Abel." I said with a nod. "Surprised we ran into you. I thought you'd be resting up for the next assault." Without the clue Callie had gotten when she got the flag, I hadn't expected much competition before the next round started, but it seemed like some people had wanted to move out and eliminate the competition a bit. I probably should have expected that from Abel.

He shrugged. "I'm less worried about making it further now. I broke my heart shackle in the maze. I mean, I'm hoping to fill out my soul a bit in green, but even if I get bounced I can still make it all the way to the peak of green eventually. That was basically all I needed here."

I cursed. "Seriously? Lucky bastard." I paused, thinking over what I knew about him. "Oh you asshole, you're walking around looking for someone to fight to the death in here aren't you?" That was just classic him. Finish up your business and then go out in a blaze of gory.

His grin was answer enough, but Abel had no problem confirming it. "I mean, we all have a free pass to live through anything. It would be crazy NOT to take advantage, don't you think?"

"I do think you're crazy." I said drily. "But what makes you think I'M crazy enough to accept a challenge like that, instead of dropping you in a hole and leaving, or tag teaming you with Callie? I have options here beyond just doing what you want."

He shrugged. "I'd accept a two on one fight. But I don't think you'll do that. See, I think you remember how close you came to beating me last time. I think you want another shot at taking me down, and being in here provides us with the perfect chance to do that without actually taking too big of a risk. So, am I right? Do you want the chance to beat me once and for all? With your progression speed if you take me out I'll have trouble catching up again."

My fists clenched. I...really wanted that. I wanted to beat Abel, to take the spot of strongest member of our team from him. I'd been SO close last time. I'd almost had him. And I'd grown so much. I could beat him, I was sure of it.

"Idiots." Scoffed Callie as she stepped from the shadows. "You realize this is only the fifth trial right? What if we need him for something later?" She glared at Abel. "And YOU stop being a selfish dick and only thinking of yourself. You're part of a team, AND your girlfriend is in here. There's no reason you can't have your big showdown in the last trial, once we've sorted out all the details."

I deflated. She was right. Fighting to the death this early was a bad tactical call. As leader, it was my job to avoid that. I had to do what was best for my team.

Abel looked annoyed. "I guess..." He bit out grudgingly. "But I still want to test my new soul strength. How about this? If you take one punch from me at full power. Just one. I'll defect. Switch to team two and help you both get as many flags as I can. Hell, I'll even play double agent and lure the others away from you if you need it. You'll both be in charge."

That...was a really tempting offer. I just had to survive an attack. Abel was strong, but I wasn't a weakling either. Fighting him would have involved tanking a hit too. And I did want to see if I could take him on with his new soul level. "Deal." I said decisively. I glanced at Callie. "If we didn't humor him he'd probably have chased us down until we had to try to kill him anyway."

She shrugged. "He's a lunatic. No argument here." She pointed past him. "But what about the two of them? They heard this whole conversation. Couldn't they go and tell everyon-"

There was a flash and a fist slammed into Vinnie and Simon from the side, pulverizing them. Abel rolled his wrist. "Nope. No danger now." I winced. Damn, that was a shitty way to go. I felt kind of bad for them. Still, they HAD been on the other team, and they could always come into the temple outside the trials and try to break their shackles then.

"Alright, so what are the terms here?" I asked my mentor. "I assume there are conditions? Even ones as simple as 'don't team up with Callie."

He just laughed. "No conditions. Do what you want. Personally I think it'll mean more if you tank it yourself, but hey, that's just me." He adjusted his footing. "Just so you know, I'm not holding back. This is going to be the strongest punch I can throw. You'd better get ready."

Despite being in critical danger, I still felt a thrill of excitement there. In my last fight with Abel, I may have come close to winning, but he'd shown that he hadn't gone all out. This would be my chance to see if I could take everything he could dish out. I kind of wished I had a defensive stance. I put that on my list of stances to develop, third after an explosive single combat stance like the one I'd been tinkering with in my head.

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I gestured to Callie to step back. Whatever happened, this was going to be a fucking mess. I also mentally noted the direction of the flag. This should be a pretty quick exchange, and I didn't want to lose track since we wanted to get back on the road right after if we were going to get there before the next round probably.

Triggering Belial, I made sure my body was fully magma. It was probably my most durable state at the moment, even if I hadn't designed it with that in mind. Mountain stance, triple strength density shift. I felt myself become heavier and stronger, the durability of my body becoming massively higher as my density shifted, creating an immovable statue-like state I could use to tank anything.

Well, probably not anything. But I was insanely durable. My whole body being magma made the density shift a comprehensive full body effect, and a damn impressive one. Stacked with Mountain Stance it meant I was almost ten times more durable right now than I was in my normal Belial form, which included Stone Limb as a base and was already pretty damned sturdy.

Adjusting his feet, Abel pulled back his fist, preparing to strike. Above him, an image of a person condensed. A full body manifestation. The image began to move, taking on a series of poses, Ragam stances, a powerful series of buildup movements to prepare a strike, but in reverse.

As the image moved, the air behind it blurred, spatial lubrication linking them together. The further along the stances he got, the thinner the spatial warping, becoming weaker and weaker until the image stopped in a specific pose. In front of it a series of differently posed images, like a stop motion animation, and linking the first one to Abel, a trail of spatial lubrication.

"Are you ready." Gritted my mentor. "Because I can't guarantee this wont kill you. You'd better be prepared to tank this."

I was gaping. The sheer soul weight of what he was doing had to be immense, he was essentially using Ragam ten times simultaneously and his ability on top of it. Of course, I wasn't exactly doing nothing either. Still, my defense wouldn't be enough, I had to meet his attack with my own or I was going to get fucking shattered. As I nodded to him, I prepared the strongest strike I could.

Not being able to move my feet because of mountain stance was rough, but it wasn't the end of the world. I wasn't using the attack to cancel the blow, just to leverage it, like I'd learned to do. I triggered my overlay, ignoring the impending doom Danger Sense was warning of, and I prepared to deflect. Mercy Kill, Afterburner, Flurry of Blows, and I threw in a gravity attack just for good measure.

I launched that attack just before Abel did, and I was glad I had, because when he released his, I was scared out of my fucking mind. As he threw his fist, the lubricated space snapped taught like a rubber band. The last posed figured blurred into the next, which blurred into the next even faster, picking up speed as the figures traced out the attack in order, combining this wind up attack with cicada stacking step and with his lubrication ability to enhance the already devastating blow.

As the image hit the last figure, all the power was dragged down through the lubrication tether, a dozen plus times the power of Abel's normal all out attack channeling through his body as he launched the most devastating punch I'd ever seen from someone our level.

No wonder he'd needed to hit green for that, I was pretty sure his soul would have shattered otherwise. The fist came right at me, somehow everywhere and nowhere, the space around me used as a medium to transmit the power of the attack in a way that, without my overlay, I'd NEVER have been able to track coming at me. The sheer power of the blow was making my head split as Danger Sense wailed in warning, but I forced myself to focus.

My already launched attack was heading for the intersection point where the blow would land, and I tried to process the feeling that his fist was both normal and the size of a fucking train. My overlay showed me the one tiny potential sliver of a chance I had, but I needed to use Eye of Revelation to narrow down which of the potential attack paths that were being shown was the one that would actually work.

As my blow landed, it hit the train sized fist presence at JUST the right angle to move it SLIGHTLY to the left of me (the opposite side from Callie). Even with an absolutely flawless deflection, the small fraction of the damage from the blow drove my feet into the ground to the knees, and only the perfect compatibility of my Path with the redirection made it possible to even pull that off.

My body cracked. Like...all of it. Downside of being made of magma, but it didn't collapse. I triggered my heal burst, grateful it worked in here. Abel lowered his fist, breathing hard, and grinned at me. His nose was leaking blood and it dripped onto his teeth as he bared them at me in respect. "Damn kid. Not bad." His eyes went over my shoulder, and I turned slowly taking in the attack he'd thrown after I redirected.

My corruption had been infused into the blow itself, and that had obviously enhanced things, but still, the sheer damage I'd just avoided taking made me lightheaded. Abel's fist had DESTROYED a mountain. Punched through it like a fucking subway tunnel, drilling so far in that it had come out the other side and continued into the sky.

As I watched, the corruption continued to eat away at the stone, until the entire fucking mountain (a small one, granted) collapsed under its own weight. Callie raised a hand, letting the stones hit and then drop through shadow portals instead of smashing us, and I just stared in terror at the amount of destruction we'd just unleashed.

"So." Said Abel as he shuffled over to stand next to me, clearly exhausted. "What's the plan from here boss?" I rolled my eyes, reaching out and triggering another heal burst as I put my hand on his shoulder. I didn't really feel like talking to him right now.