We appeared on the opposite side of the horde of siegers. I looked behind us just in time to see a pair of dark shapes fall on the attackers. "Huh." I said as I had a thought. "How did she get them in here? Does her shadow count as part of her soul? Or are they counted as weapons?"

Callie just giggled. "I think it's best not to question the things Bethy does. That's a good way to drive ourselves crazy." She whistled as they fell upon the other team. "Seems like she trained them though. Or maybe they're just acting on their natural instincts."

"Oh gods!" Someone screamed. "That one is wearing his face like a hat!"

We both winced. "Ok." I said. "Even in soul bodies, that just seems excessive. Why don't we go and let them handle this. They're probably just picking off the weak anyway." We turned to head toward the yellow glow in the distance, when a dozen Ascendants stepped from the dark forest to bar our way.

"Stragglers." Grimaced Callie. Then her face lit up. "I have an idea. How about we see who can take out more of them faster. I've improved a lot on the way here."

Drawing my staff, I let Belial roll over me. "Sounds like fun. And...go." I darted forward, ignoring the squawk of indignation from Callie for starting without warning her. My overlay unfolded in front of me, and as they surrounded me, my staff licked out, changing the paths of weapons as I nimbly evaded strikes through a combination of the overlay and Danger Sense.

Three, four, five they tore into each other, my staff slamming down on them in finishers as their attacks tripped each other up. Behind them though, I watch flashes of darkness explode as Callie blurred from shadow to shadow, slashes of pitch black bisecting people and space alike as she bounced around.

Before I could finish my sixth attacker, she'd killed seven of them. As she materialized again, she grinned at me. "My new Path. The Path of the Abyss focuses on world destroying darkness encroaching on all things. All my blows carry the taint of entropy."

I whistled. "Pretty damned impressive. No wonder you took at all the armors in the last trial."

She shrugged with a giggle. "I guess. I have a Might advantage though. Even then, I had to really push to win that. If that had been a bigger crowd you'd have won. Is that your new staff art? The way you made them, tear each other apart was amazing."

"Ok." I said with a laugh. "Patting each other on the back is fun, but we should probably get going before we hit another group. Plus we'll need to bypass the defenses to get the flag. Since you're teleporting us in you can take this one, ok?" Her new Path was absolutely fascinating, and I couldn't wait to see what she could do with it as she got stronger.

Grabbing my hand, Callie pulled us back into the shadows. Apparently she'd done a half jump the first time, trying to save herself some strain, which was why we'd run into the stragglers. Still, I saw her logic, and I'd felt her desire to do it through the bond and hadn't said anything, so I couldn't complain.

The bond being back was...amazing. It had been suppressed since split up, it made being apart easier, but now that we were back together I could feel Callie again all the time. Going through the forest had cured my dependence, but the feeling of being wrapped in the constant love and acceptance of the person you care about most in the world was pretty transcendent even if you weren't addicted to it, especially after you'd been missing it.

I could feel that she'd missed it too, though the emotions had changed a bit since our souls were upgraded. In fact, as I focused on the difference, I felt something shift slightly, Callie and I both coming to a hard stop as the bond changed. Beginner paired duelling. That Skill had been at Lesser for a while, but apparently the separate evolutions of our soul had elevated it to the next rank.

Once that finished, the two of us took off towards the fortress again, Callie hiding us with the darkness, infusing it with Stealth to keep us hidden as she drew it around us like a cloak. A bit of Eye of Revelation to avoid any patrols or last minute additions and we reached the fortress together in pretty good time, standing outside the stone walls and scanning the battlements for defenders.

Still under Stealth, I leaned down to murmur to Callie. "Ok, so what's the plan for getting up there. Can you teleport us in? Or is it too much carrying me? If it is, I might have a plan."

"Two of us isn't a problem over short distances, but keeping up Stealth, finding a good spot to emerge, and moving us up as well as forward is going to leave me pretty out of it." She sounded worried, but I'd expected that. I told her my plan, which she thought was a little out there, but since we were in an illusionary soul space where neither of us could die, she eventually agreed to it.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

As she vanished into the dark, I charged out into an empty space. We weren't the only ones from team two besieging the fortress, but Callie had taken us around the others and into an empty area opposite the attackers from our side. As I ran out, I triggered State of Grace and Ripple Running, bouncing off the air twice as I sailed up onto the wall. I probably could have free jumped it like I had back at our fortress, but if I did that they wouldn't have as much time to notice me.

Belial was already coating me as I hit the parapet, bellowing as loud as I could. "I AM INVINCIBLE!" I wasn't obviously. But everyone within a hundred feet noticed me and swarmed in my direction. All the stragglers came for me as predicted, and my Danger Sense triggered, letting me know I was under attack. I dropped bonelessly to avoid what appeared to be a purple flaming crow bar, planting my staff to vault back up to my feet as someone tried to stomp on my head.

I rolled sideways to avoid a smash from a colossal bronze hammer, and someone threw a smoking green ferret at me that I deflected with my staff. This plan had seemed simple and easy to accomplish, but when I'd been planning how to execute it, I'd missed a key detail. Belial worked best in open spaces, and I was standing on a fifteen foot wide section of wall as a score of dangerous Ascendants attacked me en masse.

Of course, most of them were on the other side fending off the attackers from team two, so there wasn't enough to drown me in bodies, but between the limited space and me underestimating how many would be back here I was barely hanging on by the skin of my teeth.

Trouble or not, the plan WAS working though. No one noticed the shadows shift near the base of the bell tower except for me, and since I was wearing a mask that was literally just wood, they couldn't exactly follow my eyeline.

Following my Path arrows, I deflected a crossbow bolt slightly, knocking it off course into the hammer guy, distracting him enough for me to jump, bounce off a Ripple running platform, and then do a smashing drop kick onto the side of the hammer, knocking it off course to hit the ferret, which exploded into a cloud of green smoke.

My mask filtered the poison from entering my lungs, and you can't actually poison toxic magma anyway, so I was free to trigger my Moonlit Night skill, overlapping the cloud with stealth fog as effectively tied them all down. Inside the fog, I could see perfectly fine, while they were all isolated, and I tweaked it enough for noise to get through as I started lashing out to tap and prod the forms around me, inciting them to attack.

I managed to kill ten of them before they wised up to what was happening and started to run, several of them still poisoned by both the cloud and my attacks, and limping or stumbling from wounds they left on each other. I dropped off the wall, heading for the central area and leaping up to land on the bell tower like structure just as Callie grabbed the flag. There was a torrent of yellow energy as a beam of condensed soul power slammed down on her, breaking the dark sky as she was imbued with a powerful boost.

Screams of outrage started echoing around the fortress, and I grimaced as I grabbed her hand. "Honey, we've got to go, please tell me you can jump us."

Callie was breathing fast and heavy. "Yeah, I just need a second. So much soul energy. I think I got a solid ten percent off that flag. My soul is acclimating. Buy me a second."

I grimaced. Ten percent of an orange soul and ten percent of a yellow soul were VERY different things. Even though soul refinement got harder as you progressed, there was still a big difference in levels. A ten percent bump at yellow was huge. Unfortunately, the enemy forces were all closing in. I spotted Benny and Jessie approaching, Nat next to them, and all ready to throw down with us if need be.

I triggered Pit of Despair, and the platform below us vanished as we dropped through it into the hollow tower structure below in a shower of fine dust. I kicked off a Ripple Running platform as I grabbed Callie around the waist, landing on a staircase. "Any time now love." I said anxiously as I watched someone punch through the stone wall at the base of the tower. The whole structure shook.

Finally Callie's eyes snapped open, and she grabbed me, shoving us both back into the shadows. We emerged about a mile and a half away from the fortress, and she pushed me into a crevice between some rocks as she tried not to pass out. Even with the soul boost, that was a hell of a jump. "Keep watch." She wheezed. I could tell she was recovering fast off the excess soul energy in her body, so I peeked out of the rock formation to look around.

No one was nearby, so I slumped against the nearest boulder, letting out a sigh of relief. "We're good. Just recover as quick as you can and we can bail. You doing ok? That was a hell of a jump."

"Fine." She groaned. "Sorry for the close call. Luckily I got a bit of information when I claimed the flag." At my questioning look, she grinned. "Hint for the victor. Next flag isn't going to be in a fortress. It'll be hidden in the area behind it. That'll happen on both sides, so they'll have to look same as we will. I suspect underground or in a cave, so the light doesn't give it away."

That WAS good news. If we were the only ones who knew it meant we had a serious advantage. Her expression didn't seem particularly enthused about it though. "Ok, guessing the good news came with bad? What did I miss?"

She grimaced. "I saw your sister over there while I was grabbing the flag. She was on the other side warding off the defenders. I'm guessing next time we'll need to deal with her directly, along with probably the rest of our team."

"Alright." I said with a groan. "Then we need to get back and share our info with the others. We're going to need a hunting party for the next flag. At least if we expect to win." And I did want to win. I also wanted the next flag. That ten percent bump was too good to pass up.