Wish upon the Stars chapter 364

State of Grace flowed through me as I dropped to a knee, planting my  hands on the ground to trigger my usual magma limb and introduce poison  into the mix. I was about to charge forward to help, but a hand caught  my shoulder. I turned to see Abel frowning at me. "No." He said bluntly.

"What  do you mean, no? My cousin is fighting for her life here!" I tried to  shake him off, but even boosted, his Might was much higher, his hand  remained locked around me, and probably would unless I took a swing.

He  pointed at the red wall of briars. "No. She isn't. She's under a  defensive enchantment or something. It's holding, even if her guards  seem to be dipping out of it to engage. We aren't rushed, ad much as it  feel like it. You need to wait for the others to engage first. A crowd of F-rankers mainly focused on you would be fatal. Once Rime and Randall  arrive we can engage with our full forces."

He  sounded...weird. Serious and efficient. I'd seen him pissed, seen him  casual, but Abel when he was operating in a serious manner was weird to  me. It was jarring enough to make me stop and think. With the red  barrier still up, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Sadly,  just because I agreed to wait, didn't mean the figures would. We'd been  noticed, and while most of them stuck with trying to chip through the  red barrier and take pot shots at the guards when they made a move, two  of the F-rankers turned and started heading toward us.

"It's  him." Said the muffled voice of one of the figures. "He killed Pietro.  But not just Pietro. Can we fight someone who killed an E-ranker?"

The  other shook their head, both of their black fathomless hoods pointed at  me, not bothering to keep it down. "He's like the girl, another of the  wish spawn. His protection doesn't cover us, as hers doesn't cover us."  He looked over a shoulder as the others arrived, The Four, Randall,  Rime, all hitting the crowd of F-rankers. There were more than six of  them, seven in fact, not counting these two, but Rime engaged two of  them so I wasn't worried.

I  WAS worried about being up against a pair of F-rankers, even admittedly  weak ones, with just a group of G-rank backup. I felt Callie step up  next to me. With Mel, Rime, The Four, Jessie, and Randall on the other  side of the clearing it was just me, Benny, Celine, Callie, and Abel  over here. I considered using Moonlit Night, but it would hamstring my  allies, so I stuck with my current boosts.

As  they drew closer, I got more and more angry, my hands almost shaking.  These fucking lunatics. Attack my family, kidnap children, try to murder  my loved ones, they just wouldn't stop. Just wouldn't give up. Why  couldn't they just leave us alone? They were fucking poison, a toxic rot  pervading the whole planet.

I  stalked forward, yanking my arm from the grip of a distracted Abel, and  strode toward them. The closest figure, the weaker one, chuckled softly  under their robe, and flicked a finger casually. A dozen spears of bone  erupted from the ground, and I triggered Double Trouble, appearing  behind him. He was already turning lazily to meet me, which was when I  triggered Steam Arrow. Buffed with touch of tears, consecration of  flame, and Mercy Kill, and with my speed enhanced by State of Grace, the  arrow of boiling, now toxic liquid smashed into his face.

Despite  the hood, there must have been no face covering, because the figure  reared back with a roar. Or maybe there was, but Heavy Hands pierced  some of the defenses, either way, the hood fell back, revealing an olive  skinned girl with close cropped hair, one side of her head shaved.

Her  face was being chewed away by acidic boiling steam, though it was  already starting to heal, her eyes had been right in front of me. I  thanked the gods that Steam Arrow worked through my mask since despite  the spitting motion if condensed right in front of my face, and then  triggered another. She screamed, clawing at her face, and I took a  second to look to the other one as I felt Callie appear behind the girl  whose face I'd spat in and slam a leg into the back of her knees.

The  other one was pretty distracted. Mel had circled around with her flame  movement and joined Abel in assaulting the second figure, whose cloak  had shredded to reveal a tall bald man with glowing veins covering his  unnaturally distended body. He was trying to punch holes in Abel, who  was never where the man thought he was, and was tanking a ton of very  scary blows.

Deciding  that wasn't something to worry about I dipped down and triggered  Sucking Mud, along with a shadow attack, activating the Dark Swamp. The  tendrils lashed out to grip bone girl, starting to drag her down, but  she had gotten past the pain, even if the poison was slowing her  healing. She screamed, and the ground around her was ripped to shreds by  a torrent of dark bones.

Each  bone was gleaming with a black sheen, like they were coated in oil, and  they split apart the Dark Swamp with sheer numbers, displacing all the  earth within that ten foot radius. Callie lashed out with a hand and a  palm of shadow smacked me aside as a grasping claw of black bone formed  from the spikes and tried to grab me. Apparently we now warranted being  taken seriously.

Making  sure Benny, Mel, and Abel were out of range, I used Moonlit Night,  shrouding the area nearby in fog. I felt Callie reach through the bond  and I let her connect to the skill, allowing her to see inside the fog  like I did. She didn't get the boost to attacks that I did, but mobility  in a fathomless fog bank imbued with stealth was a hell of a useful  advantage. I triggered Ripple Running, bouncing off three separate  spaces to land next to her where she'd dodged the attack.

I  grimaced as I saw the slash on her thigh, one of the bones had slipped  between her leotard and boots and through the gap in her jacket. I put a  hand on her shoulder and triggered a heal burst. "Alright." I grunted.  "Really don't like her. Any ideas?" Inside the mist Stealth was all  pervading, which meant we could talk openly without being overheard by a  third party, though it was a trick that would only work with Callie due  to our bond allowing her to bypass the concealment.

She  scowled at the hooded form still climbing out of the hole left in the  muck. "Not sure. That bone power is annoyingly versatile. Not sure if it  has a range limit, but she seems to be able to use it in close  proximity to herself as well as far away. I'm PRETTY sure she can't just  pincushion the entire clearing, since she hasn't yet. But if we get  close we need to put her down hard or she's going to ventilate us before  she drops. Any chance the poison will take her down?"

"No."  I growled. "And tranqing is out too. My tranq attacks aren't strong  enough to take down an F-ranker, even with poison as a carrier, without  some serious damage to soften them up and compromise their healing  factor. Kind of wishing Benny kept that big ass hammer. Any chance the  shadow dragon might be able to get things done? We could have it attack  from the fog."

Shaking  her head, Callie sighed as we watched the bone girl spin in circles  trying to see anything. "No. The dragon is only as strong as the  combined power of our skills. The shadows are G-ranked and my Might  isn't high enough to hurt someone cross rank, and even with stone limb  reinforcing it wouldn't bridge the gap. Maybe with a density shift and a  few bonuses stacked up, but I'd have to support most of the soul weight  myself since I'd be holding the construct. That's too much for me to  handle."

I  let out a frustrated huff. "Ok so we need a single powerful attack,  something that can smash her defenses before she can react and spear  us." I paused. "I've got nothing. I have a few single shot finishing  blows but nothing that can cross ranks with any certainty. You don't  either." I turned and strode out of the fog, Callie following as we left  the hooded figure thrashing around. Once we were out I bellowed over to  Abel. "Hey! Apollyon. We need a finishing blow for this F-ranker. Want  to switch?"

Abel  gracefully slid through space out of the way of a blow from the big guy  before smashing a right cross into his jaw. "Can you guys take this  one? He's mostly softened up but he's an ornery fucker, just won't stay  down." The huge man was snarling in rage and hate, glowing green blood  dripping from his malformed and battered face. Guess his blood was a  carrier for whatever was boosting him.

I  triggered Double Trouble, then dismissed and retriggered Moonlit Night,  letting the fog disperse from around the bone girl and condense around  the big guy. "Yeah, go ahead." I said before the fog closed around us.  Abel had seen the direction needed and booked it out of the fog as soon  as it come up, and I turned my attention to the big guy.

He  was bruised and bleeding and seriously damaged. Abel had to have used  that weird multi blow stacking ability to beat him this badly. My arms  were still magma, and with the bonuses from State of Grace and Moonlit  Night, Mercy Kill was able to boost me enough to take advantage of the  tranq blows.

Since  the tranquilizer punches were triple strength, all the power added up  was enough to start to chip away at this guy, since his body was too  busy healing his beating to use the Vitality to counter my poison. And  so began the slow and steady process of beating the asshole into the  dirt. Without the ability to see and with my own boosted speed, I was  able to avoid him easily, especially with Eye of Revelation helping me  predict his punches. I rabbit punched him with a tranq blow and then  spent the rest of the time making sure the poison was dense enough to  carry it.

It  took about twenty minutes for me to finally finish driving the poison  in, and once it was permeating most of his body and further compromising  his healing, or at least counteracting it, I used another tranq blow to  put him down. He'd been shaky on his feet for a few minutes, but  another tranq punch to the temple finally dropped the bastard, and I let  the fog fade as I stumbled over to slump down on the ground out of  range if he somehow woke up.

Pointing  at him, I groaned. "Restraints please." And left Callie to tie him up.  It wouldn't hold if he was in peak form, but unconscious and horribly  beaten he should be fine.

There  was a thump and I looked over to see Abel toss the other cultist right  next to him. "Her too." He didn't seem particularly winded, and while  I'd  have loved to take credit, I was pretty sure this was all him.  Callie made her way over and started wrapping them in so many layers of  chains if they did wake up they wouldn't be able to exert much force.  Wouldn't hold them, but it was better than nothing.

As  we turned to see the others finishing their fights, a hole opened in  the red barrier, but no one came out. I smiled and hauled myself to my  feet, trudging over to speak to my cousin. Guess I was supposed to come to her.  Nice to know she was ok  enough to be a pain in my ass still.