Coding Error [OFF x Reader]

4. To Fight And Defend

"A health item," you ponder lightly, a reminder of dangers lurking about. "Let's be careful, and keep an eye out."

These dangers would start to present themselves in the platforming, cracked marks breaking into holes that threaten to drop you underwater, hot pipes that would periodically erupt scalding steam demanding you to pay attention to timing, even just an occasional loose tile the size of your head would randomly fall from the building's crippling walls. Batter keeps an attentive eye on you, so he's the first to notice something moving from within the waters, immediately pulling you aside.

A boney fish jumps out to attack you, but Batter smacks it away first. Dragging the two of you into battle. "What is that?!" you cower behind the Batter who used wide angle on the creature.

Marrow Hopper(x1)
A skeletal fish that hops high enough to catch unsuspecting prey.
HP: 50/ CP: 25
Weaknesses: Metal

The fish tried to hop once more towards the Batter, baring its pointy dorsal fins in fail as it sucked a mouthful of baseball bat. You jump back in surprise, teeth clattering against the ground, you almost forgot he brought that weapon from your room. Once the fish is dispatched by that blow there's a pop up text in front of you, not only did Batter gained a few xp points, but also a few credits and a luck ticket.

"Oh would you look at that! You leveled up!" you jump to your feet, only to notice a small detail. "Huh, you're the only one who gained xp points."

Due to his limited vocabulary and the  sensibility of a rock, Batter pats your shoulder in consolidation. "Maybe next time, when you're part of a fight."

"Whatever." you shrug, collecting the teeth on the ground.

The further you two walked down the dock, the more enemies started piling up against the Batter. You were also consistently dragged into battle with him, you didn't know what to do in those situations so out of panic you'd constantly hide behind the Batter until the fishlike enemies would be gone. It's not like he was bother by it anyway. "The coast is clear, you may come out now." Batter raises his arm to check on you. Your hands unclench his baseball uniform, peeking your head from behind his back like a meek child. "Sorry for chickening out on you... again." you apologize with a sigh, shamefully lowering your head to the side. Walking past the man beside you, however you had to do a double take as your side vision caught sight of something unusual.

The Batter already signed up to be your puppet, a tool, but this new role of companion (and now as your caretaker of sorts apparently) brings him a sense of joy greater than cleansing lands. Like a guardian angel. This giddiness is something that doesn't fly under your radar.  "It's not an issue, anything to keep my puppeteer safe." his tone is confident, content even. It's obvious by his smiling eyes and the raised corner of his mouth.

The thing about Batter's appearance is that he doesn't have any discernible facial features. Sure he has a mouth that spouts a comment or two but that's about it, he's mostly quiet all the time so you forget he can even talk. There's also two black stripes painted across his cheekbones, from what you've heard it's often used by baseball players to avoid the sunlight's reflection from hitting their eyes- BUT HE DOESN’T HAVE ANY SO WHAT'S THE POINT!? Angry rant aside. The reason you were shocked to see him was because of that, while he talks about protecting you, for a split second you can see his fond expression. Eyes, nose, eyebrows, everything!

"Batter-! your..." but when the man turns to you his expression is gone. Back to that indecipherable, lack of a face of his, doesn't help that his tone is always monotone too. Makes him impossible to read. "...Never mind." you shrug, crouching down to pick up the loot left behind from the fight.

If there's anything good coming from so many enemy encounters is the fact that there hasn't been any platforming obstacles ever since they started showing up, as if the area knows there's better encounters than a loose tile falling on your head. Just when you were getting tired of seeing the same fish enemy type, you were greeted by a new creature.

Sludge Serpent (x2)
Resistance to plastic
HP: 120/ CP: 50
Weaknesses: none.

You immediately rush behind Batter out of force of habit, something he's grown used to and enjoys apparently. He outstretches his hand to the baseball bat hanging on his belt, going into auto mode as you stay behind like a passive spectator. "Never seen those before, be careful!"

"I'll dispatch them in a whiff." Batter reassures you.

They go back and forth with rowdy smacks and scratches, turns out those sea snakes can tank hits like a boxing bag, forcing you to back away from the Batter so he could fight without constantly worrying about you. There's not much you can do during auto mode but keep track of the attacks they've been landing, a debuff, an a standard attack, so far they haven't used any competence and that worries you more than it should. One of the sludge serpents howls in defeat, melting into a puddle on the ground, it's now that the remaining serpent pulls out a trick from its sleeve. It does a little twirl and shouts in a high pitched screech. Although Batter couldn't se it, the warning was as clear as day to you.

[Sludge serpent used Nautical Nausea] the Batter is now confused.

Batter!" you take a step in his direction, only to stop as the serpent threatens you with it's blank eyes.

The Batter grips his stomach, speaking through the waves of nausea. "Stay back puppeteer, I don't want you to get hurt." It's painful to watch him at the serpent's mercy, watching the man stumble, loose his balance, miss his shots, all while being bitten and scratched.

But there's a silver flesh!
Exactly, you only have one. If you use it and the enemy casts it's competence again it'll be pointless.
What do I do?
What do I do?
What do I-

He's your puppet and your his puppeteer, it's time you start acting like such.

A menu screen manifests in front of you, providing you with options only available to the player. Inspiration struck you like a bolt of lightning, swiping your hand to select the manual option instead of keeping it in auto. The Batter felt invisible strings wrapping around his arms, keeping him in place rather than letting him tumble due to the nausea. "Puppeteer, what are you-?"

"You'll defend from now on, I'll heal you with luck tickets in between." Your hand temptingly grazes through the silver flesh, but you immediately reconsidered and grabbed the eye instead.

Sludge Serpent (x2)
Resistance to plastic
HP: 120/ CP: 35
Weaknesses: none.

The CP stats gave you an idea. Just like you said, you rip tickets to help Batter recover health every time the sludge snake bites him, when you're not doing that you're defending yourself whenever the snake targets you with it's Nautical Nausea attack, you feel like you'll throw up but beside that it's not physically harming you. It uses its confusion attack on Batter again, shutting his eyes with a groan to keep his head from spinning. But soon the headache went away.

[Y/N used the silver flesh]

"Attack normally during this turn, in the next use a competence. If it doesn't die by then keep attacking normally." you point at the monster with an index finger, practically ordering the Batter like a Pokémon.

The Batter clenches and unclenches his metal bat, the only movement he has control over as the metaphorical strings sent subliminal vibrations into his body.

The corners of his mouth raise up.
"Just like old times."