Once again, the humans had gathered in a circle and formed an arena with their own bodies. Why it was always a circle, Ember did bit know. But it did help with one thing: allowing her to watch over the crowd and ensure no one interfered.

Meanwhile, Red Fist and Merida were facing each other, waiting for the chosen referee to start the fight: a policeman who had come to make sure the altercations would not escalate, who was selected as the most neutral party.

The gangster leader was warming up, swinging his sledgehammer aimlessly in the general direction of the doll, obviously trying to look intimidating. While Merida was the perfect picture of standing readiness, slingshot at the ready, her bow and quiver left on the ground two meters away, unmoving but alert. Which should be hard to tell for anyone but Ember due to the living puppet's expressionless face.

"The agreed-upon terms are the following: one on one combat. No mind magic allowed, especially illusion magic, unless to surrender or if I call for it. No fire allowed, magical or otherwise. No cutting or slashing weapons are allowed, but everything else goes. The fight will last until one party surrender, betray the terms of the fight, or is rendered unable to fight without the intention of killing." The policeman declared.

The doll nodded before resuming its position, its head only slightly moving as her opponent did.

"We both agreed on those terms minutes ago. Let's finish this." Red Fist said, finally assuming a standing combat stance.

"On the count of three:" the referee shouted over the crowd, "One, Two, Three, Fight!"

The towering man immediately sprang up to the action, swinging his hammer low, almost crouching while charging to connect with Merida's soft head. But the doll had not moved at all to defend herself and took the hit head-on. Only for the hammer to bounce back of her and nearly miss its owner's head, connecting with his shoulder instead, causing him to drop his weapon, scream in pain, and instinctively reach to nurse his shoulder with his other hand.

"My hammer bounces off some invisible trickery!" He called out after he got himself back together, while Merida was still standing and unmoving, except for her head, still following her every opponent's movements.

The referee looked at him, disbelieving, before staring at the living puppet, awaiting her answer.

"I will only reveal my trick this one time," The doll warned, "I used 100% life combat magic applying the talion principle, turning his weapon temporarily alive and redirecting as much force and magic as he used against me back to him. We can still make this fight system binding if there is any further doubt on my integrity."

The referee nodded, but Red Fist shook his head. Either he thought it was unnecessary or planned to cheat himself in ways he thought he could get away with, his refusal only increased Ember's alertness, watching out for foul play.

"Using one opponent's strength against themselves?" Red Fist mumbled loudly before spitting, "Feeling clever, uh? I will uncover all your tricks for everyone to see. Then I will beat you to a pulp for good measure." He said before resuming combat readiness.

The referee gave them the go-ahead, and this time again, he went charging after the unmoving doll, except this time, he went for speed instead of strength, with a wide sweeping swing toward the puppet legs. His hammer came alive again, but he bruteforce wrestled against his own weapon to follow through and get the doll off her feet, which responded by rolling around unharmed and repositioning half a meter away.

"Did you slay that Air Elemental and Fire user using those same tricks? Or do you completely rely on your companions to get the job done?" He taunted before going for the exact same attack.

Yet, Merida was still not fighting seriously and letting the man waste his steam on her until he finally succeeded on his fifth attempt and simply dropped his hammer on the doll to pin her down under the sheer mass.

"I got you, dummy!"

Everyone waited for the living puppet to do anything. But she stayed put, and the referee had to ask:

"Do you wish to give up this fight?"

"Nope," Merida replied emotionlessly, "Just give me five seconds."

And then, almost as soon as she finished talking, the hammer went flying straight into the sky.

'How did you do that?' Ember asked quietly.

Same trick as before. I let gravity and magic accumulate before I turned the weapon alive and used all the accumulated energy at once. It should fall right where I stood in three... two... one...

And as she said so, the sledgehammer did fall from the sky, right where she had been seconds ago, and buried deep into the soft muddy soil from its accumulated momentum.

It was my goal all along. Getting rid of his weapon to force him to fight bare-handed, reduce his reach and give me a chance to fight back with Touch of Decay.

And as she said so, she finally started fighting back, rushing toward Red Fist while the man was defending by clumsily kicking the Air, narrowly missing her every time as she d'accéder between his leg, trying to get a hand under his protective boots and trousers.

It was actually funny to watch. Until the Red Fist Giant finally collapsed on the floor, nursing his left leg, which had turned grey under Merida's touch, causing another series of shocked gasps from the audience. And Ember barked in approval:

'Good job bringing him down a peg!'

Merida only nodded slightly before she kept going to town on her enemy skin, now within reach. First, his hands and arms, then good shoulder and neck, then finally, his exposed head. The man kept screaming but did not surrender, throwing his fists at the doll with abandon. To which the living puppet responded by recreating distance between them by taking a few steps back and letting her own magic do the rest.

The audience was left silent at the horrifying spectacle of the man screaming, trashing, and spasming around helplessly, fighting against the corruption slowly killing him from within.

"I surrender," Red Fist finally screamed in between tears and sobs. "Please make it stop."

To Ember's surprise, Merida didn't wait for the referee to confirm it to rush to the man, dispel her curse and start healing him, his skin turning back to normal under her touch.

"Thank you," the man said in a breath, fully collapsing to the ground in relief.

"The fight is over," the policeman declared solemnly. "Anyone willing to contest the result of this fight would have priority over other challengers in five minutes."

And so Ember immediately rushed to Merida and her now unconscious opponent.

'How is he doing?'

Bad. This man was stubborn. Do you know how hard it is to make him feel this much pain without causing too much damage? He only conceded after the Decay started affecting his nerves in his legs. He might never fully recover. Gods dammit!

It took Ember aback as it was uncharacteristic of Merida to care about anyone's wellbeing sincerely.

'Out of anyone, you chose to care for this arsehole?' She asked in utter disbelief.

Don't be like that. You were the same with that damn porcupine.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

It was my first real opponent with a human face. And I had to torture him. That's all there is to it.

'I see,' Ember said, lost in thought, feeling a bit betrayed.

Merida was modeled to look like a human. And she had spent weeks emulating human behaviors. Plus, she had finally learned empathy after continued exposure to Mary. So it stood within reason that she should care more about humans than she ever did.

But it wasn't Mary. It was some random man she had mercilessly beaten up to make an example. A situation she engineered herself for her own convenience. And yet, it was for him that she was finally showing that she had a damn heart? It was infuriating.

★☆★

After that fight, the number of challengers had drastically decreased.

And yet, some had been courageous enough to still step forward and dictate their condition. One man was confident he could beat Merida to her own game and went for the same condition as Red Fist. His loss. Another thought he could handle Merida's illusions but asked to ban Merida's offensive life magic instead. The doll agreed and humiliate him as she did with the soldier until the poor man gave up.

Then, the other challenger got creative with their challenges.

One claimed she was a brute and unfit to rule. Therefore, he challenged her to a game of chess instead. She didn't know about the rules until the referee explained it to her. And yet, she crushed the man ending the game in eighteen moves, which was supposedly impressive?

Another one tried to challenge her to a race, which she refused unless she could ask for Ember's help, which the man refused in turn. The referee agreed with Merida that her short leg was enough of a penalty as it was. So the man conceded Ember the right to use magic. And Ember humiliated him further by making him run in circles almost up to the finish line until he realized he had been played.

Then came a woman, asking for a contest of accuracy and speed for their chosen weapons, no mind magic involved. Merida chose her slingshot over her bow. The woman used her gun and was the first challenger to win, claiming in front of everyone assembled that she would bow to no one and deal with the puppeteer herself by putting a bullet between his eyes whenever he would dare to show up.

It was only after she disappeared that people started using their heads, challenging Merida to things she had a fair chance to win, but could still prove to be better than her. And the doll humbly agreed to it all, accepting defeat with a smile and a handshake, leaving Ember puzzled at what she was doing.

Don't you see it? People had stopped being so nervous around us. I'm improving our public relationship, not actually trying to prove I'm better than them. Though the first few matches did the work showing we are not to be trifled with.

'Guess it works for you.' She conceded, 'What about me?'

First things first, they don't perceive you as a threat, though they already know what a violent dog can do. One perk of being known as man's best friend. Second, they didn't realize the full extent of what you can do, and now might not be the time for a public outing. Third, mauling and beating your opponent in any possible contest a dog could reasonably compete against a human would do little to help your case. It would be quite the opposite.

If you want to make sure humans never get afraid of you, you should just cultivate your image as a well-behaved dog, do some tricks, play with kids, and look cute. Otherwise said: don't change anything and be yourself.

'Too bad. I'm getting bored,' Ember admitted.

And yet, Merida left her with one more thought to ponder:

Keep a good watch. We are not out of the woods yet. Some people chose not to partake in today's challenges. They might still come later to ambush us.

★☆★

Her partner's predictions had proven true three days later.

The challenge day had bear fruits, as Red Fist's declaration that very evening had been leading to greater cooperation between the gangs, the neighborhood militia, and the local authority. Which resulted in better coordinating the city defenses and finally reopening the hospital, the schools, and other public services.

It made it easier for Merida to help. But also made them an easier, more predictable target, though Merida being cautious as always, made it a point of asking Ember to take a different route every morning on their way back home.

It didn't prevent a group of discontent gangsmen from ambushing them that early morning.

'Should I turn around?' Ember asked, growling menacingly.

We have been followed as well. Time to stand our ground and fight.

'How can I do that if I'm not supposed to maim and kill?' Ember retorted, quoting the doll.

Obviously doesn't apply to life-and-death self-defense situations. They had guns, and you can't outrun a bullet. I will try to mess with everything I can: space-time perception, eye-hand coordination, proprioception, and full-fledged illusions. If they are stupid enough, they might even do all the work and shoot each other.

But I need you to do your worse. Move erratically to confuse them and go to town on them. Attack whoever you can, wherever you can. Spread chaos. And whenever I call you, roll over and play dead. Last but not least, if you are shot for real, leave me to my fate and find a place to hide.

Ember knew what she had to do.

She started charging forward, as she would do if she tried to escape, only to change course at the last moment and trample over one of the men, was narrowly missing getting shot by a sniper on the roof. She turned around and rolled over the next man in the same fashion right before Merida finished cutting her harness.

She then went pouncing right and left, climbing on the dumpster, then charging right in front of her when they expected her to do otherwise, nipping many legs as she danced around the gangsters. Many shots were aimed at her. One man on a roof dropped dead to another sniper. She decided to use that moment of confusion to finally climb down on the opposite roof and do her part.

She went to the throat of a man who had utterly zoned out under Merida's illusions. At the same time, another shrugged it off and raised his weapon to aim at her. But she ran straight between the man's legs and took a bite where it hurt before he could.

Ember!

Merida called out, and she dropped dead as the doll taught her, a bullet passing right over her left ear.

All clear. They think you're dead. Please go kill someone before they realize their mistake.

She pushed the poor man over the edge and plunged her teeth into the last one of this side of the street before carefully climbing down, planning to go to the other side when Merida's illusion wore off:

"That freaking wolf is still alive!"

'Wolf?' She asked, offended.

There are still under the assumption that a dog cannot be that aggressive. And you killed three and maimed five of them. Therefore they can't think of you as "Man's best friend" anymore. Congratulations! You became a big bad wolf. Now, focus.

She was climbing to the other side when Merida called her name again, and she let herself fall to the ground.

A bullet was shot right on the course she would have jumped otherwise and then, to a random spot on the floor, multiple times.

That was a close call. Forget about it. They lost so many men but still have the will to fight.

They think you're dead and are hell-bent on burning fake-me alive. I will sustain the illusion for as long as I can. Just grab me and run.

And so Ember did.

But less than a hundred meters away, another group of gangsters was waiting for them, though they had yet to spot her.

'What should I do?' Ember asked.

We should assume they still expect a Border Collie pulling a cart. I can create an illusion to make me invisible and change your appearance.

'So you want me to disguise as another dog?' Reformulated, doubtful 'Would it even work?'

Only one way to find out. You are now a stray Cocker Spaniel chasing after a rat. I know it's uncomfortable but please try to make it convincing and bark a lot.