We woke up about two hours later, and Jessie was already awake and ready to take on the world. It made me smile to see how much happier and more energetic my friend was. Not just because of the rest, but because she had HOPE. She'd been keeping her plans to herself, and probably half convinced she was crazy and chasing ghosts, and knowing that I not only believed in her but had another solution if hers failed clearly made a big difference.

I was pretty sure she wanted to try to get her powers up to a level strong enough to try it first, but I'd keep an eye on my ability each rank up just to check. Still, seeing her so chipper sent a flash of guilt through me. I hadn't even noticed how subdued she'd been lately. Oh she smiled just as wide, but it didn't reach her eyes anymore. Now that light was back and I was determined to keep it there.

We formed up ranks in the doorway, the others letting me do a quick scan with my Seek Hidden for skeletons while Callie used her tracking skill to look for traces of passage or traps. The former was unlikely given our lookouts, but you could never be too careful. We scanned the hallway in both directions, and once we were sure there were no traps we started slowly forward again. I felt refreshed after the downtime and the nap, so I was ready and waiting for any danger. Despite our vigilance though it took quite a while before we hit the next blockage in the path.

We were walking through a shadowed portion of tunnel, the ghostfire torches guttering low on the walls, when we got jumped by wights. They came out of the walls, literally two dozen of them, but the wights were hardly the biggest threats. A pair of massive armored forms stepped from well hidden alcoves in the path, clearly having been waiting for us to reach them to ambush, and they barreled toward us at top speed. Each massive gargantuan shape was covered in black metal and wielding a massing two handed axe...and missing their head.

Sarah squeaked in fright. "Dullahan! They're an elite vanguard unit of the undead. They're legendary for their power!" The rest of her warning was cut off as I leaped forward to meet one, Cark coming at the other to stop it Might to Might. The axe smashed down at the bare handed brawler, and I saw his blazing blue hands catch it between his palms. He wasn't able to stop it cold, but he sure as hell came close. The heat also softened the metal enough that what little force did hit him dented the axe instead of the other way around.

I...was less fortunate. My arms buckled under the weight of the axe as I slammed my tonfas into the blade, releasing my force enchantment and...nothing. I was lucky I managed to hit the thing as hard as I had, because I was pretty sure my armor would have split in two without the force my blow leached off. It still wasn't enough to prevent the battering ram of pure force that impacted my chest. I left my feet and sailed back to skid across the floor, and I heard Callie scream my name furiously, but it took me a second to clear my head enough to actually process what was going on.

One of the wights was on me, but since it was H rank its scratches and bites were more annoying than deadly. I reached up absently and crushed its fucking head with my bare hands before crawling to my feet to look around for my weapons. My chest hurt, my head hurt, my arms hurt. I was pretty sure that blow had cracked my sternum, but I was recovering from the shock at least fairly quickly thanks to my Focus and Vitality, which left me dealing with something else.

I...lost. I mean it wasn't over obviously, I would be getting back into it, but I'd gotten so used to my tricks and skills being enough to dominate things in my own weight class. I guessed now that I was higher rank the variation in enemies even at my own level were going to make those fights much less certain. I finally found my weapons, and I stopped to think about what I should do. I could use my mistwalker skill, but I was positive that would impede my friends and allies. I needed to focus on the one I had committed to. Cark was clearly able to handle his but the others would need me.

I stood and looked down the hall at the towering form trying to bisect my girlfriend, and blinked. Callie was...pissed. Her face was set in a mask of cold rage and Jessie was headed my way as Callie basically single handedly dealt with the Dullahan on her own. I'd expected her to run into the same issue as I had, and she had, but her response was much different.

The Dullahan was raining down blows with its axe, but unlike my dumb ass, Callie wasn't meeting them with strength. She moved like a shadow, whispering between swings, her fists covered in shadows gauntlets that occasionally flicked out to guide the blows a bit to one side. She had a series of chains with spikes on either end hanging from her arms. Each time the Dullahan stopped to retrieve the axe she darted in, jammed one end into a joint and the other into the marble floor and then darted out.

She was circling the thing, slamming the spikes home quickly and efficiently. It broke several of them. Easily in fact. But Callie kept shoving more of them in, and as the chains per limb started to add up the jerks to free itself were getting less effective. She was slowly weighing it down, stripping its mobility. I was in awe. I'd thought I was doing ok with the fighting, not perfect but pretty well, but seeing Callie actually fight with an opponent who was her equal was...an absolute revelation.

I needed to step my game up. Jessie reached my side and smacked her palms on my chest, which fucking hurt, not that I complained. She shoved a bunch of green energy into me and I almost groaned with relief as the damage started to knit back together. Bones mending, muscles untearing. My armor was still pretty fucking banged up, but it was also totally full, so I knew exactly what I could do next. I glared up at the slowly lagging form of the Dullahan as Callie stripped its freedom and reached for my DS Mastery.

Touch of Tears, Consecration of Flame, Leaf in the Wind, Mercy Kill, Flurry of Blows, Afterburner. I layered my strongest and most effective series of skills on top of each other. Jessie jerked a bit as her power yanked more life force out of her. She was trying to get me to full and the big drop in my bodys energy had forced her to compensate with a new burst of life force. I was grateful for it too, since I'd forgotten how much strain fast triggering skills could put on me. Luckily the extra power from Afterburner and the life force were more then enough to keep me right, and I caught her, offering her a grateful nod before I hurled myself down the hall at the Dullahan.

Callie had the thing pinned by this point, at least its legs, and I timed my lunge for right after a swing of that massive axe so I wouldn't need to dodge. I felt like a fucking flaming meteor as I sailed down the hallway at the undead powerhouse, raising my tonfas in preparation, and when I finally came within range...I struck. A hail of flaming green attacks thundered across the shoulders and chest of the armored abomination, leaving blazing green cracks and dark green smoke behind as the plate splintered under the force.

Sadly the damn thing didn't go down with the blows, but I was able to push off and drift lightly to the ground to land next to Callie, who looked relieved. She smiled happily at me. "You're ok. I saw that thing hit you and you just...went flying." Her voice was shaking a little. I winced since I hadn't actually considered how complicated the team dynamic could get in combat with us dating, but then again it's not like she wouldn't have cared before we got together. Any of us getting hurt would shake the others, but we were both fine, so now was the time to focus on dealing with the Dullahan.

Still I holstered one of my tonfas and grabbed her hand, squeezing it gently so she knew I appreciated the concern even if she couldn't see my face. We turned to the Dullahan, which had finished tearing free of the bindings while we talked. Despite that, the effort seemed to have worsened the damage to its upper body. I turned to Callie. "I think my big mistake before was trying to meet it head on. I got so used to being able to muscle everything because of my Might stat I forgot I've been dealing with freshman and rookies...and cultists I guess, but they're on the low end of the spectrum too."

She nodded. "It's not an uncommon mindset. It's honestly better you're dealing with it now, I've heard it can be really dangerous at higher ranks where there's a much wider variance. Anyway, can you keep the legs busy while I handle the shoulders and torso? With all your damage I should be able to finish it quick." That wasn't even a question really. I was still in Afterburner and I felt like I could punch out an F ranked bear. Without even needing to say anything I bolted at the Dullahan.

I activated Sucking Mud as I leaped, confident between the walls and Cloud Step I could maneuver pretty easily. I came in at the legs and used my second tier rogue ability. Kidney Blow bypassed armor, and since this entire thing was armor it would basically be a hole punch. Stacked with all my other skills there was a shattering crash as I hit the knee, Kidney Blow increasing the size of the cracks from my poison fire ability.

I had to dip back out pretty fast to avoid the axe blow, but I succeeded in distracting the thing long enough for it to start sinking. Luckily marble counted as earth for Sucking Mud and this big bastard was heavy. I continued to harass the thing for another minute or two, managing to batter the knees so bad it was about to literally fall off its own calves, but Callie had already finished up the fight by that point, a fact I was glad for as I felt Afterburner tick down.

Callie had made more of the lengths of chain with the spikes and been driving them into the cracks in the shoulders as the Dullahan was completely distracted by me cutting it off at the knees. She was aiming for shoulders mostly, and I was wondering exactly why until I saw her merge all the chains at one end into a giant lasso and toss them across the room to wrap around the other Dullahan, the one that was on its last legs fighting Cark.

When it felt the restraints it roared in defiance (which was weird since it had no head or mouth) and hurled itself against the chains to escape. Given how fucked up the shoulders and upper arms were and the hooked heads of the chains, not to mention the sheer mass of the chain lasso the second Dullahans escape attempt managed to rip the arms clear off the one we were fighting.

With the knees so damaged the snap back from the arms being stripped was enough to break off the legs too and the limbless armor collapsed into the pool of Sucking Mud. I touched down outside of it and slumped against the wall, exhausted. That fight had been tiring as hell. Luckily Cark didn't seem to be having any problems. One down, one to go. But I needed a break for a second.