The Only Way to Win Was to Never Play

[Nepherage! What are you doing?!]

[Calling their bluff!]

On a certain blue planet, there is a doctrine known as, "Mutually Assured Destruction".

There is a lot of deep thoughts and philosophy behind this doctrine, but it can be summed up as, a stand-off where everybody loses.

In this particular instance, Nepherage had the life of the chieftain of the Strange Bloods in the palm of her hands.

Literally.

Nepherage had a single hand gripped tightly around the neck of Chief Tusk. She knew over a dozen different ways to kill him, but she only needed one.

On the flip side, Scale of the Strange Blood tribe had managed to capture Alicia, Bellona and Mini within his scale covered appendages. Additionally, he had forced both Matilda and Tiny to their knees before him in a metaphorical manner

All he had to do was squeeze hard enough and he would've committed triple homicide in an instant.

Both Scale and Nepherage understood this fact.