Eh! Where Did My Pen... Pen... Go!?!

Book 1.5: Amaranthe Guild – Side Stories

Koko's Tale

The Puppet Asylum (Part 5B)

Kilijoy Dollhead easily burst free from the falling broken body that she was loosely attached to as the unseen Nethryn Web Tether extended and moved with her; Feeding her the Oryn energy needed to power all of her actions.

Rising up, she hovered by the side of Kresh's head, grinned mischievously (while doing her best to keep her laughter from giving her away), then hollered out, “Hey KRESH! I have a big surprise for you!”

Kresh's body hopped up a little at the unexpected shout next to his head.

Turning towards the voice, he gulped; There in front of his big face was a little birdie dollie head with fluttering purple hair atop a creepy cloud, floating.

“Uh-oh, Doctor going to be m-mad I broke another dollie,” Kresh mumbled to himself. Then tilted his head towards her as if something had just dawned on him, “Big surprise for me? What big surprise do you hab...”

Just the words I wanted to hear! With eyes like crescent moons, Kilijoy joyfully answered, “This big surprise!” Her beak opened wide and a silently screaming ghost-faced stream of noxious smoke spewed forth straight into Kresh's face!

Kresh's eyes widened and his hands reflexively pushed against the shelving they were holding onto sending him stumbling back as he shouted out a string of incomprehensible words and sounds.

Giggling, Kilijoy circled around Kresh, watching as he flailed about with his big hands, the motion fanning the air, dispersing the cloud of smoke surrounding his head.

Neth! It's like we feared. Other than obscuring his sight, my noxious cloud has no effect. After all, he's just a big animated plushie so he's not going to breathe it in. And since his eyes aren't real they won't itch and burn...

Well then, it's a good thing I still have another skill I can use, and that one should work just fine!

“Bad birdie dollie head! You scared Kresh. Now Kresh puni... Huh? Who are you guyses?...” Kresh asked, mouth agape as he stared upwards, spotting a strange new duo in the room through the thinning layer of smoke.

One of them was a floating dark-haired dollie head with some kind of metal around the side of one of her eyes and metal limbs coming out from where the neck should go in.

The other one looked kind of sorta like the little bunny dollie girl he needed to punish but was different. This new little bunny dollie girl that was crawling on the ceiling had much prettier hair, her fluffy ears were more pinkish, and her eyes... she had three pairs of eyes!

It was obvious that this one was an itsy bitsy bunny dollie girl.

So where did the other one go that had da same shirt as dis new itsy bitsy one? Kresh wondered.

Given an easy opportunity to try out her other skill, Kilijoy swooped down towards the back of Kresh's head; Her purple hair streaming behind her like a kite tail.

Distracted by the new duo's arrival, Kresh felt something slam into the back of his head causing his head to nod a little as a certain little bird beaked doll head bounced off, spinning up into the air.

Kresh responded to Kilijoy's attack by waving his hand behind his head as if shooing away a fly.

“Wow, my Razor Beak Bite only left a scratch! What's his cloth skin made of... ironsilk?” Kilijoy asked aloud as the dizzyness from the spinning rebound left her eyes.

Cylem was doing her best to keep from laughing as she bobbled in the air... pfft.

“I don't know, but looks like beating him is going to be harder than we thought. He's probably an elite; They're much tougher and stronger than regular mobs.” Demora replied while hanging from the ceiling. Ah, I'm not used to this upside-down view... and I can feel the blood flowing down into my head.

Seeing Demora speak, Kresh pointed at her as she made her way across the ceiling towards the wall with the door. “Why you sound like little bunny dollie girl? You have her voice and shirt...”

Reaching the wall, Demora turned around to face Kresh; Ignoring his questions, she called out, “Okay Cylem! Time to see what our spells can do. Let'em fly!”

Thrilled by the fact that she was about to use magic in the real world, Cylem happily gathered and shaped bluish-gray Nethryn energy, then unleashed it upon Kresh with a shout, “Nethryn Noctis Wingblade!”

A cold ethereal bluish-gray blade with small crow-like wings burst out of Cylem's open mouth and streaked towards Kresh's upper left side.

At the same time, Demora unleashed a ghostly faced orb of ectoplasmic energy from her hands. The ghostly orb arced down towards Kresh's right upper side, sandwiching him between both spells.

Kresh cried out as he stepped back from the impacts, the pair of spells crashing into his shoulders, one after the other. Kresh's plushie body trembled as a chill touched his spirit within his big plushie body. “T-that's c-cold! Bad d-dollies tryin to hurt Kresh. Now Kresh mad... P-Punish all of YOU!”

Angered, Kresh stomped towards Cylem but to his frustration that dark-haired dollie head with the waving mechanical limbs wouldn't come down to be punished.

As for Kilijoy, she simply giggled as she swooped down for another razor beak attack; This time she targeted the same spot Cylem's spell struck which she noticed had actually left a small puncture wound behind.

Her attack was rewarded as her beak turned the small puncture hole into a small tear!

Feeling a small biting pain, an angry Kresh spun around, flailing his arms at the retreating Kilijoy; Of course, Cylem took advantage of this, launching another ethereal wingblade, this one striking the back of his head.

Kresh spun about again, once more giving chase to Cylem.

Back and forth they went as Demora sat comfortably above studying the results of their attacks. Cylem's wingblade spells were actually strong enough to pierce Kresh's plushie body leaving behind small puncture holes; Holes that Kilijoy's razor beak attacks turned into tears.

As for her own ghostly orbs, they made slimy cold impacts upon Kresh's body causing him to shiver and slow for a short time. The impacted areas also appeared to be slippery wet.

As for Kresh's attacks, they were indeed powerful but he was just a bit too slow, making him easy to dodge. Plus, he couldn't reach them, even the few times he tried jumping and swinging.

Anyone watching could tell that it was just a matter of time before the giggling and swooping dollheads would defeat Kresh with a thousand cuts and tears.

After 5 minutes of him chasing them around, kicking up doll parts strewn about the floor along the way, Kresh came to a realization; He very much needed something to swat everyone down or else... Well, he didn't want to think about what 'or else' meant.

So a battered and torn Kresh stomped his way over to the cart, all the while flailing his arms and hands, warding off the circling and swooping doll heads who were giggling and having a great time; Something they were sure to share with the others once they were sent back to the dollhouse.

With a resounding CLANG! Kresh slapped his hand down on top of the cart causing many of the items atop it to bounce. “Bad dollie heads! Kresh reelly, reeeelllyy MAD NOW! Me make dollie head smasher to punish you. You jus wait an see!”

Kresh grabbed a lanky mannequin arm off the cart with one hand and a fistful of dark leathery dreadlocks belonging to an oversized beast dollie head with the other; The elongated oblong-shaped beast dollie head was dark blood red in color and sported several pairs of oily black predator eyes above a wide grinning maw filled with discolored needle teeth that seemed to glisten with saliva.

Lifting both items up into the air, he smashed the mannequin arm (hand first) into the open neck hole of the beast dollie head while uttering words that sounded like a bunch of discordant guttural sounds to Demora's ears.

Nethryn shadowblood energy flowed out from Kresh's hands into the joined parts, fusing them together as many of the leathery dreadlocks on the sides of the beast dollie's head slithered down to wrap around the mannequin arm shaft becoming a large scary Beast Hammer Whip.

Grinning widely, a now cheerful Kresh turned to face them.

“Now you bully Kresh no more! Kresh bully you!”

The trio paused for a moment, staring as Kresh's large Beast Hammer Whip seemed to come to life; Eyes glaring and snarling maw snapping at the air towards them.

“Not good... Be careful you two, we don't know what he can do with that thing!” Demora warned.

“True, but there's only one way to find out. And since these are just our temporary vessels, let us do the finding.” Kilijoy finished with a hint of laughter in her voice. Truth be told, she was getting quite bored of this fight since there was no challenge in it at all; But now, it looks like the difficulty of the game has just ramped up... she hoped.

Kresh, most angry at the biting birdie dollie head that kept painfully ripping and tearing at his cloth skin, gave chase as Cylem and Demora sent spells towards his large lumbering back.

Kresh's body trembled from the impacts of the spells but he clenched his jaw and paid it no nevermind. One by one by one he'd get them all... starting with that bad little birdie dollie head.

Kilijoy rose up to hover near the ceiling, out of the weapon's reach. Well, that is unless he throws it. The thought of him doing so made her spirit pulse quicken.

“Bad birdie dollie head hurt Kresh; Now Kresh hurt bad birdie dollie head!” Demora and Cylem shouted out a warning as Kilijoy focused in on the snarling beast hammerhead swinging her way.

Feeling a sense of danger, despite the fact that she knew the weapon shouldn't be able to reach, Kilijoy flew to her left towards the large storage shelves.

“Oh No You Don't!” Kresh yelled, straining his arms as he altered the course of his swing (unknowingly causing his shoulder seams to worsen). “Redlocks Sick'em!”

Hearing its master's command, the Beast Hammer Whip's dreadlocks tightened their hold around the weapon's shaft and pushed up. A small pop signaled the release of the beast hammerhead from the shaft! Eyes glaring, the dreadlocks stretched as the beast hammerhead whipped towards a retreating Kilijoy...

BAM!

Kresh WHOOPED as Kilijoy hurtled into the ceiling, hard; She bounced upon impact towards the back wall where she hit with a thud and fell onto the top shelf out of everyone's sight.

“KILIJOY!” Cylem and Demora shouted in unison.

They rushed to see if Kilijoy was still with them or if her vessel had broken in which case Demora would have to send her spirit body back to the dollhouse within her mind core, unable to be summoned again for at least a day.

Kresh, who had been standing in front of the wall staring up at the top shelf, waiting for the little birdie head to come down, nodded, “Gud. Bad birdie dollie head punished. Now to punish other dollie head that stab Kresh wit magicks.”

Kresh turned to see Cylem nearing from above as she was rushing over to check on Kilijoy. “Bad magicks dollie head... Kresh smash you next!” Kresh growled, stomping into Cylem's path from below while lifting his weapon up onto his shoulder.

With a grunt, he swung powerfully at Cylem.

Seeing the beast hammerhead heading her way, Cylem dodged right as Kresh once again altered his swing while shouting out, “Redlocks Sick'em!”

The beast hammerhead freed itself from the mannequin arm shaft and swung out towards Cylem; But Cylem had seen this move before so she quickly dodged again the moment Kresh's attack command left his mouth.

The beast hammerhead swooshed right below her causing Demora to breathe a sigh of relief but then something unexpected happened; The beast hammerhead, realizing it was going to miss low, snapped its face down towards the ground... hard; This caused all the dark leathery dreadlocks atop the center of its head to whip right at Cylem...

SNAP! SNAP! WHAP! WHAP! SNAP!

“Cylem!” Demora shouted as the dollie head went barreling towards the wall. Demora kicked off the ceiling, flying towards a spinning Cylem, catching her in her arms.

Seeing the floor coming up fast, she flipped her body round to land safely on both feet, knees bent, then double jumped high onto the shelves; Using one arm to cradle Cylem, she quickly scurried up to the top shelf to hide while a swooping and smoke screening Kilijoy flew past Kresh's face.

“Cylem! Can you hear me?” Demora asked, eyes watery as she held her gingerly on her lap. There was a pair of lash marks across the left side of her head; Her ear was caved in and there was hair missing.

Storymask

Ah! Just when it looked like Team Demora had everything well in hand, comfortably on the path to an easy victory, their battered and torn foe, Kresh, received a light bulb moment! A moment that led him to the use of his weapon-making skills, helping him to turn the tables on the bad little dollies with his Beast Hammer Whip! Now with Cylem downed and an injured Kilijoy smoke screening her way to Demora's side, what will happen next? Find out in The Puppet Asylum (Part 5C) coming up next!

(Next part (which is the last part of this chapter) to be released in about 4 hours or so... I just need to rework the last 500 words or so...)