Chapter 31: The Puppet Master

〔 Flesh Puppet Master - Newborn (mini-boss) 〕

〔 Level: ?? - HP: ???〕

〔 Formed by the merging of sentient minds via an unholy ritual, this is an extremely dangerous being if left unchecked. Besides its lifespan that could last hundreds of year, the Puppet Master can create all sorts of twisted living things, given the time and material. History has recorded several examples of entire settlements being wiped out by Flesh Puppet Masters created either by accident or purposefully.〕

--.--

"Been a while since I saw one of these," Manco muttered and felt a bit relieved. Despite its intimidating appearance, this particular one was a newborn, created no more than two days ago. It would be tough but not unbeatable. In addition, it was created with the Altar of Union, and defeating it would reveal...

"Ooh... So that's how it is, huh?" he let out a chuckle. This thing was placed here for a reason.

As another rumble shook the ground, the section of the "wall" below Nicholas' face rippled and churned, making it clear that it belong to a living creature. Creases began to form on its surface and with a wet squishing sound, its middle opened up, revealing a small chamber. Under the dim torchlight, they could see the shiny, fleshy wall lining the chamber, with something glowing at the innermost corner.

"What the hell is that?" Unnerved by the sight, his companions blurted out.

"Rust, mind if I call the shots for now?" Manco asked.

"Go ahead!" Having decided he was in way over his head, Rust agreed.

"Everyone, slowly retreat to the farm! More room to maneuver!" Manco said tersely.

Eyes trained on the gaping hole on the wall, the group slowly made their way back through the narrow passage. As they retreated, Manco could see several objects quickly growing inside the hole. After a few moments, they were pushed out from the hole, which closed up.

"Wheeeerrree... youuu... goooiiing??" Nicholas's voice asked accusingly.

Ignoring the voice, Manco caught up with the group and exited the narrow pathway. They were back at the farm, where it was a lot brighter and more spacious.

"Everyone move further back!" Manco urged and the group complied.

After a few moments, about ten figures staggered out of the pathway.

"Oh, Gods!"

"What are those things?"

While the group shouted and gasped in disgust and revulsion, Manco Inspected the new creatures.

〔 Flesh Puppet - Incomplete 〕

〔 Level: 14 - HP: ???〕

〔 A pitiable but horrifying creature made from flesh and bones, which was grown with dark magic, and infused with grieving, wandering souls that knew nothing but silent suffering. Enticed by nefarious sources, the souls would gladly occupy a living body for however brief a moment, just for a respite from the crushing nothingness of their existence. 〕

--.--

"Calm down!" he said to the group, "These are flesh puppets! They might look scary, but we can deal with them easily enough. The hard part is the puppet master!"

These puppets were created in the Puppet Master's "birth chamber" a few moments ago. They looked like someone tried to make a human, but decided to switch around the parts randomly and call it a day before it was finished. They were vaguely humanoid and stood upright, but everything else was wrong.

For starters, they were skinless. As they walked in jerky strides, their muscles could be seen contracting and expanding, awkwardly controlling the badly made limbs. Some of them had not even had all the muscles in place, revealing bones and what seemed to be internal organs.

Their heights ranged from 150 cm to 190 cm, and each was deformed in its own way. Some had one arm, others had three. Several had no hands, instead, long bones protruded from their forearms and formed jagged knives. Through the gaps in their chests, Manco could see a beating heart underneath. Some had the heart on the chest, others in the stomach. All of them had no eyes, only three holes where their noses and mouths should be.

After the last puppet left the opening, the Puppet Master followed suit. It flowed out of the cave like toothpaste being squeezed out of the tube. Nicholas' face came out first, followed by a shapeless blob of pink, red and grey mass made of flesh, bone and skin. After fully extracting itself from the small cave, the Puppet Master secured itself onto the farm's stone wall. At its wordless command, the puppets spread out and approached the group.

Lifting the crossbow, Manco used [Crippling Shots] to slow down the nearest puppet. He didn't bother trying to blind it, as the master was keeping an eye on and directing them all.

"Listen up!" he addressed the group "These things are slow. Just keep the distance and wear them down! Van, Bolt, conserve your arrows. When there is one of them left, stand next to me!"

"Got it!"

His companions got ready for combat. Rust took out his sword and shield. Bolt put away his crossbow and unsheathed his shortsword, as did Van who produced a small iron-studded club. Lug wielded a heavy two-handed ax and Dan brandished his spear. They spread out to give each other more room to maneuver. Trix seemed to be the designated healer, standing at a distance and awkwardly holding a dagger.

As if on cue, the puppets also split up to attack everyone at the same time.

"This isn't too hard!" Lug shouted over the clamor of battle. He grabbed two puppets by the head and smashed them together. With a sickening crunch, the two twitched and fell down on the ground.

"Yup!" Bolt shouted back as he dived between the legs of one puppet and cut its knees. It knelt down at the perfect height for him to drive his sword into its eye socket, killing it.

"Anyone hungry?" Lug muses as he brought his giant ax down on to another puppet's head, cleaving it into two.

"Focus!" Rust interrupted their banter. He sidestepped and whirled, avoiding a bone dagger growing from a puppet's misshapen arm. Using his inertia, he slammed his shield into its foot, taking it off balance. The abomination fell with a thump. Without missing a beat, he pounced on it, his sword stabbing down at an angle that neatly pierced the heart, taking a big chunk of its health. The creature weakly gurgled and lay still.

Van and Dan had no trouble fighting the puppets either. Dan tripped one with his spear, letting Van slam his club on its head.

Trix's main contribution to the battle was casting spells to heal everyone's small cuts and bruises. She tried to stab a half-dead puppet once, but was scared away by its swinging limbs and stopped trying to get close after that.

Manco, meanwhile, was engaging three puppets at once. These puppets were only as fast as an average NPC human. Dodging three in melee combat was child's play to him.

He held his dagger in his right hand and his gun in his left. Using the dagger and mana bolts, he chipped away a puppet's health until it was nearly dead, and finished it off with a mana blast.

〔Creature "Flesh Puppet - Incomplete" (level 14) slain〕

〔Creature information added to Beastiary〕

〔+810 xp (+215%)〕

...

Shooting spells through the gun was a little different than using his hand. For such a small gun, the Collector was surprisingly accurate and easy to use. There was absolutely no recoil. For a moment he felt like he was playing one of the old VR shooters before he got hooked by L3.

As he held the gun, he noticed a fifth of his mana bar was locked. In addition, when fired through the gun, his spells got a little weaker, which he had to compensate by activating Arcane Surge. On the upside, the projectiles seemed to fly a little faster and further. All in all, it was pretty handy weapon. He couldn't wait to fire higher-leveled spells through it.

Despite its threatening appearance, the boss was pretty easy to handle. It had no attacks, and its most troublesome traits were that it was nearly immune to damage, and its ability to "birth" more monsters.

When the number of puppets was down to one, Manco put away Collector and readied the crossbow.

"Bolt, Van, get ready!" he shouted. The two men repositioned themselves on either side of him.

After Rust killed the last puppet puppets, another wave of tremor began.

With a squish, the spawning chamber under Nicholas' face opened again. This time, under the bright light of the gemstones, they could clearly see a fleshy core at the furthest corner. A dozen tumor-like growths appeared around it and quickly inflated.

〔Focus Shot〕

〔Aimed Shot〕

"Fire!" said Manco as he fired split-head bolts at the core.

-53!

-12! (poison)

-5! (bleed)

-11! (poison)

...

-44!

-12! (poison)

-5! (bleed)

...

This was the first time he used Gwyndham's repeating crossbow, and he was amazed by how accurate and powerful it was. Each of his split-head bolts did solid 40-plus damage, along with bleeding and poisoning effects.

Not to be outdone, Bolt and Van followed suit and fired at the core as fast as they could.

-23!

-31!

...

The bolts and arrows flew like rain toward the spawning gate. Many struck the core, making the face cry out in pain. Several hit the growing sacs instead. After several dozen seconds, the sacs filled the spawning chamber, making it impossible to hit the core. Their barrage had reduced the puppet master's health bar by 10%.

"It's gonna spawn again! Ready your melee weapons!" Manco called out.

The sacs were pushed out and the chamber closed. Each sac was slightly opaque, revealing a squirming humanoid shape inside. Then several clawed hands poked open the sacs, spilling a fluid all over the floor.

"Don't come any closer! The fluid is toxic! Wait for it to evaporate!" Seeing Rust planning to attack before the puppet could be ready, he warned everyone.

A few seconds later, twelve flesh puppets stood up to face the group. This time, they looked more complete. They were more uniform in heights and sizes and had more or less enough limbs. As the fight progressed, the puppet master would become better at creating puppets, so it was vital that it was defeated quickly.

The group maintained their rhythm. When the core was protected, they killed all the puppets to get it to expose itself again. When there was no puppet left, the spawning chamber opened. Manco, Bolt, and Van fired their ranged weapons, chipping away the puppet master's health. In subsequent waves, they got more accurate and efficient with their shots, dealing progressively more damage each time they have the target.

After the fifth spawn, the core's health bar was down to about 17%. Manco noticed the group was growing tired. Their movements began to slow down and they made more mistakes.

"Everyone! Leave one puppet alive!" He commanded "I'll distract it. You guys take a rest!"

Rust caught on, but the rest were still confused. Nevertheless, they followed his instruction and left one puppet alive. Manco shot a crossbow bolt at its face, catching its attention. While it lumbered after him, Rust's group took a rest in a corner.

The dodging went on for several minutes until the group stood up and indicated that they were ready. Nodding, Manco finished off the puppet and readied his crossbow.

This time, they managed to reduce the spawner's health to about 2% before the chamber was closed.

"So close!" Bolt grunted indignantly as he put away his crossbow and unsheathed his shortsword.

"We'll get it in the next wave!" Manco replied. He used [Crippling Shot] on one of the puppets to slow it down then switched to his dagger-and-gun combination to meet the rest.