Pinocchio's silence aura shrouded Matera, draining the village of its vibrancy, leaving an unsettling stillness. As he walked, his depraved imagination flooded the villagers' minds with disturbing visions: grotesque creatures lurking in shadows, loved ones writhing in agony, and an endless, suffocating darkness. Trapped in their own minds, the villagers saw Pinocchio as a monster!
In Matera's square, Pinocchio's inhuman senses detected a wisp of decay, the odor clinging to the vampires gathered there! Their eyes gleamed like lanterns in the dark, and they sneered at Pinocchio! The leader, a towering monster with exceptionally sharp fangs, taunted him, "Foolish puppet, your wooden tricks don’t scare us."
Pinocchio's face remained still, his silence a stark contrast to the vamp's taunts. The puppet's eyes of coal gleamed with malevolent intensity, and his wooden body vibrated with anticipation–and a bit of confusion. He thought, “Scare you? I didn’t think we even had to concern ourselves with each other, Idiot!”
Pinocchio, glamouring as Kerberos of Hades, remotely assaulted the vampires by summoning a swirling cloud of acacia thorns–which the vampires blocked with iron shields! He then induced a menagerie of hallucinations that mimicked several vampires' severest phobias! As the vampires stumbled, shields dropping, he conjured shadowy illusions, making it seem like he was everywhere at once. He immediately followed up with an advanced silence induction that disabled their telepathy, the power not a direct threat to him but a means of coordination between them!
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The vampires retaliated with offensive ferromancy, giant iron blades slicing into trees and pikes gliding through the air with deadly precision! Using his now even smaller size to his advantage, the puppet dodged, avoiding the iron weapons and iron claws that sought to rend him; alas, one pike caught him off guard, severely cracking his acacia chest without a sound!
Il Ragazzo di Legno stumbled back, acacia thorns newly protruding from his purple-oozing torso like a bleeding sea urchin. A savvy vampire's iron claws raked across his slumped shoulders, causing them to start rotting! The wooden boy countered with another hallucination induction, making that vampire see and feel his own most catastrophic fears!
Pinocchio then converted the maimed trees into a maelstrom of wooden stakes to at least create distance between himself and the vampires! The lead vampire tried to counter with a distracting illusion, but Pinocchio's nightmare powers enabled him to see right through it. Enraged, the leader blasted Pinocchio with black magic, but the target's wooden body and nightmare aura minimized its piercing effect!
As the vampires stumbled, they attempted to shroud themselves in darkness, conjuring shadowy veils to obscure Pinocchio's vision. The vampires then tried to dissipate into mist, hoping to escape or reposition themselves, but Pinocchio's unsettling presence seemed to anchor them to the spot, preventing their escape! Soon after, the wooden stakes flew true, piercing every vampire heart present! The thrall vampires' bodies crumbled to dust as their leader let out a defeated roar before he disintegrated, too!
Pinocchio stood victorious, his leaking chest heaving with exertion as he patched it up with fresh lumber on a molecular level, the mismatching woods magically converting to acacia. (He’d have to heal his scratched and rotting shoulders another way!)