Tanuki crawled to his minion. The deadweight husk saw him in the grass and defying all previously established laws, walked off the beaten path and towards him.

Tanuki raised his staff and gathered his energy into an acid spell. For the first time, he felt the energy siphon from his body into the staff, leaving exhaustion in its wake. His vision blurred and the tip of his fingers numbed. He was not sure whether this was because the spell took away his energy or rather this was the natural state of his body and the mana gave him extra strength. In that case, it may be worth waiting with spells so as not to knock himself unconscious.

Nonetheless, the faintly glowing green of the spell had already encircled the head of his staff and the attack was ready to be made. He targeted the wound on the juggernaut’s leg, hoping that it may burn away enough twigs to completely destroy that area of its body.

The deadweight husk got into range of the spell, and the acid shot straight at it, but the deadweight husk reached down and blocked with its remaining hand.

“This shit is manually controlled,” he yelled in frustration.

Tanuki’s hunch was right. Even if it was obvious he would go for the wound, the deadweight husk should not have had the intelligence to know that.

However, even though its intelligence increased now that someone else was in charge of its decisions, Tanuki concluded that whoever it was, they were oblivious to his kind of attack. Blocking the spell with the juggernaut’s hand was the worst thing they could have done, as the remaining acid ate away its fingers. The deadweight husk’s controller realized that too and stopped to observe the mistake.

Three of its fingers were gone. No longer could it carry its other arm like a club.

Tanuki would have laughed at the thing if he was not preoccupied with crawling to his minion.

It lay in the grass, having failed for the third time to remain standing. Tanuki took his staff and, accepting all the risk involved, stabbed it into the hole of the missing foot. The staff was long, so to act as a replacement wooden leg, it would need to be pushed deep. And so it was, its other end peeking out the husk’s shoulder.

Tanuki’s idea worked and the husk stood up.

“Approach the creature,” Tanuki ordered.

Though appearing confident on the outside, he mainly did that to intimidate the opposing puppet master. He felt no emotions deep within, he was too busy calculating all possible attacks he could tackle this oversized problem in front of him.

“The robes recharge zero point five mana per second. I need two point five. That means twenty-five seconds. Five have already passed. If I want to maximize efficiency, I need to attack with the minion until I’m about to have enough mana for two attacks. Then it comes out of range and I cast the spells. That means I’ve got about forty seconds.”

The minion approached the deadweight husk. Wasting no time, the giant threw a punch with its remaining arm, but the long wind-up of the attack gave it away, and Tanuki ordered a perfect evade. The giant’s punch pulled it forward and it lost balance, falling to the ground.

A perfect opportunity presented itself. The only question was how to abuse it.

“What should I attack? The remaining arm or damaged leg? No, attacking the arm is too risky. My minion has only one health. I should play it safe.”

He ordered an attack on the giant’s leg.

“Cut off its leg!”

Whoever was in control of the deadweight husk visibly panicked, as they tried kicking at the minion but to no avail. Its leg was almost detached and that last attack sealed the deal——it came right off.

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[ Deadweight Husk (LvL. 2)]

[ HP: 5/20 ]

“Now get out!”

This was it. All the minion needed to do was hinder its speed and deal a little damage, and both tasks were executed flawlessly. Now that it had only five health points remaining, Tanuki did not need to continue the duel, as one cast of his acid spell could easily kill it.

The minion ran back to him and put up its feet, the impaled staff causing it to bend backward in the process. Tanuki pulled out his weapon, but before making the attack, he gave an order to the minion, just in case his gut feeling was right.

“Crawl behind that thing.” He pointed at the deadweight husk and his minion disappeared into the grass.

Now, all he needed was one precise cast of his staff, but he decided to hold it. He planted his ass in the grass and watched his opponent struggle.

Whoever or whatever controlled the juggernaut could have mistaken his choice to relax for some sort of sadistic satisfaction he felt watching an opponent struggle, but they would have been wrong. Tanuki was impulsive, but not stupid. He knew that waiting a little might reveal something useful.

After all, patience is a virtue.

The deadweight husk crawled around and tried to reattach its leg. It could not heal the burnt twigs, so that was a lost cause.

Tanuki did not move, just watched.

The deadweight husk rolled around frantically, flattening the grass beneath and covering its head as if in pain.

Pain.

Tanuki smirked. He was right to wait a little with his attack.

“You know I’m not stupid, right?” He spoke to the deadweight husk.

It did not react but kept on trembling.

“I won’t fall for your trick, so don’t even try. I know you want me to attack you.”

All of a sudden, it stopped moving but kept its head covered.

“Lower your arms. I won’t kill you. At least not yet. I’ve got some questions.”

It did not respond.

“I know that thing has been hijacked. I am talking to you, not the soulless corpse. You’re the same creature as that thing that looked through the portal, right?”

It lowered its hands.

“That’s what I thought.” Tanuki leaned against his staff and stood up. “So you guys can just take over any creatures you want? Or perhaps this is a once-in-a-set kind of thing?”

He expected no answers and got none.

Tanuki frowned. “I promise you, and this much I promise you with all sincerity: tomorrow when you come in the third wave, I will be waiting for you, and you will die before the sun sets upon my realm.”

The husk remained unresponsive, but Tanuki knew how to change that. This was one of those kind of assholes that think they have escaped justice for so long because they are superior to others. And what these people hate the most is the reality check that they are not as smart as they think.

“I figured out how your husks work. There is a ritual carved into their head. A deathrattle. It activates when they reach one health point. If they kill themselves or die without the head being destroyed, a creature is summoned from within.” He stopped for dramatic effect, a shit-eating grin growing wide across his face. He was damn sure going to enjoy this. “You want me to take the deadweight husk to one health point, so you can activate the ritual and summon yourself one wave earlier.”

There was a moment of shock where the puppet flinched, its master realizing she had been found out. Then immediately she sent the husk charging at Tanuki. Not that she had much of a chance though, her puppet had no second leg and quickly fell back to the ground. Still, it kept on crawling, but that just left the head open for attacks.

Not that there was a need for more than just one. Tanuki spent his remaining power on an acid spell and fell back into the grass. Though his body was weak, the attack was clear and powerful, tearing up the creature’s nonexistent face and coating the innards of its dry skull in boiling acid.

Four health points.

Three health points.

Then finally just two.

She ordered the pupper to kill itself before fully eroding, thus activating the ritual. It finally hit one health point and the deadweight husk raised its fist to end it all, but Tanuki was quicker to shout an order.

“Axe the fucker’s head!”

Before the ritual could be activated, the minion who Tanuki ordered behind the deadweight husk launched its attack, hitting the creature straight in the head——had its remaining broken leg not given up in the last second. The minion slipped and the axe fell out of its hand.

Tanuki’s eyes shot wide. The creature punched through its own skull and activated the ritual, leaving a portal at the opening to its neck hole. From within, church bells rang out and a horrible white veil peaked through.

She turned towards Tanuki and spoke with a celebratory voice.

“Marriage dies a kiss unto your realm!”