“This is the place?” I asked Pret as we stopped outside a large building. I looked around, and I couldn’t see any sign of this place being particularly important. No groups of people, no defenses. If I had set up a distribution center for a giant intergalactic drug trade I’d have left guards or something.

Pret nodded easily. “The pups say yes.” He said laconically, patting the smoke grey mastiff. “We need a sitrep. Any of you have a scouting Skill?”

“Leave it to me.” Said Callie confidently, kneeling down to press her hand to the ground. When she touched her shadow, she sank into it, fully vanishing into the darkness. She normally only barely entered the dark, but she’d been doing some training, and she’d found that the more of her she submerged the wider her radius.

I paid close attention to her. While she was theoretically safe in the dark, there were tons of strange and seemingly off the wall abilities, and I wouldn’t put it past someone to be able to hurt her. Using the bond, I could tap into her power, albeit with some difficulty, and I could use that to pull her out if needed.

It took a few minutes for her to emerge, and she was panting and looking a little sick. “Are you alright?” I asked her worriedly as I helped her over to sit against the side of a building.

“Perception focused D-ranker.” She said with a shudder. “Almost caught me. Even in the shadows he nearly sensed me, luckily between Stealth and my Path of the Abyss I was able to avoid the detection. We have a huge problem. There are five different D-rankers in there, and a dozen or so E-rankers.”

I grimaced. “What about the crates. Is this where they’re distributing the Hallow?”

“Pretty sure. They have a bunch of people cutting those crates of ash and separating them into little baggies. But…something is wrong with them. At least some of them. One of them went crazy when he dropped something in the ash and it puffed up in his face. The nearest E-ranker stabbed him and he…Shane he burned alive. He didn’t even seem upset, he was laughing and screaming about a sacrifice.”

Sighing, I pinched the bridge of my nose. “That’s the opposite of reassuring. Well, we have the right place at least.” I turned to Pret. “When is Callen getting here? And hopefully some other backup. We can handle the E-rankers easily enough I’m sure, but I’m not bringing my people up against five D-rankers without a proper counter.”

The Houndmaster chuckled. “I can handle four of them. Your swordmaster is on his way. I reached out when we stopped.”

I nodded, turning to the others. “Stay away from the ash. If it kills people we don’t want anything to do with it. Pret can round it up and take it, just draw any of them you can away from whatever assembly line they’re using before the fight.”

Abel grinned, cracking his neck. “I bet I can kill more of them than anyone else.” He said tauntingly. “Anyone willing to bet on it.”

“You’re on Alice.” Said Bethy with a grin. “You don’t stand a chance.”

His eyes narrowed. “No animal companions. That’s cheating. You can attack five times as many people as I can.”

“What?” She protested. “That’s not fair. My familiars are part of my power. If you’re allowed to use your gloves I should be allowed to use my kitties.” She turned to pout at me. “Shane, tell Apple he’s being unreasonable.”

“You don’t get to call me unreasonable when you’ve gotten my name wrong in three different ways since this conversation started.” He snapped. “I’m just making things fair.”

She snickered at him. “Oh I’m sorry. I didn’t realize we were aiming for ‘fair’. I thought I was talking to an actual fighter. My mistake. I’d love to have a fair competition with you!” She clapped her hands earnestly. “Maybe I can try on some of my pretty new dresses. Do you need any extra advantages? I could try fighting them with one hand if that would help?”

Abel looked outraged. “That’s not…stop that! I’m not asking for pity! You know what, fine! Use your animals. Use all the animals! Summon a planet of woodland critters and unleash them on the unsuspecting denizens of the warehouse, I’ll beat you no matter how much help you have!”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I stepped up next to Mel, lowering my voice as I tried to suppress my cackle. “He knows she’s just straight up handling him right now, right?”

“He does.” She said in amusement. “He just doesn’t actually have a choice but to be handled.”

I glanced at Bethy with a newfound respect. She was so much craftier than she let on. This was why she scared me so damned much. “You think he has a chance at winning?”

“Not even slightly.” She giggled. “And he knows it. But he doesn’t actually care that much. His pride isn’t wrapped up in winning or losing, even if she did poke it with that little speech. He’s doing it because it’s a chance to pit himself against the best and try to improve. He’s like that sometimes.”

That sounded more like Abel. I knew he liked to indulge Bethy’s games because it boosted morale. I wondered how much of that little exchange was him humoring her.

Within about ten minutes, there was a rush of wind and a figure appeared. “Callen.” I nodded to the swordsman. “Surprised it took you so long. You’re D-rank now right?” That would mean basically no suppression at this level.

He shrugged. “I was on the other side of the district. Why am I not surprised this is Imperial Territory? Anyway, we’re going in? What’s their roster looking like?”

We explained the layout and the enemy inside, and he nodded. “I can take two, most likely. Depends how deep into D-rank they are. I’ve been growing like crazy because of all the renown from my little stunt when I broke through.”

I had assumed. Considering the overflow renown Benny was getting, the sheer attention Callen must have received for the feat must have been pushing him up almost as fast as Callie, if not faster.

That was something I’d noticed about renown. Because of the exponential weighting toward higher rankers (renown from an A-ranker was worth more than a thousand B-rankers, though that was more of an estimate than a hard number) the higher rank you were the more renown you tended to accrue.

The spread of stories tended to be wider for people with higher ranks because of the way most cities were structured, like back in Callus where everyone was isolated from all but the most powerful people in the faction, but also higher ranked people cared less about impressive feats from lower ranking Ascendants.

Your average A-ranker was much less impressed by an E-ranker killing a D-ranker than another E-ranker was. When you’d gotten that high up the ladder, you’d been through some insane shit of your own, by necessity.

Being D-rank meant more people would be talking about Callen than Benny, or honestly even Callie. She HAD killed a god, but it was more of a fluke than anything. She wasn’t even a Master yet, so she hadn’t proven herself that interesting. When we hit D-rank, chances were good our stories would start to carry further, assuming we stayed interesting.

I shook off the introspection. Learning more about the world we lived in was great, but there were more important things to do.

I held up a hand. “Before we go in, we’re going to make a plan. Callie gave us the layout and how many people are in there, so we can strategize accordingly.” I knelt down, imbuing my finger with Belial and reaching down to slowly trace out a map in the road.

Between my Focus, Perception, and even my Might, I was able to draw extremely well these days, and the corrosion of Belial was plenty to eat through the stone of the road. I had a decent map traced out within a minute, and Callie mentally helped me fill out the positions of all the enemies and their ranks.

“Pret, you’ll take these three.” I gesture at the two of them clustered together and one by the back corner. “This one is the Perception specialist, so make sure to keep him occupied, and your hounds mean you can cover a wider range. Callen, these two are guarding the door together. You should be able to pull them pretty easily.”

He nodded slowly. “I might be able to kill one or both of them in a single hit if I can approach the building without being noticed.”

I nodded to Callie, who sent me a pulse of assurance through the bond. Then I turned to the others. “Bethy, you’re a Vampire and don’t breathe, I want you to hit the ones closest to the ash just in case. Probably unnecessary, but discretion is the better part of valor. Draw them out to here if you can.” I marked a spot on the map.

“Sir, yes sir!” She said, saluting crisply. Then she giggled. “I learned that in the army.”

“You did it backwards.” I informed her blandly. “But I’m glad you’re so confident. Gabe and Abel, I want you here and here. I’m going to drop them into a Pit of Despair, then harden it. You’ll be waiting to take them out. Callie, I want you taking pot shots at any of the stragglers from the dark, stay in shadow so you don’t inhale anything. Chelsea, you’ll be on standby in case anyone DOES get dosed, your purification will be our ace in the hole.”

Mel cleared her throat. “And what will I be doing?”

“You’ll be with Chelsea, keeping her safe and not killing us all in a terrible dust explosion.” I shrugged. “Sorry, I don’t KNOW that the ashes are combustible, but I don’t know they aren’t, and throwing around torrents of flame, purification flame aside, in a room full of magic dust that sets people on fire, seems like a poor life choice.”

She paused, then slumped a bit. “I…have no response to that. When you phrase it that way it makes sense. But you owe me some front line time soon. I’ve been getting sidelined, and I want to show off some of my new tricks after getting to E-rank.”

With a laugh, I agreed, and we all moved to get into position. I stepped off the air with Ripple Running until I landed on the roof. Strolling over to the spot above the place I’d indicated to the others, I pressed my hand to the ceiling while pulling on Callie’s stealth.

Pit of Despair and Dust Construction created an opening (and a handy little hood over top of it so the light didn’t stream in and give me away) and I peered down into the warehouse. From this angle, I could see down the length of the building to where Callen was going to spring his attack.

Reaching out mentally to Callie, I had her notify the others through the shadows. With a shocking boom of displaced air, a massive sword construct split the front wall of the building, heading right for the two D-rankers.

One lost an arm at the shoulder retreating, and the other raised a shield and tanked the blow, flying off his feet and through the wall. Callen appeared behind the one armed guy and stomp kicked him in the base of the spine, sending him sailing after his friend before he blitzed after them.

Through the gaping hole in the wall, Bethy and Luggage blurred towards the table where a bunch of people were sorting out the ash, and I grinned hungrily as the baying of hounds sounded through the warehouse.

Pret’s dogs were on top of the three other D-rankers, Pret alongside them in an instant, and I readied myself for combat. It was time for us to do what we did best. Sometimes it felt good to just cut loose.