Stronger Together chapter 224

Once again I managed to get back to my tunnel under my own power.  Alleshara had been strong as hell, no pun intended, and I'd had a tough  time beating her, but now all that was left was the finals. My current  plan was to win the finals, and once I was in a position to effect the  war effort, use that power to get info on how to go home, and then find a  way to sabotage the army. Of course I had no clue how I would possibly  manage that, there were missions of fallen to deal with and I was only  one guy.

Luckily this particular fight had been annoying  and difficult but not too damaging, because I barely had time to get  back before they announced the finals. The next fight had been Rakiel vs  male goldie, and from the sound of it it hadn't been much of a match,  he just curb stomped the demonkin without much effort. Assuming male  goldie was as tough as Sharina that was pretty bad for me, but I had  some tricks I'd been holding back. Worst case scenario I would have to  use my klurkor forms, but aside from giving away information I  shouldn't, having to condense my godsteel here would leave me  vulnerable.

Yang had been waiting for me of course, and  when she heard them call me out again she frowned. "This is too fast.  Are you even ok to fight? You were in bad shape before and even if you  looked like you avoided the worst of this one you have to be tapped out.  Can you handle this?" It made me smile that she was so worried, Yang  liked to push herself hard and she didn't mind doing the same to others.  That said, she also clearly cared for her loved ones and worried about  them overdoing things, and it felt nice to be on the receiving end of  that.

I smiled and took her hand in mine, giving it a  squeeze. "Yeah, it's fine. I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve.  Honestly I am surprised this is happening so fast though. I'd assumed  the tournament would take months. Having all three rounds in the same  day seems a bit rushed." Or maybe I'd just made the assumption that  immortality would make demons and fallen slow and ponderous. Now that I  thought about it though it made sense that they would move fast. Their  whole brutal society made sitting still an invitation for attack.

An  example of that very society was here with is, making it's presence  known with a casual sneer. "The Sovereign wishes to capitalize on our  enemies weakness. We are simply exploiting the opening while it exists,  we do not drag our feet and waste time with niceties when there are  rewards to be reaped. We aren't angels after all." That had been a bit  pointed, but it must have been obvious to him for him to risk saying it.  Malachi was a formal guy and speaking for Lucifer wasn't something he  would be comfortable with unless it was common knowledge.

I  grimaced at the statement though, it made sense. Not the weird angelic  racism, but the idea that demons would exploit weakness. I wondered if I  could use that in whatever plan I came up with to wipe the bastards  out. Or maybe I could make Yang some kind of volcanomancy focus from  godsteel. I'd have to think it over based on the resources we had. I  didn't have time at the moment though because it was time to head out. I  knew they would have announced me second. They always put the big  ticket first and Rakiel was the star of the show.

Sure  enough he was waiting for me when I got outside. Standing in the middle  of the red sand looking stoic and honestly a little bored. By this  point trekking across this shitty jagged sand was old hat, this being  the third time I'd done it, so I just strolled casually up to him.  Despite Kelthrak and Alleshara being nicer than expected I didn't think  Rakiel was the type to get friendly after a simple greeting, so I  decided to be a bit more formal with this one. I kept my face neutral  and nodded to him. "I trust your preparations are complete? Do you need  more time before we start?"

Despite  being more uptight I still tried to be polite, no reason to make an  enemy I didn't need to. Rakiel however, as I suspected, wasn't  interested in being pals. "It doesn't matter. Attack now or wait until  later, you won't have a chance either way. I heard you had trouble with  your other two, and I could have killed either in a blink. Make your  peace with your life up to this point and then attack, I want to get  this over with." Huh, well. I kind of wanted to kick the shit out of  him. He was clearly a huge dick, and strong enough to make actively  trying worth it.

I  was pretty sure after the last few days and all the fighting I could  probably last a second in my tenth form, and that would be more than  enough for some scrub fallen. In that form I'd bet on myself against  most of the princes. Maybe not the big cheese himself but anyone short  of that probably. The issue was there were so damn many of them, so even  if I could take one or two, I'd get swarmed. I couldn't go nuclear  without being willing to completely break all pretenses and go to war  and I didn't have the power for that.

However  I had another trick up my sleeve. My first form would be subtle enough  in my reinforced body not to look like I was exploding with light, and  it would give me access to an unending stream of power, albeit more of  an unending trickle compared to the mighty river of my higher level  forms. I shifted into my stance and kicked into my first form, a  nostalgic state I hadn't entered in quite some time. It felt good but  easily manageable and of course with the power my flesh had there was  zero godsteel expansion at this level. I could literally do this all  day.

Despite  having the control and my body having the capacity to mask it now Rakiel  subtly tenses when I tapped my first form, as if he had some reason now  to see me as a threat. Nothing too specific because he didn't look as  worried as he should but the stuck up angel obviously had pretty good  instincts. With the constant influx of soul energy I didn't have to  worry about holding back. I cranked my force and lightning aspects with  everything I had and then took a bit to let my reserves refill from the  influx of power.

Luckily  the poser was on the defensive and just waited for a minute while I  refueled my reserves. After I topped off I imbued a force spell into my  arm, then wrapped myself in force Aura. My triple stacked punch was much  more dangerous now than it had been the last time I'd been stuck using  the first form like this, if only because of my condensed godsteel arm  being able to hold much more power. Luckily he was waffling and I had  plenty of time to get myself perfectly set up before I rushed him at top  speed.

Rakiel's  wings snapped up in front of him like a shield as I came in, and I  noticed the black that had seemed like feathers before was a glossy  metallic sheen. I flicked on my magic eye and sure enough every feather  was engraved with runes and sigils that I mostly recognized as the  enchantment style the fallen used for everything. Some kind of corrupted  angelic runes. My fist hit his wing at top speed and there was a clang  and his feet were forced back in the sand, but I didn't manage to break  his guard.

I  gritted my teeth, if I went any higher than the first form it would  start to become obvious I was doing something. My body was barely  containing the flow of power completely as it was. Withstanding the  forms was easy enough with my flesh at it's current level, but  containing them so no signs were visible was less simple. Given the  constant refining I was undergoing in hell it was actually helping a ton  with my progress, but in terms of raw strength it left a lot to be  desired. I realized though that I was doing this wrong.

I  blitzed in and started hammering the wings with blows. My first form  didn't have the kind of output the higher forms did but it was just as  limitless. I could literally just outlast the bastard. I didn't need to  turn this into an epic showdown, there was no way his stamina could keep  up with infinity. I smashed my fists into his stupid wings at top speed  over and over. He kept trying to open them to attack but sadly for him  he couldn't make a gap without opening himself up for an attack to the  body.

Sadly  that didn't stop him. The angelic prick stomped down and a column of  hellfire erupted from the sand at me. I got my arm in the way and threw  myself back hard. It hurt, but luckily my godsteel had some hellfire  mixed in and as condensed as the stuff was his blast wasn't enough to  even warp it. What it was enough to do was drive me back and open up  space. I winced as he started using his wings like fucking blades,  slashing at me from all sides, and I had to stick to only dodging one  and tanking the other with my arm to stay ahead.

Luckily  I was cranked to top speed and when he left a small opening I was able  to see it and capitalize. It took me ages to find it, a slight hitch in  the pattern of one wing, probably from an old injury or something, but  it opened up a spot for me to get into his guard for the first time.  Unlike with my other opponents I held nothing back. Another triple  stacked blow to his head rattled him, then I got my left arm around his  neck and used my metallic right limb to start smashing him in the face  repeatedly.

I  felt his nose break under the force of my fist, then a cheekbone, his  lip split and red black blood spilled down his face as I bet him to the  ground his wings tearing at me feebly because he was too dazed to  control them properly. Finally I climbed off him, staggering away. I was  bleeding from A LOT of places and I turned off my first form because I  didn't want the wounds healing over with godsteel. Then I turned to  regard the stands.

Rather  than the audience though I was looking at Lucifer himself. He gave no  indication that this was or wasn't what he wanted, just smiling a  friendly bland smile as he stood to address the crowd. "Well it appears  we have a winner! Cameron of Dis is our new champion! He will lead our  armies into the field of battle as we take what is rightfully ours!" He  raised a fist in triumph as he finished speaking and the crowd roared  with approval.

I  turned and headed back into the tunnel to Yang. As soon as I was out of  sight I toppled over and she barely caught me. This many fights in  succession had really wiped me out, but it was over. Now I just had to  rest and prepare. Tomorrow we would begin trying to find our way home,  and do our best to leave the demon armies some pretty awful surprises to  uncover once we were gone. At least I hoped we would manage that.  Either way, for today my fight was done.