A strange sense of foreboding fell over the plaza, and Crow scooped Minnie into his arms before rushing into the nearby copse of trees. He immediately activated his camouflage and even pushed the two inside a tree using phasing.

Soon after, a group of young men entered the area, using weak stealth abilities. Crow would be blind not to recognize Hex Vodun, but interestingly, these men all had glowing white tattoos beneath their blue skin. It was a cold, sinister glow, but it made them all look like hulking golems.

“Corpse puppets,” Minnie whispered.

“Vodun are like your people. They didn’t start off as evil but as Witch Doctors to heal people of curses and ailments related to the dead. Power isn’t evil in and of itself.”

The six men sniffed the air while approaching the fountain. As one, their heads turned toward where Crow was hiding. He wasn’t sure how they got his scent to begin with—no, it was probably Minnie they were tracking.

“What are they doing?” she asked.

“Locating us,” Crow sighed. “When I let us out, run away from them, deeper into the woods.”

“But—”

“Do it. I’ll protect your back. Just don’t stop running until I catch up with you.”

“You don’t understand. There is a restriction further in. None of us know what it’s for, but most believe it contains ghosts or spirit-type monsters. That’s the real reason this place is a forbidden area.”

“Just don’t cross that border. Go north when you reach it.”

“Fine.”

Crow exited the tree with her still in his arms and ran in the direction he told her before moving behind a tree and giving Minnie a light shove. “Go.”

The puppets ran toward them when they were exposed to the air. Crow summoned his bow and sent out arrows rapidly. However, the puppets didn’t stop coming after he punctured their heads. One even had part of his head taken off.

“That’s troublesome,” Crow grumbled and darted further into the trees. While he ran, he was summoning a Druid Circle around him. The corpses weren’t as fast as him, so they stumbled behind. Once the circle was completed, he stopped and rammed his hands into the ground. Vines sprouted up within five meters of him. At first, they were small and barely noticeable as they crawled across the surface like venomous snakes.

Because the Druid Circle surrounded him with Wood, Plant, and Earth Mana, his vines were even more potent than the original Blood Thorn vines from Wistman’s Woods. His shifting Aura could imbue it with other abilities as well, so by the time the first corpse puppet came within range, it was too late to recognize the danger.

Vines pulled it to the side and bound it to a tree while constantly rotating and drawing tighter and tighter. The next puppet impaled itself on a massive thorn. It shot out of the ground like an earth spike, and its momentum was not to be underestimated. The remaining four kept coming, but Crow lacked the focus to deal with them effectively. His vines could only fend them off, trip them, or temporarily bind them until he could finish the other two.

A rock slammed into his shoulder, which stunned him and almost made him lose focus. Out of all the things he expected, a puppet grabbing a rock and throwing it wasn’t one of them. His mistake was thinking they were mindless, but the bigger question was where the mastermind, the puppeteer, was hiding. Kafe no longer had the ability, so Crow ruled him out immediately.

Blood, viscera, and finally shattered bones came from the puppet bound to the tree, and Crow released it, seeing that it was finally dead. He had to look away because the gruesome sight was a little too brutal for him to reconcile.

The puppet, with a spike in its chest, finally had all of its energy siphoned not long after. But he was already in close-range combat with the remaining four, one of whom was missing half its head from his previous arrow.

Summoning his falcata, he used his vines to create a shield on his left arm because they weren’t mindlessly charging at him. Their attacks were coordinated and tactical. It was enough to put fear in any warrior because facing intelligent opponents that lacked the ability to feel pain or fear death—terrifying. Adding to that, their bulk and momentum were enough to push him around. Still, the puppets paid for every attack with a counterattack. Crow knew he was playing too defensively, but the truth was, he didn’t have much choice. The puppet’s flesh was tough, and he noticed the tattoos flared once struck. Not knowing their vital points, Crow went for their knees. Since he couldn’t kill, he’d cripple them.

After his vine shield shattered the third time, he couldn’t summon it anymore. They drained his mana. He was already running on empty between maintaining the Druid Circle and killing the other two puppets. One thing he was sure of, the person controlling them didn’t have a low leveled Shield.

A blow struck his head while he stumbled back from deflecting another attack. The bastard came from his blind spot and cut his scalp above his left eye. It wasn’t a severe wound, but it gushed blood non-stop and half-blinded him. Before he could activate his fire and burn the injury closed, he was already at a disadvantage.

They paid for that attack. Crow’s falcata chopped down and took one of the bastard’s legs off right above the knee. He kept moving back, so the incapacitated one couldn’t join in the fight. Struggling against the three of them was a little easier, but he knew he was in trouble. All of his life-saving abilities would come at a high cost, so he avoided using them until now.

“Damn you,” Crow growled, his attacks becoming more vicious. Ignoring the minor wounds he was accumulating, he summoned his Star Arrow and used it in his offhand like a dagger. He decided to take the chance at the first opportunity because he was sure the real enemy was watching. Crow knew his foe was forcing him to expose his tricks but couldn’t do anything about it.

The one-legged puppet provided an opening, and Crow took it. The half-headed puppet didn’t see the one-legged bastard and tripped over him. While it stumbled out of its formation, he rammed the arrow into its brain. Rolling backward, he came to his feet behind the attacking puppet that attempted to swipe at his back. It was like the stars were aligning to save him. Grabbing the puppet by the back of its neck, Crow pulled him back towards the surrounding trees and exploded the arrow. As he came to his feet, he grabbed that attacker by the throat and dragged it back with him while exploding the arrow.

Fwomp!

He felt the air getting sucked toward the explosion before blasting outward. Even with his puppet shield taking the brunt of the blast, Crow blasted backward. The only saving grace was that he didn’t slam into any trees and was sent tumbling across the ground. His momentum was arrested when he bounced off the formation barrier.

Crow didn’t calculate bone shrapnel into his plan. Those pieces of bone tore apart the remaining puppets, minus the one-legged one who was now without arms. The shield corpse was shredded apart, and fragments of bone were embedded all over Crow’s body. He lay on the ground in a daze, sensing his internal wounds—it amounted to several broken ribs and a dislocated right arm. If he hadn’t sent his falcata into his Shield before the explosion, it might have been lost forever.

“You are an interesting specimen,” an aged voice said. Crow’s eyes locked onto a withered old man squatting down beside him. His blue skin had lightened because of aging, but the skeleton-like frame made Crow shudder. This was the expert targeting him. “You destroyed five of my puppets and crippled the sixth. How are you going to repay me for that?”

“How about I fuck your mother and produce six more brothers for you?”

“I fucked my mother, but after I killed her.”

“Ah. Your friends ever tell you that you overshare too much?”

“I fucked them too after I killed them.”

“Of course you did. It wasn’t the six mean bastards I just killed, right?”

“How did you know?”

Crow stopped talking. Sometimes, losing in a word battle was okay. Yeah, it was definitely better to lose this one.

“Don’t worry, I’ll fuck you after I make you a corpse puppet,” the old man grinned a toothless grin and reached out his hand, but Crow flinched and stabbed at the man with his Star Arrow. The old man, seeing the arrow, stumbled back in a hurry. He’d already seen firsthand what that thing could do and wasn’t sure he could handle its destructive power.

“You have another one of those damned things?”

Crow chuckled. “You think that’s all my tricks?”

“I think you are bluffing.”

“You’ve seen the fight earlier. I was willing to risk my life then. You think I don’t know my fate if you get me? By root and limb, I swear I’ll blow us both to hell.”

“Root and limb?” The old man muttered under his breath. “Where have I heard that?”

“Seems we are at an impasse,” Crow called out, realizing he had blundered. It was only a distraction, and he knew the man would figure it out eventually.

“That might be true if you could move. I just have to wait until you can no longer hold on and drop unconscious. Then I’ll turn you into one of my strongest puppets. Your skills are quite fascinating.”

Crow didn’t say anything but smacked his hand against the barrier he’d crashed into. Even he could see the glow of the formation barrier, so he knew the old Vodun noticed it. Crow did not know what was on the other side, and this time he was genuinely bluffing. While there was still light out, the sun had already gone down. Seeing the look on the old man’s face, Crow worried the rumors were legit.

“This isn’t over, Sione. Yes, I know who you are.”

“Well, be sure to tell Kafele you failed.”

The old man stumbled as he moved away. Seeing the arrow in Crow’s hand, he obviously knew how decisive the boy was. The old man didn’t doubt for a second that Crow would ignite the arrow if forced. It was what he’d do because there was no way he’d become someone’s puppet. Suddenly, he felt a crisis falling on him. Was the haunting starting early?

The old man looked back at the restriction, thinking that it was the source of danger. Then, he saw the boy had summoned a bow and loosed the arrow at him.

“Crafty bastard!” The old man roared, trying to flee. Crow didn’t allow it. The moment the arrow was closed in on its target, he exploded it. Unable to dodge, the old man activated the sigils below his skin and grabbed the arrow as it was bursting. He used his mana to contain the force escaping it. It wasn’t enough. The tattoos siphoned off his vitality to maintain his ward, so he could only watch in horror as his arm disintegrated. His hand burst into a blood mist, and his bone into powder. The effect continued up his arm until only his shoulder was left. “I’ll fucking kill you!”

As his sunken eyes turned toward Crow, he saw the arrow materialize into his hand once more.

“Fuck! How many goddamned arrows do you have?” The old man cursed as he fled. Today was a complete loss.

As he left, Crow felt Minnie appear beside him.

“What do I do?” She asked, seeing the shape Crow was in.

“Get the coven. We go into hiding in the temple. Hurry! Bring them here before that bastard reports to Kafe.”

“Why?”

“That exploding arrow—Kafe knows about it. If you don’t hurry, he will stop at nothing to slaughter all of you to get to me.”

“What about you?”

“I can make it to the temple. Just go!” Crow growled, and Minnie nodded before rushing off. Crow sighed and grit his teeth as he climbed to his feet. The light was almost gone, and Crow didn’t delay rushing toward the plaza. While he didn’t sense anything dangerous in the area, he felt like something was there, watching. It wasn’t pleasant because he could feel the disdain. There was no imminent threat because the entity viewed Crow as nothing more than an insect.

Entering the temple, he rubbed the wound on his head and tried to clear the dried blood from his eye. Thinking about everything that had just happened, he felt at a loss. It was like things were conspiring against him, forcing him to use Python’s Tongue.