Wish upon the Stars chapter 375

Roland Wilder, the man known as the Walking War, was every bit as  terrifying as his moniker suggested. While Firn battled with the Hyde  (who was managing to just barely degrade her permafrost with his dark  energy, and then using the weakening to smash holes in it with his  massive fists) Valk and Abel were teaming up to combat the storm of  conjured swords sweeping down on them from above.

While he  didn't seem able to manually control the things one at a time, Roland  WAS able to direct the torrent of conjured weapons, turning and shaping  the attack pattern to try to avoid the hand. Abel stepped forward,  making a circular motion with his palm, and created a rotating trail of  lubricated space leading inward. The motion had the effect of making a  sort of vortex in space that sucked in all the swords the other man was  trying to get past the hand manifestation.

It was an  interesting and terrifying move, but I could see how he wouldn't use it.  Without the gel power Abel's manifestations were part of him, and could  be harmed. It wasn't direct translation, but it effected him. Now  though, the manifestation was catching the swords like flies in amber.

Which,  as it turned out, was kind of the point. Roland had purposefully filled  the hand with swords, something we didn't know until he used the next  wave as a path, stepping on swords in the air and heading up after them.

This  seemed like a supremely bad idea, but I realized as he got sucked in  the the palm had been packed so full of swords there was barely any gel  left. With a wave of his hand Roland dismissed the swords, and suddenly  there were big open holes in the construct, and Roland stepped off a  summoned sword and dashed through it.

Abel, not one to  shrink back, flickered forward to meet him. Roland grabbed a sword from  his summoned masses and brought it to bear in a powerful swing that Abel  diverted easily with his power. I expected Valk to jump in, but I  realized I'd been so concerned with the big show I'd missed the red  bearded man leaving. Looking around, I spotted him engaging the Hyde,  and was confused as to why he wasn't in position until I saw the dark  energy wrapped around the whips on his hands.

I wasn't the  only one who had noticed either, the distraction had been plenty of  time for Firn, as a dragon made of black ice came howling down from  above to swallow Jack whole. Seeing the opening, Valk turned and  sprinted back to the fight between Roland and my mentor.

The  swordsman had been trying unsuccessfully to get his blade on Abel, who  had been using trails of lubricated space to divert every blow, never  coming into contact. Roland wasn't a pushover though, and as Valk came  in behind him he noticed, and with a stomp a barrage of swords erupted  from the ground like spikes to perforate both fighters.

Abel  avoided easily, and Valk used the dark energy whips to tear the blades  apart. Before he could actually attack though, there was a roar as Jack  came hurtling out of the ice dragon, shattering the black frost as he  threw himself bodily at Valk, clearly enraged by the distraction even  more than the actual confinement.

Abel flickered again,  stepping into a trail of lubricated space that took him in an arc around  the edge of where Valk was preparing to combat Jack. Valk didn't  hesitate, turning and lashing out at Roland with the whips as Abel  intercepted the Hyde.

The towering form of the monstrous  brawler brought his hands down, collecting dark energy, and Abel dipped  to the side to avoid it. Reaching up to pluck off his mask and slip it  into his pocket, Abel flickered sideways, circling the Hyde and leaving a  trail of duplicates, overlapping them again as he completed a second  circle and empowering himself with his Cicada Stacking Step.

I  blinked at the realization that Jack was STRONGER than my mentor.  Whatever being a Hyde did for you, it apparently prioritized Might, and  got some kind of natural modifier to strength like the Wendigo had. Jack  lashed out with another punch, but this one Abel met head on, using a  coating of warped space to prevent his hands from being degraded by the  dark energy of the Rath and the Ruins.

Jack snarled at  him, baring yellowed, uneven teeth, and snapped something we couldn't  hear through the barrier before redoubling his efforts, attacking twice  as fast, raining down blows. Abel whipped his jacket off and hurled it  up at the other man. Jack slapped it aside nearly instantly, but that  nearly was all the opening Abel needed. He used his spatial lubrication  to slip around behind the Hyde.

Wrapping his arms around  the giant man's waist, Abel bent over backwards, lifting Jack off his  feet and slamming his skull into the dark stone of the ring. His tophat,  which had somehow stayed on this whole time, went flying as his head  slammed brutally into the stone, cracking the F-ranked material with the  force of impact.

Abel would have followed up, but before  he could attack, he seemed to sense danger. He pulled Jack in front of  him as a rain of razor sharp black icicles came down on both of them,  using the giant Hyde as a human shield to intercept the ice spikes.

Which  turned out to be extremely wise, considering every place the permafrost  slammed into Jack, ice spread over his bodyu, darkening his flesh with  frostbite. Even though we couldn't hear him, the expression on his face  made the pain clear. Firn had apparently taken the distraction as time  to build up for something really nasty, because once Abel tossed aside  his shield she didn't do that again.

Jack just writhed on  the ground in pain, ignored as Valk faced off with Roland and Abel  matched Firn head on. My cousin's guard was doing shockingly well  though, his dark whips easily matching the torrent of blades Roland was  bringing to bear. That dark energy was dangerous, and even G-ranked  blades weren't able to stand up to it in combination with the force the  whips were bringing to bare.

At  this point, Valk was the one bringing the pain, and it was gratifying  seeing the calm and cheerful Roland get serious, deflecting blows and  being forced to abandon and resummon the swords he had in each hand as  they became unusable under the assault.

Abel  meanwhile, had rushed Firn, who had reacted by erecting some sort of  spherical shield with nine large heads emerging from it, each a sucking  tube of black ice with consecutive rotating rings of black frost teeth.  Abel was bouncing from tube to tube, sliding down them on lubricated  space trails to speed himself up and tying the damned things into knots.

I  even saw one about to catch him, but as it chomped down he shed one of  his Cicada shells, his strength dipping by a chunk but his body  surviving the attack completely unscathed. He took advantage of the gap  to push off heading for the shield, manifesting a massive fist,  condensing several blows together even on top of the enhancement from  the Cicada Shedding Step as far as I could tell.

His  fist image hit the shield of dark ice and shattered it, smashing Firn  INTO the stage, creating a crater deeper than I was tall. Abel turned on  a heel, flickering in an arch along a trail of space I hadn't noticed  him making, and came down with a smashing axe kick on a distracted  Roland, who took the blow to the shoulder and was forced to the ground  with a grunt. Judging by the expression on his face I was guessing his  collar bone was either broken or cracked.

The  two of them turned to Jack, who had dragged himself to his feet to  glare at them. The Hyde took a step forward, and both of them prepared  to fight, but he just toppled over face first. With him down, the two  final competitors turned to each other. Valk spoke calmly, saying  something I couldn't hear. I wished they'd left the shield noise  permeable after Midknight vanished.

Abel  flashed forward, and Valk whirled his whips in front of him in a  defensive barrier. Sadly for him, the black energy had been used up  quite a bit fighting Roland. I'd seen the effect waning as the fight  went on, but now it was barely present. Abel slipped out of another  shell, leaving behind a duplicate as her flowed behind Valk. The red  bearded warrior shredded the shell, but realized too later what had  happened as Abel hammered a spinning back elbow to base of his skull.

He  fell to the ground heavily, and Abel looked around the area, eager for  more despite the sweat and obvious exhaustion. The dome began to fall.  The armored form of Midknight stepped up onto the stage, choosing to  avoid. He approached Abel, grabbed his hand, and held it aloft  triumphantly.

"Your  champion!" He roared. "Winner of the ten spots for the Moonsong Glade,  to be distributed however he sees fit. The rest of them fought bravely,  but in the end only one warrior ca-" He was cut off as a blast of black  energy detonated in the center of the stage, both Abel and Midknight  being thrown clear.

I  saw the armor dissolve from the blast, and Abel hit the sand rolling,  having survived the explosion by virtue of being further away and having  Midknights armor between them. In the center of the ring stood a trio  of dark figures, each clad in a dark robe, the air around them crackling  with the familiar black energy.

The  one at the front of the triangle formation grinned widely, a flushed,  boyish faced E-ranker with curly red hair surrounding a round face set  with bright green eyes. "Sorry to interrupt!" He boomed happily. "I'm  afraid we disagree with the results. Actually, we disagree with the  tournament entirely. We've decided the Black Sorrow Cult will take the  slots, and since you did such a poor job distributing them, we'll be  taking this planet for good measure."

I  froze, staring down at them. Of course they would try something, they'd  been way too quiet lately. But this...this was crazy. I turned to Zeke.  "They can't do this right? They know you're here! It would be insane  for them to attack a world with a B-ranked protector on it."

He  just shook his head. "This is faction business. This kind of thing  happens. Callus would normally be too backwater to warrant a takeover  attempt, but under the circumstances...I could see it. But the planet is  my current home, and I have loved ones here besides you." He seemed  confused. "There's no way they could be stupid enough to think I'd  ignore that."

As  if the words had summoned it, the redheaded cultist turned to grin up  at us. "But please, don't think we're looking down on you bringing only a  trio. We have many more agents placed around the planet, and even more  than that, we made sure to bring some extra special helpers who will  make sure that things are finished up fast."

The  two figures behind him stopped holding back, and I felt the world slam  down on my shoulders as the weight of their Impact manifested on the  air. My eyes widened as I struggled to breathe under the suppression,  not because they were trying to hurt us, they weren't, they were just  that powerful. A level of powerful I recognized, though I couldn't  pinpoint exactly where they fell on that scale.

B-rankers.  They were both B-rankers. This was insane. Why were they here? What was  going on? People like this shouldn't be on Callus. Zeke was staring at  them with a glimmer in his eyes I'd never seen. Real, genuine fury was  radiating off my uncle as he stood. Their eyes locked on him, and the  redhead smiled. They knew he was here, and they'd come anyway. I just  hoped they'd bitten off more than they could chew. Otherwise we were all  dead.