As I stared at the traps I considered exactly how they worked. I'd wanted to try to soften up the ones that were coming in, but I didn't want to kill them. The poison from Touch of Tears would work pretty well for that. It was way too dangerous to use on someone of lower rank based on what I'd seen, even if I didn't take add the fire damage from Consecration of Flame. But I had a way to change that.

I knelt behind a tree I was using for cover and reached out for one of the tendrils of the plants Jessie had grown. I put my hand on it and closed my eyes, invoking Touch of Tears as I pushed the skill into the entire root system. Not to hurt the thing, but to use it as a medium, a weapon, that could spread the toxin by touch the same as my tonfas could. I focused on Touch of Tears the same way I'd focused earlier on Seek Hidden, and I did my best to shift the way I was using the skill, changing the parameters.

I didn't have to push as hard. I wasn't expanding the skill like I had with Seek Hidden, making it do something it shouldn't be able to do. More like...adapting it. I was using the poison to cover a much larger area, but I was stretching it thin as I did it, creating a weaker chemical effect that would be less likely to kill the H rankers coming in through here. Rather that flexing my muscles creating new skill potential from raw will, this was more like the skill itself was dough and I was rolling it out thin so I could cover a larger area with it.

Luckily the much shorter duration and strain meant I didn't end up a shaking wavering mess, though I did feel a bit woozy for a minute. Once it passed though I couldn't smother my grin of triumph. That would seriously cut down on the lower level grunts getting through my traps, or at least make the ones that did so unsteady I wouldn't have to worry about them circling around.

Once that was done I focused on Seek Hidden, using it to try to see Heartrippers and sure enough, I saw some red shapes coming in close. A hundred feet away or so, and there were...lots of them. Fifty at current count, and I was guessing there were more coming in from the other trapped direction. Just like I'd expected, the puppet master wasn't fucking around. Whatever was pushing them to come after me like this must be extreme. I wasn't sure what the hell my dad did to these people but I was sure as hell going to find out.

As they inched closer the glows became more visible. I couldn't make out any solid details, only general shapes, but it was enough to start cataloguing things like male vs female sleepers and height and build. As they came closer I saw the slight movement of the tendrils as the mist began to rise beneath my feet. It was time. Now that they were this close the crowd control measures put in place were beginning to activate. They would be past the tree line by the time the mist was noticeable, and then the trees would be dealing with keeping them boxed in.

I could see a single form in the back too, a form surrounded by a few others that seemed steadier and more fluid in their movements. They weren't close enough for me to feel their Impact yet, but I was betting they were the G rankers we were waiting for, seven of them, and the man behind them was probably the puppet master himself. He was so close I could almost taste it. I could finally figure out what the hell was going on, and more importantly, put an end to this insanity.

As they came in closer I saw them finally break from the trees, and the large crowd or forty two Ascendants I could now tell for sure were all H rankers, stepped out into the open field and triggered the vegetative trap Jessie and Celine had laid down. A sea of tendrils shot up from the ground to wrap around limbs and restrain the advancing sleepers. Their reactions were smooth and fluid, but no matter how good their coordination was it wasn't as good as the simultaneous barrage of grabs from the massive interlocking plant network.

They made no sound as the poison flooded into them, but I wasn't expecting any. They were absolutely incapable of shock or pain in their current state. I saw the G rankers, all eight of them (I was glad I'd been right about the puppet master being G ranked) rear back at the trap and turn to flee, but the trees started lashing out at them. The trees weren't G rank granted, but there was a LOT of them, and the mist had snuck up on them, subsuming the area and trapping everyone in a bank of fog that only my people could see through.

The puppet master froze, and from my place in the tree line off to one side I watched them take stock of the situation. The Prophet, as Cold Snap called them, wore a billowing black robe that had their face and form in shadow. Still, I wasn't in a rush. This next part would need to be done carefully. I had to take out the G rankers while they couldn't see without the robed mastermind noticing, and then I could finally get some answers.

I eased myself out of cover, not needing the obfuscation of the trunk with the mist we'd called up making them completely unable to see me. It was strange, seeing through the mist like this. Seeing the enemies was one thing, because I could still spot the glow, and that was pretty standard with the way I used mistwalking. But the trees, the plants, every blade of grass was somehow both visible and very obviously obscured, and it was really messing with my head. Still, it was to my benefit, so I used it, slinking around the edges and heading for the nearest G ranker to me.

Unlike with the H rankers I didn't hold back at all. My poison fire was effective but survivable for someone with that kind of impact, and I didn't hesitate to trigger Consecration of Flame and Touch of tears as I focused on my Stealth Skill. Once again I used my Perception to detect every little trace I was making and suppress them as I went, getting more and more silent the closer I got. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough for another G ranker in a cloud of fog, especially a brainwashed one.

The first of the enemy G rankers was a huge man with braided green hair and bones poking from his elbows. Assuming he wasn't fae he probably had some kind of bone based ability. My best move here was to take him down fast. He wasn't as tall as I was, but he was much wider at the shoulders. Probably six foot even bet almost wider than he was tall. I managed to get within a few feet of him undetected, and I slowly positioned myself in such a way that I was able to launch a short, brutal assault at his limbs with my tonfas, before landing a final strike with the handle to the back of his head.

I was worried the poison fire would kill them by accident if they took it to the head, no way of telling how much Vitality they had, but I had to take him down fast. Despite not being able to see, I had a second or two tops to get the next one before the puppet master felt one of his guards go down and reacted. As the first one hit the ground I was already moving to attack the second, a small woman with bright orange hair whose eyes flickered with flame. I was pretty sure she was a fire user like Cark, which meant high Might, so I wanted to get her before she could react to my assault. My tonfa came crashing down on her collar bone, and the other hit her elbow.

I darted back as I saw her eyes flick to me, dropping into a roll before a burst of flame could consume the spot I'd been standing in. It didn't effect the wish produced fog fortunately, but it officially closed my window of stealth. The puppet master had reacted and all of the other G rankers were on guard surrounding him. He ignored the downed bone guy, standing motionless, facing my general direction. I saw one of the men, a bland looking grey haired guy in his twenties, turn in sync with the figure, and his eyes hardened with annoyance.

This was definitely the puppet master taking more direct control. Which I thought was odd. He was right here. Hiding his voice at this point was meaningless, but maybe he was on guard against some kind of ability. Or maybe he was just a complete dick who was too lazy to speak. Whatever the case, grey haired guy became his mouthpiece. "Heretic! I know that's you. Must you make this such a bother? You have to have seen how many we are. You and your little girlfriend fought off some of my sleepers for a while, but you'd have lost eventually. Not to mention I brought nearly twenty of them. There are eight of us here and ten coming from another direction."

I didn't respond, because I wasn't a fucking idiot. With a full seven possible directions to attack and listen from, narrowing down my location based on response would have been child's play. The grey haired man paused before clicking his tongue. "Nothing to say? No heroic speech about how you'll stop me? So heavily outnumbered there's no way you'll manage to turn us back. Even the addition of the bounty hunter won't save you." He paused, then smiled in triumph. "Yes, I know all about that. I have my sources you know. I heard about your last minute addition."

I wasn't sure if this guy was an idiot or a genius. This whole gloating about surprising me thing would have worked better if he'd actually managed it. In the fog he seemed to just be assuming he had shocked me. So either he was a complete dipshit, or he was trying to provoke some kind of response by being cartoonishly bad at this whole villain thing. I was pretty sure it was the former. I suspected he didn't really get the chance to interact with others directly much in his cult leader and just wasn't great at it.

I really wanted to ask him. To make fun of him, to find out what the fuck my dad had done that was so bad it had driven him out of hiding for this ridiculous attack. I wasn't sure what he was getting for killing or catching me, but I was sure it was SOMETHING. Nobody would be this rabid about getting someone they'd never met without some kind of benefit. Granted, it might just be a fanatical cultist thing, but with an ego like this guy's I doubted it.

But I couldn't give my position away. Not yet. I had to handle the guards first. Once that was done it would be time to ask questions. I was a bit worried about what he'd said about the others, but it was ten to two, possibly three given I hadn't gotten backup yet, so I could only trust them. In the meantime the puppet master had done me the immense favor of completely surrounding himself in guards who were all rightly packed together to defend him. I readied myself to fight silently and triggered Sucking Mud. Let's see how his meat puppets did in round two.