"Master!"
The crack of lightning disappeared, and the sound of the blazing fire almost died down.
"Master, you can't do this! Get up! You have to feed me! I'm your favorite character!"
Itinit opened his eyes and saw the dog girl's face in front of him, in which he recognized his character.
"Where is the doll?" Itinit tried to get up, but could only raise his head.
"She disappeared," Noru spread her "paws". "She was scared of me because I'm a very hot dog girl."
"Yeah, it's hard to disagree with that," Itinit thought, after which he asked:
"Did the other dolls stay or did they also run away?"
"They stayed," Noru sighed. "I didn't drive them away. But soon they won't be there either! Watch how I'll destroy them!"
The dog girl looked towards the sea. The fiery aura around her turned into a red flash and left behind several sparks, which then dissolved into the air.
"I didn't even have time to think," Itinit rose to his knees. "Now I understand Tuot."
Meanwhile, on the shore, the confrontation between Nyonyokyo and Etinnei continued. The doll's head was floating in the water, but the body on the sand continued to release electric birds.
Etinnei, in her winter form, was hiding behind a snowflake barrier that looked like melting ice cream due to the high temperature.
"I can't take it anymore," the arctic fox girl fell to her knees. "I've already cut off her head several times, but she just stuck it on again. When will this end?"
"You want to know when I'll run out of energy," Nyonyokyo's asked head on the water. "I'll tell you now."
"She can read my thoughts?" the arctic fox girl almost bit her tongue in fear.
The snowflake shield disappeared. The cold no longer affected Etinnei, and the arctic fox spirit almost instantly took on a summer form.
"I still have more than half of my energy," the doll's head continued. "I'm saving it for a more important purpose. If my sis were nearby, I would never run out of energy. But your friend took her from me."
Etinnei remembered Tuot. The dinosaur should have been fighting somewhere near the other doll, but there was no sign of it anywhere along the coast.
"We agreed," the Arctic fox girl looked at the sand under her feet. "If he's not there, then something terrible must have happened. But then why didn't I hear anything? If something terrible had happened to Tuot, he would have screamed so loudly that my ears couldn't help but notice it."
Etinnei was so distracted that she didn't notice the electric bird flying past, and only her passive skill saved her from being electrocuted.
The arctic fox girl rose into the air on a swirling vortex under her feet and looked down. Nyonyokyo's head was washed ashore by the waves, and then returned to her neck with the help of a purple aura.
"When she's got her head, she's dangerous. I have to take her apart and not let her come back together. But how can I do that? If I freeze her, the ice will melt quickly. Maybe I should just pierce her with an electric icicle?"
While Nyonyokyo was moving her limbs to finally bring them back under control, Etinnei jumped onto the sand behind the doll, and then pierced it with an icicle from the sleeve of her fur top.
"Wait, I'm not ready yet," Nyonyokyo warned. "I'm not a healing doll like my sister. I can't assemble quickly."
But Etinnei didn't listen to her opponent. An electric current passed from the arctic fox girl's hand through the icicle, which was transmitted into the doll's body, and...
... Nyonyokyo only shuddered slightly.
"Sorry, but lightning doesn't affect me," the doll answered. "I don't have any blood."
"Eh?" Etinnei pulled the icicle out of her opponent's body, and then looked at the wound.
There was really no blood flowing. There was no liquid or energy at all in the black round hole that could be released from the bodies of living beings.
Etinnei remembered fighting the green-haired doll on Island of Energy Mushrooms.
"Then the doll froze," Etinnei looked at the icicle, which turned into water before her eyes. "There was no water in it either. But there was that green liquid that ate everything. Maybe there was water in it, and that's why it froze?"
While the arctic fox girl was thinking, Nyonokyo checked the functionality of her limbs and was ready for battle. A small electric ball with wings appeared in the doll's hand.
Etinnei stood behind her opponent and did not understand what danger threatened her. Only thanks to the ears on the top of her head, the animal girl noticed crackling in time and jumped back.
The ball with wings exploded in the air and left behind several electric particles that quickly disappeared.
"I didn't want to waste energy on you, but I did," Nyonyokyo admitted. "It takes too much energy to assemble the body. That's why I have to battle you like a battle doll, not like my sister. She treats her opponents like she's playing with them."
After these words, Etinnei thought about Tuot again, but this time she believed that everything would be fine with him. For some reason, the naive arctic fox girl believed the words of an unfamiliar doll.
"I'll prove to my sister that I'm not weaker than her," Nyonyokyo closed her eyes and folded her palms into a triangle.
The doll's hair rose slightly under the influence of a wind that appeared out of nowhere, which soon gave way to electric discharges.
"She's going to do something terrible now," Etinnei jumped back a few steps.
An electrical clot appeared between Nyonyokyo's palms. The doll opened its eyes and looked at the enemy with pupils shaped like lightning.
The circular vortex carried Etinnei back a few dozen steps and lifted her slightly above the sand. But despite this, the arctic fox girl was becoming more and more afraid.
The lightning bolts around Nyonyokyo merged with each other and formed an electric aura, causing the doll's chest to "jump" and then begin to tremble from the electric discharges. The clot between his palms took on an oval shape and began to increase in size until it became cramped.
"Something's about to hatch," Nyonyokyo looked up at the sky.
The doll released the oval clot, and it quickly rose above the shore, after which it began to grow until it reached the size of a human.
"This is the Electric Dinosaur Egg, only without the dinosaur," the doll said. "This is my most powerful skill. My sis doesn't have this, because she is a healing doll."
Etinnei looked at the egg-shaped thing in the air and noticed something black among the lightning. The current came from white-violet electric veins that ran across the entire surface of this object.
"There's something there," the Arctic fox girl released an icicle from her sleeve, but quickly realized that this "weapon" would melt before it reached its target.
"A bird will fly out now," Nyonyokyo said.
The white-purple veins on the "egg" were activated by a bright glow, after which many lightning bolts began to fly out in different directions and turn into electric birds right in the air.
Etinnei realized that she would have to retreat. At that very moment, the whirlwind under the animal girl's feet lifted her even higher, and then moved her back.
But the electric birds were too fast. They reached the Arctic fox girl before she could finish her thought, and only the whirlwind under her feet helped her dodge.
"Refrigerator girl behind you."
Etinnei turned around sharply and released an icicle covered in lightning from her sleeve. The next moment, a creature in an electric aura appeared in front of her, holding a brightly glowing white-purple sword.
Etinnei instinctively covered herself with an icicle. This helped to parry the blow, although the ice weapon itself disappeared along with the enemy.
"It's a doll," the arctic fox girl only now realized what was hiding behind the creature surrounded by lightning.
The next moment, Etinnei heard a crack behind her back, and then felt a barely noticeable pain in her shoulder.
"What is this?" the arctic fox girl looked at her sleeve and saw several thin lightning bolts that soon dissolved into thin air.
"Did lightning strike me?" an electric bird burst a few steps away from Etinnei.
"You're a refrigerator girl, so you have high resistance to electricity and cold," the voice in her head explained. "The only thing missing is..."
"Minniges don't have ice cream," Etinnei interrupted her brain neighbor. "It won't help."
The whirlwind underfoot helped the Arctic fox girl avoid several electric birds, and they exploded in other places.
"Don't be afraid of birds, refrigerator girl," Minniges continued. "Be afraid of birds without feathers."
Etinnei released another icicle from her sleeve, surrounded by lightning, and then saw a flash of purple light in front of her.
"A bird without feathers is like a refrigerator without ice cream," Minniges continued. "From above."
Etinnei covered her head with an icicle. The next moment, something long and electric fell on her, and then just as quickly disappeared.
"The doll hit me again. She has a sword that she surrounds with lightning, just like I surround the icicle."
One of the electric birds crashed into Etinnei's leg. Due to her extremely low sensitivity, the arctic fox spirit noticed it only when she staggered. Lightning passed from her knee to her foot and disappeared in a circular vortex.
"This thing can't move," Etinnei looked at the electric "egg." "I need to fly away. Then it will be harder for the birds to reach me."
The whirlwind carried the Arctic fox girl back, away from the dangerous object, but it was too late. Etinnei saw a bright flash of purple light in front of her, after which she released the icicles with lightning from her hands and noticed that one of the sleeves of her fur top was cut to the middle of the elbow.
"She tried to cut off my hand so I couldn't defend myself," Etinnei's eyes twitched in fear.
"The sweeter the ice cream, the sooner it will melt," Minniges continued to generate "hints." "The filling is the most valuable thing in ice cream, but without a refrigerator, it's just liquid."
Etinnei noticed another flash of light nearby, and covered herself with icicles. The next moment, an elongated electrical object struck them, and then disappeared.
"I thought I saw something. Was that her sword?"
The icicles, although surrounded by electric "armor", burst. Ice fragments began to fall down, but did not reach the ground, but melted right in flight.
"Wait a little," Minniges "said." "Now it will snow, and your ice cream will become hard again."
"Eh?" Etinnei tried to ask, but did not have time.
The electric bird flew straight at the animal girl, but couldn't "reach" it and exploded right in front of her.
The whirlwind carried Etinnei back a few steps. The arctic fox girl saw the flash of light again, this time from the side, and released an icicle from her sleeve, but it shattered right at the moment of its appearance.
Etinnei released an icicle from her other sleeve. An electric discharge flashed in front of the animal girl, after which a snowflake-shaped shield appeared in front of her.
"It's snowing," Minniges' voice rang out. "Now your ice cream is hard again. Don't let it melt."
Etinnei looked at the shield and for the first time she could see the enemy in this form.
Nyonyokyo was surrounded by an electric aura with wings on her elbows. The sword covered in lightning touched the snowflake and slowly split it.
The arctic fox girl realized that this was her only chance to do something to the enemy. She pointed the sleeve without the icicle at the doll, and a barely noticeable vortex appeared around it…
The snowflake cracked. The doll's sword almost split it.
"I won't let the ice cream melt," the thought flashed through Etinnei's mind.
... A cold stream of wind with ice burst out from the sleeve of the top. The snowflake crumbled, but the doll's sword could not reach its target.
***
Tuot ran along the seashore. The green aura helped him not to fall, but it drained his energy. So soon the dinosaur was forced to hide behind the nearest rock and deactivate it.
"There's nothing I can do to this doll," Tuot rested his head against the rock. "Maybe I'll just hide and it won't find me?"
Tuot looked around to find his opponent, but only noticed the entrance to a cave, slightly covered by a large oval stone.
"No one will find me here," the dinosaur thought joyfully.
Tuot approached the dark opening, but quickly realized that he couldn't fit through it. The rock was there for a reason, but the naive dinosaur didn't realize it.
"If I stick my head in there, I'll get stuck like Etinnei," Tuot decided. "I need to get rid of this rock first."
The dinosaur activated his aura again, then turned around and hit the rock with his tail.
There was a cracking sound of rocks, which gradually grew louder. Tuot turned around and saw several large stones rolling out of the cave.
A shield appeared on the dinosaur's elbow, which reflected all the blows, but could not withstand their force. Tuot was thrown to the seashore, and miraculously stopped a step away from the water.
"I shouldn't have gone there. It's a trap, like in games. I didn't understand how stupid players got into them before, and now I got into it myself, as if I were some kind of deer."
Tuot stood up and was about to look for a place to hide, but then he saw something and realized it was too late.
It was a hand, clenched into a fist, sticking out of the sand.
"Is she really here?" the dinosaur was overcome with horror.
The fist unclenched, and Tuot saw what he had been so afraid of. It was an eye with a violet pupil…
…. The dinosaur found himself on top of a cliff in a purple aura. From here there was a view of the grey-blue sea and the sandy shore.
"Where's the doll?" Tuot looked at the shore, but didn't see anything bright there. "Maybe I imagined it? I saw a crab crawling out of the sand, and I mistook its claw for the doll's hand. But I also saw that same eye… Is that the scary one?"
Tuot looked around to see where to go next, but quickly realized that he couldn't just go down. The cliff's slopes were too steep on almost all sides.
The only place where he could get out without getting hurt was a natural bridge between the cliff and the mountainside. The dinosaur, although surrounded by a purple aura, continued to obey instinct.
"I somehow ended up here. But why is this so?"
Tuot looked at his hand and noticed that it was surrounded by a purple aura instead of the usual green.
"This already happened during the fight with the doll on the mushroom island. Then this aura appeared and disappeared by itself. I can't summon it whenever I want, and I can't remove it either. This means..."
Tuot's limbs trembled, his mouth opened, but the dinosaur didn't fall to the ground, but flew back a step like a normal bird. Only the disappearance of the aura helped reduce the level of fear.
"This is probably some kind of passive skill that was hidden. I need to look at the cell with the lizard. But where is it? I don't remember, even though I opened it."
Tuot swept his hand through the air from top to bottom, but instead of an interface, a large screen in a blue frame with a white background inside appeared in front of him.
"Uh... Why is it here? I didn't summon this thing. Get out of here."
Tuot swiped his hand in the opposite direction, but the screen didn't just disappear. Black symbols appeared on it:
"Stop, lizard. I want to ask you something."
"The screen is talking to me? I've seen this in games, only there was an image on top, and here there's only text."
"You're that lizard," other symbols appeared under the text. "But you look a little different than before. Is that your other form?"
"Uh..." Tuot covered himself with a shield. "I'm not a lizard."
"She knows about the lizard?" the fear inside the dinosaur increased sharply. "Maybe I caught something that shouldn't be caught? No, that can't be. The lizard chose me. Then another lizard chose me. Now a screen has come to me asking about the lizard. It's some kind of lizard curse."
"Nothing surprising, really," the symbols on the screen were erased, after which they were replaced by others. "A lot of time has passed. Our city is no longer there. Everything is overgrown with forest. That's why you've changed so much."