《Return of the Shadow CEO》Puppeteer
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[First person POV]
I don’t know why, but I knew something, something very fucked up, was going to happen today. As soon as I spotted the herd of those zombies like monsters, I knew a true rakshasa was here.
The killing intent from her, it’s terrifying, even for a fairly skilled martial, I can’t even imagine what these guys are feeling. Even though they are trembling, they are somehow still able to stand confidently in front of her.
At the moment everyone around me is in a terrible shape after all that fighting, some are half-dead, some just lost their will to fight. If only I could do anything.
“Is this the end?” The female rakshasa in front of me said with a creepy smile on her face.
I want to end this. I just want to kill this bitch! On seeing blood after so long, my inner demons woke up. I was lusting, for some action.
Carolina, who was behind me, getting healed by her subordinate, suddenly said “Let’s get rid of this bitch” while looking towards me. She then grabbed my arm to take support and stood up. Her face was full of scratches and was all bloodied up, yet she smiled, it was a cold smile, a smile that signified she was superior. There was a shine in her eyes.
On seeing the smile on my wife’s face, she got pissed off pretty hard, I could see that on her face. “You-” she said before she rushed towards Carolina. I could keep up with her speed, but Carolina couldn’t. The monster appeared in front of Carolina.
***
[Narrator’s POV aka God’s POV]
A while back
The small of group of radiants got surrounded by the large horde of monsters, some monsters were killed before, some were not.
As soon as Blue spotted the horde coming towards them, he turned around to Carolina and hastily said “Your healer, make your healer heal Yellow”
“Uh, okay” Carolina replied, “Heal him fast” Carolina said while looking at the healer in the party
The healer started healing Yellow
“Alfie, Melisa and Sakuma, you all rush towards them, kill the larger units with your agility, Carolina and Bront, you both kill the hordes of smaller units with your large scale destructive attacks. Support type radiants, you all help Carolina and Bront. Kudret and the rest take care of the mid-sized units with your number advantage” Blue said
“Who the fuck are you to command us like that?” Kudret said
“You litt-” Blue said but was interrupted by Sakuma
“Kudret, listen to him, he knows what he is doing” Sakuma said
“But-”
“No buts, superior’s orders”
“Ok”
Everyone spread out to do what they were told to do. Blue stood alone with the healer, who was healing Yellow. She was a woman in her early thirties, she had chestnut hair, and emerald green eyes, her looks made her a very desirable woman.
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“Once he wakes up, tell him to meet me at the tower” Blue said before disappearing
A smile curled up on the healer’s face
***
Blue stood in front of the tower, a structure which is the root cause for all these monster attacks.
The building looked as if it was on fire, a wild black fire. It was a very mesmerizing sight. There were four entrances to the tower, that were glowing brightly with a white hue
“Sometimes, I feel as if everything is futile” Blue thought to himself before entering into one of those doors.
The other side was a whole other dimension, it looked as if the insides of the tower would be small, but it was huge. From inside, it was like a medieval castle. A huge hall, and a huge staircase leading to the first floor. It was way different from a normal tower.
With cool winds blowing throughout it, a tower is generally like a cave or dungeon from inside. It has many floors, and the number of floors depends on it’s grade. There is a boss monster for every floor, once you defeat it, the next floor opens up.
“My hunch was right” Blue thought to himself on seeing the interior of the tower
Blue now took out his left hand that had been resting in his jacket’s pocket since he arrived. And then equipped two sabers which were hanging on his back. He held the saber in his left hand like a sword, while the one in his right hand like a dagger.
He then rushed through the stairs in front of him, and then kicked the door in front of him open. The corridor in front of him was dimly lit up from the light emitted by the torches hung on the wall, but no one was there, and it gave a very eerie feeling to Blue.
Blue again swiftly ran through the corridor with his weapons gripped tightly in his hands.
***
After a while
“What the fuck?” Blue thought to himself, “I am already on the last floor, yet I encountered no monster till now?”
Blue stood in front of a large gate and thought to himself, “Let’s just check this room”
After entering the room, he saw that the room in front of him was a huge circular room, with a throne in the center of the room. It looked like the room of the tower’s boss.
“God damn it, even this is empty” Blue thought to himself, “Wait, if no one is here then…”
Blue rushed back to the exit as quickly as possible, “Please be safe”
***
The scene in front of blue after coming out of the tower was very terrifying. On seeing the sight of blood, corpses and war, his lips curled to form a smile subconsciously “This-”
He saw the site of an all out war, but the radiants were losing, and the monsters were crushing them.
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The monsters were different, they were more powerful, and they had more bloodlust. And in between all this, Blue felt a strong presence, and a very bloodthirsty intent radiated from this presence.
Blue rushed towards Carolina and Yellow, who stood in front of this strong presence. A feminine monster stood in front of them, it had pale white skin, and wore a black fedora which covered her eyes, a black dress and red lips made her look even more terrifying.
“Carolina, are you alright?” Blue asked
“Yeah” Carolina said while looking at blue
“What’s going on?” Blue asked, “And who is she?”
“Well…”
A while ago
“Blue’s tactics are actually good” Aflie said as he slashed through the monsters in front of him
“Yeah” Melisa replied while tactfully smashing monsters
Suddenly, lightning struck in front of them, and a monster appeared in front of them. This monster was similar to Melisto in appearance. “Woah, two humans” the monster said with passion in his voice
“A boss?” Alfie said
The monster smirked, as more horde monsters appeared behind him
A few meters away from this scene
Sakuma attacked the giant golem in front of him with his bare hand, smashing it. Suddenly lightning struck, and another monster appeared in front of him. This monster looked very similar to Melisto
A few meters away from this scene
Kudret fought arachnid type monsters with his subordinates, “Use Ice Block!” Kudret shouted
One of his subordinates froze the creature, and then Kudret punched it, killing the creature.
Suddenly, lightning struck, and a monster appeared in front of him. This monster looked very similar to Melisto
A few meters away from this scene
Lightning struck in front of Yellow, who was still getting healed. A monster who looked just like Melisto appeared
“Who are you?” the healer asked
A few meters away from this scene
“When will this end?” Carolina thought to herself. She was swinging her sword and burning the monsters.
Suddenly a feminine voice came, “How beautiful”
Carolina looked towards the direction of the sword, and found a female figure approaching her. All the monsters in her way, were running away from her, as if they feared her very much.
“Your fire, it’s very beautiful, it’s a shame that this is the last time someone will be able to witness its beauty” The female monster said
Carolina started sweating, just the aura exerted by this monster was enough to terrify Carolina
“Who, who are you” Carolina stuttered
“Your death”
Carolina rushed towards the woman in front of her without any hesitation, the woman in front of her started making motions with her hands and fingers, it was as if she was typing, no to be more clear it was as if she was controlling puppets like a puppeteer, her fingers moved randomly.
Suddenly Carolina stopped, she didn’t want to stop, but something bound her. “What is this”
“This is my power, I call it, Possessive Puppeteer” The monster said. She again moved her fingers, and with that Carolina moved too
Carolina pointed her towards herself, and slowly started to stab herself in her stomach.
The monster slowly approached her, and said, “Let’s end it”.e again moved her fingers, and Carolina pushed the sword further in herself.
Despite Carolina's best efforts, the sword tore into her and moved further in as blood poured from her. She groaned in pain as the sword went deeper in her
The monster who was now just in front of Carolina, suddenly looked towards her left, and disappeared, and then appeared about ten meters away from Carolina
A figure rushed towards Carolina and swung his daggers in the air before landing behind her.
“Sup” The figure said
“You?” Carolina grunted
“Yeah, me, Yellow Blitz” The figure replied
“Blitz?”
“Yeah” Yellow said, “Well, never mind that, you should be able to move freely now”
Carolina then tried to pull out the sword from her torso, and it worked, she could now move freely, “How?”
“She has these black strings attached to your body, and she is using them to control your body” Yellow replied, “You are not powerful enough to see those strings”
“That’s enough talking, how have you already come here, what happened to Meristo?” The monster said as she unleashed more strings towards the both of them
Yellow, then easily sliced these strings with his daggers, “I took care of him”
“I, Marionna shall put an end to your life” the monster said with rage
***
Current time
“So the boss left the tower, to take advantage of your exhaustion?” Blue said with mild anger in his voice
“Basically” Yellow replied
“Let’s end her already” Blue said as he rushed towards Marionna with his sabers ready to attack her
Marionna raised her hands and started ejecting strings towards blue, but blue evaded all of them by dodging, and swiftly reached in front of her.
Yellow followed Blue and both of them simultaneously decapitated the monster’s head. The head flew off the body and landed a meter away from the body as purple blood poured from it.
“That was easy” Yellow said
“Really” A voice came from Marionna’s body
The three of them looked towards it, and they saw a very creepy thing happening. The black strings that Marionna used were now coming out of her cutoff neck, and slowly reaching for the head. After connecting with the head, the body and the head slowly joined together, it was as if she came back to life.
“What the fuck” Carolina said, she couldn’t see the black strings, but she saw the detached head getting connected with the body.
“The real fight, starts now”
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I mean, if you are Mozart or even Eminem, your jam session is good enough to sell, but for an amateur beginner like myself, haha, no. If I want to publish something, I feel like I need to go the proper route of practice and rehearsals, which might be more similar to a classical concert performance. With SSA, I work from worldbuilding notes and a loose outline, but what you are essentially getting is the first draft with lots of so-called pantsing. Pushing out a web novel like this also means it is very difficult to go back and improve things without breaking everything else downstream. I wanted to try this "jamming" approach, as it was a good way to teach me about another aspect of writing, but to move forward, I think I need to hone my "classical" techniques, which emphasize rewriting, or at least, revising outlines. 3) While I intend to try to make $$$, my actual current goal is to "get gud". 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I don't think traditional web novel formats suit me that well. The whole SSA story I had loosely planned (beyond a first book or major arc) is way too large as well. Big story = good for neverending webnovel with Patreons, bad for penniless and fickle writer like me. I am currently outlining a complete trilogy to another story in great detail. I want the story to end concisely, and I also want the chance to really spend a lot of time on the full outline to spot pacing problems, character issues, lost themes, and so on. I'll still share this story on RR. What I intend to do is finish book 1, flash-publish the whole thing here for a few weeks, then publish on the big Zon. Repeat for books 2 and 3. The upcoming story will be about crafting heroes. The backdrop is an isekai-like setting, where elves will summon humans to their world as heroes, but the whole hero crafting business is still in its infancy. 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