The door to the bar creaked open. Its hinges clearly hadn’t been oiled in some time. The paint on it had been stripped, and the wood was clearly weather-worn and on the verge of rotting—just like the entire outside siding, just like every building nearby. The inside of the bar was much nicer—dingy, but with a calm ambience. It was likely one of the nicest buildings in the area.

The bar was located on the outskirts of Shindig, the hub-city of entertainment. While the center of the city was a lake of lavishments, the further out someone wandered, the more depressing the reality became. The casinos and venues were treasure troves of wealth and fortunes to be made. However, everyone who worked there needed places to live, and the owners of those establishments weren’t so kind as to provide housing.

Near the outermost edge of the Shindig city limits was a pile of worn lumber and cracked bricks that was somehow called a neighborhood. Slums would be the more appropriate word, but taboo to say. Most of its inhabitants had the same dream as the guests of Shindig: striking it rich to find a better life.

“Hey kid, veterans only!” The bartender shouted at the new patron who’d just come through the door. “You should turn around and… I, uhhh, mean take a seat wherever you like.” The bartender choked on his words when he got a better look at the patron, and quickly averted his gaze and hands to clean some drinkware that didn’t need it.

This bar did in fact only cater to veterans. Every other patron of the bar was at least in their thirties, all with a hint of husk. A lot of them were still in old uniforms, most of which had seen better days. There were quite a few with missing limbs or obvious injuries, drinking away their depression before the sun had even finished setting. While a sad place to be, it also served as a recruitment spot. Mercenary bands or the shady rich looking for bodyguards would often drop by and scan the pool of candidates.

Drim Drazah walked past all of them and sat next to a man at the bar, catching a glimpse of a collapsed polearm strapped to the man’s leg. Drim nodded to the barkeep. “Another round of whatever he’s having. Actually, leave the whole bottle.”

“Thanks kid, but trying to get me drunk won’t get you far.” The man snickered without looking up from his drink. His voice was gruff, but somehow different than Drim imagined.

“Well, the drink isn’t entirely free,” Drim informed him. “You have to listen to my offer, but I’ll pay for it whether you say yes or no, Nach.”

“It’s actually Nachi, but you can call me either,” The man corrected him. “I can see why you wouldn’t know. Everyone’s called me Nach for so long, since Nachi is just too feminine for them. It’s funny how much it changes the pronunciation just by dropping a letter. Been annoying how often the nickname makes people confuse me for a man, though.”

“Wait, you’re a woman?!” Drim was genuinely dumbfounded.

Nachi let out a pained laugh. “I can see it even got the great Drim Drazah too, but it explains a lot. At least now I know you didn’t mean to brazenly grope my chest back during our fight in Constead. Like, I know I don’t have the biggest tits in the world, but some consideration would be nice. Maybe I should finally grow my hair out now that I’m not in the service anymore to help with the confusion. But I do like it short, hell I may even buzz it shorter.”

“Sorry, that was a lot to take in at the moment,” Drim apologized. “But it doesn’t change anything. Your gender has nothing to do with why I’m here or why I want to recruit you.”

“So it is a recruitment then,” Nachi confirmed. “Funny, I was just thinking about heading your way. I was weighing the idea of a rematch to test out these new eyes of mine.” She finally turned to face Drim, showing off a glint of her blood red eyes.

“And you’re a Lesser?! I’m getting a lot more surprises today than I anticipated,” Drim admitted. “I saw recent photos of you and your eyes were normal. When’d you turn?”

“Uhh, about fifteen minutes ago, maybe twenty… Hour? Hard to say. I’m a few drinks in, which are now not hitting as hard as they did yesterday,” Nachi explained. “Some creep tried to fondle me in the alley out back just before I got here. I may have gone a little overboard on my beatdown. Don’t worry about the body, someone gets paid to clean them up—if the ratcoons don’t get to him first. Anyways, tell me about this job. I assume you don’t want someone killed or protected, or you’d just do it yourself.”

“Yeah, it’s nothing active like that, and it’s not a mission. It’s stable employment,” Drim informed her. “I was surprised when I found out that you’d left the CP, but I for one am glad you’re no longer on the opposing side.”

“Yeah, well, you’re most of the reason for it,” Nachi sighed. “There was talk of disbanding our unit, but they didn’t have to. One by one, everyone left for some reason or another. A few quit the army outright, demotivated by how badly they lost. A few were transferred to other divisions or other roles entirely. For me, it was depressing in a different way. No enemy after we fought ever lit a fire in me. Just a few quick jabs and I’d win every time. Once I realized there was no chance for growth, I left.”

“I’m sorry that I caused you all so much strife,” Drim apologized. “But it may be for the best. Normal humans have no business fighting Fiends if they want to live, with a few exceptions... By that I mean you if you didn’t catch my drift. You’re the only non-Fiend I’ve ever struggled against. That alone made me want to recruit you, but now that you’re a Lesser, you may be even more qualified for the position.”

“Basically, I want you to be our trainer,” Drim finally got around to the details. “Not for us specifically, though learning from you could probably help anyone. We’re expecting several more Fiends and Lessers to join us soon, ones who probably haven’t had the same experience or development as our current group. So, we need a dedicated trainer, one that can cater to their specific needs and ensure stable growth.”

“Not to praise myself too much, but I do consider myself decent at it, at least in understanding what other people need, but I definitely wouldn’t be able to give everyone their required level of attention. So, when I saw you were between jobs, I knew I had to at least try to recruit you. From what I saw, you have a lot of experience working with a diverse group, and that’s exactly what we need.”

“Uhuh,” Nachi seemed a little bored by the proposal. “Okay, I have a few questions. What’s the pay?”

“Uhh, well, I didn’t have a specific number in mind, but we can negotiate. Either way it’ll be several times more than whatever you were getting at the CP or freelancing.” Drim answered.

“Alright, tempting from the start,” Nachi was getting more interested. “All the money in the world isn’t important, though, if you hate what you’re doing. Training a bunch of fledglings sounds like it’d be a snooze fest. I’d like to get at least some real fights, and I want to always be improving myself too.”

“Well, I can basically guarantee the people you’ll be training will be interesting in some way,” Drim assured her. “Either through their strength, powers, or personalities. No Fiend I’ve met has ever been boring. As for fights, you’re welcome to take on jobs against strong opponents and monsters if you like, and could take your trainees on those missions as an excuse. Plus, I’ll fight you anytime you want.”

“Hmph, fine I’m pretty much sold,” Nachi was starting to smirk from the prospect. “Last question, and most important, are there cute girls there?”

“Yes, several, and I’m sure more will join soon,” Drim answered honestly and immediately. He couldn’t deny that he had found himself surrounded by stunning women.

“Nice, very nice,” Nachi was deeply invested now. “Every army I’ve been in has been mostly a dude-fest. Around here isn’t much better. I was starting to think I’d only see cute girls again in my dreams. So tell me about them—”

“That’s enough!” a stranger suddenly roared from a dark corner of the bar, shattering the glass he had in his hand with a tight squeeze. He was hard to make out, but Drim was able to pick up on the key points. Finding Nachi as a Lesser was enough of a surprise, but casually crossing paths with another Fiend was an astronomical rarity.

The man grabbed the table he was sitting at, and threw it towards the pair at the bar. Drim blocked it easily with one hand, but then grabbed it immediately after, pulling himself and Nachi behind it for cover. His eyes hadn’t been deceiving him, and he had indeed seen a glint of metal slide out of the man’s jacket. The other side of the table was pelted with bullets, a few bits of shrapnel breaking off on the side they were hiding behind.

“Damn you, Drazah,” the man barked as Drim heard heavy boots heading towards them. “First, you dare to show yourself in front of me after everything your family has done. Then, you ignore me for someone else I also hate. Then, you talk about nonsense like cute girls. And worst of all, you made me spill my drink! But I’ll turn this night around. All these years I’ve been planning my vengeance, but I’ll finally get it tonight.”

Drim used one of his vines to grab a glass from the counter, and angled it so he could get a better look at the approaching man. He was dressed in full military garb, but certainly a Fiend. His hair was golden, as shiny as Xard’s golden eyes, and parted towards the middle to form a short mohawk. He wore a tired red headband below his bangs, just above his indigo eyes.

The description matched what Drim had heard about The Grudging Guerilla. If it was true, his Curse mark was hidden under that head band, and that it was a bullet hole right in the center of his forehead. It was also believed he’d killed a fellow soldier, one he would often grumble about when he thought no one was listening. Unfortunately, in those rumors, no one had ever been able to get a good read on his powers.

Drim didn’t even see The Guerilla move his hands, but a live grenade popped out from him out of nowhere and rolled towards the table. Another vine shot out from Drim, grabbing the grenade and tossing it at an unoccupied wall. It had more power than expected, blowing the wall clean apart. Drim hurriedly dragged the table along with Nachi towards the hole as another round of bullets pelted against the wood.

As soon as they were through, Drim patched the hole with several layers of thick vines, which The Guerilla immediately started blasting. Drim grabbed Nachi again, pulling her up onto a roof to hopefully get them out of sight, and away from the corpse in the alley that was currently being munched on by some ratcoons. “I see you’re friends with Lieu as well,” Nachi was surprisingly relaxed despite the situation. “And normally, I’d break a guy’s wrist for grabbing me unexpectedly like that, but I’ll give you a pass just this once.”

“So, you know him?” Drim pried.

“Yeah, he’s Lieu Caffold,” Nachi elaborated. “He tried out for the CP squad a few years ago, but he wasn’t a Fiend back then. Still, even then he was clearly unhinged and going on about his friend being brainwashed and his vengeance against the Drazahs. Naturally, he didn’t make the cut.”

“Well, I wasn’t expecting to get into a fight here; at worst blows with you if you were still upset about Constead. But I think I should give you this,” Drim presented a silver bracelet to Nachi. “I was planning on using it as a bargaining chip to get you to join if needed, but I think you should have it in case we end up fighting Lieu again.”

“Sorry kid, but I’m not really a jewelry girl,” Nachi was unimpressed. “However, it does look expensive, so I’ll still accept it and use it to make another girl swoon.”

“Oh, just put it on,” Drim grumbled. “And then pull out your polearm.”

Nachi did as instructed, but the polearm suddenly disintegrated into sparkling dust. Her eyes sprung as she yelled. “You better have a way to fix this, you bastard! That weapon is a family heirloom that’s been passed down to the best fighter for generations!”

“Quiet down!” Drim tried to shush her. “Relax, your weapon is fine. Hold out you hand as if you were about to grip it.” Nachi did as instructed again, and her polearm magically appeared in her hand. “As long as you wear that bracelet, no matter what happens to your polearm, whether it’s lost or broken, it will always return to you if you call it.”

Nachi did a test throw, launching it straight into the air. She then gripped her hand again. The polearm vanished from the air, instantly reappearing back into her hand. “Damn, that’s good zjik!” Nachi’s whole body shivered in ecstasy. “If I ever need help thinking of a present, you’re at the top of my list. Now let’s get out of here before that zjikstick finds us. He’s a looner, but he can fight. I can vouch for that.”

“There you are!” Lieu announced his arrival as he jumped on top of a nearby roof. “I’m glad you’re so wily. It’ll make it so much more satisfying when I kill you!” Two assault rifles were suddenly in Lieu’s arms, and he was already firing before they could react. Drim managed to get another vine wall up in time, but it was butt-clenchingly close.

Drim and Nachi bolted for the edge of the roof, dropping down into another alley and scurrying away as fast as they could. After about a minute of running, they hoped they’d gotten some distance, but rapid explosions behind them proved otherwise. Soon after, it reached a point where the explosions were in every direction, cutting off certain routes.

“Damn it, how many grenades does that zjikstain have?!” Nachi cursed as she punted one like a zoneball.

“We need to get somewhere more open. He’s going to corner us at this rate,” Drim relayed as he used a flytrap to dampen another grenade. It didn’t help that Drim couldn’t tell where The Guerilla was. His morality sensor wasn’t activating, so Lieu wasn’t evil at heart. That gave Drim hope that he could be reasoned with, but he seemed even more hot-headed than Xard whose head was basically a bomb.

Through a combination of Drim’s mental mapping and Liue cutting off certain routes, they were headed towards the main strip of Shindig. Civilians were already starting to clear out and a terrorism warning had been issued after the first few explosions. Only the few most daring or most stupid onlookers would remain. Thanks to the morality check, Drim doubted that The Guerilla would resort to endangering others for his so-called vengeance.

Unfortunately, the path to where Drim had stashed his hoverbike was the first route that had been cut off. Given the level of skill Lieu had demonstrated, chances of escape seemed minimal. Drim could probably manage it by himself, but adding Nachi complicated things. Plus, there was the added annoyance of not knowing how The Guerilla’s Curse worked.

He was clearly an expert in firearms and hit-and-run tactics, but Drim didn’t believe any of that was due to his Curse, just raw skill that was enhanced by being a Fiend. Since they weren’t sure on the specifics, their current best course of action was to keep the flow of things and stall for time. Drim had already pinged an SOS to the others. Kada and Xard were together, likely in The Tourist flying at its maximum speed, and Phon was teleporting across the country.

Regardless of who came to their aid first, it would still take them time. So for now, they needed to keep The Guerilla engaged, without killing him or forcing him to use his full power. Restraining him would be ideal, but Drim wouldn’t risk it if it conflicted with those restrictions. This made the main strip of the city the best spot. It was open, so there would be no more surprise attacks, and it would keep collateral damage to a minimum. Thankfully, while Lieu seemed to have limitless firepower, none of it was exceedingly strong or damaging.

This was immediately proven incorrect as Drim and Nachi were finally about to exit the last alley. A huge explosion from behind launched both of them several feet onto the main strip. Drim’s natural chivalry kicked in, making him slide under Nachi’s body to cushion her fall. Once they were finally on their feet, they looked to the source.

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The Guerilla lauded over them from the rooftop with a rocket launcher in hand. It was clear there was no way he could have been carrying that the entire time. Drim deduced that he must have weapon caches hidden all over the city. This made the main strip even better, since he’d have less of a stock to pull from.

“So the rats have escaped the maze, but they still refuse to fight,” Lieu yelled at them from the rooftop. He jumped down the tall building, launching a rocket towards his feet, using the explosion to cushion his fall. It destroyed a lavish statue in front of a casino in the process, and blew out several nearby windows. “Well if you won’t put up a fight, then my vengeance will finally see its end.”

“What vengeance? What did we do to you?” Drim demanded to know.

“I’m sure you’ve done plenty, but my business isn’t with you,” Lieu spat. “It has to do with that crazy Draz inside of you. I know she’s dead, but that doesn’t matter. As long as you bear her Curse Mark, and have control of her power, you need to be eradicated from this world. Oh, and I’ll be going after your sadistic sister too. My grudge is more with your mother, but I need the Drazah bloodline to end!”

“Blah blah blah, who gives a zjik about bloodlines,” Nachi interjected. “You’re just using that as a pissant excuse to kill an innocent kid who has nothing to do with your dead friend.” Lieu seemed a little shocked at this revelation. “Everyone at the bar knows about it. You won’t shut up any time you get tipsy. You blame the Drazahs for the death of your comrade, but you’re the bastard who shot him through the brain. That mark on your forehead proves it.”

“I had to do it because that Rathe-eating mawhgsack brainwashed him!” Lieu screamed. “There was no way he would have done all that zjik if he wasn’t forced to. I was skeptical about her powers, but now we have proof! That kid can use it too, can’t you?! C’mon, use it on me too, or I’ll blow your damn head off!”

The Guerilla ditched the rocket launcher and pulled out two revolvers, immediately blasting all their rounds at the pair. Drim put up a shield of vines around them. Thankfully, now that they had a direct line of sight on Lieu, Drim could act entirely defensively until they ran out the clock. Bullets from one source weren’t enough to penetrate the vine walls, and now Drim could properly react to explosives as well.

“It seems he has a fundamental misunderstanding of how my mother’s power worked,” Drim explained to Nachi. “Yes, she could control people, but all of her orders wore off when she died. The Drazah empire wouldn’t have collapsed so quickly otherwise. He became a Fiend after that, so that means his friend would have been free of it too. There’s no denying it, his friend was evil, whether he wants to accept it or not.”

“Yeah, well, good luck telling him that,” Nachi muttered. “If we want a way out of this, we’ll have to do it ourselves.” Drim hadn’t been able to tell Nachi his strategy during the chaos, and now regretted not clueing her in as soon as he possibly could. She did the worst thing he could think of. She grabbed her polearm, skirted out from the barrier, and flung it directly at Lieu.

It was an amazing shot, a clean hit to his left arm. He didn’t have time to dodge at all, but somehow Drim felt that he had rather chosen not to. The impaled polearm vanished from his arm, reappearing in Nachi’s hand. Lieu didn’t even look at the Indigo blood pouring from him. He stared straight ahead at the pair with a smile on his face.

And then he started laughing, louder and louder until it was blood-curdling. “You fools!” The Guerilla could barely contain his glee. “You’ve done it now. I’ve won! My Curse only activates when I’m attacked, and I was starting to worry with how much of a pussyfoot Drim Drazah turned out to be. Fog. Of. War!”

Lieu’s pupils faded away, replaced by a continuous stream of fog pouring out of his eyes. Fog dripped out of his wound on his left arm for a moment, healing it instantly, crushing even a Fiend’s rapid regeneration. He took one big deep breath, and more plumes of fog billowed out of his nose. In the next moment, a hole appeared in Drim’s vine wall. A second later, there was a half-dozen more.

Both Drim and Nachi skirted back while Drim put up several thicker layers of vines, and one layer of solid wood. Drim already noticed a decent gap missing in his nature energy. If things kept up, he’d run out before their rescue arrived. To help a little, he absorbed the nearby foliage adorning an entryway to a theater.

Drim made a few small holes in their defense, just so that he could get a glimpse, but that was immediately pointless as new holes popped up one after the other from Lieu’s attacks. It was faint, but Drim thought he caught a glimpse of movement around his chest. The more he focused, the more he could see. Lieu was moving his arms at rapid speed, pulling out shotguns, firing them, and reholstering them in the blink of an eye.

It was so hard to follow that Drim had to stop paying attention to everything else, and almost let the plant barrier fall from being so absorbed. One more thing he noticed was that The Guerilla only seemed to be targeting the side of the vines that Nachi was behind. Given how he was standing still, and the fact that his eyes were basically blinded in fog, Drim had to guess he wasn’t really seeing where she was, but perceiving her another way somehow.

Speaking of, Nachi had stopped moving or acting entirely. She was sitting on her legs with them tucked under her, with her polearm resting across her lap. Drim didn’t know if she had given up, or if she had blind faith in his defense, but he just needed to keep her safe for now. He once more strengthened the plants in front of her, and would risk leaving her alone for a moment to test a theory.

Drim strained himself and created a glowing portal several feet away, sprouting another vine barrier. If Drim wasn’t right about this, he could potentially be risking serious injury, so he prayed his intuition was accurate. Drim quickly skirted from one barrier to the other, but Lieu didn’t so much as flinch. He simply continued his relentless assault on where Nachi was hiding.

Now that the basic theory was confirmed, Drim had a moment to speculate before Nachi’s barrier would break and he’d have to act again. He said that the name was Fog of War, which has to do with uncertainty on the battlefield. It’s quite literal in this case since the fog is actively blinding him, but he’s still able to attack with extreme accuracy. However, he’s only attacking Nachi, and said his Curse only was activated when attacked. I need to confirm again.

Drim pulled out his bow, wielding his weapon for the first time in this fight. He shot a few arrows directly into the air above his head, and then curved them down towards Lieu. They disintegrated a few feet in front of him. Drim didn’t even see the shot that destroyed them, and the confirmation came a moment later. Lieu’s attention was now fully on Drim. He’d picked up the rocket launcher, and sent another shell flying at him.

Sensing the danger, Drim spouted bamboo below his feet, quickly launching himself into the air as his vines were ravaged beneath him. Drim used his vines to reel himself behind the giant flashing sign of a casino, a trail of bullets following closely behind. Thankfully, Nachi was at least being ignored now, as she stayed sitting in her meditative state.

So, he will only attack the most recent person who attacked him, Drim deduced. It doesn’t matter where my arrows came from, but that I was the one who fired it. I’m guessing that while it has insane speed, his Curse is actually for defense instead of offense. It’s designed to remove the dangers threatening him while he’s in his fogged state. It’s entirely reactionary.

If Feyj’s Curse is absurd perception, his is absurd reflexes. Combined, they’d make an unkillable monster. It also has insane recovery too. I need to test just how insane. If crippling him isn’t an option, then trapping him really will be the only way. At least I don’t need to worry about killing him unintentionally as long as I don’t chop his head off.

The sign Drim was using as cover was starting to spark so he knew he needed to vacate quickly. He jumped out from behind it back to the ground, only for it to fall and explode behind him as he put up another vine wall. Sadly, such a grand opportunity for a distraction didn’t even phase The Guerilla.

Drim opened a small hole in his barrier, just enough for him to press his palm against. He opened a glowing portal, and shot a barrage of sharp gami leaves out of it. Thankfully, accuracy wasn’t important. This tactic only had speed and danger, hoping to overwhelm Lieu’s Curse. Drim heard a clink, and noticed that Lieu had dropped the pair of guns he was holding to the ground.

Unsure of what Lieu was going to use to defend with now, Drim was tempted to stop his assault, but doubt he’d get another chance like this. The leaves impacted, but there were no drops of indigo blood flying as he expected. No, the leaves were vanishing a mere hair in front of Lieu’s body, which Drim now noticed was insanely blurry.

Whatever he was doing, it was too fast for Drim to see. Keeping his assault up with his free hand, Drim used the other to snap a picture on his phone to try and get a better understanding. In front of Lieu, the gami leaves were shredded into powder, all done by the two machetes he was holding.

This was insanity. Even with his Curse, even with the Fiend buff, this level of speed and reaction should be impossible. Lieu started to yell, more and more intensely each second. If this kept up, Drim had a feeling the muscles in Lieu’s arms would eventually rupture. It would be a battle of whether his arms or Drim’s energy gave out first. Since Drim couldn’t recover any of the destroyed leaves, his energy was depleting rapidly, and felt he’d lose this fight, so he ended his assault.

Surprisingly, Lieu didn’t immediately resume his onslaught. Instead, his body drooped slightly as fog swirled around his arms. Drim was right in that his arms must have been damaged, but his Curse would undoubtedly have him back in fighting form momentarily. This would likely be Drim’s only chance to close the distance, so he bolted towards Lieu at full sprint.

Thinking quickly, Drim summoned several portals in front of him to create wooden armor he’d surely need if he didn’t make it in time. Meanwhile, from his back, a swarm of vines sprouted and zoomed over to Lieu. They wrapped around Lieu as quickly as possible. Drim wasn’t dumb enough to think he could restrain The Guerilla with just this much, but that wasn’t his goal.

Drim’s vines were scouring Lieu’s body for weapons, ripping them away to get them as far as possible. Wave after wave of guns, ammo, and blades were stripped from Lieu in the blink of an eye. The vines did the best to destroy them as much as they could, but they didn’t have much time. Only a few seconds later, all the vines were shredded by a knife they’d missed.

The Guerilla’s arms had healed, and his body was changing stances to get ready to attack with his hands, but Drim had never stopped moving. Now, he was less than a foot from Lieu, and slashed at the knife with his blade. It managed to sever the knife, but his follow up attack missed completely as Lieu skirted back several feet, moving for the first time since he activated his Curse.

Lieu then dashed away, right to a postbox that he toppled with a single kick. There was a crate underneath. In it were a few pistols, extended mags, and a pair of brass knuckles. Before Drim knew it, Lieu was back in front of him, smashing through his wooden armor like it was nothing. Thankfully it at least served as a buffer, allowing Drim a moment to ready his blades and block Lieu’s next strike.

Drim managed to hook Lieu’s brass knuckles with his blades, causing a match of strength with the pair locked together. It seemed Lieu’s Curse didn’t bolster strength like it did reflexes. While his muscles were far bulkier than Drim’s, that didn’t matter when it came to Fiends. Being muscular was no more than vanity, and Drim’s strength overpowered Lieu slightly.

After quite the struggle, Drim managed to get a full slice through, cutting off one of the brass knuckles and slicing into Lieu’s hand between his fingers. The injured arm went limp as fog swirled around it. Drim decided to take the advantage and readied for another strike, but that was a crucial mistake. He shouldn’t have gotten cocky and should have defended instead.

There was a resounding crunch as Drim felt like he was just hit with a cannon. The Guerilla had landed a solid hit square in the center of Drim’s chest with his working hand. While his strength wasn’t as potent as Drim’s, the unhinged speed from his Curse multiplied the force several times over. The wind was completely knocked out of Drim as he shot backward, crashing through an elaborate statue at the center of a fountain.

Drim laid in pain on the ground where he’d landed on the other side of the fountain. He was clutching his chest as it pulsated like mad, most likely meaning his ribs were broken. He managed to lift his head slightly, to see The Guerilla marching towards him at a steady place. Drim blinked, and Lieu was right there, standing over him with a pistol ready to fire.

Lieu’s finger twitched without hesitation to fire the pistol, but he never got the chance. A soaring polearm pierced through his neck, its momentum launching him backwards with it and slamming him against a wall. “Y’know, I could get used to this strength boost,” Nachi declared smugly as she crouched down next to Drim.

“You can capture him, right? With your Curse?” Nachi asked for confirmation.

“Yeah,” Drim coughed. “But I’d need at least an uninterrupted minute to prepare.”

“And here I was ready to give you five,” Nachi smirked. Drim raised a hand after her to try to stop her, but she knocked it back with her polearm after it appeared. “Here, I’ll leave you with this to liven up the mood for the show you’re about to see. It’ll get me pumped too.” Nachi set down her phone next to him, and amped rock music started playing

She started slowly walking away. “I know you’re worried because I’m just a Lesser, but don’t be. I may not have a fancy power, but I’ll show you what proper training can do. Consider it my tryout for the position. Thanks to your distraction, I can see it!”

Once her monologue concluded, Nachi ran to the collapsed Lieu at full speed. Thanks to her recent upgrade, she could reach speeds about half that of Drim’s. Normally, a Lesser would only be able to reach about 10-20% of what Drim could do, so it was impressive to say the least.

Fog was swirling around Lieu’s neck, taking longer than any time before, most likely due to the severity of the wound. Nachi drove her polearm down at Lieu the moment she reached him. She didn’t aim for a killing blow, since it was most likely fruitless. Instead, she aimed right for his hand which he raised to deflect. The tip of her polearm shattered his remaining brass knuckle.

Drim was impressed as he clutched his chest, managing to sit up. She had managed to break his weapon so easily where Drim had struggled. The real test was yet to come, though. The fog vanished from Lieu’s neck, and he sprung off to the side away from Nachi, drawing one of his pistols and firing.

Without turning to him, Nachi shifted her polearm and blocked the bullet with the flat end of the blade. She then charged after him, not letting him gain any ground. Lieu fired again with his other pistol, and she blocked that too. Nachi didn’t even flinch from the deflection, and she swung towards his hand. She knocked it back the moment it fired another round.

It wasn’t enough force to knock the gun out of his hand, but she managed to change the trajectory of the bullet well away from herself. Nachi then spun her weapon and did the same with the other hand. Then, Lieu aimed for her gut. Nachi spun it again, blocking it once more with the flat of her blade. This time the bullet broke it, but the weapon repaired itself in less than a second.

Nachi marched forward as she continued to deflect, forcing Lieu back into a corner. Eventually, he jumped up high to get away from her, giving her an opening to stab him in the leg and leave a huge gash as he continued upwards. Lieu made it up onto a roof in a single bound, and flopped onto his stomach as his leg healed. He leaned over the edge and aimed his guns downward to fire.

However, Nachi had already made her move after him. Since she was only a Lesser, she wouldn’t be able to jump that high, so instead, she’d thrown her polearm up halfway, jamming it into the side of the building. She leapt up after it, and used it as a springboard to propel herself forward.

Just as Lieu turned back towards the ground, Nachi was already there, grabbing the back of his head and kneeing him in the face. She then summoned her polearm, and held the pole to the back of his neck, pulling him back to the ground with her. Nachi slid away as Lieu crashed to the floor head first.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to keep him down, and he was on his feet a moment later. It seemed he’d run out of ammo at some point and ejected the cartridges in both guns. Lieu threw both guns up, grabbed the new rounds, and slid them in perfectly as the guns came back down, firing them again before they were even firmly in his hands.

Nachi scrambled back over towards him, barely blocking his shots until she could get back into the rhythm. That was when Drim realized that her movements were surprisingly in tune with the song that had been playing. He started to wonder if she’d picked it for that specific reason, to help her keep up with the pace.

It had taken Drim longer than he would have liked to admit to start preparing things on his end, since he had been so enthralled with their fight. Watching a Lesser almost bully a Fiend was an absurd rarity, one he may not get to witness again, or at least until Nachi was training new recruits.

However, Drim knew that their dance wouldn’t last forever, especially when one of the dance partners was trying to kill the other. Eventually, Nachi would run out of steam, or get impatient and split him in half. Or Lieu would find himself a weapon with a higher rate of fire. It didn’t matter how fast Nachi could deflect if bullets were flying faster than she could move her arms.

Drim forced his body into a meditative stance and closed his eyes. He called upon every ounce of nature energy remaining in him, and focused under the ground where the two were fighting. “Get ready to move!” Drim called out to Nachi as a giant green glow appeared under her and Lieu. “Now!”

Nachi ducked under Lieu’s final shot, and stabbed her polearm down into his foot, impaling it into the ground. She pushed off from it, rolling backwards out of range of the portal, then called her polearm back to her. A moment later, several walls of wood sprouted up where she’d been standing and rapidly closed in around Lieu, forming a pyramid, but it didn’t stop there.

The walls closed in on him, only stopping when Drim felt heavy resistance from Lieu’s body, but that wasn’t the end. Next, a wall of vines sprouted, wrapping tightly around the pyramid. Then, a layer of roots sprouted underneath, preventing any escape into the ground. Layer after layer of plants sprouted until Drim was sapped dry, forming an impenetrable crypt around the Guerilla that even the strongest monsters wouldn’t be able to break.

“You sure took your sweet time. Were you that captivated by my moves?” Nachi asked smugly.

“Yeah, you were pretty great,” Drim admitted as he collapsed. “I’m even more excited to fight you now, after a good long rest.” He closed his eyes again to relax, but his heart sank when he heard a noise come from the crypt. It was a strained breeze, like air leaking from a canister.

Fog started to flow out of every pore of the crypt. Drim hadn’t made it airtight so as to not suffocate Lieu, but now he was second guessing himself. Nachi readied herself for another round, but the fog didn’t reform into a human as they’d thought. Instead, it drifted up slowly, vanishing into the night sky.