Chapter 9

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Unedited version, will update once it's edited.

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The puppet master looked at me and cackled. "You wanna play with me?" He grinned, as fast as lightning, his hand shot forward and something flew at me. Piercing right through me the projectile ended up lodged diagonally on the ground, melting it with the same substance his teeth were dripping. The projectile was a needle, as large as my arm.

Coughing blood, I dropped to the floor with a loud thud, struggling to keep myself conscious, as the puppet master walked past me, probably assuming I was already done for. The pain was beyond anything I had experienced, it was blinding, keeping me in a state of perpetual agony, as my HP dropped.

It didn't take me long to figure out, I had been poisoned, biting a piece of cloth, I casted Gift of the Naaru, healing the whole the needle had left in my chest, but I was still poisoned, and according to my status, the poison would remain for an hour in my system, and it would kill me in an hour or so if I didn't find a cure to it.

Standing up from the ground, I flickered with a poof of smoke to one of the nearby trees, trying to get as far away from the Puppet master as possible, I had to position myself better to help my team, but as I skipped through the trees, the Puppet master stopped me, "You're alive… that means we can play,"

"Raiden! Disengage!" my captain shouted, struggling against one of the puppets the doll master was remotely handling.

I knew I had to disengage, but how… the puppet master was faster, stronger, and had a weird interest in me, I had to fight, if I was going to die, I might as well, die trying, "Fire Blast!" kneading my chakra I blasted the Puppet master with a quick but powerful explosion of raging fire.

At this, the puppet master laughed, flickering behind me, dodging my attack, with ease, "Nice reaction time," he whispered into my ear.

In shock, I turned around as fast as I could, but as I did so, I was kicked away into the ground, by the laughing puppet master, "Let's play some more!" he cacked, as I cursed under my breath, that kick had taken a little over ten percent of my HP.

"Raiden! We need some help!" one of my squadmates shouted, and I thought, no shit sherlock, I need help too.

"Time to die!!!" The puppet master screamed, throwing another needle at me, then another, and another, creating an endless chain of attacks, but this time, his attacks were slow, not like his first one, this time I was able to see them and react accordingly. Ducking under the projectiles. I continued to dodge his relentless throws, wondering why were his attacks getting slower, there had to be a reason behind it. "Die I said!" he screamed, even his mental state was changing.

Taking a step back, I blocked one of the needles with a Kunai, and summoned my pets into the battle, positioning Deandre behind the puppet master, and my Void Walker in front of me to tank the attacks, should the necessity ever come.

"You are not supposed to dodge! You are not supposed to be alive!" he screeched and suddenly his two hands shot out, stretching beyond the limits of what human body is capable, much to my shock, Ducking, I avoided one of his arms as it passed past me, while the other was stopped by my Void Walker, who tanked the entire hit, dropping his HP to a third. "Die…" using the arm I had dodge, he grabbed the ground and pulled himself closer to me with great speed, stabbing me in the chest, while doing so.

In pain, my vision blurred as my health dropped to less than a third, growling Deandre lunged at the puppet master, biting him of the arm, buying me enough time to heal myself with Flash Heal, "I can only take two hits…" I muttered, realizing if he managed to connect to attacks, I would die.

Turning around, I saw my squad struggling against the puppets… which brought up the question, how was the puppet master controlling the puppets and fighting me at the same time? Was that the reason behind his decrease in speed?

"How are you still alive… you trickster!" Kicking Deandre to the ground, the puppet master growled, before throwing his arms at me, once again, I dodged, as I dismissed my Void Walker, summoning my Imp into battle, what I needed was not a tank but extra damage. Cackling with delight, my Imp started to spam fireballs at him, much to the dismay of the Puppet Master.

Grabbing a Kunai from my pouch, I took the opportunity to stab him in the arms, but a terrible realization struck me. His arms took no damage, "You can't make wood bleed…." the puppet master cackled, and this made no sense, he flinched when Deandre bit him…. Which means, not all his arm is made out of wood, the fucker is partially a puppet.

Using the body replacement technique, I left a clone behind with the sole objective to buy me some time, I knew I was not going to win if I didn't change my strategy, so I summoned Deandre to my side and muttered, "I am sorry buddy, but… I think this is the only way," Deandre whined, understanding what I was about to do, I was taking a page from the first enemy I encountered, it was time to go out with a bang, covering Deandre with all the explosive tags I had in my possession, I ordered him to hide, as I waited to be out of combat to use stealth, knowing this extended to my active pets.

"Where are you!!!" the puppet master shouted, as I activated stealth… he had already killed my Imp and clone, so this suicidal plan was my last resort, for I knew he would see me as soon as I was within thirty meters of him, but that's all I needed, for him to not know where I was for a bit, while Deandre prowled behind him, "There you are!" as I had predicted, he saw me the moment I reached a thirty-meter radius of him.

"Fuck," I cursed, as the puppet master grabbed by the arm,

"Any last words?" The puppet master inquired, licking my cheek in delight.

I nodded, seeing how my wolf was within striking distance, "Deandre… play dead," cutting my arm with chakra powered Kunai, I blinked, as Deandre lunged at the puppet master, swallowing him in a massive explosion.