After barking at Sunders for several more times, the spotted puppy sat in place and remained quiet.
“What is that, professor?” Angor carefully asked through their Spirit Bond. “The parasites won’t approach it.”
Angor knew something was off when he saw Sunders gazing at the animal with a serious frown.
However, Sunders did not give him the answer he expected.
“It looks like an ordinary pet dog. But... yes, it shouldn’t be here.”
Sunders was using a Truesight spell, and even so, he only saw the animal as an everyday companion raised by certain pet lovers.
But there was no way a regular pet could run around this darkness like it was nothing.
Without any forewarning, Sunders unleashed a deadly ember at the dog.
“We just need to find out.”
He watched his attack going to the dog while carefully observing the energy signatures on the animal.
A shadow suddenly appeared in front of the dog and blocked off the ember.
It was a pale-white human-like figure, who just slapped Sunders’ ember to the ground.
On careful look, Angor saw a lady in a bright dress who was walking on her toes like a ballet dancer. Her exposed skin looked so smooth and white that it was almost glowing.
But her face ruined everything. It was a still and emotionless face of a dead puppet. Her eyes were big and hollow, and there were traces of artificial joints around her lips from where several wooden parts could be seen.
“Is that...” Angor widened his eyes. “Is that Yorkshire, sir?”
“No. The shadow who attacked me earlier did not look like a human. I’m sure of it.”
With several squeaks, the puppet lady held the hem of her dress and did a curtsy. “Greetings, Lord Shava.”
There were the noises of clanking wood mixed with her voice.
Until now, Angor had not ascertained who this “Shava” was or whether it was the name of a male or female. But he WAS sure that the puppet was referring to him right now.
What should I do? Should I pretend like how I did in front of that toy owl? That was so embarrassing.
The puppy behind the puppet suddenly started barking again and interrupted Angor’s thoughts.
“Garrrow!”
The puppy became so violent that it started biting at the puppet’s foot.
Creak! Creak!
The puppet lowered her head and looked at the biting dog with a confused look, or so Angor thought.
Angor and Sunders were astonished by what they saw. Why would the dog attack the puppet that just saved its life?
The puppet did not retaliate since the puppy couldn’t damage it in any way apart from leaving several shallow teeth marks on her feet.
The puppy finished its “attack” and wagged its tail while looking at Angor with a joyful expression as if it were waiting for a prize.
“Maybe it’s only too dumb?” Angor shook his head.
“I agree.” Sunders nodded.
The puppet opened her mouth somewhat clumsily and spoke again.
“Mister Watcher, are you going to interfere with our Queen’s great plan again?”
Again? Sunders frowned. “Did that little fox tell you about me?”
“Silence! A lowly Watcher like you is not allowed to call the minstrel’s true name directly!”
“Of course I can. And not only that... I’m going to kill it next.” Sunders narrowed his eyes and released some energy ripples toward the puppet.
The ripples materialized in the air and instantly bound the puppet up like ropes.
As soon as the puppet was restrained, Angor saw some shiny golden strings showing up around her limbs, which dragged it into the sky.
Sunders’ magical shackle was easily torn apart.
More golden strings came from the sky as if someone nearby was controlling them. The strings were aimed at Sunders this time, but they all avoided Angor’s position for some reason.
Sunders blinked out of existence and reappeared behind the floating puppet. A simple hand chop was all he needed to break the puppet into several parts.
But the golden strings swiftly reassembled it.
Everything happened so fast while Angor was still trying to register what was happening around him.
Wait, they’re fighting already?!
It obviously wasn’t something he should meddle with, so he called Toby and quickly ran away.
“I-I’ll leave for now and look for my friend, sir.”
“Okay” was all Sunders said to him.
Before Angor could leave the battlefield, he saw the spotted puppy somehow standing right next to him and was nudging at his ankle.
“Run along, little one,” Angor said as he stroked the animal’s head. “Those two are very dangerous, you know.”
Without minding the dog any more, Angor turned away, while the dog tilted its head and gazed at Angor in confusion.
Angor suddenly felt something dark approaching him, and he heard Sunders calling out to him at the same time.
“Watch out!”
Out of instinct, he looked behind him and was terrified to see the “puppy” opening its mouth beyond its possible limit. The palm-sized head of the dog grew hundreds of times bigger, while its mouth came down upon Angor’s position like a black hole.
It was already too late for Angor to react, and he fell into the animal’s belly as a whole.
Sunders witnessed everything. When he started fighting the puppet, he did leave some of his attention on his student just in case, especially when the strange dog went after Angor.
But he let his guard down when he saw the dog asking for affection. At that time, he believed that the dog was “dumb” just as they both believed earlier.
Next, he saw Angor telling the dog something and ran off. The dog remained still for a brief moment and chased after Angor again, while its tiny head grew terrifyingly large.
Just before Angor was swallowed, Sunders saw the dog running as fast as Angor when the latter’s speed was fully enhanced by the sequence of gravity.
And it was too late to warn his student!
Furious, Sunders abandoned his opponent and dashed toward the dog.
The dog had returned to being the tiny spotted puppy after “eating” Angor. When it saw Sunders charging at it, it jumped in fear and bolted toward a dark alleyway.
Sunders noticed that the dog was running faster than some of the quickest Bloodline users. There was no way he could keep chasing while fending off the golden strings, so he focused on the enemy behind him again. These strings were no less powerful than Fox’s white strings. He could not afford to get distracted.
While attacking the puppet, he tried to question Fox’s whereabouts and who that dog was.
But the puppet lady never satisfied him.
“Mister Watcher, please do not insist on your improper manners.”
Soon, Sunders shattered the puppet to shreds beyond repair, and the golden strings were retrieved by whoever was controlling them.
He suddenly heard someone speaking, but he couldn’t tell where it came from.
“A Nightmare Watcher in the flesh... Such a pity. A resource that refused to follow our Queen’s command.”
“Who are you?” Sunders questioned. “Yorkshire?”
No response.
Sunders slowly landed on the ground and began to sense the droplet of blood he gave Angor.
He looked toward the northwest where the “signal” was coming from. Heading that way would take him to the center of the outer city as well as right below the strange vortex.
Sunders had not explored that area yet because his instinct suggested unknown danger lurking around there. Also, the noises from the teleportation hall where Greya was distracted him.
But it seemed the dog had gone that way, so he also had to check it out.
He didn’t know what happened to his student. But he could tell that Angor was still fine because a certain trigger he left in his blood was not broken yet.
But why did the beast decide to swallow Angor? It looked fond of Angor just a moment ago.
Everything he saw suggested that the dog was NOT an ordinary animal. However, things were made strange when he failed to find anything that suggested supernatural powers from the dog even after he had used Truesight and many similar spells.
If Yorkshire was hiding somewhere while controlling the golden strings, then what is that dog?
Is there a fourth monster who showed up from the nightmare tunnel?