Wish upon the Stars chapter 374

Three days of downtime passed far more quietly than expected.  Granted, it wasn't my downtime, it was Abel's, but still I'd figured I'd  be more nervous about the last round. My odd sense of peace continued  until the last minute though, and the morning of, I finished up my  wishes with Benny. With another fifteen G-ranked chits in my bank for my  weapon fund, I was free to give Benny another sixty points, forty in  Focus and twenty in Might over the break. Then I headed to talk to Abel  about his final fight.

Getting seats for the finals when  it was all in one arena was rough, but we couldn't leave him by himself.  The E-rankers had it covered though, and we managed to snag enough  entrance passes for all of our close friends. Benny, Jessie, Celine,  Mel, Rime, Lament, Wren, Alden, Sydney, Megan, and Sloane were all  coming with, hoping to cheer on my terrifying teacher and maybe get  their faces on camera cheering. Some of the other teams we'd made  friends with had their own invites too, this was going to be a big  event.

"You're sure you're healed up?" Asked Callie  with concern as Abel actually stretched before we headed to the arena.  Warm-ups weren't his usual style.

He just waved it off.  "I'm fine, I called and talked to Shane's cousin, who put me in touch  with Valk. He won his match, and we both agreed that the best possible  outcome is one of us winning, so we talked through a couple of  combinations to maximize our combat potential." We all turned to stare  at him questioningly, but he just winked. "No spoilers."

"I'm  surprised though." I volunteered. I'd have pegged you for the lone  warrior type. I wouldn't have figured you would want to team up with  someone you don't know."

Frowning, he nodded at Lament.  "Yeah well, pigsticker over there showed me that I can't take this  lightly. Chances are some of these bastards are tougher than she was,  and while I'm confident I can take any G-ranker around, I'm not  confident I can take FOUR of any G-ranker around. If I'd been fighting  four of her, even before she shamelessly cheated and lost anyway, I'd  have been in trouble. Barely."

Lament twitched, and Wren  tried his best not to snicker. The other members of their team had  stayed behind, but Wren was a friend, and he was enjoying Abel  tormenting his captain. Of course, like he'd said before, Abel didn't  hold it against her, but he DID love to mess with people, and was  regularly poking her about the loss. The pigsticker comment was  particularly cutting, since he'd smashed her spear in the fight and she  had no way to get a new one on planet that was up to her standards,  especially with the rank up.

To her credit, Lament didn't  argue the point. She wasn't sorry, and had admitted that, but she also  had a good fight and the consequences were all on her. She considered  the right to shit talk Abel's due for winning. I decided interrupting  would be the nicest thing I could do here. "So did we get confirmation  on the finalists? I never checked."

Callie nodded. "The  Walking War and Firn both made the finals. Helix didn't shockingly, got  bounced out by some shapeshifter. Along with Abel and Valk that's the  top five right there. The shapeshifter is from the Cult, as far as I can  tell. Whereas I think Wilder, the Walking War, has ties to the Empire.  Nobody is sure WHO the Final Frost Heaven is backed by, if anyone, but  Firn is supposed to be damned scary."

Abel  shook his head. "He's not a shapeshifter. He's got a racial trait. He's  a Hyde. Valk sent me some videos of his matches. He's...not weak. Aside  from being able to take on a massive supernaturally powerful form, he  has some kind of black energy like what that asshat in Doomtown used."  He pointed at my uncle. "Zeke says its called the Rath and the Ruins,  and it's a martial art from the Cult, though not directly created by  Black Sorrow. Much less prestigious and powerful than the Fist art that  Alec uses."

That  was surprising to me, but when we looked at Zeke he just shrugged. "He  paid for the info, so it wasn't helping too much to give it to him. Is  Natalie coming with us or is she going on her own?"

"Her  own. She and Perit and their other teammate got tickets easily.  Speaking of tickets, we should go shouldn't we? It's going to start  soon."

During  the conversation most of us had trickled out to wait in the car, Jessie  starting it up and everyone packing in tightly, even with the expanded  space. We got there pretty quickly from my view, since we didn't talk  much on the drive. Everyone sort of mutually agreed to let Abel  concentrate, and even my usually relaxed mentor himself was quieter than  expected.

When  we arrived, we all headed up to sit down in the stands, not finding  anyone we knew. We'd brought our own party though, so to speak, so we  didn't need to add to it. We were in assigned seating, because otherwise  there was no way we would have ended up together, because the whole  place was packed to the rafters. Or would have been. If open top arenas  had rafters. It was pretty full, was the point.

Rather  then the sand pit though, this one had a huge square ring surrounded by  flat ground. The ring itself had a pentagonal shape on it where each of  the contestants would take an equadistant place from the center and  from each other. Before the match started though, Midknight himself  strode out onto the platform.

Callie  tensed, but I put a hand on her arm. As much as I hated that asshole,  and as much as I wanted her to get another chance to teach him a lesson,  I knew this wasn't the time. Politically though, this situation was a  time bomb. We couldn't afford to throw gas on the fire when there was so  much happening...actually, there was a LOT happening. I looked around  suspiciously.

This  would be the stupidest, and as such in some ways the smartest, time to  attack again. If they thought they had a method to counter the defenses  here it would provide a huge amount of reputation. But what was the  point? By the time it ended the winner would be chosen. Was I being  paranoid? Or was this my Fate sense latching onto a stray though?

Midknight  cleared his throat. "Citizens!" He intoned, voice booming a bit more  ominously than it had last time. He was hamming it up for the larger  crowd. I wasn't sure what caused the shiver down my spine, but the  effect was clearly felt throughout the arena. "We bring to you the final  battle. The last moment. These warriors have bled and fought and cursed  to reach this hallowed stage, and this is their reward. Glorious  combat."

I  got the incredibly strong urge to roll my eyes, and realized it was  coming through the bond when Callie DID roll her eyes. I smirked at her  from behind my mask, but neither of us spoke as Midknight continued.  "Power. Skill. Determination. All important qualities, important  building blocks on the path to success. But in truth, these blocks are  all made of a single material, one substance that makes up the blood and  bone of every truly great warrior. Victory."

He  gestured widely to the ring. "And as with all true Victory, only one  may claim it. Only a single warrior may emerge at the peak. These five  competitors will now show you how those building blocks are forged. Show  you the way they're laid down, so you might follow that path yourselves  one day."

"Wow."  I murmured under my breath, making sure to use Stealth so I wasn't  heard. "He REALLY likes the sound of his own voice." I'd thought Callie  had been being hyper critical when she mentioned that, but it seemed  like she was just being literal.

My  girlfriend used Stealth herself to stifle a giggle, and Midknight  either didn't hear or didn't care as long as others couldn't, as he  pressed on. "The competitors may use any means within the rules. They  may team up, may even fall upon a single person as a group and beat them  down. Anything is permitted. But at the end, when this finishes, only  one will be crowned the victor. These five champions represent the  strongest of their generation. Roland Wilder, of the War God Regiment.  Appolyon of the Starchaser Pavilion. Firn of the Final Frost Heaven,Valk of the Wish Curse Palace, and  Jack Carrax of the Weeping Clown Tomb. Which of them will emerge  victorious? Only time will tell."

He  snapped his fingers and shadows leapt up, obscuring the five points of  the ring and receding to reveal the contestants. "You may begin." He  slammed his palms together and the armor exploded into a shadowy mist,  obscuring the ring for a moment before it faded away, revealing the five  combatants standing across from each other, waiting for the right time  to attack.

Everyone  watched with bated breath. Abel was standing to the left of Valk, close  enough to reach quickly, of course, but the five of them all  just...stood. This was combat at the highest possible level. These were  all people like Abel, monsters in human form, and the second one of them  moved things would begin with a bang and they all knew it.

As  the observed, I took in the forms of the enemies. The Hyde, Jack  Carrax, was a tall, pallid looking man with sunken eyes and a hungry  expression. His matted, greasy blonde hair hung limply to his shoulders  under a tall top hat, and he wore an apron covered in blood.

Firn  was a small, delicate looking girl with purple hair and blue eyes the  color of ice, she wore a pair of purple shorts and a black sleeveless  shirt with a purple silk jacket over the top of it. Her skin was chalk  white, almost bloodless, and her expression was as cold as the ice she  used in combat.

Finally  the Roland was a short, dark skinned man with a wide, amiable smile and  close cropped hair. His eyes were hazel, and were the only part of him  that didn't scream kind and approachable, his gaze analytical and  dangerous. He had on a functional set of leather armor, dyed red hide  covering his entire body except for his face. I wasn't sure what the  hide was, but it appeared to be F-ranked like my armor was.

The  lull before the fight lasted for almost an entire minute, analyzing,  waiting, deducing, until finally the tension snapped like a rubber band.  Jack turned, shifting from a tall, thin man to a monster, easily ten  feet tall and grotesquely bulging with muscle, arms so long the scraped  the ground from a standing position. He hurled himself at Firn, who  flicked a wrist to conjure a massive wall of pitch black permafrost in  front of herself.

My  gaze was dragged away as Abel used his spatial lubrication to flash  across the distance to Valk, one of each of their hands clapping  together as the air blurred. Suddenly a massive manifestation of Abel's  other hand appeared cupped in front of them, but this time it wasn't  normally colored. Instead the hand was made of blue gel.

The  gel was Valk's ability, and it was lucky it was, because a wave for  G-ranked swords came spearing down from above to pincushion our guys,  stopped by the gel formed hand before even getting close. Roland surged  forward to engage, and I turned to look at Callie with worry. Those  attacks had all been terrifying. I hoped Abel would be ok, but all I  could do was trust in my mentor. However this went down though, one  thing was sure. This would be a hell of a fight.