Alex hesitated. With the conflicting instructions from Ki and Fufi he wasn't sure what to do. While the dam remained out of visual range some sounds carried over the distance. A 'pew pew' noise faintly caught his ears and a louder sound of wood cracking. The sound of something large getting hit echoed over the water before stopping abruptly.

"What was that sound?" Alex looked over his shoulder to see Ki's face as she tried to figure it out as well.

"I'm not really sure. It is something that can shoot things that go pew pew from under the water. The things slowly fly in a straight line at a constant non slowing pace. Ever heard of something like that? " The nymph asked herself.

Alex gave the green-haired nymph a look that said she was being ridiculous, but she didn't seem to care.

"Hmm, I don't know. It seems scary but maybe Ki is right and it is time for me to magical girl up." Alex whispered, trying to psyche himself up. After taking a deep breath, adjusting the frilly dress, and dusting off his dolls, Alex pulled out his phone to pick a song to dance to. Also of note was the fact that the phone hadn't gone down in battery power. Alex silently thanked Luna solving what was sure to be an ongoing problem in a world without outlets.

Focus Alex, focus.

A quick click of the song "Sing Sing Sing" by Benny Goodman started playing. The sound of up beat drums thumped through the area. Alex tapped his foot in beat with the music. He began to dance and the three dolls followed his lead. The three of them started a conga line. Alex jumped from foot to foot, turning his arms into windmills as they went up and down. He did a cartwheel, twirled around, then hopped up into the air with a kick as he did a flip while still twirling in place. In such a manner he danced to the dam from downstream where barbarians hid from the 'pew pew pew' barrage coming from upstream.

The war bands hid behind the wagons that shot splinters when they were hit. The shots broke planks of wood apart.

The chief shouted out orders to his men and they fired a volley of arrows into the water.

Unlike the projectiles coming from the water, the arrows couldn't keep speed when they hit the water. The stone-tipped arrows just splashed and sunk to the bottom not hitting anything.

A fast drum beat filled the area.

All the barbarians looked around in confusion.

Trumpets and trombones blared out. A bass kept rhythm with the drum beats. Cymbals crashed. A clarinet sung out in a pitch higher than the other horns. Basically, it was like nothing they had ever heard before. The melody had an echo to it with strange bouncy tones mixed in.

The music got louder with the approach of what looked like a girl in a frilly dress. She had black hair with green streaks and three dolls followed her. The girly group's approach was more of a dance than a walk.

The chief's group was in a bad way. He ignored his advisors and was left scrambling to escape. He grabbed the tribe's wagons that were in good order and the best combat classers. The rest would just have to be left to the mercy of the enemy. However, with the wagon at the head of the train damaged by the ambush on the dam the wagons were blocked from going forward. The other side of the river had the forest expanding at a rapid rate. Unless they could fight off the attack the only way out would be to abandon the wagons.

The barbarians made quick preparations for a fight, aiming bows and slings at the girl approaching the barbarians.

Alex never stopped the swinging dance moves, approaching along the shoreline step by step.

Lily hopped into the air and spun around in a circle. She fired a toothpick sized arrow at peak height. The tiny projectile flew an impossible distance and struck a wagon. The arrow erupted into a heart-shaped explosion, sending splinters into the barbarians who hunkered down to avoid the pew pews from the other side.

The barbarians cursed and lay prone. One archer fired back with normal sized arrows but it fell short.

"How can something so tiny shoot so far away?" He cursed.

The swinging sounds of Benny Goodman's song increased in volume. Alex's party advanced. Lilly kept peppering the barbarians with her tiny arrows.

When they finally got in range a volley of arrows launched towards Alex.

Rose and Edelweiss stopped them all.

Rose fired a stream of water that blew most of them off course.

The ones that couldn't be redirected Edelweiss jumped up and deflected with her shield. Arrows that ignored the laws of physics seemed like cheating.

"Combat classers." Alex complained.

Fufi flew down and hovered next to Alex. "Not very patient today are we?"

"Um, hi Fufi. I was worried about you." Alex blushed, then spun around, ribbons swirling.

Fufi beamed. "Ha, make sure not to get distracted, there are arrows incoming." Fufi swerved in the air. "Keep dancing. Oh also, that is Merumeru who is shooting at them from under water." She then darted up above, following the stream of arrows that missed her.

"Wait, what?" Alex asked but Fufi was already out of earshot.

With a cute spin, Rose deflected several more with her water gun.

When the volley came too close Rose threw out a blast of water, forming an impromptu wall to protect them.

"Ha, how impressive!" The chief shouted, sounding a little nervous. However the rain of projectiles did very little to stop Rose's water shield from blocking them all away from the barbarians.

Rose now had her weapon's hose in the river. If not for the nearby water source she would have drained her tank already. If they could just close the gap then she could really unload that fire hose of a water gun on the opponents.

Being not completely stupid Chief Stone Ax called for a retreat. "We've got the abandon the wagons. There is no way we won't be decimated when that ridiculous water cannon of a doll gets in range."

"But Chief, can't a warband just go down and fight her in melee range?" One warrior asked.

"Maybe, but we are trying to escape. Time spent splitting up would be better spent taking whatever supplies you can carry and fleeing. Remember that the shaman said we angered the forest spirit now we are right next to the edge of her domain. And the domain is expanding. Time is not on our side." The chief spoke through gritted teeth.

One warrior yelled over the music. "Does that kid in the frilly dress look familiar?"

Another warrior answered. "That girl? No, Though that pink flying around reminds me of that Alex boy that we chased out after we claimed the dungeon."

Yet another man stated, "Don't be an idiot. Did you not talk to the survivors that came back from the forest? They said that the boy we tied up in the pink robe befriended the forest spirits and a goddess. The chief didn't take the shaman's warning seriously and now we are in this mess."

The fact that the Chief was advised to leave sooner was really coming back to bite him right now. Usually he didn't listen to his advisors but this time he really wished he had. Greed had gotten the better of him and now the tribe had to pay the price.

Chief Stone Ax considered his options. With the wagon at the head damaged it would be useless as an escape vehicle. The fact that his tribe couldn't afford another one right now was something that couldn't be changed now. The loot from the dungeon might be enough to pay for new things. But the vast majority of it would only be useful to sailors and underwater civilizations.

After taking only what they could carry and still run, the group crossed the dam to the other side of the river.

It was a good thing too. Lily was out of arrows. No one wanted a fight to the death.

As soon as the barbarians were a good distance from the water the pew pew projectiles could not hit them anymore. Unlike arrows they fired in a straight line. If they fired upward, out of the water, they just flew off into the sky.

It was hard to tell but a little slime girl in a tiny submarine zoomed around in the lake. She shot the pew pew shooter at the barbarians on the dam. The shots were slow but they ignored gravity and went in a straight line. Apparently, the dungeon couldn't be bothered with complicated things like fluid mechanics and gravity. The big downside was how fast the spring that powered the submersible unwound when firing. After a hundred pews she had to get out and wind the key on the back side of the vessel. Merumeru found out about this the hard way. The submarine stopped moving,tilted backward and sank to the bottom of the lake. This would have been bad news for any submariner. However, Merumeru didn't need to breathe. She just flooded the upside down jar of the cockpit. She opened it, swamp out, wound it, then returned back inside. Just like that she was ticking along again. Merumeru was smart. She didn't get shallow enough for the arrows to hit her. She kept blasting away at the wagons like it was some kind of a game.

This seemed to irritate the barbarians greatly. They still needed to be driven off and soon they were running. The whole time they had music and weird sounds. The Stone Ax classers couldn't help but run to the swinging beat. This irritated them more.

Eventually, the dam was cleared and the Stone Ax tribe group had retreated off into the wastelands.

Alex stopped dancing 

Merumeru surfaced her vessel and opened the glass-jar of a lid. "Meru!" She said and waved at Fufi and Alex.

"Merumeru, how did you get here? I thought you were going to stay back at the ranch and help in the grotto?" Alex asked.

"Ru Ru Ru." She answered.

Both Alex and Fufi sighed. They surveyed the damage. With fire from both sides none of the wagons were undamaged. Some animals were trapped, unable to pull their broken wagons. Other wagons were missing their horse or ox or whatever. The beasts of burden broke free and ran off. Several of the horses were let free and went off with the Stone Ax tribe.

"Ugh, what a mess." Alex complained. He removed an Ox from his harness.

The steer ran back the way they came towards the town ruin. Soon, other Oxen, Mules, and horses joined him.

Alex repeated the process until all the animals who were stuck got free. Alex noticed some injuries on the animals but none of them were so badly injured that they were lame. Hopefully no animals would have to be put down. Alex would feel guilty if an animal had to be killed because he injured it.

Merumeru turned her little submarine into a card and placed it into her overall's pocket.

Fufi shook her head and chuckled. "That slime girl never ceases to surprise me."

A magical girl, a flamingo, and a slime girl headed back towards the forest edge where Ki observed.

The nymph waved and greeted them.

"Good job, you handled that nicely." Ki praised.

"Yeah, but what now?" Alex asked.

"I saw the animals headed back to the place where the people who got left behind by the stone ax tribe camped. They probably are wondering what happened." Ki nodded her head. Her green hair bounced a little.