It started raining as William and Meg began repairing the damage that Sid did, William patching up holes in the walls while Meg filled in the craters. As he settled into the calm of just placing blocks, he began to feel like he could forgive Sid. He made mistakes sometimes, yes, but he knew he could always count on him when he was by their side.

Though Meg didn't feel the same way. Sid had been consistently pushing her wrong buttons ever since they'd met, and the destruction his rockets had wrought was the last straw. Sid needed to learn not to be so reckless. He was more a liability than a team member she could work with.

William asked Jeff the Guide what the Beetle Husks that Golem had dropped could be used for, and it turned out they could be used to upgrade his Turtle Armour to Beetle Armour and also to craft a better set of wings. When upgrading his armour, it turned out there were two different chestplates he could craft, one attack-oriented, and one defence-oriented. It was kind of like how Meg's Spectre Armour had two helmets for different purposes. William ended up crafting the defence chestplate for now.

He also found out what the Broken Hero Sword could be crafted into. It could be combined with his True Night's Edge and another sword that he had once crafted but never really used, the True Excalibur. Put together, the swords created the Terra Blade, a lustrous green sword that fired waves of green energy swords when swung.

The other item a Broken Hero Sword could be crafted into was the Terra Toilet, hence the Guide's astonishment at Sid actually crafting one before.

William and Meg then checked the other villages for signs of damage, though most were intact. It turned out the Clothier, the Pirate, and Bart the Angler had been the only citizens to not come to the Forest Village to be protected, instead staying at the Ocean Village, where they were able to surprisingly hold their own against the supernatural enemies.

"Bart here is becoming quite the swashbuckler, arr!" Red Beard said, rubbing a fist on Bart's hat like a noogie.

"Yeah, I chopped off Dr. Man Fly's head!" Bart said proudly. "And a Swamp Thing's... twice!"

"What about the fish you kept throwing at them?" James asked, "The ones with the long, sharp noses?"

"The Frost Daggerfish? I caught them in the snow land. See?"

He held out an icy-coloured fish and threw it forward, aiming for a ship's wheel set up on the beach sand. However, it suddenly stopped mid-air about halfway to the target.

A blue-armoured form appeared out of thin air, Frost Daggerfish sticking out of its shoulder.

It was Robyn.

"Oops," she said.

William snapped out of his initial shock and lunged forward, but she jumped upwards, a hoverboard the same colour as her armour carrying her into the rainy air. He stumbled into the sand, then scrambled to his feet and desperately looked around.

"Where is she?"

"She landed over there, but then disappeared," Meg said, pointing at the roof of the Stylist's hairdresser.

She suddenly reappeared, bow out, arrows flying. William swung his Terra Blade, but she dodged the energy swords and landed several arrows in William's Beetle Armour.

He saw his body glow purple and felt his life ebbing away – the arrows had been tipped with some sort of venom! He collapsed to his knees, feeling bile rising in his throat, but he tried his best to keep it down and brought his vision up to Robyn, blinking through the rain dripping onto his face.

She had turned invisible once again.

"Hide!" William hissed at the citizens.

At that same moment an arrow shot straight through the Clothier's head.

A flash of lightning lit up the sky as he fell over.

William grit his teeth and ran forward, jumping up to roughly where Robyn was. He threw his Possessed Hatchet, expecting it to home in, but he guessed it couldn't home in on her since she was invisible, as it just flew forward and hit the hairdresser roof before returning. So he switched to his Starlight and thrust it out.

Robyn turned visible as she flew forward, landing another arrow in William's shoulder. He winced at the venom, then turned in mid-air and saw her flying out over the ocean. Purple shadowbeams fired up at her from Meg – a few hit, but many missed. She was too small a target to be hit at that range.

Then William saw something drop into the water. A fishing line.

The last time she had gone fishing, she had fished up an assortment of terrifying, bloody creatures. He had to stop her, spreading his wings to glide towards her.

But he was too late.

A sea monster was hooked up from the depths.

Teal in colour, with several sets of fins, and a pair of very sharp-looking teeth that looked like they belonged on a saber-tooth-tiger.

The creature's name was Duke Fishron.

He growled, sounding like it was mad at being hooked up, then charged forward, towards Meg. William tried to spot Robyn, but she was lost in the rain.

She had gotten away once again.

William roared and flew at Duke Fishron, Terra Blade swinging.

Meg flew up, dodging the Duke's charge, however he quickly turned in mid-air and lunged upwards, ramming into her. She tried casting a Magnet Sphere, but the Duke quickly flew out of its range and towards William.

He stabbed out with his Starlight, but was practically bowled over by Duke Fishron's charge. He was already on low health – Robyn's venom arrows had done a number to his life, and now he was faced with this monster from the deep.

Lightning flashed and thunder roared as Duke Fishron growled, breathing a spray of massive bubbles at William. As harmless of an attack it may have appeared, he was not taking any chances. He swung his Terra Blade forward as he flew backwards, and was surprised to see the sword's projectiles burst the bubbles as they passed through them, before slicing into the Duke's gilled side.

The Duke roared again and summoned two more watery blobs, these ones falling to the sandy ground. However, once they impacted, aqua tornadoes began rising up from them, flinging water everywhere. William spotted what appeared to be large fish swirling around inside the tornadoes, and flew upwards just as sharks began flinging themselves out from the tornadoes. The sharks flew through the air, turning slightly to try to hit him, but most fell short and either fell back in the sea or impacted against the sand, where they disintegrated.

Duke Fishron charged between the tornadoes, and William flew backwards, staying as far as he could from the sea leviathan. He could see shadowbeams constantly piercing it, being fired from Meg on the ground. After a series of charges, Duke Fishron turned to Meg and sprayed more large bubbles at her, however her shadowbeams were able to pierce them with the same ease as William's Terra Blade.

They kept on at their deadly battle with the Duke, popping bubbles and avoiding the shark tornadoes – sharknadoes, William internally called them. When the Duke's life dropped to about half, he growled and his eyes started glowing yellow.

It had been a fairly common property that many bosses would dial up their attacks as their life got lower, so William had been expecting this boss to be no different. The Duke charged forward, then did a massive set of loop-de-loops, unleashing a much larger volley of bubbles that floated towards him. He sliced through most of them with his Terra Blade, however one managed to pop against him.

The Duke then spat a watery blob that summoned the sharknadoes, but this time only one appeared. It grew to tower at least twice as tall as the previous sharknadoes, and began flinging sharks at them from all levels. It was all William could do to avoid them. Meg had a slightly easier time due to her Rod of Discord, but even she got grazed by one of the sharks.

Still, they quickly adapted to Duke Fishron's new attacks. That was until his life dropped below 9000.

The sky around them suddenly went dark, as though several dark thunderstorm clouds were threatening to plunge the world into a navy darkness more intense than the eclipse. William could still see Duke Fishron's eyes, the yellowish-green glow of them standing out in the darkness, but then they disappeared.

Suddenly he was rammed harshly from behind. He could see the Duke's dark form pass in front of him, then disappear.

He can teleport now? That's not fair!

The Duke appeared near Meg. She teleported herself to avoid his charge, but then he turned in mid-air and rammed into her at where she'd rematerialized before disappearing again.

One thing that was clear was that they were going to need to take him down quickly before he mauled them both to death. He switched to his Possessed Hatchet, knowing that since it could chase after enemies, it should be able to deal with the Duke.

He was right, but the Duke was relentless. Another set of charges brought Meg to a crippling amount of life left, and she was barely able to hit it anymore even with her Shadowbeam Staff.

"Get out of here! Magic Mirror away!" William shouted at her, "I'll finish him!"

A spray of bright blue particles plumed out around her. She had wasted no time in escaping.

Still, that meant all of the Duke's attention was now squarely on William himself. He got hit twice in the Duke's next series of charges. He constantly glanced around as he flew, trying to keep an eye out for those eyes, then dash so that he would be able to avoid the inevitable charge.

He got so concentrated in the heat of battle that he barely noticed the Duke's life, and before too long it cried out and crashed onto the beach. The dark sky let up, returning to its normal rainy-grey overcast.

William landed amongst the Duke's remains. He had dropped a spell tome – the Razorblade Typhoon. He figured Meg would appreciate this weapon.

***

Shortly after Meg returned, she and William checked on the Clothier. The Pirate had pulled him inside his house, and he and Bart had been sheltering inside throughout the whole fight.

"Great Charybdis, what manner of wrath did Robyn's curse send on us now?" Red Beard said.

"Only the biggest fish I have ever seen!" Bart exclaimed. "Half shark, half dragon, half pig, completely rad!"

"It can't have three halves, aye?"

"Is James going to be okay?" William asked.

"Aye, the harpoon just passed right through his hat, matey." He gestured to James, who was currently laid out on Chippy's Couch.

Meg nodded, but said nothing. She felt uncharacteristically rattled after that fight. Duke Fishron had nearly killed her. She began to feel bad about herself when she realised that if Sid had been there, he could've helped take it down even faster.

Perhaps I was too harsh with him...