Ike activated Lightning Clad. He smashed his fist toward the man. A dagger glittered in the man’s hand, plunging toward Ike’s hand.

Blade sparked against blade. The man startled, shocked for a split second as his dagger bounced off the invisible blade in Ike’s hand. In the next moment, his eyes hardened. He pushed back, fighting against Ike’s dagger.

Ike twisted his wrist, throwing the man off. The man fell behind him. Even as he dropped back, another one charged at Ike. Ike drew his sword and put his dagger away, closing in on the newcomer. Their blades clashed. Ike called out the new lightning technique he’d barely began forming and pushed it onto his blade. Lightning sparked down his blade and grounded on the man’s hand.

The man grinned, unfeeling. He pushed Ike’s sword away with strength far beyond Ike’s. Metal flashing, he went for a killing blow.

Ike jumped back. Lightning Dash’s superior speed barely took him out of the man’s reach in time. The man backed away rather than pursue. Clenching his teeth, Ike jumped to the side. A third man jumped out to stab his guts a second after he flinched away.

All of them wore the same face. All of them wore the same fake-hunter clothes. All of them moved the same way.

“They’re all the same? Triplets?” Shawn asked, his eyes big.

Ike snorted. He flipped his hand, drawing out the spider’s fang in his offhand. He held his sword out, ready to greet an attack. “No. Puppets.”

“You saw through us so quickly?” The man from the beginning stepped out from behind a tree ahead of them.

“You might say I have a little experience with these things. Where’d you buy yours? Bargain bin dealer?” Ike asked. Compared to the puppets he’d seen in the Abyss, these were more lifelike, but at the consequence of all bearing the same face. If the man hadn’t cheaped out and bought three copies of himself, it would have taken Ike far longer to figure him out. But once he noticed the man’s replicas, it only took another few moments to examine the puppets’ mana signatures and realize their inner mechanics were the same as the puppets he was used to.

“What?” the man asked, confused.

“You heard me. Where’d you find such cheap puppets?” Ike repeated.

“They weren’t cheap,” the man countered.

Ike frowned. “Then why do they all look like you?”

The man opened his mouth, then shut it. His eyes blazed. “Those who understand nothing should die!”

“You’re the one who understands nothing.” Shaking his head at the man, Ike charged into battle. Just as his sword was about to collide with the puppet’s, he sheathed it and sidestepped instead. A white thread yanked the puppet closer to him, so that he was inside the sword’s swing. He gripped the spider’s fang in both hands and smashed it through the puppet’s stomach.

Before, he’d always been careful. Taken his time. Drilled a small hole no one would notice. It wasn’t that he needed to spend time carving the holes; it was that he needed to spend time if he wanted to hide them afterward. Now, in open battle, he had no such hesitation. The fang punctured the doll’s stomach and shattered the pottery around it, caving in a big hole around where its belly button should have been. Bits of porcelain fell to the floor, and black goo gushed out.

“What?” the puppet asked, startled.

“Like I said. Bargain-bin,” Ike said with a laugh. He jabbed his hand into the puppet’s gut and ignited the black goo with a flash of lightning. Black smoke gushed out of the puppet as the flame raged through it. Ike breathed deeply, rejuvenating himself from the puppet’s loss.

The shattered puppet staggered back. As the black goo left it, the light in its eyes faded. Its lifelike features became no more than crude carvings in the pottery. Its matching clothes became ragged stagewear, barely worthy of a child’s play. It staggered to the side, then slumped, dead.

The other puppets backed away. They stared at Ike in shock. “Who are you?”

“I was just a passerby, but today, you’ve made me an enemy of the New Republic,” Ike said. He shook his head at the puppets. “You need to learn to pick your battles. I was very happy to pass by in peace until you single-handedly attacked me. If you’d simply let me take the girl and pass by, I would have walked far, far away from here and never intervened. But instead, you’ve incited my wrath.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Wisp crept up close to him. A fierce pressure escaped from her, far beyond Ike’s power, but centered on him as though it belonged to him. He glanced at her, and she winked.

Ike grinned. He put his hands on his hips and tilted is head back, looking down on the puppets. “You don’t know what you’ve done. Rue this day, for you will come to regret it!”

The puppets fled. Ike leaped from his spot, chasing after them. Behind him, Wisp shot a few lazy threads. The puppets Ike wasn’t chasing tripped and fell as the thread tangled their ankles. They reached down to sever it, only for their blades to bounce off.

Ike tackled the fleeing puppet to the ground and quickly stabbed it in the back. Black goo gushed, and he ignited it. A quick run around the forest, and the rest of the puppets met the same fate. Black smoke clouded the horizon.

Ike stood. Wiping off his fang, he glanced at Wisp. “That’s just going to stir them up, isn’t it.”

“Sure, but it’ll put fear in their hearts, too. Doubt. If there are any collaborators to this ‘New Republic,’ they now have reason to be angry at this idiot. We’ve sown discord and brought fear to the land. Not bad, for our first day as guerrillas,” Wisp said, nodding.

“We aren’t going to stick around and fight the New Republic,” Ike said, then paused. A thoughtful look crossed his face. But they’re using the puppets. My city lord’s puppets. Whatever the city lord’s up to, it’s nothing good. Maybe I should stick around and fight the New Republic. Figure out what the old city lord is up to. Good old Lord Brightbriar and his creepy doll daughter Rosamund. I really don’t know what the point of all those dolls was, and I kind of want to know. Just from a ‘what did I ruin’ standpoint, if nothing else.

“Why not?” Wisp asked, at the same time that a soft voice on her shoulders said, “You aren’t?”

Wisp’s brows raised. She lifted the wolf pelt. The blue-clad woman from earlier climbed down from her shoulders. She looked at Ike, then quickly knelt before him. “Please. We need fighters. I’ll give you anything.”

Ike looked at Wisp. Wisp waggled her brows back. She made a money sign with her finger and thumb and nodded.

He turned back to the lady in blue. “We’re busy. No.”

“Anything! Riches. Skills. My city has many skills. If you help, I’m sure we could spare one for you.”

“One?” Ike asked, incredulous.

“M-many! As many as you like.”

“Hmm. Low-grade skills, I bet,” Wisp opined from behind her.

“Even Unique ones! I…I’m sure we could part with a Unique skill,” the woman said, wincing even as she offered it.

Ike twisted his lips. He met Wisp’s eyes. Wisp jabbed her finger up. More!

Stifling a chuckle, Ike put on a stern face. “We do have somewhere to be. And this isn’t our problem.”

The lady in blue stilled. She hesitated, then spoke at last. “I—I’m even prepared to offer my hand in marriage.”

Silence. Ike stared to the horizon, completely lost. Wisp covered her mouth with both hands, forcibly holding back a fierce spate of giggles.

How did she end up there…?

A long moment passed. The girl shivered on the floor. Ike looked down at her, pity in his eyes. She’s really ready to throw away her life, huh? First, she wants to kill herself as soon as look at me. Next, she’s giving me her hand in marriage for helping them out. I’m only Rank 2. Is her sect or clan or whatever really that weak? Really that desperate?

Or is there something else? Something that’s primed her to see her life as worthless?

Ike considered for a minute, then shrugged to himself. He sighed and nodded at the girl. “Get up. I don’t want to marry anyone yet. Money and skills will do.”

She rose to her feet, brushing her robes down. “Really?”

“Yeah. What’s your name? And what the hell is going on here?” Ike asked. He gestured at the puppets. “You guys have these things, too?”

The girl nodded. “My name is Clarina. As for the New Republic… it’s a long story.”

“We’ve got plenty of time. Tell us on the way back to your home,” Ike said.

Clarina grimaced. She looked at the ground.

“Home’s gone, huh?” Wisp guessed. She chuckled. “Figures. No one just throws themselves at random men, unless they’ve already lost everything.”

Oh. Yeah, that would explain it, Ike realized. If she had no home, no sect or clan left to return to, then of course she’d see herself as the only bargain chip worth offering. But wait, then… “Where are the riches coming from, huh?”

She looked away. “We have secret storehouses. The New Republic hasn’t found everything yet.”

Ike raised a brow. Sure you do. It was suspicious, beyond suspicious. He looked at Wisp.

Wisp mimed taking a big bite.

“Here! Collateral.” The girl held up her ring. She twisted it, giving them a quick glimpse of a skill. It radiated pure light, and for a moment, the overwhelming sensation of rightness washed over Ike, the same as it had when he’d first beheld a Unique skill. The girl twisted it shut again, then offered Ike the ring.

“What, already?” He passed his hand over it, then frowned. He tried again, and again, but nothing happened.

“That ring only opens to my unique mana signature. As long as you help me, the skill is yours. But if you don’t, or I die, then…” She trailed off.

“Right,” Ike said. He slipped the ring on.

Wisp shrugged at him, and he shrugged back. Either the girl led them to a battle they could win, and they fought, or she didn’t, and they’d retreat. They could still back out at any moment they pleased. But they might as well see what Clarina wanted from them before simply giving up.

“Show the way, then,” Ike said, gesturing for Clarina to take the lead.

She nodded. Lifting her skirts up above her ankles, she headed off through the forest.