Sucking Mud was a solid and effective skill to use on a group. They started sinking, and of course the puppet master had them scatter to avoid the suction. of course, given the fog muffling their senses, he also almost immediately lost track of where they all were as they left the range of each other's Perception. I grinned to myself. I'd known he would make them scatter, and since he used their own senses instead of some overarching map, the fog actually prevented him from coordinating them properly once he lost track.

Well, to an extent. They could still hear, but I was in stealth so it was tough for them to catch the sounds of my movement. Regardless I was now running at a huge advantage here. I was sure he would find his people soon enough, while I waited I took stock of who he had available to throw at me when he got organized.

Bone guy was down still, limbs full of poison fire, orange haired fire girl was still ok. Grey haired guy was shadowed by a slim dark skinned guy with blonde hair and a massive olive skinned woman with red teeth. The last two were a woman with purple skin and pointed ears who I assumed was some sort of fae, and a muscular man with stitches covering his body. Along with the robed figure that was all eight of them, and I did my best to mentally plot out their locations and paths in my head so I didn't get surprised.

One thing that was different in a defensive battle like this was that I had to keep track of them so they didn't slip past me. In offensive battles there was nowhere for them to go but right at me, not to mention I didn't have Callie watching my back. I had to worry about every little detail of what they were doing and it was much harder than just taking up a position with cover and wading in to kick some ass.

As I kept track of all of them I had to focus on one over the others though. If I got bogged down in details I would get buried in options and never make a choice, which would end up wasting all my time and screwing me over anyway. So I studied each opponent to see what I could find that might help me narrow down my first target.

Each of them had their own advantages and disadvantages. I was guessing big stitches guy was Vitality geared. I couldn't think of a reason for those that didn't involve some kind of regen or body modification. I counted him out pretty early because I didn't want to engage with someone that would never stop coming when there were other enemies to worry about. Fire girl was out because of the Might. The others weren't really obvious. Grey man might have been mainly in perception if he was stealth based.

Regardless of what their main stat was they would all have at least one similar, probably more. They didn't have my ability to concentrate all their stats into a single area, so they would be more spread out than my friends, though much less evenly distributed than me. Which...didn't fucking help me at all. I was doing exactly what I had been trying to avoid. I was too indecisive and wasting time. So I just decided to say fuck it and attack the closest sleeper. I drove myself forward towards the purple skinned woman, lashing out with my glowing green tonfas, apparently she was first.

I expected to just land my blows and move on like with the bone guy, considering how off balance they all were and how they couldn't see, but the dark elf girl seemed to sense me coming. She turned her head and exhaled a cloud of smoke. Unlike the mist though THIS I couldn't see through, and even seek hidden didn't seem to be able to pierce the concealment. So I did the only viable thing I could think of. I had plenty of experience with concealment like this, and options other people didn't.

So I did what I would do if I was stuck in my own cloud of smoke. I used Leaf on the Wind and Cloud step and I went straight up into the air. I then moved onto my next opponent. I'd leave elf girl to flail around in the smoke. It would convince the puppet master I was somewhere I wasn't anyway. I arced up over the battle field and headed for the blonde guy with dark skin. I didn't fuck around either, I came in from above swinging and actually made contact with the first blow.

I hit his collarbone full force with all the power both my Might and momentum could muster, and I was stopped cold. It felt like I was hitting a steel wall. Some variation of Benny's old iron hide ability I was guessing. Using the hit to trace me he lashed out with a brutal punch and still being in the air I could only brace and take it. I was expecting my suit to tank most of it, but this guy was a G ranker, and clearly focused on Might a decent amount, because the punch hammered into my short ribs and sent me sailing away.

I was still a Leaf on the Wind so I flew pretty damn far, which was good because a wave of flame crashed down on the spot I would have landed otherwise. The puppet master had used that moment of contact to zero in on me and was clearly able to get his people back in order at least enough to use the orange haired fire girl to try to burn me alive. I kept my distance, nursing my almost definitely cracked ribs. This fight was not going my way. I needed to take a breath (ignoring the sensation of knives in my side) and think.

I had to start taking them out one at a time. But I also needed to do it fast, because now he was able to home in on my position when I dropped one. Afterburn would help, but was also a really bad idea in the middle of a drawn out siege given the period of weakness after. I really needed healing honestly, but I wasn't going to leave them unattended and run off to see Jessie, so I'd have to deal with it.

Mercy kill would work, and mobility was clearly key. The blonde guy was clearly not an ideal first target either. So, pretty sure I'd been overthinking everything I just went for the big one with the stitches. I'd clearly overcorrected because I was nervous, so fuck it, I would just hit the biggest guy first. When I sailed in this time, ignoring the pain, I didn't bother with the collarbone. Assuming this asshole had high vitality I just smashed my tonfa into his fucking head.

On the upside he didn't just die, so I was right about the Vitality, but unfortunately he also didn't go down. The guy was easily seven feet tall, even huge to me, and when he took the hit he stumbled back a few paces, dazed, then got pissed and came after me. I tried to leap away using Leaf on the Wind. I wasn't bothering with Cloud Step when I didn't have to so I just jumped from ground level.

The giant bastard had a wing span like an air shuttle though. He grabbed my ankle as I leaped, then hauled back and swung me overhand like a damn baseball bat and tried to smash me into the ground. My suit managed to soak most of the damage, and Leaf on the Wind slowed my descent, but my teeth rattled and my ribs screamed when I hit the dirt. I activated Double Trouble, vanishing from his hand and appearing behind him. The illusion did basically nothing in this mist, but the entrance put me behind his guard and I triggered Mercy Kill and Flurry of Blows, putting a bunch of amped up poison fire strikes into the giants head.

He wavered for a minute and then toppled over, and I leapt away in time to avoid the flames I knew would strike the spot I'd been in. Two down, six to go, and I felt myself calm as I made a noticeable dent in their forces. I took a breath, fighting down the pain. Vitality did good work on cuts and bruises, but wounds left by high Impact Ascendants and broken bones both healed more slowly. I channeled my Focus as best as I could. Burying myself in analysis and trying hard not to feel every stabbing spike of agony as my bones ground together.

Once I settled my head a bit I dashed back in to hit the flame throwing girl. I needed her out of the equation. I'd been avoiding hitting her again the last few attacks and I was hoping he would assume I was going for the next closest. I had been thinking over how he knew where they were in the fog and I was pretty sure I knew. I'd been hearing low whistles from each direction. I hadn't considered what it was at first, but looking back he was obviously using the sound to convey the locations of each of his people.

The Prophet wasn't as big of an idiot as I'd hoped. He was inexperienced in direct combat but he was also fucking wily. Luckily not wily enough, I made it to the fire user again in silence, sailing in from the side after bouncing off a tree and I triggered Mercy kill and Flurry of Blows again. I rained down poison fire attacks on her head and shoulders. She blasted me with flames to get away but I countered with burst of steam via Boiling Cloud, the water vapor dispersing the flames since she was so distracted.

I caught her in the shoulder, then the elbow and finally the temple. She snarled, her fire ability giving her some resistance to the poison fire, but not enough to counter the searing pain. It was still eating away at her, just slower, and I saw her hands light up as she engaged me in melee. My mobility was compromised by my busted ribs, but Flurry of Blows let me counter the hits pretty well despite the pain, so I was able to avoid getting char broiled. Without the flame girl in play standing still was less dangerous but I could still feel the other begin to close in.

I was worrying about what the hell I was going to do as I reflected that maybe seven to one odds against a team of perfectly synchronized G rankers was a bad idea, when the girl with the orange hair widened her eyes and dove back from me. A wave of crackling blue fire poured over the spot she'd just been standing, and I turned to look at the person who had thrown it. Cark was standing a few feet away, hands at his sides and blazing with blue fire. He grinned at me widely. "Sorry I'm late. Had to help Clockwork with his group."

I gave him a weak thumbs up as I retreated to where he was standing, trying to breathe as shallowly as possible. It was much harder to ignore the pain with the fear endorphins flooding away. Still, I couldn't fight down a grin as the bounty hunter took up his position next to me. "The boss isn't a threat from what I've seen. Kick the shit out of the lackeys and we can rough him up until he tells us what we want to know." I expected him to argue, but Cark just roared and hurled a huge wave of flame at the nearest three minions. Huh, guess he had some stuff to work out.