Wish upon the Stars chapter 307

Malachai had me pinned with his gaze, but he looked wary. He also  ignored Pietro's whining completely, stepping around the guy to block my  line of sight of him. "Might I ask your name?" He said cautiously. His  tone confirmed what I'd suspected. Someone had forcibly stopped that  pressure earlier. He probably thought it was one of the other E-rankers,  but he had to know whoever it was, they were stronger than him.

Of  course it could have been a D-ranker who retired here or something, but  regardless, he was pretty sure I had some power in my corner. I just  shrugged. "Solomon." I said shortly. I wasn't going to say anything. My  mother and the Cult were bitter enemies, and if he found out I was a  candidate he might figure that out. The less I said the better. Worst  case he flipped and tried to murder me, and Zeke turned him into meat  paste.

He seemed frustrated by the answer, which was  valid. It wasn't a great one. He also seemed torn. Pietro came here to  kill me for killing Aiden. This whole fucking farce was a power trip of  his own making. There was no easy out. No option to say 'hey man,  bygones ok?' because the whole purpose of coming here was for me to die.  So if I didn't then he failed, and Pietro didn't strike me as the kind  of person who handled being told no particularly well.

So  without the option to bail, it was clear that Malachai wanted a new  angle. After thinking it over he took in my condition, which wasn't  fucking great because this asshole had me pinned down and I was stuck in  my Afterburner state. I'd managed to finally get this one altered, a  big step in my path to upgrading DS Mastery, and it now multiplied my  attacks by only three times instead of five, but worked for ten attacks  instead of one. I'd used up one blow just not trying to crush him with  Mercy Kill, but I still had nine. Staying in this state wasn't  comfortable at all.

The E-ranker gave a mischievous humph,  as if just figuring something out, and my stomach sank. "Since we  seniors are so much more powerful it's naturally wrong for us to get  involved with your fights. I'm simply worried that Pietro is being  ganged up on. That bear and the boy with the hammer, not to mention the  girl with the shadow abilities, this is clearly a lopsided fight. Since  it's come to a battle to the death, naturally we need to make sure it's  fair. One on one is how battles between warriors should be handled."

Shit.  He'd noticed that Zeke hadn't attacked when he backed off. Figuring out  the conditions for my Uncle's intervention wasn't hard, but it WAS  annoying. I was impressed he was enough of a brazen asshole to make it  sound like I'd been cheating in a fair challenge when his dickhead  charge had jumped us with a crowd of fucking zombies. Everyone had  stopped fighting now, and were all watching as the guy basically  strongarmed me into a one on one fight.

I didn't actually  mind that. I didn't like this guy, and Zeke's protection was supposed to  ensure I had to fight my own battles without being overwhelmed anyway.  This was within the bounds of that. "Fine." I said shortly. "A one on  one match, Pietro and I with no interference. But if I win, will you  really just let things play out?" Pietro sneered at the question, and  even Malachai looked smug.

"Of course." Said the bodyguard  in the least convincing voice I'd ever heard. He was clearly convinced I  was at the end of my rope and wouldn't be able to win, which wasn't far  from true, but I still had tricks. I was buzzing with a healing burst  still, and I had nine power attacks with Afterburner. As a finisher,  Afterburner worked on the complete move, stacks and powerups included,  which granted, wasn't useful to me right now, but was definitely an  important trump card.

Benny's triple strength powerups for  density shifting and tranq blows worked on those aspects of the attacks  rather than the whole attack and all its components. In fact,  Afterburner would even triple the power output of one of those triple  strength attacks, resulting in a massive boost on stacked blows like my  magma leg. Sadly I was incapable of using any of those right now, but I  was sure I could manage something.

Everyone backed off as  the two of us faced each other, and Pietro was grinning from ear to ear.  He clearly had an idea of how he'd beat me, and was sure it would work.  Malachai looked at me mockingly. "Well, are you two both ready for this  battle?" He clearly thought Zeke didn't care about what happened to me  as long as he didn't attack personally. He'd blatantly bullied me into  this fight with no reaction, so he figured he was safe.

Which  he was, because of the geass, but still, I was annoyed about it. I just  nodded, and he gave the signal to begin. My soul had slightly recovered  under Bennys spiritual calming earlier. Not enough to use my attacks as  I'd like, but enough that I could probably trigger one or two stored  attacks if I pushed it. I would need to be VERY careful though. I  couldn't stack or modify them or I might damage my soul too much for it  to heal. Which would be bad. Like, really bad.

Pietro was  casually gathering his power again, giving me a cocky smirk. "Well. Now  you're alone. You don't look so good. Little unsteady on your feet.  Taking down that corpse take it out of you?" His mocking tone was sugary  sweet, as if he was concerned, making it all the more obnoxious. I  didn't think his face could get more punchable, but it definitely had.  Like...three times more punchable at least.

I started to  move, circled around. His attack was wide range, but it did have a  radius. I just needed to dodge it. But he didn't release the damn thing.  Just saved it up, waiting for me to slip. It was more patience than I'd  have credited him with. I didn't really want to give this asshole any  credit for anything actually, so I decided to just chalk the waiting up  to sadism and consider it a bad thing.

After a minute or  two (good for me since it let my head clear a bit more) I figured that  too much of a good thing wouldn't help and decided to lure him into  using up his attack. I wanted to use double trouble, but I knew he'd  seen it before. If I used it now he'd just expect me to pop up behind  him. I didn't know if he could deploy that attack close to himself, but I  didn't want to find out by feeling it go off in my damn face.

So,  to hurry it along, I tripped. Not really tripped, I rolled my ankle on  purpose and started to fall, letting out a pained cry, and he, of  course, pounced like the asshole he was. He hurled the vortex of dark  energy right at the spot where I was going to land once I finished  tripping, clearly planning to detonate it right in my face and kill me  outright, at least if that stuff could get through my armor.

Or  he would have done that. If I'd been there. It was kind of interesting  to see the blast consume the illusion of me as I triggered double  trouble right before the blast arrived. He clearly couldn't control or  turn the thing, and had assumed that since I was vulnerable I'd be easy  pickings. See. Sadism and not patience. As I appeared behind him, I  considered briefly what to do, and then decided I needed a way to  deliver fast brutal attacks. I used the spider legs, feeling them sprout  from my back.

My head swam, but it was only one attack  without alteration or stacking so I could handle it. I attacked  immediately, using my cane and both spider legs to slash out at the  assholes head with enough force to do serious damage. The black shield  appeared again, but as my cane hit it the thing lit up and as the two  spider legs struck it began to crack. The Afterburner enhanced blows  were much less effective without my stacking, but they were also  completely free of soul weight and could be used multiple times. Six  left.

I struck twice more before the shield shattered and  it left his head open as I swung the cane at his temple. I triggered  Mercy Kill, still able to use regular skills easily enough. Pietro  shrieked again, pulling his arms in front of him to shield himself.  "Stop!" I heard a voice roar, as Malachai dashed out to grab me, making  sure that I wasn't actually hurt but restraining me.

Cursing,  I glared at him. "You really gonna do this? You know what happens if  you interfere right?" I was fucking incensed. I'd been about to end  this, my head was killing me, and I wanted this whole mess to be over.  This assholes cheating bullshit was keeping me from making me friends  and girlfriend safer, and I was pretty much fucking done with it. "Do  you want to die, asshole? Because if you don't let me go and let me  finish this fight you're going to die. It won't be quick either."

That  was a lie. I had no clue if it would be quick, but I wanted to scare  him. I was too angry to be rightfully afraid of being in the hands of a  powerful E-ranker who could squish me like a bug. Malachai snorted in  disdain. "If you could do that you would. I don't think your protector  cares what I do as long as I don't interfere too directly. But I don't  need to hold you down for Pietro to kill you, after all, you just  threatened me. I'm sure your guardian won't mind if I teach you a little  lesson. I wonder how you'll protect yourself with both arms broken?"

I  wasn't sure if that was legit. Like, I doubted I could just attack any  E-ranker an expect Zeke to kill them when they defended themselves. Was  threatening him enough to allow him to injure but not kill me? I didn't  no. Zeke never talked about the terms of my protection, probably to keep  me from abusing them. As Malachai reached for me slowly, a malicious  gleam in his eye, I started to worry that I might have really fucked up.

Which  is when my mask jumped off my face and fucking ate him. Not like...in  one bite either. It streaked over and latched onto his head, the wood  expanding to encase his entire skull. "What the fuck?" He screamed.  "What is this? Boy get this off of me. I'll kill you!" He reached up to  try to tear it off and his hands sunk into the wood, submerging in the  grain and being swallowed. His screams grew louder as his arms were  pulled in deeper, then the wood expanded over his shoulders, his body  being swallowed and compacted at the same time.

We all  watched in horrified fascination as his whole body was consumed by the  wood, which then fell to the ground with a thunk. By the time it hit the  floor, it was back in its normal shape, just a simple wooden mask with  no adornments or eyeholes. There was no sound as we all stared at the  spot where a fucking E-ranked Ascendant had just died within seconds.

I'd...been  wearing that on my face. For months. And apparently it could murder  people who tried to hurt me. Which on the one hand was reassuring, since  it meant I was safe without Zeke having to interfere directly and would  probably help keep my identity from being blown, but on the other  hand...creepy. I shook that thought off, turning to Pietro, who suddenly  looked very afraid. I shot him a grin. "So...Petey. Where were we? I  believe we were in the middle of a duel to the death." I should probably  be worried about my face being exposed, but I didn't really have a  secret identity anyway and the mask was freaking me out right now.  Besides, I wanted him to see how smug I was. This was going to be fun.