Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 12 - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The Puppet’s Struggle ~Rose’s POV~

Naked human shapes appeared out of the light. They were smooth from top to bottom, with no distinctive sexual features. All of their bland faces were identical. The sight seemed eerie and divine in equal measure, and the words of the man who’d created them stimulated my memory.

“Angel Puppets...?”

I’d heard that term before. That was the name of the ability that one of Travis’s subordinates had used. My master, Lily, and Gerbera had witnessed it for themselves. When Shiran lost her mind and went on a rampage after seeing her home being attacked, one of the knights of the Holy Order had employed this.

“So you survived,” I said. “I didn’t see them on the battlefield, so I was under the impression you were already dead.”

During the defensive battle that followed, these angel puppets hadn’t appeared on any of the battlefields. I’d figured their user had died before being able to put them to use. Many knights had died during Gerbera and Lily’s surprise attack in the forest, and a few casualties had occurred when Lobivia knocked down the house. Even I’d blown up several knights with combat fireworks. Therefore, it was more than possible that he had died during one of those incidents.

That wasn’t the case, though. He was alive and now stood in my path.

“I’m Ottmar Valhalder of the Angel Puppeteer. I’ll be using my trump card too,” he said, then commanded his puppets, “Go.”

The puppets broke into a run, looking as if they were gliding across the ground. They were armed with spears that had a winglike design. Once they closed the distance, they silently thrust their weapons at me. I swung my axe in response, repulsing their spear tips.

Due to the traits of our weapons, I had much more mass behind my blows, but the enemy came out with the upper hand after our clash nonetheless. The spears that should’ve been halted drew a sharp arc through the air and came back at me. Seeing such spearmanship, I immediately knew that these were no simple foes. Furthermore, they weren’t acting as independent entities. The three angel puppets coordinated as if they were one, surpassing even the knights’ teamwork.

“Ugh...”

I dodged, parried, and blocked. Nevertheless, I couldn’t keep up, and their spears shaved away at my body. They were far stronger than I’d heard.

Lily and Gerbera had told me that they’d easily defeated the angel puppets they encountered. These weren’t anywhere near that weak, though. Did it have to do with numbers? They had faced twenty puppets at once, but there were only three here now. Maybe having fewer puppets made the individual specimens stronger, or maybe Ottmar was using stronger specimens and could only bring out a few of them. I didn’t know the details of his ability, so I couldn’t say for sure, but either way, it meant he’d adapted to the situation at hand.

What’s more, the knights I’d just been fighting were watching the battle unfold, looking for any opening. I had no choice but to remain focused on them too. I was at a disadvantage here, and the one thing I had going in my favor was my combat matryoshka.

Every time my limbs were quickly reduced to tatters, I swapped them out. By doing so, I just barely managed to keep the battle going. Unfortunately, I hadn’t made any attacks of my own between taking on the perfectly coordinated puppets and making sure not to give the knights any openings.

My axe wasn’t enough. Realizing this, I pulled out a knife. I was running out due to the long battle, but it was worth the sacrifice. I charged the knife with mana and threw it. Ready to use the opening from the explosion, I tightened my grip on my axe—

“Wha—?!”

The puppets charged through the blast. By repulsing the knife with their spears, they’d flung the explosion as far away as possible, keeping its effect to a minimum. The puppets were a little off-balance, but the opening this yielded lasted no longer than a second.

The angel puppets looked far more human than I did. They had nothing like ball joints anywhere on their bodies, but they were simply manipulated puppets. They were mere objects. Conceptually, they weren’t all that different from projectile weapons.

They closed the distance as if nothing had happened and thrust their spears. I swung my axe in response, but my stocks were running low. All the resources I’d stockpiled, everything I’d built up over so much time, my very existence, was being shaved away bit by bit. They were driving me to the very end of my rope.

“Gah...?!”

A blow struck my waist. At this rate, I would die. I could sense it.

“Aaaah!”

The impending danger riled me up. I exchanged my limbs and stepped forth. One could say that this was reckless of me and that the price for this action would be severe.

“G-Gah...”

I repelled one attack but ate the others head-on. My left bicep and right knee were destroyed. I was prepared for this, so even as pieces of my limbs scattered about, I kept pushing forward. The means to survival was now open to me.

“Right...there!”

Even as I pitched forward pathetically, I got in range of one of the puppets.

“You won’t get away!”

I hefted my axe with one hand and swung hard as if to tear out my own arm. My weapon drew a large arc through the air, aimed right at the puppet’s torso. Its left arm shattered with a shrill noise like breaking porcelain.

“Ah...”

My axe hadn’t reached the puppet’s body. It had defended itself by sacrificing an arm. For a human, losing a limb would be severe enough to render them immobile, but to a puppet, it was nothing more than losing a part of its body.

I knew this very well. I’d been doing the same thing this whole time, after all. Now they were doing it back to me. That was how I was able to predict the severe attack that followed. However, even though I knew it was coming, I didn’t have enough time to react.

The one-armed puppet lunged with its spear, its tip shattering the left side of my face. By the time I realized this, the two uninjured puppets closed in.

“Gah...?!”

One thrust carried plenty of momentum, piercing my shoulder, and with my joint destroyed, my left arm fell off. The damage was serious. I could use my combat matryoshka to replace a damaged arm, but I couldn’t do anything when the joint was missing. The remaining attack pierced deep into my waist, making a horrible sound.

“U-Ugh...”

A crack ran down my body from the perforation. I’d taken a critical hit on a spot that had suffered several blows already. If anything else went even slightly wrong, my entire torso would shatter. The damage to my body was too severe, and I couldn’t get my legs to move. The enemy would not let this chance pass either.

“Got you!”

Coordinating with the puppets, one of the sharp-eyed knights to the side leaped into action. He was surely going to smash my body to bits with his sword and incapacitate me.

It was all over...

“Aaaaaaah!”

I could never accept that.

In a battle between puppets who neglected any damage they received, I’d lost the only advantage I had. However, I possessed something a simple puppet didn’t—this emotion in my heart. It still wasn’t over. I gripped my axe in my hand with all my might and swung upward diagonally at the knight who’d leaped at me. Under the impression that I could no longer move in my current state, he took the blow defenselessly.

The knight collapsed with a spray of blood, a look of shock frozen on his face. I stopped paying him any mind and rotated my axe overhead. Both sides were ignoring the damage they’d taken in this brawl. This time it was my turn. I brought my axe down into the head of the puppet before me. The half-moon blade cleaved it in two from its cranium all the way to its chest. I didn’t have the time to yank my weapon back out, so I let go.

In human terms, perhaps this was much like summoning great strength when facing a raging fire. My broken body moved better than ever before. Nevertheless, my actions had been so reckless that I heard creaking coming from my tortured joints. At this rate, I was liable to destroy myself. I didn’t care, though, and spun on the spot.

“Out of the way!”

I slammed my fist into the face of the puppet who’d dismembered me. My hand shattered, and the puppet somersaulted backward. In its place, the third puppet lunged at me with its spear. I blocked with my one arm and pulled it in.

“Aaaaah!”

I headbutted it right in the face with everything I had. I heard a destructive crash, and the puppet toppled over with a broken skull. I also fell in the opposite direction from the recoil.

“Gah.”

I slammed into the ground with my back, and for an instant, my consciousness went hazy.

“Ugh, aah...”

Because I’d been using my mana so extravagantly, the reserves I needed to maintain my own being were finally reaching depletion. Or maybe all the damage I’d taken was now threatening my very existence. Not that I cared either way. I started to get back on my feet, but my body creaked all over as I did.

“Not...yet...”

I tried to stand, but I couldn’t manage to do so. Because I’d pushed myself too hard, the crack running across my waist had gotten larger. Regardless, I had to get back up. I still had something I had to protect.

“I can...still fight...”

I saw the fallen spear nearby that’d come loose from my body when I tumbled over. I exchanged my broken arm for a new one and picked up the weapon. Using it as a cane, I stood up straight.

“I can still...”

I couldn’t finish that sentence. In the next instant, an airborne rock shot right through me.