A/N: Before the chapter- just wanted to show off the really cool art of Seric that copyrightmaster made! You can also check him out at @Writer_Shane on Twitter, he even has his own series called Super Society (which takes inspiration from Re Zero for example) that you can check out here on Wattpad or on Webtoon!

Last chapter, the perspective changed to an Officer of the Hopian Army named Jess- who used to be an old friend of Karia's. She was in the middle of teaching her class of conscripts after some talking with her brother Hugo- but got interrupted by an Officer who barged into her class, and told her that there'd been a breach in the outer gates of the facility. The worse case scenario came to be however as Jess discovered it was Quilline, Amandeath, and King Metallica who had broken through their defenses. 

Knowing she would be unable to take the trio down by herself, Jess retreated through the use of her Blessing "Duplicate Me" which allows her to create intangible clones and swap places with one of them at a time. After being able to retreat back to her class, she instructed her students to exit from the other door that's on the other side of the room- and to get to the cafeteria that could be accessed through the halls the students were to retreat to.

Once inside the cafeteria, Jess and her Officer friend Fentriz ordered the other soldiers and sergeants gathered there to use some of the benches inside to block off the front entrance. But Jess suggested that they also bring some benches to the back of the cafeteria, to hide behind to avoid getting teleported by Quilline once the trio inevitably break in. With the automatic backdoors to the cafeteria being locked shut by Elio, the army members had no choice but to hunker down inside and stall for time for help to arrive.

Jess' P.O.V.

I can hear slamming on the cafeteria entrance doors, as the soldiers and sergeants are moving the remaining benches towards the back of this large circle-shaped room of doom. They're stacking them up on each other too, didn't think of that but it's smart to keep everyone out of sight.

I wince as I can hear an explosion- and see the benches and tables that are blocking the front door to the caf slide forwards.

"Barricades are failing- hurry up and get behind cover everyone!" I call out as I jog backwards while making sure I don't run into anything by turning my head and glancing backwards every now and then.

Thankfully the other benches and tables not by the door are all flipped on their sides now, and set up as a wide and tall line of cover. Everyone seems to be hidden behind it- except for Fentriz who runs out from the corner of our makeshift "wall".

"Jess! Me and you are the only officers in here, like I said the backdoors leading to the other half of the school are locked shut- that fucking hacker did it probably. My Blessing is meant for long range, so you're the only one who can survive out in the open! Just like we practiced- I'll try to screw up their balance from behind cover whenever you call my name!" Fentriz shouts to me- damn it... no, I knew this was coming though.

"Yeah- yeah alright! If any of us survive this, tell my family I love them!" I shout as my legs start to shake- Fentriz gives me a salute and heads back behind our wall of benches... another explosion sounds from the front door which makes a table we had there get sent sliding right in front of my feet.  A few benches flat out break into pieces and get a bit of airtime as well...

"Think- if we want any chance at surviving this we need everything at our disposal. No nades or bombs- but we have laser and standard rifles, my and Fen's Blessings, and right my uniform is partially bullet proof. Anything else? ...Oh. Right- my knife..." I think to myself as I look down at my hip- and see that the black holster for my tiny blade is in fact there like always. With my Blessing it can be instant kill, which is why I have it on me for emergencies but... I really don't like killing, even if I'm against a monster, so I almost never use it. Whenever I need to shoot my gun, I always made sure to go for non-vital shots that microbots can heal.

But today might change that. 

Though, I'm gonna focus on something more positive for the time being. On that note I shout,

"Everyone- listen up! I'll stick to the right side of the room, so everyone on the left side of our bench "wall"- do NOT peak out of your cover no matter what! But! Be sure to peak your guns over the cover we made and constantly fire. It doesn't matter if you can't see what you're shooting at! Don't worry about hitting me accidentally- I can take some bullets and lasers!"

"Fuck that idiot, you'll die!" Hugo tries to be an annoying protective brother one last time-

*BOOM!*

Before I can reply a massive explosion sounds which literally sends the remaining barricades blocking the entrance through the air in pieces. Shit- something cut my face, no time to complain though.

I use my Blessing to create 30 clones of myself who are all running across the right side of the room with me- and aiming their guns at the three monsters who just walked inside through the smoke and dust of the explosion. Then finally a second later a massive barrage of gunshots and lasers is fired to the left of me, being roughly aimed at the front doors but most of the shots are missing completely.

I start firing my laser rifle at Quilline's face- most of my shots don't even hit, but the ones that do barely even faze her!

"Quilline- their aim may be miserably awful but Amandeath may get hurt, we need cover ASAP!" King Metallica ear piercingly screams while Amandeath is using his back as cover and firing at my clones.

Meanwhile Quilline is spraying a submachine gun with one hand at my clones too, and firing a shotgun to the right of herself for some reaso-

"No!" I get teleported in front of Quilline's shotgun but swap with a clone I made just as she fires- fuck she's trying to teleport me right into her shots! 

"I constantly need clones to lower her odds of teleporting the real me!" I remind myself of the obvious as I create another 15 clones, oh gods I can already feel myself getting a little tired.

No time for that- Quilline's saying something to Metallic. And right when she starts reloading her shotgun instead of talking- he slowly starts to walk forward on the right side of the room I'm on with Amandeath following right behind him.

"I can't stop them like this, my laser's can't burn through metal- they'll reach the barricades in no time!" I think to myself while running in a horizontal line just by the left side of the caf alongside my clones.

"FEN!" I scream out as loud as I can to him over the gunfire, he'd better be ready by now!

I sigh happily as I can feel a loud vibration in the ground behind me- and so I create a group of clones just in front of our wall of benches where everyone else is hiding. Then to finish my move off I swap myself with one of the clones I made- who's thankfully behind the massive smooth wave of floor tiles Fen made with his Blessing.

I cheer to myself as King Metallica and Amandeath get carried back by the huge wave- but crap. Quilline was farther back than the other two so she hasn't got hit by the wave yet. And to make things worse- she runs to the front door and walks back through it, then teleports her two allies with her before they can get crushed into the cafeteria's walls.

A bunch of my clones that were ahead of me got wiped out by the wave as well... crap. Good news though- King and Amandeath are still on the ground and recovering even after being teleported, and that encounter just taught me something.

"So King Metallica can only do things close up it looks like- Amandeath and Quilline might be the main threats then." I think to myself while creating a new group of 20 clones which makes me sick. But still I aim my gun at Amandeath who's pushing herself off of the ground, then fire at her while I run forwards and to the right. A laser pierces through her arm but it only makes her flinch- not even a cry out of pain or anything.

"She's tough." I think to myself as Amandeath only smiles and fully kicks herself up off of the ground, King Metallica takes a bit longer to stand up though.

I start to get woozy while constantly swapping with my clones and firing my gun, and at the same time King Metallica covers Amandeath again with his arms out and tanks some stray bullets and some of my lasers. They seem to be burning and denting him a little bit but it's not nearly enough...

Ok, ok then- so I fire at Quilline's head instead as she's pulling something out of the pouch that's attached to her hip. But sheesh it does nothing- right, remember Jess I can't hurt her- idiot!

I get even more disoriented though as I can see Quilline pull two balls out of her purse- shit my vision's getting really bad... King Metallica grabs both of the balls though and fiddles with them.

Whatever, no time to waste here- I start jogging backwards and fire at King's face at the same time- nice! I manage to burn one of his eyes which makes him squint, he's more vulnerable than I thought!

"Huh?" I whisper to myself as King Metallica disappears- wait no, that means he got teleported! I frantically look around the caf while I keep on moving back, and I can finally spot him standing just beside our wall of benches by the back of the cafeteria. Before I can react he throws the two balls behind the benches where everyone's taking cover, and then he disappears again. Wait- NO!

*BOOM!*

Before I can warn everyone the bombs King Metallica threw behind our backlines blow up- oh gods I just saw blood and chunks of flesh flying through the air, and no- some benches got blown over too! 

"FEN- WAVE!!!" I call out in vain as a group of the soldiers who got forced out of cover get teleported right in front of Quilline and Amandeath's gun's. They get shot down right after the fact and fall to the ground either dead or incapitated.

"No, no, NO- I can't, they're relying on me- I can't let them down!" Is all I can think to myself as I can hear a heavy pulsing in my ears.

My thoughts get interrupted and I snap back to reality as another wave finally comes way too late. I make more clones behind it and swap with one of them- normally I'd be passed out by now but thank the gods it seems like some adrenaline is kicking in.

"I'm sorry- I'm trying!" I think to myself as I watch the wave do nothing but wipe out my clones in front of me, and meanwhile the trio of monsters just run back through the front doors again to escape the attack easily.

Damn it and right when they stop running, Quilline starts to take two more bombs out of her pouch for King Metallica- she's gonna teleport him again by our backlines! What do I even do here?! No- I have to analyze the situation, come on!

"I need to distract King Metallica- how? I can hit his eyes but that didn't seem to be enough before... wait- Amandeath. He seems to care about her a lot! If I can get a good hit on her he may focus on me instead and save the others for a bit." I think to myself as I start running to the right of the room alongside some clones I just made to get a better shot at Amandeath- I finally get a good view of her as she's still behind Metallica, but just before I can fire he shifts his position slightly and blocks my view of her.

"ANOTHER BOMBING INCOMING, BRACE YOURSELVES!" I warn as King Metallica gets teleported by the other side of the wall of the benches across the caf, which forces me to spin around and change my focus from Amandeath to him.

I fire as many shots as I can at his head- but damn it, none hit his eye! He doesn't even flinch this time as I only slightly burn his face, and of course he threw the bombs as well and just got teleported back to Quilline. I look away and try to ignore the explosions and screams behind me.

"Focus- focus!" I think to myself as I glance around the room and pant- wait... my knife! I can use i-

*BANG!* 

"Bullseye!" I hear Quilline shout from right in front of me as a bit of pain hits my chest- but I don't waste any time and create 20 more clones and swap with one farther back in the caf.

I keep moving and jog backwards, but the pain in my chest forces me to look down where I can see a bunch of tears in my uniform- thank the gods for it being bulletproof but ow the force of that still hurts like a bitch!

"It's just one shotgun blast, I'll- I'll be ok!" I think to myself frantically as I create even more clones and swap with them- fuck how am I not passed out yet? I get that cybernetics are tough but the overuse of my Blessing and this shotgun blast should've knocked me out cold by now, and I think I'm almost feeling better than befor-

"AH- FEN!" I cry out on instinct and in pain as a laser tears through my shoulder- shit, I'm on the left side of the caf where our backlines are firing blindly! On that note I swap myself with a clone that's on the opposite side of the cafeteria to the right. Then I take a deep breath and create more clones near our backlines- and swap with one of them. Fen's wave doesn't come though... no, focus- he probably just didn't hear me.

"Ok so it seems like I don't really have a limit on how many clones I can make right now- thank you gods if this is a second Blessing! So I'll, right I'll make as many as possible then- and get in close to the three to get a guaranteed hit on Amandeath!"  I think to myself as the trio are running to the front doors- I guess just calling out his name was enough to spook them, good.

But that doesn't last long- they spin back around and it looks like Quilline's about to give King Metallica more bombs just past the front entrance. It's now or never!