State of Grace made me graceful as I slipped through the hole I’d made in the ceiling. Stealth made me silent. The second I got through, I closed the hole back up. I landed on a platform made from Ripple Running, which was still active from my ascent to the roof, and casually reached up to grab an outlying piece of metal to hang from.
A slight effort of will saw me swallowed in darkness, cloaked by Callie’s power as well as her stealth, as I waited for things to play out. I wanted to drop down and wade into the fight, but I knew it was more important to stick with the plan, so I sat, and waited.
Bethy hit the E-rankers head on, Luggage jumping on two of them as she whirled around them. She was clearly having fun, pirouetting around them like she was at a dance, skirt whirling as her glittering nails licked out and drew long furrows on skin.
This was the first time I'd seen Bethy fighting seriously since she'd gotten any real control of her bloodlust, and it was wonderful to see how free and excited she seemed.
She blurred away, the E-rankers trailing behind her. They all looked gaunt and kind of hungry, but most of all they looked predatory. Whatever Skills they developed with the Hallow, I was pretty sure they were dangerous.
They were right on her tail as they entered the specific area where we'd agreed to spring the trap, and as I triggered Pit of Despair I Saw Bethy SKIP across the nearly frictionless dust as they all fell in. I immediately hardened the stone floor again by withdrawing my Skill, trapping them all inside.
Dropping smoothly from the dark, I let State of Grace carry me down at a gentle float. As I descended, there was a loud crack as a hand punched up from the stone. Grimacing, I noticed the play of red sparks along the fingers, and my Eye of Revelation showed me a slowly building energy from that hand. “Move!” I bellowed to my friends as I hit the ground and threw myself on top of the hand, activating Mornax.
There was a massive explosion, and I felt myself flying through the air before I hit the wall with a sickening thud, several of my bones cracking on impact.
Mornax was nearly unbreakable to an E-ranker, but it required contact with the ground to work. Once I got blown clear it ended, and I had been pretty much impervious to damage in my stone form so all that explosive power became propulsion that slammed my fleshy mortal self into the rock side of the building. As I slid down the wall, I groaned, wishing I’d saved some heal bursts instead of using them for…I blinked.
Triggered Zagan, I flooded my own body with the green flames of life, groaning as the damage began to knit back together. It wasn’t an instant heal, even with all the boosts, but it DID purify my body of pain, which was useful as hell. I’d heal in time, faster now, but this little reprieve was more than worth the form I’d taken.
I glanced through the smoke to see Abel and Gabe smash into the now freed and damaged E-rankers, the one who exploded had blasted them free, though I saw at least one or two corpses from the blast.
One of them stumbled toward me gleefully, and I started to stand to meet him, but the darkness beneath him deepened and Callie emerged. Blurring upward, her daggers moved, severing his achilles tendons, plunging right into his kidneys, then staying behind as she manifested a new pair, slit his throat, and then jammed the shadow constructs into his eyes, all in one smooth continuous motion.
I blinked at her in shock as she viciously kicked him away and rushed to my side. “Are you ok?” She said frantically. “The sound you made when you hit that wall…”
Smiling, I held up a finger, then flicked my staff out into the path of a passing E-ranker and dumping all my injuries into him. I technically had about two dozen fractures and breaks, but I considered them all one big skeletal injury, so a bit of bullying was enough to shove them onto the man, who collapsed to the ground screaming.
“I’m fine.” I said, popping to my feet energetically. “And Abel and Gabe didn’t lose any limbs from that blast. Which seemed…stronger than it should have been.”
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She grimaced. “Pretty sure it was a Master rank Skill. Those ashes are no joke. Lucky they’re just E-rankers. Your Impact was enough to make up the difference.” She shook off her distress. “Sorry, I was just…upset when I saw you fall like that.”
“Clearly.” I said in amusement, gesturing to the ravaged corpse of the guy who had been on his way to kill me. “You were definitely thorough. Now let’s get back in it. We have to help the others.”
These guys were…way tougher than they should be. It felt like fighting a dozen lesser version of Abel. Not QUITE as bad, but they were all clearly far too advanced in their Skills, or at least one of them. Gabe was smashing them down, but he was having to focus on one at a time, and Bethy was dancing between two rabid looking partially transformed fighters who looked like animal hybrids.
Luggage had locked onto one and was bearing him down, and Abel was engaged with three at a once, surprisingly gleeful as they managed to take chunks out of him. One was using some kind of straight razor as a weapon, one’s hands glowed with a vibrating yellow energy, and one flickered in place like some kind of uncontrolled teleporter.
Which was ten total including the ones Callie and I had already dealt with, leaving us one each. I left the broken bone guy on the floor as I blurred toward the last one, staff licking out to tap Abel, Gabe, and Bethy to supercharge them with my life giving green flames. I avoided Callie because I didn’t want to accidentally interfere with her shadows.
I considered the last two, attacking the bigger and more malevolent looking one. My feet slammed down, stacking Mornax and Mephistopheles, maximum offense and defense. The big guy in front of me snarled and lashed out with a massive hammer, the hunk of metal slamming into me and…pushing me back.
Snarling, I ignored the pain in the arm I’d used to interrupt the attack, spinning up my staff as I triggered Flurry of Blows, launching one high and one low burst of black flame.
This guy was stronger than he should be. High E-rank Might, and a Master ranked hammer Skill. Even Mornax was having trouble tanking these hits. I grinned widely. Perfect. It had been ages since I’d had a real knock down brawl. I could feel Callie was fine, which meant there was no reason to worry about anyone.
The big guy roared, hammer smashing down on me. My staff planted, the butt of the weapon braced on the ground as the blow came down on the other side. The explosive force bled into the ground, cracking the stone.
I channeled the black flame into the now underground section of the staff, and the explosive power drove it up and out. Swinging the bottom up, I smashed the ascending staff into the jaw of the other fighter, then stepped forward and smashed my fist into his diaphragm.
Mephistopheles made me an avatar of destruction, the black flame a part of me, and the explosive burst of fire from that punch sent the big man stumbling back in confusion. I whirled my staff, smashing him in the legs with a series of rapid explosive blows, stumbling back as his hammer smashed into the side of my head, sending me reeling.
My crown and mask soaked most of the blow, especially with Mornax active, but my bell was rung pretty good, and I wheeled back on the defensive for minute or two as he rained down hammer blows with an outraged roar.
Despite the pain, my face was split with a manic grin. I was doing it. I was going toe to toe with a high E-ranker specced into Might, using a powerful weapon and taking some enhancement bullshit, and I was holding on. I forced myself to calm down, watching and waiting as he descended, until I noted a slight shift in his footwork.
My overlay was active, and I knew exactly how to take advantage of the gap. Spitting a Steam Arrow enhanced with black fire, I forced the shocked hammer wielder to scream and retreat. As he covered his face instinctively, I smashed my staff into the instep of his foot, detonating an explosive burst of black flame.
I felt several bones give as he howled in agony, and I spun off my back foot, whirling my whole body as I swung my staff like a bat, slamming the heavy length of wood, into his skull even as I dumped my own headache and tender head into him from where he hit me. He went stumbling, collapsing to the ground on all fours.
Walking over to him, I lifted a foot off the ground, straining to keep Mornax active since one was still planted, and SLAMMED my heel into his lower spine with an explosion of black fire. My density shifted stone body combined with the blast snapped his spine and sent his body slamming into the ground hard enough to partially embed him in the stone.
Turning to check, I realized everyone else was done, and I let my forms drop with a sigh of relief. A quick switch to Zagan flooded my body with healing again, and I sighed in relief as the pain faded.
I’d taken a bunch of hits with that hammer, and that guy had been STRONG. Feeling those start to repair was nice. I turned to see Callie sitting over her own sparring partner, who wasn’t dead, surprisingly. I guess attacking her personally was less of a cardinal sin in her eyes than attacking me.
“How many of them are alive?” I asked as I glanced around. “I wanted to question them.”
Abel chuckled and I turned to see him sitting on one of his. “Mine aren’t dead. Tough bastards. It occurred to me some answers wouldn’t go amiss. Plus I realized that Bethy wouldn’t be getting credit for the ones she kited, and that didn’t seem fair.”
Chelsea and Mel had entered through the opening Callen had made and were looking over the destruction with an impressed look. “Damn.” Said Mel. “You didn’t hold back there, huh?”
I shrugged. “These aren’t brainwashed puppets or anything. Just assholes who tried to kill us. I was going to try to purify them of the Hallow, but it doesn’t seem like it works that way. It’s already part of them, and all it does is make them stronger.” I poked hammer guy, just to check, and shook my head. “For now.”
I’d gotten a weirdly solid idea of what was up with them during the fight. It made me wonder if I should have included scan heal in Zagan so I could have an even clearer picture, but Eye of Revelation seemed to be doing the job.
Pret appeared next to us, and from his eyes I was pretty sure he was smiling. “Well now. That was certainly an effective raid. I’ll have to keep an eye on you Shane. Not many candidates can set up such a seamless assault. That’s a skill that’ll come in handy. Feel free to keep the rabble, they weren’t part of our deal.”
I recognized an olive branch when I saw one, I nodded gratefully as we started moving to tie up the E-rankers. We’d deliver them to my mom and let her question them, hopefully she could help us make sense of what was going on. The more I learned, the less sure I was of what was happening, and that was starting to worry me.