CH121 The Revenant and the Doll
“I want to just leave and forget about this den of snakes.” Alex grumbled.
The sea elf in the bathysphere held up a hand. “Don’t be too hasty. Let's think about what the options are.”
Alex tried not to be hysterical. “Do we have a nuclear option? I’d want to pick that one.”
“Nuclear?” Ariel blinked. “What’s that?”
“It is the one where everything gets destroyed. I am not sure I can explain nuclear physics well though.” The black-haired magical girl squinted.
“Anyway,” the sea-elf magical girl tapped her peg leg on the steel floor. “You said that they were going to build the ship?”
Alex begrudgingly agreed. “Yes, though with how backstabbing they are it wouldn’t surprise me if even that was a lie. I trusted Donald. He seemed like a stand up kind of guy before he handed me over like some kind of tax.”
“Well, technically, he handed over a wooden doll.” the sea elf continued. “You signed a contract right? Maybe the wording was not so favorable.”
“I’m not a lawyer.” Alex slumped against the steel wall of the bathysphere. “But yeah, I see my mistake. A wooden doll could be considered part of the import. Though it would be a nasty stretch of logic. But in the same contract someone with a wooden peg leg would have to hand it over.”
Ariel frowned, but didn’t take the bait. “We never thought that they would deal with us fairly. Remember, the original plan was always to just steal a ship after they made it.”
Alex had to give her that. “Yeah, it just feels dirty. I don’t like dealing with people who I can’t trust. Also, I’m sorry about the peg leg comment. That was a low blow.”
The sea elf waved a webbed hand. “Then don’t deal with them. How about this? The lumber can stay in the harbor, far enough away that someone can’t get it from shore. The nereids would love to use it as bait. Some demons might try to set it on fire or try to get it. But the water is not their domain. Eventually, they may send some humans out to get it. And only the shipwrights will be allowed to claim it.”
“You think that’ll work.” Alex thought that the plan was bound to go wrong and it showed on her face.
“Donald wanted to build the ship.” Ariel stated firmly. “From what you told me, It sounded like the shipwrights were having a hard time. We could rescue them and try to set them up somewhere that isn’t demon occupied and has comparable facilities nearby.”
Alex had to give her that. “Yeah, this town has the best harbor from everything we’ve seen on the river. And you would know about other coastal settlements better than me.”
“There are some ruined ports on islands.” Ariel considered their options. “Any place with non-humans living there wouldn’t want to accept human refugees.”
After further discussion, they decided to take a risk. They used Merumeru's sub and some invisible water magic to leave the combined lumber near the shipwright's guild in the harbor. This would likely keep the guild busy throughout the winter if they began constructing the ship.
Things could fall apart but Alex didn’t want to stick around here any longer than she had to. Merumeru wound up her mini sub and pulled the bathysphere back upstream. The tiny vessel tugged at the chain, and impossibly they kept going upstream at a decent pace through the fog. She suspected that a little sea elf or nereid magic was helping them along.
On the way to the swamp, they heard the sounds of battle on the western shore.
“Meru me!” Merumeru popped her head in the mini-sub and pointed excitedly in the direction of the noise.
Funi and Fufi, who were also hiding in the bathysphere, agreed to check it out. After they surfaced, Ariel and Alex opened the top hatch and let the birds out.
“We can’t fly past the water but we should be able to see what is going on from a high enough spot.” Fufi spread her wings.
“Stupid king’s abilities.” Funi also complained.
The two flamingos took flight and it only took a minute for one to come back.
“It looks like a big fight.” Fufi landed. “A hoard of demons is fighting a skeleton and the hero doll.”
A bit worried, Alex jumped in the water and swam to the shallows. She summoned the carriage and pulled out her three combat dolls and used her ability to change into her magical girl outfit.
Fufi blocked Alex's path, flying in front of her face before she could get to the shore. “Alex, there are too many. Remember your dance partner skill is not good against big groups.”
Ariel also surfaced from the river. “We should try to draw them to the river. Fire demons are weak against water. Don’t let them bait you inland.”
Alex grit her teeth. “Okay, but I’m worried about mister skeleton and Hiroshi.” The doom music could be heard playing.
Imps were piling on the skeleton and the doll was stuck to its back like a backpack. They bit, cut and stabbed, breaking off chunks of bone from the surrounded skeleton.
"Ground teeth!" the skeleton snarled, thrusting his weapon, a broken, soot-covered plow, into the earth. From the ground erupted curved, reddish-black teeth, impaling the imps and instantly killing those struck in vital areas. Wisps of energy flowed from the defeated imps into the skeleton, mending its fractured bones and healing its chips.
"Ground teeth!" The skeleton plunged the plow, wielded like a greatsword, into the sandy soil once more. Dark teeth erupted, damaging all nearby demons. He was taking a lot of abuse, but healing it just as quickly.
More imps fell.
“Hmph, you incompetent fools,” a demon in a red and black ninja outfit, complete with a hood and mask, sneered. “Such pathetic progress. Cease your clumsy attempts! You're merely undoing any damage.”
Alex set the dolls down and danced, activating [animate doll].
Lily fired a tiny arrow that sparkled through the mist and struck an imp in the head.
The imp dropped.
Rose fired her squirt gun but the imps were out of range so she stopped. Also, Edelweiss didn’t attack for a similar reason. Alex looked around for a boulder to launch with her attack like in the woods but the beach just had water and sand.
Ariel looked around frustrated but gave up. “I need a ship to use my magical girl powers. They are not in the water and the bathysphere doesn’t have any weapons.”
Alex kept dancing, and eventually ran out of arrows.
Ariel mounted Merumeru’s mini-sub and they tried to get a good angle with the pew pew gun. The problem was that the projectiles were slow, so shooting at that range would only work if they could catch them off guard.
The skeleton eventually broke free of the dogpile and headed to the water.
The hoard of demons followed him
The ninja demon scoffed at the imps. "Keep your distance from the water, you dolts. Do you truly wish to become fodder for those aquatic beasts?"
Some imps listened and backed off, but the skeleton baited them to the water.
Like an unseen octopus, watery tendrils snaked from the river, forming a sudden wave that crashed onto the banks. It engulfed the dogpile on the skeleton, dragging them into the river's waiting, watery depths.
The skeleton stuck his plow into the ground and held firm. He spun the plow around with one hand and pointed it at the demon leader, gesturing him forward.
The demon leader scoffed, not even deigning to budge. "Did you really think that would work on me?" He flicked his wrist, and a chained spear materialized, embedding itself in the skeleton's rib cage. "Now, come here!"
Though the skeleton gripped the plow, the demon's strength prevailed. The skeleton flew, weapon in hand, towards the demon, momentarily stunned.
The red-and-black-ninja-oufited demon crouched down and gave him an uppercut that launched him into the sky.
The skeletal figure crumpled from the impact, bones crunching, its arms, legs, and skull shattered. Yet, with its remaining good arm, it clutched the plow, shielding the hero doll from the brunt of the blow.
The remaining imps all dogpiled him.
With some more ground teeth, the imps were all lifeless on the ground, and the skeleton began to heal again.
The doll was severely damaged. It bore burn marks and cracks, and following the most recent impact, only one of its circular saw blades remained operational.
Now it was down to just the demon and the skeleton.
"You insignificant bug," the demon sneered. "I'll grind your bones to dust." He threw another spear, impaling the skeleton again and dragging him further from the water before delivering another brutal uppercut that launched him dozens of feet into the sky.
The skeleton landed with another crack of bones.
Alex had enough. She channeled [dance partner] on the demon and rushed forward.
The demon saw her approaching and threw a spear with a chain at her.
Alex dodged and held Rose out.
“Oh, a magical girl.” He chuckled behind the black cloth mask. “Impressive you could dodge my strike. Where did . . .”
But then a torrent of water from Rose’s squirt gun hit him in the face.
“Grlluuurruge gur glug.” The demon gurgled unintelligibly.
Rose kept the stream up until she ran out of water. They were far enough away that she couldn’t put a hose directly into the river.
The demon shook himself off and another spear with a chain magically appeared in his hand. He threw it at Alex, who dodged it.
Alex danced back toward the water, hoping to bait the demon.
The demon went to take a step forward but stopped itself. “That won’t work on me.”
“Plunge!” The skeleton shouted. He flew up into the air, lifted the plow back up above his head and brought it down on the demon. This was extra impressive due to the fact that he left both of his legs on the ground.
The demon staggered backward, pulled the plow from his chest and tossed it aside. A skeletal hand still grasped the plow but it broke off from the arm it was attached to.
“Burn you annoying thing!” The demon pulled down his mask, revealing a lower face that was almost completely long thin teeth. He opened his mouth and spat what looked like a ball of fluid that covered the skeleton. It burst into a blue flame and engulfed the skeleton in a puff that turned him into a pile of ash.
“Oh no!” Alex gaped at the pile of ash that used to be the skeleton.
“You are next, magical girl!” The demon launched another spear-with-chain at Alex, who dodged thanks to dance partner.
With two of her dolls being out of ammo, Alex didn’t have a good way to attack this demon. If it could turn the skeleton to ash with a single breath, then she wasn’t sure that Edelweiss would do well in a close fight.
Alex took a step back.
Another spear flew at her, and missed.
Then the demon started spasming.
The doom music intensified. A circular saw blade cut a hole through the demon’s chest and a very damaged doll jumped out, covered in demonic blood.
The demon fell to the ground, twitching, black blood pooling around him. Like his kin, he began evaporating into a dark mist.
The hero doll, its armor grated from the damage, crawled back to the pile of ash. It used its small body to shield the remains. The doll's winding mechanism soon ran out, and it stopped, the ominous music fading with it.