Wind Puppet

Crow calmed his mind, and laid the next trap.

Cheng Xiu ducked away from the gust of wind. A part of her hair fluttered and fell to the ground.

Her eyes scanned the area around her. "You again. You know, for a puppet dancing to someone else's tune, you irritate me a lot more than your master does."

Cheng Xiu felt the next attack from the right.

As she jumped to and fro to escape the Wind Puppet's attacks, Cheng Xiu found herself wondering about Crow's plan.

At such a stage he should have used the Qi supplied by the Baby puppets to create more elemental puppets to fight against her.

But he didn't. Instead, he was waiting for either her to die or for the Wind Puppet to lose the battle.

Why?

Cheng Xiu jumped onto a tree branch.

She felt the attack coming from the right.

Cheng Xiu jumped away again.

She looked around her, her mind still trying to piece together what might be the reason for Crow's decision to not use more Elemental Puppets as support. She would have. In fact, Cheng Xiu would have done it right when the Water Puppet was killed on the off chance that her enemy would figure out her secrets.

But he didn't do that. Did he not have enough Qi to do so?

That couldn't be it. As far as she could tell, these Baby supplied Qi to Crow the most, not the Elemental Puppets. He should have already summoned the other puppets three times.

Could it be that he could not summon the puppets alone? Was it possible that he could only activate the Talismans together?

Cheng Xiu remembered an Old Card Game that she played with her mom when she was a little girl. In it, a particular collection of card combinations would envoke a particular set of skills that would otherwise remain inactive.

sort of like a team is only strong as long as they stayed together.

Cheng Xiu wondered if that was the case. If Crow could only summon the Elements Four at a time, then that would mean, as long as the last puppet is not dead, he can't summon the others.

She could get rid of the Baby puppets if that was the case.

Then her mind went to the time when these puppets were attacking her Sword Shield. They had turned to nothing after a certain set of time.

Cheng Xiu frowned. She needed to kill all the Baby puppets before the timer ran out and the Wind Element Puppet's Talisman self-destructed.

Cheng Xiu took a deep breath and gathered the Qi around her through Qi Absorption. She could do this. She had to.

Cheng Xiu ran towards the Baby puppets, careful to avoid the Wind puppet's attacks at intervals. She soon understood another thing about the Wind puppet's attack. It had a cool downtime.

Cheng Xiu smirked and timed her movements in such a way that the Wind Puppet's attacks would hit the Baby puppets instead of her.

Crow cursed when he saw the Wind attack kill off the fourth Baby puppet as well.

He realised that Cheng Xiu had discovered another one of his attack plans. He couldn't believe the precise timing with which she was moving.

It would seem, he hadn't actually understood the scope of her ability to figure out skills.

But this kind of precise fighting couldn't come in a day or two, Genius or not.

He saw her attack the Baby puppets, again and again, ignoring the Wind Puppet.

A bad premonition echoed in his heart.

Cheng Xiu had figured out that as long as she didn't kill the fourth Elemental Puppet, she could move around faster, and be freer.

He gritted his teeth. Damned S Rank.

Deep in the forest, Yaksha looked at the fight with slight awe in his eyes.

"She...Young Master...why is this Crow being so careless? Shouldn't he attack her with more powers while he is occupied?" Luther asked.

"Don't be stupid," Diana said to him. "Do you think it is easy to control Elemental Puppets to such a degree? The Baby Puppets can move on their own but are still under his command because they are lesser spirits. The Elemental Puppets are activated by using Elemental spirits, which are a higher tier. They are very volatile. He must be having trouble controlling them, especially now."

"What?" Luther turned to Yaksha. "What does she mean?"

"Elemental Puppets are always summoned together. This is because they won't obey you at all if you summon only one or two. The Summoning Talisman requires all Four elements to work. And since there is only one Elemental puppet left..."

Luther realised what had happened. "So that was what happened. This SelaXiu is very lucky."

"Luck is only a part of it," Diana said with a soft smile. "The real thing is that SelaXiu has recognised this flaw of the puppet and is using it to keep Crow out of it. Right, brother?"

"I'm not sure how much she is aware of the Talisman's Limitation but she is using the fact that he can't summon more Elemental Puppets to her advantage."

Diana grinned. "I like her. In fact, I love her. Brother, we must put forwards the offer for her to join our sect."

Yaksha smirked. "Maybe."