Hovering around Seth, like flies circling a deliciously fresh pile of shit, there are multiple of the emerald dagger. Each one defying the law of gravity without a care in the world as they waited to be torn from their perch in the sky and lobbed towards one of those depraved little cretins.

Of course, that was not all he had for ammunition. Stuck into the ground, completely surrounding him, was a chaotic mess of razor sharp feathers that were so graciously provided to him by his 'benefactor' Corvus. Unfortunately since the puppet still needed the cloak, as it was the only thing stopping him from exposing his identity as said puppet, it left Seth with a limited supply. Although, with the amount he had arranged for himself, he thought that it was overkill for the amount of Hemogoblins they had to face. Even if he missed half his throws, he was unlikely to run out.

Or so he thought, until he got the bright idea to target the mage.

In truth, it wasn't so much of a fully formed thought as it was a feeling in his gut. Perhaps it was his new survival instinct honed from so many near death experiences in a shockingly short amount of time, something that was seeming to become an everyday experience nowadays.

Or perhaps it was the experience honed from so many late nights and early mornings, whiling his childhood away on countless video games. Those thousands of hours had to have some effect on him, beyond crippling his sleep schedule. If there could only be one thing ever left over from his lifetime of gaming, it was to geek the mage.

But no matter what it was, it operated completely on instinct. His mind was too occupied with far too many other things than to put too much thought into who to target. He also had to control Corvus, ensuring that none of the people got injured due to his lack of focus, as well as cover for the commands that the Spirit Animal didn't know how to carry out.

With so many enemies leaping at the front line of fighters, which consisted entirely of the puppeteered undead, and doing so from so many different angles. It would have been simply impossible for him to program in all the minute differences into the Spirit Animal.

So whenever one leapt towards his puppets, and they couldn't handle it, he had to quickly take the wheel and cut down the enemy, in turn teaching the Spirit Animal how to deal with that specific situation in the future.

While his ghostly bird, which was perched up in a tree next to Cynthia so it could get a better view of the fight, made things easier in the fight it didn't completely remove the effort. His mind was still split and ping ponging between different tasks simultaneously.

It was like he was trying to juggle, walk a tightrope and sing a dandy tune all at once. Not impossible, but it took a serious toll on his mental energy.

Flicking his finger, like he was doing nothing more than playing with a Yoyo, Seth used one of his threads attached to the emerald daggers and drew it into his hand. Before it had even reached his grip, he was already moving to throw it, his movements flowing like a river as he launched the dagger like an emerald missile. Before it had even hit its target, his eyes were already scanning for the next target that tickled his instincts, not bothering to watch his dagger fly true and shatter against the mages shield.

Yanking a feather from the ground, he pulled his arm back and-

Wait… Shield?

He paused for a moment, blinking dumbly and staring at the air, as his flow state came to a screeching halt before completely derailing itself at the unexpected outcome. But it wasn't just his body that halted, as his mind was stuttering, every part of him paused, which included the puppets. Although many of them were still being influenced by the Spirit Animal, it meant that he was not helping cover its knowledge gaps. It also meant that Corvus himself completely froze mid movement.

Even if it was just for a moment, it was enough for a few Hemogoblins to slip through their frozen defences. The goblin that Corvus was about to cut down easily wove underneath his stunted swing before leaping onto his chest, forcing the puppet to fall backwards under the new weight.

With sadistic glee, the red skinned blight plunged its crude dagger into its target's unarmoured chest over and over, eager to spill more of the delicious nectar and hear its delightful screams. Yet when it neither heard screams nor saw blood, a confused expression spread across its disgusting face. That was, until its face was rapidly pulled towards the glistening beak of the target's mask which speared through it with barely a hint of resistance.

With his hand still on the back of the goblins head, Corvus pulled the dead creature off of the sharpened beak as a waterfall of blood gushed from the gaping wound, pouring onto masked face.

It made Seth glad that he couldn't taste anything through his puppets, because he was almost certain he would have gotten some of that in his mouth and he had absolutely no doubt that it would have been anywhere close to a pleasant experience.

Plus, death by goblin blood borne disease was not how he wanted to go, no matter how slim the chances of that were.

Tossing the corpse to the side, he rolled over and quickly got to his feet, just in time to see another Hemogoblin that had invaded their lines drop to the ground like a sack of bricks, and with the same amount of life in him as the bricks.

The short creature's body had a layer of blackened, flaking flesh as his limbs spasmed and convulsed. Sparkes of electricity still arcing over his body as he danced his final jig, although not as joyous as the one it had danced before.

He drew his eyes up, casting a confused and curious gaze at Astra, who was giving him a similar gaze. Their eyes locked for a moment, each holding a multitude of questions for the other, but instead of asking they simply returned to their tasks.

Corvus, using two feathers as twin blades as he cut down the Hemogoblins that charged into the frey without a single ounce of a sense of self preservation rattling around inside their tiny brains.

Astra, with one arm pressed against her side and something clenched tight in her fist, as she used her other arm to sow destruction. Like a conductor of death, both in the musical and electrical sense, every wretched creature she pointed her finger at was struck down in a flash with a bolt of crackling lightning.

Seth didn't have time to think about useless things, like what had happened with the goblin or why the blood didn't float. Those questions, those observations, were quickly thrown to the back of his mind for later. Because right now, he didn't have time to dwell on anything but the battle at hand. He had to get back to defending those around them, he had to control the puppets. He had to- DUCK!

Diving to the side, Seth narrowly avoided a pair of crimson projectiles that had suddenly come screaming through the air towards him before crashing into a tree, exploding the sturdy trunk into splinters as they carved two holes deep into its surface.

Rolling behind cover to avoid the next volley of screaming crimson, Seth planted his back against a sturdy tree and spared a glance towards the one that had been struck.

Even if they hadn't gone all the way through the trunk, Seth doubted that he would have fared any better. His armour might hold up, but the force behind those things was no joke. And if it hit his unarmoured head? Well then it would be goodbye sweet Seth.

Sparing a peek outside of his cover, which he was certain would hold up to at least one volley of whatever the hell those things were, he allowed his mind a small portion of the mental power to figure out what had nearly killed him.

It only took a cursory scan of the battlefield to find the culprit. Of course, it was the damn mage.

It was still muttering incoherently, but now its focus had been pulled away from the orb and towards the battle that was currently ongoing, more specifically at the backline fighters. It seemed like it held a grudge for nearly being killed. Who would have thought?

Holding its staff horizontally, like a spear, it waved its hand as a river of blood flowed from the undulating orb in the sky. As they approached the crimson goblin, the streams split into two and began to swirl, forming two thin lines with a pointed end that rapidly hardened before rocketing forwards.

Seth quickly ducked behind his cover once again, just in time to feel it shudder from the impact of the blood arrows. Gritting his teeth, he cast his threads over to one of the feathers embedded into the ground and yanked it over into his hand. Stepping out of his cover he hucked it towards the mage, This time making sure to watch his weapon fly.

As soon as it got close to the mage, he swept his hand in front of himself as a transparent blue barrier formed and deflected the feather, causing it to spin in the air before sticking in the ground uselessly.

'This is why you geek the mage first.'