Wish upon the Stars chapter 389

The inside of the whale building was less whale and more building,  which was nice since it meant we didn't have to walk down a stone throat  or something, but was disappointing because I'd been hoping for  something more interesting. It was still nice to look at, with smooth  marble floors and intricate wall carvings, but it was a pretty huge let  down from the external facade.

Despite that, I was still  pretty impressed by the sheer size of the place, with the whale interior  all forming once huge room. The ceiling seemed to be a wide open sky,  and miniature floating islands drifted among the clouds, containing hot  tubs or small bars with different kinds of food. Loud music pumped  through room as the sky above flashed a variety of shifting colors.

As  we entered, a massive man with curly red hair who I didn't recognize  strode up to us, throwing his arms wide in effusive greeting. "Apollyon!  My friend! Good to see you." Boomed the friendly, accented voice of the  large man I assumed to be Craygen. "I wasn't sure you would be coming  tonight." He turned his head, calling to someone we couldn't see. "Cady!  Come meet my opponent from earlier today. A mighty warrior who bested  me in single combat."

The crowd shifted a bit and a girl  appeared. Short and athletic, with pink hair pulled back into a ponytail  and wearing a stylish hat over a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and a brown  leather vest. She looked mostly annoyed. "Cray, we've been over this.  You need to slow down in crowds this size. I'm short enough that I can't  SEE which direction I'm going if we get separated."

Callie  gave a groan of frustrated empathy. "Oh my gods I know right? I don't  mind being short most of the time, stats make up for it. But crowds are  the worst. It's so easy to get turned around." The pink haired girl  turned, raising an eyebrow at my girlfriend, who grinned and held out a  hand. "I'm Nightstrike. Apollyon is my teacher." She hip checked me  without turning around. "The big lug in the long coat is my boyfriend  Solomon, and that's Starbreaker, Agria, and Clockwork."

Nat  had come along with Perit and Valk, but they had wandered off with  Selka keeping watch. Zeke was around, I knew that somehow, but he  also...wasn't. I couldn't see, hear, or really detect him anyway except  somehow knowing he was nearby. I suspected even that last bit was him  allowing me to notice him so I didn't go looking. His Stealth Skill was  undoubtedly MUCH more sophisticated than mine or Callie's.

The  rest of our group waved to the newcomer, who grinned widely. "I like  her." Taking the offered hand she gave a firm shake, pulling back and  then sweeping into a sophisticated curtsy the should have looked  ridiculous in shorts, but that she somehow pulled of. "As you may have  heard I'm Cady. Craygen is my older brother. He got all the height in  the family, and I got all the brains."

The red haired  giant scoffed. "She just tells herself that because she's not any good  in a fight. She has a support ability, and she's jealous I have the  strength to face my problems head on."

"You keep telling  yourself that you drooling thug." She said loftily. "Anyway, come on in,  you guys just got here and we would be terrible hosts if we just  chatted with you at the entrance all night. We want to introduce you to  some people. We can introduce you to a few friends of ours then leave  you to mingle."

Leading us into the crowd, we followed  close behind them, making sure not to lose their forms, despite  Craygen's massive size being an easy enough way to find them again (for  me at least). It made more sense to keep our eyes on them, and luckily  we didn't have far to go.

They dragged us to a group of  people standing under one of the miniature islands. There were four of  them, a short dark haired girl. A blonde guy with his hair sticking up  and a handsome face, and two dark haired men with identical faces who  seemed to be twins, one standing on the shoulders of the others as he  groped around the top of the island for food without being able to see  what he was doing.

Can't pinched the bridge of her nose.  "What are you idiots doing and where are the other four? We wanted to  introduce you to our new friends."

"Hungry." Grunted the  lower twin. "Trying to get food." His voice wasn't strained obviously,  he was just lifting a person, albeit on with thirty plus Impact, and I  didn't know how that effected things exactly. Still he sounded gruff and  not very personable.

Cady just glared. "You have SUPERPOWERS." She said scathingly. "You could just teleport up there and get the food yourself!"

The  top twin, who was still busy scrounging blindly on top of the barely in  reach island, with drew a hand and pointed off to the side where we  could see a shattered pile of rock and debris in an empty spot on the  floor. "Tried that. Couldn't support my weight."

"I  don't..." She just rubbed her temples. "It hurts being around you  sometimes. How are you both so good at fighting and so fucking stupid at  the same time. If not for the dramatic difference in size and hair  color I would think you were related to MY brother." She sighed and  turned to us. "Sorry you had to witness that. I can feel my Focus points  dropping every time I talk to them, but I assure you it's just an  illusion. I've checked."

"Rude."  Said top twin, appearing next to her without moving. "We're always so  nice to you, why do you say things you know will hurt us." He nodded to  our group. "I'm Blink, that's Flicker." He said, jerking his thumb at  his twin. The girl with the dark hair is Alice, and the guy is Chad. We  came over from the Boundwave System. Chad was the winner in our  tournament, but he lets Cady run things." He pitched his voice a bit  lower, making sure it was loud enough to be heard even at a nominal  whisper. "It's less trouble that way."

Said  pink haired girl slapped him upside the back of his head. "I don't want  to hear about trouble from you layabouts. I'm shocked Chad even managed  to win the tournament." She pointed at the blonde. "Our hunky champion  over there works out with my useless brother and these two menaces at  one of the more upscale gyms on our planet. He didn't know who else to  invite along so he extended us an offer."

I  noticed Alice looking annoyed at Cady's description, and she stepped  closer to Chad surreptitiously, putting herself in his personal space.  He didn't seem to mind, giving a stoic, relaxed impression that reminded  me a bit of Norman. Still, despite him being the winner, Flicker and  Blink were among the five we were told to watch out for, so they were  probably stronger. I didn't get the impression of terror and oppression  that I did from Abel, but that was true of most people.

It  was hard not to suspect that the more intimidating parts of Abel's  personality and bearing were recursion based. The result of the terror  and anguish of his enemies over literal decades. The only person I'd met  with an aura like that was Lament, and she walked a similar path of  fanatical bloodshed. On reflection it might be something similar to  being an Adamant. I'd have to ask Zeke about it later.

Craygen,  meanwhile, had taken over introductions. "Chad is pretty scary. He  charges up off damage, and can burn it to fuel his strength. Alice's  power is even cooler, though it's kind of weird. She can absorb attacks  into a specially prepared box. The box holds one hundred attacks. Every  time she opens it, a random attack comes out, if she guesses which  attack it's going to be and gets it right it triples in power!"

I  blinked, looking at the diminutive girl. "That's...really interesting  actually. Can you absorb any attack? Because that sounds really  powerful."

Alice  flushed a bit, clearly embarrassed to have her abilities praised in a  public setting. "It's not like...unbeatable. The box has to be made of  materials that can withstand the attack. Plus I need to see it coming  and activate my power with the box open. It doesn't work on surprise  attacks or anything too strong."

"Still."  Said Callie in an impressed tone. "That's a fascinating power. I just  have shadow powers." Despite the self-deprecating tone I could feel her  satisfaction at having more useful powers now. She was playing the game  but Callie loved her new ability. Abyssal Infiltration was pretty much  her dream power.

We  all chatted for a while longer, trading stories about our planets.  They'd actually been out into their system and checked out a few other  planets. Their own planet was C-grade so they had a bit of an advantage,  and when they found out ours was only psuedo D-grade, Craygen was even  more blown away by how strong Abel was.

Cady  whistled. "A Master Candidate one a psuedo D-grade planet? That's  pretty damned impressive. It must have been excruciatingly slow going  training your soul to that standard in such a backwater place. I bet it  took ages." She seemed almost appalled by the amount of work, which,  having made it a ways into my soul strengthening before ranking up I  could totally understand.

Abel  just shrugged. "It wasn't easy, but I wouldn't call it hard. Just took  time and focus. One fist in front of the other, so to speak. For the  most part, it was just battle. You want to get better at fighting? You  fight. Training is great, but it can't beat the rush of single combat  with your life on the line." He clenched his fists and I felt a bit of  that murderous, stifling aura he emitted sometimes leak out. "I love  being able to test myself."

That  got a grin from the red haired giant, who held up his fist to bump  Abel's. "Hell yes! I hope one of us gets picked for the random  exhibition bout tonight!"

We  all froze. As one, we turned to Abel, who was agreeing vehemently with  the big man, and talking about all the powerful opponents they might  come up against. When he realized we were staring, he turned to look at  us. "Oh...did I forget to mention those?"

Mel's  orange eyes were blazing...literally blazing, as in they were on fire  slightly, her irises shifting color like flickering embers as flames  spit from the eyeholes of her mask. Abel looked, for one of the first  time in my memory, genuinely scared. "I swear honey, I just got excited  and forgot. I didn't mean to trick you all. I promise!'

Before  she could react, though I had no clue how that would go. the sky  shifted from bright colors to pitch black, stars coming out as night  fell. The moon, full and round, emerged and cast a spotlight across the  crowd, falling on one person, and then a second.

As  the booming voice came echoing from the dark, I winced as I processed  what had just happened. I closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my  nose, I exhaled slowly. After a second, I opened them, and looked across  the crowd to where the other party goers were pulling back from the  first person chosen, just as my surroundings were being cleared by  revelers to let me pass. I turned to glare at Abel, who had the good  grace to look sheepish. "Well, shit." His said sourly. "I was hoping I  would get picked. Oh well, good luck kid. You're going to need it."