As Cades was leaping forward at an incredible speed the hunter pulled out a small sword that had been hidden behind his beautifully made pelt, also putting the bow behind his back at the same time and causing it to clack, another affirmation that there was something else back there.
But instead of running away or dodging like a normal puppet would've done, or perhaps even a normal monster as it saw the angry Cades storming at it in an attempt to rip them apart using his trusty silver sword, he instead met that very sword that would've ripped apart so many other monsters with his own that glinted in a dark glow, though it was still made out of wood, one that also send out a wave of mana that would've made the other puppets freeze with all of the intent form the hunter, the intent to have this one for himself, and only for himself, the intent that even Cades was able to feel, it was almost tangible after all, and his sword was the same as Cades had once been, it was utilizing this intent, but luckily for Cades this entailed him surviving a bit longer because the wielder of this intent wanted to have fun with him, and as such wanted him to fight for as long as possible, otherwise he might've already lost.
And this could be felt in this very clash, it could be felt by the fact hat he hadn't just shot at his attacker once more with his bow, it could be felt at the fact that he hadn't used the enemies own strength to trip them up, it could be felt in every single second, in every single move-set of this battle, and soon thereafter, after the first clash, the actual battle began.
Over and over again the blades clashed, once more, once more, once more, once more, it was a never-ending clash, a unending dance of the blades as it had truly never been experienced before, when one pulled back the other advanced, when one attacked the other either met them or retreated, neither of them had to truly think, neither of them were true masters of the sword, they were both just masters of all kinds of things, jacks of all trades, though some say that a jack of all trades is often better than a master of none, but in this battle two of those jacks began fighting, and normally it wouldn't end in just a short amount of time.
However, these two people weren't without their respective tricks, and soon after the fight had begun Cades already begun using his overload trick and forcing lightning through the opponents blade, an act that forced the emulated muscles to clench even harder unbeknownst to Cades who had just done it almost reflexively because of the desperate situation he had found himself in, especially considering the fact that there were wooden puppets that were slowly crawling out from everywhere once more, but just as before they wouldn't move, they were probably all under the control of the wooden hunter in front of him, someone that was truly powerful, someone that truly knew what he was doing, someone that seemed as if he had been born to hunt down whatever the being that controlled him desired.
But after the attack from the overload as Cades had decided to call it after little thought he began to struggle ever so slightly, his movements slightly out of tone, as if a millisecond late whenever he intended to slash, as if a millisecond to early whenever he wished to retreat, all of it causing him to receive slash after slash, albeit only smaller gashes that were now decorating his skin.
All of the accumulated slashes had long since started to slow him down more and more and he soon had to go to drastic measures to fulfill his goal, but it wasn't enough as the two had already become stuck in a cacophony of blades, in a dance from which there was no escaping, even for someone that no longer knew the steps.
And soon after the once so powerful hunter had fallen and Manug had found him once more, watching for a short moment as Cades gave a slight hint of respect towards the fallen master, though perhaps fallen wasn't the right word, seeing that the being was still moving, as it was constantly healing just as all the other wooden puppets had done up until now, and soon it would perhaps once more involve Cades into a never-ending dance, just like before.
But, perhaps because it had never given an order the beings surrounding them didn't do anything either, until another figure appeared once more, this time put of thin air once more, but rather than being created it was truly more like a curtain to it, one that it had pushed away with its naked hands, and its hands were disgusting, they were covered in wooden scars, burns, rashes, which was quite impressive in Cade's opinion seeing that they were able to make them so obvious and yet so realistic, wrinkles and even warts that pushed themselves into the eyes of anyone that saw them.
The being had the snout of a pig, and overall it had a huge hump on its back, but it was huge, about 18 feet tall, and it had a weird presence to it, it was as if magic was fearing it instead of cooperating or even just listening to it like it would've normally done for any normal magician, including himself and the mage he had seen before.
It was covered in a huge cloak that would've been big enough to make a tent for a family of five to survive a winter storm in, but rather than that it was covering the entirety of the body, only letting a dim orange glow escape from the small, cruel eyes that were about as big as two fists stacked atop each other and were stacked directly next to the huge snout that seemed to constantly sniff the air and grunt as it began to look at Cades.
And as it did the entirety of the three or four dozen puppets that had been surrounding them began transforming, perhaps to help their new master while their old one was still regenerating his body, or perhaps it was the master of them all, but either way the battle would soon begin once more, after just a few seconds of calm.