Cark took the other Dullahan apart. We literally just sat there and watched him slowly demolish the thing. The wights were downed fast enough, and the others just came over to sit with us as we spectated. We offered to help but Cark seemed pretty into it so we mostly just enjoyed the show. Zeke hadn't been kidding about undead having a weakness to fire, and given his high Might Cark was already the optimal choice to take one of these things down.

As he fought, I watched how he was moving, and it staggered me to see how different it was from me. I had a bit of boxing knowledge from one of my minor skills, but mostly my combat abilities came from tons of DS and massively overpowered stats. I knew absolutely jack shit about fighting, and it was never more apparent than when I watched Cark solo that Dullahan bare handed.

When he finally finished prying the warped pieces of armor apart with his bare hands we all made our way over to congratulate him. "Damn man, you crushed that thing. If it was as strong as the other one you are WAY more powerful than we are." I hadn't actually asked what Carks stats were, but judging from that showing I was guessing he really was HIGHLY specialized towards might.

He just shrugged. "It was weird, I felt like the things were made of like...concentrated darkness somehow. My flames seemed to weaken them. But even so yeah, I'm almost positive your Might is way lower than mine. Still, those things were no joke, glad you took yours down. Scared me a bit there after you took that hit glad to see you're alright." He clapped me on the shoulder before the others arrived to congratulate him on the solo fight. That was fine with me because I still needed to check in with my girlfriend. She'd been pretty freaked out there.

I jogged over to where she was standing off to the side, and she fixed a smile on her face. I just pulled her into a hug. I could see the adrenaline draining away as she stood there and I wanted her to know I was there for her. She clung to me for a minute before letting go with a rueful chuckle. "Sorry, I know it's over but that was just...I've never worked with a team before really, except people stronger than me, and ever since we started working together we've been punching down. It's just kind of a shock to see you take a hit like that."

I shook me head. "No, I get it. Hell it kind of knocked me for a loop that it happened too. I think I've been so focused on raw power I haven't been doing enough actual training. When we spar its always with powers and between stats and skills I kind of just brute force it. Can you teach me how to actually fight? Like no skills or tricks just real combat lessons?" I could have traded her for the memories, but then she wouldn't have them. I didn't want to make her LESS able to defend herself.

With skills losing progress didn't rank them down so a bit of a hit here or there was fine, but losing your combat ability would make you less able to fight, and while the skill portion would remain able to synergize with other skills that didn't fix my problem at all. She nodded, seeming a bit pensive. "Yes, but my actual combat abilities aren't really that impressive. Much like most Ascendants I tend to lean on my power way too much. I have an idea though. I wish for the most in depth mastery of the most suitable martial art for the two of us to learn."

I blinked. That was...really vague. But to my surprise after I saw the usual

Wish Detected. Grant wish?

and confirmed I was treated to the sight of.

Stat points sufficient. Requirements: 150 Might, 36 Impact, 104 Focus, 96 Creation, 75 Vitality. Skill name Lesser Balam Mastery. Compensation required.

I was just kind of speechless. That was...so fucking many points. That was more than five hundred points for a LESSER skill. "Ok. That actually worked...kind of. It's insanely expensive but...have you ever heard of a martial art called Balam?"

Some part of me was expecting her to gasp and put a hand to her chest, telling me about the forbidden martial art she'd heard whispers of in the underground when she'd been on the run. Sadly she just shrugged. "No, sounds weird, but if you power says it's the best style for us to learn then I guess that works. I assume I still require payment?" I nodded and she blew out a breath. "Fine. I'm honestly shocked I was even able to wish for that considering you were involved, I guess since it was my idea it works. In exchange for the skill I'm willing to do everything in my power to keep you safe and dedicate my time to training you in both this martial art and any other combat style I know of until you surpass me in skill. Does that work?"

I felt the electricity build on my skin, signalling the beginning of a wish. I guessed that it did, which was a relief because since I gave her the skill I wasn't sure it would have value. Luckily as Benny and I had established training could work, and I supposed the actual time expenditure counted as a payment if nothing else, or maybe her other combat skills made a difference. It clearly meant a lot to her that I was safe so that probably played into things. I reached up and pulled my mask off and she looked confusedly at me as I leaned forward.

I winced and whispered. "Wishes like this are incredibly painful and obvious. Most of the team doesn't know about my power, I figure if I kiss you to trigger it my mouth might muffle some of the noise so the others don't notice." She looked wary but didn't stop me as I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers. The static flowed into her through my mouth and I felt the energy rampaging through my own body, literally the most powerful wish I'd ever granted. Callie bit off a strangled scream and bit INTO my tongue by accident, so I wasn't exactly quiet myself but luckily we were a bit of a distance away and no one noticed us seizing up in agony.

I pulled away with a wince. I didn't know why I'd decided that would be a good idea instead of like...covering her mouth or something, probably some attempt to be romantic, but it had been a terrible decision and one I definitely wouldn't make again. I had a big hole in my tongue now, and I was going to need Jessie to heal it, because while tongue injuries tended to heal pretty fast, they were also absolutely awful to sit through and I refused to go through that if I had a choice. I left Callie to get accustomed to her new skill while I slipped over to have Jessie heal me up, which thankfully was fast and took relatively little energy on her part and quietly so no one noticed.

Then I made my way back over to Callie. I felt the geas on her slip into place, a self imposed binding that locked her into her promise to train me for as long as necessary and to keep me safe. The latter was less of an issue since I believed she would try her best to do that even without the binding, but still, I could see how this would count as payment for that huge wish, she was basically my trainer and bodyguard for as long as it took for me to get better than her at combat, potentially years given that she was incredibly skilled in Balam now and would be learning more even as I did.

Luckily my girlfriend seemed more upset than regretful, I assumed that she wouldn't have made the offer if it was something she couldn't live with. I pulled her against me, letting her relax a bit without needing to worry about standing up. It took her a few minutes to speak. "Ow." I winced, I'd seen how much that hurt Benny. If anything she got off easy because she was G rank, but still, I couldn't imagine having all that information shoved into her head was comfortable. I just held her until she was feeling better and pulled away gently. "Ok, now I get why you decided to make sure they couldn't hear me."

I massaged the roof of my mouth with my tongue, remembered pain making me wince again. "Yeah, but I picked the dumbest possible way to do it. Still, glad you're feeling better. So, what exactly is Balam? Is it anything good? I've never heard of it but then again this is a pretty small planet. I imagine I haven't heard of most martial arts. Can't tell much about it from the name though. How does it work?" I was pretty excited about the fact that this skill came essentially out of nowhere. We'd just asked for something that would work best and got it. Granted we'd overpaid a LOT for a Lesser skill, probably for that reason, but still this was fascinating.

She chuckled. "I actually have a bit of background info. It's a relatively prevalent style among the dark elves. Mixes well with stealth. Mostly striking and holds best used from surprise, though there's a dueling component that's aimed at dual blades, sword and dagger specifically. Still, it's definitely something we can get some serious use from. There are even actual Masters and Grandmasters of Balam among the dark elves, so the route to advancing it is established if we can get some instruction later."

That was a big deal. Skills in general were a pain in the ass to rank up. Knowing this combat style had a carefully laid out progression was extremely useful to us. Granted we would need to actually go and FIND one of those Masters, but still, it meant one more skill we could definitely rank up. The whole thing was incredibly interesting. I couldn't wait to actually do some training with Callie and start learning it. After a few minutes for her head to clear completely she stood up, stretching a bit and right as rain now.

The others had been talking to Cark the whole time, I was pretty sure at least one of them had noticed us and figured they would leave us alone for some private time. That was...slightly embarrassing given how everything had just gone down, but better than anyone new figuring out about my ability I supposed. Callie was blushing slightly, having obviously picked up on the same thing. When we rejoined everyone else we all just kind of acted like nothing had happened, and I was pretty grateful for it.

We kept walking along the marble corridor the same way we had before. Callie and I searching for traps and enemies. We hit another few patches of wights but nothing like the Dullahans again. H rank monsters were easy enough to clear out without any G rankers to hold our heavy hitters back. That went on for about two more hours before we finally emerged from the corridor.We stepped out into a massive underground chamber the size of the WCP back in Velan and all of us stopped at the entrance to look around for any undead who might be waiting.

We didn't see anything nearby, but off in the distance were the unmistakable forms of lumbering undead. They moved in huge packs along the floor of the cavern, with tombstones and much smaller crypts scattered among them. In the middle of all of it was a black stone fortress that towered above the entire area, barely illuminated by the ghostly flickers of blue coming from some of the flowers among the fields. I stared for a second before whispering. "Who wants to bet the lich is in that fortress?" Oddly, no one took me up on the offer.