Chapter 78: Book 1.5: Side Tales – Koko: The Puppet Asylum (Part 6B)

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

Book 1.5: Amaranthe Guild – Side Stories

Koko's Tale

The Puppet Asylum (Part 6B)

The Nethbadons on the sides of their leader rose up onto their hind legs, stalking forth like human-footed raptors, looking to trap the cute furry prey in a triangle formation.

But the little Nethdren fluff monster girl wasn't about to let that happen!

With her ghostly chain net in one hand and staff held ready to thrust in the other, the monster girl stomped on the ground and propelled herself straight at the bug crawling Nethbadon in the center that was leading the dark nightmarish trio.

Seeing the staff thrusting towards its face, the lead Nethbadon lunged to side to avoid being struck; At the same time, Nethbadon 2 and 3 released hissing roars, lowering their upper bodies as they charged at the furry monster girl's vulnerable sides! Their long fingers curled, ready to hook their claws into her plushie flesh! To grab and pull her into their creepy needle-teeth mouths.

Grinning with a look of mischief in her eyes, she stomped her foot onto the ground, stopping her momentum while twisting and turning her round shaggy body... hard! Her long fur fluttered as if alive as she sent her powerful darkwood staff swinging towards the side of Nethbadon 2 who was coming in like a fastball pitch while throwing her ghostly chain net with her left paw at the charging Nethbadon 3 now behind her!

Their hissing screeches echoed in the doll storage room as monster girl's staff slammed into Nethbadon 2's ribs! The sounds of 'bones' cracking echoed on impact as Nethbadon 2 was sent sprawling onto the ground. As for Nethbadon 3, it charged face-first into the surprise net attack causing it to become entangled as it tumbled onto the ground; Rolling straight into the lead Nethbadon's lanky limbs who was getting ready to launch an attack on the wide-open side of the rotund monster girl.

Seeing the collision happen from the corner of her eye, the cute fluffy monster girl giggled in happiness for her good luck. Her piano-like mirth was music to all who heard... well, except to her hated foes.

With a Nethbadon now trapped in her ghostly chain net on the floor and another injured but getting back up off the ground... The fight looked to be shifting in her favor...

Meanwhile, up in the 'bleachers', a certain cute itsy bitsy hare guarded by a pair of circling Voden Dollheads, was busy summoning her grimoire to “Come play with me... come play with me... come play with me!”

Demora's chest glowed as a small ghostly plushie book emerged from out of her body, growing in size to land on her laps. A smile lit her face as she reached out and opened the book, landing on her status page. Ah, this wasn't what I was looking for... but I guess a quick peek wouldn't hurt...

Her eyes scanned the page to and fro as she mumbled, ”Hmm, I already know my name so skip... age 13... yup... Ooh, Species: Oni and Race: Daemirra...”

“Daemirra... What's that?” Pinkili asked, her pink twin tails trailing behind her as she continued to fly around Demora while keeping half an eye on the action below.

“Not sure... but I don't think now is the time to look into it. That's interesting...”

“What is?” Anancy asked, her 3 pairs of spidery eyes blinking.

“My class... it says here that I'm a Voden... according to the summary we use the powers of the Netherworld to capture and bind spirits to aid us in our summonings and magic... Sounds like I'll be using spirit focused necromancy and learning voodoo doll making skills to create vessels for my summons to possesses and...”

BAM!

The shelves upon which Demora sat greatly shook and a piano-like grunt rose up from below. Scooting forward to look down she saw the furry monster girl's back pressed hard against the shelves as the ground was littered with fallen dolls, puppets, limbs, and parts.

She seems to be okay... I guess all that fluffy goodness and round bouncy body dampened much of the impact and damage...

Demora didn't know how it had happened but somehow the pair of Nethbadons had sent the monster girl slamming back first into the shelves with their teamwork! They were now prowling towards her while the third Nethbadon still writhed on the ground, entangled. “Ah, I don't have time for browsing my grimoire right now! I need to hurry and find out how to deal with spirits...”

:giggles: Just ask the book and take a look... ask the book... and take a look... :giggles:

With no better idea in mind... “Okay, that sounds simple enough... so let's give it a try,” Demora muttered as she closed the book as the sounds of fighting resumed from below. Staring down, her brows furrowed and lips tightened.

“What's wrong Dea?” Pinkili asked.

“Well, I'm just not sure how to ask what I want to know...” Demora answered, tilting her head towards the book on her lap.

“Hmm, maybe you're overthinking things. I think you should just say what it is you want to know.” Anancy reasoned.

“Simple is best,” Pinkili agreed. [“Oh, and maybe ask using Mindspeak?”]

“Ah, I forgot about that... [“Thanks Pinkili!”]

[“You're welcome Dea!”]

Alright, let's do this... just say what I want to know using Mindspeak... “Here goes,” Demora put her full focus onto her book and asked, [“How do I capture and bind spirits?”]

The energy in her mind scuttled about causing the grimoire in her lap to thrum and flip open as the turning pages fluttered for a moment or two before coming to a stop.

Looking down, Demora spotted the words 'How to Capture and Bind Spirits' at the top of the page. She quickly read over the summary which explained that there were two ways to capture a soul.

The first was to use her Nethryn Arachneth Webs and the second was to use a Soul Lantern. There was a beautiful illustration of a trio of floating glass Soul Lanterns to the right of the description. What she gathered from the reading was that in order to capture a spirit in a Soul Lantern the spirit would either have to be willing or weakened.

The second thing she learned was in order to bind the spirit to her Trinity she would need to use a soulbound Soul Lantern.

If she did not have one on hand, she could temporarily toss a captured soul into the forest beyond the gates within the front cover of her grimoire. She would then have a week to acquire a Soul Lantern before the grimoire would release the spirit back into the world. A spirit could only enter once per month.

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“This is great! Not only do I now know how to capture and bind spirits but I also learned how to channel my Nethryn Arachneth Webs and summon my Angorai Arachneth Legs from my back...”

“That's wonderful Demora! Just remember though, summoning all 6 Angorai Arachneth Legs right away may be too much for your body to handle at this point and time in your growth. I recommend sticking with two for now since you were able to use them before against that dollhouse Wendigo.” Anancy advised.

“Mmm, good point. Will do,” Demora said with a nod as she sent her grimoire back into her body. “Okay, now I just need a Soul Lantern... but where can I find one in this room?”

“How about down there?” Pinkili giggled, eyeing the battle below.

“Oh ya, silly me, slipped my mind...” Demora mumbled.

“Well then, since that's the case, let's see how things are going on down there...” She leaned over the edge of the shelf to look down at the battle. “Seems the entangled Nethbadon will soon break free from its bonds since that ghostly chain net looks to be quite damaged... I wonder why the other Nethbadons didn't just free it?...”

“Maybe the leader it crashed into is still angry at it and doesn't want to free it? Or it could simply be overconfident believing that the two of them are enough to win...” Pinkili responded from her observations.

“Well, whatever their reasons, let's use it to our advantage and take them down to loot some Soul Lanterns... and to help that cute fluffy monster girl!” Demora said.

[“Okay, here's the plan: I'll go down and web up that entangled one before it can break free. I'll then finish it off while you two attack that Nethbadon that's favoring its side. That should be a big help for monster girl. She seems to have taken some quill shots to her left upper body that have... paralyzed that arm?

Hmm... maybe their blood-red quills are poisonous or they hit her with some type of acupuncture targeted attack? Hard to say... but it looks like they've also nipped at the heel of her foot a few times too since she's limping a little...

Anyways, help her out and watch out for flying quills! If there's anything I've learned from all the books and mangas I've read is that if something has quills then there's a good chance it can shoot them!”]

“Yes, will do Dea!...” Anancy responded with a cute fanged smile.

“It's our time to shine... Pinkushy Shield!” A soft glowing aura of pink energy completely shrouded the pink twin-tailed doll head.

“Ooh, what's that?” Demora asked.

Smiling, Pinkili answered, “This is one of my awesome abilities! Pretty isn't it? Not only that but my pink shield blocks, absorbs, and converts damaging attacks into energy! Energy that I can then use to empower my Prickly Pinkergeist Pins!”

With her second spell chanted, the small prickly pins that were being kept pinned in the little plushie doll heads attached to the black scrunchies keeping her twin tails in place began to glow with the same pink aura as her magic shield; The half dozen prickly weapons shrouded in pink rose up out of their mini pincushion dollie heads to float around Pinkili Dollhead, awaiting her orders.

“Impressive right? Not only do they pierce but they also make the pricked see things that aren't there! It's so fun... you just never know what the pricked might do since they're the only ones seeing what they're seeing... ahahaha....”

“I'll web 'em down and you shoot 'em up!” Anancy giggled, getting into the spirit of things. “Let's go!”

The two doll heads streaked towards the injured Nethbadon, flying over the monster girl's head as she double thrust her staff between the two Nethbadons to keep them apart.

As for Demora, she made her move as well, jumping up to grab hold of the ceiling and crawling her way to come to a stop above the entangled Nethbadon below, guided by the soft clinking sounds of blood-red quills against ghostly chains...

The dark mutt's lanky arm-limb and creepy mouth head were now squirming their way out of the hole made up of broken chain links which it had finally managed to create while trapped within.

The Nethbadon came to a complete stop when its wiggling eye stalks noticed a strange little many-eyed bunny-eared girl directly above on the ceiling with her hands pointed down at 'em. This was quickly followed by streams of silvery lavender-pink threads striking and actually sticking to its just freed limb and head!

The beast hissed and growled, not understanding how this strangely odd living-breathing little girl could not only see Soul Fetchers of the Netherworld such as itself but could actually attack and bind them! It had never in its young nethlyng life heard of such a thing happening before from its pack.

And yet, it was happening... The little oddball girl's strong colorful webbings, thrumming with Nethryn energy, were actually hitting, sticking, and binding its body to the ghostly chain net!

No matter how much it struggled to escape from this new sticky predicament, it could only find that the attempt was becoming more and more futile as the strong sticky webbings restricted more and more of its movements; Binding its upper body to the broken chain net.

With eye stalks glaring, it determined that it had to get rid of this wretched girl quick to break free!

Chains rattled as it tried to turn from its side onto its belly, to point and fire the blood-red quills on its back up at her but the sticky Nethryn Arachneth Webbings were already attached to the concrete floor, keeping it from doing so.

Not willing to give up, the Nethbadon moved its quill tipped tail; The ghostly chain net bulged and clinked drawing Demora's attention to its sneaky intentions. Reacting quickly, she sent streams of her Nethryn infused webs, binding the tail down to the ground and ending the threat before it could even launch a single sharp pointy quill her way.

Yes! That should do it. Its all webbed down and ready for Soul Lantern extraction. Now then, since my Ghostly Ektofrost Orbs didn't seem to have done much damage to Kresh, other than giving him chills and slowing him for a bit, I guess now is a great time to use my newly learned ability! According to my grimoire, one of their many features is that they can be used to pierce and slash so here goes... just focus on a pair of them...

“Angorai Arachneth Legs!”

The energy within her chest quickly scuttled to her back causing it to bulge and undulate; This was quickly followed by the sound of tearing cloth coming from the back of her t-shirt...

The Nethbadon's eyes all widened as the strange little bunny girl suddenly grew another pair of... fluffy bunny ears?

Not only did these new colorful 'bunny ears' grow out of the little girl's back but they were segmented and much, much longer than the ones on her head... so creepy! the Nethbadon thought with a chill running down its spine; And worst of all, they were tipped with sharp-looking plum hued blades that were aimed right at its immobile body like a pair of pretty fluffy spears!

The chains rattled as the Nethbadon fiercely struggled once again to escape its bonds as the little (creepy) cute spider bunny girl dropped straight down from above with the pair of fluffy 'spears' leading the way!

The desperate dark beast stretched and turned its long neck towards the falling girl and released a screeching howl; Feeling a great sense of danger, Demora activated her double-hop skill and quickly altered her direction, sending her flipping away as a series of sonic vibrations blew past her.

Landing on the floor with knees bent, Demora spun round to face the gift-wrapped beastie and with fluffy arachneth leg 'spears' at the ready... she rushed in, unleashing a pair of Ghostly Ektofrost Orbs to lead the way!...