I watched in fascination as Zeke vanished from where he was standing. Seconds later, I saw him reappear some distance away as a massive arrow of light smashed into and vaporized the asteroid he'd been standing on. Miles and Killian had already moved to engage their own opponents, and I realized this view screen wasn't going to be good enough if we kept trying to watch everything.

"Can we make one of these circles just for Zeke?" I asked Blake. "I know you probably want to watch your dad and great uncle, but I want to see what my own uncle can do." I also wanted to make sure he didn't die horribly, but it seemed like a jinx to say it out loud.

He blinked at me. "Oh. Yeah, sorry. These are viewing portals. Watching A-rankers fight in real time is pretty much impossible, but the ship is A-rank and can keep up. It lets you watch as everything is happening. It's...my dad explained it, not slow motion, more like a kind of embedded imagery enchantment. In computer terms, you're watching normal frames per second, but each frame is a zip folder with a hundred images."

That was useful to know, but not as important as being able to watch Zeke. Blake, seeing my impatience, made another circle with his finger pushing it off to the side so we could go watch in private. He stayed behind, presumably to watch his Great Uncle Miles fight the other two. Meanwhile, when I resumed watching Zeke, I arrived just in time to catch him talking again.

"You know." He said conversationally as he poked a chunk of asteroid that floated by. "You might want to look into glasses. Eye strain can be a huge problem. Especially for snooty ass elves who have to constantly squint down at people from their high horse."

The end of the sentence was picked up by another chorus of voices as the ten other masked figures flickered into existence on nearby smaller floating space rocks.

Carus glared at them. "I don't know how you're doing that gnat, but mirroring your aura across all ten of those puppets won't save you. If I can't hit your copies one at a time with a single shot..." He trailed off, drawing the tall silver bow back slowly. Along its length, eleven lines of light coalesced, the points glowing like stars as Carus's eyes flickered. "I'll hit you all at once."

There was a ripple in the void around us as he spoke, his voice heavy and alien in a way I'd never experienced before. I knew without asking what this was. This was a Solid Path, at least. Probably one or two levels past that. Whatever that even was.

He released the string, and an explosive scramble of shooting stars spread out and smashed into every one of Zeke's clones, so fast that even through the weird slow motion of the viewing portals it was almost too quick to see. There was a deafening explosion and the forms of the masked figures were consumed in a conflagration of white light.

"Tsk. How gauche." Drawled my uncle's snide voice. "We were having such a nice talk. No wonder the elves kicked you and your brother out. Short tempers are a no-no for them. At least that's what my friend Alessa told me back when she ran with our little group."

Carus snarled loudly, spinning in place, clearly looking for my uncle. There was a flash of black as two of the masked figures appeared on either side of him and raised their hands. A storm of horrible conceptual dark shot through with red lightning consumed the elf, who screamed in pain. There was a series of arrows blasting free, tearing holes in the power, and it faded as the two figures vanished again.

I knew how Zeke was doing this, roughly. His mask didn't use stealth, it was an illusion effect. Probably enhanced by some other abilities, but regardless, Perception might not help as much here. The slightly ruffled and enraged elf was revealed as the darkness fell away. "WHERE ARE YOU!?" He screamed furiously. "Show yourself coward!"

Two more figures appeared, one yanking off his mask and throwing it at another. The mask slapped down on top of the first, a now bare faced Zeke vanishing as the mask glowed red, the two of them seeming to melt together. The figure gestured and the black chains we'd seen on Callus shot up, but this time the black was different. Like they were MADE of Enshrining Darkness.

Another pair of them appeared, one slapping its mask onto another as its robes fell to the rock below empty, no longer animated without a mask. The figure manifested the giant bow and arrow we'd seen him use against the bishops, but it was reinforced with red lightning. Zeke appeared next to it, smirking under his hood as he winked at the elf. "How ironic is it that I'm going to kill you with archery?"

"That's not IRONY!" Howled the elf. "It's just a coincidence!" Zeke shrugged, snapping his fingers as a massive arrow made of red electricity barreled toward the elf. The archers eyes blazed with light again as he called his Path forward again, managing to draw his bow even with the chains taught, albeit just a bit.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

A blinding arrow of light sheared through the chains and slammed into the asteroid below him, dropping him out from under the attack and into space. His foot came down as he stepped on starlight, vanishing and appearing on the other side of where Zeke and his masked alters were. He drew his bow again, a dozen arrows flashing toward my uncle, who threw up the same defensive barrier from the tournament before vanishing.

Carus was livid. "Why won't you just DIE!?" He screamed at the top of his lungs. Several places where the chains had touched his skin was blistered and cracked and his eyes were wild with pain and fear.

"Oooh, sorry!" Echoed nearly a dozen simultaneous voices. "We're all out of 'just die', perhaps I could interest you in some 'go fuck yourself'?"

The elf let a scream of incoherent rage and his hands blurred, a cosmic river of star tipped arrows blanketing the area around him. The various asteroids were reduced to powder as waves of white light consumed every inch of space within miles of the enraged A-ranker.

"That seemed uncomfortable." Noted the voice dryly. "Maybe it was something you ate?" This time, the voice was accompanied by all eleven of the figures appearing around the archer. Their hands came up, and a series of abilities harmonized together, condensing into a dark prison. A coffin like cube of dark energy manifested around the archer, red lightning playing over the prison as black chains wrapped it up securely.

Above the chain coffin, a massive bow, shining with that sharp yellow glow from last time and covered in purifying white flames. One of the figures stepped back, crossing their arms, and I saw that it was Zeke, the actual Zeke and not a copy, stroking his chin. "Is this derivative?" Then he shrugged. "Whatever, who doesn't love magic." He snapped his fingers ten times times and the bow released its arrow, redrawing and reorienting with each snap until the dark box was full of arrows.

The box began to shake unstably as the crackling red electricity built, and Zeke's eyes went wide. "Oh shit." He kicked off the empty space below him retreating fast and far enough to be clear of the blast radius when the box fucking EXPLODED in a conflagration of confusing conflicted energies.

"Huh." He said with interest. "I guess THAT'S what happens when you mix Enshrining Darkness and the Flames of Purification. Good to know. I wonder how much the other abilities amplified it though?" He was so distracted talking to himself he missed the white starlight arrow that sped out of the explosion and speared him through the chest. Zeke's eyes went wide and he stared down at the arrow, blood leaking from his lips. "Ok. Didn't see that coming."

"FINALLY!" Shrieked a livid voice from the dispersing cloud of energy. "You FINALLY shut up!" The archer looked...bad. Burns, bloody holes, but all of it was closing, albeit slowly. "I admit." Spat the enraged elf. "For a gnat, that was actually mildly alarming. But it takes more then that to kill an A-ranker, boy."

A pair of figures appeared on either side of my uncle, each grabbing an elbow. The same dark energy shield flashed into existence around the three of them, albeit not quite as close in. Zeke looked...bad. Blood was leaking from his mouth like a faucet, and his face was pale. His eyelids were fluttering weakly as if he could barely stay up, and I felt an icy claw of terror grip my heart.

"Damn." He burbled. "Really thought that would do it. I put a lot of power into that attack."

"Power?" Mocked the elf with a greasy sneer. "There wasn't even a Path in those blows. Is this the standard of a B-ranker from a major faction? I'd at least heard of you before, so I figured you might be worth something. It seems the other forces are just easily impressed."

My uncle actually looked offended at that. "Oh sure, mock me while you're punching down. Because it takes any skill at all to beat someone weaker than you. Plus you're stuck out there anyway. Is it really a defeat? I'm healing that arrow wound, albeit slowly."

Carus smirked. "Oh, is that right?" He raised his bow, and began to fire rapidly. The arrows slammed into and then stopped at the dark shield, suspended in air, but each one drove in deeper, cracks beginning to spread. He grit his teeth and shot faster, clearly winded by what he was doing. Once the shield collapsed, he stepped down once, like he was stepping on starlight, and appeared in front of Zeke.

He drew his bow again, and put a point blank arrow into Zeke, who screamed. His two constructs backed off as the elf archer approached, grabbing the fading white arrow and solidifying it just so he could twist it. Carus drew back his fist, and with a triumphant yell, punched it right through Zeke's head.

I cried out in anguish, but before I had a chance to react past that, one of the hooded figures appeared behind Carus and tapped him on the shoulder. As Carus stared in confusion at the shattered porcelain floating around his non blood covered fist, the figure flipped down his hood, revealing ZEKE'S FACE on the back of the hooded figure's head.

It reached up and tore the face of my uncle clear of its nonexistent skull, and as Carus turned around, slapped Zeke's face right on top of the elfs. The archer panicked, hands shooting up to claw at Zeke's face on his body, even as the face began to laugh. The other figures all appeared, chains lashing out to hold him still as all eight of them (not the one that had been shattered by the punch) grabbed onto the chains and pulled, yanking the elf spread eagled.

The lone remaining figure unoccupied reached up and removed his mask, revealing another Zeke, who snickered at the struggling A-ranker. "Janus is the god with two faces, moron. But thanks for letting me soften you up. How's that for a Path?" Reaching into his ring, he drew out a pair of gloves. "Now compensate me for that damn mask you pointy eared fuck."

As he drove both hands into the chest of the elf, we all stared in shock at my uncle killing an A-ranked. Callie swallowed hard, looking up at the screen in a mixture of awe and fear. "Remind me not to piss off your uncle. Like...ever." I just nodded dumbly. No shit.