51 Gula

Once past the mints, they stood on a small open field. A half-dead man resembling a scarecrow was impaled on a crucifix. Crackled limbs were tightly held together by red stitches that also kept his mouth closed. Pulling himself through the nails which bound him, the man opened his jade eyes.

Landing on his beastly feet, the man stretched his neck. Muscles flexed and stretched with every twitch of his body. His dark hair draped past his lats. "Gula" was clearly engraved on the crucifix.

Andres bit his lips, "Yeah... This is bad".

The human-like scarecrow kicked itself towards Andres. His crackled fist smashed into his shield.

Vanessa pierced right into his torso.

As Andres had fallen back, the scarecrow kicked Vanessa away.

Andres tried to swing his sword and shield at the thing. His attacks were easily ducked and dodged. Never did the scarecrow pass an opportunity to knock Andres in his gut.

Vanessa swooped low to kick his legs.

The scarecrow jumped clear over to kick Andres away.

Vanessa knocked into her friend right when he fell.

The scarecrow ran clear past Vanessa to punch Andres in his face. Before he knew it his shield was snatched from him.

The assailant spun, allowing the Katana to slice Andres.

Just as Vanessa gripped her sword, the scarecrow stomped and kicked her away.

In a fluid motion to swing the shield, Andres took the hit to chop off one of its arms.

Andres was sent spinning into the dirt. He threw himself up only to be stomped down by the puppeteer's nasty feet.

No matter how hard he struggled to get up, that monster stomped its feet into Andres like a roach. Every other attempt to get up was welcomed his a shield smash.

Andres kicked himself away, parrying shield strikes with his sword in hopes Vanessa could save him.

The scarecrow landed a heavy strike which ended with Andres' arm in his palm. The stitches holding his mouth closed were ripping apart. Blood dripped from its mouth, down its chin. Its teeth were icicles made of white mint.

It slammed Andres away to release his grip on the sword. The scarecrow tossed the shield with it to beat his new toy some more as though it was a game.

The scarecrow latched its feet onto Andres' shoulder and proceeded to beat him with his one arm.

He took every blow. Each beating. a pause came to its blows.

Andres pushed his body up to kick the scarecrows back. He jumped into a fighting stance.

The half-dead man shook himself back into action.

Andres shot out a roundhouse kick.

He was uppercut quite easily. Yet, the scarecrow didn't land any further hit. There was clearly something wrong.

Andres dug his palm into its shoulder crack to yank off its arm.

I tnhat spur of pain, the scarecrow landed a kick to Andres' nose.

As he fell back, Vanessa sliced off its head.

Holding his nose, Andres looked up, "Where did you run off to"?

Vanessa took a deep breath, "I stabbed the post a few times. I figured this was another puppet and his post was his actual body controlling everything".

He took a seat in the frosted dirt, "Nice".

..................................................................................................................................................................................................

The red sky was returning to normal. Logan figured Andres must've killed the angel. From the sleigh, Dani shot out a flare for the team to assemble.

"Please don't cause any more problems," she begged.

"Yes, Logan," added Jaivva, "None of that helped".

Logan answered, "We're about to lose again anyway. My bet is Andres took charge to kill the angel instead of running. If he ever got his head on straight, my worries would be over".

He sighed towards Jaivva, "I love it that you're on the team and I wouldn't have it any other way. But all of this drama you caused has him unfocused again".

Jaivva was shaken by this 'drama' she created.

Dani asked, "How bad is Andres when he is single"?

"Probably worse than your brother," answered Logan.

Jaivva had made clear, "Well sorry for the 'drama' that I caused. But y'all appear to have had a lot of drama going on before I even came, so".

"Don't be," said Dani, "We can't blame you for somebody else's shitty decisions. Ain't that right Logan".

"True," he answered, " But this still leaves us with bigger problems to making it to pro".

Jaivva looked back as Hakim sat with the two girls far off behind some bushes. She noticed that Hakim was very similar to her. Here in this team doing his best to win and have fun with his friends. The other two, however, had an agenda to make it to pro that far exceeded everybody else on the team.