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 no 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 us 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."

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

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 pointy eared 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 unzipped it and and flicked his fingers, letting it float there beside him. Ten masks rose out of the bag as he withdrew a robe, each coalescing into an identical robed figure as Zeke removed an eleventh mask and placed 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.

Killian 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.