Wish upon the Stars chapter 304

I'd expected anger when I announced that I wanted to kill Pietro, but  oddly, he just seemed...shocked. "You...you dare?" It was like the idea  that I was willing to kill him was some kind of alien concept to him. I  was suddenly really glad my old man had sent me off to grow up a normal  person instead of raising me in the clan. This was obviously what  happened when you gave someone an unlimited amount of leeway and  protection.

"Yeah." I said bluntly. "I literally just said  that." I looked around at all the people attending the auction. "Anyone  else down for a battle? I somehow doubt that Petey here is going to let  everyone spectate from the side. Might as well join up with our side so  you can get some support."

This was mostly aimed at  Macgregor and the other outsiders, they were the ones who would most  likely make the most difference. Sydney and Megan both looked ready to  fight, as did the Spear Legion group, so that was hardly an issue. The  four wouldn't let Callie be hurt, but if we could get support from the  other factions like Slime Hall and the Twilight Order we could ensure we  could come out of this ahead, even if we had to bleed for it.

Looking  closer there were several F-rankers among the enemy. Not corpses, since  they had to bring those in all at once and didn't want trip the  restrictions, but a few people who had most likely come as guests to  hide themselves among the attendees and wait for this exact moment.

Glaring  around at the others Pietro snapped. "Trash, can your forces even  withstand the anger of the Black Sorrow Cult? Don't get involved beyond  your means. I could see all of your factions razed to the ground, so  just shut up and sit there while I deal with this peasant."

Mordaunt  was looking almost embarrassed to be working with someone this stupid,  which was fair because I would be too. The others didn't seem to notice  how dumb he was though, because they actually looked worried. Callie  spoke up to reassure them. "Friends, there's no need to worry. This is  an isolated attack by a moron. If the Black Sorrow Cult could just  charge into other peoples territory and slaughter whoever they wanted,  they would own the whole universe."

I nodded. "Honestly I  doubt this is going to be ignored as completely as he thinks it is. I  wouldn't be shocked if Petey's daddy ends up having to pay off some kind  of price on his head to keep the Unity from hiring professional killers  to take him out." Of course, the fact that the Cult were the ones  people usually paid for that would probably help. Still Pietro looked  flabbergasted at the idea.

"You all should die!" He  roared. "This is unacceptable! To think I would be forced to endure such  disrespect. Kill them all!" Well, that solved the whole 'convincing  everyone to help' dilemma. Revenant, keeping this idiot alive must be a  full time job.

Regardless, he WAS in charge of the enemy  forces, as evidenced by the tide of the bastards that rushed toward us  at his howl. Guess the battle was on. Callie appeared at my side without  either of us needing to say anything, and we both swept forward to meet  the oncoming tide. Despite his arrogance and stupidity, Pietro DID  attack himself, though I didn't get to fight him directly as soon as I'd  have liked because he wasn't very fast and one of the corpses got there  first.

I decided to test out their defenses, and see what  the Darkling Institute could do, so Callie and I engaged with a pair of  the things directly. I kind of expected the four to stop us, but they  just fanned out nearby, taking care to keep any F-rankers off us as we  fought. Probably instruction not to hinder our growth too much.

The  first of the monsters we came up against were strange, but very  different from each other. One was short and fat, with orange flesh shot  through with lots of metal. The metal bits had spikes on them, and each  spike gleamed with a toxic looking green substance. I took that one  because my armor had more coverage, while Callie took the tall pale blue  one with the beefy frame and the glowing sharp fingernails.

I  noticed as I engaged orangey that these things weren't EXACTLY a  combination of science and necromancy. More like zombies with scientific  parts added in. Some of them looked more integrated than others, but  they struck me as being something more like Benny than anything else.  That didn't stop them from being dangerous, and as my poison fire  enhanced cane landed on the orange thing, I grimaced at the lack of  obvious effect.

My first blow smashed into the zombie's  side, driving it back a few steps, but not actually damaging the orange  flesh much. It triggered a berserk charge from the monster, who planted  his hands and kicked up his feet in a sort of failed handstand that let  him back flop on the ground in my direction. I activated double trouble,  appearing behind him and attacking his exposed face as his body passed  through my illusionary double.

Which didn't have as much  effect as I'd have liked. I used Mercy Kill on the strike, and even  dumped in a triple strength density shifted blow, and while I felt a  crack as the facial bones  shattered and saw the poison fire seep into  the broken flesh, it didn't do much to actually slow the thing down.

Unfortunately  I didn't have time to worry about that as I got a sense of impending  danger and rolled to the side as laser nails flashed forward to try and  carve me up. As he did orangey rolled to the side in a whirling spin  that was much more graceful than I'd expected him to manage and attacked  Callie, the two of them seamlessly switching targets...or trying to at  least.

Sadly for them, they were showing off in front of  an expert. Callie took the short reprieve as an opportunity to create a  few clones, and I grinned under my mask as I felt her slip away as the  orange one attacked a clone, only to crash right through it as Callie  appeared behind laser nails, condensing a drill of shadows aimed right  at its spine as I triggered the triple stack density shift attack  combined with a spider leg attack to intercept the things claws.

The  pair of golden spider legs smashed into the wrists of the monster as  Callie speared it through the back of the neck, where the brainstem  would be. Heart blows weren't much good on undead, so she aimed for the  spot where the spine met the brain to do the most damage.

Laser  nails dropped like a rock and we both turned in time for Callie to  intercept orangey, who wasn't doing great as his head was slowly  consumed by venomous flame. The damage from the initial strike hadn't  been much, but over time it was seeping in and seemed to be driving the  thing crazy. As it bounced off I triggered a Sucking Mud and a shadow  attack, creating the mud tentacles that snagged the rabid monster and  started to drag it under.

With that out of the way, I  turned to look for the next target, only to get a feeling of danger just  in time to dive out of the way of a bandaged fist that would have  easily crushed my skull if it had landed.

Looking up, I  saw Rahm staring down at me coldly, the silent behemoth positioned right  next to his mistress. Mordaunt looked annoyed. "Damn. I thought that  would get you. You're much more annoying than a G-ranker from a  backwater like this should be. Your freak of a teammate I get, he's a  Master Candidate, but can you just hurry up and die already so I can get  paid?"

Looking back I saw that fully six of the damn  F-rankers had engaged the four, drawing them off and away from us to  free us up to attack. The only saving grace was that Pietro appeared to  have been waylaid by Megan and Sydney, with Riley playing support as  Lament and Abel took on the guards. Mel was showering the corpses with  fire, to minimal success, so we were on our own here.

That  was fine. I didn't believe we couldn't beat the Darkling Institute  monster maker. She wasn't Lament or Abel. Just a crafter with a scary  bodyguard. I climbed to my feet, taking up a spot next to Callie.  "Well." I said pleasantly. "That answers the why question. Thanks, that  saves me an annoying conversation. Also a lot of wondering after we  crush you both."

Mordaunt snickered. "Confident aren't  you. No idea why. Rahm could take you both alone. With me here you have  no chance." With a snap of her fingers she materialized a pair of wicked  looking black daggers. The metallic potion was straight and thin like a  needle, and the hilts were clear glass, full of a sickly glowing green  liquid. Along the length of them I could see lines denoting  measurements, like they were a pair of really dramatic syringes.

In  the distance, I heard a roar, and then a crash, as Randall the bear  came plowing through a wall of corpses and slapped Rahm out of the way  like a wrecking ball. Jessie was sitting on his back, with Benny  following behind her and carrying a huge hammer that I was pretty sure  he had just randomly stolen from one of the auction lots. There was a  lot of sickly green blood on the head though, showing that he'd been  crushing corpses with it.

Mordaunt  glared as she walked over to kick at Rahm. "Oh get up!" She hissed.  "You'll be fine." The man groaned, rising to his feet as some of the  bandages fell  away from his face, revealing a pale blue visage covered  in stitches and traceries of circuits. She reached up to check him over,  not in concern, but more like someone checking their car engine to make  sure it still works.

Jessie  cheered. "Whoo!" She bellowed. "Did you see that? He just went flying.  Bear to the face! Hey clockwork, did you see what Randall just did? You  can only crush their heads with that stupid hammer, my big buddy is a  corpse killing machine!" I grinned at her. Jessie was a sweet girl, but  she could be scary when she considered you an enemy. Zombies and  kidnappers weren't people she would worry too much about. Especially  zombies. We'd killed tons of undead.

Benny  sighed loudly. "Yes Agria, I know. Still, the thing is pretty useful.  F-ranked Mass Impact Hammer. I wonder if they'll let me keep this when  we're done? Probably not I guess. Shame. No wonder Beat and Sever were  so overpowered. Seriously, using an F-ranked weapon is like playing on  easy mode." Despite his cheerful tone, I could see that he seemed to be  talking softer than usual. I was guessing the soul weight of an item  like that wasn't light, though the belt was probably helping. He was  most likely using his triple strength density shifted attack pretty  often.

Mordaunt  glared up at them. "Oh what fresh hell is this? Can't a girl commit  murder in peace anymore? You know what, FINE." She whistled, and another  five or six corpses surrounded us, as well as a single F-ranker who had  come from opposite of where the four were holding down the fort. "No  more messing around. Every single one of you is going to die if that's  what it takes. I'm GETTING paid." Rahm began to unwind his bandages, and  as he did, I could feel his power spiking. Not just his power. His  conceptual weight. As we watched, the big zombie officially broke  through to F-rank. Huh. Well that's one way to hide from detection. I  hadn't considered that. This...could be a problem.