Chapter 27 - Reinforcements

Ray got pulled back by the web and got stuck with a tree. He suddenly heard a female voice coming from behind her. The voice said, "Oh boy. How many times do I have to come to save your ass?"

The cold voice sent shivers down Ray's spine. He stayed still in an attempt to not get the attention of whoever the voice belonged to.

The puppeteer slowly got up. He tumbled as he did so. When he got on his feet, he wiped the blood from his face and spit a little more blood from his mouth. He said, "I told you, Silk. He's an interesting one. He made me bleed. Not once but twice."

Ray felt the female voice gradually coming closer as it said, "Of course you're going to play and be late; at least inform us. Boss sent me to look for you as you were getting late. Also, Anton is kind of irritated with you. Why did you suddenly summon his ants without his permission?"

The puppeteer held up his hands imitating a surrender and said, "Yes, sorry, sorry. I just needed something to play from my side."

Yuki was almost done with the ants, and when she saw the puppeteer talking nonchalantly with his guard down, he suddenly ran and jumped on the puppeteer. 

Just before she could touch the puppeteer, he suddenly moved away to one side and kicked Yuki in the abdomen, which sent her flying towards Ray. 

Yuki slammed to Ray and fell down. Ray crooked his body as much as he could as Yuki's body hit him. A few drops of tears came out of his eyes, and visible signs of pain appeared on his face. 

As Yuki fell down, she got back to her cat form. Ray got shocked, as he was sure that they'd be able to stay in the blood pact form for quite some more time. But soon he remembered the cut behind his head. He felt the back of his shirt wet from all the blood he spilt.

The puppeteer said, "Bad kitty. Can't you see that we're talking in here?"

Suddenly Ray felt the cold breaths of someone or something on his shoulder. He quickly turned to his shoulder, and fear took over him. He froze.

He saw a huge spider entomorph. It had the body of a spider, but instead of a head, it had a female upper body in that area. 

Ray realised that this was the same entomorph of which he had seen a glimpse before in Delhi.

The puppeteer asked, "What are you doing, Silk?"

Silk was sniffing Ray. At puppeteer's question, she started walking towards puppeteer as she said, "You were right, puppeteer. He really is interesting. I can feel a tremendous amount of spirit energy running through his spirit lines."

The puppeteer replied, "I told you already."

Silk said, "What do you say? Shall we take him with us? If we can convert him into a prime, we'll get a lot more powerful."

The puppeteer held his chin and said, "Hmm... That's not a bad idea, actually."

Suddenly a few arrows flew towards Ray. Ray clenched his eyes. But the arrows didn't hit him but were scratched by him instead. Ray got shocked at this but saw that the arrows had cut the web binding him to the tree. The puppeteer noticed that and quickly went to his cane. But just before he could get a hold of the cane, a whip got wrapped around the cane and pulled away.

The puppeteer looked towards the way the cane flew and saw Yuri standing with his whip in one hand and the puppeteer's cane in the other. The puppeteer growled at the scene and ran towards Yuri.

Just before he could hit Yuri, a quick slash is heard. The puppeteer saw a stream of blood gushing out of his right arm. It was missing from elbow down.

He looked at his right and saw a sword glowing with his severed arm a little far. Katarina turned back to his human form and started running as she said, "For god sake, Conrad. Don't throw me like that. I'm not a goddamn Spear."

Ray was stunned seeing all of this, but he slapped himself back to reality. He quickly got up and looked at Yuki.

Yuki was unconscious. He picked her up and put her behind a tree, hiding her from the battle. He then ran straight towards the way the arrows came from to look for Sakura. He started moving towards the bushes, looking for her, but suddenly he heard the chilling voice of Silk behind him again.

He quickly turned back and tried to throw a punch the moment he saw Silk standing behind him. But Silk pushed the punch away and bound him in a silk rope again.

Silk lifted Ray up and got him close to her face. She said, "Where are you running? You're coming with us, boy."

Ray started squirming in an attempt to get free from the bounds of the rope, but he failed.

Silk chuckled and said, "Don't bother. No one can tear my silk."

Suddenly, an arrow came from a side and cut the rope. Ray fell to the ground. He quickly got himself free from the rope and got back a few feet.

Sakura came and stood next to Ray. Silk was stunned seeing her silk getting cut twice in quick succession. 

Ray looked at Sakura and asked, "Are you alright?"

Sakura was panting. She fixed her breathing and said, "Yes."

Ray was going to ask something more, but Silk's loud scream made him shift his focus to Silk. Silk yelled, "You brats. How dare you... how dare you humiliate me like this?"

Sakura said, "Can you fight?"

Ray was a little shocked at how calm her voice was, even in that situation, but said, "Yeah."

Ray got into a fighting stance while Sakura readied her bow.

Both of them got ready to fight Silk.