The worst thing about instances is that you never know when or where they appear; whether they spawned, or they were always there. It was still a mystery.
The master puppet moved its weapons in a dancing motion, It made Novem unable to tell where the next hit would come from.
The puppet creaked as it moved, scanning its area, and Novem.
After countless efforts, Novem finally managed to sever the bottom left of its arms holding the curved knife. Just as he prepared to make a swift move to dismember the next, he twisted slightly to block an incoming attack, accidentally biting his tongue in the process.
A small puppet hanging from the ceiling had launched the strike, cackling maniacally before slithering back into the shadows.
Novem retreated, spitting blood from his injured tongue. "Is that how we're playing it?" he muttered, wiping the bloody residue from his lips.
Lesser threats distracting from the bigger ones. Clever.
His eyes darted upward, scanning the ceiling for signs of movement. The tiny puppet that had just attacked him had disappeared into the darkness, but Novem's lips curled into a grin. "Pinocchio, huh?" he said, a mix of amusement in his tone.
The master puppet remained in place, its joints creaking as it shifted, and with its single glowing, red eye, it turned to scan the room.
The sound of scuttling filled the air as smaller puppets began emerging, their wooden limbs clicking against the floor. They didn't attack immediately, forming a circle around him instead. Novem's grip on his daggers tightened.
"What's this?" he called out mockingly to the master puppet. "Getting the small fries to attack first, and then move while I'm distracted?"
The master puppet remained silent, but its creaking grew louder, as if laughing. The smaller puppets lunged at him simultaneously, their blades clanging with each other, and with the wood they sliced through.
Novem swung his dagger in a wide arc, slicing two of them cleanly in half. Splinters scattered across the floor, but the remaining puppets pressed on relentlessly. He ducked under a swinging claw and kicked another puppet into the wall, where it shattered on impact.
But the real threat hadn't moved. The master puppet simply watched, its eye never ceasing in search of an opening.
November realized he needed to end this quickly. Fighting the smaller ones would only drain his stamina, leaving him vulnerable to the real danger. He decided to take the risk of charging directly towards the master puppet. With a burst of speed, he leapt into the air, aiming his blade at its head.
Before he could strike, one of the small puppets leapt from the shadows above him, its sharp limb slicing across his shoulder. Novem winced, his attack faltering as he landed awkwardly.
The master puppet seized the opportunity, using one of its massive arms to swing down on him. He rolled out of the way just in time, the impact of the strike slicing through the ground where he'd stood moments ago.
Something about Novem had changed, he growled lowly, not seeming to mind the pain he normally relished in. He didn't mind the wound on his shoulder, but the coat he was wearing, his hand reaching out to pat the torn part, with blood soaking through it.
"My coat isn't something I joke with". Novem's eyes glowed the little bit of silver swirling like a vortex inside his abyss black eyes.
He arched his back in a slight curve, his fingers around his daggers twitching ever so slightly with his silky hair draped over his face. The buzzing electric blue light shone down on his silvery black hair, creating a sublime hue as his rage seethed out with his aura. Asif experiencing something novel, nobility and grandiose made him less of a beast that he was expected to be at the moment.
"This coat was something my predecessor gave me". Novem puts his hands down by his side, his mood far from good, "Oh, I'll make y'all pay for this"
He raised his eyes, and in an instant, he appeared mid air, right in front of the small puppet that had just attacked him which was hiding in the ceiling, and with a swing of his leg, pummeled it against the ceiling, shattering it to pieces.
"You know, I always wondered how you creepers were moving". Novem calmly arcs his dagger through the air and the small puppet most closest to him collapsed, unmoving.
"I just need to cut the strings eh?" He asks with his head down. Muttering, "That's no fun"
He laughed, "The fact that you don't express despair, bleed, or feel pain is already boring enough. To be able to stop you with just severing the strings controlling you is even worse"
It's all too boring. "But oh well, it doesn't matter. I just need to get back you all for my coat, and hone my dagger skills in the process."
He then thought, 'I need to fix my grudge problem'
"Come" he beckoned provocatively at the master puppet, smashing the smaller puppets to bits before they could retreat entirely to the shadows. While a few escaped, he destroyed a good number of them, although there was no telling how many of them there were, and how many were going to come.
At this time, the master puppet had already arrived and Novem swiftly turns and stabs at its side. The puppet reciprocated by blocking it with the Axe on its right hand
Both struck with equal force, enough to release a few shock waves. Novem's clothes ruffle lightly with the waves.
Before the puppet knew it, Novem's leg came crashing down on its head. Its face cracked, but it merely stumbled, regaining its footing only a few seconds later.
"That's for my palm injury that doesn't have anything to do with you. In fact I'm entirely grateful for it" Novem said, running towards the puppet. Upon reaching it, it swung its five remaining arms holding dangerous weapons at him.
Novem paused, allowing it to strike first, its curved knives plunging and hooking onto the floor, making the puppet unable to pull them out.
He then severs the remaining two arms on its right, while in the air- and then slammed its jaw with an uppercut.
The puppet, no longer having much too many curved knives to pull out, successfully carried its remaining three weapons and attacked Novem again. Novem turned midair and was about to retreat, when another small puppet came at him with a curved weapon similar to the master puppet's curved knife.
He pulled back and waited, curving his index at it, not wanting to point. "That was for the Injury on my shoulder." He flexed his shoulder, and the pain was still there. He winced, a pleased smile forming across his face. "Grateful for this too. But I'm not done yet"
The intermittent buzzing coming from the small electric blue bulbs were not too loud to be deafening, nor were they too low to be ignored.
"I'm waiting for you, you know" Novem smirked,
The puppet was restoring its arms back, using strings to pull them back to where they once were before.
Novem swiftly moved out of the way, as the arm he had severed before was bringing itself towards its owner at high speed.
The puppet said something, its creaking voice scratchy and unpleasant. "Foolish human" it said
Truly, anyone would have called Novem foolish for waiting for his enemy to regain its full strength before fighting. But this one was different-
"I need you in good condition. You may call me foolish, and I may just be a fool, but once I hold a grudge against someone, I can only let it go if I forget (literally) about it, or in rare cases, choose to forgive them.
For I am a patient man with a grudge problem"
The puppet began to laugh, the last bit of its broken arm restoring.
Novem gripped his daggers well, "Let's see who laughs last"
The two sides clashed again, the fight fiercer than the last. The puppet used the three weapons on its right hand to attack Novem but just in time, he flips up and was about to land a hit on its neck area to sever its head in an instant but a small sized puppet dropped from the ceiling, straight at him with a two blade axe. Novem, already expecting an attack from above, balances with his hand on the master puppet's shoulder, and flips over again, slamming his booted foot on the small puppet.
The master puppet turned its weapons towards itself, most likely to use against Novem. The latter swiftly pushed back, but right before he landed, another small puppet emerged from the shadows below, aiming at him. Once again, he flips one-eighty degree and stabs his daggers through it.
Using one last backflip to stand on his feet, he looks up at the master puppet to find it gone. 'Not that I can even hear it when it moves.' He straightened his clothes only to find the torn part of his coat again.
He squints his eyes in annoyance, taking the coat off and hanging it on his arm. He then folds his vest sleeves and brings his two daggers together, sharpening them against one another and releasing orange, blue, green and purple sparks. What material the daggers were made of, he knew not.
I'm so gonna get that puppet.
Clang! The said puppet had reappeared from behind him and Novem by a hair's breadth blocked the weapon which would have undoubtedly taken his neck, chest, and arm off. "Oh, I'm so gonna get you" he mouthed,
It was an obvious estimate of six ratio two as the puppet fought with its three arms on both sides while Novem fought with his own two. At this point he was grateful for not bringing in his sword and had gotten this dagger instead.
Had he seen the dagger while he already had his sword, he would have ignored it. With just a sword, he would have needed twice the speed he was currently using to block these attacks which was already tiring enough.
Bam! He crushed a sneaky puppet to pieces, and in his neglect, got a thin slice wound on his forearm from his main enemy. Then another on his arm- not yet…
"Are you going to ruin my clothes again?" Novem's rage blew up but he quickly calmed down a while later. In those few seconds, the puppet flinched and retreated.
"It's about time we finished this" November frowned
The puppet complied, getting ready,
Novem instead, turned around and ran away, whispering, "First step, assume weakness"
The puppet seemed conflicted as it weighed following the fleeing fool and at the same time, considered it a luring trap.
"Second step, provocation" Novem continued, raising his middle finger at the puppet and laughing out loud.
The puppet, had it an expression would have frowned. Only God knew how the unliving understood sign language.
Novem then turned around a corner. He slipped back as a foolish puppet sliding down the ceiling arced its blade at him. He however still continued on his way as the pile of moving wood slithered back into where it came from.
The master puppet followed after him as he had expected, and the moment it turned around the same corner, he had his face smashed in by Novem's knee.
"Third step, ambush" Novem grinned,
"And final step…"
Novem came down from the wall he was holding on to, taking the puppet's head with it and bashing it on his knee again as he landed.
"...Final blow"
Novem grabs one of its arms and pulls it towards himself, he then breaks it off and kicks down its shoulder. The puppet crashed and it couldn't have been more vulnerable at that moment.
"In conclusion, when fighting a dumb enemy; Catch Them Unaware" Novem grinned. "I should do this more often"
He took more of its arms and broke them off one by one, taking out the weapons and flinging it and the arms in opposite directions. The last arm remaining was its lower left arm holding the sword. As he was about to break that too, the puppet made a last minute move and aimed at Novem's leg.
Novem raised his leg up and stepped down on it. He then raised his other booted foot and kicked its side in.
Two minutes later, the puppet was now a pile of shattered wood. Novem looks down at the puppet once again and bashes its head to even smaller pieces.
"Well." He started, "I feel better now"
He hung his coat on his shoulder and stored one dagger in his boot. He flips the other dagger and makes his way to another door. Before entering, he glances back at the puppet. He pouts…
'There's more to this coat that I don't remember'. He wondered
November opens the door at the same time as someone else from the inside. He looks down at a young lady with the same unique hair as his. Black, with silver strands shining every often.
The young woman with a slim build looked up at him in surprise. "You from before" her surprise immediately turned into a frown. "You…" she growled, "My parents sent you here didn't they?"
Novem who wasn't wearing his coat, "?" Hm? Who? What? How? Why? When?