Since we couldn’t use magic under the circumstances, Sadeena didn’t even try to cast any spells and just took off after Raphtalia and Filo while still in her animal form. She was fast . . . but yeah, not that fast. She tended to lag just one step behind Raphtalia and Filo at her current speed. Watching Raphtalia and Filo dash out into the front made it obvious to me that she’d had support magic cast on her earlier.

My job was to stop these two puppet things!

“Ha!”

I leapt out in front and blocked the attacks of the puppets, which were brandishing swords and axes. I could feel the heavy impact travel through the shield and into my body. Still, it hadn’t been enough to surpass my defenses.

“. . .”

“. . .”

The way they jerked around while making clickety-clack noises was seriously creepy. Murder Pierrot was holding a ball of thread and seemed to be using it to control the puppets.

“I harbor no ill will toward you, but I want to end this ludicrous match as quick as possible, so please don’t hold it against me!”

“We’re gonna win!”

“I’m sure it’s no fun to get stuck cleaning up after a girl like me, is it? But we have our reasons, so don’t hold it against us!”

Before I could even tell them to, Raphtalia, Filo, and Sadeena all brandished their weapons and rushed in to attack. Our opponent was supposed to be strong, but . . . surely they weren’t strong enough to handle all of us. We’d gotten here by overcoming every obstacle that had been put in our way, no matter how great! Losing was not an option!

“Spider Net . . .”

“Wha—”

“Huuuh?”

“Oh?”

The three of them had tried to attack, but their weapons came to an unnatural halt right in front of Murder Pierrot. Huh? What was going on?!

“Something’s . . . stuck to my weapon . . . Thread?!”

“It’s stuuuuck!”

“Looks like things might get sticky, doesn’t it?”

The thread that their weapons had gotten tangled up in suddenly came into view, as it wrapped around the weapons tightly. And then, as if it were alive, thread after thread shot forth and began wrapping around their bodies, as well.

Was it an immobilization attack? Was there seriously an attack that worked like a spider web?! We must have been dealing with some kind of therianthrope or something that had insect-like characteristics. Or maybe it was actually a monster that was using a human form like Filo did.

Murder Pierrot held the ball of thread out.

“Bind Wire”

Thread shot out of the puppets that I was holding on to with a hissing sound and came straight for me.

“Damn it! Let go!”