NOVEL NEXT Chapter Three Hundred Seventy One
I had to admit that the people running this tournament were smarter than I'd given them credit for. The next day was downtime before the semi-finals, and to get everyone pumped they released the names. At this point, everyone had fought enough times and there were few enough people left that anyone who wanted to be prepared (Abel didn't) would be. In light of that, all the matchups were trumpeted from the rooftops.
It had only taken me a second to realize why the five way brawl was set up for the finals. Besides being big and flashy, it meant they could advertise ten different semi-final matches, maximizing the amount of attention each of the contestants got. Which was how we got the announcement that Abel was going to be fighting Lament for his match.
The grin on my mentor's face was so wide I expected his face to split when he found out. We were all gathered around the scan box in the living room, watching the coverage of the tournament so far. They'd been cherry picking the best moments to play for everyone on Callus and all the surrounding worlds with champions involved.
When my own fights came up, I froze. "Wait...I had the whole fight under cover of Moonlit Night. How are there so many clips from my solo matches?" I hadn't really watched any of the coverage, wanting to stay focused on training, but now that I was out I was free to enjoy the downtime, especially since Abel's match wasn't until tomorrow.
That got a snort from Abel. "Please, you think they don't have counters for Stealth effects? Those barriers that keep out audience sound act through Perception, same basic principle as Stealth itself, erasing sounds as they go through, but it ALSO acts as a sort of revealing lens for anyone or anything looking through from the outside. Nothing more boring that seeing two people vanish at the start of the fight and the pop up after its over."
Huh. That made sense. "Oh, well." I said with a shrug. "I knew some of my secrets would get out. Just a shame I won't be seeing the points from this tournament, since I'm at my cap."
Abel shook his head. "Nah, I told you there's a ceremony for rank up built into the tournament itself. That way the event doesn't end until the contestants have hit the next rank. Otherwise why waste all that time on promotion. Once it ends you'll get all the points at once, kind of like the scavenger hunt the academy does."
I tried to remember if someone had mentioned something like that. I remembered hearing about the ceremony, but wasn't sure if I ever asked why they had it. I turned back to the screen, where I saw a clip of Lament's insane lightning ability. "So." I said seriously. "You think you can beat her? Because she's about as scary as you from what I saw. I know you were holding back on me, but by how much exactly."
"Ah." He said with a grin. "But that would be telling. As for whether I can beat her...who knows. I look forward to finding out though. Don't worry kid, if I lose, it's not going to be because I was slacking off."
Cass, who had decided to watch with us, was staring at the screen with a serious expression. "Hey." She said solemnly. "Mr. Abel, can you teach me to fight?" We all froze, turning to look at the small girl and her intent gaze as she took in the on screen combat.
"Cassidy!" Snapped Cark. "That's not something you just ask like that. Mr. Abel has things to do, he's still in the tournament and he doesn't have time to teach you combat."
My eyes were wide with panic. "Cass, that's not really a good idea. What even made you ask that?" Having been through Abel's training, I knew it wasn't at all something I would ever put a child through. I could sense Callie's shock and unease through the bond as well, so it wasn't just me.
She shrugged. "Mr. Abel is really strong. I want to learn to be strong like that too. In case someone tries to hurt me again." Her voice was...flat. But too flat. And I detected a slight shudder at the end. She was trying her hardest to seem disaffected, but she was still obviously disturbed by what happened to her, not that I blamed her at all. We all knew about her bad dreams, and as much as she repressed it most of the time and played the happy carefree little girl, there were other signs too.
We all went quiet at that, all of us except Abel. "Sorry kid. I won't teach you to fight. You're too young for my kind of training." Her face screwed up in anger. Before she could voice her complaint though, he held up a hand. "But I CAN teach you martial arts. At least until we leave for the Moonsong Glade. Nothing fancy or dangerous, just some low risk training and forms. To help build confidence."
That...was less objectionable. I knew that learning martial arts could help a person feel more in control and safe, and if he was planning to teach her just Ragam, and gently at that, it seemed fine to me, but in the end it wasn't my call. We looked at Cark, who was scowling. He could see the benefits too, but I could tell he didn't want to admit it.
It must have been rough, knowing she needed help and not being able to give it. I mean, sure any of us could have taught her, but we didn't want to shove her into combat. She'd been through enough. Now she was asking though, and it clearly meant a lot to her. Eventually, he sighed. "Alright. But I want to sit in on the lessons, and if I feel like you're being too harsh I reserve the right to end them at any time."
In an uncharacteristic show of seriousness, Abel nodded, his face set. "Of course." He turned to Cass, standing up only to kneel down in front of her. "I'm just going to teach you exercises, some of the forms I found in the book where I learned Ragam. Even so, this won't be easy. Our martial art is time consuming and difficult to master, and you may never make much progress in it. Even if you become an Ascendant, not everyone can learn Ragam."
Seeming to ignore that last part, Cass squealed with joy and hurled herself onto him, hugging his neck as he laughingly stood up. He nodded to Cark. "Going to be swamped tomorrow, might as well start the lessons right away so she can work while I'm not around." He looked at Jessie. "Think you could come with? I think having a healer on hand in case she falls or something would be a good idea."
Jessie looked thrilled to be included. "Of COURSE! I'd love to come watch her practice. Can we do it in the outside building so we can hang out with Randall and the puppies after?" The building behind the house was...well we weren't sure of its original purpose. There were some hints of it being a garage, or maybe some kind of barn, and there was a swimming pool full of broken glass jars and multicolored twenty sided dice out there. No one was willing to touch it, because the whole mess was somehow F-ranked, and Zeke thought it was too funny to get rid of.
That was in the back though, and there was a big empty hangar type room in the front that Jessie had co-opted for the animals, and had spent days decorating and sprucing up.
With an eye roll, Abel nodded, and the small group headed outside, with Rime deciding to tag along because we were in the house with Zeke and therefore safe, plus she seemed fascinated by seeing Abel fight, which I couldn't exactly blame her for given the battles she'd seen from him.
Once they were gone, I turned to Benny. "Alright, so I got yesterday's points traded, how about we get today's out of the way early."
He shrugged. "I'm not against that. Yesterday was Might, and I'll do Might again today to even things up. Focus has been pulling ahead." He fished out a small bag, tossing it to me, and I heard the clink as I jingled it around. Chits. This would bring me up to one hundred seventy one combined with the five from yesterday. He made his wish, pushing his Might up to three hundred and nine and his total points to seven hundred eighty three.
Benny finished up his wishes and decided to go check in with Celine, who had been staying with us, though mostly keeping to her room. With him gone, I slumped back into the couch with a world weary sigh. Callie frowned at me, having been letting us get the wishes done and enjoying the show until she felt my unease. "You ok babe? You seem out of it. Anything I can help with?"
"I...guess not?" I said contemplatively. "I was pretty down about losing until Cass's speech yesterday, and now I'm fine, but I'm also kind of lost. I've been going full tilt for so long, and now I have to just stop. The whole hurry up and wait thing is giving me whiplash. I know we have to wait for Abel to do his thing and leave it up to him, but at this point I can't sit still. I feel like I should be training or something."
She made a pensive sound. "Nope." I raised an eyebrow at the dismissal. "No training, that's an order from your team leader. Until the end of the tournament wishes are the only Ascendant thing you're allowed to do. Until then, you need to find other things to occupy your time. Visit friends, get a hobby, whatever you want." She gave me a sly look. "Maybe lavish your adoring girlfriend with attention. Or even do two of those things at once."
"I'm not sure cooking for you counts as a hobby." I said wryly. "But I'm starting to think you only like me for my culinary skills."
She gave me wicked grin, leaning in for a kiss. "That's a lot of talking and not a lot of getting in the kitchen to make me a sandwich." When I chuckled, she squeezed me tight. "You know I love you. I love you because you're sweet, and kind, and loving, and brave, and you're a total beefcake. The fact that you're a gourmet chef and happen to be a treasure magnet is just icing on my absolute favorite kind of cake."
I nodded solemnly. "High praise, given how much you enjoyed the one I made last night. But fine, I see your point. I'll try to take some me time. I don't suppose watching matches counts?"
"It does not." She said firmly. "Though you can still go, because we need to support our team. It's the right thing to do as teammates. Plus, come on, you have to admit you want to see Lament and Abel face of. They're the two scariest G-rankers I've ever seen."
I laughed at the admission, and she snuggled up to me to get started on this whole downtime thing. Of course, that didn't mean she let me pick what we watched, she connected her scan ring and started flipping through the channels on the scan box until she got to a cooking channel. From her surreptitious glance at me it was clear she was hinting at something but I just snorted settled in to watch. Though I had to admit, I'd never actually made stuffed peppers before, maybe I actually would give that a shot.