I wasn't worried about Abel being hurt. Not after his showing earlier. But I still whistled at the sheer fury of the attack. "Well that doesn't seem like a healthy relationship dynamic at all." Callie giggled against my side and poked me in the ribs, shushing me so the two powerful warriors didn't hear, but they were both far too busy with each other for it to be an issue. Still, I felt it bore mentioning.

Alden chuckled from his place next to us. "Violence is more a part of their lives than most. They're training lunatics who often talk with their fists, and their relationship mainly grew out of sparring to begin with. Still, they care for each other and would never actually try to hurt the other out of anger. Mel is just confident enough in Abel's strength that she isn't worried that blow will actually land. He won't stop her though. It's good for her to let off some steam, and once she's wasted some of her frustration she'll listen better. He knows her well enough to let her vent."

I frowned but didn't comment. It wasn't my relationship, so it wasn't my place to say anything. Callie and I did spar, so I supposed I could see a bit of the point. But I felt like this was a bit outside of a consenting and informed battle. If both of them were happy with this way of doing things though it wasn't my place to comment. Not like I could do anything about it even if it was. Besides, I could see the smile on the unmasked portion of Abel's face. He wasn't upset or even afraid. He looked almost relieved that she was trying to burn him alive. Alden had been right. They WERE lunatics.

Still, Abel wasn't the only one having fun. Despite the blazing glare on her face, I could also see a small twinkle of enjoyment twinkling in Mel's eye if I wasn't mistaken. She was raining down golden flames on Abel, who was altering the space around him to create alternate paths so the fire would pass him by. He didn't even look warm as he casually swatted away torrents of fire that probably would have cooked anyone else. Despite not being the same impressive blue color, Mel's fire was seriously powerful, and pretty damn distinctive too.

"So what exactly is her power?" I asked Alden. "Because those flames are weird looking. That shade of gold isn't natural at all, they're almost metallic somehow. I've never seen anything quite like it. I assume that isn't a pure fire ability. She mixed in something else right?" Despite acting like regular flames in terms of motion and effect, the fire was visually pretty distinctive. I remember Burning Fist mentioning that most fire wielders mixed other attributes and Skills in with their fire to provide extra power.

Alden nodded. "I won't give away trade secrets obviously, but the name isn't exactly unknown. She calls it Starflame. It's why her title was Starbreak, back when she bothered to use one. Some of the circus performers still use that, but for the most part she's just Mel. Starbreak was Apollyon's partner, and after Abel left she had no desire to use it anymore." His voice sounded sad.

I felt for the man, but I was more focused on something else. "Apollyon?" I asked. "Was that the name Abel used?" I'd never bothered to find out what his original name was. Thinking back, I doubted it had always been Spruce Bunny. "I've never heard anyone mention it before. Was he important back in the day or something?" I couldn't imagine anyone as terrifying as Abel not having a hell of a reputation. He'd made it to G-rank at the very least, and young enough that he didn't strike me as having aged much.

Alden nodded. "He was a member of the Titan Twenty way back when. He and Starbreak both. The strongest twenty Ascendants under thirty years old in all of Rajak. If he hadn't vanished when he did his Ascension to F-rank was expected with a year or so. Once he was gone he got replaced and people forgot him. Such is the way of renown sadly. People have short attention spans. There's always someone clawing to be relevant, so if you don't make a move for a while they'll forget you within a month. Especially with the mastery some forces have over the media outlets."

"The Titan Twenty?" I asked, intrigued. "That sounds awesome." I was still only eighteen. "Wait. The top twenty Ascendants under thirty? Wouldn't they just all be from the Academy?" I imagined anyone who managed to gain that kind of renown could write their own check in the Academy. I wondered how many of those people were at the school, and what their rankings were?

That got a loud snort out of Alden. "They'd certainly like to think so. But no. As you've seen from our training methods stat pumping isn't the best way to make a strong warrior. Don't get me wrong, there are some real monsters at that school of yours, but there are plenty outside it. Hell, they aren't even all members of the Unity or WCP. There are at least a few independents last time I checked, and a few from other factions living in town. The Twenty are anything but uniform."

That sounded...fucking awesome. Callie looked as excited as I did. Granted, we had a ways to go for sure, but still, we had years to go. I glued my eyes to the formerly irrelevant fight, trying to pay attention to how they were both engaging. Looking close, I could see Mel's flame waves looked big and sloppy, but they were actually incredibly precise. Abel was forcing them off course to avoid being hit, but the heat in those waves was tightly controlled. No radiant energy was leaking off to singe or bother anything around them. Granted in Abel's case that might just be his own power, but she wasn't burning or damaging the objects nearby either, and I couldn't feel the fire from here, or even a spike in the ambient heat of the Pavilion.

It was astonishing to notice given the wild shifting waves of fire, but the obvious implication was the Mel had pinpoint control over those flames. There was no stat for that, though there was a Skill if it was like Shadows. Still, the absolutely absurd amount of effort and training needed for that level of control must have been insane. It also spoke to Alden's point that they were just playing around. If she had that kind of control she could have made something much hotter and more focused. I still wasn't sure what was mixed into those flames, but I somehow doubted it made them LESS dangerous when condensed.

She hurled fire at him for about ten minutes, and he just stood there and let her, deflecting and avoiding it. He didn't stand still the whole time, probably worried it would come across smug, and actually ran off to let her chase him around the Pavilion for a while. They both knew it wasn't a real threat, but they did it anyway, and seeing that made me rethink my earlier reaction. They weren't anymore insane than any other couple, though they were a bit more vigorous. Eventually though, Mel calmed down and let the fire fade away, vanishing in a swirl of flames and appearing right next to him, hurling herself into his arms.

She buried her face in his chest, and I was pretty sure she was talking based on the slight body movements, but I didn't hear a word. It took me a second to realize the air was slightly warped around them, and figure out that Abel was using his ability to catch and funnel the sound waves away from anyone else around the tent so no one would overhear. It was another display of absolutely terrifying control on a much finer scale than I'd seen from him, and made it clearer than ever that I hadn't even scratched the surface of what he was capable of.

Abel had been a monster before he'd vanished all those years ago and it seemed like despite not accruing any stats after he dropped off the map, he'd kept up his training. His easy defeat of that F-ranker had shown me exactly what the difference was between a true Ascendant and someone who just made numbers go up. I remembered what I'd heard before, about how some more powerful clans had full heritages where they taught people the control and Skill combinations that Abel had learned on his own, just because they all the family ability and had been able to spend years working on it.

I even briefly wondered if I'd have learned things like that back at the WCP if I'd grown up with the family. Then I dismissed that. My combat style was massively impacted by my DS Mastery, which was gained from the way I spent my life when I was on my own. I might not have a heritage to show me what direction worked best, but I truly believed I could be stronger than any other candidate if I just learned to use what I had better. I'd make my own path, and become stronger than any other Wishmaster, candidate or otherwise.

My new attack stockpile would certainly help, but I was sure plenty of other candidates had figured out the uses of that. No, my main advantage was in DS Mastery, and how it combined with my new style. My character abilities tended towards buffs and augmentations, giving me unique twists on the attacks I copied that no other candidate could match. It was just one more reason to finish ranking up DS Mastery to Intermediate. Once everything calmed down between those two though I hopped down and headed over. I wanted to talk this out with Mel before she had a chance to adjust to what had happened, especially since Abel was here. That would be my best shot at getting her on my side.

As I approached, Abel let go of Mel and stepped back a bit, just enough so she would look up and see me coming. She cocked her head to one side, her gaze complicated. "So I heard you helped bail Marc out, and held some assholes off Alden until this dumbass could make himself useful and save our teacher. Still, I get the feeling from how this all went down that there's more than a bit going on that I'm not aware of, and I'm not really a fan of being kept in the dark."

I turned to find Alden approaching, and at my gaze he nodded, ready to fill her in. He caught her up on finding out about us, the talk, his worries and his attempt to keep an eye on things. By her clenched fists she wasn't happy, but Alden didn't even give her a chance to interject before cutting her off. "And before you go mouthing off to your teacher, girl, consider how the situation went down. If anything, I wasn't paranoid enough, and if I hadn't come alone that idiot Marc would have been slaughtered."

"Fine." Snapped Mel. "I'll admit your sneaky bullshit was mildly useful in this instance. I'm still not happy you let spies stick around and even trained them." She shot us a pointed look but then sighed. "Not that the plan is even still viable, so there isn't much to spy on now. I'm not working with Cicero, but given what a mess this turned into I'll at least hear you kids out."

She turned and headed into the back area we'd met her in originally. "Come along then, all of you. We can figure out our next move. Somehow I doubt those bastards will let it go at this after losing an F-ranker, and we'd better have a plan when they arrive." With a glance at the others I shrugged and trailed after her. She wasn't wrong, we'd need a hell of a plan. Luckily I already had the beginnings of one. I just hoped it would work.