We have arrived at the abandoned workshop chapel where the Umbra Lord of Marionettes is said to be at. The first thing we noticed about the building even before our arrival was that... the place is huge!

"Are we sure this isn't a church or a cathedral rather than a chapel?"

"It must have had a lot of visitors before if it's this big."

"Even so it's a bit too big, wouldn't you say?"

"Yeah... Let's go in already. The boss is right inside."

"Alright then."

Sanae and I approached the large doors of the so-called "chapel", causing a window to pop up right in our faces.

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[Notice!]

You are about to enter [Geppetto's Workshop].

An Umbra Lord resides beyond these doors.

Do you wish to proceed?

Min. participants: 1 player

Max. participants: 24 players

Recommended Level: ≥ 35

[Yes] / [No]

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Maximum players 24, huh? So up to four full parties are allowed to participate in one raid. That's alright since we only planned to participate with one full party at best.

But for the recommended level, that one's a bit worrying considering that Sanae is only level 29 and I am level 32.

However, it doesn't seem like the game is stopping us despite being underleveled, so we can still enter if we want.

And to that, as the party leader, I pressed "Yes"!

When I did so, the doors of the building opened with an eerie hinge sound. Inside looked to be pretty dark with only a chilly gust of wind coming out to greet us for the horror effect.

I looked towards Sanae and asked, "Ready?"

"Ready." She replied, looking back at me.

Then, we entered together. Prepared to face what we could only imagine to be a tough boss.

Plop.

The moment we stepped into the prayer room, I heard the sound of water as I felt my foot in a pool of it and looked down.

Looks like the place is flooded inside. Also, the water seems kind of dark and murky, doesn't it?

"Eek!"

All of a sudden, I heard Sanae shrieking right next to me.

"What's wrong?" I asked, as she pointed at her feet in response.

"I don't think we're stepping in water, Yoru." She said.

Huh?

As my eyes slowly shifted down to Sanae's feet, and it widened the moment I saw a dismembered human arm touching her ankle.

Don't tell me...

I then looked at my surroundings properly and soon realised that we're not stepping in a pool of water... But a pool of blood as the number of dismembered and disfigured human corpses the further I looked into the prayer room.

"No... way...."

What kind of place have we just entered...?

"Is someone there...?"

A chilling voice echoed in the room, sending shivers down our spines.

"This scent... Mavis, my darling, is that you? Have you come to see your father at last...?"

It was at that moment when we figured out where the voice was coming from and looked up at the ceiling. Only to express a bigger face of horror when we watched that "thing" descend from the shadows.

"Wait... You're not my daughter..."

"He" is enormous. That giant puppet head wearing the stitched up skin of humans as its face. The numerous human and wooden torsos that "he" possesses with countless arms like a centipede. And that terrifying smile with razor sharp teeth as "he" looks at us while attached to the ceiling.

As soon as Sanae and I made eye contact with the boss, the both of us likely had the same thought.

What in the human centipede, GLaDOS, golem puppet fuck is that!?

"Who are you? I smelled my daughter's scent. Did Mavis sent you...? How kind of her, that sweet child~ I was just thinking about going out to collect more parts to complete my body. But now that you're here... Let me rip you apart so that I can be human again!"

The boss screeched out. He landed on the ground. His HP bars then began to form along his name appearing on the top of his head.

<Umbra Lord of Marionettes, Pinocchio>

"And there goes my childhood memories of this fairytale..." ~UFO Developer, Yuki.

And then... the boss theme played.

"COME TO PAPA!"

"Akatsuki, dodge!"

The boss came at us immediately, charging with his enormous body at an incredible speed. Sanae and I reacted in time and moved out of his attack path, causing him to crash into the entranceway we entered from and allowing us to launch an attack.

"Magic Amplification! Multi-Explosion!"

"Get him, Bane!"

The boss was showered with explosion magic on one side while Bane tackled his other side. However, the damage was miniscule as he quickly got up, smacked Bane away into Sanae and turned to me who had dealt the most damage out of that miniscule amount.

Oh crap.

"Give me a hug!"

"Haste!"

The countless hands on the boss extended and reached out for me, forcing me on the defensive as I could only focus my all on avoiding being grabbed by one of them.

Hands, hands, hands, hands! There's a lot of hands! Even with Haste applied, I'm having difficulties evading them!

"Moon Walk!"

I teleported to gain some distance. However, the hands just keep on coming!

It should have been easy for me to evade the hands, if not for the environment that is, as it applies a debuff on us which reduces our movement speed by 20% while buffing the boss's speed by the same amount.

To think that the pool of bool we're in has some effect to it aside from the horror factor. Dammit! I can't attack the boss at this rate.

"Attack, all of you!"

Just as I was in a pinch, Sanae came to the rescue, summoning all of her monsters along with Bane who was already out and ordered them to attack the boss.

Although the damage was still little, Sanae then used a skill of hers that boosted the output significantly.

"Rally!"

Then she used another one.

"Boosted Arms!"

Then another one.

"Boosted Wall!"

Then another one.

"Cry of Rage!"

And finally, the last one.

"Summoner's Aura!"

Rally: A Summoners-only skill that boosts the damage output of the user's monsters.

Boosted Arms: Another Summoner-only skill that increases the attack speed of the user's monsters.

Boosted Wall: A similar Summoner-only skill like Boosted Arms that increases the defense of the user's monsters instead of attack speed.

Cry of Rage: A support skill that isn't Summoners exclusive which increases the critical chance of all allies. Monsters included.

And lastly, Summoner's Aura: A Summoner-only skill(obviously) that doubles the effects that have been applied onto the user's monsters beforehand, making them last for a minute longer. The skill cannot be used again for an hour however.

As a result, Bane and his fellow summoned monsters are causing a noticeable deal of damage onto the boss, forcing the aggro to turn onto Sanae now.

It seemed like Sanae knew that we can't hold back against a boss like this.

Which is why, I need to back her up!

"High Wisdom. Magic Booster."

I then chucked several MP potions down quickly before aiming my staff at Bane.

"Multi-Mirror Make!"

Bane multiplied, as he and the other summons continued attacking the boss. But mainly, it's a horde of Centibanes against one human-centipede freak.

And while the boss was busy, I used Moon Walk the moment its cooldown was over and teleported to Sanae's side, carrying her princess style to distance us away from the boss since he's aggroed onto her now because of her monsters.

Sanae didn't invest any attribute points put into her agility stats. Therefore it will be harder for her to evade if the boss attempts to grab her with his hands like he tried with me.

And those hands... I had a feeling that it would be very bad if they were able to grab their target.

So, first I'll need to put Sanae in a safe distance from the boss. Then, I'll join the fray with her monsters and jump the boss together.

Sanae is the Summoner after all. If she dies, then her monsters will disappear along with her. And if that happens, I'll be forced to face the boss alo—

"You're not getting awaaaayyyy!"

The boss bellowed and I turned around with a bad feeling. As soon as I did that, the boss had launched a fearsome range attack by extending his nose at a high velocity despite being hounded by the multiple Banes and the other summons.

And that nose was already right in my face.

There was no way for me to dodge. Moon Walk is still in cooldown. And even if it wasn't on cooldown, I wouldn't be fast even to use the skill anyways.

In short, I'm fucked.

"Kah!"

"Yoru!"

I was sent flying to the end of the building, as the nose smashed me into the wall, dealing a heavy blow before retracting.

Damn devs, why did you have to make the pain sensitivity of the game more realistic? That hurts like hell...!

That was like receiving a punch to the face from Mrs Katsuragi. And I really don't want to remember that sensation...

"Yoru! Yoru! Are you alright!?"

Sanae was shouting at me as she rushed over, helping me up.

"I'm fine. But this is worse than we could imagine."

"What do you— Wait... No way... Your HP... From that attack alone!?"

"Yeah. Who would have thought that attack could have killed me, if not for the skills that I have..."

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[Notice! Skill: Knight's Valour has been activated.]

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