Alex hesitated. With the conflicting instructions from Ki and Fufi he wasn't sure what to do. While the dam remained out of visual range some sounds carried over the distance. A 'pew pew' noise faintly caught his ears and a louder sound of wood cracking. The sound of something rge getting hit echoed over the water before stopping abruptly.

  "Did you hear that?" Alex gnced back to see Ki was also trying to identify the source of the noise.

  Ki mused aloud, "It came from under the water, and it shoots things that fly slowly in a straight line at a constant speed. They go 'pew pew'. Does that sound familiar?"

  Alex gave the green-haired nymph a dismissive look, but it didn't faze her.

  “Think it is time for a magical girl to come save the day?” Ki decided to be less subtle.

  "Maybe Ki is right and it is time for me to magical girl up."Alex took a deep breath and adjusted his frilly dress. He dusted off his dolls and pulled out his phone to select a song for his dance, whispering words of encouragement to himself. He silently thanked Luna for solving the issue of his phone's battery life, a blessing in a world seemingly devoid of electrical outlets.

  “Focus Alex, focus,” he reminded himself.

  Benny Goodman's "Sing Sing Sing" filled the air with the quick beat of drums. Alex tapped his foot to the rhythm and began to dance, the three dolls mirroring his every move. They formed a conga line, Alex's arms windmilling as he jumped and twirled. With a cartwheel and a hop, he flipped through the air, still spinning. His energy was infectious, carrying him through the dance as if he were dodging a 'pew pew pew' barrage from upstream, all the way to the dam where barbarians hid downstream.

  The war bands took cover behind the wagons, which splintered when struck by shots that shattered the wooden pnks.

  The chief barked orders, and his men responded with a volley of arrows aimed into the water. Unlike the projectiles emerging from the water, the arrows lost momentum upon impact, the stone tips merely spshing and sinking harmlessly to the bottom.

  A fast drum beat filled the area.

  All the barbarians looked around in confusion.

  Trumpets and trombones bred out. A bass kept rhythm with the drum beats. Cymbals crashed. A crinet sung out in a pitch higher than the other horns. Basically, it was like nothing they had ever heard before. The melody had an echo to it with strange bouncy tones mixed in.

  The music got louder with the approach of what looked like a girl in a frilly dress. She had bck hair with green streaks and three dolls followed her. The girly group's approach was more of a dance than a walk.

  The chief's group was in a bad way. He ignored his advisors and was left scrambling to escape. He grabbed the tribe's wagons that were in good order and the best combat cssers. The rest would just have to be left to the mercy of the enemy. However, with the wagon at the head of the train damaged by the ambush on the dam the wagons were blocked from going forward. The other side of the river had the forest expanding at a rapid rate. Unless they could fight off the attack the only way out would be to abandon the wagons.

  The barbarians made quick preparations for a fight, aiming bows and slings at the girl approaching the barbarians.

  Alex never stopped the swinging dance moves, approaching along the shoreline step by step.

  Lily hopped into the air and spun around in a circle. She fired a toothpick sized arrow at peak height. The tiny projectile flew an impossible distance and struck a wagon. The arrow erupted into a heart-shaped explosion, sending splinters into the barbarians who hunkered down to avoid the pew pews from the other side.

  The barbarians cursed and y prone. One archer fired back with normal sized arrows but it fell short.

  "How can something so tiny shoot so far?" He cursed.

  The swinging sounds of Benny Goodman's song increased in volume. Alex's party advanced. Lilly kept peppering the barbarians with her tiny arrows.

  When they finally got in range a volley of arrows unched towards Alex.

  Rose and Edelweiss stopped them all.

  Rose fired a stream of water that blew most of them off course.

  The ones that couldn't be redirected Edelweiss jumped up and deflected with her shield. Arrows that ignored the ws of physics seemed like cheating.

  "Combat cssers." Alex compined, ignoring the fact that she also was one.

  Fufi flew down and hovered next to Alex. "Not very patient today are we?"

  "Um, hi Fufi." Alex blushed, then spun around, ribbons swirling.

  Fufi beamed. "Ha, make sure not to get distracted, there are arrows incoming." Fufi ascended higher in the air. "Keep dancing. Oh also, that is Merumeru who is shooting at them from under water." She then darted up above, evading the stream of arrows.

  "Wait, what?" Alex asked but Fufi was already out of earshot.

  With a cute spin, Rose squirted several more arrows down with her water gun.

  "Ha, how impressive!" The chief shouted, sounding a little nervous.

  Rose's weapon's hose was in the river. The nearby water source was the only thing preventing her from draining her tank. She could really unload her fire hose of a water gun on the opponents if they could just close the distance.

  Being not completely stupid, Chief Stone Ax called for a retreat. "We've got to abandon the wagons. There is no way we won't be decimated when that ridiculous water cannon of a doll gets in range."

  "But Chief, can't a warband just go down and fight her in melee range?" One warrior asked.

  "We are trying to escape. Time spent splitting up would be better spent taking whatever supplies you can carry and fleeing. The domain is expanding. Time is not on our side." The chief spoke through gritted teeth.

  One warrior yelled over the music. "Does that kid in the frilly dress look familiar?"

  Another warrior answered. "That girl? No, Though that pink flying around reminds me of that Alex boy that we chased out after we cimed the dungeon."

  Yet another man stated, "Don't be an idiot. Did you not talk to the survivors that came back from the forest? They said that the boy we tied up in the pink robe befriended the forest spirits and a goddess. The chief didn't take the warning seriously and now we are in this mess."

  Chief Stone Ax was regretting not heeding his advisors' warning to leave the dungeon sooner. His greed had led him to stay, and now the tribe was suffering the consequences. The wagon at the front was damaged and unusable, and the tribe couldn't afford a repcement. The loot they had gathered from the dungeon was mostly valuable to underwater civilizations and sailors, not to them.

  After taking only what they could carry and still run, the group crossed the dam to the other side of the river, leaving the battered wagons behind.

  It was a good thing too. Lily was out of arrows. No one wanted a fight to the death.

  As soon as the barbarians were a good distance from the water the pew pew projectiles could not hit them anymore. Unlike arrows they fired in a straight line. If they fired upward, out of the water, they just flew off into the sky.

  A little slime girl piloted a tiny submarine around a ke, firing its pew pew shooter at barbarians on a dam. The shots were slow but defied gravity, traveling in straight lines, the dungeon apparently unconcerned with physics. The weapon's downside was its rapid unwinding; after a hundred shots, Merumeru had to exit and rewind the key. She learned this the hard way when the sub sank, but being slime, she didn't need air. She simply flooded the cockpit, rewound the key, and continued her attack. Clever girl, she stayed deep, safe from arrows, and bsted away at the wagons as if it were all a game.

  This seemed to irritate the barbarians greatly. They still needed to be driven off and soon they were running. The whole time they had music and weird sounds. The Stone Ax cssers couldn't help but run to the swinging beat. This irritated them more.

  The dam was cleared and the Stone Ax tribe group had retreated off into the wastends.

  Alex stopped dancing and collected the dolls, dusting them off.

  Merumeru surfaced her vessel and opened the gss-jar of a lid. "Meru!" She said and waved.

  "Merumeru, how did you get here? I thought you were going to stay back at the ranch and help in the grotto?" Alex asked.

  "Ru Ru Ru." She answered, sounding proud of herself.

  Both Alex and Fufi sighed. They surveyed the damage. With fire from both sides none of the wagons were undamaged. Some animals were trapped, unable to pull their broken wagons. Other wagons were missing their horse or ox or whatever. The beasts of burden broke free and ran off. Several of the horses went off with the Stone Ax tribe.

  "Ugh, what a mess." Alex compined. He removed an Ox from his harness.

  “Mooo.” The bovine compined, shaking off the water that drenched him.

  The steer rushed back towards the town ruin, and other oxen, mules, and horses quickly followed.

  Alex continued freeing the trapped animals. Some had injuries, but none were so severe that they couldn't walk. Alex hoped none would need to be put down; he'd feel terrible if any died because of him.

  Merumeru turned her little submarine into a card and pced it into her overall's pocket.

  Fufi shook her head and chuckled. "That slime girl never ceases to surprise me."

  A magical girl, a fmingo, and a slime girl headed back towards the forest edge where Ki observed.

  The nymph greeted them with a wave.

  "Good job, you handled that nicely." Ki praised.

  "Yeah, but what now?" Alex asked.

  "I saw the animals heading back to the pce where the people who got left behind by the stone ax tribe camped. They probably are wondering what happened." Ki nodded her head. Her green hair bounced a little. “We don’t need to chase those that escaped into the wastend. I think you made your point loud and clear.”

  Alex figured that it might come back to bite them if they didn’t chase down the mean tribesmen but he trusted Ki’s judgement and headed back to town.

  melchi