Jon suddenly heard struggling behind him. He turned and saw a large man with yellowish skin and overalls holding Tallow in the air with a large hug. Her arms were trapped in her side.

“I’m gonna bite you!” Tallow yelled as she kicked in the air. “Just wait!”

Tallow didn’t seem like she could get close enough to bite. People had already begun to run out of the tavern.

The golden-clawed lady then pulled open the door.

“I’m gonna take that gun and beat your brains out with it!” she yelled. She ran towards Jon with her claws raised.

Jon decided not to risk a fight and fired his gun again. This time, he aimed forward not just to hit her, but so that he rolled backward out the bench he was sitting in and onto the floor. He continued to roll over his head at a gradual pace until he passed underneath the legs of the giant.

Jon stopped on his back and looked up.

The giant was so tall that Tallow’s head was nearly hitting the ceiling above.

In order to help Tallow, he aimed his gun at her back and fired.

She slipped out of the man’s grip with the blast and zoomed into the air. Jon was immediately worried that he had sent her crashing into the ceiling, but she instead landed upside down on her feet.

She then immediately pushed off, diving into the lady with the claw hands. They rolled onto the floor.

“Keep that giant tub of lard away from me!” Tallow yelled. “Hold ‘em off, Jon!”

“Jazz!” The big man yelled. “I can help!”

“I don’t need your help!” Jazz yelled. “Just get the boy, Felix!”

The large man turned to Jon, but then turned away and walked towards the two women regardless.

Jon fired at Felix’s back. The blast knocked the giant forward a few inches, but he was able to shrug it off and keep going.

Not big enough… Jon didn’t have any potatoes, but he noticed the empty chairs scattered around after people ran away from the tavern.

He crouched behind a chair and propped his gun behind it.

He pulled the trigger.

The chair sailed hard into the air, escorted by Jon’s energy wave. It flew into the large man’s back.

The wooden chair exploded into pieces as was pushed over a table. He tipped over and landed on his head.

“Ow!” he yelled.

Jon was worried. Even if he had knocked the man down, he only seemed visibly distressed. How could he put someone down like that?

He turned to Tallow and her opponent.

The two of them took turns flipping each other on the floor for advantage. When Jazz got on top again, she was trying to go for Tallow’s face with her claws.

Tallow held Jazz back by the shoulders, trying to keep her face easy from the sharp nails. Jon had started to aim at Jazz, but Tallow managed to push Jazz over.

Using her newfound position, she took one hand to Jazz’s hair and began slamming her head repeatedly into the floor.

With a roar, Jazz swiped back at Tallow’s head.

Her headdress tripped into shreds and pieces scattered around, revealing Tallow’s shoulder-length red hair.

“I hope you can afford another one!” Tallow yelled, slamming her head into the floor again.

Jazz was finally able to kick Tallow off with both legs, and both women jumped to their feet.

Tallow then drew her sword and fended off Jazz’s claws with them.

Jon quickly remembered his mission and got behind an empty wooden table. He crouched down and fired another blast, launching the chair into the again’s head again.

The giant covered his face, the table exploding over his arms and knocking him back over another table.

This was both really easy and a super difficult fight. Jon didn’t know which one was more true.

He turned back to Jazz to wait for an opening.

He hadn’t seen a fight so ferocious before. The two women danced around each other faster than any fight Jon had seen before. Mercy was fast, but she always made wide determined attacks.

These two just seemed to scrape for any attack for the kill. Tallow was soon able to use her sword and hook on into one of the grooves on Jazz’s claws, in the wrist.

Tallow then pulled her sword with both hands.

The claw flew off of Jazz’s hand and sailed past Jon, who had to duck to not get hit by it.

Jazz then ran behind Tallow and swiped at her back with her remaining claw, but Tallow spun away before the attack could connect.

“Not again!” Tallow cried.

“Give my claws back!” Jazz yelled

“I don’t have it! You crazy bat!” Tallow yelled back with equal ire. She winded up her arm, and the wind began to gather around it.

Tallow then punched forward, a gust of wind sailing into Jazz and pushing her out through the front of the tavern again, breaking through the wall.

The door suddenly opened. It was a man with slick black hair, glasses, and a blunderbuss like Jon.

“I’m here to offer my assistance!” He announced. He suddenly closed the door as another gust of wind came his way, blocking it.

“Shoot her!” Jazz yelled from outside the tavern.

The gunman kicked open the door and fired. A large net erupted from the barrel, zooming towards Tallow.

She had tried to jump out of the way but the net caught her in the air. She flew towards the back of the tavern and landed on the floor incapacitated.

“Why do I have to fight these morons!” Tallow yelled.

Jon wanted to help, but he remembered that the gunman was still taking aim.

Jon leaped behind a chair to get out the view of the gunman. He propped his gun behind the chair and shot it back in his direction.

It flew into the incoming net and was caught in its snare.

“Oh boy! Another sharpshooter, I see!” The man said. “This outta be-”

He sidestepped Jon’s incoming shot.

“Stop talking and shoot him!” Jazz yelled. She climbed back through the hole in the wall.

The giant had also picked himself up from the floor. Jon knew he was in trouble.

I need Tallow… Until then, he had to figure out what to do.

Jon ran a long table towards the back of the inn. Instead of shooting it, he kicked it over and hid behind it.

He then peeked over and shot towards the gunman, who dived out of the way in spectacular fashion.

That was enough for Jon. He turned and fired another shot at the giant, then at the red-haired lady.

Jon already knew that the lady would dodge the blast. When he saw her jump towards the ceiling, he aimed up and fired right above her head.

When the energy blast connected with the ceiling above her, the resulting force reflected, pushing Jazz straight back into the ground hard.

Jon was glad that mana did what it did without explanation, but he still had to help Tallow. She was cursing in the corner of the inn since she had dropped her sword after being ensnared by the net.

She doesn’t have anything sharp… Jon peeked over the table and saw the golden claws. They had dug themselves into a wall nearby.

Jon took a breath of readiness. He then ran from his cover to the claws.

He grabbed the claws and immediately dropped back onto the floor, narrowly dodging the net that flew above him.

Jon opened the gun, loaded the claws in, closed his eyes, and aimed above his head. He fired the gun.

It made a small popping noise as the claws gently shot into the air. It had a very shallow arc, barely touching the ceiling before it casually landed in the back of the tavern.

“What the hell?” There was a small ripping noise. Tallow then stood up, picking off the last of the rope off her clothes. She wore the golden claws on her right hand.

“Alright, you amateurs! I’m gonna show you the half-rate bounty hunters that you are.”

“You talk too much!” Jazz yelled, having recovered from Jon’s attack. She ran towards the back of the tavern, ignoring Jon.

“Jon, move.” Tallow said quickly. She rushed forward.

Jon stepped to the side, flattening himself against the wall.

Another net had been fired in Tallow’s direction, but she quickly tore it to shreds in the air with a single swipe.

Jazz swiped with her own set of claws. Tallow ducked the strike then quickly did a mana-assisted spin.

Jon counted four hits, each alternating between the back of Tallow’s golden fist and the bottom of her raised foot, all hitting Jazz in the face.

Tallow ended the combo with a golden clawed palm strike sending Jazz into the wall behind the counter. This time, her body hung in the opening, and she went limp.

“Jon, shoot me,” Tallow instructed.

Jon obliged, aiming towards her back.

Tallow then ran towards the giant and jumped in the air. Jon fired, the blast accelerating her towards her opponent.

The giant tried to cover his face, but Tallow used the golden claw to uppercut him through his guard as she passed through him.

Jon could hear the collision with the claw to the man’s face. He toppled in place, dazed before he fell down onto the floor.

Now, she was standing in front of the gunman.

He fired the gun. She ripped the net again with her claws, the bits of it splaying pointlessly around her.

“Is that all you got?” Tallow asked.

“No. In fact, I have more,” he said. “More nets, I mean.”

“Jon.”

Jon fired.

The blast hit the man and sent him into the wall, knocking him unconscious.

Jon was glad he didn’t need nets. It would have been too much to manage for him.

When the man’s limp body fell on the floor, Jon breathed a sigh of relief.

“Princess and the others are probably having a jolly time out there,” Tallow said. ‘We should probably help.”

Jon nodded. “Yeah.”

He and Tallow rushed through the door.

The first thing Jon saw was Hector fighting off a man wearing dark green robes.

Jon was going to run in and help, but instead, he slowly started to lift into the air.

For some reason, he didn’t feel scared. Once he made it to the roof, he saw that it was Mallory who had used his mana to pick him up.

“Hi, Jon,” Mallory said. “I assume everything was taken care of in the tavern?”

Jon nodded. A gust of wind blew past the both of them as Tallow ran up the side of the building, joining them.

“Hell yeah. It was a picnic!” Tallow said. “What about the others?”

Mallory motioned to the fighting, and the three of them peered over.

Jon had a better look at Hector’s opponent. The man was bald, even though he didn’t appear that old. It was weird for Jon to see someone younger than his father have less hair than him.

In his hands were also a pair of solid objects tied together on the ends by a string. He was using it to fend off all of Hector’s attacks.

“Are those nunchucks?” Tallow asked. “Did the princesses' friends come out to play?”

“Actually, you may not be far off, Mallory said. “They’re definitely here for Mercy.”

The three of them turned to the other side of the street. Mercy was fighting a woman with long black hair, who also wore the same green robes. They both fought without using any weapons.

It was intriguing to watch Mercy’s opponent fight. Sabez fought using very strict and direct movements. This girl’s movements might have been more elaborate than Mercy’s.

“What haven’t you done any of your super mana do-dah?” Tallow asked.

“That’s… a muti tiered question,” Mallory explained. “One, that bald guy…”

Mallory pointed to him. “He can deflect mana with his nunchucks. But the other problem is that…”

Mallory pointed to Hector. “Sometimes, when Hector becomes really intense, he creates a field of mana around himself that instantly deflects any weak mana spells.”

“He can do that?” Tallow asked.

“Not on purpose… and we haven’t really encountered any weak mana spells. The only one who has weak mana spells is me…”

“But what about Mercy?” Tallow asked.

“Same problem. That girl, Mercy's oppopent, she can disable spells just by using her hands. Quite fascinating actually.”

Mallory peered over. “They also stripped Mercy of her weapons, so they're around here somewhere."

“So, we find her weapons and she’ll cut the chap in half, right?”

“Uh... even then… she looks really good…” Mallory watched the fight with interest.

“...Then we get rid of the nunchucks,” Tallow said.

Jon looked at the bald man and saw that he had another pair of nunchucks tied onto his waist.

“He has two,” Jon said.

“What?” Tallow looked at the man too. “Really? Sheesh.”

“You know…” Mallory said, “Hector doesn’t like it when people get involved in his-”

Tallow leaped off the building.

“...You want to go with her?” Mallory asked.

“Yeah.” Jon nodded.

Mallory flicked his hand, and several blue squares appeared in the air, making a staircase of sorts.

Jon gingerly made his way onto the closest square with his foot. It was solid.

He then stepped down until he made it to the floor.

Already, the air felt different. He could feel the warmness of Hector’s fire as his spells blazed from his sword.

Hector then noticed Tallow approaching.

“Get outta here!” Hector asked. “Help Mercy!”

“You need my help!” Tallow yelled.

“I don’t need your help!” I just need some-”

The bald man punched the ground. A large dragon made of blue energy erupted from his feet and rushed towards Hector.

“He’s a mana user too! Oh sh-” Hector was snatched up in the large dragon's fangs and carried away. His sword dropped harmlessly on the floor.

“Well, at least I can’t hear him anymore… “ Tallow said. “Jon, cover me!”

She drew her sword and ran forward.