring together in a ring of silver and shadow. Moonlight streaked between them in complex patterns, forming what looked like a web of light with André at its center. Each strand of light hummed with deadly potential.

"What you fail to understand," Victor’s voice seemed to come from everywhere at once now, "is that you’re fighting in my domain. Night. Darkness. The moon’s light. They’re all extensions of me."

The web of light constricted suddenly, the strands lashing inward like whips. André dodged the first three with fluid movements, his body responding to his instincts automatically. But there were too many, coming from every angle. One caught his arm, searing through his jacket and into the flesh beneath. Another wrapped around his ankle, burning through the material of his pants.

André gritted his teeth against the pain, fighting to maintain his balance as the light whips tried to pull him in different directions. With a surge of desperate strength, he twisted free of their grasp, leaving strips of burned cloth and skin behind.

[SYSTEM ALERT]

> HP: 65/130

> Warning: Sustained Lunar Damage – Healing Rate reduced by 25%

> Caution: Burn Wounds Detected – Movement impaired by 15%

"I think it’s time we ended this little demonstration," the Victors announced, their voices becoming more synchronized again. "You’ve proven more resilient than expected, but the outcome was never in doubt."

André’s mind raced, searching for a strategy. Victor was clearly keeping his distance, relying on his ranged attacks and illusions. Direct confrontation had failed, and the wounds were taking their toll. He needed a different approach.

The glowing orb above the circle pulsed brighter, and André noticed the buildup of power. Victor was preparing something big—likely his final attack.

"Your moonlight tricks don’t impress me," André called out, deliberately provoking. "All this fancy light show, and you still can’t finish the job." He needed to buy time, to think of something, anything.

The Victors smiled in unison, unperturbed. "Brave words for someone bleeding out on the floor."

André allowed himself a cold smile. "Not bleeding as much as you’d like, though, am I?"

The orb of moonlight expanded, its surface rippling like liquid silver. Small crescent blades began to rain down from it, forcing André to move constantly, weaving between the projectiles with increasingly desperate maneuvers. His wounds protested with each movement, but his Keen Instincts kept him one step ahead of certain death.

As he moved, André began to formulate a plan. He couldn’t match Victor’s ranged attacks or overcome the illusions through force. But perhaps there was another way.

The circle of Victors began to constrict, closing in while maintaining their distance. The rain of crescent blades intensified, forcing André into an ever-smaller area of the warehouse floor. The trap was obvious—soon he’d have nowhere left to dodge.

’Karmic Authority,’ the thought came suddenly to André. The ability was still new, untested in actual combat. ’But would it even work on someone like Victor?’ The man was clearly powerful, his mind fortified by decades of rigorous lunar cultivation. It wasn’t like trying to intimidate some street thug or extract information from a nervous informant.

Yet as the circle tightened and his options dwindled, André realized he had little choice. If he couldn’t tell which Victor was real, he’d never land a meaningful hit.

’Worth a shot,’ he decided grimly.

With a burst of speed that surprised even himself, André lunged toward one of the clones, appearing to attack head-on. The clone responded by launching a volley of moonlight blades. André twisted mid-air, letting the blades pass within inches of his body, then grabbed one of the hanging chains and used his momentum to swing toward the ceiling.

The circle of Victors tracked his movement, hands raised to direct more attacks upward. Moonlight streaked toward André as he reached the apex of his swing, forcing him to release the chain and grab onto a ceiling beam.

"Running away?" the Victors called out in unison. "There’s nowhere to hide from moonlight."

André pulled himself onto the beam, momentarily out of the direct line of fire. Blood and silver light dripped from his wounds, spattering on the concrete below. His breathing was ragged, muscles screaming in protest.

"Who’s running?" André called back. "I’m just getting a better view."

The orb of moonlight above the circle pulsed again, growing larger. The warehouse temperature dropped further, André’s breath visible now in the frigid air. The shadows cast by the moonlight twisted and contorted, forming shapes that resembled reaching hands and grasping claws.

"Enough games," the Victors said together, their voices perfectly synchronized. "My patience grows thin."

The orb expanded suddenly, its light intensifying to near-blinding levels. The circle of Victors raised their hands in unison, directing the gathered energy.

André’s Keen Instincts screamed a warning more intense than any he’d felt before. Whatever was coming would be devastatingly powerful. He had seconds at most to act.

’Now or never,’ André thought, focusing inward to the well of power he’d barely tapped into before. ’Even if it doesn’t fully work, any edge might be enough.’

With a silent prayer to whatever might be listening, André activated his Karmic Authority. Energy surged through him, different from the physical power of his Vessel’s Strike. This was subtler, a ripple in reality itself that extended outward from his consciousness.

[SYSTEM ALERT]

> EP: 50/110

> Karmic Authority Activated

> Target: Multiple (Circle of Victors)

> Warning: Target Resistance High - Effect May Be Limited

"Victor," André spoke, his voice carrying a resonance that hadn’t been there before. The word seemed to hang in the air, vibrating with unseen power. "Show yourself."

The compulsion washed over the circle of Victors like a wave. For a moment, nothing happened, and André felt a sinking feeling in his gut. As he had feared, Victor’s mastery of moonlight energy made his mind nearly impervious to such influence.

But then André noticed something—not with his eyes, but with a new sense that seemed to have awakened within him. The compulsion hadn’t failed completely. It had created... ripples. Like stones dropped in still water, each Victor produced a different pattern in response to the Karmic Authority.

Most of the ripples were shallow, empty—reflections of a reflection. But one of them, positioned at the far side of the circle, produced deeper waves, a more substantial disturbance in the fabric of reality. That disturbance carried a signature—a presence that the illusions couldn’t perfectly mimic.

For a fraction of a second, André could perceive the subtle threads connecting the illusions to their creator—like silver strings of moonlight, all emanating from a single source. Victor hadn’t noticed the effect of the Karmic Authority—the moment of vulnerability had been too brief, too subtle against the backdrop of his power. But it had been enough.

André’s lips curved into a cold smile. ’Found you.’

Below, the circle of Victors completed their gesture, directing the full force of the condensed moonlight. A orb collapsed in on itself, then exploded outward in a wave of devastating energy—Victor’s Lunar Surge.