Wish upon the Stars chapter 459

Apparently the others had noticed the huge influx of people bolting for the observation deck, because they fell into step with me as I ran.  Zeke was with me, but while he was definitely moving at running SPEED, I  noticed at a second glance that he was mostly just strolling with  purpose.

Benny was the first person to catch up, with  Callie on his heels, though neither of them was going at top speed  obviously. "What the hell is going on?" Asked my best friend in a  bewildered tone. "Did we hit turbulence or something?"

I rolled my eyes. "We're in space, dipshit. Turbulence is like...air currents or something. There's no air in space."

"There's air in your skull." He grumbled. "No brain either."

I sneered at him. "Brutal comeback. You've clearly been secretly developing a repartee Skill."

"You're  both equally morons." Said Callie helpfully. "Now can you please focus  and tell us what's happening? Because if we're sprinting across this  damned ship for no reason I'm going to kick someone in the throat." I  snickered at her exasperation. She didn't really begrudge us our  bickering, she just felt like she needed to keep us on task.

So  I filled them in on what I knew about no man's land and how Zeke said  we were probably getting attacked. Callie glared at my uncle. "You  couldn't have TOLD us this before?"

He shrugged. "Like I  said, not really relevant. At least until it was. Can't spend all your  time worrying about what might happen." Finally we arrived at...the sky?  But not the sky, a wall that looked like the sky. The edge of the  section of the ship that looked like it was outdoors. Zeke help up a  hand and pressed it against the wall, and a panel slid open, letting is  into a large open metal hallway. This was the portion of the ship that  was actually shiplike, and we'd never even been in here. "Follow the  hall that way." He said, pointing to the left. "I have to go check in  with Kill."

Then he was gone. Nice to know what it looked  like when Zeke actually hurried. We followed his directions, and came  out in a massive domed chamber where the rest of our friends and  associates were waiting. "You guys!" Called Jessie, waving us over.  "Glad you made it so quick. Blake was about to come look for you."

She  gestured at our host's son, who cheerfully mirrored her earlier wave. I  nodded back. "Ok, so Zeke said we were under attack and sent us here to  the...observation deck? What actually is this place?"

Blake  pointed to the wall, where I could see a shitload of stars. "Ok, so  this is an A-ranked ship. I'm sure you noticed, of course, that you  aren't being smashed into paste standing inside it. That's because the  Impact is all being routed to various enchantments. Defensive runes,  quality of life stuff, there's a whole industry for shipbuilding.  Interspersed throughout the bindings engraved on every inch of the ship  are millions of Perception runes, which aside from doing various tasks  are also connected to this room, creating a complete 360 degree image of  the space outside, though obviously not to scale."

Looking  around, I saw that the dome DID have images of space on it. Lots of  space, tons of tiny stars showing the area around us. Blake led us over  to one of the walls after spotting movement and drew a circle before  tapping it. The area inside the circle zoomed in, showing a pair of men  in large grey cloaks holding bows, with a huge man standing behind them  rippling with muscle, his face completely covered by a black metal helm  shaped like a skull.

"Shit." Cursed Blake. "Those assholes  shouldn't have messed with us." At our look, he pointed at the  brothers. "Those are Valak and Carus Brightwind. Exiled A-rank elven  archers from the Faerie Land. They lurk around here and hit ships as  they pass by, but they shouldn't hit something as big as the Necromedes.  The Zayne Clan is way out of their weight class." He pulled up a screen  on his scan ring, flipping through a bunch of images.

"Ah,  damn it." He threw the image he'd stopped on, projecting it up next to  the circle. "That would be the reason they're willing to pick this  fight. Archers aren't great at up close combat, and at A-rank that can  be a long distance. That guy with them is Fabian Rayner, captain of Bone  Ghost Pirates. Which means there's probably more of them around here."

Before  he could go on, a booming voice rolled over the observation room. "Can  you idiots not?" Asked the lazy drawl of my uncle. Blake drew another  circle, and zoomed in to find Zeke and Killian standing on another  asteroid, looking relaxed next to a short older man with tanned skin and  black hair  going grey at the temples.

"Oh shit!" Said  Blake, flinching back from the image. "Grandpa sent Great Uncle Miles?"  At our looks of confusion, he explained. "My Grandpa's brother is the  closest person in the family to S-rank. Grandpa founded the clan, but he  didn't do it alone. Great Uncle Miles is his brother and right hand,  and he's in the high A-ranks. Rayner is strong, according to this but  not as strong as Miles."

The skull masked figure let out a  loud, rumbling laugh. "Miles Zayne." He boomed. I wasn't sure how we  could even hear any of this. I guessed they were projecting their voices  somehow to be heard through the vacuum of space. High level Ascendant  bullshit probably. "They sending you on babysitting missions now?"

A  calm, measured voice rolled across the room, somehow quiet despite its  absurd volume. "Shouldn't matter, Rayner. Not if you have the sense the  gods gave a rock. Who gave you the guts to try to pick a fight with a  Zayne family ship? And with just a pair of ragtag point ear stick  flingers?"

Rayner spread his arms wide. "And who exactly  told you I JUST brought the Brightwinds?" The air behind Miles, Zeke,  and Killian blurred, and a shadowy figure flashed forward, driving a  dagger at my Uncle's back. A ghostly outline faded into being behind  him, the form of a spectral knight, and the fire smashed into and  through it. When the figure hit Zeke though, the weakest of the group,  it passed right through him.

Miles hand went to his belt,  drawing a sword, and a dozen ghostly blades formed around him, all  superimposing on the black cleaver like monstrosity in his hand as he  hacked at the shadow. There was a flicker and the figure vanished,  appearing next to the skull masked pirate, holding an arm lashed open  with the spectrally imbued sword.

Zeke, who was fine and  not where he'd been standing a second ago, just laughed. "Morons. First  rule of fighting up ranks is make sure you're never where it looks like  you are. Did you idiots really think I'd just stand there to get  backstabbed?"

The injured figure stepped forward,  revealing a black robed man with a shining golden humanoid mask. "How  did you sense me?" He hissed, his voice blasting through the room like  the rustle of dead leaves over gravestones. "I should have been  undetectable to a B-ranker, not to mention no illusion you made should  have been that effective." He sneered Zeke's rank like it was an insult.

"well  you see, what I did was..." Zeke paused. "Oh wait, I'm not a fucking  moron, so I'm not going to tell you that." Snapping his fingers, a bag  appeared, and he dropped it on the asteroid, unzipping it and flicking  his fingers. Ten masks rose out of the bag as he withdrew a robe, each  coalescing into an identical robed figure as Zeke removed and eleventh  mask and place it on his face.

The eleven figures were all  completely indistinguishable from each other, and with another snap,  they all vanished except the one who had been standing by the bag.  Killian snickered. "Man, I don't envy you morons. I hate fighting Zeke.  You never know which way is up. Even across a rank gap this is gonna be a  bad time for you."

One of the archers stepped forward.  Carus I think. "I'll take care of the gnat with the masks. Can the three  of you handle the other two?"

His brother drew an arrow.  "I've got the ghostling. You two can handle the old man together, can't  you?" They didn't seem worried about being overheard, or maybe this  weird projection speech only had one setting. I still had no clue how  they were speaking audibly in space. Or breathing for that matter.  Although I could hold my breath for a long time, so chances were good  they could too. Maybe it was some kind of psychic speech.

Rayner  nodded. "Miles is a tricky bastard, but Krian and I should be able to  handle him two on one. He's not that much stronger than I am, and I have  my own tricks."

That got a snort from Miles. "Rayner, I  always heard you were Might focused, but with an imagination like that  your Fantasy stat must be through the roof." He hefted his massive black  cleaver sword over his shoulder, with a grin. The colossal blade was a  jagged squared off hunk of dark sharpened metal lashed to a huge bone.  It had a sort of awful necromantic beauty to it even without the glow  from the inhabiting ghost blades.

Killing cracked his neck  with a grin. "Whoever finishes first comes to help Uncle Miles. Or  Zeke." He called over to the lone remaining figure. "Try not to die out  there buddy."

Zeke snorted. "The day I'm in danger from  some scumbag pretty boy elf with shooty shooty powers is the day I hang  up my masks. Honestly, a bow? That's barely even a weapon. Might as well  fling literal shit at me. How much do those arrows even cost? Because  if they're A-rank they must be obscenely expensive."

Carus's  face was turning purple with rage. Benny whistled next to me. "Damn  Shane, no wonder you're so good at annoying people in combat. You came  by that shit honest."

I snickered. "I still have a ways to  go to reach that level. But hey, at least I have good examples both on  and off the battlefield." He flipped me off but didn't take his eyes off  the display, which was fair. Mine were glued to it too. I was actually  torn between my excitement and worry for my uncle.

I'd  seen people fight up ranks before. I knew percentage wise the difference  in stats between someone at Zeke's level and the archer's was minimal,  but still, it was a big Impact difference.

But as I stared  at the screen, I paused. Why did Zeke have ten masks? I could have  sworn back on Callus in the tournament he'd only had eight. Those last  two (not to mention the one he was wearing, which I guess he hadn't  needed before) must be newly made from the souls of those two bishops.  One of them presumably had the conceptual dark skill the cult members  seemed to love. I wasn't sure if it was the actual Enshrining Darkness  ability Black Sorrow used or some kind of knock off, but it was damned  powerful either way.

As Zeke  bantered taunted the archer, I let my tense body relax. The excitement  was still there, but the worry was washing away in the face of my  uncle's confidence. If he was sure he could beat this guy I'd believe  him. Besides, this was all just basic shit, I hadn't even seen any of  them use their paths yet. Whatever was going to happen in this fight, I  doubted it would be anything I was expecting. I'd just have to wait and  see how it turned out. However that was, I was pretty sure I was about  to see something amazing.