Barry was rocked backwards from Tuti’s impressively powerful strike. He stumbled but managed to avoid falling over by stepping back.

“Tuti what the hell was that?” seethed Barry as he wiped some blood from his newly split lip.

Tuti didn’t say anything, in fact neither did Swirly as he sat on her shoulders, they just stared at Barry with absent looks on their faces.

“Tuti what is going on, what’s wrong with you?” Barry asked concernedly.

Again, no answer, Tuti just kept trudging forward towards Barry with her fists clenched. Something weird was definitely going on, this was just so far out of character for the vixant, if not for the fact that she had struck him, but for the fact that she was being completely silent for the first time since they’d met. Barry gathered himself and tried to objectively analyse the situation as he backed away from Tuti. This was no illusion, it was definitely Tuti in front of him. As he assessed her more closely, he noticed that her eyes were glazed and lifeless, they stared blankly in his direction but showed no expression or emotion. Moving his focus to Swirly he noticed that the ape had the very same blank gaze as Tuti.

Barry stepped further away as Tuti kept walking forward towards him threateningly. Barry didn’t for a second believe that Tuti was willingly attacking him, there had to be more going on. Part of Barry had hoped that whatever was influencing Tuti would just timeout if he could wait long enough, but after a few minutes of this he was starting to doubt it very much. One thing he noticed was that as time progressed, Tuti’s movements became quicker and more coordinated. When Tuti had first attacked her movements were relatively slow and clunky, now she was quick and spritely, much more like her old self. Barry knew she had a much higher dexterity skill than himself, so pretty soon it was going to get a lot harder to dodge her attacks. Barry stepped left to allow Tuti’s fist to pass him and simultaneously ducked down to avoid a wayward slap from Swirly who had also started to swing wildly in his direction whilst remaining on Tuti’s shoulders. As his head was momentarily pointed downward Barry saw a strange straw-coloured tendril of light that had curled around Tuti’s stomach. The straw light was difficult to see over the brown of Tuti’s fur, but if he focussed Barry was able to trace the light from the muddy water, up her left leg to her shoulder and continuing on to wrap around Swirly’s foot. “What the hell,” Barry barked in confusion. Suddenly a terrible thought entered his mind as he lifted one of his feet up and out of the water.

“Nothing,” Barry sighed in relief as he lifted his other foot up.

He panicked as he saw a straw-coloured tendril curling its way around his foot and halfway up his shin. “Fuck!” Barry shouted as he slapped his hand down at the tendril in panic.

“No you don’t you little shit!” he yelled.

Unfortunately, hitting the tendril didn’t do anything as he watched it continue to creep up his leg towards his knee. He hopped up and down with his leg raised, trying to keep his foot as far out of the water as he could, but it didn’t seem to make a difference as the tendril stretched upwards with ease. Distracted by what Barry assumed was a mind controlling tendril of light he didn’t notice that Tuti had crept forward once again, and her fist slammed into his chin. Barry felt the force in her strike much more than the previous one and he was sent flying over ten metres away, slamming into the muddy water. Barry spat out a chunk of mud and let out a snort of brown water before rubbing the dirt out of his eyes. He again lifted his leg up to look at the tendril but was relieved to find that it hadn’t crept up any higher. Seeing Tuti was still a fair way off he took a moment to study the tendril more closely. As he did so he saw that the tendril did actually creep forward little by little, but it sizzled away just as quickly. This pattern repeated itself every few seconds, as if something within Barry was fighting back against the sinister light.

“Weird,” Barry thought as he decided to move his attention back to the more pressing danger as he focussed on Tuti, whose body was starting to become surrounded with more and more tendrils.

Tuti shot forward again with even greater speed. Looking on, Barry saw a familiar glow emerge from Tuti’s hands, which he knew could only mean one thing, he was about to be faced with a pair of giant fists. If the increasing strength of the previous two strikes was anything to go by, then Barry certainly did not want to be struck with this. Sure enough, Tuti’s fists moved together, and Barry had a front row view as they rapidly expanded to a massive degree. The physics of her fists made absolutely no sense considering her hands were now almost the same size as the body that they were attached to. Barry tried to step away from the incoming strike, but he was too slow, and he was slammed with a double fisted punch just like he had seen Swirly fire out against one of the lizard men. Barry just had enough time to brace himself and the moment the enormous gloves collided with him he was sent flying backwards, tumbling along the water and ground until he landed abruptly over fifty metres away. The air was knocked from his lungs, he was bruised and battered, and he felt like his left arm was broken. However, the damage from the fall was minimised somewhat by the mud that softened the blow on his landing. Worryingly, Barry instinctively knew this was only a fraction of the force that Tuti was truly capable of, and Barry wondered if the tendrils still hadn’t taken full control of Tuti’s body at this stage. Activating his rapid recovery skill, Barry pushed himself up out of the mud and did a quick check of his stats. His health was around seventy percent full despite the broken bone and heavy fall, a testament to his robustness. Meanwhile his mana was basically full, and his stamina was at around eighty percent, probably from the heavy trudging through the mud taking it out of him.

Barry shook his head and wiped the mud off his face. He looked forwards and was able to see Tuti through the line of flattened reeds that his tumbling body had just created. She was still standing in the same spot from where she had just punched him, staring blankly in his direction with Swirly still resting atop her shoulders sharing that blank look. Even from here Barry could see that there were now more tendrils covering her body as her light brown fur was becoming harder to see through the numerous winding straw lights. After a few moments Tuti started robotically walking in Barry’s direction, this time at a slower speed than before. That didn’t make sense to Barry, as he thought the more tendrils that covered her, the more of her natural power was able to be harnessed by whoever or whatever was controlling her. Barry’s mind whirled with thoughts of what exactly was going on, he figured there must some sort of hidden swamp monster in the area that was able to take over the mind and body of others. He lifted his left foot out of the water and was surprised to see that there was no tendril there at all anymore. He then checked his other foot and sure enough he was tendril free there as well.

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“Maybe the monster only has a limited range? Or maybe getting hit so quickly was enough to sever the connection?” Barry wondered.

Barry focussed on his surroundings, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary as Tuti continued her slow walk towards him. Despite his efforts, the reeds were so thick and all-encompassing that it was near impossible to see anything else. Realising the futility of trying to spot the mystery creature through the reeds Barry changed tactics as he closed his eyes and focussed on one of his other senses, sound. As Tuti got closer he could hear the splash and squelch of her steps. But then he heard something else. It was almost as if her steps echoed as she walked, but that didn’t make sense. Suddenly the realisation hit Barry, it wasn’t an echo, it was another set of footsteps somewhere to the right, hidden behind the reeds. Barry locked in on where he thought the sound was coming from and without any further thought, sprinted straight through the reeds in that direction. Pushing the reeds out of his face, Barry pre-emptively summoned his aura chain in his uninjured arm and kept running forward. A moment later he found himself within another area of flattened reeds. He paused, and looked left and right, unclear which direction he should go, until he saw that the reeds were all flattened in the one direction, indicating the direction that someone or something had moved. He ran forward, following the flattened reeds and within a few seconds he found himself face to face with a short, dishevelled, human man.

The man standing in front of Barry was frozen in shock with his mouth ajar and brown eyes wide, like a possum stunned by a bright light. His hair was long, brown and filthy as it curled down either side of his face to the level of his shoulders. He wore a long black and white horizontally striped robe that floated atop the water and he stood slightly hunched, holding on to a glowing yellow staff for support. At the tip of the staff was a black spherical ball from which dozens of the same straw-coloured tendrils of light stretched down before disappearing under the muddy water.

“Who are you!” shouted Barry.

“I, I,” the nervous man stuttered, unable to verbalise a proper response.

Not wanting to waste any time, Barry moved to strike the man with his chain. The stunned man didn’t even attempt to dodge or block the incoming attack, he simply winced and made a high-pitched frightened screech whilst scrunching his eyes closed in response. Barry hesitated and paused his strike, even though this man had clearly been the one influencing Tuti and Swirly, it still felt like he was about kick a puppy.

“Stop your skill now and I won’t hurt you,” Barry demanded.

“I, I can’t. You’re lying,” the man sobbed.

At that moment Barry heard a heavy step behind him, the same as before but louder, deeper, and closer. Barry quickly tilted his head and he saw the towering, empowered form of Swirly with his fists clenched, halfway through a rounded punch.

“I’m sorry,” the man uttered.

Barry was surprised by the comment, but he didn’t have enough time to think about it further as Swirly’s fist grew closer. Knowing the terrifying force that Swirly could produce and seeing that he didn’t have enough time to avoid the strike, Barry was forced to activate his heavy fortification skill, but he also chose to activate duplication, creating a clone of himself. A second later Barry was once again flying through the reeds, tumbling violently as mud and water sprayed all around him before finally coming to a stop a large distance away.

Although Barry eyes were still covered in mud he could see perfectly through the eyes of his clone. Barry could feel that his link to the clone was weak, meaning he must have been close to thirty metres away from it.

“Damn my fortification skill is good,” thought Barry as he saw that his health was still well over fifty percent before returning his focus to his clone’s vision.

Through the eyes of his clone Barry saw the man still hunched, frightened and unmoving. Swirly on the other hand was slamming down and striking out at Barry’s clone, seemingly completely unaware that Barry’s figure was nothing more than an illusion. It seemed all this clone use paid off for Barry as he felt his soul magic level up to eight mid battle. Barry could feel his mana stores quickly draining from the use of his clone, so he swiftly dusted off the mud and water from his face and started to head back towards his clone. The man finally started to move, as he appeared to run in the opposite direction to Barry’s current location. Barry willed his clone to follow as the filthy man kept looking back at the clone with fear, whilst Swirly continued swiping aimlessly at the intangible clone, and Tuti following behind. Barry also took this opportunity to inspect the man.

Inspection:

Race: Human

Level: 5

Stat: Manipulation

“I knew it, a manipulation specialist,” thought Barry, “Wait, only level five?’ How is this guy powerful enough to control Tuti and Swirly? It doesn’t make sense.”

Barry was puzzled by the fact that this level five man was able to manipulate both Tuti and Swirly when they were a full three levels higher than him. Also why hadn’t he been affected? He had so many questions, but they would all have to wait, for he had a slimy man to catch and some friends to save. Barry ran in the direction of the man, knowing he had less than thirty seconds before his mana expired and he lost sight of his clone. He knew he would probably be able to see the hulking figure of Tuti regardless, but the reeds were thick and disorientating and he didn’t want to risk it. Thankfully the man was extremely slow, and it didn’t take Barry long to close the distance. Barry crept around to one side, hidden by the reeds. He kept his clone active as a distraction and managed to successfully ambush the unsuspecting man. Before the man had time to react Barry swung his chain at him, knocking his staff from his hands and following up with a kick to the chest, sending him tumbling down into the mud.

“Stay there,” Barry hissed at the man, as he got his clone to monitor the sobbing man whilst he went to check on Tuti and Swirly.

Barry watched as the tendrils of light surrounding both Tuti and Swirly began to retract off their bodies and crept back into the water. Little by little, the glazed, blank expressions on their faces faded and were replaced with looks of confusion.

“What’s going on?” Tuti mumbled as she took a staggered step. Barry caught her as she was about to fall and smiled, “It’s ok, you’re safe now, I’ve got you.”

“Ouch, my head is throbbing,” Tuti complained as she regained her balance and started to rub her head, “My health is full, and I still have plenty of mana and stamina, but I feel exhausted. I’m so confused.”

“Well, I think this guy was controlling you and Swirly through some manipulation skill and he made you attack me,” Barry said as he pointed at the still cowering man.

“That guy? Who is he?” Tuti asked, finally gathering her senses.

“I don’t know, let’s find out,” Barry declared.

Shortly after, Barry, Tuti and Swirly, now back in his regular form, stood over the man, with Barry having dispelled his clone. Tuti glared, Swirly growled, and Barry just looked on at the man with equal parts resentment and sympathy. This man looked ragged, weak, and defeated, and in no way felt threatening to Barry anymore.

“Who are you, and why did you attack us like that” asked Barry with a palpable intensity in his words.

The man looked up at Barry fearfully, almost trembling as he responded.

“Please, just finish me off quickly.”

Barry and Tuti glanced at each other with confusion, and Barry saw Tuti clench a fist, as if she were about to grant the man his request of a quick death. Barry placed his hand on top of hers and shook his head.

“You can still get out of this alive, but we need an explanation. You attacked us, made us turn on each other, and we need to know who you are, how you did it, and why you did it. Right now,” Barry demanded.

The man’s eyes welled as he stammered a response, “My name is Knob.”

“Knob? Really, that’s your name?” Barry said in mild disbelief as he had to fight back an immature snigger, “Anyway, Knob, tell us why you attacked us like you did, and what was that ability you used?” Knob twitched uncomfortably, but after a pause, he finally answered Barry’s question.

“I didn’t attack you. I just made you guys not like each other, that’s all. My ability let’s me divert people’s focus away from me and towards something else. I could never fight someone myself,” Knob said.

“That’s bullshit!” Tuti shouted, “You took over my mind, and Swirly’s, and forced us to attack our friend!” Knob sunk even further into the muddy water at Tuti’s outburst.

“I’m sorry,” Knob bawled.

Barry stepped forward, pointing his hand forward towards the cowering man threateningly.

“If you want get out of here unscathed, you need to tell us who you are and what you did to us!”