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He resorted to spikes again. Targeting the back of Barnabas’ skull, in particular. It was right there, after all. Easy pickings.

And the spikes connected, too. Skewering the man’s entire body, including the head. Straight through.

Barnabas did not stop moving, however. He still managed to yank Vito free and fling him away.

And he didn’t let up there, either. He continued to give chase, swinging the club wildly again.

Vito was confused, but he didn’t have the time to sit there and deconstruct what in the world had just happened. He returned to dodging and had to rely on Kerikos’ extra thought process in order to reassess the situation.

He could see lutetium spikes all over Barnabas’ body. They did not stay long. They were being pushed out by the undead regeneration.

That was a clue. Normal regeneration typically had trouble removing large foreign bodies from one’s flesh.

But enhanced regeneration? Such as that of pan-forma? That would do the trick. And yet, that also made little sense here, because thus far, Barnabas had not been speaking with the telltale double-voice indicative of a hyperstate. So what was going on here?

Wait a moment.

Vito’s eyes never strayed from the wooden club, but now he was seeing it in a new light. Hmm.

“What’s the matter?” said Barnabas in the midst of his barrage. “You look confused.”

But this time, Vito did indeed hear the two voices speaking in unison.

Kerikos felt like he understood. Barnabas’ reaper had been concealed inside the soul-infused club this whole time, just waiting for the right moment to pop out and shift the tide of battle with a hyperstate.

“Neat trick,” said Vito.

“I don’t know what you mean,” said Barnabas.

“Hmph.”

This wasn’t good. Pan-forma gave flat bonuses to a servant’s durability, connectivity, and regeneration. Vito could still avoid these attacks, but for how much longer? The boost to connectivity could manifest in any number of surprising and unwelcome ways, depending on what Barnabas’ exact ability was. Most likely, it was some form of transfiguration, since materializers tended to lead with it.

Well, Vito had a trick of his own in mind. The castle guards were close enough now that he could try to enact his plan.

Rather than attacking Barnabas in order to create a much more comfortable opening, he’d just have to use the duplicate technique in order to distract and then throw out a quick attack at the guard’s opponents. It wouldn’t be much, but hopefully, it would still be enough for the guards to realize that he was indeed on their side.

So that was what he did.