CH89 Manor Mayhem
"Get behind the stables," Alex urged the other humans dressed in maid uniforms. "That huge demon and Mistress are absolutely furious; I can practically feel the sparks flying between them." They scrambled for cover behind the stables.
Trudy, teetering on the edge of panic, asked, "What are we going to do? Do you think our mistress will win?"
Alex wrung her hands, fretting, "I don't know. I'm not good at fighting groups, but if I had some dolls, maybe I could do something."
"Dolls? Fighting?" Zeke's face went pale. "Alice, you're not making any sense. You don't have a combat class, do you? You know those are illegal. Mistress will force you to abandon your class, and then you'll be classless for at least a year."
"What? She can make you forsake a class? I didn't think anyone could do that." Alex looked at Zeke, shocked.
“No one can do it for you if that is what you are asking. But they can bring you before the noble and say do it or we’ll have you executed.” Zeke answered seriously. “Please tell me you don’t have a combat class. I was sure you didn’t, cooking and cleaning are class skills for you. I thought you seemed better at it than people that didn’t have those skills. Those are not class skills for a combat class that I’ve ever heard of.”
“Is this really the time for a discussion?” Alex gave Zeke a stern look. “I think there are more important problems right now.”
One of the fire cultivators shot a firebolt that came dangerously close to the carriage.
Zeke held Alex back when it became apparent she wanted to bolt towards the carriage. “Don’t go. They are just starting to fling things back and forth. You don’t want to get caught in the crossfire.”
Butler imps swarmed the yard grabbing all kinds of small martial weapons, trying to force the unwelcome visitors back through the main gates.
“But my friend is in that carriage.” Alex struggled, not thinking logically.
“Alice, you just told us to hide behind the stable. Now you want to run out and try to grab the prize the two are fighting through? I know that is your carriage but it is still just a thing.” Trudy sounded flabbergasted. “Please, don’t throw your life away.”
“I can’t just sit here and watch. She’s in trouble.” Alex struggled to get free. She watched stray firebolts strike the carriage, leaving blackened marks. It was only a matter of time before something caught the wood on fire.
The battle escalated. Despite the efforts of the black-skinned, butler-outfit-wearing group to expel the red-skinned, robe-wearing imps, they were unsuccessful. Their arrows and charges were met with disruption from the larger demon's fire attacks, allowing a steady stream of red-skinned fire-cultivator imps to pour into the yard.
While the red imps displayed obvious fire power through burning punches and fiery kicks, the black imps utilized more subtle abilities. A momentary daze in a red imp would be seized by a black imp for a devastating strike. However, the big fire demon's contribution surpassed Lady Yvne's. Alex wondered if her repeated use of power to control the unruly maids played a role in this imbalance.
“You are weak.” The big fire demon taunted.
“Thou art foolish and short-sighted,” Yvne sneered down from the balcony. “This town shall turn into a wasteland without a noble to keep the land fertile.”
“Good, the humans will suffer. We are fulfilling our contract.” The demon cackled and spewed more fire on the landscaping. The buildings were stone with clay-tiled roofs but many plants in the area caught fire.
“Thou art so witless, burning everything to the ground is not sustainable. We’ve got to milk this contract for all it is worth. There are already more demons than humans in this kingdom. We’ll all get sent back if they go extinct.” Lady Yvne shrieked then dodged another firebolt.
“Anything to tier up cultivation. It is our way.” The red-skinned tier 2 demon shot another firebolt that struck the carriage this time, leaving a blackened, smoking mark. “You are soft. The fire clan didn’t take much convincing to get to rise up against you.”
“The only reason they dwell here is because the humans keep the pyres burning.” She sounded exasperated. “Your timing is terrible. I am busy preparing servants for the high nobility. What do you think will happen if your clan attracts the ire the greater demons controlling this kingdom?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time one of our kind has had to flee after snatching a great prize. If anyone ever came back with that 100 year old ginger posted on the quest board they would be mobbed. And who said we wanted anything to do with your human farm?” The demon immolated a black imp.
The fighting made it to the carriage. A black imp jumped up on top of the carriage and shot arrows at the red imps.
Firebolts from the fire clan peppered the wooden walls of the carriage. Little plumes of smoke and blacked boards painted the carriage in wake of being used as makeshift cover.
The door of the carriage flung open and a wooden-flamingo-shaped clockwork doll ran out.
“Oh look at the magic coming off of that doll. I wonder how well it will burn.” The bigger red demon fired a firebolt at Fufi.
The attack struck her, and the flames stuck, igniting the frills that were decorating the outfit. Fufi kept fleeing towards Alex though.
The black imp on top of the carriage got swarmed after that. The red imps ran into the seating area and lit it on fire. They pulled off the panels and started ransacking everything. Stuffed animals, dolls, bolts of cloth were thrown down into a pile. Rose, Edelweiss and Lily were tossed aside like garbage. Her outfits as well were tossed into the pile.
Another firebolt struck Fufi’s clockwork armor. She stumbled and fell. The flames grew and the armor became a blaze.
“Eject!” Alex screamed, worried that Fufi’s panic would keep the familiar from escaping the death trap.
Fufi ejected. She launched out of the clockwork armor and up into the air. The pink bird with singed feathers soared away and landed behind the carriage.
The sight of seeing a flamingo caused everyone to pause in their fighting.
“Shit.” The red-demon cursed and looked genuinely shaken.
“Behold the calamity you have wrought! You shall summon the wrath of a demigod upon us!” Yvne declared, her gaze fixed upon the infernal host.
As if waiting for the perfect moment, an eclipse happened. The sun became red and darkness spread over the land.
A red-skinned imp came out of the carriage holding the now-armored hero doll. The string, which was attached to the wall, had unintentionally been pulled and it began retracking.
That was when the doom music started. And all hell broke loose.
“Rip and tear.”
The soundtrack blared as the doll, cloaked in armor, lunged at the larger imp. Black shadows pulsed around the doll, radiating an aura of unrestrained fury. Despite the imp being twice its size, the doll seized its head with one small hand and simultaneously punched into its chest. With a bone-cracking yank and a pop, the head detached. The two pieces of the imp collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
The fight between the two sides was forgotten. The demons all charged the small doll.
A blood bath. That's the only way to describe what happened next.
Electrical guitar and distorted bass guitar blasted through the darkened area. Demons were bisected, limbs were used as beating sticks, hearts were pulled out of their chests. Demons, both black and red flew up into the air, struck by impossible strikes. They came down as dead bodies, spraying misting black blood all over the area.
The hero doll’s small hand grabbed the heel of a black imp, used the leverage to flip it into the ground, then reversed and slapped the demon back in the opposite way with a sickening crunch. Wordlessly, he flung the larger demon up into the balcony and it splattered against the wall, guts slipping out down the wall.
“Inconceivable, the grudge is the worst I’ve ever seen. And I thought the revenant was bad.” Yvne retreated into the mansion, abandoning any hope of standing a chance against the doll.
The tier 2 demon also fled back towards the gates. “Get out of here. There is no way we can handle that thing. I don’t know if even a tier 3 cultivator could tackle that cursed doll.”
The demons scattered in all directions.
Sadly, the next target was the biggest demon and he didn’t flee fast enough.
The doll charged through the imps like a bullet, severing all the demon’s limb that happened to be the way.
The tier 2 demon whirled and sprayed a stream of flame at the doll.
The doll didn’t care. He just charged right through it. Now a flaming doll attacked the fleeing demon. Hero’s doll latched onto the heel of the demon.
The demon tried to kick him off, repeatedly smashing him into the ground and kicking him with his other hoofed foot.
The armor was black now with flames consuming it but the doll didn’t stop. With a crunch, the demon’s leg broke.
“Gyhaaa!” The demon cried out in pain.
But the doll showed no mercy. The head of the demon was on a pike and the doll held it up in victory.
“Rip and tear.” The song continued. “Until it is done.”
The doll chased the demons out of the gate. It would suffer no survivors.
Zeke and Trudy just stared, mouths agape.
Fufi landed next to Alex. “That doll has anger management issues.”
“Apparently.” Alex blinked in disbelief. “Fufi are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m a little burnt.” She looked up at the sky. “Uh oh. Um, Alex, do you remember what I told you about magical girl Cosmos?”
“Yeah, she stepped back because of some accord.” Alex dusted off the soot and ash clinging to the flamingo. “Some of your feathers are burnt.”
“Cosmos’s greatest regret was when she failed to protect her familiar. So, I believe this attack gives her the right to extract a price. Because how the kingdom deals with not having to dance around avoiding familiars is just using nobility skills to keep them off their land.” Fufi looked around. “But, because your clockwork doll armor was so cute we were able to bypass the skill that would have kept me out.”
The fighting continued and no demons were left alive in the manor’s yard. The noise became more apparent when the doll left the yard and the music became less blasting.
Alex’s phone was making a lot of annoying noise. “What in the world?” Alex pulled out her phone.
[1 monster defeated]
The numbers kept counting up.
[25 monsters defeated]
[100 monsters defeated]
[Level up x2, Level increased from 3 to 5]
Alex gained two levels off of that. She dismissed the prompt, now was not the time.
“Alice, what are you doing with that pink bird? Everyone knows that you can’t deal with them because they steal people’s souls.” Trudy looked worried.
“Fufi, do you steal people’s souls?” Alex looked at a worried Trudy and Zeke then went back to Fufi.
“No, that is just lies the demons have spread to prevent people from becoming magical girls.” Fufi sounded offended.
“What do we do about Lady Yvne?” Alex looked around at the carnage. “She went back inside with the maids.”
“The first thing you have to do is get out of those clothes. They aren't cute at all!” Fufi flapped her wings and craned her head.
“How? They are cursed.” Alex frowned.
“Like something so uncute could stop you.” Fufi walked toward the carriage. It was still burning.
“Hmm, let me try something.” Alex reached for a not-burning part of the carried and willed it back into card form. It worked, now a card with a burning carriage rested in Alex’s hand. Alex searched through the pile and found some tailoring tools. Alex snipped at the fabric of the maid outfit with scissors and to her surprise they cut right through them like normal fabric. “How?” Alex looked at Fufi.
“Through the power of cuteness!” Fufi sang.
“That doesn’t make sense. I can’t take them off but I can cut them up?” Alex furrowed her brows.
“It is a loophole. The curse prevents things from being removed. But you are tailoring and all of your magic is based on cuteness. The cuteness will prevail!” Fufi kept that sing-song voice.
Alex quickly fashioned new outfits for Zeke and Trudy from her spare clothing after cutting them free from their maid costumes and tossing the remnants into a fire. Within minutes, she was clad in her magical girl attire. A strange phenomenon occurred: the defeated monster counter continued to rise. Was the doll truly capable of clearing the entire town?