The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Chapter 57: Puppets & Pirates

Chapter 57: Puppets & Pirates

“Well, it didn’t take long for the situation to flip-flop,” I said while I gripped the speaker by the neck.

 “You..!” The lady just angrily growled at me.

Most of the armoured individuals paused their assault in a sudden fear, while a few acted unusually cold to their companion’s capture. The faces might’ve been covered, but their body language spoke a thousand words.

Now it was time to decide what to do with these people.

I had no sympathy for space pirates. Their ‘profession’ was never necessary in the first place, especially so in the modern day. 

Anyone could get their hands on a life full of convenience relativity easily on any of the major planets. This could be done even with minimal proof of identification as a way to ensure people wouldn’t be lost in a vicious cycle. 

However, doing illegal activities on planets and in space still happened for a variety of reasons, but mostly it was just due to money. Someone somewhere wanted a good or service that was out of the legal light and would pay good money for it.

The difference between doing these kinds of activities vs in space… the latter had a much higher risk of death. So in the end, the only people who were space pirates were those who chose to become one and criminals escaping punishment.

“Why don’t you just kill me already?!” The lady demanded. I guessed she was surprised after our quick exchange, saying we had no qualms about killing each other, and that my first action was non-lethal.

I had to make a decision about what to do with this group. Normally, if we were near the authorities, I would just chuck them in that direction; otherwise, it would be easier to just erase them before they could do more harm. 

However, in this situation, it might be better to leave some alive.

“I’m getting to that.” I tightened my grip. “What’s your role on the ship?”

Suddenly, the lasers of crimson began to fall again.

Well, that didn’t last long.

I dodged out of the way, and they continued to re-aim and fire.  

“For your sake, I hope those weapons are mana-efficient.”

Spending the minimum amount of mana I was able to stay safe under the assault.

On the other hand, while she wasn’t injured, the lady had started shaking, unable to handle the sudden jerking movements.

“I’ll put you to the side.” 

I created a small Starlight claw around my finger and penetrated the armour near her heart. Using a skill, I created a very warm and deadly ball of fire. 

“Warning for you, if you move that ball will explode. So if you want to die that badly, be my guest.” I said that, created another ball of flames around her, and tossed her to the side.

She seemed to have heard me as after she stopped shaking she didn’t move. Having the fear that a bomb right next to your heart–that you could clearly feel–might explode wasn’t something one could just ignore and pray everything would be well. 

Anyway, all that was left was the other fourteen members, there could be more on the ship but that was a later problem.

I wasn’t sure how many to kill. Even killing just one might make the trouble of getting them to obey me. However, the opposite could also be true. It was possible that killing a few could ensure they wouldn’t disobey while I hijacked their ship.

Either way, I had no idea what their reaction would be, so it was easier to leave them alive for now. Not like that would be hard.

I just needed some to be alive to pilot the ship and navigate through space. I could probably figure it out with time, but why do that when the process could be sped up? I had already wasted enough time being stuck in space for five months.

Two individuals went to reconvene with their captured friend, but as they moved I simply shot [Fire Arrow] at them. It flew too fast for them to evade the explosion and knock them back. 

I quickly [Burst] around the battlefield and sucker punched both of them right in the face, knocking them out and throwing them further back.

Twelve left.

The continuous downpour of laser fire didn’t end.

Five of the armoured individuals paused and shook. Their arms and legs dislocated and stretched, doubling in size, with two sharp appendages appearing from their back.

Robots? Uncommon.

These bots moved in sync and attempted to pincer me. Moving at a much faster speed than what the human crew could do.

However, the speed wasn't even close enough to catch up to me.

Seven humans left and five machines, and from how they were fairing up, the fighting didn’t seem like it would last much longer.

I jumped behind one of the robots that couldn’t see me and went to grab one of the robots from behind but both its arms swung in a full 360° motion.

Do they even have proper joints?

I wasn’t surprised that it attacked from behind, while robots weren’t commonly used for humanoid combat, keeping cameras all around it was standard.

Time to speed this up.

I was having some fun with the combat. The simple exercise was nice after doing nothing for another month but it was time to finish this.

In a sudden attack, I jumped three of the remaining humans and broke the arms of each of them. None of them knew what hit them, as before they could even blink all of them had been thrown into their own ship. 

Then I went after my fourth target. There was no surprise as I flew directly at him even when I was under fire. They panicked and even threw their guns when I was in striking distance.

He screamed as I smacked him in the face. Then I threw the fourth his unresponsive body at one of the robots to see what its response would be.

I watched as the robot was pulled to the side to dodge the flying unconscious body.

Huh, I see now.

Something was off with how the robots moved.

They could react when I was behind them which was normal but they had better and worse tracking than I expected. From my dodging, there were times they all were keeping an eye on me, while in other moments, not a single one could keep track. They all moved and acted in sync.

Correction to my earlier guess, I think puppets are a more accurate description.

My soul pressure was released and strengthened as I concentrated on the machines. Doing so, I noticed strings of mana leading from the puppets back to the ship.

Not something one usually sees but I do respect the creativity.

“But it's time to end this.”

I created two large [Fire Arrows] behind my back.

“Let’s begin the countdown.” It must’ve been the annoyance of being stuck in space, some of my craziness from being trapped on Espoiramissa was coming back in a theatrical form.

“One.”

The first arrow zipped through space instantly destroying the first robot that was located above me.

“Two.”

The second arrow curved past one puppet and a human and exploded on impact with the puppet that was furthest away.

However, during my ending dance, someone tried to do something sneaky. The ship began to turn and its engines started, ready to start flying.

Trying to escape so soon? None of your crew have died yet.

I summoned my Starlight and targeted the ship. Giant chains of Starlight formed and wrapped around the ship, with one chain connected to the front of the ship leading itself to my hand. The engines were still powering up so I sent Starlight into them blocking the mana flow. This was only possible due to the nature of the engines being old and only secured with simple protection against materials.

Two of the puppets launched towards me, their hands and legs morphing into long blades, and they spun like a hurricane.

I whipped the loose chain and smacked one down, crushing some of its components under the weight of the chain. 

For the second one, moments before it collided with me I created a jagged [Star Lance] and shot it towards the toy. 

The lance partly pierced through but stuck inside the puppet and so both flew off into the far distance.

Now it's time to return shippy.

Then with an explosion of flames, I pulled down the chain.

The ship’s tip swung up before the whole thing completely flipped. In open space, there was no real up or down, but for the remaining people, they sure felt something.

The three remaining conscious crewmates just completely froze in place.

“Do you want to keep trying to interrupt me?”

None of them even replied, completely despondent at the situation.

“Good.” I left them all to their devices, the last puppet didn’t move either, I was betting the controller was out of action.

I couldn’t find the door of the ship, so I just ripped a hole and used mana and fire to meld the wall back into place. 

Now that I was on the ship, I could feel that it had a weak gravity drive. The ship had tight corridors and the insides had a lot of patches all over the place due to repairs.

Not sure where to go, I focused on the strings of mana, they still existed but lacked any tension. They would fade away soon without the control supplying them with more mana, but they would be around long enough to follow them.

I passed by three individuals of various levels of consciousness, but none decided to mess with me.

I reached where the strings led and opened the final door, which led to the tiny command room–where one man was lying upside down. 

He was wearing a mix of armour and a large coat that covered his hands. A long black beard covered his wrinkly face. 

“Well, hello, looks like you are the captain.”

The man’s eyes reopened, and his body slumped over the correct way up.

He looked up and up–

–Clang.

Another puppet dropped from the ceiling with its blades facing me.

I simply grabbed it by the head and crushed it. Its six metal appendages still tried to dig into me, but I countered with an additional coat of Starlight amour. 

Both my hands covered in Starlight claws broke through its stomach, and I tore the toy apart and dropped each piece on the ground.

“I have a few questions.”