The Golem Mage

The flaming mage puppet was at the peak of the Tier 6 realm, and there was also the crocodile puppet, which is an ice-affinity demon beast at the High Tier 6 realm.

It often turned the Water Takeda’s water-attribute attacks into ice using its ice-breath skill, deliberately frustrating him and disrupting his offensive rhythm.

Then there was the wooden spider puppet, which acted more like the tank of the puppet squad, whenever Beatrice couldn’t move the other two out of danger fast enough, she would shift the wooden spider forward to shield them from the Water Takeda’s attacks.

Although the wooden spider puppet was also a High Tier 6 Puppet, which means that it wasn’t really capable of dealing significant damage to the Water Takeda. However, it also worked the other way too like a vice versa thing, as the Water Takeda also struggled to seriously harm it.

The Wooden spider puppet had been reinforced with extremely rare Tier 6 wood resources, making it exceptionally durable and difficult to destroy.

Her strategy had been simple: the flaming mage puppet served as the primary damage dealer, while the crocodile acted as a disruptor, and the wooden spider functioned as the defensive tank.

That approach worked well when she only needed to hold one Takeda at bay, but now she had to face two.

She didn’t believe she could continue holding the line alone with just those three, and she remembered the message Alec had left for her, almost as if he had foreseen this very situation.

“Will you surrender, or do we have to make you?” the Wind Takeda asked, stepping into a battle stance as a thin green glow gathered around his hand.

The crowd’s attention shifted entirely to her, while her three puppets formed a loose protective semi-circle around her, leaving a small gap between them as if guarding their master.

Beatrice had her hand extended forward, where thin mana threads stretching from her fingertips connected to each puppet. Then, calmly, she flicked her wrist.

“You three are on your own,” she said softly, severing the mana connections to all three puppets, this action of hers caused many in the crowd who were watching to start murmuring again in surprise, as they couldn’t understand why she would do such a thing, since with her intervention her puppets actually seems way stronger.

But then her next action made the Dean and the Grand Dean, who were seated in the VIP section watching the match, shift slightly in their chairs.

As for the Marionette clan elders who had come to watch her, they were already smiling broadly the moment they realized what she was about to do, because they all knew what was inside the coffin.

They had tried several times to communicate with Beatrice since her team arrived at the Capital, urging her to use the power within the coffin to the fullest, but she had shut down every means of communication with them.

So for them, who had long hoped she would display their clan’s power and put them in the limelight found this situation highly favorable.

“Come out, Patches!” Beatrice said, slapping her hand against the side of the coffin as its door began to creak open slowly.

Normally, Beatrice believed when faced with something like this, her opponents were supposed to rush forward to interrupt whatever she was trying to summon, but the Takedas before her were simply too confident.

They clearly didn’t believe anything she summoned could change the outcome of the battle, they just waited, intending to defeat whatever emerged and break her will in ways she wouldn’t expect.

But when the coffin door finally opened fully, they realized it was still dark inside, though it was completely open, yet a thick dark fog seemed to cover its interior making them unable to see what’s inside.

They tried probing it with their mental energy, but it was instantly repelled the moment it touched the coffin, then two mismatched hands appeared, gripping the right edge of the coffin, followed by another two different hands gripping the left side, slowly pulling the body within outward.

That was how the puppet called Patches appeared for the first time on the capital stage, standing about seven feet tall, with long black hair that covered his face down to the neck.

Though his eyes were still visible through the strands, they were pure white, and unlike the rest of Beatrice puppets with the usual puppet eyes, his was different with a tiny black dot at the center.

He stepped out unsteadily from the coffin, apart from his two main arms, two additional arms had been sewn along the region where his ribs is supposed to be located, most of his body was covered in stitches, as if different body parts had been sewn together, very much like a Frankenstein creation.

Though his upper body was bare, but a sword strap crossed his back, with a small axe hung at his waist, and gloves covered his two primary hands, one of the extra arms was green and muscular, making the audience think of an Orc limb, while the other was scaled like that of a reptilian creature.

Even his chest showed mismatched textures, scaled patches, armored sections, and bare flesh, all held together with dark stitching.

Though the parts had been sewn together, it was clear his body wouldn’t easily come apart even if someone targeted the stitches, there were simply too many to cut through before any real damage could be done, and their dark coloration made many suspect they wouldn’t be easy to unravel at all, clearly they weren’t ordinary thread at all, likely reinforced in some way.

“What the heck is that?” the Wind Takeda finally asked, breaking the silence.

At that moment the entire crowd was quiet, watching the strange puppet with fascination, as Beatrice stepped behind him and used two fingers to press several points on his body.

Each touch made Patches twitch slightly, when she finished, she stepped back and flicked her hand outward, sending another set of thin mana threads toward different points on his body from behind.

Immediately the threads connected, his left eye began to glow with a faint blue hue as he stepped aside to give way to Beatrice behind him, no longer moving awkwardly.

“Let’s do this,” Beatrice said, staring straight into Wind Takeda’s eyes.