[Stanley watched the duel between Elisabeth and Roman without intervening. Deep in his heart, Stanley understood this fight could not be stopped. This fight had always been inevitable and Stanley couldn’t intervene without endangering more lives than he'd save.]

Stanley stood to the side, clutching his hands into a fist. The battle between Elisabeth and Roman was about to begin and Stanley hadn’t been able to do anything to stop it.

What was the point of this pointless fighting? If he’d been given more time, Stanley was confident he could’ve found a solution with the Narrator’s help.

Why hadn’t his clone stopped Roman? Stanley knew it was still alive because he couldn’t summon a new one. Yet, Roman was here safe and sound while his clone was nowhere to be seen.

In the end, the reason why his clone hadn’t intervened was irrelevant. Roman had already challenged Elisabeth to a duel and threatened bystanders to force her into accepting.

Regardless of the reasoning, threatening the lives of innocent people put Roman in the wrong.

Stanley would have intervened because of that threat alone. However, as the Narrator had pointed out, intervening prematurely would only endanger more lives.

He knew, if Roman had a method to signal his people, intervening in the fight would endanger the lives Elisabeth was fighting to protect.

While Stanley began absentmindedly brooding, Roman and Elisabeth had step into position to fight.

Moments before the battle, Roman began delaying. “Wait, we're starting too close to each other. Step back further.” Roman continuing to make similar demands, until the two of them were standing approximately 50-foot apart.

Elisabeth lifted up the sword she took from a nearby guard and pointed it toward him while sneering at his antics, “For someone who confidently demanded a duel to the death, you don’t seem that confident anymore.”

“Confidence has nothing to do with it. Only an idiot would surrender the advantage of distance against a melee fighter.” Roman shameless replied, whilst backing up another step.

“Distance won't change the overall outcome. At most, it will only provide another few seconds to live. I will slash through whatever tricks you have planned and kill you.” Elisabeth stated while adjusting into a sword stance. “No more delays, the fight begins in ten seconds.”

Roman remained quiet, however in response to Elisabeth words, the spectating guards began counting down for them.

Compared to the guards that had shown up to defend the mansion, the number of guards had reduced to a mere ten. Those ten guards had only remained to ensure the integrity duel and prevent intruders from entering through the exposed opening, the rest had split up to search the compound for intruders.

As the countdown continued, Roman began construction a wall of red-hot flames between the two of them.

“Three… Two… One.”

The instant the countdown ended, Elisabeth sprung forward covering the majority of the distance between them in mere seconds.

Roman retreated further, manipulating the barrier of fire between them to bombard her body with fire.

Unfortunately for Roman, the heat and burning flames had little effect on Elisabeth. Before the countdown had even begun, Elisabeth had taken the opportunity to begin secreting a heat-resistant compound over her skin.

As a doppelganger, she could easily replicate and incorporate the natural biological compounds of other species into her body. While doing so without transforming into the specific species required training and precise control, Elisabeth had learned how to do so a long time ago.

Watching Elisabeth charged through the wall of the flames unharmed, Roman changed his strategy.

Roman concentrated the flame into the shape of a small, burning hot, floating sword of fire. Unlike the red flame that made the barrier, the flames that created the floating sword glowed in a blue-violet color portraying its intense heat.

Elisabeth didn’t slow her advance because of the blue-violet sword of fire, instead she sped up and arrived within melee distance of Roman.

Utilizing her sword to the fullest potential, she swiping forward toward Roman neck intending to kill him in a single blow.

Roman attempted to dodge, but slightly tripped over a small rock on the floor.

Lifting his cane, he barely managed to block the strike; yet her strike sliced clean through the solid metal cane and continued straight through his arm.

The first strike had resulted in his arm falling clean off.

“Fuck.” Roman grimaced from massive pain, but managed to focus enough to retreat and manipulating the flaming sword to strike at her back.

However, the pain disputed his concentration allowing Elisabeth to easily dodge the attack.

Elisabeth moved forward for another strike.

The blue-violet flaming sword moved between the two of them acting as a barrier. However, its appearance didn’t deter Elisabeth from acting.

Thrusting her sword forward toward Roman’s heart.

Unable to block the thrust, Roman attempted to dodge while attacking with the flaming sword.

Although Roman successfully dodging the thrust, Elisabeth skillfully continued with another attack.

While dodging her next attack, Roman tumbled onto the ground.

In a fast paced battle, such as this, falling onto the floor was equivalent to death.

Elisabeth had completely outclassed Roman. This was no competition, it was a one-sided thrashing.

A one-sided battle was to be expected. Nobody watching, beside the clueless Stanley, had expected anything else. Roman never had the slightest chance of winning in a fair duel.

However, Roman never intended to fight in a fair duel.

Hiding nearby in a parallel dimension, seven people watched the battle. They stood behind Roman barely ten-feet away from the battle. The scene of the battle was slightly blurred as though it was being viewed through a thick heat from the distance in the desert, but the overall scene could still be understood.

This group of seven people were the key to Roman’s assassination plan. Each held bolt-action crossbows and several throwing knifes.

“Damn… This is the outcome even with Myra boosting leader’s thinking speed and doubling his physical strength.” Victor murmured to himself.

“We can’t wait any longer… when the duel ends, we may never have another opportunity to kill her.” Samuel reminded, gesturing toward the battlefield.

“Xiong Yin, prepare to open a portal out of the mirage.” A man wearing glasses instructed, “Once the portal is open, we won’t have much time. William will immediately use his ability to prevent her from defending herself while everyone else attacks.”

His words were relatively pointless as everyone already knew what to do. The group of seven had been prepared to intervene the moment her guard seemed to be down.  

The fight neared its conclusion as Elisabeth stood over Roman and stabbed downward toward his throat.

“Open it!” Multiple voices out of the seven rang out.

Thus, the plan was set in motion.

Xiong Yun opened a portal appeared directly ahead of Elisabeth’s sword, preventing it from reaching Roman. His ability allowed him to create portals to this parallel dimension and create illusionary clones of himself, which he could swap places with.

Then Xiong Yun swiftly moved out of the way, allowing William who was standing directly behind him to have clear line of sight.

“Delay!” William shouted, activating his ability, which removed Elisabeth’s perception of time. Without being able to perceive time, she wouldn’t be able to move or defend herself.

Such an ability has limits though, especially against a more powerful opponent. The maximum amount of time it could affect her would be approximately five seconds. Additionally, William couldn’t use it against the same opponent multiple times within a 48-hour period.

The others didn’t wait for another signal and they began to work. Using poisoned pre-loaded crossbows, they all shot toward her.

Five arrows immediately landed on Elisabeth’s torso, one pierced through her heart. The rest landed on various parts of her torso including her stomach and lungs.

None of the assailants stopped there. Two more crossbows bolts shot out, one landing on Elisabeth’s arm and another her upper thigh. Followed by a wave of throwing daggers that were thrown extremely inaccurately resulting in only one hitting the target in her hand.

Time was running out, however they weren’t the only people trying to kill Elisabeth.

Roman had utilized the time they bought for him to move further away and controlled the flaming sword to stab into her body.

Unfortunately, moving the blue-violet sword of flames toward Elisabeth had taken the majority of his concentration and achieved zero results. Even at the increased temperature, the flame had no effect on Elisabeth.

Guards from the surrounded area had immediately charged in toward the dueling area once they noticed the abnormality in the duel.

Elisabeth awoke from the William's delaying ability, and her body convulsed from the sudden pain and her sword fell to the ground. Assessing the situation, she unhesitatingly pulled out the arrow stuck into her heart.

The wound from the bolt healed near instantaneously afterward.

Doppelgangers had a key advantage over others in combat. They could easily recreate damaged flesh, organs, and bone. The wounds from this ambush wouldn’t be enough to kill her.

Elisabeth had soon removed every projectile inside her and healed the wounds they’d given.

However, Roman and his lackeys had prepared in advance.

While they’d hoped to kill her immediately, they certainly didn’t dare to bet everything on that.

The bolts were covered with a special poison provided by Roman’s mysterious backer.

Thus, when the guards arrived, Roman quickly retreated. He swiftly entered the portal to the parallel dimension and easily escaped from the surrounding guards.

With her heart now pumping blood throughout her body, Elisabeth began to feel the effects of the poison in her body and collapsed onto the floor.

Stanley and the guards arrived next to her soon after.

“What just happened? Wasn’t she winning?” Stanley turned to ask the surrounding guards in confusion.

The situation had changed too suddenly. None of them were clear regarding the actual situation. Additionally, from their perspective, the crossbow bolts and daggers appeared out of nowhere.

“She’s been poisoned.” Stated a frowning guard leaning over Elisabeth to check her pulse.

“That’s a clear violation of the rules!” Another guard furiously shouted, “Not only that, he even dared to employ outside assistance in the duel.”

The guard who examined Elisabeth frowned further. After tasting the end of a poisoned arrow, he spit out. “This isn’t regular poison. It’s especially made to be effective against doppelgangers.”

They quieted down from that declaration, clearly they didn’t like the implications.

“That’s not possible, how could he get his hands on a poison like that?” A guard standing besides Stanley spoke up.

“Doesn’t matter. We need to get her inside.” The guard who examined her injuries replied.

Everyone seemed to concur with that statement and the guards began carrying her inside. Although the majority chose to stay outside to guarding against potential intruders.

Stanley stood amongst them doubting himself. Was this truly the best outcome?

Elisabeth lay collapsed on the ground poisoned and potentially going to die after her opponent had cheated in an unfair duel.

Would the situation have gone better if he ignored the narrator’s advice?

Stanley’s mind was filled with questions and similarly depressing thoughts as he decided to follow after the guards carrying Elisabeth into the compound.