Opix and I kicked in the double wooden doors to the tavern at the same time. It looked more modern than the Western look I'd envisioned. At the far wall was a bar section with a drink selection that’d been utterly destroyed in the chaos. Shards of glass, pools of blood, and wooden debris littered the tavern that’d become Cerus and Henrietta’s battleground. Cerus’ health was deep in the red while Henrietta’s was firmly in the yellow. Cerus had changed back into her black and yellow overalls while Henrietta now wore an all-black version of the workman's outfit her teammates wore.

Cerus: this is important

Cerus: if you have any blood on your body, stay away!

I exchanged a look with Opix, who’d been positively drenched in the stuff.

Opix: What happens if we–

The blood coating Opix’s clothes and body thickened into a creamy consistency before lighting up like a disco ball. Cracks formed around the wood at Opix’s feet, spidering out as he sank into the tavern floor. He fought against invisible weight, struggling to his knees with the effort before falling face-first into the floor.

Cerus: she makes it ultra heavy

Grim: We've figured that out…

Opix: I’m gonna try to get out of this, but we can't lose focus. Cerus, I’m gonna have Grim run some potions over to you.

Grim: Got it!

Cerus: thanks i guess haha i did not need them though

Opix summoned three potions from his inventory, all of them dropping like dumbbells as they appeared from thin air. I snatched them up quickly and made my way to the space behind the bar.

The plan was to get behind the bar and throw Cerus her potions. Once she was topped up, I’d look for the nearest Quest Mob to kill Henrietta with while we planned our escape. While I did make it safely behind the bar, the moment I held the first potion my arm was almost immediately covered in blood that’d been dripping from the ceiling. Thankfully I moved fast enough for it to avoid hitting me anywhere else, but it was still too late for me to avoid Henrietta’s technique. My arm came crashing down, shattering Cerus’ healing potion into a pile of green liquid.

Cerus: grim swap your outfit

Grim: I have no outfit to swap to!

Cerus: disrobe

Grim: What?!

Cerus: put your clothes in your pack inventory then put them back on from there

Cerus: it is an exploit that people use to clean their stuff for free

Grim: So that’s how our stuff stays clean… Huh.

I did as she instructed, storing the Forager Set in my pack leaving me partially exposed. As she said, my clothes came out bloodless when I re-equipped them. The blood still dripped from the ceiling, but I’d sidestepped it to make my way for Op–

“Stop scurryin’, little mouse!”

I looked up to find Henrietta staring straight at me with a wild look in her eye. She barreled into me like a quarterback, and I narrowly dodged it thanks to the Sabertooth Splitblade I’d equipped moments before she charged.

“Y’all ain’t gettin’ outta here alive! Not after what y’all did to my friends!”

She snapped her fingers and shot a wave of blood at me. I dodged it and hit her with a Hidden Fist before slashing at her neck. It connected, but it did next to no damage as she kicked the blade out of my hand and closed the distance with a lunge. Cerus darted forward, kicking Henrietta into the wall before she could land an attack on me. Henrietta flew with the momentum, throwing blood at Cerus before she hit the wall. She activated her technique, pinning Cerus to the ground before launching a throwing knife at her. Cerus swapped back into the armor Opix bought her and spun out of the way of the throwing knife. It exploded on impact with the wooden floor, bursting into a small puddle of blood.

Henrietta stood back up, holding three throwing knives in either hand. She didn’t make any moves, though, so I used the reprieve to hand Cerus her potions. I gave her a few of my regular healing potions as well as the hi-potions Opix got her while I pelted Henrietta with as many Hidden Fists as I could manage. Cerus drank them all down, staring at Henrietta who didn’t stop me from healing Cerus.

“That won’t save y’all,” Henrietta finally said, keeping her eyes on Cerus. “This coulda been good. We coulda been good friends. But y’all went it took it too far.” She finally turned to me. “Lemme guess, you’re gonna call one a’ those Quests on me, right? Well, guess what? I know how they work! Back in the old days, this place used to be active. Cause of that, Quests can’t spawn here.”

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I checked the Quest log to confirm, and my chest tightened when I realized she was right. The slime Quest I’d spawned earlier happened a few blocks away from here, while the 3-Star Komodo Dragon I’d spawned was behind a well on the far side of the village.

She laughed. “Told ya! Shoulda had that bee bitch lead me somewhere outside the village!”

Cerus laughed, her expression turning just as wild as Henrietta’s. The air around Cerus seemed to change, as though someone else had just taken her place. When she spoke, Henrietta’s cocky demeanor swiftly intensified. Even I found myself struggling to stay upright.

“Mind your tongue, whelp.”

Black misty aura covered Honeydew Henrietta as spectral black hands smothered her body. Her health bar, which had just been in the yellow, rapidly descended into the red. Henrietta struggled, ripping black arms and hands from her body as she cursed Cerus. She roared as her health plummeted to about 20% before swapping outfits back into the one her teammates all wore. When she did, her “roar” tapered off as her health rose to the green just as quickly as it’d fallen. She smiled once she was fully healed.

“Shoulda led me out of the village, bitch.”

Henrietta revealed more throwing knives and threw them at every corner of the room, the explosions leaving the entire tavern coated in blood. We managed to avoid getting any on our bodies, but our clothes weren’t saved. We both did the clean clothes exploit to avoid getting hit by Henrietta’s blood manipulation technique, but that wasn’t enough to keep her from attacking us.

She launched more throwing knives at Cerus while she’d been charging her Big Ice Attack. She cursed as she went in to close the distance and make the fight close range once again. As she darted off, I noticed the spot where Cerus had been charging her attack was frozen solid. Henrietta turned the blood in the ground into spikes that I dodged with the help of the Sabertooth Splitblade, but I made a mental note that the icy area Cerus had been was unaffected by the attack.

Once again, I looked through my Battle Network Quests to make sure there weren’t any closer to us. There weren’t, though the fourteen I still had left were all closer to the Komodo Dragon Quest than the Slime one. I turned to Opix, who’d still been struggling to stand at the entrance of the tavern.

Grim: Cerus, I think I have an idea. Shoot your Big Ice Attacks into the puddles of blood, I’m going to distract her with Taunt and Hidden Fist. We need to force her out of the tavern for this to work. Opix, do you have enough MP to cast Wind Blast?

Opix: Yeah, what’s the plan?

Cerus didn’t respond as I filled Opix in on the idea. She had a fire in her eyes, and it burned for Honeydew Henrietta. Even so, I pelted Henrietta with Hidden Fists and cast Taunt on her. She fought the Taunt off, but the Hidden Fists were enough to give Cerus enough openings for her attacks to land. Both she and Henrietta were in the yellow, though Cerus was now at a clear advantage.

Good or us, Cerus was actually listening to the plan, she just wasn’t responding to it. She led Opix closer to the tavern entrance as he shifted to face the dilapidated ceiling. Just like with Ysnik’s stunlock, Opix was capable of using non-physical Skills despite being pinned to the floor. The idea was to blast her into the distance with his Wind Burst Skill as soon as she got too close, where she’d be held met by a waiting Quest Mob…

…But of course, things were never that easy.

”I… can manipulate… blood! Dumbasses!”

The blood coating Opix lit up once again, and with it rose his arms and legs. His face turned as she manipulated his body like a puppet on a string. At the same time, Henrietta threw knives at all three of us that exploded before impact, coating us head to toe with blood. As if things couldn’t get worse, Cerus had a fully-charged Big Ice Attack that may as well have been a loaded gun in Henrietta’s hands.

“Brace!” Cerus shouted, wrestling enough control to aim the shot at the floor in the center of the tavern.

Icy mist filled the room, thick blood turning to solid ice. The blood coating Opix and I shattered like glass, falling to the tavern floor and granting us mobility once again. My health was deep in the red while Opix’s was in the low yellow, with Cerus’ and Henrietta’s in the same area as him.

I don’t have a choice. I need to activate all of them!

This wasn’t a war of attrition that we’d win. I opened the Quest menu and activated every single Battle Network Quest I had in the list. Most of them spawned a couple blocks ahead of us, though some of them spawned in the bordering forest nearby.

“Opix, now” I yelled.

“Got it!” He responded, dashing behind Cerus in the confusion.

I Taunted her, pairing that with Hidden Fist as Opix maneuvered behind her. Cerus dashed out of the building only to quickly run back inside with a worried look on her face.

Cerus: grim have you looked outside

Grim: I know, we can’t afford for her to potentially get out of it. We need her gone, and we need those Battle Points.

Cerus: i agree, but you have created an entirely different problem

Opix: Move out of the way, I’m using all of my MP for this!

He positioned himself between the bar and Henrietta, giving him the perfect angle to blast her straight out of the door. Cerus and I ran deeper into the tavern, behind Opix’s cone of attack. As soon as we were behind him, he sent her flying with a Wind Burst so big it took out the front half of the tavern.

When the dust settled, I knew this fight was over. Chances were she wouldn’t be rejoining the fight. This would be the Galerose Alliance’s win. What soured that victory was the towering set of 4-Star mobs she’d been engaged with. Both of them looked like oversized men. They had short hair, sharp teeth, and bloodshot eyes. If you’ve seen the Titans from Attack on Titan, you’ve seen these things. Surrounding them were the rest of the mobs I’d summoned. Twelve of them were these bug-looking mobs the size of trucks. They were jabbing at Henrietta while she fought off the two 4-Star Titan mobs. The last mob, the 5-Star, was even taller than the Spotted Deer Matriarch. It was also a Titan mob, and it stared straight at me while the mobs beneath it fought over Honeydew Henrieta.