NOVEL NEXT Chapter Three Hundred Seventy Four
Three days of downtime passed far more quietly than expected. Granted, it wasn't my downtime, it was Abel's, but still I'd figured I'd be more nervous about the last round. My odd sense of peace continued until the last minute though, and the morning of, I finished up my wishes with Benny. With another fifteen G-ranked chits in my bank for my weapon fund, I was free to give Benny another sixty points, forty in Focus and twenty in Might over the break. Then I headed to talk to Abel about his final fight.
Getting seats for the finals when it was all in one arena was rough, but we couldn't leave him by himself. The E-rankers had it covered though, and we managed to snag enough entrance passes for all of our close friends. Benny, Jessie, Celine, Mel, Rime, Lament, Wren, Alden, Sydney, Megan, and Sloane were all coming with, hoping to cheer on my terrifying teacher and maybe get their faces on camera cheering. Some of the other teams we'd made friends with had their own invites too, this was going to be a big event.
"You're sure you're healed up?" Asked Callie with concern as Abel actually stretched before we headed to the arena. Warm-ups weren't his usual style.
He just waved it off. "I'm fine, I called and talked to Shane's cousin, who put me in touch with Valk. He won his match, and we both agreed that the best possible outcome is one of us winning, so we talked through a couple of combinations to maximize our combat potential." We all turned to stare at him questioningly, but he just winked. "No spoilers."
"I'm surprised though." I volunteered. "I'd have pegged you for the lone warrior type. I wouldn't have figured you would want to team up with someone you don't know."
Frowning, he nodded at Lament. "Yeah well, pigsticker over there showed me that I can't take this lightly. Chances are some of these bastards are tougher than she was, and while I'm confident I can take any G-ranker around, I'm not confident I can take FOUR of any G-ranker around. If I'd been fighting four of her, even before she shamelessly cheated and lost anyway, I'd have been in trouble. Barely."
Lament twitched, and Wren tried his best not to snicker. The other members of their team had stayed behind, but Wren was a friend, and he was enjoying Abel tormenting his captain. Of course, like he'd said before, Abel didn't hold it against her, but he DID love to mess with people, and was regularly poking her about the loss. The pigsticker comment was particularly cutting, since he'd smashed her spear in the fight and she had no way to get a new one on planet that was up to her standards, especially with the rank up.
To her credit, Lament didn't argue the point. She wasn't sorry, and had admitted that, but she also had a good fight and the consequences were all on her. She considered the right to shit talk Abel's due for winning. I decided interrupting would be the nicest thing I could do here. "So did we get confirmation on the finalists? I never checked."
Callie nodded. "The Walking War and Firn both made the finals. Helix didn't shockingly, got bounced out by some shapeshifter. Along with Abel and Valk that's the top five right there. The shapeshifter is from the Cult, as far as I can tell. Whereas I think Wilder, the Walking War, has ties to the Empire. Nobody is sure WHO the Final Frost Heaven is backed by, if anyone, but Firn is supposed to be damned scary."
Abel shook his head. "He's not a shapeshifter. He's got a racial trait. He's a Hyde. Valk sent me some videos of his matches. He's...not weak. Aside from being able to take on a massive supernaturally powerful form, he has some kind of black energy like what that asshat in Doomtown used." He pointed at my uncle. "Zeke says its called the Rath and the Ruins, and it's a martial art from the Cult, though not directly created by Black Sorrow. Much less prestigious and powerful than the Fist art that Alec uses."
That was surprising to me, but when we looked at Zeke he just shrugged. "He paid for the info, so it wasn't helping too much to give it to him. Is Natalie coming with us or is she going on her own?"
"Her own. She and Perit and their other teammate got tickets easily. Speaking of tickets, we should go shouldn't we? It's going to start soon."
During the conversation most of us had trickled out to wait in the car, Jessie starting it up and everyone packing in tightly, even with the expanded space. We got there pretty quickly from my view, since we didn't talk much on the drive. Everyone sort of mutually agreed to let Abel concentrate, and even my usually relaxed mentor himself was quieter than expected.
When we arrived, we all headed up to sit down in the stands, not finding anyone we knew. We'd brought our own party though, so to speak, so we didn't need to add to it. We were in assigned seating, because otherwise there was no way we would have ended up together, because the whole place was packed to the rafters. Or would have been. If open top arenas had rafters. It was pretty full, was the point.
Rather then the sand pit though, this one had a huge square ring surrounded by flat ground. The ring itself had a pentagonal shape on it where each of the contestants would take an equadistant place from the center and from each other. Before the match started though, Midknight himself strode out onto the platform.
Callie tensed, but I put a hand on her arm. As much as I hated that asshole, and as much as I wanted her to get another chance to teach him a lesson, I knew this wasn't the time. Politically though, this situation was a time bomb. We couldn't afford to throw gas on the fire when there was so much happening...actually, there was a LOT happening. I looked around suspiciously.
This would be the stupidest, and as such in some ways the smartest, time to attack again. If they thought they had a method to counter the defenses here it would provide a huge amount of reputation. But what was the point? By the time it ended the winner would be chosen. Was I being paranoid? Or was this my Fate sense latching onto a stray thought?
Midknight cleared his throat. "Citizens!" He intoned, voice booming a bit more ominously than it had last time. He was hamming it up for the larger crowd. I wasn't sure what caused the shiver down my spine, but the effect was clearly felt throughout the arena. "We bring to you the final battle. The last moment. These warriors have bled and fought and cursed to reach this hallowed stage, and this is their reward. Glorious combat."
I got the incredibly strong urge to roll my eyes, and realized it was coming through the bond when Callie DID roll her eyes. I smirked at her from behind my mask, but neither of us spoke as Midknight continued. "Power. Skill. Determination. All important qualities, important building blocks on the path to success. But in truth, these blocks are all made of a single material, one substance that makes up the blood and bone of every truly great warrior. Victory."
He gestured widely to the ring. "And as with all true Victory, only one may claim it. Only a single warrior may emerge at the peak. These five competitors will now show you how those building blocks are forged. Show you the way they're laid down, so you might follow that path yourselves one day."
"Wow." I murmured under my breath, making sure to use Stealth so I wasn't heard. "He REALLY likes the sound of his own voice." I'd thought Callie had been being hyper critical when she mentioned that, but it seemed like she was just being literal.
My girlfriend used Stealth herself to stifle a giggle, and Midknight either didn't hear or didn't care as long as others couldn't, as he pressed on. "The competitors may use any means within the rules. They may team up, may even fall upon a single person as a group and beat them down. Anything is permitted. But at the end, when this finishes, only one will be crowned the victor. These five champions represent the strongest of their generation. Roland Wilder, of the War God Regiment. Apollyon of the Starchaser Pavilion, Firn of the Final Frost Heaven,Valk of the Wish Curse Palace, and Jack Carrax of the Weeping Clown Tomb. Which of them will emerge victorious? Only time will tell."
He snapped his fingers and shadows leapt up, obscuring the five points of the ring and receding to reveal the contestants. "You may begin." He slammed his palms together and the armor exploded into a shadowy mist, obscuring the ring for a moment before it faded away, revealing the five combatants standing across from each other, waiting for the right time to attack.
Everyone watched with bated breath. Abel was standing to the left of Valk, close enough to reach quickly, of course, but the five of them all just...stood. This was combat at the highest possible level. These were all people like Abel, monsters in human form, and the second one of them moved things would begin with a bang and they all knew it.
As they observed, I took in the forms of the enemies. The Hyde, Jack Carrax, was a tall, pallid looking man with sunken eyes and a hungry expression. His matted, greasy blonde hair hung limply to his shoulders under a tall top hat, and he wore an apron covered in blood.
Firn was a small, delicate looking girl with purple hair and blue eyes the color of ice, she wore a pair of purple shorts and a black sleeveless shirt with a purple silk jacket over the top of it. Her skin was chalk white, almost bloodless, and her expression was as cold as the ice she used in combat.
Finally, Roland was a short, dark skinned man with a wide, amiable smile and close cropped hair. His eyes were hazel, and were the only part of him that didn't scream kind and approachable, his gaze analytical and dangerous. He had on a functional set of leather armor, dyed red hide covering his entire body except for his face. I wasn't sure what the hide was, but it appeared to be F-ranked like my armor was.
The lull before the fight lasted for almost an entire minute, analyzing, waiting, deducing, until finally the tension snapped like a rubber band. Jack turned, shifting from a tall, thin man to a monster, easily ten feet tall and grotesquely bulging with muscle, arms so long they scraped the ground from a standing position. He hurled himself at Firn, who flicked a wrist to conjure a massive wall of pitch black permafrost in front of herself.
My gaze was dragged away as Abel used his spatial lubrication to flash across the distance to Valk, one of each of their hands clapping together as the air blurred. Suddenly a massive manifestation of Abel's other hand appeared cupped in front of them, but this time it wasn't normally colored. Instead the hand was made of blue gel.
The gel was Valk's ability, and it was lucky it was, because a wave of G-ranked swords came spearing down from above to pincushion our guys, stopped by the gel formed hand before even getting close. Roland surged forward to engage, and I turned to look at Callie with worry. Those attacks had all been terrifying. I hoped Abel would be ok, but all I could do was trust in my mentor. However this went down though, one thing was sure. This would be a hell of a fight.