On this full moon night, another clash was about to take place at the other side of the district.
"Huh? It's just a kid... What would a child be doing outside at this hour?" Bert wondered.
"Don't insult me like that! I'm not a kid!" The young boy exclaimed eagerly.
"I'll let you know that I'm thirteen and half so I'm almost 14 which means that I'm a big boy closer to be an adult", He added with a pride look on his face.
"Eeehh, then your first pubic hair has started to grow? Did your balls too?" Lore said teasingly.
"W-W-What are you saying?! Talking about things like that in such an open way, a-aren't you ashamed of yourself ?!" He said, as he turned red while stuttering.
"Eehh, but you just said that you were a big boy, aren't you ? Or is it too much for you to handle ?" She replied, still teasingly.
"N-never mind..." He replied, looking away.
"I won't ask you why you were following us so just leave. We're in a hurry and don't have time to chat", Lore said as she resumed her walk.
"Sorry kid but you should go home. Your parents would be worried to know that you are outside at such an hour", Bert said as he followed Lore.
Then, jumping off the roof, he landed with his head bowed in front of Lore and Bert stopping them from moving forward.
"I thought I already told you... Don't treat me like a child", said the young boy while slowly raising his head and gazing at them threateningly.
"Be careful Lore, his aura-", Bert said before being cut off by Lore.
"Yeah, I know... It's leaking out", she said.
"Besides that, I can't let you reach the South Side but, you can go anywhere else thought", said the young boy.
"Oh, so you won't let us go? So, there's really something happening over there?" Lore said Sarcastically but the young boy remained silent.
*Sigh* "I guess I'll have to figure it out by myself."
Next, she partially took her wolf form (arms and legs), got down on all fours and, accelerate to force her way through the young boy as Bert shouted her name to prevent her from doing so.
As she was about to pass, she suddenly stopped moving.
"Didn't you hear me? I said you ain't going over there", the young boy said as Lore was pulled back and then knocked to the ground by a something which grabbed her by the tail.
"Lore! Are you okay ?!" Bert said, rushing to help her get up.
"Of course, I'm okay, it was nothing", she said annoyed as she stood up.
"What was that thing?" She wondered as she looked at the young boy and saw next to him a human-sized wooden puppet covered in a black sheet.
""That thing" you said, is my puppet. I named it Razor", the young boy said.
"A puppet?" Lore said.
"Oh, I never introduced myself, right? My name is Puppenspieler and, I can control this puppet thanks to magic circles that I draw on their head.
"Magic circle? I've never heard of someone who could do something like this" Lore said.
"Really Lore? Yet Captain Karl has already told us about it", Bert said.
"Shut up! I never listen to that idiot anyway."
*Sigh* "It's a lost art which require a perfect control of mana. It was practised in Wüstrom, the hottest region of this world. There's only a few people left who know how to use it, but I never thought that I'd meet one in the Kingdom of Fretzia."
Then, he looked at Puppenspieler and asked, "So can we assume that you're not from Fretzia? If yes, what are you doing here then?"
"Who knows ?" He replied, shrugging his shoulders.
"Well either way, I'd still want to know what your main goal is by keeping us here", Bert said, as he took a stand with his spear, ready to go into action.
"I see" Puppenspieler said.
As Bert was about to start running toward him, he said, "Sorry, I don't usually fight kids, but you seem like trouble so, we have to neutralize you."
Puppenspieler, under the protection of his puppet Razor which, turned his hands into rotating razors just stood there fearlessly.
"Lore! I'll take care of the puppet while you'll catch the kid!"
"Roger that!"
Running towards their enemy with great confidence, their recklessness was what Puppenspieler was waiting for to trap them.
"Oh right, did I mention that I have more than one puppet?"
"Huh ??!!"
And suddenly, a big puppet twice the size of Bert, came through the wall of the house next to him by crashing it and, immediately tried to punch him while another one falling from the sky fired arrows at Lore.
Even though they were taken by surprise, they were quick enough to react to their attack.
Bert countered the punch with his spear but found himself thrown backwards by the force created by the shock while Lore dodged the arrows fired at her by doing back flips but was scratched by two of them on her right cheek and her left thigh.
"Tch! I've been touched", Lore said annoyed.
The young boy's praise and applause was the least they could receive after being able to survive his surprise attack. Nevertheless, he still reminded them that it will take more to defeat him.
"I named them Rock and Archer. A power type perfect to knock off the big guy over there and, a long-range type perfect for hunting beasts like the lady next" he said as Lore glared at him while growling.
It seems like it will take longer than I thought to get rid of him, thought Bert.
How many puppets can he control at once? Are there any other hidden ones? It has become a tricky situation, he wondered while sweating.
"It doesn't matter how many of them you got, I'll still get the fuck out of there!" Lore shouted to Puppenspieler as she stood up.
Lore?
"I don't know about this moron, but I don't plan on staying here any longer than that", she said.
After hearing her speak so confidently, Bert had no choice but to feel encouraged by those words. Then he smiled before getting up.
*Sigh*"Who are you calling moron? I keep telling you I'm your superior, idiot", he said to Lore.
"Who cares? Moron, humph!" lore said with a pouting face while crossing her arms.
"Look, you gotta understand that-" Bert was saying before he got brutally interrupted by Puppenspieler who threw a punch at him using his puppet, Rock.
Fortunately, he saw it coming so he was able to dodge it. Then in turn, he launched an attack using his spear intended to pierce Rock's stomach. With strength and speed combined in this move, Puppenspieler was unable to move Rock in time therefore, it got hit but, thanks to its sturdiness, it was undamaged. Instead, it was sent flying away from Bert due to the power of Bert's attack.
What? How is it this sturdy? With this spear I can chop down a whole tree but despite that I couldn't even crack his puppet, Bert wondered surprised.
"Hey, are you sure that your puppet is made of wood?" Bert asked.
"Of course, why?" Puppenspieler replied.
"Hey, hey, hey are you serious now? You know exactly why I'm asking that. This thing is harder than a rock."
"That's why I named it Rock."
*Sigh*"Well, at the same time if they were that easy to break, you would never have used them against us."
"Here I come, Puppenspieler!"
As the fight between Bert and Rock continue, Lore still couldn't get close to Archer which prevented her to do so thanks to its arrows. She got hit by four of them when she tried to use her two arms as a shield to protect herself before getting out of its range.
It shoots at an amazing speed, no wonder why I can't close the gap between us but it's not that deep, all I have to do it's to go faster than it, she thought with a devious smile on her face.
She took a deep breath, then exhaled. Got on all fours, planted them firmly in the ground then, exploded at full speed. Her speed suddenly increased, and she was going so fast that she was blended in the wind.
Archer tried to shoot more arrows at her but by then she was already in front of it and sent it flying with a big punch.
While on the other side, Bert used a magic spell that enhance physical attributes and shouted, "Enhance magic!" to activate it. Then, he ran towards Rock, caught and lifted it by the waist, next, threw it into an abandoned house and made it collapse on top of it.
"Eeehh?! Archer... Rock... No way they beat you that easily" Puppenspieler said sadly with tears in his eyes.
Next, Bert and Lore started to run towards Puppenspieler who sent his puppet, Razor to stop them. Bert used his strength to stop it by dodging its attacks first, then grabbed its arms, ripped them and, trampled it after telling Lore to continue without him first.
"You're harmless now, if you just surrender nothing bad will happen to you" Lore said as she was approaching him.
Then, she jumped in front of him while Bert snuck in from behind and shouted, "Got you!" as they were about to catch him but, the anxious look that Puppenspieler had on his face quickly turned into an evil smirk.
"You should watch your step" he said after being encircled by both of them.
Suddenly, Bert and Lore sensed something coming from under the ground but by the time they realized it, it was already to late. More than a hundred of puppets came out from there, hit them, and prevent them to catch Puppenspieler.
Are you joking right now?! How is he able to control that many puppets? Bert thought in shock.
How was he able to hide them underground?! I couldn't even sense them, Lore thought confused.
"So, let me introduce you to my puppets soldiers. They are all the same and individually they are nothing special, but together they could take over a whole country", Puppenspieler said with confidence.
"Now let the show begin!" He added while smirking with his arms wide open as the moon shone on him surrounded by his puppets as if he were the main character on a theatre stage.