Ragnar's breath hung in the cold night air as he turned, his muscles coiled, his instincts screaming. The forest behind him exhaled a whisper of wind through its brittle branches. A shape emerged from the branches, slow and deliberate. As it came into view Ragnar caught its face. His face. Ragnar felt the blood drain from his fingertips. It was like looking into a tarnished mirror with his own sharp gaze staring back at him. His cloak shifting in the breeze, his axe glinting like a shard of ice in the moonlight. But there was something wrong.
This thing wore his skin like a mockery.
The creature stepped forward, its lips curling into a smile that Ragnar had never worn, its stance too precise, too calculated. Like a hunter who had already cornered its prey.
"You look surprised" it said, voice carrying the same rough timbre as Ragnar's but with something else, something sinister, more hollow.
Ragnar's grip tightened on his axe, he had already killed three of these abominations each one more tenacious than the last. But there was something different about this one, instead of joining in on the fight it had waited for all of the others to die, it had been watching.
"Thanks to that little show you put on I believe I am fit to take your place" The creature grabbed an axe from their back, they still wore an eerie smile, like the one Ragnar first saw when he arrived here. There was a moment of silence, the wind swayed hanging lanterns on the porch of the house, the light passed over this imposters face. He didn't blink, you could stare past his eyes and see… nothing, just a blank, dark abyss. And then in the next moment these two fighters hurdled towards each other swinging their axes together, no sparks flew, Ragnar's axe plummeted into the monsters blade, for it was not made of steel like Ragnar's but of flesh and bone. It pulled away allowing it's weapon to regenerate itself, bones sprouted from the handle wrapping around the blade of the axe reinforcing it. It swung down on Ragnar, he had to back away to not get cut in half. They continued to swing at each others weapons seeing which would break first, steel verses flesh and bone, a sharp, splintering crack as the metal shredded through the bone, a harsh, scrapping sound as the bone scratched against the steel axe. After a relentless onslaught of swings Ragnar's axe had been scarred with blood and fragments of bone, while the beasts axe pulsated with need for battle, as marks left on its weapon faded and were replenished Ragnar's spirit began to drop. This thing had been watching him and was now mimicking his strength and fighting style. Only it could recover much faster. As Ragnar tried to catch his breath, the beast lunged at him and swung down on him, it was blocked by Ragnar's handle but his weapon was not left unscathed, it had been separated into two. Ragnar discarded his weapon on the floor and looked up at the monster.
"You should give up now, you can't defeat me when I have seen you fight with your axe" It started to laugh at him, mocking his weakness and fragility.
Ragnar's stern resolve remained strong as while his hope was depleted it was not gone. Staring back at the monster he raised his fists. The monsters laughing abruptly stopped and he stared directly at Ragnar, it began to absorb it's weapon into it's body until it was only Ragnar and his copy.
"I don't know what you are but its not smart." The creature also raised it's fists, bone came forth from its hands and it wrapped around its fists creating a gauntlet of solid bone, it smashed its fists together and motioned Ragnar to fight.
Ragnar had given up his weapon as he knew that the monster hadn't seen him fight with his fists. He knows that he can't win against against himself, he knew that it would be a fairer fight now. He would need to kill it now before it can start to copy him. There was one more breath from Ragnar letting him gain a final piece of composure.
The next moment he began to charge forward, his fists guarding his face. The creature threw a wide swing as Ragnar rushed in, he crouched as it flew by his shoulder. From the ground he rotated his hip and threw an uppercut straight to its jaw. It fell back trying to mimic Ragnar's previous guard but as he lifted its head up to look at Ragnar it saw him dashing in, Ragnar stayed low and continued to shoot hooks into the beasts sides, if their anatomy was similar to humans he should be hitting the kidneys each blow. Ragnar's fists did not hurt after each punch as he was not hitting what looked like armour, at the end of the day it was a mimicry of armour made of morphed flesh. Strike after strike Ragnar did not cease, the form the creature took of Ragnar began to falter, after one more strike features began to change, his hair began to disappear, his skin fell off and seemed to melt. It couldn't react, how could someone this big move so fast, it couldn't adapt, couldn't mimic anything. It tried to throw a jab at Ragnar but instead he spun with the blow and grabbed a hold of its arm, he lifted the beast off the ground by his arm and flipped him on the ground. Now it was his chance, he straddled the creature and began smashing his elbows into it's skull. Black ichor spewed out after each blow. It began to shift flesh crawling out of its skin trying to latch onto Ragnar and infect him, however every time it tried its tendrils would retract almost instantly as Ragnar's elbow plummeted into its head. It couldn't change shape anymore, it was just struggling to stick to this simple form. Ragnar let out grunts of struggle after each hit, why wont this thing die? He was so tired, he hadn't prepared for this mission at all, he has never though monsters before how unlucky must he be for this to be his first mission, couldn't he have just fought some goblins or something? He was no longer elbowing the thing, he had started to smash his fists into its face fully winding up before bringing them down on it. He was unrelenting, his hand ached, his wounds ached, everything ached. It was too much, it just wouldn't die. Ragnar fell to the side, gasping for air, he tried to roll away and get on his feet but he couldn't. The beast next to him could get up and finish him off right now.
But it didn't.
When Ragnar gained some of his breath back he sat up only to see a mix of his face and the things original form splattered across the field. A huge divot was left where there should be a face. Ragnar had just pummelled its face into mush which was now scattered on his fists and the grass.
When Ragnar finally stood up and brushed himself off he now felt a sense of accomplishment. He picked up his great axe now split in two, he would repair it later but for now he strapped the pieces to his back as to not lose them. A young cry erupted from the barn, it was shrill and scared. Ragnar turned and began running to the barn, could it be any of the family, the cry was humanoid after all. As he turned into the rotten barn he did not see a human child, instead he saw piles upon piles of brown-black egg sacks. They were spread all throughout the barn, hidden all within the haystack. The cry came from a little creature that had burst out of one of the sacks, it was covered in amniotic fluid. As it lay on the ground crying out to its mother its form began to change uncontrollably, this was one of their children. If these all hatched they could probably take over all of Galdor and the towns near it. There must have been hundreds and they were all about to hatch soon. He knew he had to do something to stop this. He looked at the child flailing around in front of him and put together a plan. He grabbed as many lit lanterns from the house as he could and took them over to the barn. He threw them all onto the stacks of hay before him.
It all burst into flames, it climbed through the barn destroying everything in sight, eggs affected by it burst, killing everything inside it, old supporting beams fell from the roof crushing the burning pile of hay and spreading the fire even more.
As he watched it burn he collected proof from the destroyed remains of all of the creatures and began to head back to the hunters guild throughout the night. As he walked away from the scorching barn he heard shrieks coming from some of the monsters that had been born at the wrong time. Would they have been as evil as their predecessors? There was no way to find out. As the forest drew closer the clearing now far behind him Ragnars knees began to falter and he collapsed to the ground, completely exhausted.