Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun was reloading the swivel gun.
He had just fired at the enemies below the forecastle deck, engulfing a three-man squad in searing grapeshot. Two of the swaggering boarders were riddled with holes and fell screaming to the deck, while the third was gravely wounded and hacked to pieces by the surrounding sailors.
The thick smell of gun smoke mingled with blood, stinging his nostrils and making Not Playing If I'm Not Having Fun feel absolutely fantastic.
Just then, however, a beam of light swept over them, and wherever it touched, the scene became utterly bizarre.
Three identical figures instantly appeared beside every real invader, like duplicates, matching even the scratches on their armor.
In an instant, the thirty-odd remaining enemies appeared to become an army of over a hundred.
These mirror images could not only move, but their movements were not synchronized with those of their identical counterparts. Wielding weapons that gleamed with the same cold light, they roared silently and attacked the horrified sailors and players around them.
The stalemate on deck underwent a drastic change.
A marine thrust his shield hard against an oncoming enemy, only to find his longsword passing through the enemy's body without resistance... it was an illusion.
But in the instant he froze, another seemingly illusory "mirror image" beside him brought down a very solid axe, slamming into his shoulder armor in a shower of sparks.
"Watch out! Some of these damn things are fake, and some are real!"
A player shouted hoarsely, but amid the chaos, it was difficult to tell them apart.
The sailors' morale took a heavy blow. They hesitated in the face of lethal, real attacks, yet wasted their strength blocking illusory figures. Their shield-wall formation began to waver.
Not Playing If I'm