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Wish upon the Stars (Original Superhero cultivation sci fi litrpg)

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by Malcolm Tent, Mar 19, 2022.

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  1. Revanandfriends

    Revanandfriends Getting sticky.

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    Giant glowing penalizing spider sounds like such a fun thing to fight... poor poor bastards.
     
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  2. Threadmarks: chapter 307
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    As it turned out, most of the suggestions for a plan amounted to 'group up, and hit it til' it dies'. Callie, even nearly apoplectic with treasure madness, did not approve of anything that sloppy, and visibly forced herself to snap out of her trance to come up with something better.

    I wasn't entirely sure if Abel really couldn't think of a better plan or was testing us, but with his bloodlust I wouldn't put it past him to really just decide to try to overpower the thing. Since that would probably be dangerous, and there would DEFINITELY be other spiders hiding around here (though I couldn't see them since they were much smaller and this cavern was too big) we couldn't just attack the thing. We'd get swarmed from behind, and I doubted even Lament and Abel could take on an F-rank spider monster solo while under siege.

    Once I explained that, Sydney suggested a possible solution. "Well...I might be able to help. My ability is luck manipulation. I can curse people or animals. Things will go wrong for them if they can." I knew that was her power. I'd totally called that. Still, she grimaced. "For an F-rank...well, it'll be difficult to do much. Impact can resist most powers, but insubstantial things like luck are the hardest hit in terms of defense. If I go all out I can maybe prime it for something bad, but you'll need to provide some impetus."

    At our blank stares she sighed. "Do something dramatic to create opportunities for things to go wrong. Stab it or burn it or throw a huge rock at it or something. The more it has to try to defend the more openings for things to go wrong. It probably won't be anything big, even with all my effort, but it should put us in a good position. Especially if Megan helps me out."

    Her sister nodded. "I can bless people with good luck. Same basic idea, but backwards. Syd is the bad rabbit, and I'm the lucky rabbit. Our abilities are stupidly rare, so we're considered kind of like the star disciples of the Wave Warren despite not being too strong. People like Riley are way stronger in direct combat, but it's almost impossible to get luck abilities through skill synergy unless you buy some stupidly expensive Skill from one of the factions with the job system."

    Thinking about it, I wasn't sure how the hell I'd make a Skill like that either. Still, it gave us some options. "So you can use your good luck aura on the person who attacks while Sydney uses hers on the spider?" I might be able to help a bit with this. When she nodded, I grinned. "Ok then. I think I might have a plan." I leaned in to whisper it to Callie, using my Stealth Skill to make sure I wasn't overheard.

    She was delighted. "That might just work. Can you manage it from here? I'm not sure what your range is, but if you miss it would just set the thing off." She looked nervously at the gems in the web and I rolled my eyes. She was worried about them getting damaged in my attack.

    "It's fine." I said firmly. "I'm not aiming for them, and the worst that happens is they get a bit dinged up. They're Ascendant materials." A bit of a drop wasn't going to destroy them. Stomach acid from a G-rank spider was a whole different level of harm than a few hundred feet down to a stone cave floor, if they even fell. Though on second thought I made a mental note to use Sucking Mud on the ground below them just in case. The rocks here were tough enough to hurt US after all.

    Seemingly reassured, Callie turned back to the others. "Ok, when you see the opening Solomon is about to make, Lament, I want you to attack. Apollyon and Starbreaker will stick with the group to counter the spider horde with us. If you see an opening you can help Lament from range. Wren and Lestri your martial arts should be very compatible so you'll follow her to attack once the opportunity presents." She nodded to the Wave Warren girls. "You two go ahead and do your thing."

    No one asked what the plan was for me, because there was no way to announce it to everyone at once without the spider hearing. It would be fine though. Once the two girls focused, their eyes both glowing, I grinned and leveled my stare at the spider. Or more specifically, at its web, where the strands were most concentrated in their connection to the wall. Then I triggered a flame attack from Cark along with Touch of Tears, shaping the blast into a long, thin area near the wall."

    The corrosive green flame snapped into being with a lance of pain through my skull, and the spider reared back reflexively. This cave was much bigger than the last one so we didn't need to worry about getting cooked, but the spider was much closer and screamed in an undulating multi-tonal howl that made me want to cover my ears.

    As the acidic poison fire ate away at the strands, I felt the ineffable strings of fate pulling in both directions. My flame seemed to hit all the right spots connecting the web and spider made the exact wrong moves as it jerked back. There was a crackling, ripping sound and strands on the other side started to fracture and fall away. The spider scrambled across the web toward the ceiling, but the rock was superheated from the flames and on contact it screamed again and jerked away.

    Which was the absolute last bit of strain the web could take as the section it had perched on gave way. I used Sucking Mud, both to save the gems and to trap the spider when it hit, and managed to get the skill in place before the giant beast impacted the cave floor. The wet crash seemed to have set off a tidal wave though, as smaller spiders poured from every crack and crevice of the room and converged on us.

    "Fuck!" I spat with worry. I had plenty of attack options, but I was dangerously low on defense. I might be able to manage a combo with Callie, but my head was already ringing. I didn't want to rely on soul strength too much at the beginning of a battle like this. It would be far too easy to overdo it and become a liability. This was going to be a marathon not a sprint. I pressed my back to Callie's, doing my best to eliminate openings for both of us, and slipped into the combat trance. At the same time I tried something new.

    It wasn't too much of a strain really. The overlay had never cost any charges or been particularly difficult. Even the effort of adjusting it to work through the trance and allow Callie access wasn't much of a problem, just a tiny bit of pain. It didn't tax me overly much so I wasn't worried about burning myself out.

    As soon as it clicked into place I felt everything...shift. The arrows I knew appeared, but not just for me. I heard Callie gasp as the tapestry of red and green arrows covered the world. Our Balam Skills were incredibly synergized already since she was my teacher, and the combat trance made us almost a single entity in battle. Adding on the overlay just made everything click into place. It was that last push we needed for our cooperation to become perfect.

    My cane came up without thinking, following an arrow on instinct to smash past Callie and knock away a spider leaping for her from the side. A blade of shadows shredded the one trying to drop on me. I was a bit worried about the others but they were strong. We had to pay attention to ourselves. I used my poison fire on the cane and the world turned into a tapestry of blood and death as the spiders poured over us like meat into a grinder. I smashed and burned and crushed them as Callie tore them apart.

    At one point I saw Lament's spear manifestation out of the corner of my eye, the spear user targeting the giant spider and creating a path with her weapon. Despite that I didn't watch long. I had enemies to kill, and this whole battle was calling to me, showing me how to move, how to react, in the most perfect possible way. It wasn't just the overlay, or Balam. It was all of it. All the disparate elements. Callie taught me my Skill, we trained together constantly.

    Between one breath and the next I felt it all click into place and I had to fight back a grin. A Skill. This was all I needed to create a Skill. I wondered if even Mel and Abel had this one. I knew it was going to be wildly useful 8n the tournament. I might not know what it was called but I could tell what it was for. Teamwork.

    But within seconds I knew they definitely did. This Skill wasn't unique, sadly. In fact, based on the way it worked I was pretty sure this had been the point of all the training up to this point. So many things we'd been told, some of them almost contradictory at times, finally clicked together into one whole package.

    It was a strange feeling. The combat trance wasn't really necessary now, not like it was gone, but like it had become part of us, had become just another sense like touch or hearing. It wasn't just what we already had either. I could see where the building blocks were leading even as I felt it twinge and lashed out for an attack. First step predicting the other person's moves, second step sensing their peril as your own, third step abandoning defense to protect them. All of it building to this.

    I didn't need to abandon my defense to protect Callie anymore, and she didn't need to abandon hers to protect me. We protected each other, and ourselves. Under this new sense our cooperation was seamless. No longer a give and take, no longer a circle, but more like two hands attached to the same mind. I could sense not just her movements and weaknesses but her intentions for her next attack.

    This was how Mel and Abel were so damn good at fighting together. I could feel the name of the Skill too. Minor Paired Dueling Mastery. True seamless teamwork. I had no idea what this Skill would even look like at higher ranks, but for the moment it had completely upgraded our combat efficiency.

    Before, I'd felt almost lopsided, hanging on a thread and hoping Callie would come through, but now that feeling was gone. I knew when she was moving to defend, when she wasn't going to make it, and she knew when she didn't have to try because I could intercept an attack myself. My blows and her shadow blades chained together like a whirling storm of crushing slicing death.

    I felt a few of her clones form and was able to perfectly take advantage of the shell game she was playing with them, her armor covering her in a way that made it impossible to tell what was shadow and what wasn't, unless of course you were me. I smashed my cane down on one spider, and turned my back on anther to unleash the stored force on my cane to a third, not even needing to look as shadows bisected the one flying at my back.

    After almost fifteen minutes of pitched battle, I smashed the last of the small spiders. It took me a second to realize they were gone because I could still hear the sound of battle. Mel and Abel had finished their section earlier and were even now helping out with the powerful F-rank spider. The thing was injured in several places, legs damaged and armor crocked, but it's blue eyes blazed with rage and hate. I looked at Callie and she returned my unasked question with a nod. We still had one more monster to kill.
     
  3. Threadmarks: chapter 308
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    I was shocked that the spider seemed to be handling all three of our best fighters, even with the rest of our group as support.. Megan and Sydney were off to one side, eyes glowing as they doubled up on their ability. Sydney was using hers on the spider obviously and combined with Megan's good luck aura on Lament, combined with the Master Candidate's technique and Skill, meant she was able to counter the limbs of the spider as it tried to skewer the others.

    Sloane had her wings out and was flashing around the massive beast, lashing out with wing attacks, while Beric and Croll were defending the Wave Warren sisters. Wren and Lestri were backing up Lament, or rather, using opportunities she gave them to take cheap shots, while Mel was constantly hosing the thing down with fire and using her flames to maneuver out of the way when the spider inevitably attacked.

    Abel was helping Lament counter the limbs, mostly focusing on one or two specific legs that were going for Mel. The spider was also much deeper into the Sucking Mud than expected, probably due to weight, and was having trouble pulling free for attacks. The combination was keeping it from smashing anyone into meat paste, but even with a pretty fantastic strategy, the cracks spreading along the spider's armor were slow to form and already healing.

    I grimaced. High impact kept the wounds from being too severe, which meant Vitality was taking care of them. Given this thing could spawn a hundred kids, I was guessing its Vitality was high. I called Callie over closer to me. "We need to handle the regen." I murmured to her quietly. "At this rate we won't be able to wear it down. You up for another try with the overlay to get past its defenses? I only need to land hits on the cracks that are still healing."

    My cane was still crackling with poison fire from the last fight. The ability, especially combined with some augmentations from some of Benny's attacks, should at least counter the healing facto. That would help our heavies wear the thing down. I was pretty sure with enough attacks stacked I could do one massive blow that would at least hurt it, but then I would be out of commission and the spider would still be around.

    Spreading the poison fire through it and making sure Lament and Abel's moves stuck better was a much better use of my limited soul strength. Callie seemed interested. Without new Skill the two of essentially had two points of use for Perception. It wasn't anything crazy like doubling our senses, but we could Perceive things through each other and the Skill could process that.

    It made it infinitely harder to sneak up on us, and theoretically should have exponential benefits to Stealth Skills once we had some time to train with it. Since Stealth relied on our own ability to find and eliminate traces of our presence, the Minor Paired Dueling Mastery Skill would have compounding effects. That was a matter for later though, for now, between the two of us and with the overlay resonating with the Paired Dueling Skill, we should be able to get past the spiders attacks.

    As soon as she agreed, I triggered Leaf on the Wind. I felt like I could use the bond from Paired Dueling as a connection to cast skills on Callie, rather than needing touch. It still strained my soul minimally, but I could handle it easily enough for now. With that taken care of the two of us blitzed in toward where the others were fighting the spider, bypassing them and darting in to attack.

    I whirled my cane up in a circle, triggering A triple stacked tranq blow with my cane as a medium. Since I wasn't combining skills or overclocking anything it didn't really strain me at all, and I knew I could use all ten of these hits without much trouble. The spider, sensing an attack, smashed down with one of its legs. Abel and Lament hadn't known I was going to attack, so they weren't able to counter it, but Leaf on the Wind and the overlay were a fantastic combination.

    Throwing myself up over the blow, I felt the shadows beneath me push me up like a trampoline, right along the path of the arrow I was aiming for. The overlay allowed Callie to see what moves I might make, and Paired Dueling let her sense what I would do and when through our new strange bond. The combination meant she could support me perfectly from behind even without directly interfering.

    With such a powerful monster we couldn't risk a head on attack, but augmenting my avoidance was just right. I brought my cane down hard on the cracked armor where Abel's most recent blow had damaged the thing. The triple strength mixture of poison fire and tranquilizer didn't seem to have much effect, but that wasn't a shock. This thing had a ton of Impact.

    "Apollyon." I bellowed as I flipped away, Lament catching the leg as it came around and deflecting it with a spear manifestation. "Hit the green spots!" Then I darted around, Callie creating an aisle of shadows for me to slide on in a move I hadn't ever really seen her use before. I could sense it before she did it though, so I didn't slip as I flashed over the ground.

    We came in for a second attack from the other side, and managed to score another hit. Another glowing green fracture stood out on the already glowing blue armor. The third time we went in I followed the overlay as best I could, but I wasn't able to avoid the retaliation of the spider.

    The monster noticed me coming and tried to spear me with a viciously sharp attack. The only thing that saved me was my F-ranked armor and the type of blow. Piercing attacks were up there with energy in terms of my ability to tank them. If the thing had laid a solid smashing hit on me my bones would have been powder. Instead, the F-ranked spider only managed to do so nasty pressure damage in a very limited spot.

    Still, the force sent me skidding back across the floor, cracking at least one of my ribs. I hit the stone surface of the cavern floor and bounced a few times, skipping like a stone. I felt my teeth rattle multiple times as I hit, and in the end, I was left on my back, staring up at the glittering ceiling gasping for air. My entire chest was on fire and I could barely move. I heard Callie scream my name, and within seconds she was crouched over me.

    "Shane!" She shook me, making sure I was focused since I was staring into space. I groaned as her shaking jarred my injured rib. That spider blow had caught me in the side. It hadn't penetrated my armor thankfully, or I'd have been impaled and probably killed, but it had seriously fucked me up. I forced myself to focus, and triggered a scan heal and then a healing surge, forcing the two abilities to cooperate to maximize the recovery speed.

    I expected to be flooded with energy and immediately knitted back together like usual, but the damage only began to slowly recover. The attack had been F-ranked, and the Impact difference was mitigating the effectiveness of the heal. At this rate it would take fifteen or twenty minutes for me to recover. I groaned up at my worried girlfriend. "Ow. Careful." I tried to get up, but found myself unable to right my body. "Here, help me sit up without messing up my ribs?"

    "Right!" Her voice was frantic, and I could feel her distress through the Paired Dueling Skill. An echo of her intent allowing me to pick up the strong emotion. It was...kind of sweet. Knowing for sure someone cared like that. Most people never get to feel for sure what someone else thinks of them. I knew Callie loved me enough to be afraid for me, which was more than a lot of people got. She helped me sit up and waved a hand in front of my face. "Are you ok? Do you have a concussion?"

    I laughed, grimacing at the pain of the motion, and slowly reached up to stop her waving hand. "That isn't how you check a concussion, Cal. But no, I'm fine. The scan heal says a few broken bones and torn muscles, and they're mending. It's just slow because of the Impact difference. Did the hits we got in help out at all? I was planning to stack a few of those to make sure it countering the regen properly."

    She looked over her shoulder, then back with worry. "Maybe? The thing looks a bit slower. We might have overestimated ourselves here. Abel taking out a shitty F-ranked random is NOT the same as trying to kill a spider the size of a small house covered in plated armor. We kind of forgot that materials vary in strength even within a specific rank. Armored spider beats human in terms of durability."

    Fuck. She was right. We'd been cocky after seeing a bit of success with our training. Fighting up a rank against a single person who was freshly Ascended wasn't the same as a battle of this level. I'd blame Abel, but my mentor wasn't the type of person who considered limitations. Hell, he might be able to finish this fight alone over a long enough timeline. But we didn't have that. Luckily, I had an idea of how to finish this. It was just going to suck a lot. I looked up at Callie's worried frown. "Get Abel over here. I have a plan, but I need him for it. If this works like I expect I might be able to help him put this thing down for good."

    Sensing my seriousness, Callie didn't bother to argue, running over to get our teacher and bringing him back. Mel came with him, since he wasn't there to provide fire support. "Hey there kid. Nasty smack you took there. This isn't a last words thing is it? Because those are always a bummer." I glared at him, managing to muster the strength to flip him off. Then I explained my plan.

    After going over the details, he blinked at me. "That...that could work. You sure you can manage something like that in your condition?" I nodded grimly and he shrugged. "Well, why the hell not. Let's give it a go. I should be able to aim it well enough to avoid the damage. I assume this will knock you the fuck out?"

    "Yeah." I said with a wince. "This is going to suck. A lot. Kneel down and put your hand on the ground. The G-ranked cave material should help with power, but it's going to take even more effort from me." He followed my instruction, and I put a hand on his arm, preparing myself to not only use a series of powerful combo moves but to twist them to fit someone else. This was going to be the biggest soul weight I'd ever held up under.

    Stone Limb. Consecration of Flame. Touch of Tears. Mercy Kill. Flurry of Blows. A fire blast from Cark, a triple stacked density shifted attack. I layered in every skill and move I could stand, my vision swimming and my head in so much pain I thought I would black out from it as I created a poisonous blazing magma limb of such destructive power I was sure I'd never done anything close to as strong. Abel stared in awe at the limb, which was blazing with such bright green fire that it was hard to look at.

    He grinned manically at me. "Thanks kid. I'll take it from here." I had Callie help me stand up so I could watch. Without and hesitation, my teacher turned and threw out a punch. Space warped, and a massive green and black magma fist appeared over the distracted spider, smashing down into it with more force than I could ever remember seeing. The thing was flattened into the Sucking Mud, which I dispersed, trapping it in rock as Abel hammered it over and over with the enchanted limb. As the armor cracked under the repeated blows, I felt my sight dissolve into darkness. Yeah, I'd been afraid that would happen. Worth it.
     
    odinori, Alex18, aJadeTree and 12 others like this.
  4. Threadmarks: chapter 309
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    Lament was not pleased at that big flashy death of the giant spider. "I HAD it." She groused. "I was having fun, and then you had to go be a big showoff." Which to be fair, might have been true, even if that wasn't really the point. While Lament COULD have probably killed the spider, it would have taken much longer and the rest of us would have been in way more danger.

    Wren, who obviously understood that, cleared his throat. "Yeah...I'm with them. We were wearing it down, but that thing was dangerous. You can scratch your battle itch in the tournament." She glared at him, but he seemed unperturbed. While he might have been scared of her, she was also a teammate. He wasn't worried about her attacking him for no reason, and he was right about this.

    To my surprise, Callie stepped up next to the spear wielder and patted her on the shoulder. "It's ok. We still have all the loot to gather. You can help me with that. Collecting treasure always makes me feel better." Her voice was cheerful and almost bouncy as she started forward to once again start gutting tiny spiders to check their stomachs for valuable materials. Lament, not having anything better to do, started helping, while I went to check on Abel.

    My mentor was flexing his hand, grimacing at the motion. "You ok?" I asked as I approached. I'd never really used any abilities like that on another person. Maybe one of them or something, but not a massive stack of powerful attacks. My head was still pounding from the strain of manifesting all of them.

    Abel looked almost grim. "I'm fine." He said tightly, still flexing his hand. "There are downsides to that kind of attack. It was exceptionally powerful, but using it the way I did increased the strain on my body. My hand is a little raw. It'll heal, it's just going to suck for a while." I wasn't sure what that meant, given his hand was in a glove, but to make Abel, one of the toughest people I had ever met, react like this, it must have been agony.

    That was kind of a scary thought. It was easy to think of my teacher as some invincible badass, but knowing he was mortal under all that terrifying combat prowess wasn't comforting. If anything, not being able to take his invincibility for granted was going to make this tournament more of a worry, not less. I reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, activating another scan heal/heal burst combo.

    Scan heal on its own wasn't incredibly useful for someone our rank, but Jessie's heal bursts were incredibly effective, if unfocused. The combination let the powerful healing energy of the life force target injuries and mend them directly instead of wasting the extra power supercharging the body with extra energy. Abel blinked at me as the green life force swarmed is hand and began repairing it, though it hardly went away immediately.

    My own injuries from earlier were still mending, though they'd mostly started to fade after a few minutes and another scan heal/ heal burst combo. The stored attacks were extremely useful, but at this rate wouldn't last long. To be fair we normally wouldn't be hunting down an F-ranked creature. Being able to finish it off was pretty impressive, even as a team. I glanced over at the cracked and damaged armored spider, which Wren and Lestri were trying to pry out of its protection.

    "That was damn impressive though." I gestured to the spider. "Even with the augmentation from my skills. Being able to kill that thing so easily is no joke." We'd pretty much set the fight up perfectly, or else I wasn't sure we'd have won, but Abel's contribution was by far the highest. Granted, having so much hard stone to act as an anvil to that blow had certainly helped.

    Abel didn't like happy though. He just shook his head. "Yes and no. We got really lucky. That thing wasn't made to fight on flat ground, and your skill restrained it. Even so, there were several times it could have killed us. I got overconfident. I've killed F-rank humans before who got in my way, and it made me confident in fighting up ranks. Seeing Lament fight though, it reminded me that I was fighting useless trash when I did that. There are other powerful people like me, and even at my own rank they might pose a challenge."

    I glanced at the spear wielder where she was helping Callie. "Are you saying you don't think you can beat her?" Lament was scary, but Abel was Abel. I couldn't get my head around him being afraid of someone. Sure, I felt that kind of fear, but Abel seemed so unshakeable. He was a force of nature.

    He shook his head. "No." Then he paused. "It's more that I don't KNOW if I can beat her. Which on one hand is exciting. I love a good challenge. On the other hand though, if she's here, someone else at the same level may be as well. The team match will be fine, but what if one of you or Mel run into someone like her. Not all of them will be as affable as she is. I'm starting to worry about how our team will do in this tournament."

    I had my own ideas for dealing with that. "Don't worry too much about us. I have ways of keeping us safe." We'de already tested wishes for retreating and a tournament would make that kind of thing even easier to arrange. A single breach of the rules and we could be spirited off to the waiting room. I wanted to win this, but not at the cost of one of my friends. Worst case we would give up on the Moonsong Glade. It wasn't worth losing anyone I cared about in this competition.

    Escape wishes were the best possible safety net, and with four of us it was entirely possible without compromising my contract with the Beast Lord Garden for even a day. I couldn't wish for a safety net myself, so that only left three, and Abel didn't seem to feel he needed one. I had two spare wishes a day, and that meant I could ensure the safety of our teammates without letting anyone know those two wishes had been used.

    This was all a matter for later though. I clapped Abel on the shoulder, eliciting a small wince since it was his still healing arm. "Anyway. Don't sweat the small stuff. Just make sure you're at your best. In the meantime we should head over and move that spider. It's on top of a fortune in Ascendant materials." He grinned at me then, a quick flash of gratitude and amusement that settled into his usual mocking smirk and we headed over to where the shattered spider lay.

    As we closed in, I couldn't help but whistle. The sheer size of the thing was awe inspiring up close. Seeing it on the web or from a distance hadn't done it justice. I felt a thrill of fear clench my stomach and weaken my knees as I imagine standing to face something this big and terrifying like lament had. No running or dodging, just me against the enemy head on.

    At the very least, I knew that wouldn't be a problem here. This thing was dead as a door nail. Half submerged in stone, the top of the monster was cracked and broken, but more than that, the armor and meat below it were damaged and corroded. Touch of Tears, under the magnification of all my Skills and Abel's own tremendous power, had been carried along with the force and truly destroyed the spider. Even with that corrosive effect gone after I dispersed it, the remains had been seriously damaged.

    Which we gave no fucks about. We weren't here for spider meat. We'd strip the armor for sale just in case, and probably the legs and mandibles in case they could be made into weapons, but at the moment it was what lie under the beast that we wanted. I activated Sucking Mud, wincing slightly but still able to do so since I wasn't altering it at all. My soul was extremely strained right now, to the point even normal Skills hurt, but they were still usable at least.

    Luckily my body was fine, and the two of us had no trouble lifting the bulk of the spider and hurling it off to one side. A quick use of Seek Hidden left me able to see all of the materials, and Callie's timely arrival (she'd seen us move it and come running) to supply me with a shadow forged net, let me fish up all the gems and leave them in a substantial pile off to one side along with all the others.

    Most of them were G-rank, since they needed to be digestable to the baby spiders. A few large pieces of stone were apparently F-rank materials the spider had been saving to consume itself, but they were few and far between. With the base currency in H-rank chits, it was estimated most of the smaller ones would got for a few dozen. Materials could only be worked by crafters, and unless we held onto them to sell piecemeal we were going to need to give a bulk price to unload them all.

    The F-ranked stuff we were going to keep for the big auction. We were going anyway so we figured we might as well. We'd unload the spider armor and claws at the same time. Callie took great relish in totaling up the gains, figuring out exactly what we were going to get, and when she finally reported the total, even I was pretty gobsmacked by exactly how much money this trip had netted us.

    Three E-ranked chits. Three thousand H-ranked coins which could be considered the base currency here. It was...a LOT of money. Even someone like me with almost no grasp on how the Ascendant economy worked was blown away. Abel looked like he might pass out. In the end, we decided on the obvious even split. Sydney and Megan got one, the Spear Legion got one, and we got one to keep for the Pavilion.

    Sloane and the others felt like they hadn't done much, and I was a guest elder anyway, so my force growing was a net benefit to them. They abstained from taking a share. Which left us with a single E-ranked chit to invest in the Pavilion. Deciding that growing our new faction was the most important thing, we handed it over to Mel.

    Resources were strength too, and there were so many ways spending money could help increase the power of our faction. Improved training equipment, alchemical pills and elixirs, even Skill Crystals. Those were extremely rare here on Callus. You could find useless ones around in some of the Unity branches, but nothing impressive or worth the price. The reason was that the production of the Skill Crystal itself was a closely guarded secret. The blanks had to be specially prepared to be imprinted with a Skill. Buying blanks was much pricier and much more useful to forces like ours.

    I'd even considered having Callie imprint Balam on a blank for our people to learn. Not that it was a direct transfer. More like a way to watch memories and get a feel for the Skill. I figured I could try to learn enough to push my Balam Skill up to Beginner and end the geass at least. I was pretty sure paying for a wish with a Skill crystal of a Skill I made wouldn't work, but since we hadn't considered it beforehand it should be a solution at the moment. I dismissed the idea though for the moment. We'd need to see if we could even get any, it wasn't like blanks grew on trees. One more reason to look forward to the auction.
     
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  5. Threadmarks: Chapter 310
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    It didn't take too long to get back up to where the others waited. I noticed Master Saiten had stuck around up at the shore rather than come down. Knowing what E-rankers could do I wasn't sure that actually mattered, but I made a note anyway. Once we got back to shoreline we all split off to head back to our relative hotels. That gave me a chance to get the wishes for the Beast Lord Garden out of the way, giving them all five wishes again, and putting another fifteen into my Fantasy stat.

    Once we got back to the hotel, Abel pulled Mel, Callie, and I aside to talk. He led us back to one of the rooms, closing the door. "So." I said once it had been shut. "We got the Skill for Paired Dueling. Does this mean we don't need to finish the training down here?" I wasn't sure if that was an intriguing or disappointing prospect. Doomtown was a dangerous mess, but it had been interesting so far.

    Abel just shook his head. "The Skill is still at Minor I assume?" We both nodded. "Then we can still get plenty out of this. Minor Skills are the easiest to rank up, and a Lesser version of that Skill will serve you much better. Plus you're getting a better idea of the kinds of things you'll be dealing with in the tournament. Hell, I'M getting a better idea. Despite being experienced Mel and I are still locals. Our view of things is ultimately still too shallow."

    Seeing Lament fight seemed to have excited and scared him in equal measure. I knew for his own sake he was more than enthused for a fight between them, but it had put the potential danger the rest of us might see into perspective. He wasn't the only one either. I was planning to focus on getting my DS Mastery Skill to Intermediate. Seeing what Abel and Lament could do with theirs I was interested to see if I'd notice any changes. Even if I didn't though, it would be worth it. I'd be getting another finishing move next rank.

    I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I wasn't sure why or from what. I didn't think it was about the tournament or Lament or anyone from the rafting trip. My Fantasy stat was higher now, and I was getting a better feel for that ineffable sense it brought. My best guess was something to do with the auction, and I didn't intend to keep that to myself. "So..." I said, trying to figure out how to put it into words. "This auction. I get a not so great feeling about it. Does anyone else feel that or am I just letting my imagination run wild?"

    To my surprise, Abel's eyes snapped up to mine. "Really? How long has this been happening?" At my shrug he bit his lip. "I don't sense anything. But there's more than a few possible reasons for that. For one my Fantasy probably isn't as high as yours at this point. For another fate sense isn't really one size fits all. It tends to point you toward things that will be interesting or dramatic for YOU. Just because you'll be running into something that will get you attention doesn't mean I will."

    I'd never heard it called fate sense before, but that was a pretty spot on description, and I decided I liked it. Still, it left the obvious question. "Does that mean we shouldn't go? We can always give it a miss if it'll be too dangerous. I'm sure they have some way to sell our items and pick up the money later."

    I wasn't one to run away, but I also wasn't one to risk my friends pointlessly. If the others decided we shouldn't go I was fine with that. Callie was the one who would ultimately make the decision, but I knew she'd be just as interested to hear their take on it as I was. A quick glance told me I'd been right, as she nodded her interest in hearing the answer when I looked over at her.

    Mel fielded this. "No. We can't afford that. Not just because of the auction itself, though there are bound to be expensive materials we can't get elsewhere, but also because if we back down the others will smell blood in the water. They'll swarm us and we won't survive. Ascendant confrontations are a matter of reputation as much as combat, as you probably know. If we get a rep for being weak, we'll be buried in half assed challengers until we get taken down by numbers alone."

    That didn't sound pleasant. I could kind of see her point too. An impressive team would scare off a lot of low level challengers. I doubted we'd get many teams just giving up when we faced them in the prelims, but we'd probably see SOME. We were pretty scary, and we could continue making an impression. A bit of danger now would save us work in the future.

    Plus we needed some Skill Crystals. Balam was a dangerous and useful martial art, and Callie's foundation would bring our fighters right to the edge of making their own strides in it for Intermediate. Prior to that Skills were a bit more standardized, so learning Callie's version of it wouldn't hurt anyone's potential advancement.

    "Alright." Callie said with a nod. "Then we go. We have the spider armor and some of the F-rank gems to sell off, and that should give us some money to play with, even on top of what we have. I'm sure there'll be plenty of interesting items to pick up. That just means we have a few more days to kill before it's time to attend. Once that's done we can reassess. Do you have any ideas by the way? On how to get out Paired Dueling to Lesser?"

    I was curious about that too. The mild situational empathy and predictive ability was useful, but I didn't know where it would go from there. We basically fought like two halves of the same whole. There was room to improve that of course, but I wasn't sure how. Then again, Minor Skills were usually pretty weak, being only mortal level. It was highly possible the main benefit of Lesser was just a more complete version of what we had. Though that made me wonder what Beginner Paired Dueling might entail.

    Sadly, there didn't seem to be some special method. Abel's shrug made that clear. "Not really." He said apologetically. "Just more of the same. Minor to Lesser is just a matter of polishing. You usually see extra utility in Beginner, which somewhat prepares you for finding your own path to intermediate. Not always though, really just depends on the Skill."

    That did make me a bit confused about something. "If Intermediate is where people usually start to do their own thing, how come you and Lament have such similar manifestations?" I'd been wondering why it seemed like Intermediate, which was so personalized, seemed to manifest the same for them. He'd mentioned that manifestation was a common thing with Intermediate martial arts too, so it wasn't just them.

    "Utility." He said calmly. "While it's true Intermediate is mostly self determined, one of the main weaknesses of close combat and weapons Skills is range and scope. Addressing this is one of the most common steps down the path to Mastery. It's not universal, but it's compatible with a shockingly large number of combat styles. Expert level martial arts start to branch more, though there are still some themes that a majority of them follow."

    Mel broke in. "What he's not saying is the similarities are only superficial. Intermediate isn't just adding a new aspect, it's about personalizing a Skill to be something more attuned to you. Perfectly adapting your martial art to your combat style and your other Skills and ability. It's why he's so far ahead. He spent years doing that anyway. Soul strength plays a big part as well of course, since as you know a strong soul is needed to modify Skills, which is an integral part of stepping into Intermediate and beyond."

    I knew what she meant. "Is that why Mastery is such a stumbling block? Because people don't work their souls enough and get stuck relying on the native soul strength from rank ups?" I asked. I knew that rank ups would increase your soul strength naturally as you Ascended, but it never occurred to me when they mentioned Mastery being difficult that the two things could be related. It made sense though. It also reminded me of something else. "And is soul strength what lets you resist recursion?"

    Abel shook his head. "No to the second, yes to the first. Lack of soul strength is one of several reasons Mastery poses a challenge to most people, but no, soul strength isn't the same quality that allows someone to resist recursion. It's...related? But not the same. There are people who manage to reach the higher ranks warped by their recursion. They aren't common but they exist. We're getting off topic anyway. We were talking about training. We'll be doing more generalized combat going forward. Some sparring, maybe some days at the Bone Arena for the last day or two."

    Mel cut in. "That will be later though. For the moment our biggest windfall down here is interacting with and learning about the external factions before the tournament. The Wave Warren and the Spear Legion are mostly on good terms with us, but we have one other faction we don't know too well yet. We have an in with the Darkling Institute but haven't exploited that. Our best move here would be to learn more about them before the auction."

    I was torn on that actually. I got a bad feeling about the Darkling Institute. On the one hand that meant I should be looking into them deeper to head off any backstabbing, but it also meant I didn't want to be near them. I wasn't sure what was tipping me off about it really, fate sense didn't work like that, so it wasn't Fantasy. The only other thing I could think of was some kind of bleed over from my diviner class. Still, that felt nebulous and ridiculous. As much as I trusted my instincts on some things, I couldn't justify depriving my team of powerful allies because of a bad feeling I couldn't even put into words.

    I decided to keep quiet about my concerns for now. If we hung out with the Darkling Institute's fighters I'd have a chance to observe them up close. Maybe then I would be able to put my finger on what bothered me about them. Or maybe it was just necromancy that I had a problem with. Gods know I didn't have a nice first experience with them.

    "Well." I said cautiously. "Where should we meet them then? Assuming we can get in touch. Maybe we could avoid any activities that involve water. I don't really think there's anything more to gain from Riot Bay after all the time we already spent there. Unless there's a secret water park that you forgot to mention? Because that actually kind of sounds like fun."

    Abel shook his head, but his mouth was stretched into a grin. "No water park I'm afraid. But I do have a slight inkling of something fun to do. There are plenty of interesting games to play down here that don't involve water." He looked to Mel. "What about the Shatter Lanes?" Her eyes widened and she started to chuckle, before bursting into a full on laugh. Abel looked back over at us. "Yeah, I have an idea. Just our of curiosity how do you feel about giant birds? Specifically how do feel about the idea of racing on them?"
     
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  6. Threadmarks: chapter 311
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    Sadly, being that he was a sadist who lived to torment us, Abel refused to say another word about the Shatter Lanes until the next morning when we were just about to leave. He did invite the others, but Sloane and the others had gotten an offer from some of the low F-rankers in the Beast Lord Garden to spend the day with them. Apparently they were planning to take their seniors down to Riot Bay to do some fishing, hoping to make some more money.

    I wished them luck, but that left us with Sydney, Megan, Wren, Lestri, and Lament coming with us still, which would be fun. We also had the wolves with us. They weren't fans of water so we hadn't brought them to the bay but the Shatter Lanes weren't water based, and Abel insisted they would have a blast there. We'd had them wait in the rooms before, and I felt kind of bad about cooping them up inside, so it would be nice to let them run a bit.

    Sydney was absolutely enthralled by Jin and Rellia as soon as she met them, and spent the entire morning at breakfast sandwiched between the big fur balls, cuddling them mercilessly. Finally though, it was time for us to head out, and Abel decided to finally fill us in on what his comment about bird racing meant as we walked.

    "Alright." He said after the twentieth time I asked. "Fine. Racing. It's not a complicated thing. The Shatter Lanes are a huge dirt track in the middle. When you show up you can pay to race on the backs of giant wingless birds called Ralkors. They have scales instead of feathers and their beaks and claws are metal. Scary little fuckers if you piss them off, but they're trained not to attack their riders."

    I was beginning to sense a pattern here. "Let me guess. During the race the Ralkors attack anyone who isn't their rider who gets close, and to win you need to battle your way through the pack of them to reach the front?" I should have known Abel wouldn't suggest any activity that didn't have a chance to kill us all, training or not. Still, it definitely sounded like a lot of fun, especially since Callie and I had our F-rank armor to fall back on even if we did get attacked.

    Abel gasped in feigned shock, putting a hand to his chest. "What? Me? Put you in danger? Preposterous! Lies and slander! Absolutely...ok yeah. They'll try to kill anyone who gets too close, but you have to kind of nudge them. Riders can team up too, and attacks take away from running, so its not like every single Ralkor will be attacking. Some riders choose to go all out on speed, or set traps, it's fun trying to figure out exactly what people will do. I'm actually going to be taking part in this one. Personal strength is much less of a factor here because the Ralkors are all about the same. Though admittedly my spatial perception might help a tad."

    He sounded genuinely excited to take part, and it occurred to me that Abel had mostly been forced to stay out of all the activities we'd been doing. With the exception of the fishing, this had been more of a supervisory thing for him. For someone who obviously loved Doomtown and all the things he was showing us down here it must have been hard to just sit back and watch, but he'd never complained. I felt kind of bad for only noticing that now.

    It was easy to forget that while he was a bit older than us, Abel was still a G-ranker too. We'd been treating him more like a mentor than a friend, and during training that was fine, but he wasn't the formal type usually. I was pretty sure he'd prefer we treat him like one of the gang when we weren't mid training session. I felt kind of stupid for not considering that before, but it wasn't really too late. I chuckled lightly. "I guess that means we finally have a chance to take you down huh? Get ready to taste defeat."

    "Taste the feet?" He said archly, wrinkling his nose. "Whatever weird stuff you and your girlfriend get upto isn't my business man, just keep me out of it." I heard Megan choke down a snicker even as Callie squeaked in embarrassment. I grimaced. I'd kind of set him up for that one. I would have my revenge eventually though.

    Luckily the conversation was cut off by our arrival at the Shatter Lanes, a fact I was alerted to by the growls and yips of Jin, who it seemed did NOT like the smell of Ralkor. "By the way, you mentioned Jin and Rellia would have fun here?" I asked Abel, as we got in line. "Are they able to race with us or something?" That sounded like it might be dangerous, but the puppies did need some exercise, and chasing scaly hate birds would probably be a blast for them.

    Abel just laughed. "Sadly not. But the adolescent Ralkors are much less dangerous, and they train them on a smaller track. The wolves should be allowed to race with them, and since they haven't developed the metal claws and beak they should be much safer." He turned to the man behind the counter we'd just arrived at. "Nine for the noon race. Plus two tickets for the training lanes." Then he paused for a second, checking his scan ring. "Actually we'll rent one of the novice pens for the next half hour if there's one open."

    The man, a tall lanky fellow with dark skin and hair and bright blue eyes, just grinned at him. "Sure are. Anyone with any sense has already done all the training they need. You're free to use one. Just go around back and receive your Ralkor assignments."

    We turned to do just that, but Callie called us to a stop as her scan ring buzzed. "One second. I think that's Mordaunt. She decided to meet us here." Sure enough within a minute or two, Mordaunt made her way over, the hulking form of Rahm lumbering behind her silently. Well, that wasn't fair. Rahm didn't lumber. He was a pretty graceful guy. But the whole dead person thing combined with his total silence creeped me out.

    After stopping to pick up her own tickets she came around to meet us so we could walk over to get our assigned Ralkors together. As we walked, I had to ask Abel. "So...Ralkors. Is there a lot of variation? Because being assigned a bird makes it seem like some of them might be...recalcitrant." Which was a polite way to say crazy rage beasts that tried to rip apart their owners.

    He just shrugged. "There are good birds and bad birds. Some of them don't like riders much, but we'll see what we end up with. They don't give the best ones to the early attendees or anything, that would just make it a matter of who showed up first. It's random."

    Mordaunt looked incredibly interested. "This sounds like a blast. I'm glad you invited me. No hard feelings if I maim some of you." Her teasing grin made it clear she wasn't planning to actually maim us...or that she was? I didn't have enough of a read on her to be sure.

    It didn't really matter. With our armor Callie and I would be fine, and anyone else who got hurt had the Vitality not to bleed out before I could fix them with heal bursts. When we came to the spot at the edge of a fenced off area, a bored looking woman with blonde hair in a ponytail yawned at us. "Welcome to the Shatter Lanes." She droned. "Please be aware than any mutilation or untimely deaths caused by Ralkors during the course of your visit is not our responsibility. A stipulation you will agree to before being given your Ralkor."

    Since this was Doomtown, that seemed to be pretty much par for the course. We all agreed, and the woman nodded, leading us through the fence to where a series of massive bipedal birds waited. The scales of a Ralkor were much more delicate than expected, the dense coating of small plates retaining flexibility and durability regardless of thickness by virtue of overlap.

    The beaks and talons, as mentioned, were metal, and gleamed imposingly in the low light. Abel nodded in satisfaction as he took them all in. "Just as scary as I remember. The Ralkor is actually a pretty cool animal. They feed them scrap metal as youngsters, letting the metal build up in their bones. When they get old enough to go through puberty the metal is vented into their beak and claws, creating the effect you see here."

    There were about a dozen Ralkor left and eleven of us, so I knew I would be getting one of these. Jin and Rellia just growled at them menacingly as they tried to back away. Sydney knelt down next to them, pulling them against her an cooing softly. I rolled my eyes at them. Big babies. What kind of wolf is afraid of a giant chicken? Still, I reached down to scratch Jin behind the ears. Even if he was a scaredy wolf he was still a good boy. Besides, those metal beaks actually did look kind of scary, so I couldn't blame him too much.

    The woman from the entrance had followed us in, and gestured to the Ralkors scattered around the pens. "Alright, now each of you take out your tickets and tear them." I'd been handed a ticket when I showed up, but hadn't paid it any mind. Still, it was her show. I took the ticket out and tore it, and the scraps of paper burst into green flame. The flames floated as a ball in the air before zipping over to be snapped up by a green scaled Ralkor.

    When the woman made a shooing gesture I shrugged and walked over to the Ralkor. Its eyes were glowing green like the fire when I arrived, and as that faded I felt a small link form between us. Nothing as permanent or strong as my link with Callie, but similar. Some kind of empathy maybe? I turned to Abel, cocking my head, and he grinned at me. "Beast bonds." He said with amusement. "Only temporary, but they're good for learning to interact with bonded partners. Bonding Skills can be pretty similar sometimes."

    I burst out laughing. "You lying ass, you said you didn't have any special training in mind. This whole thing was one big game to get us here." He'd been planning this from the start, or at least as soon as he confirmed we'd gotten the Paired Dueling Skill. He just winked at me and I rolled my eyes. Then I narrowed them suspiciously. "Wait, this doesn't give you an advantage in the race does it?"

    He just chuckled. "Not much. I'll adapt faster because of experience, but the beast bond isn't a Skill I actually have. It's just as temporary for me. The training pen should give you plenty of time to get adapted before the race, so we'll be on even footing when I absolutely demolish you all with no real effort." He said that last part with casual confidence that made me want to punch him a little, but I just rolled my eyes again.

    Once we all got our Ralkors we headed for the training pen he'd reserved to get used to our bonds and learn to control our temporary mounts. It didn't take long to pick it up, like he'd said, so we were ready to go by the time the race started. As we all lined up at the starting line, I realized that though we were the last twelve, there were about fifty people here. This was going to be much more chaotic than expected. I couldn't wait.
     
  7. Threadmarks: chapter 312
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    The bond didn't take long to adjust to. By the time the starting horn sounded, just like Abel had said, I was already pretty used to it. Thus, I immediately leaned on it to push the Ralkor into a full on sprint the second we were told to go. Though I couldn't use any active Skills, my passive connection to Callie through Paired Dueling was still there, and I had enough of a sense of her to match our speeds as we took off down the track, bringing my Ralkor close to hers as we raced ahead.

    Unfortunately, as mentioned, the Ralkor distribution was random. Callie's was a bit slower than mine, and several of the enemy were much faster. Not only that, several started to drift in toward me as if preparing to attack. Ahead of me, I saw Abel, sprinting along on his own red Ralkor, and as a blue and a green drifted in from both sides, it leaped into the air and kicked out with both claws, attempting to gouge each of them in succession.

    The first rider, the one on the green a lighter shade than mine, was coming in too fast, and he had to put his arm up to block and got laid open to the bone, falling back with a howl of pain. The blue rider, however, flipped up into a picture perfect counter claws clashing against claws in a shower of sparks as they were thrown away from each other.

    The two trying to close on us made their own move while we were distracted by the attack, but unfortunately for them I within arms reach of Callie. I reached out and grabbed her hand and her Ralkor leapt into the air and with a heave I swung her around my entire head, her legs keeping her Ralkor under her and her mounts kicked out with a series of dangerous bicycle kicks to attack both of them.

    One of the attackers got driven back, but the other dipped under the attack and managed to slip in to slash at my leg. Sadly for the tall man on the back of the red Ralkor I was wearing strong armor, which soaked the blow easily, even if it hurt like crazy. I urged my Ralkor in closer and leveled a heavy punch at his head. He dipped back and took it on the shoulder even as Callie came up around on the other side of him and executed a spinning taloned kick at his head with her own purple Ralkor.

    The man tried to counter the attack, leaving him open for a hard kick from me, his Ralkor turning to dart after him as he flew off into the pack behind us, and I winced as I saw him get stepped on, though from the brief glance I got he didn't die or anything and his Ralkor managed to snatch him up.

    Callie pulled up even with me and shot me a grin. The two of us had a huge advantage here even without active Skill use, the training we'd done over the last few months giving us a passive awareness of each other and what the other would do. Of course, that meant Mel and Abel had an advantage too. It was easy to see the two of them had joined up and were in the center of a crowd of Ralkors seamlessly fighting them off.

    Giving a nod to them, Callie made a gesture that we'd worked out in training to indicate helping and I flashed her a thumbs up. We split up and closed in on the crowd from either side flashing a few hand signs at Abel and Mel as we came in, pincering the group of five enemies in between us. I saw Mel's orange Ralkor leap straight up about ten feet into the air as Abel smashed sideways to drive one of the five out of formation at me and I kicked low as he swung partly off his Ralkor, leg lashing out at the head of the one between us, the racing bird unbalanced and thrown behind by the dual attack.

    Mel meanwhile came plummeting from the sky like the stars she was named for breaking, and when two of the others tried to move aside, Callie body slammed one into another and shoved them both into the path of our descending mentor, Ralkor claws flashing even before the heavy bird smashed into them and opening long slashed across arms and back and forcing them to retreat.

    The last two Mel and Abel converged to pull the same swing move we had earlier taking them out. I saw them consider attacking us directly, but they eventually decided to leave that for the end of the race if we met up and the four of us separated. The winners would get half the entry money, but we;d use it for the Pavilion anyway, not that it would stop Abel from competing if we ended up being that last ones left.

    As we belted forward at top speed, I saw the other riders avoid us completely and nodded with smugness. Sadly, this wasn't a brawl, it was a race, and we weren't winning. I didn't want to leave Callie, knowing not only would she be more vulnerable without me, but I'd have to worry about watching my back much more thoroughly. Taking a lesson from Mel's huge jump I noted the faster speed of my Ralkor and shot Callie a few hand signs that she responded to quickly before closing in.

    Taking her hand I did the same swing maneuver, but instead of a circle I hurled her up and around, shooting her forward into the air alongside her squawking Ralkor, sending her hurtling into the near distance as I kicked my own bird into high gear, sprinting full out to catch up before she landed among a large group.

    I managed to beat her there and smashed into them like a scaly wrecking ball, mostly clearing them out so she could land delicately, the long tough legs of her Ralkor absorbing the impact as she crashed down, only to grab her again and throwing her a second time, before sprinting all out with my much faster Ralkor to catch up to her, essentially leapfrogging forward a few times as we closed with some of the lead elements of the pack.

    The furthest ahead were in a state of near constant combat even as they ran. While getting a feel for the bond was simple and martial arts experience helped maneuvering, the most advanced seemed to be old hands at this kind of racing. While their actual capabilities weren't any more impressive, their grasp on the movements that the Ralkor's excelled at were much more refined. I took a moment to watch and study, learning more about the bodies of the animals we were riding as I watched the dizzying arrays of kicks and slashes from these veteran racers.

    Abel, of course, managed just fine without any of those considerations, his spatial awareness monstrous even without using Skills. Mel was doing surprisingly well too, probably from her perception of Abel through the bond similar to what Callie and I shared. As we watched some of the attacks, Callie and I refined our own techniques, noting certain kinds of explosive movement that Ralkor's seemed built for.

    For instance, Ralkor's were front heavy, a fact they countered with extremely solid traction, but relied on to sprint faster. A forward flipping motion that whipped the legs up over the head and down on the enemy was extremely suitable for their physiology. With a glance at Callie, we decided to try a variation of that. Grabbing her hand, she pushed her Ralkor to flip up over me, and I swung her as she traveled along the arc of my extended arm, ramping up the speed to deliver a brutal overhead slash to the pair of Ralkor riders in front of us.

    The two were so distracted by trying to outdo each other they missed the attack until it was too late, both of their backs being slashed open. With cries of pain the two split, letting themselves fall back to treat their wounds and being overtaked by the pack within seconds and passed.

    It was notable that no one in this little race actually attacked the Ralkors. I personally avoided it because they were just racing animals and didn't deserve to be hurt, but I somehow doubted the people of Doomtown were nice enough to keep that in mind. If I had to guess the Lanes had some sort of rule about it. That actually gave us a distinct advantage, because due to our armor the Ralkors couldn't do much harm to us.

    With those two out of the way we picked up the pace, pushing for just that little bit of extra speed from Callie's mount. I was able to keep pace, but she'd managed to eke out a bit more momentum and we started to slowly close on the mad scramble of battling Ralkors at the front. We were getting closer to catching up. The track was pretty long, though we apparently had to do multiple laps before this ended, but I wasn't sure how many and I didn't want to get screwed out of winning because the race ended early.

    Despite the advancing though, we still needed to break through the line of battling Ralkor with advanced riders. Even Abel and Mel seemed to be stuck, as they'd run into a pack of five riders who worked with shocking coordination to repel them. I supposed Abel wasn't invincible after all. I was jarred from that realization by a feeling of alarm through my bond with Callie, and barely managed to weave to the side to avoid a vicious slash aimed at my throat.

    Mordaunt laughed happily as her Ralkor pirouetted through the air, claws flashing right by me, actually scraping across my mask as I leaned back, though not doing any damage. I felt more than saw Callie lunge for her in retaliation, only to be intercepted by the hulking form of Rahm on a massive black scaled Ralkor, interposing himself between my girlfriend and his mistress. I cursed as I saw the two of them break past us to surge into the midst of the pack of frontrunners, slowing down to meet up with Callie.

    I made a few hand gestures, and got a few in response, glad once again that we'd decided to to refine our communication during all that practice. Honestly I suspected the hand signals were much less effective than they seemed, and at least some of the understanding we developed of each other was just intuition that came as a precursor to developing the Paired Dueling Skill.

    Looking ahead, I glared at all the Ralkors in front of us. I had no idea how to get past them, or if we even could I wished I could use Skills right now, but Abel had mentioned they had ways of detecting that. I scoured my brain for something, ANYTHING that would let me break through the line. At this point I didn't even care much about winning. I just wanted to beat Mordaunt. That attack had pissed me off. Armor or not it had been way too dangerous for a friendly race. Something was seriously wrong with that girl, she could've put my eye out, not to mention slitting my throat.

    Finally, I had an idea. I had no shot at winning this, there were a few racers out front of the pack that were definitely going to get it. There was, however, a gap between the pack of frontrunners and the very best who were leading the charge. I shot Callie a look and a few gestures and she grinned back at me. She drifted out in front as I slowed down, and with no hesitation I steered my Ralkor to jump onto her shoulders. With a single powerful leap her Ralkor hurled itself up about twenty feet, and I had my own Ralkor jump as hard as it could using her shoulders as a playform. As I sailed over the battling crowd to land between them and the frontrunners I got a good laugh. Mordaunt didn't seem nearly as amused now.
     
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  8. Threadmarks: chapter 313
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    As expected, I didn't win, but I did beat Mordaunt. Her glare when it happened was incredibly brief, so quick I almost missed it, but she was definitely pissed. By the time she met up with us though she was all smiles. "Wow, that was an interesting race. Wasn't it Rahm?"

    Rahm, who as far as I'd heard, didn't ever really speak, just grunted. I didn't the big zombie was stupid, he, moved like someone with a brain, careful and deliberate. Even so, he wasn't exactly a stellar conversationalist, and Mordaunt seemed to use him as more of a set piece for her own chattering than anything else. "So." I said as we all made our way over to check on the wolves. "Only two more days or so until the auction. Anything special you plan to pick up there?"

    Her eyes danced with amusement as she glanced at me slyly. "Actually, I'm more interested in selling. I stumbled on a great find here that one of our regular trading partners will be pretty excited about. I couldn't believe my luck. How about you? Anything specific you plan to look for there?" Once again I got bad vibes from the woman for no provable reason, and it mostly seemed to be just me.

    With an internal sigh I left Callie to take over the conversation, ceding it to her as I moved to put some space between me and Darkling Institute ringer. To take my mind off things I took up a position next to the pen where the wolves were playing to watch them, and I had to admit it definitely helped.

    Jin and Rellia were having a blast. Ralkors were dangerous, scary beasties, but the younger ones hadn't grown into their claws and beak yet. If I had to guess the teen Ralkors were probably more like H-rank than G. Despite that, there were dozens of them, and they definitely exhibited herd like behavior. The wolves didn't seem to mind, and were being happily chased down by the smaller birds, unable to actually hurt them at all.

    The mocking chuffs of the big wolves as the darted past and the enraged squawks of the Ralkors made for an amusing picture as they led the things on a merry chase. Abel chuckled as he stepped up beside me, drawing away from where the rest of the group was chatting with Mordaunt. "They certainly seem to be having a blast. I admit, I didn't expect them to be quite so amused. I figured they wouldn't be able to do much damage to the pack with their numbers, but leading them around like this....they're stronger now than when you first got them, aren't they?"

    I shrugged. "Probably? Honestly I don't know. It's not like we can check their stats. Jessie tops them up with her life force when she has any to spare, and her ability mentioned long term effects, so I think so? They certainly seem to be getting smarter. To be fair though they've also been following us around, so it's possible they got some renown rollover. I wonder if they'll hit F-rank soon?"

    Abel just chuckled. "Not that soon. Did you forget my lesson at the Bay? There's variation in the feel of Impact at the same level. I'd put them at maybe three quarters of the way to F-rank, but then again, they were already probably halfway there when you got them. It'll be a while I bet." He stood off to one side of me, watching with amusement, until eventually he said. "Something going on kid? You seem off."

    I was surprised he'd picked up on it honestly. Callie hadn't even noticed. Granted, our bond wasn't really empathy so much as intention, and usually more during combat, but I'd assumed that meant I was keeping it to myself pretty well. I focused on my Stealth Skill, resonating with it as I spoke to hide my words from prying ears. With my current Perception it was easy enough to wipe all traces of the sound once it went past his ears. "Mordaunt. She gives me a weird feeling. Like she's laughing at us. Is that just me?"

    That got a shrug. "I don't really trust anyone I work with except Mel for the most part kid. You and Nightstrike are exceptions I suppose. But this is the WCP. People being suspicious or willing to fuck you over is par for the course. I think the Unity has you all spoiled. There are no eternal friendships, only eternal benefits." He paused. "Though, maybe I'm just a cynic. Your little gang seems pretty close. I could just be jaded after so long."

    Snorting out a laugh, I turned to him with amusement. "That's it? That's your advice? 'Don't worry if she's out to get you because everyone is out to get you?' Thanks man, that's real fucking helpful." Despite my sarcasm, it actually DID help. Knowing that Abel didn't trust her made me feel better. Pulling one over on me wasn't that big an accomplishment, but pulling one over on him would be a big one.

    Besides, Doomtown was limited in its admission. Low F-rank and G-rank only. As long as that was the case I wasn't worried about us being overwhelmed. I could figure something out as long as we didn't get killed instantly. With our armor we would be fine for a bit, and with Abel and Mel backing us up, not to mention our new Paired Dueling Skill I was genuinely confident we could take on anyone.

    With a chuckle, Abel clapped me on the shoulder. "Come on kid, lets get out of here. With that auction coming up I think we should head back up topside for this last day of the week. We need to gather resources anyway, and we can pick up the other two and bring them with us. We can bring Alden with to help watch out for them, but they can probably pick up some useful items that'll help with their growth."

    I nodded, whistling for the puppies. They seemed unhappy but broke from the pack of baby Ralkors easily enough, loping over to easily hop the fence. As for bringing Benny and Jessie, I agreed. I missed my friends, and I wanted them to see Doomtown. Escape wishes could be prepared for them just in case, and that should prevent anything bad from happening (not to mention Jessie's giant ass F-ranked bear), but this would be an opportunity for them to gain some rep too. I was curious to see how they'd grown when we were away, they weren't the type to just loaf around while we were training.

    Callie meanwhile, had been talking to Mordaunt for a bit, and when I came back she shot me a questioning look. I snagged her up in a hug and spun her around, getting a surprised giggle, and then set her down, leaving an arm around her shoulders. "What's the occasion?" She said in amusement. Despite the lightness and happiness in her tone, I could see some concern in her eyes. I was affectionate most of the time, but this had been kind of out of nowhere.

    I chuckled, making sure my voice was as light and happy as hers. "Oh nothing big, I was just talking to Apollyon about how much I was missing home. Figured we might take a break from the trip and go up for a visit." Mordaunt being around made me wary to just say we needed to get stockpile our cash and pick up our friends. It might have been stupid but I felt like I needed a pretense to stop the necromancer from paying attention.

    Amusingly, it actually seemed to work. Though her polite smile didn't waver, I could see a look of disdain in her eyes. Once I'd started really looking, my Perception made finding evidence of her bad intentions a bit easier. I was pretty sure this was an aspect of my diviner class. Part of that particular powerset was a passive sense for intention, but I'd never really seen any evidence I had it in real life. Now it seemed that my Perception just hadn't been high enough.

    It was nice to see actually, my diviner class hadn't done much for me in a while, with monk and rogue doing the heavy lifting. Seek Hidden was extremely useful, but the diviner was a support class in the first place, and most of its functions were geared towards Doom Sovereign itself. I didn't have a Skill for this yet, so there was nothing I could do to improve, but I should pick up Sense Intention as a codified active skill once I ranked up DS Mastery.

    Saying our goodbyes, we headed off to the Blue Robin to pick up the others. Sloane and the Beast Lord Garden initiates
    had come down with us and it would be pretty rude to leave them alone. They weren't there when we arrived, so we decided to wait, and while we did Callie dragged me into our room to question me. "Ok." She said plainly. "What's up? That wasn't really like you, and you were twitchy most of today. Is everything alright?"

    I didn't really have an explanation, but after figuring out my feeling was my diviner sense at work I felt much better about talking it out. I told her about what I'd noticed, the bad impression I'd had, and Abel's unhelpful advice. Then I told her about his idea to have Benny and Jessie come down, and why I thought we should allow it. In the end Callie would make the call on this, but she took my advice into account, and once I explained myself she seemed open to it.

    More than that, she seemed sympathetic. She reached up to pull off my mask, going up on her toes and pulling me down for a quick kiss. "Hey. You always support me when I feel like doing something. If she gives you the creeps I'll keep an eye out. I trust your judgement. It's not like I have some big attachment to her anyway. She's interesting enough, but she isn't exactly a close friend. If you want I can talk to uncle Alex, see if maybe he can spare a few low F-rankers from his faction to tag along to the auction just in case? I agree we can't miss it and it'll be good for Benny and Jessie, but some more firepower couldn't hurt. Plus I'm sure he'll want to snag some of that stuff for himself anyway."

    I let out a breath I hadn't know I was holding. Knowing she believed me without blinking and came up with a solution nearly instantly made me feel better almost immediately. It was a good solution to, but I wasn't sure we could manage it. "Is that an option? I mean, it's pretty last minute, and F-rankers don't exactly grow on trees. Does he even have any that are even allowed in Doomtown?"

    She shrugged. "I don't know. Can't hurt to ask. Plus I think that we've only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the E-ranked factions. Considering what we know about the dark districts, not to mention we've never even been to F-district, I have to assume we haven't seen most of their forces. Not everyone can be hanging out in the headquarters, otherwise how could the factions operate."

    That was fair. Beast Lord Garden was the busiest of the E-ranked factions we'd visited, but I knew they'd been able to pull a bunch of elite G-rank youngsters out of nowhere to follow Sloane and join the tournament. With that decided Callie spun up her scan ring and shot her uncle a message asking about it. Sure enough, he'd heard about the auction and was planning to send some people along. He agreed for them to follow us in disguise in case we needed an ace in the hole. Knowing that made me feel a lot better. Once Sloane and the others got back we were officially on our way back up to G-district. It would be nice to see everyone again. I had so much I wanted to tell them.
     
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  9. Threadmarks: chapter 314
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    Being back in the Pavilion was like walking out of the heat into a cool familiar house. I hadn't even noticed the shift in tension in Doomtown. Even when I was enjoying myself, I'd had to be actively on the lookout for traps or murder attempts. Up here in G-district where we could relax I was finally able to let down my guard.

    The first thing I did when I got back was go see my best friend. Callie came along, and to my shock, Benny was actually at the Pavilion instead of at the Academy with. To my even bigger shock, he was currently running the obstacle course, or at least about to finish it. I'd missed most of the actual run. Judging by his combat standards against the golems, he had been putting in a ton of work too. Callie and I came over to stand next to Alden and Jessie as they watched, letting out a low whistle. "Wow, someone made some big leaps."

    Despite not have gained many stats in the week we were gone, Benny's integration of the abilities that his artifacts gave him had become exponentially more polished. His density shifting, both lower and higher had been trained diligently. He appeared to be able to extend the effects of his enhancements to his whole body now, using them as comprehensive Skills. He had to concentrate hard to do it, and it was clearly taxing, but it gave him the ability to contend with much stronger opponents.

    Alden, who had noticed me but not commented, chuckled. "Aye. Been putting him through his paces. He still sneaks of to see that lass of his now and then, thinks I don't notice, but a bit of down time isn't doing any harm. Still, he's been training like the devil is on his tail." He shot a fond look at Jessie. "And this little miss hasn't been far short of that. Though I admit I see less of it since she trains so much up at the fancy E-ranked faction building. Us lowly G-rankers aren't good enough I suppose."

    Our perky blonde haired teammate didn't even bother to respond to him, she got so excited when she saw us she launched herself off the bench, catching Callie mid stomach in a tackle hug. I suspect she picked Callie because she was closest, and because trying to tackle both of us would be nigh impossible given the height difference. "You're back!" She squealed so loudly I thought she might shatter glass. "I'm so glad to see you!"

    I chuckled and reached down to ruffle her hair, since she was already engaged in a hug. She huffed at me, blowing some of it out of her eyes so she could fix me with an emerald glare. "Stop that. Jerk." She climbed off Callie, gave me a light shove and then plopped back down next to Alden. "Also shut up, I so didn't do that. Randall just doesn't like training here. Can you blame him?"

    He shrugged, conceding the point. "You lot are back early. You finish that training so soon?" His tone was casual but I saw a hint of shock on his face. Considering the Paired Dueling training was passed down to Abel and Mel by Alden, he would know how it worked. What I was curious about was where he'd learned about it. Though obviously adapted for the local environment, this whole training regimen had the feeling of a systematic teaching tool. Things like that were supposed to be important assets to bigger forces.

    Had Alden been a member of some big sect or group? Had HE had a partner at one point? I was deathly curious, but that all seemed like personal stuff that might be painful to talk about. So instead of saying all that I just smirked and said. "Yeah, we got the Skill a few days ago. But we're not really done. We came to pick up some stuff. There's a big auction down there and we're going to try to buy up some training resources. We want to make sure the Pavilion can keep pumping out strong elites."

    This time it was his turn to whistle. "Not bad, you two. That's damn fast. Still, fits with the two of you. Always been a bit quick on the uptake, least since I've known you." I smiled and nodded my thanks at the compliment. Alden had trained Abel, him being impressed was an honor.

    "So." Said Callie, flopping onto the bench next to Jessie. "How much has he improved? I can tell he's a lot smoother with his ability. I assume that's a result of building soul strength? Using those abilities as Skills must be tough for him. How did he manage to grow so fast?" That was a good point, soul strength training was slow and incredibly difficult to manage. It was basically just work until your head hurt then stop and recover.

    Alden grinned. "He's been working on some new Inventions after you left. Threw everything but the kitchen sink together, and finally came across something useful. He build a spiritual calming belt. They help the soul recover faster. They're extremely rare, even lower tier versions. Once he integrated that he started to increase his Skill training tenfold. He's been progressing quite quickly. Sadly the belt is too low tier to be effective long term. Once he catches up with Solomon I'm guessing he'll slow down."

    Still though. It was a terrifying new ability. And I knew how much it sucked recovering from excessive soul weight. Even a bit of recovery would help in the future, no matter what tier it was. It really showed the absurd potential of Benny's ability. Even items of limited use would be helpful if used like a part of you. Benny would be able to catch up much faster with that capability, and I was glad to hear he'd found something that could help. We'd need to help Jessie learn to train her soul too. Based on what I'd been told it seemed like it was almost necessary to advance past E-rank.

    We waited a bit for Benny to finish his fight before he headed over to where we were sitting. He had originally been jogging, but when he noticed Callie and I he bolted over. "You're back! How was the dark district? See any cool stuff? Bring me any souvenirs? I accept tribute in the form of food, clothes, and expensive Inventing materials." He paused. "Though not necessarily in that order."

    I snorted. "Amateur. Why bring you souvenirs when we can bring you to the dark district. We came back to drag you down there in person." Also I hadn't considered buying souvenirs, which I kind of felt bad about now. Not that I would admit that even on pain of death.

    Benny seemed momentarily derailed from our banter. "Wait...really? I thought it was super dangerous down there and all that? Aren't you worried about us getting killed down there? Because I was joking about needing new stuff. I can definitely wait on Inventing materials if it means I don't have to die."

    Callie cut in. "No. I have a plan for that. We both do actually." She bumped me with her shoulder. "Solomon has an idea for keeping us all safe, and on top of that...well I won't talk about my plan here. The walls have ears and all that. Suffice to say there's a big event down there we don't want you both to miss. On the upside Agria you can take Randall for a walk finally."

    Mentally I had to smother a laugh at the idea of the giant F-ranked bear coming with us. Still, he would give Jessie plenty of security, especially with the F-rankers we were going to request from Alexander. Though that actually gave me an idea. "Agria, do you have a beast bonding Skill? " I'd never heard Jessie mention anything like the bond with the Ralkors, but if there was a permanent version of that like our Paired Dueling Skill it would make Jessie infinitely safer.

    She seemed surprised I'd even heard of it. "Not even close. Those Skills take forever to develop. I'm pretty sure the Beast Queen has one, and a fairly high level one too. I know you can synergize them with your ability to make some interesting powers, though I won't be doing that." She didn't say why, and didn't need to. Everyone here was well aware of her long term goals in regards to her healing ability.

    Still that seemed odd to me. "It takes that long? I'd figure with how taming works it would be pretty easy to form a bond." Even easier than for Callie and I, though I was starting to think I'd cheated with the overlay somehow, based on how everyone was reacting.

    "The opposite." Jessie said firmly. "Bonds require a deep understanding and connection. Animals don't think like people, so it's harder to make that connection to begin with. Beast Taming just teaches you how to train an animal and teach them certain behaviors. It doesn't turn them into partners. Bonding is also usually permanent. Tamers often find new beasts, but a bonded companion is rarely tossed aside."

    That was an interesting thing to note. I also saw Callie blushing furiously under her mask at that last bit, which made me grin a bit. Not that we couldn't feel how closely we were connected, but hearing it out loud like that was kind of intense. Benny, to my delight, seemed to get what I'd been insinuating, and pulled Jessie aside to talk to her about wishing for a bond with Randall. Since I hadn't told her to do it myself my own bias wouldn't mess with the pricing so much, plus I could always use more heals.

    While Callie caught up with Jessie I pulled Benny aside to check on him. "Hey, you ok man? Heard you've been working yourself pretty hard. Impressive you managed to rig up a spiritual calming belt, but don't run yourself into the ground ok? We're planning to help you two catch up before the end of the tournament so we can bring you with us into the Moonsong Glade. You've got plenty of time to train."

    Benny just shook his head. "You don't get it. You and Callie are pulling farther and farther ahead. I've been making sure to spend time with Cel so she doesn't feel ignored, but other than that...we're in this together man. I can't let you leave me behind. We might be able to use wishes to get our stats filled out, but the Pavilion has shown us there's way more to combat than that. It's not just me either, Jessie has been training harder than she lets on."

    That was...touching? Worrying? I didn't know. But it wasn't my place to tell them what to do. It wasn't even really Callie's, group leader or not. "Alright, but just remember that you don't need to overdo it. You both bring other things to the team. That spiritual calming belt proves your Inventing must be getting better right? No way that thing is less than G-rank. Did you get Inventing to Intermediate?"

    He grinned at me widely. "Yup. I haven't been slacking as much as you thought the past few months. Even when I was at the Academy I was usually working. The hardest part was keeping financially solvent while I worked."

    Which reminded me. "Speaking of finances, we're also here to stock up on chits. Not sure how much we have in the coffers, but I know Abel and Mel are planning to toss their own cash into the pot. With all of us we should be able to afford some pretty good stuff." Eager to see what exactly we had to work with, we both headed over to talk to Abel and Mel. After we finalized that, we'd just need to wait for the reinforcements Alexander was sending (hopefully) and we would be ready to head back down. Though we might be able to take the evening off too. Would be nice to have some downtime before the big show.
     
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  10. Threadmarks: chapter 315
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    We didn't hear back from Alexander until the next day. Since we had one more after this before the auction I let the Beast Lord Initiates do another full five wishes to preload some more days for later. I'd have to work out some kind of arrangement for after I left. I managed to get the points in Might this time, which was nice, and put me at nine hundred nineteen points total.

    When they F-rankers arrived in the morning I left the five wishes for that day unused, ready for the emergency escape wishes my friends would need, and went to greet them with the others. I'd been curious what Alexander would manage to put together for his niece, if anything, but I was shocked to see four fresh F-rank elites waiting for us at the Pavilion when we woke up (we slept in the rooms in the back that Mel used when she worked overnight) all looking ready for a fight.

    The four people that Alexander sent were...weird. They all wore black robes and masks, and seemed pretty much indistinguishable from each other. Not just at a surface level wither, their actual conceptual weight was basically identical, and nearly everything about them made it impossible to tell which was which. Only one of them ever spoke at a time, but which one it was changed sentence to sentence, with seemingly no communication to let them know whose turn it was.

    When we arrived, all four of the figures bowed to Callie. "Young mistress." Said one. "The Nothing sends his greetings." Said another. "We are the four as one. Though only recently having reached the F-rank, we are powerful for our tier. We will be your guardians on this mission." A third spoke up, informing us of their identity. It was functionally impossible to tell their voices apart.

    Abel whistled. "Quadruplets I'm guessing. And they probably cultivate as a group. It's tricky to pull that off. Makes it much harder to accumulate individual stat points. Still, I'm betting they have some variation of the Paired Dueling Skill that works for all four of them. Sucks for them they're already F-ranked. They would have been a hell of a team in the tournament. Still, I see why they were available to take us down there. They're going to be at early F-rank for quite a while, having to share all the renown like that."

    One of the four nodded. "You are correct." Another spoke up. "Still, we do not feel displeased. We can be of use to The Nothing, this is our honor." I raised an eyebrow at that but didn't comment. I imagined training quadruplet Ascendants would be extremely taxing. Alexander must have invested a ton into their development, in time if not resources. It made sense they would be grateful.

    Mel cleared her throat. "As...nice, as this all is. We still have to discuss our resource allocation for this. We've managed to cobble together a total of three E-ranked chits for this auction, with a few F-ranked left over. That's not a small amount by any means, but some of the visiting factions will have just as much if not more. We should probably expect that we'll end up using all of our money on two or three big ticket items. We might be able to afford some smaller stuff like armor and weapons too, but we need to decide what we're aiming for, at least in general terms."

    I looked over to Callie, who nodded. "I'd been considering that actually. We know we want a blank Skill Crystal. G-ranked if possible so I can imprint a Beginner Skill on it. If we can get our hands on something that can increase soul restoration like Clockwork's belt that would be good too. Hopefully something that works on an area rather than an individual. Other than those priorities we should just pick up anything we can find that can help multiple people improve. Maybe a few useful Skills if they pop up."

    We'd been looking into faction building since we took over the Pavilion, but at our rank there really wasn't a ton you could do to improve the foundation of lots of people at once. Soul strength, as we had learned recently, was important, so having a way to replenish that for training would be huge, but other than that and buying Skills like Callie said, pills were probably the only real option, and those were of course limited by the elixir limit at each tier.

    The only bright spot there was that while there wasn't too many options right now, any results we saw would bring prestige to the Pavilion itself, and as members our people would benefit. Once people heard about the Pavilion more, wearing its symbol and being a known member would help add reputation to those who worked under us. It would turn into a feedback loop.

    That was why factions were so ubiquitous on Callus, and pretty much everywhere else. Any possible way to squeeze out a bit of extra rep was necessary. Honestly I'd been surprised by the way the cultivation worked when I'd first heard how we got stronger. I'd expected more politics and PR. But the fact was people cultivated for power, and SHOWING that power was what they did to show the results of that cultivation.

    Because of that, demonstrating power was the easiest way to cut through the bullshit. Branding and PR were important, as we saw from the Academy, but when there were people blowing up cars and hurling fireballs in the streets, it was much less impressive to HEAR about someone doing that. Stories and rumors still influenced growth of course, but not as much as getting out and showing tangible evidence of what you could do. Especially since those feats spawned stories and rumors of their own anyway.

    After Callie finished her list, Mel took a minute to think before nodding. "We might be able to get a bulk price on some pills too. Our people haven't hit their limits on elixirs for the most part. The way we used to run things, we prioritized combat strength over everything. I still think that's the way to go, but if we're pushing for active expansion a marked improvement in a large number of people in a short time would be best. With the Beast Lord Garden backing us we won't have to worry about standing out and getting smacked down."

    I hadn't considered before why the Pavilion wasn't more well known actually. Granted, Abel had been away, but Alden had trained both him and Mel, so logically he should have been able to train more powerful Ascendants. Even if they didn't reach the same level they should have been pretty strong. Instead it had been a small regional force in the Cavalcade that no one outside the circus had heard of.

    Thinking about the whole mess with the deed and the attack from Sanctuary Hall though, it was pretty dangerous to stick out in the WCP without some kind of background, even in G-district. That was easy to see when you took into account how quickly things escalated once Burning Fist and the Peace Lord became involved.

    "Alright." I said. "Agria, Nightstrike, Clockwork, I had some things I wanted to talk to you about before we left if you have a second." I'd expected to be waiting longer before we left, but if we were heading back down soon we should get the escape wishes out of the way. When they followed me over, I didn't need to say anything to them. They already knew about the escape wishes from before, so the three of them naturally didn't need to be reminded.

    Each of them made a wish to be able to escape from Doomtown if they were put in mortal danger, and I was able to grant them all. Given how much power was needed, I had to get five of each attack before I could grant the wishes. Since I was at my full ten after only two attacks from Callie and Benny and three from Jessie, we settled on a geass that they would let me store attacks as I used them up. I felt better having topped up my heal bursts and those density shifted triple strength attacks were damn useful, so it wasn't a bad deal for me.

    Once that was done Benny and Callie headed back over to join the others, but when I moved to follow them Jessie grabbed my arm. "Hey Shane, hang on a second." I turned to cock my head at my tiny blonde teammate. "I was hoping we could try a wish. Specifically I was hoping to with for a Beginner Level Beast Bonding Skill with Randall as my bonded beast. I can pay with another...let say twenty five heal bursts added onto my tab."

    Wish detected. Grant wish? I confirmed, interested to see what that kind of thing would cost. Stat points sufficient. Requirements: 36 Impact, 450 Perception, 444 Focus, 540 Fantasy. I blinked at that. Fantasy wasn't what I'd have expected for something like this, but Perception and Focus both made sense. Actually now that I considered it Fantasy did too, given the way the Fate Sense worked, Fantasy clearly had a sensory component too. Given that it didn't mention requiring compensation I supposed the payment was enough too.

    "I can do it." I said slowly. "But are you sure? Wishes scale in difficulty, and not just to grant. Beginner Skills are EXTREMELY painful to receive. I'm not saying you can't survive it or something like that, but it's going to be agonizing. You sure you don't want to wish for a lower level of this Skill and work your way up?" I knew it was unfair to Jessie to worry like that, but I couldn't help it. Callie was tough as nails, and despite that she'd been devastated by receiving her Beginner Shadow Manipulation Mastery Skill.

    Jessie just stared at me, eyes hard and stance firm. I sighed and nodded. "Alright. Go get Randall. Having him here for this will be necessary. He should be waiting outside for the trip right?" She nodded and lit up, racing off to go fetch her companion. Truth be told I didn't need him here. I could have granted the wish without him. But if he was here I was pretty sure he could take some of the pain, plus he actually did need to give permission at least, since he'd be getting a Skill too.

    It also occurred to me that this was the first time someone had wished for a paired Skill, and she'd paid for it all by herself. No wonder the damn Skill had been so expensive. I also knew that Beginner Skills from my wish power gave a better foundation for advancement. Even if Intermediate Skills weren't really viable to wish for without fucking up your advancement, it meant that my teammates could still wish got Beginner versions of new Skills they wanted to acquire later in our journey.

    When she came back with the bear I led them both off to the side where the four wouldn't see me granting this wish. A big electrified giant bear was bound to be eye catching. Once we got there Jessie explained what was going to happen, using her vital energy to convey the messages more easily. Randall didn't mind, and actually seemed excited, despite being warned of the pain.

    I briefly considered Jessie's lifeweaver ability, and how consistent infusion of life energy could alter an animal. I wondered how this bond would work out for them? Regardless I'd been paid and the excuses were out of the way. As I let the electricity build across my skin, I reached out and placed a hand on both Jessie and Randall, closing my eyes as I allowed the wish to wash over them both, infusing the Skill into their brains. As they choked back screams I winced, but forced myself to persevere. This would definitely make them both much safer in Doomtown.
     
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  11. Threadmarks: chapter 316
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    With one wish remaining for the day, I was still feeling pretty secure as we headed back down to Doomtown. "So." Said Benny as we walked. "Tell me about this place? What did you all do for the last week? I hope this wasn't some excuse for a second vacation, because if I was training my ass off while you were lounging on a beach somewhere I'm going to be pretty pissed."

    I cracked up at the beach remark, because we'd gone to the beach twice, and could have died both times. "Yes to the beach no to the lounging. We spent most of the time down here either fighting or doing crazy training exercises that would have probably killed anyone else. Still, we've gotten a lot stronger. You'll see when we take part in the tournament. Speaking of stronger, Agria, how you doing over there?" I shouted over to Jessie, who was seated on Randall's back, swaying slightly as he walked.

    She shook her head hard, noticing us seemingly for the first time. "Huh? Oh, sorry...this is...intense. I felt some level of connection with my ravens during the scavenger hunt, but this feels like...more. I feel stronger now, or at least able to draw on more strength. I think my Might will increase over time. Plus my life energy is pouring through the link. It feels like Randall is constantly being infused and growing too, though VERY slowly."

    I'd considered that possibility, but she made it sound a bit more impressive than I expected. Having a way to get stronger like that was amazing. "You think he'll get to E-rank eventually?" That would be way more impressive than I had expected from that kind of Skill. It was only at the Beginner level, and being able to make her companion rank up like that would be HUGE.

    Jessie just giggled. "Gods no. At least not anytime soon. There's a huge gap between ranks. Randall's Vitality will slowly rise over time, but unless I break through to F-rank and rank up the Bond there's no way it'll get that far. Still, the effects will get more impressive as I get stronger. This is amazing, it'll definitely cover for my specializing in healing."

    "How is it so strong? Gradual growth without training is crazy." I couldn't hide the shock and slight envy in my voice. She'd gotten insanely lucky. "I mean, I'm glad you're getting so much out of it, but still, I can't believe a beginner Skill gives so much benefit."

    She just laughed again. "It's resonance between the Bond and my ability. They're extremely compatible. I could probably synergize them at my next rank up if I wanted, but I'm staying focused on healing personally. Randall will handle the attack and defense stuff. Plus it's less impressive than it sounds. Randall will grow VERY slowly, probably slower than he would with just regular exposure to people, and my Might won't ever get higher than his, and probably won't even catch up."

    Knowing there were limits helped a bit, but still, Jessie was going to benefit from this a ton. Her lifeweaver ability really gave her a ton of utility. It was shockingly powerful for our rank. I know if her Vitality hadn't been so overwhelmingly high for her rank she never would have gotten such an overpowered ability, but it was still staggering. I was sure someone had studied what combinations of Skills and stats unlocked what, but I doubted anyone had managed to synergize Jessie's exact Skills with such a high percentage of Vitality.

    It made some sense that it would be so strong though. The combined effects of her having frightening amounts of Vitality to fuel it and the fact that the ability was almost exclusively based on that one stat harmonized to create a limited but monstrous power. With Randall to cover for her one weakness in the form of low battle potential, there was no telling how far Jessie could go, especially with me here to keep funneling Vitality points to her. If she wanted to resurrect her brother, I suspected she was definitely headed in the right direction.

    Benny, meanwhile, looked exasperated. "I should have waited before I wished for my ability. Oh well, doesn't matter. With my Inventing at Intermediate I can begin to slowly steer the basic direction I want my created objects to have. Not by much, but I can at least decide on a general vibe. I might not have Agria's overpowered ability, but my own is only limited by the fantastic items I can make. I won't let the rest of you leave me in the dust."

    Personally I was pretty sure that strengthening his soul was going to be far more important than the raw stats Jessie might be accruing, but he'd figure that out on his own eventually. I'd seen huge dividends from my soul strengthening over time, and definitely planned to get a belt like that if I could find one. It would be insanely useful for me, even if not quite as useful as it was for Benny.

    I didn't know how not integrating it like he did would alter the effects, but I suspected it would definitely do so. We kept talking like that as we walked, discussing how they might improve, how we had already improved, and where we might go as a group in the future. The Moonsong Glade was going to be a huge opportunity for all of us, especially Jessie, considering some of the animals we were bound to come across there.

    Randall being her bonded companion didn't mean she couldn't still tame beasts. Lily was still trailing behind her mistress, and Rolf was playing with Rellia and Jin as we walked. The wolves had been incredibly happy to see each other, though not as happy as they'd been to see Jessie, with her magical life force infusing ear scritches. It was sweet to see all the puppies playing together.

    In general I was just happy to have the team back together. I loved spending time alone with Callie, but being in combat and going on adventures without the whole gang just felt kind of wrong. Being down here with everyone was much more fun. Sadly we had to stop talking about the Bond pretty quickly, since Sloane came over to chat with Jessie. Honestly my Stealth Skill got a ton of work when I discussed almost anything, given how many secrets I had. I had to constantly be sure not to be overheard.

    Still, Sloane was just excited to see Jessie. The two of them trained together pretty often in the Beast Lord Garden, especially while Callie and I had been doing our months of training with Abel and Mel. They were pretty close, and Sloane was almost as excited to see our blonde teammate as we were.

    We headed back to the Blue Robin when we reached Doomtown. We hadn't actually checked out, just missed a night sleeping there, so we were able to keep our rooms easily enough, and Sydney, Megan, Wren, and Vector were all there when we arrived to say hello. Wren was the firs to notice us as we came into the main room. "Hey, they you are! Didn't see you all yesterday. Looks like you picked up some strays."

    I shrugged. "They followed us home. We were going to tell them to beat it but she has a giant bear, which is pretty cool so we figured we'd be nice." Benny rolled his eyes and smacked me upside the back of the head, not that I even felt it through my hood. I plopped down at the table with them, gesturing for the others to pull up some chairs. "So, where's Lament? She and Master Saiten getting ready for the big auction?"

    Wren snorted. "They're meeting with Falken, he finally showed up. We've been waiting for that lazy moron for months now. He's almost as strong as Lament though, so he does what he wants, which admittedly is usually sleep. As for Master Saiten, sadly he can't come. The local forces made an exception for him to come down here and guard Lament out of respect for her status as a Master Candidate, but even that won't convince them to let an E-ranker attend an auction."

    I grimaced, but nodded. I could see it. It would be impossible for that to go fairly. Granted, there would be external factors in any auction, but since everyone in the auction house would be max of low F-rank, Master Saiten could literally do whatever he wanted. Even if he was too honorable to actually do that (which I had no way of confirming) the other people at the auction would take a step back to avoid pissing him off just in case.

    Wren seemed to know what I was thinking. "Yeah, he would compromise the proceedings. Still, he's pretty pissed about having to miss it, and he would probably have forbidden the two of them to go if the others attending wouldn't be incapable of harming them. Plus neither of them listens particularly well, even to him." He snickered at the older Ascendant's misfortune. "You know how Lament is."

    I'd met Lament for like a total of three hours and yes, I knew how Lament was. I didn't even need to question if she would ignore someone because she felt like it. Jessie, who had been forced to leave Randall outside, held out a hand to Wren. "Hi there, I'm Agria, since Solomon forgot to introduce me. That's Clockword over there. We're members of his team, though not for the tournament itself."

    That startled a laugh out of the big spearman, who took her hand and shook it firmly. "You're the one with the bear? Or was that a joke? Because I would love to see a giant bear. I'm Wren by the way, that's Vector." He nodded to his traveling companion.

    "I do have a giant bear!" Jessie chirped excitedly. "His name is Randall! Do you want to meet him?" She turned her head to Vector. "Nice to meet you by the way. You two as well." The last was aimed at Megan and Sydney, and the two rabbit eared girls smiled back at her warmly.

    They'd been staying out of our banter, but after being addressed directly, Megan spoke up. "You too. And I'm with big and stabby over there, I'd love to meet a giant bear." She tapped her sister in the ribs with her elbow. "How about you Syd? You've always been a big fan of animals. Want to meet a giant teddy?"

    Sydney blushed at the obvious dig at her being childish, but she didn't say no, which got a laugh from all of us. Callie rolled her eyes at me. "See what you do? We're back ten minutes and you're introducing our secret weapons to the competition." Despite the criticism, her teasing tone made it clear she didn't really care. Jessie wasn't in the tournament anyway, so it hardly mattered.

    Chatting happily, we all got up to head outside to let the others see Randall. The Blue Robin had a stable for mounts. They weren't incredibly common, but beast tamers DID show up in the WCP from time to time and some of them rode on their beasts. Plus, they could repurpose the place for other uses when there was no one in it, so it wasn't really a waste. It turned out that the stable was actually underground, which explained why I hadn't seen it when we arrived.

    Everyone fussed over Randall, who seemed much more docile after bonding, though he still had that same imperious air to him. As we all talked about the upcoming auction, I considered again what might be coming. I still had a bad feeling about Mordaunt, who had invited us, but Callie had taken my worries seriously and we had four F-rankers who could probably fight twice their number, not to mention Abel, and probably Lament. Whatever would happen tomorrow, I was confident we could handle it. All I could do now was enjoy a day of peace with my friends.
     
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  12. Threadmarks: chapter 317
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    The rest of the day passed quickly, and at the end of the night I gave my last wish to one of the Beast Lord Initiates. I got three points of Might, bringing me to an even one hundred sixty. With that out of the way we set out to meet with the others to attend the auction. Lament was coming, along with her partner Falken, Sydney and Megan were bringing Riley and the rest of their people, and we had the four with us, along with Abel, Mel, Sloane, Beric, Croll, and the wolves. Even Randall was able to come, since apparently the auction house was fucking huge.

    While all the other buildings were small and squat, the auction house was a towering structure of black stone, even on the outside. Looking up at the massive facade of the building, with its dark stone columns and a pair of black stone lions perched out front, it was hard not to be impressed. I had to keep pushing my definition of impressive up a notch every time I saw something new down here.

    Lament met us out front, and standing next to her was a tired looking guy with messy dark hair and brown eyes with dark circles around them. He looked pale and kind of thin, but not in an unhealthy way, more in the way of someone who never goes out or does anything. He had a spear with him that he was leaning against like a staff, and his eyes were lidded like he was about to fall asleep. I could see what Wren meant about him usually being asleep, I got the impression that he was a lazy person just from being around him.

    Mordaunt appeared beside us, Rahm at her heels, so quickly I almost didn't notice that she hadn't been there all along. "You're here!" She said with a wide smile. "Oh good, I was worried my guests wouldn't show up and that I would end up looking stupid. Wasn't I Rahm?" The massive bandaged man didn't respond in any appreciable way, but Mordaunt nodded like he had. "Oh, and you brought more friends? Oh well, the more the merrier."

    That set off alarm bells. I'd been pretty sure that this was a trap before, but that made me positive. Callie had explained to me when I told her my suspicions that an easy test would be bringing more people. Mordaunt had mentioned spots for the auction, and we'd clearly gone over what she'd implied she was allotted. The fact that she didn't even blink at that made it clear the slots had just been an excuse.

    I could have gotten the others in anyway, I was pretty sure, given my ties to the WCP, but this had been a good test. Now we knew for sure she was up to something, and to be on guard. Luckily, the four came with us, and they would most likely be a huge asset in any fight. Maybe not quite as much as Abel, but then again, maybe they would be since there were four of them. Shooting Callie a look we followed Mordaunt as she led us in.

    The inside of the place was even bigger, of course, and I was impressed by how fancy it was. Wall to wall black marble, with luxurious thick rugs and several large marble counters, behind which sat people in black and gold clothing that looked way nicer than pretty much anything else in Doomtown. "So." I said as I saw the workers. "How exactly is this place not constantly robbed? Because this looks like the kind of place someone would break into and steal everything tat isn't nailed down. And then steal the nails. Especially in a lawless shithole like a dark district."

    Granted we were near the Robin, and I knew this part of town was nicer and safer, but still, this whole thing seemed to rely on a preponderance of force. Abel, of course, answered with a chuckle. "Because the WCP says not to. Don't forget where we are. This entire lawless area exists at the sufferance of the WCP leadership. If the bosses decided to clean this out they could do it in an instant. The E-rankers have enough power to raze this whole district. It's happened before. Places like this are declared neutral areas and people listen, because they don't want to die."

    That...hadn't occurred to me. I still had trouble viewing the WCP in the way that he was talking about. But it made sense. They were a powerful and terrifying organization, not just at a local level, but in general. The fact that they were strong enough to force the Unity to allow them to have a presence like this in the Conglomerate, when he was a literal god and this was his territory, was evidence enough of that.

    My mentor stopped talking as he noticed someone off to one side, and his eyes narrowed as I saw him tense up. I was shocked to see that, he wasn't the type to be worried about other people, especially not down here, but as his eyes focused on a tall, tanned man in worn clothing with a thick beard, his body seemed to shift unconsciously into a defensive stance. "Shit." He said heatedly. "Helix is here."

    Helix was an Ascendant Owen had mentioned, one of the old Titan Twenty from Abel's day who got lost in one of Mad Madigan's mazes and had gone slightly crazy. I remembered that clearly because Abel had described him as 'scary', which wasn't a description I'd heard him use for many things. Megan cleared her throat. "Slime hall is in attendance too." Said the Wave Warren ringer, with a grimace.

    One by one, powerful people were noted. Some local, some not, some we'd heard of, some we hadn't. Rayka Vale, another of Abel and Mel's old competitors, Dread's daughter, an early F-ranker named Abomina, and the child of Screaming Stevie who called himself the Wailing Win. As well as a few people we knew like Cold Snap and Macgregor. The place gradually filled with powerful Ascendants, and the combined weight of their Impact gave it a strange and worrying feel.

    One of the workers, a man in a black and gold suit, stepped out from behind a counter. "Ladies and Gentlemen. We will begin the auction in a few hours, once all the parties have arrived. Feel free to chat amongst yourselves, out here, or in the main auction room. There's also a side area where you may sell some of your less exotic wares to raise funds for the main event, should you feel it worthwhile. Please remember that the Walking Silence Auction is a peaceful affair, and any attempts to disrupt it will be met with harsh reprisals."

    No one looked even remotely interested in trying anything like that, given the people guaranteeing the safety of this place. You'd need to be a member of the five faction alliance to be willing to mess with the WCP and none of them had a reason to try. Not for something this small and out of the way. As he finished talking, he retreated behind the counter again, letting everyone mingle.

    Which is how we were approached by someone I hadn't expected to see. Fisher, who had actually rode his motorcycle into the auction house (which I guess was fair since Jessie had ridden a bear) rolled up to us. "You." He said faintly. "Members of the Academy. Wasn't expecting to see any others at this thing. We aren't exactly at the right level. Most of the Unity members here are the children of E-rankers."

    He didn't say it like an accusation, or like he even cared that much. Just like a statement of fact, like he was telling us what the weather was like. Despite being fairly scary for a G-ranker, he struck me as kind of dull in some ways. Callie, ever the politician, smiled and held out a hand. "We remember you too. I'm Nightstrike. This is Agria, Clockwork, and my boyfriend Solomon. It's nice to see a classmate here. Will you be taking place in the tournament?"

    Because he seemed a LOT stronger than he had during the scavenger hunt. It was frankly worrying how quickly he'd managed to advance. Though to be fair, he did have a hundred points of elixir potential to use, so that probably helped. He gave a single sharp nod as an answer, and I had to fight a smile, this guy was not talkative. Seeming to have gotten what he wanted, he stared at us for a few seconds, then turned around and rode off without another word.

    "Cool bike." Said Abel conversationally. "Weird kid. But cool bike. So you guys want to go and check out the market before the auction. I know we had certain things we needed to buy, but there are a few odds and ends we could probably pick up there. If nothing else, Clockwork may be able to find some more powerful items to use as materials." He sounded...guarded. In a way I hadn't ever heard from him before.

    Still, it was a good idea, so we agreed, and headed off to the side section where the suited man had pointed us all when announcing things. We could see people setting up tables and stalls. Some with furniture supplied by the auction and some they seemed to have brought with them. I saw Mordaunt slip away, and resisted the urge to follow her. It was better to stay in a group, and trailing the Darkling Institute member en masse would draw attention I didn't want or need.

    We looked around for a while, and didn't see too much. I managed to find an honest to gods space ring, but I couldn't justify buying it because it would have cost a chunk of our funds for this whole trip. Though I did manage to get a physically larger and much less spacious spatial belt pouch for the three F-ranked chits we had outside the auction funds. I suspected it would be well worth it when we got to the Moonsong Glade.

    Other than that, we mostly just looked around, taking note of who was doing the best business and how much they were making, so we could see who we would be betting against. The whole affair had a feeling of tense unease to it. Nothing overt, everyone tried to play relaxed, but there was discomfort and worry bubbling under the surface. The puppies were the only ones who seemed not to care about the tension, with Jin and Rolf playing tag around the tables.

    Surprisingly, Celine even showed up, though rather than Martin and Sarah, she had a dangerous looking elf in leather armor at her side, a female F-ranker with purple hair and intense glacial blue eyes she introduced as Shana. They joined up with the group, with Shana shooting suspicious looks at the four and at Abel, obviously competent enough to tell that they were threats.

    Finally, after a few hours, the man in the suit stepped back out, clearing his throat. "Attention! May I have your attention!" Everyone turned to look at him. "It is now time for the auction to begin. We expect everyone to take their seats in an orderly fashion. Once all the guests have been seated, we will begin the proceedings. Thank you." He turned and headed into the large room full of seats where the auction would be taking place.

    We all followed, slowly and deliberately, but trying our best to seem at ease. Despite that, I felt my stomach clench. I didn't see Mordaunt anywhere. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I suspected I wouldn't like it. At the very least I hoped we could get through the auction first. Once that was done we could worry about the rest of this. The question was, what WAS the rest of this? What could she do in a place like this? And why was I so worried, despite knowing how safe we should be?
     
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  13. Threadmarks: chapter 318
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    The man in the suit, whose name we still hadn't been told, headed up onto the stage to wait patiently while everyone got seated. Once we finished doing that, he cleared his throat, his voice somehow covering the entire room without going above a normal speaking tone. It cut through all the chatter, silencing everyone still talking. With a wide smile, the man said. "Welcome, to the Walking Silence Auction! I am your host and auctioneer, Selwyn Carridan."

    He gestured to one side, as a pair of heavy set men in black and gold carried out a chest, setting it on a pedestal that had just risen from the stage. "Tonight, you will see many items. Some will be amazing, some macabre, some simply strange. Please remember to keep your seats, as well as your wits about you. And remember that the protection the auction house affords buyers will last until you leave this district, or for three hours after the auction. Whichever comes first. Past that point, the fate of your purchases lies only on your own shoulders."

    That was actually much kinder than I had expected from the WCP. Then again, their reputation for business had always been sterling. "Now." Said Selwyn, moving on. "I will begin the auction with something enticing, but perhaps not nearly so intriguing as some of you may hope." He snapped his fingers, and the chest fell open, revealing a single, blue metal glove.

    It was easy to feel that the glove was G-ranked, and on the higher end of that scale. "This." Said the auctioneer. "Is our first item up for bid. The hand of a frost knight. A powerful but slow acting chill pervades this gauntlet. It isn't much use in combat, but is, happily enough, a perfect seal or container for powerful flame based materials. providing excellent restraint to such energies when the artifact is wrapped in the fist."

    He reached over and picked it up, slipping his hand into it, and snapped the other one. One of the heavyset men stepped up and pulled out a bag, dumping a black and red stone that looked like a hot coal into his hand. The stone, to my shock, was actually F-ranked, but when he closed his hand around it, there was only a long, low hiss as steam wafted up, before even that faded. All traces of the F-ranked stone vanished, and all I could see was a closed blue fist.

    "We begin the bidding at one F-ranked chit. Proceed." He waved a hand and a dozen people began to bid, clearly finding some use for the thing.

    To my shock, I saw Cark stand up. Sage next to him. "Five F-ranked chits!" Apparently Burning Fist was bankrolling this trip, because I knew for a fact that was already nearing the limit of Cark's savings, and he seemed at ease to keep going. With H-rank chits being the primary currency standard here, each F-rank chit was the equivalent of a hundred. For someone at Cark's level (or ours honestly) it would have taken ages to gather that up in Rajak proper.

    People started bidding in earnest, but Cark didn't back down, and eventually won the gauntlet for four E-ranked chits. I blanched a bit. I wasn't sure we were going to have enough to afford any of the things we wanted. Callie shot me a worried look. At the very least, we had a chance. It was clear Cark had some important use for that thing, but a blank Skill Crystal at G-rank should be much less pressing, though many more people would want it. We could only hope that it came later on the program when people had wasted more of their money.

    I wanted to go over and talk to Cark, but we were all stuck sitting down until the halfway point on the program. I leaned in to whisper to Callie, using my Stealth Skill to erase the sound so no one eavesdropped. "Do you know what they wanted that thing for? I assume it was some item and Inventor made, but Cark seemed pretty focused on it. Do they have some kind of artifact to suppress?"

    She just shrugged. "No idea. Probably though. Maybe something with a backlash? Anyway, the money they're spending is insane. I hope that hasn't set the standard for pricing. It's still so early." I reached out to take her hand in mine and squeeze. I felt the same. I didn't think so though. They'd bid a ton because they'd needed that for something. No one was going to overpay for an item they didn't need because someone else had bought something pricey earlier.

    I was vindicated in that assumption about twenty minutes later when the next item sold, a gourd that could apparently refine and concentrate poison. There were a fair few bids, especially from Slime Hall, but in the end the thing sold for two F-ranked chits. The starting point seemed much more important to the final price than what had gone before, and we were relieved.

    After the gourd was a pair of bracers that could create powerful shields, and an arm in a box that made me extremely wary to look at. The arm was, as far as I could tell, F-ranked, but it had some sort of additional aspect that made it scary, because I'd seen F-rankers before but never gotten that particular vibe. The bracers sold for eight F-rank chits and the arm for a whopping five E-ranked chits to someone I was positive was from a necromantic force, though possibly not the Darkling Institute.

    When the next item was brought out, it seemed to stir up quite a bit of interest. The small black box was woven of metal and densely enchanted, and when Selwyn opened it, every person in the auction hall went silent. "Now this." aid Selwyn gleefully. "Is one of the most valuable items we have available. A runic core. Made from a specially treated naturally forming ice rune. By ingesting the core, you can mutate your natural ability to contain an ice attribute. Much like that gauntlet, this was donated by our friends at Final Frost Heaven."

    Sydney and Megan both flinched at the name, and I leaned over to ask as the bidding started. None of my crew needed ice powers, besides which the bidding had started at an E-ranked chit, so we had no fucking possibility of getting it. "Who or what is Final Frost Heaven?" They sounded kind of scary, and if they had someone here we'd have to fight I wanted to know more about them.

    Megan looked around warily. "C-rank force. Not just one C-ranker either. They have six Frost Lords, all in the C-rank. They're one of the top forces in the system, and even at the cluster level they aren't pushovers. There's no way at least one of their competitors isn't a Master Candidate. I hope I don't run into them in the tournament. We don't have any counters for things like that."

    I tried to imagine how powerful someone would have to be for that kind of reaction, but couldn't really place it. They were clearly on a level I couldn't even hope to see on Callus. Still, people were excited about the runic core. I could understand why too. If I had a normal ability I might have been tempted. I doubted 'ice wishes' would be useful though. And even if they were I didn't want to risk losing my three times modifier by changing my power.

    Callie probably could have benefited a lot from the core, but I didn't have nearly enough to compete for it. Which was why I couldn't fight back a grin as one of the four placidly big eight E-ranked chits for the thing. Apparently Alexander was looking out for his niece even when he wasn't around. He must have given them a decent nest egg.

    The bidding kept increasing, but despite passing ten E-ranked chits they didn't jump to D-ranked. Abel had mentioned D-ranked chits were qualitatively different, much like D-ranked people, and said there probably wasn't even one on the whole planet. I was curious if it was closer to a one hundred or even one thousand to one ratio for those, and resolved to ask.

    The core didn't go to the four, sadly, they ran out of money. It sold for eighty E-ranked chits, an absolutely monstrous amount of money, to someone from the Twilight Order. "Alright my friends." Said Selwyn. "This last lot marks the halfway point of the auction, and its conclusion will see us enter a brief intermission where you might move around and speak to other participants."

    Everyone seemed pretty happy about that, but Selwyn paid them no mind. "Now." He said, raising his voice. "May I introduce our next item for bid. A summoning whistle, capable of calling an F-ranked Nether Butterfly that can be ridden by the summoner!" He flipped open the box to reveal an intricate purple crystal whistle, sitting delicately on a black silk bed and nearly glowing in the soft light of the auction hall.

    A hush fell across the crowd because of the item, and I couldn't help but stare myself. This thing was definitely F-ranked, and high in the F-ranks too. I wondered how the hell it even worked. Was there a spatial enchantment on it that brought the mount from somewhere else? Did it create the thing through Fantasy? Did they somehow store it inside the whistle? However it functioned it was apparently just as interesting to everyone else as it was to me, because not a single person could take their eyes off of it.

    Not that it mattered. "We begin the auction." He said quietly. "At a dozen E-ranked chits." Before he even finished talking there was an offer for fifteen, then another for twenty. The number passed a hundred quickly enough, and to my shock became D-ranked chits. I guess that answered that question. I could only assume chits at the Master level had some other requirement making them harder to make since they were a hundred to one instead of ten.

    Sure enough, just like Abel said, none of the local forces were able to place a bet once it passed that point. Slime Hall, Spear Legion, the Twilight Order, they all offered multiple D-ranked chits before the thing finally sold at a price of twelve. Which was more money than I had ever seen in my entire life so far. Considering how much effort it took us to scrape together a single E-ranked chit, I could only hope a blank Skill Crystal would be too small potatoes for these monsters to bid on or we might not get anything.

    At least the four were still here and willing to bid for Callie. It seemed like Alexander had given them a tidy sum. As the winner of the whistle, Final Frost Heaven, sent a low F-ranker up to retrieve the whistle, we got up and rushed over to talk to Cark. He saw us coming and grinned, waving us over. "Hey guys." He said as we got within range. "Fancy meeting you here. Didn't realize you were coming to this thing."

    "Yeah." I said guiltily. "Guess we didn't actually check in during our little trip. We could have co-ordinated or something. Seems like you're doing ok though. Congrats on your...cold glove." I said that last bit with a slightly teasing tone, and he just rolled his eyes.

    "Oh bite me. I have my uses for it. It's good to see you guys though. Cass has been missing you like crazy, especially Agria and the wolves. She spends time with Zeke, but he isn't exactly the most social person." We joked around for a minute, and I let myself relax a bit as I considered that I might have been silly about this whole thing. There was nothing to worry about. This auction had gone perfectly fine...until I realized something. The Darkling Institute hadn't placed a single bid. Not even on the arm. Where the hell were they? They were supposed to be heavily involved in this auction. Which was, of course, when the lights went out. And the screaming started.
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2023
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  14. Threadmarks: chapter 319
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    The first thing that went through my head as I tried to catch sight of ANYTHING in the darkness around us was 'why are there no WINDOWS in this building?' It was pitch black in the auction house, and not even my Perception was helping. Which...on second thought, seemed wrong. How was it possible nothing in here was giving off the slightest bit of light? Considering how much random Ascendant shit tended to glow, there was no feasible way someone managed to shut off ALL the lights through normal means.

    Which meant someone had used abnormal means. Probably some kind of darkness artifact or ability. "Everybody SHUT UP!" Bellowed a powerful voice. Specifically, a powerful voice nearby. Abel. Shockingly, everyone did. "Alright, now, I am almost positive we are currently under attack. So why doesn't whatever wise-ass did this speak up and turn the damn lights back on, since you probably have us all surrounded at this point anyway."

    There was a soft click, which took me a second to place as someone clicking their tongue, before the lights came back on to reveal...corpses. Kind of. Some of them were pure meat, some had metal parts, and interspersed in between them were figures in dark clothes holding wicked looking weapons. From among the corpses stepped, of course, Mordaunt. "Did you have to ruin my fun?" She pouted. "I was enjoying the panic. Oh well, pleasure is over, time for business I suppose. Oh, Solomon?" She singsonged, eyes scanning over the crowd. "Where are you?"

    Apparently she'd momentarily lost track of me when I moved to talk to Cark. I don't know why that made me feel better, but it really did. When her eyes landed on me her smug grin got even wider. "There you are!" Without looking away, she turned her head slightly and called out. "I found him your excellency." As she spoke, she stepped obsequiously to the side, sweeping it a wide bow as literally the smarmiest looking human being I had ever seen stepped out of the crowd.

    I'd seen people with faces I'd wanted to punch before. In fact, it was becoming increasingly common as I got higher up the ranks. This guy though, this guy took obnoxious to an almost conceptual level. Just standing there I wanted to punch him. I wouldn't have been shocked if he was a Master Candidate in the Pissing People Off Skill. When his amethyst eyes stopped on me, his thin lips quirked into a sneer and I realized that somehow, the effect got WORSE.

    The pale, almost emaciated teenager with the greasy black hair strode out among the corpses with the air of someone who was positive he was better than everyone in the room. When he got clear of the crowd completely, he stopped about halfway to me. "Well." He said in oily voice. "If it isn't the little pissant who killed one of my heartrippers."

    I froze. That was...actually not bad. If he was here about that, he didn't know about my mom. Apparently Aiden really had died before reporting in. Still, he said MY heartrippers, which meant not only was this guy from the Black Sorrow Cult, he was high up in their pecking order. I wasn't sure if the cult had some kind of royal family, but I suspected there were descendants of Black Sorrow herself among the upper echelons, with an inherited ability every bit as broken as mine. I just really hoped this guy wasn't one of those.

    On the upside, if he had been I doubted he would be here. As far as I knew the Cult wasn't like the WCP, which dispersed its upper echelon kids to grind up their power on their own. The five factions were much more insular, and chances were good any real descendant of Black Sorrow with the corresponding power wouldn't touch a shitty backwater like Callus with a ten million foot pole.

    Still, judging by how cocky this guy was he was probably someone important, and I wasn't thrilled at having to deal with him. Which didn't affect how I responded at all. "Nah, that guy isn't here. I heard he went home to hide in his shower because he heard you were coming. I assume based on how greasy your hair is that you don't know what one of those looks like?"

    The smarmy dick's mouth fell open, and his teeth clicked shut as he growled. "Peasant, what did you just say to me?" He was thankfully only G-ranked, so I wasn't too worried about him crushing me, but then again, I'd already seen proof that there were many different levels of G-ranker. It was probably better to shut up at this point.

    My mouth, unfortunately, did not get that memo. "Oh, I'm sorry, are your ears clogged with grease? I said you look like an oily dirtball who never bathes. Is your ability some kind of filth embodiment? Maybe you wrap yourself in a protective layer of grime? Or are you just trying to make yourself so disgusting your enemies won't hit you?"

    Smarmy started laughing, but based on his eyes he wasn't amused, he was so fucking furious he didn't know how to process it. "Wow, so some jumped up little space peasant thinks he talk down to me? Do you know who I am boy?" I could see his hands clenching and unclenching, but he didn't actually attack. He probably suspected I was baiting him into launching an attack on me so I could counted. Joke was on him, I didn't have a plan. I just really didn't like him and wanted to piss him off.

    On the upside, I was now ninety percent sure he wasn't a descendant of a god. There was no way anyone with a power on the level of mine that wasn't support based would have hesitated to attack me. Still, that left plenty of room for other inherited powers. There was no way a force on the level of the Black Sorrow Cult didn't have more than a few S-rankers, and probably not just those that were descended from their goddess.

    "Let me guess." I said scathingly. "Your mommy or daddy told you that you were a very special boy, way more special than all the other kids." I wasn't scared of anyone who wasn't another member of a god clan, or possibly one of those freaks able to reach mastery at G-rank. Considering I'd have been swatted like a fly if that had been the case there was no reason to worry, army or not.

    The sneer got more pronounced. "My name." He said with derision. "Is Pietro Verralan. My father is Sellfren Verralan, a High Priest of the Black Sorrow Cult."I blinked. That actually was kind of impressive. If the Cult used the same Job rankings as the church that meant his dad was a D-ranker, and had already accomplished Mastery, possibly even Grandmastery.

    I still shrugged. My parents was A-rankers, and my Uncle was at B-rank. Not to mention my S-ranked Grandpa, and my ancestor the god. If we were having a 'whose family members are scariest' competition I was going to win. It also made me aware that this guy definitely didn't know who I was, or he wouldn't have bothered with the flex. "So, what, you found out I killed Aiden and decided to come to this backwater to kill me?"

    Pietro laughed derisively (I'm not entirely sure he could do things any other way, he seemed just be naturally dickish). "Fool. I came for the tournament. I'm simply taking care of some business while I'm here. If you're waiting for reinforcements by the way, don't. My own entourage of E-rankers are holding back the others, and all these corpses are G-ranked, just to prevent the detection enchantments from picking them up."

    "You...you're doing all this because I killed some random ass cult member? That's insane. You're declaring war on the WCP, literally invading sovereign territory. You'll drag the whole Cult into it." There was no way anyone was actually this petty.

    "Hardly." He said with a snort. "As long as things don't escalate beyond the level of this planet the Unity and the Wish Curse Palace won't make trouble. These kinds of squabbles on a D-ranked planet are far beneath the notice of the true powers of the universe. At worst the Unity will demand I kill some of the E-rankers who participated, and they're expendable anyway."

    I suspected he was underestimating how much he was biting off, but I had zero hope of convincing him of that. At least he hadn't brought any F-rankers. Or many of them. I could only assume whatever means the WCP had of detecting them was too nebulous for him to be sure he wouldn't trip the security. Oh well, I slid out my cane, spinning up between my fingers as I imbued it with poisonfire.

    "I'll teach you that the Black Sorrow Cult's prestige is not to be challenged." Pietro grinned, his eyes beginning to fill with black mist. The others got into place. I was annoyed. This asshole just stumbled on me by accident, and I was probably going to end up having to kill him. If the Cult wasn't after me hard before they would be this time, and all because some smarmy stuck up prick wanted to get bragging rights while he was out on a trip.

    Despite his old man only being D-rank, he might still have an inherited ability from an S-rank grandpa or something. No one would be this cocky based on nothing but rep. Still, D-ranker or not, I had the protection of the WCP when it came to anyone E-rank or above. At G-rank I was confident not even these weird science experiments could stop Callie and I so what was there to be afraid of.

    It was weird that I was so easily considering killing this guy though. I'd killed people before of course, but it had been a hard thing to come to terms with. I wasn't some bloodthirsty psycho who just murdered anyone who pissed me off. It took me a bit to pin down why the idea didn't bother me, but I finally landed on the fact that this guy was an embodiment of the Black Sorrow Cult itself to me. I'd seen them do terrible things to people for no reason. Sacrifice innocents for power just because, and I'd subconsciously started to hate them for it.

    You could tell me that cultivation was brutal, that people trying to gain power was normal, that recursion was partly to blame, but I didnt care about any of that. I didn't even care that I was trying to be more heroic. I just hated them. Maybe not all of them, there were trillions of people in the Cult. But this guy personified the worst traits of that place, and thinking back to poor little Cass, who was still recovering from the things they did to her head, I wanted him to die.

    I looked over at Callie. "I want to kill him." I didn't mince words or beat around the Bush. I just came out and said it. She would agree or not, and if she didn't I'd let it go. She was the leader, and her morality was more developed than mine anyway. I wasn't willing to fuck up my relationship for this idiot no matter how much of an asshole he was.

    To my surprise though, she just grinned. "Better get to work then." She looked at Abel and Lament. "He has a pair of early F-rank guards with him. Can the two of you take them on?" That wasn't a shock. Since his old man doted on him enough to arrange for him to cross to another star cluster to fight for a chance to get into this dungeon he was probably under serious protection. Not just F-rankers, the E-rankers he mentioned were probably his guards too. Luckily we didn't have to deal with them. Sure enough, two guys stepped out from behind him, emerging from the crowd. F-rank. Callie had noticed then before I had. Her Perception was better. Scary or not, I had to admit. This was definitely going to be an exciting fight.
     
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  15. Threadmarks: chapter 320
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    I'd expected anger when I announced that I wanted to kill Pietro, but oddly, he just seemed...shocked. "You...you dare?" It was like the idea that I was willing to kill him was some kind of alien concept to him. I was suddenly really glad my old man had sent me off to grow up a normal person instead of raising me in the clan. This was obviously what happened when you gave someone an unlimited amount of leeway and protection.

    "Yeah." I said bluntly. "I literally just said that." I looked around at all the people attending the auction. "Anyone else down for a battle? I somehow doubt that Petey here is going to let everyone spectate from the side. Might as well join up with our side so you can get some support."

    This was mostly aimed at Macgregor and the other outsiders, they were the ones who would most likely make the most difference. Sydney and Megan both looked ready to fight, as did the Spear Legion group, so that was hardly an issue. The four wouldn't let Callie be hurt, but if we could get support from the other factions like Slime Hall and the Twilight Order we could ensure we could come out of this ahead, even if we had to bleed for it.

    Looking closer there were several F-rankers among the enemy. Not corpses, since they had to bring those in all at once and didn't want trip the restrictions, but a few people who had most likely come as guests to hide themselves among the attendees and wait for this exact moment.

    Glaring around at the others Pietro snapped. "Trash, can your forces even withstand the anger of the Black Sorrow Cult? Don't get involved beyond your means. I could see all of your factions razed to the ground, so just shut up and sit there while I deal with this peasant."

    Mordaunt was looking almost embarrassed to be working with someone this stupid, which was fair because I would be too. The others didn't seem to notice how dumb he was though, because they actually looked worried. Callie spoke up to reassure them. "Friends, there's no need to worry. This is an isolated attack by a moron. If the Black Sorrow Cult could just charge into other peoples territory and slaughter whoever they wanted, they would own the whole universe."

    I nodded. "Honestly I doubt this is going to be ignored as completely as he thinks it is. I wouldn't be shocked if Petey's daddy ends up having to pay off some kind of price on his head to keep the Unity from hiring professional killers to take him out." Of course, the fact that the Cult were the ones people usually paid for that would probably help. Still Pietro looked flabbergasted at the idea.

    "You all should die!" He roared. "This is unacceptable! To think I would be forced to endure such disrespect. Kill them all!" Well, that solved the whole 'convincing everyone to help' dilemma. Revenant, keeping this idiot alive must be a full time job.

    Regardless, he WAS in charge of the enemy forces, as evidenced by the tide of the bastards that rushed toward us at his howl. Guess the battle was on. Callie appeared at my side without either of us needing to say anything, and we both swept forward to meet the oncoming tide. Despite his arrogance and stupidity, Pietro DID attack himself, though I didn't get to fight him directly as soon as I'd have liked because he wasn't very fast and one of the corpses got there first.

    I decided to test out their defenses, and see what the Darkling Institute could do, so Callie and I engaged with a pair of the things directly. I kind of expected the four to stop us, but they just fanned out nearby, taking care to keep any F-rankers off us as we fought. Probably instruction not to hinder our growth too much.

    The first of the monsters we came up against were strange, but very different from each other. One was short and fat, with orange flesh shot through with lots of metal. The metal bits had spikes on them, and each spike gleamed with a toxic looking green substance. I took that one because my armor had more coverage, while Callie took the tall pale blue one with the beefy frame and the glowing sharp fingernails.

    I noticed as I engaged orangey that these things weren't EXACTLY a combination of science and necromancy. More like zombies with scientific parts added in. Some of them looked more integrated than others, but they struck me as being something more like Benny than anything else. That didn't stop them from being dangerous, and as my poison fire enhanced cane landed on the orange thing, I grimaced at the lack of obvious effect.

    My first blow smashed into the zombie's side, driving it back a few steps, but not actually damaging the orange flesh much. It triggered a berserk charge from the monster, who planted his hands and kicked up his feet in a sort of failed handstand that let him back flop on the ground in my direction. I activated double trouble, appearing behind him and attacking his exposed face as his body passed through my illusionary double.

    Which didn't have as much effect as I'd have liked. I used Mercy Kill on the strike, and even dumped in a triple strength density shifted blow, and while I felt a crack as the facial bones shattered and saw the poison fire seep into the broken flesh, it didn't do much to actually slow the thing down.

    Unfortunately I didn't have time to worry about that as I got a sense of impending danger and rolled to the side as laser nails flashed forward to try and carve me up. As he did orangey rolled to the side in a whirling spin that was much more graceful than I'd expected him to manage and attacked Callie, the two of them seamlessly switching targets...or trying to at least.

    Sadly for them, they were showing off in front of an expert. Callie took the short reprieve as an opportunity to create a few clones, and I grinned under my mask as I felt her slip away as the orange one attacked a clone, only to crash right through it as Callie appeared behind laser nails, condensing a drill of shadows aimed right at its spine as I triggered the triple stack density shift attack combined with a spider leg attack to intercept the things claws.

    The pair of golden spider legs smashed into the wrists of the monster as Callie speared it through the back of the neck, where the brainstem would be. Heart blows weren't much good on undead, so she aimed for the spot where the spine met the brain to do the most damage.

    Laser nails dropped like a rock and we both turned in time for Callie to intercept orangey, who wasn't doing great as his head was slowly consumed by venomous flame. The damage from the initial strike hadn't been much, but over time it was seeping in and seemed to be driving the thing crazy. As it bounced off I triggered a Sucking Mud and a shadow attack, creating the mud tentacles that snagged the rabid monster and started to drag it under.

    With that out of the way, I turned to look for the next target, only to get a feeling of danger just in time to dive out of the way of a bandaged fist that would have easily crushed my skull if it had landed.

    Looking up, I saw Rahm staring down at me coldly, the silent behemoth positioned right next to his mistress. Mordaunt looked annoyed. "Damn. I thought that would get you. You're much more annoying than a G-ranker from a backwater like this should be. Your freak of a teammate I get, he's a Master Candidate, but can you just hurry up and die already so I can get paid?"

    Looking back I saw that fully six of the damn F-rankers had engaged the four, drawing them off and away from us to free us up to attack. The only saving grace was that Pietro appeared to have been waylaid by Megan and Sydney, with Riley playing support as Lament and Abel took on the guards. Mel was showering the corpses with fire, to minimal success, so we were on our own here.

    That was fine. I didn't believe we couldn't beat the Darkling Institute monster maker. She wasn't Lament or Abel. Just a crafter with a scary bodyguard. I climbed to my feet, taking up a spot next to Callie. "Well." I said pleasantly. "That answers the why question. Thanks, that saves me an annoying conversation. Also a lot of wondering after we crush you both."

    Mordaunt snickered. "Confident aren't you. No idea why. Rahm could take you both alone. With me here you have no chance." With a snap of her fingers she materialized a pair of wicked looking black daggers. The metallic potion was straight and thin like a needle, and the hilts were clear glass, full of a sickly glowing green liquid. Along the length of them I could see lines denoting measurements, like they were a pair of really dramatic syringes.

    In the distance, I heard a roar, and then a crash, as Randall the bear came plowing through a wall of corpses and slapped Rahm out of the way like a wrecking ball. Jessie was sitting on his back, with Benny following behind her and carrying a huge hammer that I was pretty sure he had just randomly stolen from one of the auction lots. There was a lot of sickly green blood on the head though, showing that he'd been crushing corpses with it.

    Mordaunt glared as she walked over to kick at Rahm. "Oh get up!" She hissed. "You'll be fine." The man groaned, rising to his feet as some of the bandages fell away from his face, revealing a pale blue visage covered in stitches and traceries of circuits. She reached up to check him over, not in concern, but more like someone checking their car engine to make sure it still works.

    Jessie cheered. "Whoo!" She bellowed. "Did you see that? He just went flying. Bear to the face! Hey clockwork, did you see what Randall just did? You can only crush their heads with that stupid hammer, my big buddy is a corpse killing machine!" I grinned at her. Jessie was a sweet girl, but she could be scary when she considered you an enemy. Zombies and kidnappers weren't people she would worry too much about. Especially zombies. We'd killed tons of undead.

    Benny sighed loudly. "Yes Agria, I know. Still, the thing is pretty useful. F-ranked Mass Impact Hammer. I wonder if they'll let me keep this when we're done? Probably not I guess. Shame. No wonder Beat and Sever were so overpowered. Seriously, using an F-ranked weapon is like playing on easy mode." Despite his cheerful tone, I could see that he seemed to be talking softer than usual. I was guessing the soul weight of an item like that wasn't light, though the belt was probably helping. He was most likely using his triple strength density shifted attack pretty often.

    Mordaunt glared up at them. "Oh what fresh hell is this? Can't a girl commit murder in peace anymore? You know what, FINE." She whistled, and another five or six corpses surrounded us, as well as a single F-ranker who had come from opposite of where the four were holding down the fort. "No more messing around. Every single one of you is going to die if that's what it takes. I'm GETTING paid." Rahm began to unwind his bandages, and as he did, I could feel his power spiking. Not just his power. His conceptual weight. As we watched, the big zombie officially broke through to F-rank. Huh. Well that's one way to hide from detection. I hadn't considered that. This...could be a problem.
     
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  16. Threadmarks: chapter 321
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    It was hard not to panic as the pair of F-rankers rushed us. Rahm was only newly ranked up but he was already clearly powerful. I doubted he could now counter Randall, who was a veteran F-ranked beast, but the other one would probably end up doing the heavy lifting there. Which left engaging with the new F-ranker to me and Callie. There was no way we could leave him to Benny, even with that hammer on hand. He could probably help us out a ton as support, but my best friend was still early in the G-ranks, and there was no way I'd let him engage someone like Rahm head on.

    I didn't even need to gesture to get Callie onboard, our bond made it much easier for us to communicate mid battle. As the other F-ranker, a tall, thin man with blue skin and three red eyes, was attacked by Randall, the two of us flashed forward to launch simultaneous attacks at Rahm. Having just advanced, the big man was still unsteady. I knew how much rank ups took out of you from experience, but he hadn't made a sound during the process.

    Still, as I flicked out a blow at his exposed face, Callie spun out and attacked his ankles with a pair of bladed snowflakes large enough to slide her fingers into the gaps like handholds. Despite not being able to make anything near strong enough to hurt and F-ranker with her shadows, Callie wasn't a rookie. She's honed the edge of those things so sharp that they could cut through G-ranked steel.

    As my blow landed on Rahm's head, hers hit his ankles and shattered, though I saw a small hint of greenish blood ooze from the wound. With that attack opening his defenses we switched, out Paired Dueling and Balam Skills both allowing us to move flawlessly as I swung at the same ankle while she attacked his face. My poison fire had done a bit of damage but nothing spectacular, having barely moved past the single point of impact due to his new found conceptual weight.

    Poison fire was meant to be a debuff that I stacked until it whittled away at a person. I could overpower it for a quick drop, but against an F-ranker it would barely even stick...normally. As Rahm snarled, reaching up to bat away the black snowflake blades reforming in Callie's hands before they could cut his face, I drove my cane's head into the ankle Callie had cut.

    The open wound let me drive the poison flame into the wound deeper than I could have managed, and the stacking of Mercy Kill and the triple strength density shifting attack, despite a bit of strain, let me land the blow hard enough to stagger the big bastard. There was a sharp crack, not a particularly large one, but I knew I'd at least cracked the bone, which meant the poison fire would be seeping into it.

    Which was enough to put him off balance as Benny smashed that giant fucking hammer into the back of his skull layered with a triple stacked density shifted attack. There was a loud bang as Rahm stumbled forward, his damaged ankle rolling and his skull cracking under the impact of the hammer as he was thrown sprawling. I would have celebrated, but this whole exchange had taken several seconds and Mordaunt had circled around to try to backstab Callie, not even noting her companions troubles as she waited for the moment to attack.

    Unfortunately for her, trying to sneak attack someone with a Stealth Skill like Callie's wouldn't work easily, especially not when we were in proximity and could alert each other to the danger. I lashed out quickly with my own cane to counter the daggers, Callie moving seamlessly from the path of the strike without me needing to actually warn her it was coming. The pair of daggers sparked a sickly green light as I deflected, and I saw flares of power as whatever was in them burned up in contact with my poison fire.

    These things would be dangerous. I wasn't worried though. Callie and I were perfectly in sync, and despite Mordaunt easily dodging the heavy swing from Benny, she was forced to back off as the two of us sent a flurry of attacks at her. I could feel my bond with Callie becoming stronger, our experience in live battle helping us hone this Skill in a way training never could have.

    We had the foundation. Every exercise, every bit of training, all to prepare us for this. It was why we'd done everything as we had. Not just to let us unlock the Skill fast, but to prepare us to rush it up to Lesser more quickly. I could feel things clicking into place, little aspects of our training becoming more understandable. It wasn't enough to break through yet, but it would be. We could get there.

    Sadly, we didn't have the luxury of time. Rahm was rising now, unsteady but clearly enraged. I wasn't sure what the fuck that hammer was but I absolutely did not ever want to get hit by it. Scrambling the brain of an F-ranked abomination made from undead flesh and science with one blow, augmented or not, wasn't the kind of thing a normal person could shrug off. I didn't think my armor would even protect me, though my mask might do the job.

    We rushed at the big undead, not wanted to give him time to recover, and I activated Double Trouble, appearing behind him and doubling up Mercy Kill and another triple density stack on the back of his cracked skull, the poison fire seeping through into his head. He roared and whirled on me, but luckily Impact makes you tougher and not faster, so I was able to dodge the attack.

    I cursed as I looked around. We had no help incoming, Mordaunt was waiting to pounce and cut us down, and we were probably going to lose this if I kept going as I was. I had a skill that would help me bridge the gap, but I couldn't use it. Afterburner wasn't a smart choice in a battle this size. I'd need to stack my magma leg and hope it would be enough, because I couldn't be weakened with this many enemies still coming for us.

    Slipping back I readied my cane, letting Callie clash with Rahm as I acted as a deterrent against Mordaunt. Seeing me waiting she didn't seem willing to put herself in danger, opting to hang back and wait for the right time to strike. I pressed my foot to the ground, the contact enough for me to trigger Stone Limb after all the training I'd been doing. My soul strength could handle pushing the skill that much, allowing me to use the touch of my boots instead of bare skin.

    I felt my leg begin to toughen, my boot and armor doing the same with a bit of soul strain, then I triggered my other skills in succession. Mercy Kill, Touch of Tears, triple stack density shift, I even shoved a fire attack into the limb to enhance the magma's power, and almost fell over from all the pain. Almost. I was able to force my way past it after a second of clearing my head.

    Once I had my head cleared I waited, and before the other two could react, I activated Double Trouble. I'd had Callie position Rahm so he was blocking my new location from Mordaunt as I appeared, and since Double Trouble left an illusion, it gave me time to use Balam to its fullest and strike out with a brutal spinning kick to the back of his head, the most damaged area on his body.

    The F-ranked hammer had seriously hurt him, cracking his skull and tearing open flesh, and since it was the same rank as he was he wasn't healing very quickly. Keeping my leg close to my body as I spun, I let it whip out along the axis of my rotation as it came around, putting every ounce of Might and Precision behind the blow as I smashed it into the injured back of Rahm's head.

    At the peak of G-rank, and with every possible stacked modifier on my leg to boost it, combined with his injured state, the blow drove an explosion of poison flames directly into his head like a fucking mortar shell. Adding the fire attack had allowed it to burst out on contact, and the combined power of every bit of extra energy I had lit Rahm's head up like a fucking green torch, the flames penetrating his head through the wound and bursting out inside.

    F-rank or not, the brain is the most delicate part of the body, and having a toxic frag grenade go off inside your skull after something cracks it open was enough for even a fresh F-ranker to be overwhelmed. Rahm threw his head back and ROARED, his F-rank body so strong that even that hadn't been enough to finish him instantly. I saw the metal from the chains climbing up his limbs under the damaged bandages, his ability activating, but too late.

    Rahm's eyes and mouth poured out green fire as he screamed, his body shaking before he fell over with a crashing sound. Fucking miraculously, he STILL wasn't dead. Which I honestly wasn't super upset about. Rahm hadn't been as actively malicious as Mordaunt. I grimaced at how terrifying Abel was. Granted my stats were all pretty low because they were so diffuse, but the difference was pretty clear.

    Turning from the not dead, but definitely unconscious for a while (his brain was currently poisoned and on fire for the gods sake) I spun on Mordaunt, whose eyes were wide and gaping. Sadly, the shock wasn't enough to distract her from Callie's attack from behind her, and she dodged to the side, lashing out with her daggers at my shadow covered girlfriend, who looked just like the clone she'd left to keep the monster maker's attention.

    The daggers were scary, but Callie was no amateur, and we were wearing F-ranked armor. I suspected my sneak attack on Rahm had partly worked because of that. I couldn't manage another attack on that level, and actually needed to let even the magma leg go so I could let my pounding head recover, the soul weight I'd used so far too much for me to bear and still be mobile.

    To my shock, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and then a wash of soothing coolness flooded my head. I turned to see Benny, eyes closed in concentration, somehow managing to push the energy from his spiritual calming belt into me to help me recover. Considering it was a part of him after integration and he'd learned to spread his other abilities around his body it was feasible, but I could tell from the grunt of pain as he steadied himself it wasn't easy.

    I let the coolness flood me and calm down as I watched Callie kick the living shit out of Mordaunt. While the other woman had clearly been trained and possibly even augmented herself based on the battle, Callie had nearly two hundred MIght, and Mordaunt was a crafter. Focus had to be her main stat, so she wasn't really equipped for frontal confrontation.

    She tried to escape, eyes wide with terror as she glanced down at her bodyguard, who was obviously still out of commission, even as his vitality and undead nature battle the poison fire. Even after that faded I was betting it would take a while to recover from THAT. Sadly for her there was no escape, and Callie beat her into submission with brutal efficiency, smashing every limb to make sure she didn't escape.

    Once that was done, she created a braided rope of shadows and tied the woman up, turning to come check on me. My soul was WAY overstressed, and I wouldn't be able to modify any Skills or anything, but Benny's calming belt had helped my head clear enough that normal attacks and movements were fine. I gave him a grateful nod and stepped forward to meet her. She shot me a smile and as Randall and the other F-ranker battled in the background we turned to meet Pietro as he finally made it to us.
     
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  17. Threadmarks: chapter 322
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    Pietro's face still REALLY pissed me off. Sadly, I was still incredibly drained, and without access to my soul strength my options for dealing with him were limited. Still, I'd just beated my first F-ranker, having successfully fought up ranks like a true elite, and I was kind of riding high on the confidence.

    Glancing dismissively down at the tied up Mordaunt and the still form of Rahm, Pietro sneered. "Trash. Oh, well, I suppose this means I don't have to pay them." He looked around for the four, who were still occupied, and Randall, who was fighting his own F-ranker, and chuckled. "Seems like you don't have anyone to save you this time. It was impressive taking down the zombie, I'll give you that, but there's no way you have much in you after a battle like that."

    I stared at him for a second. "How are you not dead?" He looked at me in surprise. "No, seriously, I've known you for all of five minutes and I want to kill you, granted I have a bias against the Black sorrow Cult, but still. Do you have a Skill for pissing people off? I'm not sure how whoever guards you managed to keep you alive, but they're a fucking miracle worker, because I have a hard time believing no one has tried to push you down a flight of stairs. Or into a volcano."

    To my shock, rather than get offended, Pietro laughed. "Do they dare? My father is the strongest D-ranker on Ranton. A genuine High Priest of the Black Sorrow Cult. I hold the life and death of everyone I meet in my hands. Killing me would result in the complete extermination of everyone they know and love." He grinned at Callie. "How about you, boy. Are you willing to see everyone you love killed? Not just the girl, either. Even if you manage to successfully kill me, your whole family will die."

    I couldn't help it, I laughed. He looked confused, and I choked down the giggles. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, that was rude. You're doing this whole spoiled brat villain monologue and I'm interrupting. I shouldn't be so insensitive. It's just...you have no clue how stupid you sound." Honestly I could have interrupted him, but Benny had posted up behind me and placed a subtle hand on my back, letting the spiritual calming flow into me again.

    This wouldn't fix the soul strain, not enough to let me use my soul more, but it WOULD let me partially recover and clear my head, which would help. So I wanted to draw the asshole in babbling more and delay the fight so I could get back into fighting shape. Callie and I could take him, I was sure, and just in case I was getting ready to use my Afterburner Skill for this fight to make sure I could keep up with her and put my best foot forward.

    Without stacking stored attacks or altering techniques I would be way less deadly, but Afterburner should make up for that somewhat. I also still had a full charge of stored force in the cane, and I could use Mercy Kill, even if I couldn't stack anything on it. Sadly, Pietro, while stupid, wasn't THAT stupid, and didn't have any interest in monologueing for ten minutes in the middle of a pitched battle.

    As he concentrated dark power onto his hands, I had a sudden and very unfortunate realization. I'd been thinking about what ability he had, and how to counter it. But I'd forgotten that fucking Black Sorrow Cultists didn't USE the ability system. He'd have one for sure, but it would be treated like a Skill. They used the job system, or something like it, and this asshole would have a whole host of weird powers like Aiden had, though not exactly the same since Aiden had been using a job from the Red Revenant Church somehow.

    That meant it didn't matter if he wasn't a descendant of Black Sorrow, he'd have crazy overpowered bullshit tricks anyway. Annoying but still manageable. I spun my cane up, stepping away from Benny's hand begrudgingly, because if he was about to attack I didn't want my friend dragged into it. I gestured for him to back off and go help Jessie and Randall with their fight. The bear was having trouble, and a sucker punch with that hammer would help.

    He left without complaint, most likely planning to slip in a shot on Pietro when he had the chance to hit him without being noticed. Pietro, for his part, didn't seem to care about my best friend as he slowly advanced, gathering dark power into his palms. "You seemed so impressive earlier." He said gleefully. "That'll make putting you down so much sweeter. I'll show you that the Black Sorrow Cult aren't people you can easily offend." Without a second of hesitation he hurled his hands forward, unleashing a wave of darkness at us.

    Or rather, darkness might have been the wrong word. Rot, corruption, desolation. None of these was right exactly. Rot affected living things, as did corruption, desolation was closer, but still wrong. This wasn't a destructive force exactly. Destruction unmade things, this just changed them. It was like some conceptual blight on the world, altering things to more effectively suit its vision. Sorrow.

    As if the world itself was grieving, as if all hope had been lost. Hope of continuance ceased to exist within the wave of darkness. It was, in a word, terrifying. Callie snarled and flicked a hand, and a wall of shadows flashed out to block the progress of the wave. To my surprise, it actually stopped. You couldn't steal the hope of continuance from darkness, because it was already the absence of light.

    Pietro cursed. "Shadow touched. I hate dealing with you. No one told me you had a shadow touched." I got the feeling even if they had he'd have ignored it. I was pretty sure he just did whatever he wanted and let the consequences sort themselves out later.

    "Thanks." I said to Callie emphatically as I stood. I shivered at the though of that...stuff, touching me. "I doubt that would have been pleasant." We'd gotten insanely lucky that she could block that stuff. It was only a G-rank attack, so I doubted it would instakill us, and it might not even get through my armor, but the idea of letting it touch me made me want to gag. No wonder the Cult were so unpleasant, if that was the force their jobs game them access to.

    Still, it did make some sense that even powerful jobs would have counters. Callie's shadows didn't do so well against the Red Revenant Church's light abilities, but she had a natural advantage against the Cult. That was useful to know. Of course, she wasn't some kind of perfect counter or something, just at an advantage. That wave had been fairly spread out, and being able to block it was more a factor of Pietro making stupid ass decisions in battle than some kind of perfect immunity.

    I wasn't letting this chance go either way though. I activated Double Trouble, appearing behind him as I triggered Mercy Kill on my weapon and unleashed the force stored in my cane at the base of his skull, hoping to put him down like I had Stricture all those months ago.

    That wasn't to be, there was a dark burst of smoke and a shield appeared behind him, clearly the activation of some defensive item. My blow smashed into the thing hard, but sadly wasn't enough to even crack the shield. I activated Leaf on the Wind and danced away from the retaliation. His dark fist swept harmlessly through the space I'd just been in. That wide range attack had taken time to charge up and I wasn't giving him more.

    Neither was Callie, as evidenced by the field of dark blades springing up under his feet. The attacks drove him in exactly the right direction to open him up to another blow from my cane at full extension, Balam allowing me to build up a truly frightening amount of momentum for the attack.

    His robes, which I had just realized were robes and not some sort of coat, took the blow easily, and I cursed as I realized they were F-rank defensive items. Rich asshole. I conveniently overlooked that I also had those, because now wasn't the time for rational introspection.

    With a grimace I triggered Afterburner. Technically using my normal skills did use soul strength, but unmodified and without stacking they were only mildly annoying. Unfortunately when spamming multiple skills one after another that still added up. I was glad Benny had helped me recover because I wasn't sure I could have managed this in the state I'd been in after beating Rahm.

    I had enough in me to use a few normal skills though, and triggered healing burst after a slight delay, followed by Mercy Kill, and then painfully, Flurry of Blows. My head was screaming again, but it was enough to make me a serious threat as I lashed out with my still poison fire imbued cane at the vulnerable face of the wildly dodging Pietro, trying to score a hit with the speed Flurry of Blows granted me. I got a glancing blow on his jaw and temple, which since the armor wasn't there, meant the poison fire started to spread.

    He got his arms up in front of his face to block the other attacks, not paying enough attention to his surroundings and completely missing that Benny had already sneak attacked the F-ranker and provided an opening for Randall to start really laying into the man. The hammer smashed hard into the back of the Pietro's robes, which while clearly heavily enchanted for defense, weren't up to a hit from a weapon at the same rank enhanced with extra density and triple strength, even driven by the power of a G-ranker early in his Ascension.

    Pietro stumbled, face slashed open by the shadow blades, and his eyes widened in panic. "Malachai, help!" He shrieked at the top of his lungs. Throwing his arms over his head in fear to try to mitigate the damage. Unfortunately that was more than enough as every single person in the auction hall was smashed to the ground by the forcefully exerted Impact of an E-rank Ascendant bearing down on us.

    I cursed. "I thought you said your E-rankers were holding off the others." I gritted out through the pressure. I was not at all qualified to fight this asshole, considering he wasn't a cloud of red mist right now, pressuring me with his aura didn't count as an attack either. If he made a move on Callie or Benny or Jessie I'd have to throw myself in front of the attack or something.

    Snarling in rage, Pietro pointed at me mockingly. "Fool! As if I would ever walk about unguarded. While the others were detained, Malachai is my personal guard. He was specially trained to be able to conceal himself even from those of his own rank! Now that you've forced me to make him reveal himself, I'll have to take it out of your hide." He began charging his power again, getting ready.

    My eyes widened in alarm. I wasn't sure this counted exactly. Holding me down like this while his boss killed me. This had to be an attack right? Before I could question further the field suddenly vanished, the aura completely cut off. A man appeared behind Pietro in a white half mask and a hooded black robe. He was looking at me intently, as if curious what had just happened, but he didn't do anything else. Pietro turned angrily on the man. "Why did you do that? I was about to kill him! Pin him down again!" Despite his ranting though, Malachai just stared at me. Seemed like Zeke was already on the move. Something told me I wasn't out of the woods quite yet though.
     
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  18. Threadmarks: Chapter 323
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    Malachai had me pinned with his gaze, but he looked wary. He also ignored Pietro's whining completely, stepping around the guy to block my line of sight of him. "Might I ask your name?" He said cautiously. His tone confirmed what I'd suspected. Someone had forcibly stopped that pressure earlier. He probably thought it was one of the other E-rankers, but he had to know whoever it was, they were stronger than him.

    Of course it could have been a D-ranker who retired here or something, but regardless, he was pretty sure I had some power in my corner. I just shrugged. "Solomon." I said shortly. I wasn't going to say anything. My mother and the Cult were bitter enemies, and if he found out I was a candidate he might figure that out. The less I said the better. Worst case he flipped and tried to murder me, and Zeke turned him into meat paste.

    He seemed frustrated by the answer, which was valid. It wasn't a great one. He also seemed torn. Pietro came here to kill me for killing Aiden. This whole fucking farce was a power trip of his own making. There was no easy out. No option to say 'hey man, bygones ok?' because the whole purpose of coming here was for me to die. So if I didn't then he failed, and Pietro didn't strike me as the kind of person who handled being told no particularly well.

    So without the option to bail, it was clear that Malachai wanted a new angle. After thinking it over he took in my condition, which wasn't fucking great because this asshole had me pinned down and I was stuck in my Afterburner state. I'd managed to finally get this one altered, a big step in my path to upgrading DS Mastery, and it now multiplied my attacks by only three times instead of five, but worked for ten attacks instead of one. I'd used up one blow just not trying to crush him with Mercy Kill, but I still had nine. Staying in this state wasn't comfortable at all.

    The E-ranker gave a mischievous humph, as if just figuring something out, and my stomach sank. "Since we seniors are so much more powerful it's naturally wrong for us to get involved with your fights. I'm simply worried that Pietro is being ganged up on. That bear and the boy with the hammer, not to mention the girl with the shadow abilities, this is clearly a lopsided fight. Since it's come to a battle to the death, naturally we need to make sure it's fair. One on one is how battles between warriors should be handled."

    Shit. He'd noticed that Zeke hadn't attacked when he backed off. Figuring out the conditions for my Uncle's intervention wasn't hard, but it WAS annoying. I was impressed he was enough of a brazen asshole to make it sound like I'd been cheating in a fair challenge when his dickhead charge had jumped us with a crowd of fucking zombies. Everyone had stopped fighting now, and were all watching as the guy basically strongarmed me into a one on one fight.

    I didn't actually mind that. I didn't like this guy, and Zeke's protection was supposed to ensure I had to fight my own battles without being overwhelmed anyway. This was within the bounds of that. "Fine." I said shortly. "A one on one match, Pietro and I with no interference. But if I win, will you really just let things play out?" Pietro sneered at the question, and even Malachai looked smug.

    "Of course." Said the bodyguard in the least convincing voice I'd ever heard. He was clearly convinced I was at the end of my rope and wouldn't be able to win, which wasn't far from true, but I still had tricks. I was buzzing with a healing burst still, and I had nine power attacks with Afterburner. As a finisher, Afterburner worked on the complete move, stacks and powerups included, which granted, wasn't useful to me right now, but was definitely an important trump card.

    Benny's triple strength powerups for density shifting and tranq blows worked on those aspects of the attacks rather than the whole attack and all its components. In fact, Afterburner would even triple the power output of one of those triple strength attacks, resulting in a massive boost on stacked blows like my magma leg. Sadly I was incapable of using any of those right now, but I was sure I could manage something.

    Everyone backed off as the two of us faced each other, and Pietro was grinning from ear to ear. He clearly had an idea of how he'd beat me, and was sure it would work. Malachai looked at me mockingly. "Well, are you two both ready for this battle?" He clearly thought Zeke didn't care about what happened to me as long as he didn't attack personally. He'd blatantly bullied me into this fight with no reaction, so he figured he was safe.

    Which he was, because of the geass, but still, I was annoyed about it. I just nodded, and he gave the signal to begin. My soul had slightly recovered under Bennys spiritual calming earlier. Not enough to use my attacks as I'd like, but enough that I could probably trigger one or two stored attacks if I pushed it. I would need to be VERY careful though. I couldn't stack or modify them or I might damage my soul too much for it to heal. Which would be bad. Like, really bad.

    Pietro was casually gathering his power again, giving me a cocky smirk. "Well. Now you're alone. You don't look so good. Little unsteady on your feet. Taking down that corpse take it out of you?" His mocking tone was sugary sweet, as if he was concerned, making it all the more obnoxious. I didn't think his face could get more punchable, but it definitely had. Like...three times more punchable at least.

    I started to move, circled around. His attack was wide range, but it did have a radius. I just needed to dodge it. But he didn't release the damn thing. Just saved it up, waiting for me to slip. It was more patience than I'd have credited him with. I didn't really want to give this asshole any credit for anything actually, so I decided to just chalk the waiting up to sadism and consider it a bad thing.

    After a minute or two (good for me since it let my head clear a bit more) I figured that too much of a good thing wouldn't help and decided to lure him into using up his attack. I wanted to use double trouble, but I knew he'd seen it before. If I used it now he'd just expect me to pop up behind him. I didn't know if he could deploy that attack close to himself, but I didn't want to find out by feeling it go off in my damn face.

    So, to hurry it along, I tripped. Not really tripped, I rolled my ankle on purpose and started to fall, letting out a pained cry, and he, of course, pounced like the asshole he was. He hurled the vortex of dark energy right at the spot where I was going to land once I finished tripping, clearly planning to detonate it right in my face and kill me outright, at least if that stuff could get through my armor.

    Or he would have done that. If I'd been there. It was kind of interesting to see the blast consume the illusion of me as I triggered double trouble right before the blast arrived. He clearly couldn't control or turn the thing, and had assumed that since I was vulnerable I'd be easy pickings. See. Sadism and not patience. As I appeared behind him, I considered briefly what to do, and then decided I needed a way to deliver fast brutal attacks. I used the spider legs, feeling them sprout from my back.

    My head swam, but it was only one attack without alteration or stacking so I could handle it. I attacked immediately, using my cane and both spider legs to slash out at the assholes head with enough force to do serious damage. The black shield appeared again, but as my cane hit it the thing lit up and as the two spider legs struck it began to crack. The Afterburner enhanced blows were much less effective without my stacking, but they were also completely free of soul weight and could be used multiple times. Six left.

    I struck twice more before the shield shattered and it left his head open as I swung the cane at his temple. I triggered Mercy Kill, still able to use regular skills easily enough. Pietro shrieked again, pulling his arms in front of him to shield himself. "Stop!" I heard a voice roar, as Malachai dashed out to grab me, making sure that I wasn't actually hurt but restraining me.

    Cursing, I glared at him. "You really gonna do this? You know what happens if you interfere right?" I was fucking incensed. I'd been about to end this, my head was killing me, and I wanted this whole mess to be over. This assholes cheating bullshit was keeping me from making me friends and girlfriend safer, and I was pretty much fucking done with it. "Do you want to die, asshole? Because if you don't let me go and let me finish this fight you're going to die. It won't be quick either."

    That was a lie. I had no clue if it would be quick, but I wanted to scare him. I was too angry to be rightfully afraid of being in the hands of a powerful E-ranker who could squish me like a bug. Malachai snorted in disdain. "If you could do that you would. I don't think your protector cares what I do as long as I don't interfere too directly. But I don't need to hold you down for Pietro to kill you, after all, you just threatened me. I'm sure your guardian won't mind if I teach you a little lesson. I wonder how you'll protect yourself with both arms broken?"

    I wasn't sure if that was legit. Like, I doubted I could just attack any E-ranker an expect Zeke to kill them when they defended themselves. Was threatening him enough to allow him to injure but not kill me? I didn't no. Zeke never talked about the terms of my protection, probably to keep me from abusing them. As Malachai reached for me slowly, a malicious gleam in his eye, I started to worry that I might have really fucked up.

    Which is when my mask jumped off my face and fucking ate him. Not like...in one bite either. It streaked over and latched onto his head, the wood expanding to encase his entire skull. "What the fuck?" He screamed. "What is this? Boy get this off of me. I'll kill you!" He reached up to try to tear it off and his hands sunk into the wood, submerging in the grain and being swallowed. His screams grew louder as his arms were pulled in deeper, then the wood expanded over his shoulders, his body being swallowed and compacted at the same time.

    We all watched in horrified fascination as his whole body was consumed by the wood, which then fell to the ground with a thunk. By the time it hit the floor, it was back in its normal shape, just a simple wooden mask with no adornments or eyeholes. There was no sound as we all stared at the spot where a fucking E-ranked Ascendant had just died within seconds.

    I'd...been wearing that on my face. For months. And apparently it could murder people who tried to hurt me. Which on the one hand was reassuring, since it meant I was safe without Zeke having to interfere directly and would probably help keep my identity from being blown, but on the other hand...creepy. I shook that thought off, turning to Pietro, who suddenly looked very afraid. I shot him a grin. "So...Petey. Where were we? I believe we were in the middle of a duel to the death." I should probably be worried about my face being exposed, but I didn't really have a secret identity anyway and the mask was freaking me out right now. Besides, I wanted him to see how smug I was. This was going to be fun.
     
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  19. Verdthandi

    Verdthandi Getting out there.

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    Of all of the ways I expected the fight to go, that wasn’t one of them. Bravo on the surprise!
     
  20. Revanandfriends

    Revanandfriends Getting sticky.

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    So...that happened. I don't think I'd ever be able to wear that mask again.

    Sticks really well, looks like a normal object when unmoving, and eats people...Zeke makes mask mimics XD
     
  21. Threadmarks: chapter 324
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    Pietro didn't appear to have any idea how to handle watching his E-rank bodyguard get eaten by a mask. Which...I mean, that was fair. I wasn't really sure how to process that either. It had been horrifying. Still, I was much more interested in putting down this arrogant little pissant who had brought a whole crew of zombies to wipe out me and my friends just because I put down his child stealing psycho of an underling.

    "Y-you...what do you want to do?" He said shakily as he saw me approach. I admit I was pretty gratified seeing him pale and back up. "I'm here for the tournament!" He said desperately. "You can't kill a member of a five faction alliance team, the Black Sorrow Cult won't let you off!" His words had the ring of something he desperately wanted to believe. An old truth that had turned against him and that he was trying hard to hold onto.

    I got the feeling he was the kind of person who did this sort of thing often. He was used to throwing his weight around, as if that wasn't obvious, but more than that he was used to his background saving him when he fucked it up. Now his bodyguard was dead, seemingly killed by someone at the same level as him, and the only people he had close enough to help were being obstructed by our forces.

    It had taken me a minute to understand how he could possibly be dumb enough to do this. To bring these people down here to try to kill us in a place as dangerous as this one, but then I considered it from another angle. Considering how strong someone pathetic like Pietro could be with a good job, that E-ranker was probably substantially more dangerous than any random fighter from a backwater like Callus. He might have even had some gear at D-rank of something as an emergency measure.

    In the face of a mask created by a B-ranker it had all been for nothing, and that itself showed how easily deeper foundations could let someone do whatever they wanted. Without backing from Zeke I'd have been fucked, and Pietro really could have gotten away with this without even a slap on the wrist. Unfortunately for him, he'd run into someone even more connected than him.

    Clicking my tongue, I shook my head. "Sorry to tell you this." I said stopping about five or ten feet from him. "But no one cares. This is the WCP, and more importantly a dark district. Where you came from doesn't matter here. Fuck around and find out is the only rule in this place." I gestured around to all the now uncertain looking zombies, of which there were far fewer than there had been to start. "You got that first part down, now it's time to find out. Tell me, what do you think that's going to be like?"

    Pietro was shaking as he stared at me, eyes desperately scanning around for an escape. He was actually strong enough that if he went all out he might be able to beat me in my current condition, but he was so paralyzed by fear he couldn't seem to even conceptualize fighting back. He wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go. The forces arrayed against his own army of corpses were keeping him penned in. I was about to mockingly comment on that when I was interrupted by a loud explosion of flames and lightning off to one side. I was preparing to be attacked when a muffled voice I didn't recognize called out. "Sorry."

    Another voice, this one easily identifiable as Cark bellowed. "Gods damn it, which one of your dipshits let Quentin use the Thunderfire Cannon?" I turned to glare at him and he cleared his throat. "Sorry Sol!" I heard him muttering to Sage in the background. "When I said to give one of them the Thunderfire Cannon I obviously didn't mean Quentin. He has absolutely no ability to aim at all." He paused, obviously listening to a response I somehow couldn't hear. "I don't know, Lyle? Brent? Allison? Fucking WENDELL? Literally anyone else."

    Turning forcefully and ignoring my friend, I took a deep breath and focused back on Pietro. "Sorry about that." I said with a blank expression. "Ignore them. You were about to beg for your life. Probably offer me tons of money or some treasures that would be useful for my growth?" I gestured leadingly, letting him pick up where I was going, and I saw his eyes widen with hopeful excitement.

    "Y-yes! Of course." His old arrogance started to come back. "Naturally any conditions can be talked about. You're in the better position, so getting some benefits is natural. What kind of resources were you hoping for? Gems? Elixirs? I could just pay you in chits? I'm sure I can find something to satisfy you."

    I listened to him chatter on for about ten minutes, listing off all the valuable things he could take out and getting more and more agitated by my seeming ambivalence. Honestly some of the stuff sounded pretty good, but I didn't make a sound, didn't even smile, I just waited, and let him go on and on until finally, he couldn't take it anymore. "WHAT?" He screamed frantically. "What do you want? I can get you anything. I'll call my father right away, I'll have him find whatever you need. Just TELL ME!"

    I finally smiled at him, but it wasn't reassuring or pleasant. It was cold and brutal. I didn't even need to see myself in a mirror to know how terrible it was. I didn't think I had that kind of expression in me. His face went even paler and he started to back up. "What do I want?" I asked calmly. "I want lots of things Pietro. I want those kids to have their childhoods back. I want the headless bodies of the 'puppets' Aiden killed resurrected. I want my friend's sister to be able to sleep without a nightlight on because she's so scared someone will sneak into her room at night and take her away again. Can your father give me any of those things?"

    This wasn't a game. This wasn't even cultivation. I enjoyed struggling for resources, fighting, I didn't even take being screwed over to heart most of the time. That was just business. That was life as an Ascendant. But this? The Heartrippers, Cass, the other kids? That was wrong. It was disgusting, and I'd forced myself to ignore how angry it made me for far too long. If he'd stayed away I might have kept on burying it. Kept on living in denial. But Pietro had to come out and poke the bear, to pardon a slightly on the nose metaphor.

    Based on the expression on his face that was when he finally figured out I was going to kill him. There was nothing he could possibly do to stop it. He turned and tried to run then, not even looking for a way out, just trying to force his way past everyone, throwing out his hands to release an explosion of dark power to drive back anyone in his way. He slammed headfirst into a pitch black wall of shadow courtesy of Callie.

    It would have been sad watching him scratching uselessly at it, trying to get away, if I didn't hate him so damn much. As it was it I just found it pathetic. I walked up to him calmly, and I marveled at the way I felt right now. I'd been pissed before. I'd even been enraged. But this wasn't like that. I was murderous. Literally. I wondered how much of this was recursion, because I was sure this would have terrified me a few months ago. Now it just left me cold.

    I raised my cane, still with multiple blows left in Afterburner. I focused, and with soul strength I didn't even know I had, bolstered by the cold fury burning in my gut, I forced the skill to condense. I layered all those blows together forcing them into a single strike, I used Mercy Kill, I used another of my triple strength density shifted attacks, and I WANTED to use a gravity burst too, but I knew it would be too much.

    It was fine though. I had enough power. I whirled the cane around between my fingers, using Balam to build up speed, and then brought it smashing down on the back of Pietro's head like a hammer with every ounce of Might in my body. The dark shield flared, but the blaze of my poison fire and the strength of the attack cracked and then shattered it, the blow continuing down to crash into his head.

    Much like my own armor the robe was F-ranked, but also like my won armor it was specialized in dispersing cutting and energy attacks. Cloth, even super durable cloth, doesn't do a ton to stop blunt force. I felt his head cave in under the blow and he slumped to the ground. Maybe not dead yet, but getting there.

    The last time I'd killed someone like this I'd been in battle, and the time before I'd blacked out right after. I'd never just...murdered someone. Not even someone who deserved it. I felt strange. Empty. Callie sidled up next to me, slipping under my arm and pulling me against her. I heard the sound of the corpses being forced to surrender. The Darkling Institute members who were controlling them weren't idiots. They had no backing and no support. Continuing the fight would just be asking to get got.

    As for me, I was just...tired. My head hurt, I felt cold and empty. I just wanted this to be over. I'd had enough of Doomtown. I wanted to go back up the the Pavilion and spend the next week with my friends. Granting them wishes and doing stupid shit at the circus and spending time with my girlfriend and going on dates and checking on Cass and literally anything except be HERE for even another minute.

    Sadly that wasn't an option. We were here for the auction and I wanted to make sure we got something out of it. We kept Mordaunt and Rahm, I was planning to ransom them for something good. They'd tried to kill us for money so it was only fair we got paid for kicking their ass. Unfortunately we did NOT get to keep the hammer, and we couldn't justify buying the damn thing considering it was only useful to one person at a time, so Benny got all sulky about it.

    We did manage to get our hands on a blank G-rank Skill Crystal, which was what we'd come here for. I suspect some of the other bidders might have cut us a break as thanks for dealing with Pietro, or we might not have even gotten that, but it pretty much cleaned us out. Once we got it we unanimously decided to leave. No one was really in the mood for the auction anymore. Even Abel and Lament were unhappy, since their opponents had surrendered along with the corpses.

    The walk back up to G-district was silent as we mulled over everything that had happened in Doomtown. It had been...a lot. We'd fought, bled, thankfully none of us had died, but despite the fact that we had an overwhelming victory it didn't feel like a win. I forced myself to snap out of it. We hadn't lost anything. Had gained plenty. We'd made friends, formed alliances, got stronger. We were ready. We would win the tournament, get to the Moonsong Glade, get stronger and leave Callus to explore the rest of the system, then the cluster, then the whole damn galaxy. Nothing was over. This was only the beginning, and it could have gone a lot worse. So why did I still have this gnawing sensation of dread in my stomach?
     
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  22. chrnno

    chrnno Time Traveller

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    Probably because his father is not going to let this go, even if he doesn't really care about his son losing him alongside all the excessive protection he had in a public way is a slap on the face he will react to out of pride. And for that same reason do so overwhelmingly.

    Also it occurs to me that Zeke's reaction might have been intentional, if he couldn't just kill this E-Rank outright he instead did the bare minimum so the E-Rank would feel like that was the case and feel confident in pushing it. Then either that was enough to allow for summary execution or, I think more likely, the mask is set to react to certain things on its own with greater freedom than Zeke has.
     
  23. Threadmarks: chapter 325
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    Getting back to the Pavilion was different this time than the last. Before it had been a quick stop. The night we spent waiting for the four and arranging everything had passed in a flash. Now though, now we were home. Our home. our place, that we actually owned. Not like the house Zeke bought. And speaking of my uncle, he was waiting for us when we got into the Pavilion.

    "Hey, you're back." He said casually from his spot on the bench. To my shock, every other pavilion membed was clear on the other side of the tent, not training, but trying to press themselves into the wall in the tightest possible configuration. When he saw where my eyes went he chuckled wryly. "Ah, sorry. I felt the trouble and figured I'd wait here for you to get out just in case. When that E-ranker picked his fight and I warned him off I might have been a little annoyed. My aura leaked a bit."

    That certainly explained the looks of existential terror plastered across the faces of some of the most hardened battle maniacs I'd ever seen. I grimaced at him. "Yeah, about that." I held up the mask. "What the actual fuck? I've been wearing this thing on my face and it eats people? That's pretty messed up." I was still uncomfortable putting the mask back on, and had used my old scarf to cover my face on the way back up here.

    Zeke cracked up. "I can't believe he actually triggered it. What a dumbass. I did warn him. I guess I was a bit too gentle with the aura. I didn't want to go full blast and fry a bunch of randoms." He shrugged. "As for the mask...it did its job. It was supposed to protect you. I can make you a new one if you want. A weaker one. But I have to warn you that including the defenses let me skirt the edges of what I'd normally be able to put into something like that. If I make a new one it won't be a thousandth as good."

    I climbed up on the stands to drop down next to him bonelessly, letting the mask clatter to the ground. I wasn't worried it would break. He looked amused but didn't mention it. Callie followed me in, sitting next to me quietly and not saying anything. She'd been hovering since I killed Pietro. I'd been worried she would be horrified, but all I felt through our bond was a sense of worry. The others all headed in, giving us space as they went to check on the traumatized pavilion members.

    "You know...I always figured this mask was too weird to be low level. How can I even use it? I assumed it was impossible to use gear too many ranks above you. This thing has to be at least E-rank to have killed that guy so easily. How come it didn't crush my soul?" Trying to leverage an item with that much Impact would probably do something dramatic like that. Either way, I knew it should be impossible.

    He shrugged. "Because I cheated. There's an Impact seal on it. My Voltomancy can manipulate masks I make in ways that wouldn't normally be possible. It slowly releases portions of that power as you rank up. Still, that material has the toughness of a B-ranked wood. The emergency defenses I put on it are well within the tolerance level of something that durable."

    Now that he mentioned it the thing HAD jumped right off my face before it ate the guy. Presumably so it could channel that Impact without crushing me. That was..."Zeke, what exactly can your ability DO? That sounds more like an AI than an Enchantment. Is this mask AWARE? Because I don't care how strong it is, I'm not wearing a living being trapped in a hunk of wood on my face."

    He chuckled. "Don't freak out. It's not aware. That was a preprogrammed response, to use your computer jargon. A conditional enchantment. There are countless tiny runes on that thing you can't see, and they make some pretty complex instruction, but they aren't anything close to an actual entity. It's like a personal alarm. Someone too strong tried to hurt you so it went off."

    I wasn't sure why that made me feel so much better, but it absolutely did. "Alright..." I said slowly. "What about Pietro, did you see when I..." I didn't know what his senses could do, but he'd been able to see Malachai well enough to scare him off. I cleared my throat. "Is that going to be a problem? Will the cult start trouble because he died here?" I'd been pretty confident when I said that wouldn't happen, but 'pretty confident' isn't 'sure.

    My uncle actually sneered at me for the question. "Honestly. No. The Cult isn't going to attack a psuedo D-ranked planet. Nothing here is worth starting even a minor skirmish over." He paused. "Maybe you. At least to some of them, but the kid didn't know who you were. He was just some typical spoiled little elite who was far too confident in daddy. They're a credit a dozen back at the clan, and pretty much everywhere else. Regardless, no. They won't declare a war."

    Callie cleared her throat. "What about the others?" I looked at her in confusion. "The rest of the team. They're four people right? Were they all down there? Or are we going to be meeting a team from the Cult with an alternate thrown in. That seems like something it would be good to know."

    Shit, I hadn't even bothered to check that. I should have asked to make sure the rest of their team was around. Zeke didn't seem bothered, but then, I doubted the sun exploding and swallowing the planet would bother Zeke overly much. Being at B-rank couldn't possibly be good for your scale measuring problems in relation to normal people. Speaking of ranks, I'd gotten my wishes in on the way back, putting me that much closer to F-rank.

    Yesterday's wishes were all used up on escape prep, though shockingly none of my teammates has actually triggered them. The spells had been keyed to potential lethal danger, which they'd all thankfully avoided, so they each had one in the pocket. Benny hadn't really engaged so much as stuck to the edges smashing things with a hammer, Jessie had let Randall do the fighting, and Callie had been working with me and our teamwork kept her from being exposed too much.

    Sadly in order to afford a full on teleport all the way to the Pavilion they'd had to keep things specific, which meant limiting the time covered by the escape, but I didn't consider the wishes a waste even if they never triggered. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Still, between that last available wish and the other five I had on hand that put me at eighteen points added to my total, that much closer to rank up. My stats were looking pretty good actually. I'd added the eighteen points to my Creation, bringing it up to an even one hundred and sixty. I'd also gotten topped up with some of the reserved attacks from my teammates.

    Wishmaster candidate status. G-rank. Ability: Beginner Wish- Five times a day grant a Beginner wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.

    Might-160
    Impact-12
    Fantasy-180
    Vitality-130
    Focus-148
    Perception-150
    Creation-160


    Progress to next rank:940/1000

    Stored:10 shadow attacks(two in reserve waiting to be granted), 9 fire attacks, 10 triple strenth tranq blows, 8 triple strength density shifted attacks. 8 spider leg attacks, 10 heal bursts (26 reserve waiting to be granted), 10 gravity attacks, 10 shadow clone, 27 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)
    Pet- Wolf named Jin


    Skills:Beginner Doom Sovereign Mastery,Beginner Enchanting Mastery (four charges per point of Impact), Lesser Cooking Mastery,Lesser Inventing Mastery, Lesser Stealth, Lesser Paired Dueling, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Gymnastics Mastery, Minor Swimming Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Minor Singing Mastery,Minor Poker Mastery, Minor Archery Mastery, Minor Boxing Mastery, Lesser Balam Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery, Minor Herbalism Mastery

    I'd gotten sick of not being able to tell how close I was without doing math, I'd tinkered around with trying to change the way I envisioned the stats themselves to surprisingly good results. As I checked my sheet though, I noticed something much more interesting. I'd been so caught up in Pietro dying and the fallout that I hadn't even noticed the change in my bond with Callie. My eyes snapped to hers. "Holy shit, Cal did your Paired Dueling Skill rank up to Lesser too?"

    As I listed off my stats to her, I also explained how I did the whole progress bar tweak. It was mainly an exercise in Fantasy. The representation of our stats was itself part of the same system that gave us abilities, so it could be affected by stats. Not much, and not to any real use, but little alterations were more than possible. Once I finished she checked her own stats and shared them, confirming her rank up.

    Calliope Reynolds: Beginner Shadow Embodiment- The ability to control and shape shadows either molding them into constructs of imbuing them into specially prepared objects to enable enhancement and control.

    Might-198
    Impact-12
    Vitality-142
    Fantasy-120
    Focus-58
    Perception-175
    Creation-135


    Progress to next rank:840/1000

    Pet-Wolf named Rellia

    Skills: Minor Tracking, Beginner Stealth, Beginner Trap Mastery, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery, Lesser Paired Dueling Beginner Shadow Manipulation Mastery.

    Aside from the rank up, I was even more shocked to discover something else. "Wait...I'm closer to F-rank than you?" I stared at her in dumbfounded astonishment. Callie had always been stronger than me. I mean, granted, she still was. My stats were far too spread out, while hers were much more concentrated in her main specialties. Not to the extent of someone like Jessie of course, but she had nearly forty more Might than me, just to name one stat. Still, my total was actually higher now.

    She sighed, giving me a fond smile. "Yes, idiot. For a while now. It's not a surprise. You've been working hard, and doing more than a bit of extra work with the Beast Lord Garden. I admit though, I didn't expect you to be a full hundred points more advanced. I guess I wasn't keeping track of your overall stats." It wasn't hard to notice, with the bond and my own knowledge of her, that her smile was a bit strained.

    "Hey." I said reaching out to take her hand. "I get that it's weird, but don't forget we have the same end point. We're both stopping right before F-rank for the tourney, and we have a whole week to get you there. That'll be a hundred and five points." I paused. "Shit, that means we're going to be short. I have some of my elixir total left I can use to make up the difference for me, but we'll have to rush yours during the tournament itself."

    She laughed sweetly and leaned up to kiss my cheek. "I know. I don't begrudge you the advancement. It's just weird. We met only a few months ago and you're already stronger than me. But I know we're a team and I'll catch up. The tournament should be a week or two long, so getting us both to the peak of G-rank in time shouldn't be a problem, don't worry so much."

    Zeke rolled his eyes. "Well, this is getting uncomfortable for everyone who isn't you two. I'm going to go check on the minions I traumatized. Anything is better than watching you stare soulfully into each others eyes. Seriosuly, you two even make ME sick, and with my Vitality that shouldn't be possible." I laughed along with Callie as Zeke walked away. Things were scary in some ways, but I was also pretty lucky. I decided to focus more on that. The rest of it I could figure out as it came.
     
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  24. Threadmarks: chapter 326
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    By the time we rejoined the others, Mel and Abel had mostly managed to talk down the terrified members of the Pavilion, though most of them were still shooting fearful looks at my uncle. Zeke ignored them, of course, and was sitting with Alden, who had offered him a beer and was having a grand old time talking to the younger man. Although...I wasn't sure how true that was. Alden looked older, but Zeke was a B-ranker. For all I knew my uncle and parents could be thousands of years old.

    Once they calmed them a bit though, Abel and Mel had distracted the others with the Skill Crystal, and they were in talks about using it to teach martial arts to all of them. I'd assumed Callie would be the one to imprint on it, but Abel made the very valid point that he was an Intermediate rank Master Candidate in Ragam, and would be able to help instruct the others even after they awakened the Skill and honed it with the crystal.

    Callie joined in the discussion, and as she did I walked over to slump down next to Alden and Zeke. "You two look thick as thieves." I said wryly. "I should have expected the two drunkest people I know would have some things in common." I pointed at Zeke. "Him I get Alden, but aren't you worried about the tournament? Your disciples are going to be in it. Even if you aren't concerned for the two of us, there are other Master Candidates coming. Hell, might be more than a few, who knows how strong the other forces in the Gloryfire System are."

    Zeke rolled his eyes. "Please. I'm surprised even a pair of Master Candidates popped up near here. Maybe if it was in the Unity Hub I could see a reason to worry, but the Gloryfire System is a wasteland. You might see more impressive people in the Glade Itself. This particular tournament is for the System as a whole, and all hundred of the Systems in the Axiom Cluster are going to be sending their best."

    That brought up something important I'd been putting off asking. "Ok, so what the hell is up with all that? Clusters, Systems, Planets, how is all that related?" I'd heard plenty of that kind of talk in passing. All I knew at the moment was that we were in the Gloryfire System right now, and on a D-rank planet. "Actually." I cut in before he could answer. "Why is it happening here anyway? Wouldn't a higher ranked planet be better?"

    That got a chuckle from my uncle. "No. Weaker planets work better, means the locals are less likely to try to assassinate the visitors. As for why it's happening here...well, let's just say that the WCP doesn't want anything going wrong and arranged for it to be in the territory of someone inclined to ensure that. The Gloryfire System is right on the edge of Cult space, as you may have noticed from their bullshit theatrics around here."

    Huh...so they had set this up because Zeke was around? I assumed that was what he meant. I didn't bring that up in front of Alden though. He might know Zeke was powerful, but that didn't mean he knew everything. Zeke nodded approvingly at my silence when the bearded man wasn't looking, then continued. "You're right though. You should know the layout of the local area at least. The planets thing isn't necessarily important, every system has multiple planets, depending on their size."

    He looked genuinely interested in the topic, and I listened with rapt attention as he informed me more about how the universe worked. "The Gloryfire System is a three star system, and every star has multiple terraformed planets surrounding it. There are several D and even C-ranked planets among that number. As I mentioned earlier, Gloryfire is one of a hundred or so Systems in the Axiom Star Cluster, and among those Systems there are other three star, four star, or even five or six star systems. The stars can, of course, be spread out and have multiple planets in their orbits that never intersect, though they all orbit a central star in the system, even if that star isn't easily visible from each planet."

    Ok, that made some sense. So we were orbiting one of the outer stars, which were orbiting the interior star of the System. "So the Axiom Star Cluster is the territory controlled by the Unity? Star Clusters are the same thing as Galaxies right?" I'd looked that up when I heard the term System, though information about the actual political formations of Systems was obviously not available, the structure of the physical phenomena was common enough."

    Zeke shook his head. "No. Not even close. A Cluster is a agglomeration of Systems, and a Galaxy is an agglomeration of Clusters. The Unity's territory is the smallest of the five factions, with only a single Galaxy to their name. This is because the Unity himself is the youngest god. Older and more powerful factions have several to even dozens in the case of the Empire and the Fairyland. Technically speaking the entire five faction alliance occupies a single Galactic Cluster, but we mostly just use the Universe as shorthand because there are no known civilizations outside the cluster."

    "So the Gloryfire System is one of hundreds of Systems in the Axiom Cluster, which is in the single Unity Galaxy?" My head was hurting at the concept of how fucking big the world was, and how many planets that would have to be. He mentioned multiple planets around each star, which could mean into the double digits, and the scale as that went up was mindboggling. I knew farming renown was important, but still, to expand to that scale...

    Seeming to see my shock, Zeke smiled. "Yeah. The Chiron Galaxy. Most people just call it the the Unity Hub. The Conglomerate is the managing government of the Axiom Cluster, to put things in perspective. Anyway, like I said, the 'geniuses' in this System won't be worth much. It's the ass end of nowhere and there are less than a dozen planets. Being able to spawn a pair of Master Candidates is already decent. You might see a few freaks with rare abilities or weird racial traits, but probably not many people on the level of Abel or the spear wielder. Maybe one or two more tops, since there are a few C-rank planets in the System." He said that like it was irrelevant.

    "So you said that the Black Sorrow Cult's Galaxy is near here?" I focused on another relevant issue. The Cult were enemies of mine and especially of my mom who was a Saintess of the Red Revenant Church. From what I knew Black Sorrow and the Red Revenant were old enemies from before they ascended, and this had carried over to their factions. Being able to kill the son of a Saintess would be a huge coup for the Cult.

    "One of them." Zeke said with a shrug. "They have like a dozen. As I mentioned, the Unity is the youngest of the gods by a large margin. Black Sorrow and the Red Revanent each control about twelve, counting their central and original territories, the Night Demon Abyss and the Holy Dominion respectively. Those are nicknames, like the Unity Hub. Most Galaxy names are pretty nondescript. Anyway the closest to us is the Extreme Void. The Gloryfire System is right at the edge of Extreme Void. Probably how the Darkling Institute made contact with the Cult in the first place."

    Yet another reason to get off Callus. Zeke wouldn't be protecting me forever. Once I hit D-rank I'd be a Master ranked Ascendant and officially recognized as being able to take care of myself. Forgetting the fact that I couldn't even reach D-rank on Callus, even if I could I wouldn't dare to do it so close to the Cult's territory. I decided once we finished our adventure in the Moonsong Glade we'd go out on our own. Maybe visit the central Cluster of the Unity Hub, or even take a look around the Empire or Faerieland. The latter was pretty insular, but even they maintained decent relations with the Wish Curse Palace. Not having our own territory made it possible to be uniquely entwined with the entire five faction alliance. Though now that I knew how big the Universe (or Galactic Cluster I guess) was, I doubted 'no territory was exactly literal. We probably had a home planet or even a system. Just no Galaxies to our name. I really did know so little about the world as a whole.

    Alden looked mildly fascinated by hearing about things at this level, but not as much as I'd expected. Sure enough he probably came from a larger force originally. Maybe not at the Galactic level like the factions, but still. Though that brought up an interesting question. "I've heard there are a lot of powerful clans. Are they all part of the factions? What about the WCP? We have a lot of branches don't we?" I knew anyone who reached S-rank like my grandfather was eligible to start a branch. Theoretically they could even start a new clan, though I was told that didn't really happen.

    "They're all part of the factions. Or they live among their territory anyway." Said Zeke. "Most of the Galaxies outside the main Galaxy of a faction are controlled by an S-rank clan. They're top officers of faction. The Kings of the Empire are all S-rankers who serve the Emperor directly for instance. Not every S-rank clan runs a Galaxy of course, but they mostly have their own territory. Our branches usually operate at a Galactic level, working alongside S-rankers in that specific Galaxy. Sort of like how the Deacon of the Rajak WCP operates alongside the local Unity leader. Being spread out like that keeps us from being too big a threat and let's us get along with the other factions, though of course the Wish power certainly doesn't hurt our PR at all."

    I decided that was enough learning for the day. My brain was already exploding with new information and if I kept going I wouldn't be able to focus on anything. I knew Zeke tried to ration the amount of this stuff that I learned to keep me from being overwhelmed and discouraged by the size of the Universe. I had a feeling you could take a century long class on global politics and force distribution and not even scratch the surface of the full picture.

    Seeming to sense my train of thought he laughed and clapped a hand on my shoulder. "It's not good to get too caught up in that stuff. You only really need to worry about the here and now, kid. This planet, this system. Soon the Cluster maybe, but nothing past that. Galactic matters need Galactic power, and you aren't even close." He said this kindly, not meaning it as an insult, and I took it that way too. I didn't want to go swimming in deep water until I was a shark.

    With a solemn nod I exhaled. "You're right. I just need to win the tournament and get that Moonglow Dew. Having the extra Impact will make me that much stronger compared to others my rank. Even if I run into some crazy monster with Master rank Skills at F-rank it's useless if they can't hurt me." Not that I was confident the Moonglow Dew could even DO that. That was a big gap to close. But it would definitely at least help. In the end, this all seemed complicated and scary, but it came down to the same thing Ascendant stuff always did. Want to be left alone? Get stronger. If I wanted to adventure and see the Universe with my friends I needed to have the muscle to back it up. I'd better get to work.
     
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  25. Threadmarks: chapter 327
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    In the end, Abel was the one to use the Skill crystal. Despite Callie's interest in trying it and passing on her Balam techniques to others more easily, Abel was a Master Candidate in Ragam. The martial art was extremely powerful and dangerous based on what we'd seen from him, and if we wanted the best possible results from the crystal our best bet was to let him do it.

    Sadly, since it had been prepared for Callie, the crystal was only G-rank, and couldn't contain an Intermediate Skill. Abel was able to imprint only the Beginner rank insights from his martial arts easily enough though. The more important factor was that Abel would be around to actually TEACH them Ragam. With his high standards he was able to help them advance much faster than Callie could.

    "Actually, I always wondered about that." I couldn't help but interject. "Where did you learn Ragam? It's not the same style that Mel and Alden use. I'd have figured if you used a martial art it would be the one your teacher uses. Alden mostly uses a grappling style that complements his gravity ability, but Ragam seems to be a striking art based on how you use it. Did you create it yourself?" I didn't think he had. I remembered Cicero's lackey telling me he used a powerful art and I was pretty sure he alluded to it being old.

    Abel just laughed. We were all lounging on the steps drinking soda from Alden's cooler (except Zeke and Alden who were still drinking beer). "Not even a little." He said in amusement. "I found it in an old book. It was mostly just exercises and some insights. Only enough to get me to Beginner, but past that point you really need to make your own way in any case. Not that some guidance wouldn't have helped but...what are you gonna do, right? I picked the thing up for a few chits as a kid and became obsessed with learning it. Alden actually tried to talk me out of it more than once, but I was a stubborn little bastard."

    "Was?" Muttered the red bearded man. But aloud he said. "I admit I underestimated you, boy. Even so, you got lucky. That book was a treasure. Still not sure how it ended up there. Probably some Fate sense malarkey. That doesn't mean it'll hold up against other geniuses though. That Spear Legion girl sounds like a legitimate threat to you, don't go assuming you're unbeatable because you're the biggest bully in a small playground."

    Abel's grin was so feral even the wolves looked disturbed. "Oh don't you worry old man. Complacency is the last thing on my mind. I'm so excited for this fight I can't even sleep. There are so many things I need to test and confirm that no one close to my level can help me verify. Too strong, too weak, all the same problem. The chance to pit my Ragam against a true warrior on an equal footing..." He looked over to Callie. "How early can I face her? I know the layout of this thing will be team then single elimination but do we know anything about the lineup?"

    Callie snickered at his childlike enthusiasm. "I've been asking around. As far as I can tell there will be eight rounds in the team battles, with ten thousand contestants spanning twenty five hundred teams. Final count with bys and everything will be forty teams making it to single elimination. Five rounds of that to pick the top ten. That'll be the main tournament that will have all the spectators. The thirteen rounds prior will be split up all over the city and happening all at once mostly, otherwise there would be no way to get it all done in any reasonable timeframe."

    "Thirteen rounds, and then a top ten elimination tournament." I said excitedly. "We're working as a team for the first eight at least, so that should help our chances. personally I can't wait for the five solo rounds. What are the chances we'll fight each other early into that?" I sucked at math, so it was more convenient to just as one of the others. Focus made your brain work better, but mostly at stuff you already used it for.

    Benny surprised me by answering. "Gets higher the longer it goes on, but in the first round, not that high. Single digit percentages. If you add in all the other people we know and assume that they'll make it far enough to be an issue we start seeing much higher chances of running into someone that could pose a problem. How far you get is a matter of luck as much as anything. If you run into a Master Candidate first round you'll be pretty much fucked."

    I nodded grimly, but that reminded me. "Speaking of Master Candidates can't we start looking into the other teams more? The ones not in Doomtown will be around in Rajak to feel out right? Cal, do you have a way we could bump into them? I'm not really a social person but they have like...gala's and stuff to celebrate big events right? No way they miss the chance to wine and dine the bigwigs from the more powerful planets in the System right?"

    Callie's face lit up. "Oh! That's a great point! I got so used to thinking about things from a martial point of view I completely overlooked that we can go to parties!" Everyone looked at her and she blushed. "I...I like parties. Big fancy galas were kind of a family thing for my mom and I when I was younger. They're good memories."

    "I'm glad to hear it." I said with a smile. "Because I know jack and shit about formal galas. I'll need plenty of help from you, Benny, and anyone else who we can rope in to be presentable." I looked at my best friend. "Speaking of being comfortable with formality, is your girlfriend available for etiquette lessons?"

    If there was one person we knew who would definitely be able to help with political maneuvering, it was Celine. Callie had learned some of that stuff by necessity growing up, but Celine was raised for it. From what Benny had told us, her mother was a high ranking elven official, and even though Celine wasn't her only child, or even one of the more important ones, she'd been brought up to be chess piece in that kind of environment.

    It actually bothered Benny a lot. As someone who essentially blew off every attempt his mother made to force him to play the good little rich boy, knowing Celine did everything her mother said frustrated him. He'd confided in me that he wished he could just help her see that it was all bullshit because she deserved to be happy, but in the end it wasn't his choice to make. She did what she did, and he cared about her so he was along for the ride.

    As such, my suggestion that we embroil her in a bunch of political intrigue was met with annoyance, but not outright rejection. He knew Celine would most likely want to take part, he just didn't particularly like that I was getting her involved in the first place. Eventually he sighed. "Fine." He spat. "I'll bring it up and let you know what she says. But you need to try not get her sucked into an asssassination plot or something."

    "Hey." I said in protest. "I'm not some kind of magnet for assassins..." I paused. "Actually, now that I think about it that's fair. I'll make sure we keep an eye out. Damn, I am a magnet for assassins, when did that happen? Other Ascendants get into cool fights and punch monsters and I have to worry about getting backstabbed by crazy cultists. That's unfair as hell." I complained.

    Callie snickered, patting my shoulder. "Just the price you pay for being awesome. Who told you to be so good looking and talented." He tone was solemn and sympathetic, but there was a sparkle of amusement in her eye. "You've attracted the envy of the universe." I glared at her for a second before her twitching smirk broke down into peals of laughter. My expression made it worse and she almost fell off her seat cackling.

    "I never mock you for your pain." I grumbled. But I was smiling too. I was glad to have friends who would make light of this kind of shit. Otherwise I'd turn into some angsty edgelord who spent all his time whining. I had fun being an Ascendant for the most part, and I wanted to keep that going. It was why I had a team in the first place. Everything was more fun when you did it with a bunch of friends.

    Jessie rolled her eyes at our antics. "I can help too. My brother took me to a few galas during our visit here, and when we were younger I got plenty of lessons on etiquette from Harvest. She's surprisingly socially conscious for a hermit that lives in the woods and plays with dirt all day."

    I laughed at that harder than I should have probably. Turning to Callie, I waited for her verdict. As team leader she would be making these calls, even more so since I knew nothing at all about politics. She was in a better position to decide who would be allowed to help out. Even my question about Celine was just a suggestion, though the two of us were in sync enough that I doubted she would shut it down.

    She seemed to mull it over for a bit before nodding. "Jessie and Celine helping should be fine. We're going to be in Rajak proper, not some dark district. Rajak has laws and rules. Even if villains sometimes break them, none of them will be stupid enough to attack a high ranking Ascendant gala with most of the Unity leadership there." She grimaced at that last part, and I knew why, but she forced herself to move on. "Anyway, the WCP should be sending a delegation too. They're one of the major organizations on this planet, so they won't miss the fun."

    Which meant Alexander would be there to act as support when she had to deal with her dad. I hadn't met Midknight yet, and honestly wasn't looking forward to the experience. My own issues with his behavior aside Callie wasn't going to have an easy time seeing him after so long. I reached out to grab her hand. "You can always skip this you know. You don't have to deal with him."

    She shook her head. "No. I'm sick of letting him control me. Not just directly, but by avoiding him I'm just giving him more power. I may not be up to his level in terms of ranking but I'm already strong enough to stand on my own. I'm part of a team and I'm not afraid of him anymore." She squeezed back, and I felt her fear and resolve through the bond.

    "Alright." I said. "But if things get too heavy let me know and we can bail. There's no reason to torture yourself if it's too much. You can always face him again later. Whatever you need to do." Midknight shouldn't be willing to throw away his rep by trying anything overt, and even if he did Alexander could stop him. If he attacked me it would go even worse. Callie deserved the chance to say her peace in a safe environment and I knew if she didn't get it she would be bothered by it for a long time.

    Knowing this had gotten too serious, we changed the subject, chatting about all the potential events and which to go to once we found out when and where everything would be. We still had a week of relaxing to do, and plenty of wishing, but nothing said we couldn't be productive and relax. Who knew what this next week would bring, and then after that...the tournament would finally begin.
     
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  26. Threadmarks: chapter 328
    Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    The next week flew by in a blur. We did end up talking to Celine, but on consulting her we decided to wait to attend a gala. According to her none of the really impressive forces would bother going to the pre-party because they hadn't shown off their strength yet. Without proving what they could do it would be harder to operate from a position of social superiority. Celine estimated that ninety percent of the important guests would wait until the end of the first round to make an appearance, so they could pressure the others with their performance.

    The biggest change that happened was obviously that I managed to max out my G-rank cultivation, reaching exactly one thousand points. I needed sixty points to do this, and at three points per wish that ended up being twenty wishes from the Beast Lord Initiates. It brought me up to a nice round one hundred and ninety in Vitality. Since I had thirty five wishes to burn over the week, that left me with fifteen, which I of course used to bring Callie up another forty five points before the tournament.

    Callie decided that her Perception had been slipping, and since she was going to be synergizing a new ability on rank up, she wanted to stack her highest stat as high as possible to see if she could stumble into some amazing ability like Jessie. The forty five points brought her Perception up to a full two hundred and twenty, with plans to take it even higher as she went. Perception was one of the main components of her build, even with the addition of her Shadow Manipulation Skill. You had to be able to keep track of fine details to manipulate and adjust them.

    Paying them off was an issue, of course, but we managed to come up with a pretty solid compensation. Callie often used her powerful Stealth Skill to hide us, but since it was more powerful than mine and I found it useful she was able to use stored Stealth charges to pay off her debt, giving me ten and promising another five. In fact, I was over the moon about the discovery, because having used two of those charges (leaving me with three left on top of the base ten I could hold) I realized something amazing.

    Experiencing a higher level of a Skill I already had at a decent point let me increase my understanding of it. Not to the level of ranking up immediately, but I was pretty sure if I kept using these I could get my Stealth Skill to Beginner and even to a high level of Beginner like Callie's extremely quickly.

    It opened up an entirely new way of training for me. Granted, the circumstances were pretty specific, since I was positive it wouldn't work with Skills I'd granted myself, but I was sure I could find some Skills my friends had that I did too and experience them so we could learn faster. Hell, we could probably do it with Paired Dueling if I granted some wishes to Abel and Mel, at least if I hadn't used up all my wishes for the day already. I was going to focus on Stealth for now though, at least until Callie hit her cap. We needed her there by the end of the tournament after all.

    Regardless, we were in our best condition, and that was why we were all extra excited to find ourselves standing in the Varia Coliseum in Rajak, waiting for the announcement of the beginning of the tournament, as well as the selection for everyone's first round battle. It wasn't just us and our team either. Aside from our two fellow fighters, Benny, Jessie, Alexander, Sloane, Cark, Melinda, Baric, Croll, Lament, Wren, Sydney, and several other friends from Doomtown were all crowded together in the stands of the massive white marble structure, staring down at the circular stage in the center.

    "So." Benny asked curiously. "What is the point of this huge extravagant ceremony? Because I feel like they could have just picked the lineups out of a hat and send us all a text."

    Celine snorted out a laugh at that from next to her boyfriend, getting shocked looks from everyone who actually knew her. She gracefully ignored them before clearing her throat. "It's a sign of status. A show of the resources and manpower that the Unity can bring to bear as hosts. It's-"

    "It's dick measuring." Cut in Callie, the only one of us who didn't seem happy to be here. I knew she was expecting to see her dad, so I didn't blame her. "They want to show everyone how impressive and grandiose they are. It's a petty attempt to save face preemptively because they know their teams are going to get crushed." Some of our Doomtown acquaintances who didn't know Callie's story seemed surprised by the venom, but the rest of us weren't.

    Alexander nodded under his darkened cloth wraps. "Midknight has always been very concerned with appearances. In some ways it makes him a better Ascendant, and in some ways it limits him. While reputation is certainly important to us, you can only make so much of an impression with a carefully curated image. To truly inspire awe or even terror, one must step outside the conventional and do things the masses wouldn't ever expect."

    That drew a snort from where my uncle sat behind us. "Shock and Awe vs. PR is an age old debate among Ascendants. I personally hold to that school of thought myself though. A real legend grows in the telling, trying to prune every branch of your story to perfection just slows it down. Only cowards who are afraid of recursion bother with that much image management. It's a sign of subpar willpower."

    Cass, who was here with the group, turned to glare at him. "Hush uncle Zeke it's starting!" Despite yelling at a literal force of nature, Cass seemed completely unworried and turned back to watch the stage as a dark figure climbed it. Callie tensed up as Zeke shot Cass a fond smile. I stared down at the black armored form that I was pretty sure had to be Midknight, as he strolled to the center of the stage.

    The man had presence, I'd give him that. Granted, so did every E-ranker I'd ever met. You needed to be something special to make it to the peak of cultivation for a planet, even when that peak was as low as it was here. Midknight strode across the white marble stage, swept along on a carpet of rolling shadows that spilled from his pauldrons, tumbling to his feet like a cape only to buoy him aloft like some sort of ghostly warrior general.

    I took Callie's hand, letting her grip my fingers so tightly I lost feeling in them as she glared down at the man attracting all of the attention from the now silent crowd. Midknight stopped in the center of the stage, glancing around slowly as if choosing his targets, both in terms of words and who he would address. Finally, he spoke. "Conflict." He intoned. "War, by another name."

    His voice was deep and resonant, almost hypnotic. I'd expected him to sound weasely. Guess I had been making assumptions. He continued speaking. "Some would say this sentiment belies our purpose here today. To gather in celebration and pit ourselves against allies. They would speak of peace. Of togetherness. Of...Unity."

    That got a bit of a chuckle, though it was diffuse. People were too wrapped up in what he was saying to laugh. It wasn't really going in an obvious direction. "Fools!" He barked, making everyone jump. "War does not make a mockery of alliance. It lends it strength. It does not contradict peace, for even in the tamest peace must we do battle with our inner selves. War is our nature. Our purpose. Our core."

    "Is he serious right now?" I whispered to Callie, making sure to use Stealth to prevent my voice from being overheard. Apparently my Stealth Skill wasn't good enough to hide my words from someone at Midknight's level, because the blue eyes in the helmet, the ones that looked so much like Callie's, snapped to my face.

    Far from being agitated, my girlfriend...well, smiled would be a generous description, but she bared her teeth in something approximating the gesture. SHE didn't bother to use Stealth when she responded. Or keep her voice down. "Unfortunately. The old man has always loved to hear himself talk. Shame he's too self involved to notice no one else likes hearing his voice as much as he does."

    You could have heard a fucking pin drop. Every single eye in the whole arena swiveled to fix on Callie, who was still baring her teeth at Midknight in that same not-smile. The man sighed. "So many years Calliope. Yet you remain so disrespectful. Your mother's influence I assume. Amelia never did know how to keep her mouth shut. Silence yourself girl, I'll deal with you when this is over."

    "The FUCK you will." I snarled. I'd like to claim that I was trying to lure him into attacking so Zeke could smash him like a bug, but honestly I hadn't even known I was speaking until I said that. I also hadn't noticed myself standing up. "You come near her and I'll fucking kill you. I might not be able to fight you in a head on conflict, but I bet you'd have some real trouble surviving an E-ranked spike of metal through the eye while you sleep."

    I admit. That wasn't the most...diplomatic thing to say. But I could feel Callie's rage and hate through our connection, not to mention my own because I LIKED Amelia, and fuck this guy for blaming her when he'd been the one who humiliated and left her. I expected him to get angry, to try to lash out at me, but fortunately for my anonymity, someone else had something to say too.

    "Enough, Paul." Said a quiet murmur from our side. "This is enough. Have you really become so pathetic and pompous that you need to poke at your own daughter's wounds for all to see?" I noticed he used Midknight's real name this time, and realized it was because Midknight had done the same to Callie. Alexander was letting his brother know that anything he did to her The Nothing would pay back in kind. He was offering her protection.

    Not to be outdone, Melinda snorted from the other side. "Please, like there's anyone on the planet who doesn't know Midknight is a brownnosing rat bastard who sucks up to the public and treats everyone around him like shit when no one is looking. If there's a Hypocrisy Skill his is probably at Master rank." Her mocking sneer was so unlike her I had trouble even processing it for a second.

    On second thought though the Unity and the WCP were public enemies. Not to mention Melinda was allied with our Pavilion and I was a guest elder of her Garden. She was making her stance clear, probably because if Midknight chose to make an issue of this he would be effectively challenging THREE E-rankers, Melinda, her companion Travis, and Alexander himself.

    The man's blue eyes bored into our group, icy with rage, but to my surprise, he just chuckled. "Criminals and trash will always show their true nature. By all means, put on your show, clowns. I'll accommodate you. I imagine our guests would love to see such a comedic performance." Melinda looked livid, but Alexander made a gesture. With a bedgrudging nod she sat back down, and they all stared at each other for a minute before returning to the matter at hand.

    I winced. Midknight was good. Any further provocation would vindicate him and make the other two look like children. It was the same thing the triplets had done back in Valen. He'd diffused that way too easily. Still, I wasn't stupid enough to think this was over. His cold blue eyes had locked on Callie and I as he resumed his speech. We'd challenged his authority, and he wasn't going to let it pass. That was fine. I might not be able to fight him, but I had ways of making his life harder. He could bring it the fuck on.
     
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  27. Revanandfriends

    Revanandfriends Getting sticky.

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    Always love airing family laundry to a massive crowd of people XD.
     
  28. Wickian

    Wickian Not too sore, are you?

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    After looking at the post history I can see this author has made almost daily updates for over a year. Is he really a flesh and blood man like the rest of us?
     
  29. RainwithPromise

    RainwithPromise He Who Walks, Reads and Yearns

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    What chapter was this again? theres a bit too many to find the specific chapter.

    such a shame this ain't a NSFW work would've gotten a lot more attention and you make good smut :V oh well still enjoyed this one tho.
     
  30. Malcolm Tent

    Malcolm Tent Monkey with a typewriter.

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    I post two chapters a day except on Saturdays, where I technically post one but I tend to write it the day before and take the day off lol. One on this and one on one of my two YJ stories, or my ultimate marvel OC on Sundays.
     
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