Some distance away from the mass of Null Empire puppets, along the incline of the mountain range, Kandy dashed through the forest.

As he did so, he shot scores of mana arrows toward the mass of puppets, killing them by handfuls.

Last night, he’d spent a great deal of time thinking of what he could do during the battle. Standing behind the shield line and firing arrows willy-nilly seemed rather boring, and a waste of his newfound abilities. Thus, he’d planned to scout the edges of the Null Empire’s army in search of any priority targets.

After all, he was sure that aside from the numbered individuals, he stood at least a fighting chance against the rest. At least, that was what Mr. Tin had told him.

He’d expected to perhaps meet one of those many-armed monstrosities they’d seen under the Null Empire’s capital, or perhaps even a mechanized puppet or two. What he hadn’t expected… was a child.

Kandy stared at the kid standing about twenty feet in front of him. What was someone so young doing here?

He was pretty young himself, to be fair, but this kid was perhaps only half his age—he didn’t even seem to have hit his growth spurt yet.

“Hey kid, are you lost?” Kandy asked.

The kid simply stared at him and pulled out a spear in response.

“Oh, you’re a spear user, are you? You know, I’m something of a spear user myself.” Kandy pulled out his dagger and transformed it into a spear as well.

“I don’t want it to be said that I’m murdering kids or whatever out here, so I won’t hurt you unless you try to attack me, alright?”

The kid wordlessly approached, spear in hand.

“Alright, I don’t think—woah!” Kandy dodged backward as the kid suddenly unleashed a flurry of blows with the spear, then somersaulted backward as the kid sweeped his spear in an attempt to knock Kandy’s legs from under him.

“Shit, you’re not bad!”

The young boy smiled widely, almost freakishly so, at Kandy. “You’re not bad either, mister. It looks like I’ll get some fun out of you.”

“Oh, come on now. That’s just rude.” Kandy whipped his ponytail back and adjusted his glasses.

“I’m going to have to teach you a lesson.”

Kandy dashed forward with his spear spinning ahead of him and parried the kid’s jabs. Once he was past the kid’s effective spear range, Kandy transformed his spear into a dagger and stabbed at the kid’s neck.

The kid was barely able to angle his neck away from Kandy’s neck and used the length of his spear to knock Kandy to the side.

They’d both suffered attacks, but the kid was clearly worse off than Kandy. After wiping his neck with the palm of his hand, the boy looked down and saw blood.

“The opponent is dangerous. I will have to retreat, for now.”

The kid looked at Kandy. “I underestimated you and mistook you for entertainment. I will not make this mistake again.”

With that, he turned tail and sprinted away.

“Hey! Woah! Get back here!” Kandy shouted and sprinted after the kid, pulling out his bow as he did so.

He fired off several mana arrows. One ahead of the kid and one two each side.

“Tch,” the kid muttered. He pulled something out of his pocket and threw it back in Kandy’s direction.

Whatever the object was, an overly familiar abomination burst out from it.

“Kill the kid!” the boy shouted.

“I’m older than you! Don’t call me a kid!” Kandy shouted past the abomination. “Didn’t you call me a mister before! Where did the respect go!”

It was smaller than the one they’d encountered in the cavern under Vacantia, but not by much.

“I really hope you can’t cast magic…” Kandy cursed under his breath. “Or I’m screwed.”

On cue, a dozen black magic seals appeared around the abomination—blades of darkness appeared from each and soared towards Kandy, who scampered to the side. He didn’t want to lose sight of the kid, but wasn’t about to take a monster that even Beth had to take somewhat seriously.

Especially if, like the one in the caverns, it could heal itself. At least that would be easy to figure out.

Kandy twisted midair as he deposited his dagger back into his holding space and pulled out his bow and quiver. As he ran, he fired two arrows at the abomination—one normal arrow, and one of mana.

The normal arrow stuck itself in the abomination and left a wound that seemed to stay.

The mana arrow pierced the abomination’s right shoulder, but this time the wound quickly regenerated.

“Hm…” Kandy felt quite frustrated. Without using mana, his arrows would barely do anything against the abomination. Sure, perhaps he’d be able to whittle it down over time, but that would likely take hundreds of arrows, if not more, given the abomination’s size. One glance at his quiver confirmed that wasn’t an option.

Even if he’d had enough arrows, he had no interest in spending so much time in creating a gigantic porcupine.

An idea suddenly came to mind.

Kandy turned away from the abomination and ran downhill, towards the mass of Null Empire puppets.

A few turned toward him as he raced towards them, but Kandy was able to draw his spear and force his way right past them.

It was a simple matter for him to continue battling his way through the mass of puppets, as the combination of his spearwork and a bit of mana allowed him to cut through the puppets, weapons and armor and all, like a keen blade through soft cheese.

He stole a glance back at the abomination. Would it chase him through the puppets, at the expense of its allies? Or would it break off, allowing him to work his way through the lesser puppets in search of the kid again?

Kandy wasn’t sure why, but he had a bad feeling about that kid. Maybe it was because of how unusually proficient the kid was with the spear. Maybe it was because the kid had clearly been aiming to flank their defensive line by heading through the mountains…

Or maybe it was because Kandy felt jealous of the kid. After all, when he was eleven years old, he’d barely been able to even wield a hunting knife, let alone a spear!

It was only when he’d turned fifteen that he’d first gutted a rabbit. Eighteen when he’d done the same to his first deer.

And yet here was someone far younger than either of those ages, already fighting in a war. Moreover… they were damn good with the spear as well.

Kandy sighed as he continued cutting his way through the Null Empire army. He was going to have to find a way to lose this abomination. Or maybe…

Maybe it would be best for him to fight it face to face. Kandy stabbed the head of his spear into the ground and used that momentum to turn around and face the abomination. It rumbled closer and raised a giant hand, several feet wide, and tried to whack Kandy with it.

Kandy ducked under it, and drew the head of his spear around the abomination’s leg, then the other when it tried to grab him. In addition to being smaller than the one he’d seen under Vacantia, it seemed to be a lot weaker overall.

If he were to fight against the one from below Vacantia himself, Kandy would have had no choice but to turn tail and run. But this one, as Kandy dodged past a few dark blades, seemed manageable.

As the fight progressed and he continued to dodge around the abomination, another idea came to Kandy’s head.

The abomination’s many limbs, even the shorter ones, were dangerous. If even a single hand caught hold of Kandy, he would likely find a swift and brutal death.

But… as Kandy realized, they also presented an opportunity. All of the appendages faced forwards, and seemed to have roughly the same flexibility as human limbs.

Kandy slowed down in the middle of the Null Empire puppets and smashed the ground with his spear, clearing the space around him. With the immediate threat of any puppets stabbing or slashing him abated for the time being, he was able to focus all of his attention on the abomination.

When it raised its right arm Kandy rushed forward, straight toward the abomination. It swung its arm down, threatening to make meat paste out of Kandy.

As for Kandy himself, he’d expected this and leaped forward, just barely getting past the abomination’s strike before it hit the ground. The force buffeted him a bit, but he was able to roll forward and enact his plan.

Using the limbs on the abomination’s right side as a stepladder, Kandy ran up the abomination’s body and stabbed his spear with as much force as he could into the dome of the Abomination’s head. From there, he held onto the spear with one hand and reached to pull another item out of his holding space.

They’d only spent a few days in Boomtown after returning from their scouting expedition, but in that time Kandy had spent a day back at Philo’s Phiery Phorge.

It’d been nice to see the grumpy old man and his fire elementals again, but more importantly, the old bastard had gifted him another item—a blacksmith’s hammer.

Kandy pulled out the hammer and hammered the spear deeper into the abomination’s dead. It didn’t kill it, but now the spear was buried so deeply into the abomination that he was able to ride atop it.

And as it turned out, he even seemed to be able to somewhat control the abomination’s movement by manipulating the spear around.

With fresh eyes, Kandy looked upon the sea of Null Empire puppets. “Man the jib! Anchor to starport! We sail!”

Of course, he had no idea what he was saying—he’d only heard of sailors shouting such things from stories the others in the bandit camp had told him.

From his new vantage point, he spotted the retreating back of the kid he’d previously fought, and adjusted his grip on the spear accordingly.

“Go, monster, go! After him!”