“Ok.” I finally said with exasperation. “What the actual fuck is her power?” Looking at Zeke down the line of chairs, I briefly noticed my mom wince at the language, and admittedly had to hide a small chuckle.

She knew that despite us getting along better, I was an adult, and the time for things like calling me out on my language had passed. I wasn't a child so I wouldn't poke her about it, but I also wasn't planning to tone it down. I was who I was.

Zeke, who knew I'd been talking to him, hummed in contemplation. “Glazing is the art of constructing stained glass windows. It looks like she made a unique Skill that uses it as a base, possibly with some elemental manipulation Skills mixed in to enable her to use it on the fly. It's a novel approach, most crafting related unique Skills use Enchanting as a mechanism. It's not as devastating in real time, but it gives you way more flexibility. It was a particularly bad idea in this case, though I guess they assumed it wouldn't matter.”

“Why was it such a bad idea?” I asked cautiously. “She seemed pretty effective in combat.”

He opened his mouth, then grimaced in annoyance. After a second of rewording, he answered. “You remember.” He said slowly. “What I told you about the difficulties of forming a Chronicle?”

He was bound by the geas, presumably because I was now making decent progress towards a Chronicle and that was my next step. I was still a ways off, though, I needed to fix all of my Ski- and then I got what he was saying. I wished I hadn’t.

I’d thought I couldn’t get any angrier about what had been done to someone who was, at least be adoption, probably some kind of cousin. I’d been wrong. Because her dad hadn’t just destroyed her sense of self. He’d done it in such a way that he’d basically crippled her. At least as far as I could tell.

Felicity was doing what I was doing, holding together a lot of poorly made Skills with a powerful soul. In a normal person that might have made for some instability, but not too much. Like me though, Felicity had a complicated and many faceted unique Skill made by jamming a bunch of Skills together to make something special.

I had my book and my divination abilities to help guide me in fixing my Skills before forming my Chronicle, but based on what I knew of how it worked, it was based on a Solid Path Skill, which you needed to reach C-rank. If Felicity’s Solid Path was Glazing, and her skill was a broken barely functional mess, she wouldn’t survive forming her Chronicle.

It wasn’t an issue for me because I had warning, and I was sure Zeke would have found a way to tip me off even if I hadn’t found out on my own, but it would be a problem for her. Which meant her dad had knowingly done this to her while being completely aware that he was essentially making a permanent C-ranker or a corpse, and he hadn’t cared. I REALLY wanted to kick his ass.

My mom had been watching the exchange and nodded sadly. “There’s a reason that people don’t usually get far with Unique Skills. The way you do things isn’t exactly repeatable by the masses. And even your way isn’t sustainable. Pushing her into what she’s done…I never liked Craygen, but I didn’t expect even that little weasel to take things this far.” She glanced at me and then at Chelsea. “As a parent, I wish I could put him down for this.”

Apparently it wasn’t just me. But the bastard was protected by his boss, so we needed to do this in a more roundabout fashion. I had to win the E-ranked games To that end, I focused back on the C-ranked competition to get a better idea of what I should expect.

Looking at it from the outside, one thing stuck out. The quality of their powers. Rorik’s control of his spiders, Felicity’s Glazing, and that crazy flame legion Malkyr had used. All of them were so much more complex than the things I did, not to mention weightier and more deadly in terms of Impact.

It just seemed like a whole other dimension of combat, one that I was just now starting to enter with my new techniques. Seeing them operate like this, it highlighted how amateurish me and all the other E-rankers were in comparison.

The only exception was probably Abel. Looking back, I realized he’d been using techniques for quite some time. The Cicada Stacking Step was one of his go-to’s and it was his own creation. A way to apply his spatial lubrication in a unique way to massively increase his own ability in combat. I’d never even really considered how he’d achieved that before my lessons with mom.

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Below us I watched with bated breath as Ellisara stumbled upon Malkyr after all, despite his attempt to avoid her. The tall, red haired warriors created a striking image, Malkyr in a set of dark leather legion armor with shining silver studs, while Ellisara stood in gleaming golden plate with onyx inlays. The church warrior had a huge gold and onyx mace propped up on her shoulder, and she smiled confidently at the Earl.

“Damn it.” He snapped. “I really didn’t want to do this. Wasn’t it bad enough you left to go join the church Ellie? You had to hunt me down and knock me out of the running personally?”

She just shrugged. “Sorry little brother. Take it as a compliment. If I didn’t respect your abilities I wouldn’t have singled you out. Hells, you’re half the reason I volunteered for this. If my kid brother is taking the world stage, I have to make sure he’s ready. What’s the matter, didn’t you miss me?”

I blinked, looking over at my mom. “Did…did you know they were related?” I asked in astonishment. “Because I didn’t even consider that. Sure they’re both redheads, but what are the odds?”

“Pretty good.” My mother said with a smile. “Like she said, she did it on purpose. But yes, I knew. Ellisara is one of my dad’s subordinates, obviously.”

My grandfather nodded. “Ellie is a very talented fire user. Her mother is a devout believer in the Revenant, and Ellie inherited that piety. She left the Empire to join one of our academies as a girl and quickly proved herself to be a skillful combatant. In point of fact, much like yourself, Ellie has participated in one on one training with your mother.”

Mom beamed. “She’s such a darling girl, and a wonderful student. She’s much more suited to my Stellar Flame Fist than you are dear. Watch closely, maybe you can learn some things.”

Malkyr, eyes blazing with rage, had called up his flame legion when we were talking. “I’m not scared of you!” He hissed at his sister. “Just because you were always dad’s favorite doesn’t mean you’re stronger than I am. I’ve been training hard for this.”

Grinning widely, Ellisara cheered for him. “That’s the spirit little brother! You can do this!” Then she vanished in an explosion of flame.

I’d had to adapt that move, but I could see the shape of it easily enough. Supernova Step. She reappeared behind the Earl with a cry of triumph, bringing her massive mace smashing around at his ribs.

There was a blurring of heat as the flame forms of the legionnaires blurred, and all of them were absorbed into Malkyr in a dizzying warping of space. Malkyr, who had shifted into a full body fire form, became more solid and defined, the blazing shield he wielded coming up to interpose itself between mace and body.

Cosmic Collapse was channeled through the smash, and the was a blast of power that sent Malkyr skidding back, his feet carving melted trenches in the forest floor for twenty feet before he slid to a stop.

“Well done!” Ellisara crowed cheerfully. “I was worried I’d have to hold back during this fight, but you’ve applied your talents superbly. I suppose if you’re going to meet me in your strongest form, I should return the favor.” Her smile was beatific as flames exploded around her, creating a sphere of starfire around her body so bright it nearly blocked her from view.

Malkyr stepped back, but she didn’t come after him, she stayed where she was, unmoving for a moment, as she gathered herself, and then the flame coming off her (which I was pretty sure was just ambient fire energy and that she’d done a similar flame transformation to her brother, and then she started to gather it up.

Slowly, surely, she condensed her flames, packing them down and condensing them until they returned to her normal shape, leaving a glowing blue figure of living flame. She exploded out into another Supernova Step, but I barely caught this one. I only figured it out because Malkyr managed to shield smash her fist (the mace was gone, presumably too fragile to take the heat) and bleed off some of the energy.

Some, because he still went flying backwards smashing through about a dozen trees before hitting the ground. My mother beamed. “They don’t call me the Star Queen for nothing.” She bragged. “ My Sunsmasher Body is my signature move. Not only does it grant incredible strength, it’s designed to amplify all my techniques.” She winked at me. “Like mother like son, I suppose. I told you I was uniquely suited to help you train your combat forms.”

I smiled absently at her, but my eyes were mostly locked on the blazing blue form of Ellisara. “She made Stellar Flame Fist her Solid Path?” I said in surprise. “I can see why it’s made you so feared.”

My admiration of the powerful martial art my mom had made was interrupted by Malkyr staggering to his feet, face a rictus of fury. “It’s not FAIR!” He howled in outrage. “All I do is train! I study tactics, refine my fire manipulation Skills, and push myself to my limits.” As he spoke, the space behind him caught fire, first dozens, then hundreds of flame legionnaires appeared, all of them condensing into his body.

The heat around him spiked, warping the vision of everyone in the audience as he fed his legionnaires into his body to strengthen himself.

Ellisara shook her head sadly. “You’ve come so far little brother, learned so much, but you haven’t learned the most important lesson of all. Life can be a lot of things, brutal, beautiful, kind, or cruel. But regardless of good or ill-”

She stepped forward in another Supernova Step, this time blurring through a series of disparate locations along a constellation meant to confuse the senses. Appearing behind him, she brought her fist around into the back of his head with an explosion of cascading blue flame. “But it’s never fair.”

She watched him sadly as he toppled forward, flames fading as he landed on his face. My mom nodded in approval. “Constellation Cascade.” She said in explanation. “Channels a bunch of Cosmic Collapse strikes into the Supernova Step to stack the power. Not my strongest technique, but it’s a solid finisher, especially with the Sunsmasher Body active.”

As I stared down at the Empire representative passed out on the ground, I stood up and looked to the others. “I’ve seen what most of the big leaguers have brought to the table. I get why it was important for me to be here. But not…I’ve got to go. I have training to do. If I’m going to beat people like this I can’t afford to waste any more time.”

My mom and grandpa smiled at me approvingly, and Zeke nodded. Callie followed me out, determined to help how she could, even if she wouldn’t be involved. I was planning to skip the D-rank games, even if I’d ask Callie to go to support Callen with the others. I had to get up to speed before it was my turn. If I was going to win this I’d need as much training as I could get.