We got out of the Academy again with minimal incident, thanks mostly to Luggage. While he didn't really venture downstairs much, the hound had an in depth feel for the school building, and was able to lead us around several traps he recognized. Callie showed him with love and affection after each victory, and I smiled internally at her mood. I think she was missing her own hound in her upset state, but I couldn't tell because the bond was closed.

Once we hit the outside, I triggered Eye of Revelation, trying to narrow down a trail, and once I found one, we hurried off after Felix and his cloak squad.

Once we got outside, we ran into...a lot of people. Some were fighting, some were dead, and some were trying to escape into the building. I froze when I saw the bedlam. "Shit." I snapped, looking around. "This is going to make following them nearly impossible. We need to get through. Abel, Randall, Jessie?"

My mentor grinned, stepping up to put hands on the other two. Closing his eyes, he focuses, and the image of a colossal glowing green bear appears above him, glaring down at the battling Ascendants. The bear threw back its head and roared. and everyone cleared back except the hooded figures. Nat stepped forward with Valk, all but snarling at them. "Which one of you bastards is a translocator?"

Unsurprisingly, no one stepped forward at first, but after a minute, one figure emerged from the rest. Pushing back his hood, the dark haired man with the brown eyes smiled at us, a small scar splitting his face from forehead to upper lip. "I'm afraid that isn't my gift." He said in a soft voice. "But I'd be happy to show you what I can do." Reaching behind him, he withdrew a COLOSSAL two handed sword, blade as thick as my bicep and as long as I was tall.

Before my cousin could respond, a hand fell on her shoulder. "Don't." Said Callen as he stepped past her. "You can't beat him. You're Albert, right? the Lord of the Sword? I've heard of you. An independent sword master who managed to reach the peak of Expert. I didn't know you were one of THEM." He sneered the word.

Albert shrugged. "My lord is an honest and forthright lord. Can you say the same? Is the Red Revenant the kind of god who speaks truth to his followers? Or speaks to them at all?"

"Sophistry." Scoffed Callen. "Your god is a god of murder and bloodshed. He's a monster. As are his followers."

The tall, lithe man barked out a laugh. "Now whose a sophist? We're swordsmen. I know you too, Callen. High Crusader of the Red Church. Rubrum Gloria, yes? Tell me, where does all that red really come from. Does it spill from your enemies? From those you consider unclean? How many have met their end by your blade? But because your god likes to play pretend and act like he's friendly my murders are wrong and yours are holy? There's a reason your church are all considered hypocrites."

"Shut your mouth!" Snapped Chelsea from beside me. "Callen isn't like that. He protects me. He only uses his sword in defense."

Albert grinned at her, and his expression made my hands tighten on my staff. "Is that so? Is she right Callen? Has your blade on tasted the blood of those who attacked first? That's quite a trick. If it's true though, I doubt you could be considered a problem. With no natural drive for victory, can you even call yourself a swordsman? Not to mention you give up so much power raising that sword. Maybe-"

He was cut off by a blur as the big blonde man appeared in front of him, short sword drawn from the hip and already heading for his throat.

Albert just stepped back, casually catching the blade on the hilt of his massive claymore and twisting. Callen leaned back, the sword sweeping through the space his neck had just been occupying. Albert kicked out hard at Callen's knee, but the larger man rolled sideways to escape, disengaging.

The dark haired man guffawed. "Was that it?" He started to swing his blade slowly around him, cracking joints and working his muscles. "I have to say I'm a bit underwhelmed."

Callen stared at him, then resheathed his sword. Snapping his fingers, another appeared from his ring. This one was...ugly. It was huge and made of jagged black metal. Not like someone was making a serrated edge, but like it had been broken. The metal was pitted and worn, and the hilt was covered in thorns that drove into his palm.

"That's a bit better." Albert crowed. "Honestly, do people really think you can generate enough fear to raise a blade like that with just a run of the mill sword? That's the one you use to make an impression isn't it? I can almost hear the screams coming off that monster. The question is, how well can you use it."

The big blonde didn't look away, but he called out to us. "I'll deal with Albert. You go ahead. I can catch up when I'm done." He blurred forward, massive black sword arcing up from below, only to be deflected by the big claymore. Stepping in, he smashed his forehead into Albert's face, driving the man back, then hauled his blade up and over for a downward chop.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Albert might have been an asshole, but he wasn't a weak one. He sidestepped, his sword flashing out, and Callen's came to meet him. Flashes of silver against black accompanied the ring of metal on metal as they dueled, like silver lightnings in a black metal storm.

My sister grabbed my arm. "You heard him." She said. "Callen knows what he's doing." Calling to any of the distant non cloaked figures, she yelled out. "We're tracking their leader, he might know how to get us home. If anyone doesn't want to be stuck here forever, help us take care of the hooded guys so we can pick up the trail before he's gone." The people looked relieved, I saw Travis, who had been Adrian's second in command, call out to his friends, and then set on the nearest crowd of cloaks.

We headed for the woods where the trail had been leading, but we were intercepted by another crowd of the BMP assholes. "Ugh." I groaned. "Why are there so fucking MANY of you? Are you bastards multiplying or something?" I could have sworn there weren't even this many people left in the last two trials.

"Maybe." Grinned one in the front. He looked pretty weird even for an Ascendant. Pale with pitch black eyes and no sclera. His teeth were cast iron and flat, like they were made to grind bones, and his hair was limp and seemingly flat to his skull, soaked with some viscous green fluid. "Maybe we're just better than you thought. Or maybe you didn't want to believe there were so many of us. That our lord was so beloved."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, sure. He's up there on everybody's list of 'best guys ever'. Can you guys stop pretending to be anything but fringe lunatics? You're not convincing anybody and its really slowing this down." Shifting into Mephistopheles, I positioned myself to attack. We were going to need to make this quick.

Before I could though, I felt the ground shudder. No, not shudder. I felt the ground quake. With the repetitive slams of a very large animal RUNNING at top speed. From behind the hooded figures, I caught sight of a shining lance, a familiar blonde haired blue eyed form, and beneath him, a MASSIVE furry body, with a plush bushy tail. Gabriel hit the crowd at top speed, bellowing "RUBRUM GLORIA!", and the majority dove out of the way. Iron teeth took a lance to the chest, though it just sent him flying rather than spearing him.

Gabriel pulled to a stop, grinning down at us. "Somebody call for the cavalry?" He hoisted his lance up over his shoulder heroically.

"Don't cavalry usually ride HORSES?" I asked pointedly. "You're here on a giant...holy shit is that Biscuit?"

The big squirrel snorted and Abel sighed. "He says yes, and your mother is a horse. He also says hi to-" He was cut off with a squeal as Bethy and Callie both hurled themselves as the big rodent, cuddling into its side. Gabriel looked kind of put out when he saw Bethy wasn't paying attention to his heroic rescue, and I had to hide my smile. The two seemed to have bonded over their three month trip.

I was thrilled to see Callie so excited after her previous shell shocked state. She was clearly thrilled to see her furry friend again, having never expected him to be real or to show up outside the...trial.

"Wait." I said, freezing. "Benny do you have any sort of rough map sketched for this place?" He nodded and handed it to me. "How about the earlier one. The trial we met Biscuit in." He raised a brow but pulled out the map we'd picked up down there. Laying them both against the obviously annoyed squirrel, I compared them.

He grinned at me. "They're the same. Or near enough. The academy building is obviously missing, but the layouts are similar."

I pointed along a line from where we were. "Yup. And THIS is where the stairs descended. It's also where Felix seems to be headed. So if we're talking as above so below, to the point where the trial seems to have used the spirits of real creatures, at least the native ones, then there might be an exit there. We're heading in the right direction at least."

Which begged the question though, why didn't we see the wolfhornigators in the trial. Did it have to do with that skull and the mutation energy? Were they just not part of the trial?

"Oh, hey Gabe!" Said Bethy brightly, breaking me out of my thoughts. "I didn't see you there. Did you come in with Biscuit?" We all gave her disbelieving looks she seemed to miss, though Abel clapped the crushed crusader on the shoulder, giving him a sympathetic nod. "Can we catch a ride with you, we're chasing down this three legged kitty guy. He's not cute though, not like my cats. He's a dick. Oh! And I got a new puppy. And I can turn into kittens!"

Taking all that in stride in a way only someone whose sense of shock has been completely destroyed by prolonged contact to our bubbly vampire could, he just nodded along. "Sounds like fun. I'm sure Biscuit will carry some of you. But I'm not sure he's willing to haul everyone."

"He's not." Said Abel in annoyed voice. "He won't carry me, Callen, or Shane. He's says we smell like herring, and I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!" He bellowed at the smug looking squirrel. "Because I don't eat fish. But FINE. We can run to keep up. Happy." Biscuit chittered sadistically, and Abel sneered at him. "That was a rhetorical question you nut mongering tree rat."

Biscuit just snorted, looking away smugly as most of our group climbed on his back, including, amusingly, Jessie holding a shrunken Randall. Once they were on board we gave Gabe a heading (he was riding a starlight saddle with reins that I was pretty sure was a partial power manifestation) and then we took off in the direction we needed to go. I heard fighting behind me, and looked back to see Callen still fighting off Albert while Travis and his friends cleaned up stragglers.

I wasn't sure if we could get them to the exit in time, assuming there WAS an exit there. I was pinning a lot on a random similarity, but it was all the plan we had past following Felix through some strange portal that would only lead back to the trials if he was a fucking idiot. We'd have to see, because whether it worked or not, I doubted is was going to be as easy as it seemed. It never was.