An enormous blood-red beast landed on the pier in front of Robyn. It stood taller than William, had a head like a hammerhead shark, and muscular arms and legs that looked to be built for running. Its name was the Hemogoblin Shark, and it had 10,000 life.

And Robyn had just fished it up.

Before William could react, it charged forward, and with a thrust of its hammer head, he was sent flying through the air and landed hard on the ground. Pain shot up his body, both physically from the blow itself, and emotionally.

The Hemogoblin Shark turned around on its legs and made for another charge, but William was ready. He leapt up, his wings giving him a boost, and the shark's next charge passed beneath him. He began peppering it with Shadowflame Knives, setting it aflame with purple fire, but the monster was not going to go down easily. It roared and fired glowing streams of blood into the air, which William dropped to avoid, however the shark followed it up with another charge.

He continued this dance of death with the Hemogoblin Shark for some of the most intense minutes of his life. This was an enemy with enough raw strength to leave him battered and on the edge of his life with just a few blows. But he soon got the upper hand and it finally fell.

He turned to Robyn, who was back to fishing. Almost as if the Hemogoblin Shark's death had been its cue, another blood-red beast rose from the waters. A Blood Eel, which flew through the air as effortlessly as though it was swimming, and swooped down in a similar way to a Wyvern. William grit hit teeth and kept on throwing more Shadowflame Knives. A few times when the Blood Eel got close enough he would rake his Cutlass all along its body, dealing massive damage. It fell quicker than the Hemogoblin Shark, dropping a flail weapon named the Drippler Crippler.

William smiled upon picking it up. He'd stopped using the Sunfury awhile ago in favour of his newer weapons, and had been looking for an upgrade to it for awhile now. This would suffice.

He stepped back towards Robyn, swinging his Drippler Crippler's blood-red ball-on-chain passively.

"You need to stop this, Robyn!" he shouted. "This isn't you!"

"I will never stop until you are dead." She gave him a smirk, which unnerved William. It was such a foreign look on her face – someone else's facial expressions invading hers.

"I won't let you do that!" he pressed on. "Do you not remember me? William?" He breathed. "We were good friends, close allies! Do you remember none of that?"

Her only response was to unleash one more creature from the deep.

A Dreadnautilus, a creature that resembled a mollusc, with one blinking eye on its side and a tentacled mouth. It swooped at him in a spinning motion, knocking William over.

When he got to his feet, he saw Robyn was gone.

***

An endless stream of crystals fired from Meg's tome, slicing through zombies and werewolves and Dripplers and Demon Eyes. She ran around the village perimeter, keeping the enemies at bay and stopping them from getting too close to the citizens.

She glanced up right as some blood-red missiles shot over her head from the left. She turned in that direction and spotted William, running as fast as he could, being chased by a giant floating... thing.

"Meg! I saw Robyn! She summoned this Dreadnautilus from the depths of the lake!"

Meg grit her teeth. "Not good. Sid!"

She cast forth a Golden Shower, spraying the Dreadnautilus with ichor to lower its defence, then cast two Nimbus Clouds above it as it went into a spin move around William. He was tossed around like a ball in a pinball machine by the successive blows, before grappling up to the wall, escaping the monster's clutches.

The Dreadnautilus hovered in front of them and fired a spray of red projectiles back, which Meg jumped up using her wings to avoid. She fired some crystals at it, but quickly weaved to the side when some of them got reflected back at her. It charged forward, straight towards her, and tried to do its spinning dash once again around her. She teleported out of its grasp using her Rod of Discord, materialising in front of Sid and a few citizens.

"There it is! Open fire!" he called.

The Dreadnautilus retaliated by glowing bright crimson, and three Blood Squids popped out of its body. The cephalopods hovered in mid-air and began raining more crimson shots down, mostly at Sid and the citizens.

William leapt up, Drippler Crippler swinging, and brought it through all three Blood Squids. A spiky projectile flew out from the flail as it was flung out to its maximum reach, which bounced back and hit one of the Blood Squids again. He was lining up for another strike when he spotted the Dreadnautilus charging at him again. He dashed to the side with his Shield of Cthulhu, striking the Dreadnautilus with his Drippler Crippler as he did so.

He wasn't so lucky the next time it charged, doing the circular dash he had come to recognise from its attack patterns. He was still having trouble avoiding this attack, and on this one he got knocked to the side and slammed against the wall of a nearby house.

He groaned – he had not much life left. He was about to try to make a break for it when a cannonball embedded itself in the Dreadnautilus's side and exploded, ripping the last of its life from it.

"Thar she blows, me laddies!" a nautical voice shouted from the side.

Then William fainted.

***

He came to in a dark room, moonlight streaming through the glass window. White moonlight – the Blood Moon was no more. Had he been passed out for an entire day between nights?

He put his arms behind him and hoisted himself into a sitting position.

And gasped as he noticed the brown-furred werewolf in the room with him.

"Aaaugh!" he cried as he scrambled for a weapon.

The werewolf threw its head back and laughed.

"Ahahahaaha! Got you there, Will!"

William recognised his voice.

"Stop doing that, Sid!" he groaned.

"Not my fault that one of the werewolves dropped me this Moon Charm. It turns the holder into a werewolf at night."

"And you couldn't resist," William muttered.

"Yeah. That Dreadnautilus thingo that you brought back to the village dropped a new summon weapon, too," Sid said as he held up a crimson staff and some glowing bats appeared around him. They were similar to the ones from the Underground Hallow, but coloured bright red instead.

"Have you seen Robyn anywhere?" William asked.

Sid clicked his tongue and shook his head. "We'll figure out a way to get her back eventually."

"I hope so. I'm..." he hesitated. "I'm worried about her."

Sid looked at him but said nothing.

"The four of us..." William went on, "You, me, Meg, and Robyn... we've been trapped in this world for awhile now. You think it's just a game, and in some ways I agree with you. It's structured like a game, but it's not just that. The citizens feel like people just like you and me. But... it's not just the citizens that feel like people. Whoever's behind the cursing... they're as smart as us. But instead, they're evil. And now they have Robyn." He sighed. "I can't imagine what it must feel like... for her..."

He felt Sid lightly clapping him on the shoulder.

"We'll get her back, Will. Then you can tell her how you feel."

William gave him a look. He'd still never openly admitted how he felt about Robyn to anyone, though he was well aware Sid had been putting them together in his head for awhile.

Before Robyn had been possessed... before the party... he'd found that a bit weird about him.

But he now knew it was a gesture of support, from his best friend.

"Thank you."