Conrad VS The Puppeteer

Ray fell to his knees as he saw Captain Vasili's headless body fall to the ground. The puppeteer was holding the severed head by the hair in his hand.

Katarina turned back to her human form but kept lying on the ground. It was as if she had lost all of her senses.

Ray asked to himself, "How?

Thirty Minutes Ago

Conrad and Yuri stood next to each other. Both were facing towards the puppeteer, as he was still grunting in pain while holding the severed part of his right hand with his left hand.

Katarina was running towards Conrad. Just as she got close enough, she jumped towards Conrad and turned to her sword from midair.

Conrad caught her hilt with his right hand and got in a fighting stance. Yuri too got ready to fight with his whip.

The puppeteer was fuming with anger. He yelled, "Who the fuck do you think you are? HUH!"

Conrad replied, "No one. Just a small captain who's on a path of revenge."

The puppeteer was still fuming. He asked, "Do I even know you?"

That question seemed to anger Conrad. He said while trying to control his anger, "You don't know me? Don't kid me. You killed my whole squad two days ago."

The puppeteer smiled a devious smile and said, "Oh? Ahh. Now I remember. You're that weak captain. Oh, I had fun killing those kids. Those death screams. Ahhh. Those sweet melodies. How could I forget? Silly me."

Conrad's anger took over him as the puppeteer's taunts got to his head.

He screamed and lunged towards the puppeteer. Just as he got in front of the puppeteer, he swung his sword with his full strength, aiming for the puppeteer's neck.

But the puppeteer swiftly moved away. He quickly got behind Conrad and kicked him in the hips. Conrad went flying, but he quickly regained control of his body and planted his sword on the ground to slow himself down.

The puppeteer was going to lauch himself towards Conrad, but just as he launched himself in the air, Yuri threw and wrapped his whip around the puppeteer's leg and pulled him back.

The puppeteer fell down face first to the ground. He quickly stood back, but before he could move again, Yuri pulled on his whip again, making him stumble.

Conrad had reached back to the puppeteer by then, and he lunged towards the puppeteer with her sword pointing forward. Yuri let go of the whip. It turned itself into its snake form and totally wrapped the puppeteer, restricting his movement.

The puppeteer saw Conrad coming and desperately tried to free himself. But he failed. Conrad quickly got close to the puppeteer and pierced his stomach with the sword. The puppeteer screamed in pain.

Conrad pressed the sword deep into his stomach and held it so the puppeteer couldn't get it out.

The puppet's face was crooked due to the pain. He was panting heavily. Conrad took his face closer to the puppeteer's face and smirked. He said with the smirk still on his face, "Now you'll remember me till the moment you die. And the moment of your death is near."

Yuri suddenly noticed Ray struggling to pull Sakura, who was being pulled away by spider entomorphs. Yuri said to Conrad, "Captain, looks like Major Sakura and Ray are in trouble."

Conrad too looked at the direction of Ray and Sakura and said, "Go help them."

Yuri hesitated. He said, "But sir..."

Conrad yelled at Yuri. He said, "Just go, Yuri. Go and help them before the situation becomes worse. I'll be alright here."

Yuri was still hesitant, but he couldn't bring himself to retaliate against his captain's orders.

He said, "Yes, Captain," and ran to help Ray and Sakura.

As Yuki was running towards them, he saw Silk running towards the forest. She soon disappeared in the depths of the forest.

Once Yuri left, Conrad shifted his concentration back to the puppeteer. He got a little startled as he saw the puppeteer smiling.

He frantically pushed the sword all the way through the puppeteer's stomach so that only the hilt of the sword was remaining on his side.

The puppeteer screamed in pain. Seeing the puppeteer scream, Conrad got a little satisfied and smiled a little.

The puppeteer regained his composure, but he was still panting.

The puppeteer was saying something, but his voice was so low that he was almost whispering.

Conrad got his face closer to the puppeteer, and as he did, he was able to hear what the puppeteer was saying.

The puppeteer said, "You... You should've gone for the heart."

The moment the puppeteer said this, he kicked on the ground and pushed himself away from Conrad. This in turn removed the sword from his body too.

Conrad didn't waste any time as he saw the puppeteer jump back. He quickly lunged towards the puppeteer again with his sword pointing forward. This time it was aiming towards the puppeteer's heart.

He got close to the puppeteer and extended his sword towards the puppeteer's heart with all of his might.

But the puppeteer was ready this time. He easily parried the sword away. His parry was so powerful that before Conrad could understand anything, he lost his grip on the sword, and it went flying.

Conrad tried to get back, but before he could, the puppeteer grabbed him by his hair.

The puppeteer pulled him up on the air and got him close to his face. He said, "You're boring. Our playtime's over."

Before Conrad could even try to free himself, the puppeteer kicked him in the chest while still holding on to his hair.

The kick was so powerful, it decapitated Conrad in the blink of an eye.

Conrad died before he could even let an 'ahh' from his throat.

Ray couldn't control his fear as the decapitated body of Conrad was lying in front of his eyes. But his fear quickly turned into anger as the body reminded him of everything that the puppeteer did in Delhi.

Ray screamed on top of his lungs and ran towards the puppeteer. He didn't know how he would fight him. He knew he didn't have any weapons left on him with which he could kill the puppeteer.

He also knew that all the bleeding and fighting had taken a toll on his body and no one else was coming for his backup anymore.

But he couldn't care less about those things. All he could think about at that time was how the puppeteer had killed his friends.

He just wanted to get revenge. No matter what it cost him.