Two snapped her head up; One stiffened and instinctively readied [Transfrogify] just in case.

  A giant frog made out of steel eyed us from its perch on top of one of the pipes. It opened its mouth and out shot a mace-like tongue.

  One dodged left. Two jumped right.

  Getting the hang of moving them separately!

  The mace tongue smashed the ground, then immediately retracted as the frog jumped down.

  Two brought out [Tricky Trail] and One used [Transfrogify] at their assailant as it landed with a thud and prepared for another leap.

  Just as expected, One turned into a frog while Two kept her normal form.

  Unfortunately, turning a frog into a frog did jack squat. The monster barely changed and made its second hop straight toward the defenseless One.

  One croaked in alarm and jumped away; Two swung [Tricky Trail] at the frog to intercept it.

  But then they stuttered again causing Two to take too long to release the skill, allowing the frog to shoot its tongue again toward her–and her projectile exploded in her face instead.

  “Gweh!”

  The blast threw her to the ground; she rolled once, twice, then smacked into a rocky wall with an ‘oof’.

  Even the frog version of One gasped in pain, despite not being the one hit.

  “Guh… No, no, no, no, no!”

  As the frog state ended and One shook off the phantom pain, he rushed over, [Tricky Trail] in hand.

  Two scrambled to get up and got out her [Healing Light]. The card turned into a stream of light that washed over her wounds. It patched up the worst of it, but not all of it.

  Luckily, the explosion had damaged the monster’s tongue, so it hopefully wouldn’t use it again for a while.

  It leaped again.

  Two ignored the pain, grabbed the wall behind her, and climbed out of reach.

  Meanwhile, One hid near a shrub behind the monster and waited for a chance. He peeked at the frog, giving Two extra vision that helped her with climbing, while she closed her eyes to try and reduce the dissonance.

  The frog turned its head back at One and he quickly ducked to hide again.

  Two in the meantime turned on the wall to look down on the frog, making One close his eyes this time.

  Having two sources of vision sure came in handy. If only it came without the headaches.

  “Come and get me, loser!” Two shouted. “Unless you’re too fat?! Huh?!”

  The beast glared back up at Two, then opened its mouth, and instead of shooting out its tongue, it spat out a fist-sized steel ball.

  “Gyah!”

  Two scuttled away to dodge it, while One forced himself not to reflexively dodge. That caused them to blank out again.

  One’s leg twitched, Two’s movements stuttered for a brief second, and by the time they realized what was happening, two was falling off the wall with a yelp.

  Their enemy used the chance to leap at her.

  “Wha– No!”

  At the same time, One sprung out of his hiding spot, pushed through the disorientation and the instinct to wince as Two crashed into the dirt, and threw a [Tricky Trail] at the frog from behind, hoping to hit it mid-air.

  It missed, flew under it, and careened straight toward Two instead.

  Two’s eyes went wide, but she too brought out her [Tricky Trail] – ready to be used again, thanks to stalling so much – and tossed it not at the mid-air frog, but at her other body’s skill.

  The two projectiles collided, merged into a giant ball of light, and then flew straight up, pinning their foe above itself, and launching itself straight up at the pipe-laden ceiling.

  It smacked a thick pipe high up at the ceiling, where it exploded, sending shards of metal flying in all directions. A moment later the pile of scrap that once used to be a frog fell back down from the pipe – that had no scratch on it – to the ground, where it burst into a cloud of dust as it fell apart into pieces.

  Both bodies froze, watching the threat in case it wasn’t dead yet – you never knew, after all. Then relaxed as a card emerged from the remains of its body, spun above it, and split like the previous one.

  Two relaxed into a heap, still hurting from both the fall and the explosion in her face, and grabbed the essence that flew to her hands. One sprinted back to her, catching his own essence card mid-run.

  ◆Crush◆

  Light blue rim and a picture of a hand pulverizing a rock in its grip.

  Another Rare. Cool.

  After quickly checking for more monsters, One crouched by the other body and scanned her as they both palmed our [Healing Light] cards. Hers was still grayed out, but it shouldn’t take too long.

  They grimaced, realizing that she had sprained her ankle in the fall.

  “Stupid frog…” Two complained.

  “Should have done the double bomb at the start.”

  “But if we missed we would have been doomed… Using [Transfrogify] on a frog was dumb, by the way.”

  “Never had to fight frogs…”

  They sighed.

  “…By the way. We moved like two people back there. Wasn’t this supposed to be hard? What happened, hah?” Two observed.

  “Weird, isn’t it? We weren’t even focused on it.”

  “Maybe that’s it! The more we focus the harder it gets! We just gotta move without thinking too hard about it!”

  “Except sometimes we just blank out. What’s that about? Is it when we focus too much? Or too little?”

  “Err, maybe it’s not as automatic as we think. Guess we’re too dumb to drive two bodies at once.”

  “Or just need more practice. Still, I don’t think I was ever this good at multitasking.”

  “Probably another thing with Soul Split. Natural multitasking skills. Sounds cool! Think we can juggle with four hands now?”

  “Heh. We can try that when we get out of here. We gotta figure out what makes us blank out like that anyway. That could have been dangerous…”

  “Yeah…”

  Two’s [Healing Light] finally regained its color.

  “Well, how strong will this get?”

  “If we can combine these too. I hope we can.”

  They lifted their cards and touched them together before activating them simultaneously.

  Thankfully, just as expected, the light from both of them combined and they directed it to heal Two. Like a miracle, even her ankle righted itself and as the light dissipated Two looked as good as new… except for all the mud.

  “Heh… ‘Good as new’… I’m like a few minutes old anyway.”

  One snorted, then grew serious.

  “We need another skill. Having two of us isn’t enough if our decks are so small.”

  “But what if we go crazy? You know what happens with a big deck…”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Just one skill. Only one of us crafts. We wanted to try that anyway.”

  “This will suck…”

  They heard ruffling of leaves.

  Four eyes snapped around to look for threats.

  They saw nothing.

  “…Let’s get to a safer spot for it.”

  “Top idea.”

  Both bodies got up, and set off. One scanned the foliage on the left; Two covered the rocky hills on the right.

  They soon found a thick pipe vertically jammed into the ground with no visible monsters on it or near it. It continued up where it split into many smaller pipes like a weird tree.

  “Here?”

  “Probably won’t find anything better.”

  “Dumb rift.”

  They climbed the pipe, settled on some of the horizontal pipes branching out of the main one after checking for sneaky monsters, and then got to crafting.

  A quick decision later, they decided Two would be the one to make the skill.

  “So, crafting. What are we making?” Two asked.

  “We have two Rares. Probably should use them.”

  “But then only Commons…”

  “Hopefully the skill is still Rare.”

  “Wait, what if we upgrade a skill instead. Like [Tricky Trail].”

  “Hmm… Our only choice, I think… It’s only Rare essences. [Transfrogify] is Very Rare and [Soul Split] is Epic… Well, probably Epic. Can’t upgrade those.”

  “And ruining [Healing Light] would be bad, yeah.”

  “But we could ruin [Tricky Trail] too.”

  “You would still have one… Probably.”

  “What if it ruins our superbomb combo though?”

  Both bodies frowned in thought.

  The main issue was that they had no idea what kind of skill they would make. And once done, they couldn’t take it back.

  Like Soul Split.

  They sighed.

  “We do need to make something though.”

  “Would be safer to have another skill.”

  “…Fine. Let’s make a new skill.”

  After some deliberation, they decided on the two Rare essences alongside a Common ◆Stone◆.

  “Should go well with Crush, right?”

  “Dunno.”

  Camouflage would be the base. They hoped it would make a skill capable of hiding both of them.

  Two held up the ◆Camouflage◆ in her left hand and the others in her right and then slapped them together to initiate the craft.

  Unlike [Soul Split], this one finished in a split second. Before they knew it, Two had a new skill in hand with only a mild headache reverberating between the two bodies.

  Light blue rim. Nice.

  The art featured a figure, looking at them from above, while another figure right behind them reared up their stone-covered fist, ready to punch them. The attacker blended in with the surrounding rocks.

  [Cliffhide Fist]

  They stared at the card as understanding of the new skill flooded Two’s mind.

  “Hmm…”

  She raised her hand holding the card and tried activating it.

  The card shimmered and then turned into earthen energy that washed over Two, making her form ripple before One’s eyes. Her colors shifted and gained a metallic gleam similar to the pipe they both sat on.

  “Ooooh… Okay. Kind of camouflage-y?” Two exclaimed as she looked down at her clothes that also inherited the camouflage effect.

  “Not that great though.”

  “It’s only Rare. But hey! I feel weirdly stronger now. I can punch something real hard… But hmm. It would cancel the camouflage.”

  One frowned.

  “So it’s a one shot thing. Once you punch something, you have to wait for the skill to recharge again?”

  “I guess so.”

  Still better than nothing.

  “…Oh yeah. Most importantly–” One brought out his own essences, showing that he still had both the Camouflage essence and the Crush essence. He could craft something entirely different with these.

  Awesome.

  They nodded to each other with a grin and then had a thought.

  With a slight frown, One gingerly held out the Camouflage essence and Two grabbed it.

  It let her.

  “Oooh… We can freely trade essences! Don’t even need to ask for permission!”

  “Makes sense. We both agree with it because we’re the same person.”

  Two handed the essence back and One dismissed it.

  Then he presented [Tricky Trail].

  Two tried grabbing it but her fingers slipped through it as if it wasn’t there.

  “Aww…”

  “I guess it wouldn’t be that easy…”

  “I wondered what would happen if I took both [Soul Split]s…”

  “Guess we’ll never find out.”

  The pipe they sat on made a dull clank and they immediately stiffened, looking for threats.

  Nothing nearby.

  “…We should move.”

  “Yes.”

  With that decided, they climbed down the pipe and as soon as Two’s feet touched the dirt below, her texture rippled again and changed to earthly brown.

  “Ooo, nice. Adaptive.”

  “Useful.”

  They continued through the area, pushing through foliage and wet dirt alike, their steps light to avoid attracting any more monsters. This time, Two led the charge with her [Cliffhide Fist] still active, acting as the scout.

  “I’m getting thirsty…” Two murmured, looking at the water rushing out of a pipe suspended above a muddy lake.

  “Don’t drink that.”

  “I know.”

  …Why did these conversations with oneself feel so natural when I already knew what the reply would be every single time? Another quirk of Soul Split? Shouldn’t it feel stranger?

  Or rather, I had been referring to myself as two different people for a while now, hadn’t I? In third person, no less. When had that happened? Was the skill messing with my mind? Should I be concerned…?

  Our thoughts were interrupted by a distant sound and we froze. A second later, Two prowled forward, hoping her camouflage would keep her safe.

  Two steps. She heard another sound, this time clearer. A person’s yell.

  Breaths hitched and eyes widened.

  People?!

  That had to be the rest of the party they had come in with. Or one of the other ones. Either way, this meant safety.

  Giving in to their impulses, both of the bodies rushed forward toward the sound, jumping over fallen branches and dodging bushes, while still keeping an eye on the surrounding foliage for ambushes.

  They heard the yell again, even clearer than before.

  “–off! Can’t…!”

  It sounded like struggle.

  They didn’t realize what this meant until it was too late.

  The two bodies burst into the clearing only for absolute carnage to welcome them.

  Two people cornered under a rocky overhang. One catkin with wild red hair wielding an icy bow and one blond swordsman elf.

  Surrounded by several monsters blocking them off.

  Cards slid from fingers. Feral jaws snapped hungrily. Swishing sounds reverberated as blades of wind cut up monster flesh.

  The two bodies’ advance stuttered, but they quickly pushed through the shock and rushed in to help.

  Two slid behind one of the hooved lizards, raised up her arms high, and then slammed both fists down on the monster.

  The beast’s back arched with a sickening crunch as cracks spread all over it. As predicted, Two’s camouflage vanished in a snap as her hit landed.

  In the meantime, One released his [Tricky Trail] at a steel frog tussling with the swordsman who shot his wind blades everywhere.

  “There’s more of them!” a female voice shouted.

  Two looked back up just in time to see an arrow of ice tear through her side.