Chapter 29 Arturo

Ever since I’d seen her fight with the axe lizard, I’d known my sister was fighting monsters. But knowing something was one thing and seeing it right before your eyes was another altogether. I froze up as a blur smashed my sister into a building. That no one else moved either didn’t help. My body was too full of rage and shock to move it.

“Good thing I had the doll ready,” the doll commander barked out a laugh that broke me out of it. I glared at him as the blur that hit my sister landed next to him. I needed to calm down, getting angry wasn’t going to help. I needed to focus on helping Melodia when the opportunity arose. So instead, I looked over at this week’s doll. Instead of the hulking giants my sister usually described, the doll this time around was skinny and shorter than the commander.

It had an almost stick-like body. With skinny limbs which looked a bit too long. Its skin was shiny and black, like it was made from polished black stone. The only exception was its face, which was bone white with a pair of empty black eyes.

“Break may be a fool, but at least his warning about the wild one was worth the air he used to say it,” the new commander said as I looked over at the building Melodia had been thrown into. “At the very least this new doll will be able to thin the herd.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” I mumbled as Melodia came running out the building. She was still running right at the commander. Before she could do a thing, the doll went right for her. She stopped in place as the doll crashed into her again. Instead of going flying like last time, she slid back on the ground.

She reached out with her hand as the doll jumped back. It got out of reach before jumping back and swinging its arm at her. She ducked under the swing only for the second arm to come from below and get her in the jaw.

This time, she was went flying again.

“How is that thing so fast?” Rashell demanded, the start of dread starting to creep into her voice.

“It’s faster than anything we’ve fought so far,” Claire calmly pointed out, “and the doll commander looks ready to start something too.”

“We’ll have to figure things out, like we always do,” Anna was doing her best to lift the other girl’s spirits, but I wasn’t sure that it was working. “I can take care of the commander if you two…”

“No,” Marvin walked forward, the doll still on his shoulder, “you girls deal with the fake doll. The commander is mine.”

“And who do you think you are to challenge me? Unlike that pathetic blowhard Break, I can actually pull my weight in a fight,” the commander barked out a laugh as Melodia did her best to avoid the heavy blows coming her way. She was doing okay, but the doll was managing to keep her on the defense.

I winced as one hit in particular managed to launch her back into the air. Before she could even react, the doll followed after her. It spun in midair before bringing down one of its arms on her. She went flying back down to earth, right into the giant hole meant for the mall’s foundation. The doll followed after her, both of them vanishing from my sight.

“I am many things, fake doll leading other fake dolls,” Marvin announced as the wooden box he brought popped open from the top. Strangely enough, no dolls came from inside. “I am a doll maker, a proud son of House Mezavon, and a member of the South Palm High Magi association. But you will come to know me by one last title…”

As soon as he said that, he was interrupted by a burst of noise as a flash of light streaked past us and into the doll commander. As soon as the light passed, the doll commander was standing in stunned silence, his mouth agape. Falling to the ground from the steel beams was what was left of his left arm.

“Note to self,” Marvin muttered to himself as I took a careful step away from him, “reconfigure the aim on Tina’s rail guns.”

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“Hey, my guns are fine. If you want to blame something, try your sniper dolls,” Sniper dolls? Marvin said he was strong enough to bring two boxes of dolls, so maybe that was where the other box went. Tina turned to the rest of the girls who were staring at him. “The two of us can handle this guy, go help Melodia.”

Anna was the first to recover, giving her a careful nod before rushing towards the foundation hole.

“Not so fast,” the commander declared as he grabbed his sword with his remaining hand, his other arm already starting to grow back. He jumped down, intending to land in front of the girls.

Instead, a small blur dashed out from the shadows of the same half-finished building he’d been standing on. He glanced back as he was consumed by an explosion.

The girls rushed past him as he landed on the ground, somewhat charred but still intact.

“Get up you fake, your fight is with me,” Marvin announced as six dolls, each of them armed with two swords, finally jumped out of the wooden box.

“If you insist on dying first, then who am I to deny your wish? I, Shatter, will be your opponent,” the now named doll commander drew his sword and started advancing on Marvin. Tina and I took a few steps back as his dolls raced forward.

Shatter was the first to act, reaching Marvin without any trouble. The magi stood in place and watched as the sword came down on him. There was a clash, as Shatter’s sword was blocked by six more.

The dolls all pushed at once, forcing Shatter back. Two of the dolls snapped their swords together into spears and charged.

Shatter brought his sword close and redirected the first spear only as the other stabbed him right through the shoulder. He didn’t even react.

But he did react a second later as a bright flash filled the night again. Shatter nudged to the side, the rail gun blast going through the doll holding the spear instead of his head.

The doll whose spear had been deflected backed off as the broken doll glowed before exploding right in Shatter’s face. He was pushed back a bit, even further singed. He brushed the smoke out of the way just in time for two new dolls to float in front of him.

I saw their hands open as the night was filled with the sound of gunfire. He brought his hands up to cover his face as the bullets fired into him, sending black tar everywhere.

The two gunner dolls floated back as a new, third doll floated down and opened its mouth. I had been expecting more bullets. Instead the wooden doll let loose a torrent of flames. Wonder how he pulled that off.

Well however he was pulling it off, Shatter was forced to retreat from the heat. He jumped back as the flames died down, revealing a terrible sight.

His clothes, hair, and even skin were burned off, revealing the purplish black skin underneath. It was the same shade as the goop the dolls were made out of.

“Okay, time to stop messing around,” he growled as his sword merged into his hand. He rushed forward, ducking underneath the flames and coming up, splitting the flame throwing doll in two.

Marvin grimaced as four more dolls with swords rushed forward. The four of them started swinging as Shatter brought his sword up to block them. Two of them hit his sword as the other two raced around.

He ducked down as the dolls swung their blades past the spot his head had been.

His own sword went into his arm as he dropped to the ground and rolled, six blades plunging into the ground. He got to his feet, the sword popping out and rising with him. One of the dolls was cut in half and then immediately kicked away. The rest of the dolls scattered away from it, but one was a bit too close and ended up caught in the blast.

Shatter straightened out his newly regenerating clothes, hair, and skin as another flash lit up the night.

He let out a grunt as a huge hole appeared though his chest. Two more flashes followed as Shatter jumped into the unfinished building. As soon as he did, the ground under him exploded in a shower of dirt.

“Thought he would duck again,” Marvin clicked his tounge as he looked over to the building. I followed his eyes and saw Shatter jumping around from beam to beam, avoiding swords, spears, gunshots and even a few flames.

He was somehow putting up a better fight on the beams than he had on the ground. The open air gave the dolls more ways to hit him, but they also gave him just as many ways to move.

In fact, it would have been safe to say we were starting to lose this fight. Shatter was only getting faster and faster, and Marvin wasn’t bringing in any new dolls to back up his old ones. Either he was holding them back to conserve his numbers, or he didn’t have any more.

Either way the effect was the same. Every small explosion inside the building meant our forces were down by one. And all the cover inside the building meant whatever sniper dolls Tina and Marvin had set up didn’t have a clear shot.

“Tina, you got anything?” I suddenly asked. “You did tell the girls to leave things to the two of you,” my spirit died as she shook her head.

“I just said that to get them moving,” she looked back at the van. “I have a few things we could use, but they’re too dangerous to use on a moving target out in the open.”

So it was really only up to Marvin then. And as much skill as the other magi had, we had to face the honest truth. Shatter was wearing him down. And if the look on his face and the sweat going down his brow were any indication, he knew it too.

With any luck, the girls were winning their fight. Because it was starting to look like we were going to need their help.