“You shall meet the same fate as your friend!” The bald man said. He began to flail his nunchucks around his body in preparation.

He then stepped on the ground, and a pillar of energy erupted around his feet.

Jon took the opportunity to shoot his gun.

As expected, the bald man hit the blast with the nunchuk, deflecting it and sending it off elsewhere.

Jon couldn’t help but be impressed. He watched Tallow for her next move.

As she got close, the man swung again. Tallow leaned back, sliding underneath the attack.

He turned as she passed by and made three more speedy attacks. Tallow had deflected the first two as she moved past him, but the third had knocked her sword out of her hand.

“You are defenseless!” the bald man cried. “Submit to me!”

“Check again!” Tallow said, holding up the second pair of nunchucks. They were bright green, as opposed to the dark blue ones the man held.

He opened his mouth in shock and patted his waist, realizing that those were indeed his nunchucks.

“You stole my family heirloom! “He cried. “Those nunchucks have been passed down…”

“Yeah, yeah, stuff it!” Tallow began to flail the nunchucks around her body.

The bald man echoed her. They moved in a circle, tracing each other’s movements.

Eventually, Tallow was close enough to Jon’s side so that he could approach her safely.

“You can use those…” Jon said.

“Actually,” Tallow whispered, “I can’t. This is the only thing I know how to do.”

She continued to swing the nunchucks around her body.

“You dare tease me with your patience!” The bald man yelled.

“I’m just… charging up for my special move!” Tallow yelled back.

She turned to Jon. “Uh… let’s surround him, and…”

Another dragon rose from the ground.

“You try my patience, witch!” the bald man yelled. He directed the large dragon towards the two of them.

Tallow quickly turned and dived back towards Hector’s sword. She rolled over it, picking it up and tossing it in one smooth movement.

It spun towards the dragon, exploding it in a blue wave of powdered energy.

It sailed until the bald man deflected it away with his nunchuck.

Jon that he should start shooting again. He fired from the hip while strafing to the side, being confident in his ability to hit the target.

Again, it was useless, but Jon didn’t know what else to do.

In fact, when Jon saw that the man’s eyes were closed he became even more nervous.

When his eyes opened, three more dragons rose in different directions, prepared to strike forward.

Jon didn’t know if he had enough energy to fend off all of that. He wished Sabez was here to shoot that massive blast of his away.

Jon decided on the next best thing.

He raised the gun and started shooting rapidly at the large dragon heads.

Pieces of the dragons began disappearing as Jon fired rapidly. He didn’t know how many shots it would take to get rid of them, but he could at least try his hardest.

“You shall not be able to fend off my final at-taaaaiiiii!” The man suddenly fell face forward onto the floor.

Jon saw that Mallory’s tentacle was wrapped around the man’s ankle, having just pulled him to the floor.

Still, the man raised his hand up, and the partially completed dragons rushed toward Jon and Tallow.

“Uh, uh…” Tallow watched the incoming hazards with concern. “Maybe I can take out one, but…”

She jumped up and swung half-hazard with her nunchuck with her eyes closed, deflecting one of the dragons away.

It was pushed to the side, but turned and made its way toward's Tallow's back. The other dragon continued its advance from the front.

A gust of wind blew from her feet as she dived to the floor. She ran forward, passing by Jon.

Due to this, the third dragon that was heading for him went after Tallow instead. She ran with the three dragons weaving close behind her, trying to catch her in their grasps.

Jon saw that the man was still face down on the floor, so he tried to shoot the dragons as they followed Tallow around.

More and more of the dragon’s bodies began to dissipate. However, this caught the attention of one of them, and it changed their direction back to Jon.

Even if he had used his gun to shoot himself out of the way, Jon didn’t think he would be able to avoid the attack completely.

A large blue transparent square erupted in front of Jon, blocking it from its path. It continued to ram its head against the barrier.

“Run, man, run!” Jon could barely hear Mallory’s cries behind him, but he knew what it meant.

Jon also wanted to know if the dragon had its own brain, or if it could get hungry.

He settled with running away, the barrier already begging to break under the stress.

Now that he had room, he took aim and shot three short bursts.

One of the dragons was finally extinguished completely.

Tallow jumped up and brought back the nunchuk, slamming it into the second dragon.

It dissipated finally, but she was knocked back onto the floor.

Jon prepared himself for the last dragon, which had finally broken through. Behind it, Jon could barely make out the bald man holding his hand up, having finally stood back onto his feet.

Jon braced himself to shoot more.

The barrier broke, and fire jettisoned into the blue creature, destroying it.

Jon turned around and saw Hector behind him with his hand outstretched.

“I got it from here…” he said. There was dirt on his face and armor, and his hair looked even messier than usual.

He held his fists up and walked casually to the bald man.

“No more tricks,” Hector said.

“Even if I am depleted out of mana, I don’t need it to defeat you!”

“I wasn’t talking to you!” Hector responded.

The bald man widened his legs and lowered his stance. He then leaped forward, extending out his leg for a flying kick.

Hector stepped to the side and pushed against the outside leg. The bald man made his landing softly and began his assault. Hector calmly deflected each of the blows as he danced around the attacks, impressing Jon with not only his slick footwork but his cool and level-headed deflections. It was almost like Sabez’s defensive movements, except…

Dancier… Jon couldn’t find a word for it. Not one that Hector would accept anyway.

Whenever a stray strike from the nunchuck collided with Hector’s arm, his fire would collect to the spot of impact, and nothing further.

Then finally, Hector saw a moment to draw back his hand and punch.

The bald man had collected his nunchucks in his own hand to strike Hector with them, but Hector’s fist met the attack in the air, stopping its momentum completely.

“Ha!”

A pillar of fire erupted underneath the bald man’s feet, accompanying Hector’s yell. When the fire stopped, the bald man had disappeared, and Hector was still holding on to the nunchucks.

A figure crashed into the ground some distance away with Hector’s fire still fluttering from his body.

“That was embarrassing…” Hector whispered.

“You should tell us if you know Kung Fu…” Tallow said, rubbing her head as she made her way towards him.

“It’s not kung fu. It’s just a basic form of… forget it…” Hector waved the comet away. “It’s pointless. Let’s go check on Mercy.”

The three of them went towards the other end of the street, with Mallory climbing down from the building to join them.

Mercy was still engaged in a furious fight with the robed woman.

“Should we help her?” Hector asked.

“No!” Mercy yelled. “It doesn’t involve you!”

“It doesn't involve me? We were literally attacked! And-”

“Hector, maybe you shouldn’t argue with the ninja while she’s fighting,'' Mallory said. “Can’t it wait?”

Hector moaned. “Whatever. Tell me when it’s over. I gotta check the damage…”

“And I’m gonna tie these geezers up,” Tallow said.

“You got any rope?” Hector asked.

“Do I ever! In here!” The two of them walked into the tavern.

Jon turned back to the fight. Mercy didn’t seem to have any scrapes on her face, but she was certainly running out of breath and sweating more than Jon was used to seeing.

Despite how active she was, Mercy never seemed to be doing anything hard. The sweat told Jon that this might have been different.

There was eventually a punch to the other woman’s face that connected turning her around.

She used the momentum to swing her leg around and kick Mercy in her temple, knocking Mercy back.

Jon gripped his gun in concern, but Mercy managed to catch herself with her hands and push herself up.

“You’ve gotten lazy!” The woman yelled. “Too quick to rest on your laurels!”

“Says the woman who just got punched in the face!” Mercy yelled. “Is that what you need to do anytime you achieve something! Get punched in the face first!”

“That’s the first time they’ve hit each other properly,” Mallory whispered to Jon. “I don’t know how it keeps going.”

“They know each other…” Jon assessed quietly.

“I think so,” Mallory responded. “This seems personal. Mercy said it’d be a snap, but they’ve been fighting forever.”

“I will not submit to you or your bullying!” The girl yelled back. “You’ll fall to the technique of the Hundred-hands clan!”

“That’s a stupid name!” Mercy yelled. She quickly made several formations with her hand and pushed forward a pillar of fire.

The woman’s own punch was enough to extinguish the projectile in front of her.

“Your petty tricks won’t work! Not for someone true to the fist!”

“Man, these hundred hands guys like to talk a lot, don’t they?” Mallory commented quietly to Jon.

Mercy screamed and ran back at the girl. They began to strike at each other again.

They traded blows more and more, but Jon could see that any of the attacks Mercy received seemed to be hurting her more. Maybe the woman was stronger with her attacks.

Jon could also feel Mercy losing herself. She was slipping away, much like in her fight with Sabez. Would that mean that the fight would go her way?

“You’re overstepping!” Jon was stunned by the voice of Hector, who had come back out to watch.

“Shut up!” Mercy yelled.

“I won’t, 'cause I’m right!” Hector responded. “You’re overstepping! You’re not a martial artist. You’re a ninja.”

“I…” Mercy was interrupted by a quick smack to the face.

“Ohh…” Mallory flinched in response to the hit.

Jon wondered if Hector really was right. Looking at Mercy, Jon could tell that she was trying her best to win.

What did winning mean?

“Fine, if you won’t listen to me, listen to Jon, or get your ass kicked. I don’t care.” Hector crossed his arms.”

“...Small…” Jon said.

“What?” Mercy barely had any time to think before she had to duck the next roundhouse kick.

“Compartmentalize your objectives,” Hector added.

“Do small,” Jon repeated. Wasn’t that what Sabez said? Mercy was thinking too much about dominating her opponent.

Her eyes widened in realization. Instead of continuing to retaliate, she took a few steps back.

“...Sorry... “ Mercy said to her opponent.

“Sorry? For what?” The woman asked. “Fight me!”

She leaped forward and tried to roundhouse kick Mercy, who quickly hopped forward and punched her in the chest before she could finish.

The woman was knocked back.

“Sorry…” Mercy said again. She stopped hopping in place.

The women yelled and ran at Mercy again.

Mercy parried her attacks keeping herself in one place while her eyes scanned the movements of her opponent.

Soon, Mercy turned out of the way of a forward kick and slammed her head backward, hitting the woman in the face.

While the women stepped back in pain, Mercy made a quick couple of hand signs and lifted her hands.

The woman was pushed into the air by a gust of wind.

“I told you-” the woman began.

She couldn’t finish her response as Mercy had already jumped into the air.

She grabbed the woman from behind and they both plunged upside down into the ground, landing on their heads.

The impact shook Jon, and he was afraid that Mercy had hurt herself from the throw, but Mercy simply leaped away after the fact.

“It’s done…” Mercy said. She suddenly buckled onto her knees.

“What the hell... “ Hector sighed. “You can’t exert yourself like that anymore! I wasn’t hired to carry you around.”

“I don’t need you… to…” Mercy could barely speak between breaths.

Jon went to her side, waiting to see if she would lean on him.

She did, grabbing onto his shoulder to steady herself. “Let’s clean up.”