NOVEL NEXT Chapter Three Hundred Sixty Four
State of Grace flowed through me as I dropped to a knee, planting my hands on the ground to trigger my usual magma limb and introduce poison into the mix. I was about to charge forward to help, but a hand caught my shoulder. I turned to see Abel frowning at me. "No." He said bluntly.
"What do you mean, no? My cousin is fighting for her life here!" I tried to shake him off, but even boosted, his Might was much higher, his hand remained locked around me, and probably would unless I took a swing.
He pointed at the red wall of briars. "No. She isn't. She's under a defensive enchantment or something. It's holding, even if her guards seem to be dipping out of it to engage. We aren't rushed, as much as it feels like it. You need to wait for the others to engage first. A crowd of F-rankers mainly focused on you would be fatal. Once Rime and Randall arrive we can engage with our full forces."
He sounded...weird. Serious and efficient. I'd seen him pissed, seen him casual, but Abel when he was operating in a serious manner was weird to me. It was jarring enough to make me stop and think. With the red barrier still up, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Sadly, just because I agreed to wait, didn't mean the figures would. We'd been noticed, and while most of them stuck with trying to chip through the red barrier and take pot shots at the guards when they made a move, two of the F-rankers turned and started heading toward us.
"It's him." Said the muffled voice of one of the figures. "He killed Pietro. But not just Pietro. Can we fight someone who killed an E-ranker?"
The other shook their head, both of their black fathomless hoods pointed at me, not bothering to keep it down. "He's like the girl, another of the wish spawn. His protection doesn't cover us, as hers doesn't cover us." He looked over a shoulder as the others arrived, The Four, Randall, Rime, all hitting the crowd of F-rankers. There were more than six of them, seven in fact, not counting these two, but Rime engaged two of them so I wasn't worried.
I WAS worried about being up against a pair of F-rankers, even admittedly weak ones, with just a group of G-rank backup. I felt Callie step up next to me. With Mel, Rime, The Four, Jessie, and Randall on the other side of the clearing it was just me, Benny, Celine, Callie, and Abel over here. I considered using Moonlit Night, but it would hamstring my allies, so I stuck with my current boosts.
As they drew closer, I got more and more angry, my hands almost shaking. These fucking lunatics. Attack my family, kidnap children, try to murder my loved ones, they just wouldn't stop. Just wouldn't give up. Why couldn't they just leave us alone? They were fucking poison, a toxic rot pervading the whole planet.
I stalked forward, yanking my arm from the grip of a distracted Abel, and strode toward them. The closest figure, the weaker one, chuckled softly under their robe, and flicked a finger casually. A dozen spears of bone erupted from the ground, and I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind him. He was already turning lazily to meet me, which was when I triggered Steam Arrow. Buffed with touch of tears, consecration of flame, and Mercy Kill, and with my speed enhanced by State of Grace, the arrow of boiling, now toxic liquid smashed into his face.
Despite the hood, there must have been no face covering, because the figure reared back with a roar. Or maybe there was, but Heavy Hands pierced some of the defenses, either way, the hood fell back, revealing an olive skinned girl with close cropped hair, one side of her head shaved.
Her face was being chewed away by acidic boiling steam, though it was already starting to heal, her eyes had been right in front of me. I thanked the gods that Steam Arrow worked through my mask since despite the spitting motion, it condensed right in front of my face, and then triggered another. She screamed, clawing at her face, and I took a second to look to the other one as I felt Callie appear behind the girl whose face I'd spat in and slam a leg into the back of her knees.
The other one was pretty distracted. Mel had circled around with her flame movement and joined Abel in assaulting the second figure, whose cloak had shredded to reveal a tall bald man with glowing veins covering his unnaturally distended body. He was trying to punch holes in Abel, who was never where the man thought he was, and was tanking a ton of very scary blows.
Deciding that wasn't something to worry about I dipped down and triggered Sucking Mud, along with a shadow attack, activating the Dark Swamp. The tendrils lashed out to grip bone girl, starting to drag her down, but she had gotten past the pain, even if the poison was slowing her healing. She screamed, and the ground around her was ripped to shreds by a torrent of dark bones.
Each bone was gleaming with a black sheen, like they were coated in oil, and they split apart the Dark Swamp with sheer numbers, displacing all the earth within that ten foot radius. Callie lashed out with a hand and a palm of shadow smacked me aside as a grasping claw of black bone formed from the spikes and tried to grab me. Apparently we now warranted being taken seriously.
Making sure Benny, Mel, and Abel were out of range, I used Moonlit Night, shrouding the area nearby in fog. I felt Callie reach through the bond and I let her connect to the skill, allowing her to see inside the fog like I did. She didn't get the boost to attacks that I did, but mobility in a fathomless fog bank imbued with stealth was a hell of a useful advantage. I triggered Ripple Running, bouncing off three separate spaces to land next to her where she'd dodged the attack.
I grimaced as I saw the slash on her thigh, one of the bones had slipped between her leotard and boots and through the gap in her jacket. I put a hand on her shoulder and triggered a heal burst. "Alright." I grunted. "Really don't like her. Any ideas?" Inside the mist Stealth was all pervading, which meant we could talk openly without being overheard by a third party, though it was a trick that would only work with Callie due to our bond allowing her to bypass the concealment.
She scowled at the hooded form still climbing out of the hole left in the muck. "Not sure. That bone power is annoyingly versatile. Not sure if it has a range limit, but she seems to be able to use it in close proximity to herself as well as far away. I'm PRETTY sure she can't just pincushion the entire clearing, since she hasn't yet. But if we get close we need to put her down hard or she's going to ventilate us before she drops. Any chance the poison will take her down?"
"No." I growled. "And tranqing is out too. My tranq attacks aren't strong enough to take down an F-ranker, even with poison as a carrier, without some serious damage to soften them up and compromise their healing factor. Kind of wishing Benny kept that big ass hammer. Any chance the shadow dragon might be able to get things done? We could have it attack from the fog."
Shaking her head, Callie sighed as we watched the bone girl spin in circles trying to see anything. "No. The dragon is only as strong as the combined power of our skills. The shadows are G-ranked and my Might isn't high enough to hurt someone cross rank, and even with stone limb reinforcing it wouldn't bridge the gap. Maybe with a density shift and a few bonuses stacked up, but I'd have to support most of the soul weight myself since I'd be holding the construct. That's too much for me to handle."
I let out a frustrated huff. "Ok so we need a single powerful attack, something that can smash her defenses before she can react and spear us." I paused. "I've got nothing. I have a few single shot finishing blows but nothing that can cross ranks with any certainty. You don't either." I turned and strode out of the fog, Callie following as we left the hooded figure thrashing around. Once we were out I bellowed over to Abel. "Hey! Apollyon. We need a finishing blow for this F-ranker. Want to switch?"
Abel gracefully slid through space out of the way of a blow from the big guy before smashing a right cross into his jaw. "Can you guys take this one? He's mostly softened up but he's an ornery fucker, just won't stay down." The huge man was snarling in rage and hate, glowing green blood dripping from his malformed and battered face. Guess his blood was a carrier for whatever was boosting him.
I triggered Double Trouble, then dismissed and retriggered Moonlit Night, letting the fog disperse from around the bone girl and condense around the big guy. "Yeah, go ahead." I said before the fog closed around us. Abel had seen the direction needed and booked it out of the fog as soon as it came up, and I turned my attention to the big guy.
He was bruised and bleeding and seriously damaged. Abel had to have used that weird multi blow stacking ability to beat him this badly. My arms were still magma, and with the bonuses from State of Grace and Moonlit Night, Mercy Kill was able to boost me enough to take advantage of the tranq blows.
Since the tranquilizer punches were triple strength, all the power added up was enough to start to chip away at this guy, since his body was too busy healing his beating to use the Vitality to counter my poison. And so began the slow and steady process of beating the asshole into the dirt. Without the ability to see and with my own boosted speed, I was able to avoid him easily, especially with Eye of Revelation helping me predict his punches. I rabbit punched him with a tranq blow and then spent the rest of the time making sure the poison was dense enough to carry it.
It took about twenty minutes for me to finally finish driving the poison in, and once it was permeating most of his body and further compromising his healing, or at least counteracting it, I used another tranq blow to put him down. He'd been shaky on his feet for a few minutes, but another tranq punch to the temple finally dropped the bastard, and I let the fog fade as I stumbled over to slump down on the ground out of range if he somehow woke up.
Pointing at him, I groaned. "Restraints please." And left Callie to tie him up. It wouldn't hold if he was in peak form, but unconscious and horribly beaten he should be fine.
There was a thump and I looked over to see Abel toss the other cultist right next to him. "Her too." He didn't seem particularly winded, and while I'd have loved to take credit, I was pretty sure this was all him. Callie made her way over and started wrapping them in so many layers of chains if they did wake up they wouldn't be able to exert much force. Wouldn't hold them, but it was better than nothing.
As we turned to see the others finishing their fights, a hole opened in the red barrier, but no one came out. I smiled and hauled myself to my feet, trudging over to speak to my cousin. Guess I was supposed to come to her. Nice to know she was ok enough to be a pain in my ass still.