Malachai had me pinned with his gaze, but he looked wary. He also ignored Pietro's whining completely, stepping around the guy to block my line of sight of him. "Might I ask your name?" He said cautiously. His tone confirmed what I'd suspected. Someone had forcibly stopped that pressure earlier. He probably thought it was one of the other E-rankers, but he had to know whoever it was, they were stronger than him.

Of course it could have been a D-ranker who retired here or something, but regardless, he was pretty sure I had some power in my corner. I just shrugged. "Solomon." I said shortly. I wasn't going to say anything. My mother and the Cult were bitter enemies, and if he found out I was a candidate he might figure that out. The less I said the better. Worst case he flipped and tried to murder me, and Zeke turned him into meat paste.

He seemed frustrated by the answer, which was valid. It wasn't a great one. He also seemed torn. Pietro came here to kill me for killing Aiden. This whole fucking farce was a power trip of his own making. There was no easy out. No option to say 'hey man, bygones ok?' because the whole purpose of coming here was for me to die. So if I didn't then he failed, and Pietro didn't strike me as the kind of person who handled being told no particularly well.

So without the option to bail, it was clear that Malachai wanted a new angle. After thinking it over he took in my condition, which wasn't fucking great because this asshole had me pinned down and I was stuck in my Afterburner state. I'd managed to finally get this one altered, a big step in my path to upgrading DS Mastery, and it now multiplied my attacks by only three times instead of five, but worked for ten attacks instead of one. I'd used up one blow just not trying to crush him with Mercy Kill, but I still had nine. Staying in this state wasn't comfortable at all.

The E-ranker gave a mischievous humph, as if just figuring something out, and my stomach sank. "Since we seniors are so much more powerful it's naturally wrong for us to get involved with your fights. I'm simply worried that Pietro is being ganged up on. That bear and the boy with the hammer, not to mention the girl with the shadow abilities, this is clearly a lopsided fight. Since it's come to a battle to the death, naturally we need to make sure it's fair. One on one is how battles between warriors should be handled."

Shit. He'd noticed that Zeke hadn't attacked when he backed off. Figuring out the conditions for my Uncle's intervention wasn't hard, but it WAS annoying. I was impressed he was enough of a brazen asshole to make it sound like I'd been cheating in a fair challenge when his dickhead charge had jumped us with a crowd of fucking zombies. Everyone had stopped fighting now, and were all watching as the guy basically strongarmed me into a one on one fight.

I didn't actually mind that. I didn't like this guy, and Zeke's protection was supposed to ensure I had to fight my own battles without being overwhelmed anyway. This was within the bounds of that. "Fine." I said shortly. "A one on one match, Pietro and I with no interference. But if I win, will you really just let things play out?" Pietro sneered at the question, and even Malachai looked smug.

"Of course." Said the bodyguard in the least convincing voice I'd ever heard. He was clearly convinced I was at the end of my rope and wouldn't be able to win, which wasn't far from true, but I still had tricks. I was buzzing with a healing burst still, and I had nine power attacks with Afterburner. As a finisher, Afterburner worked on the complete move, stacks and powerups included, which granted, wasn't useful to me right now, but was definitely an important trump card.

Benny's triple strength powerups for density shifting and tranq blows worked on those aspects of the attacks rather than the whole attack and all its components. In fact, Afterburner would even triple the power output of one of those triple strength attacks, resulting in a massive boost on stacked blows like my magma leg. Sadly I was incapable of using any of those right now, but I was sure I could manage something.

Everyone backed off as the two of us faced each other, and Pietro was grinning from ear to ear. He clearly had an idea of how he'd beat me, and was sure it would work. Malachai looked at me mockingly. "Well, are you two both ready for this battle?" He clearly thought Zeke didn't care about what happened to me as long as he didn't attack personally. He'd blatantly bullied me into this fight with no reaction, so he figured he was safe.

Which he was, because of the geass, but still, I was annoyed about it. I just nodded, and he gave the signal to begin. My soul had slightly recovered under Bennys spiritual calming earlier. Not enough to use my attacks as I'd like, but enough that I could probably trigger one or two stored attacks if I pushed it. I would need to be VERY careful though. I couldn't stack or modify them or I might damage my soul too much for it to heal. Which would be bad. Like, really bad.

Pietro was casually gathering his power again, giving me a cocky smirk. "Well. Now you're alone. You don't look so good. Little unsteady on your feet. Taking down that corpse take it out of you?" His mocking tone was sugary sweet, as if he was concerned, making it all the more obnoxious. I didn't think his face could get more punchable, but it definitely had. Like...three times more punchable at least.

I started to move, circled around. His attack was wide range, but it did have a radius. I just needed to dodge it. But he didn't release the damn thing. Just saved it up, waiting for me to slip. It was more patience than I'd have credited him with. I didn't really want to give this asshole any credit for anything actually, so I decided to just chalk the waiting up to sadism and consider it a bad thing.

After a minute or two (good for me since it let my head clear a bit more) I figured that too much of a good thing wouldn't help and decided to lure him into using up his attack. I wanted to use double trouble, but I knew he'd seen it before. If I used it now he'd just expect me to pop up behind him. I didn't know if he could deploy that attack close to himself, but I didn't want to find out by feeling it go off in my damn face.

So, to hurry it along, I tripped. Not really tripped, I rolled my ankle on purpose and started to fall, letting out a pained cry, and he, of course, pounced like the asshole he was. He hurled the vortex of dark energy right at the spot where I was going to land once I finished tripping, clearly planning to detonate it right in my face and kill me outright, at least if that stuff could get through my armor.

Or he would have done that. If I'd been there. It was kind of interesting to see the blast consume the illusion of me as I triggered double trouble right before the blast arrived. He clearly couldn't control or turn the thing, and had assumed that since I was vulnerable I'd be easy pickings. See. Sadism and not patience. As I appeared behind him, I considered briefly what to do, and then decided I needed a way to deliver fast brutal attacks. I used the spider legs, feeling them sprout from my back.

My head swam, but it was only one attack without alteration or stacking so I could handle it. I attacked immediately, using my cane and both spider legs to slash out at the assholes head with enough force to do serious damage. The black shield appeared again, but as my cane hit it the thing lit up and as the two spider legs struck it began to crack. The Afterburner enhanced blows were much less effective without my stacking, but they were also completely free of soul weight and could be used multiple times. Six left.

I struck twice more before the shield shattered and it left his head open as I swung the cane at his temple. I triggered Mercy Kill, still able to use regular skills easily enough. Pietro shrieked again, pulling his arms in front of him to shield himself. "Stop!" I heard a voice roar, as Malachai dashed out to grab me, making sure that I wasn't actually hurt but restraining me.

Cursing, I glared at him. "You really gonna do this? You know what happens if you interfere right?" I was fucking incensed. I'd been about to end this, my head was killing me, and I wanted this whole mess to be over. This assholes cheating bullshit was keeping me from making me friends and girlfriend safer, and I was pretty much fucking done with it. "Do you want to die, asshole? Because if you don't let me go and let me finish this fight you're going to die. It won't be quick either."

That was a lie. I had no clue if it would be quick, but I wanted to scare him. I was too angry to be rightfully afraid of being in the hands of a powerful E-ranker who could squish me like a bug. Malachai snorted in disdain. "If you could do that you would. I don't think your protector cares what I do as long as I don't interfere too directly. But I don't need to hold you down for Pietro to kill you, after all, you just threatened me. I'm sure your guardian won't mind if I teach you a little lesson. I wonder how you'll protect yourself with both arms broken?"

I wasn't sure if that was legit. Like, I doubted I could just attack any E-ranker an expect Zeke to kill them when they defended themselves. Was threatening him enough to allow him to injure but not kill me? I didn't know. Zeke never talked about the terms of my protection, probably to keep me from abusing them. As Malachai reached for me slowly, a malicious gleam in his eye, I started to worry that I might have really fucked up.

Which is when my mask jumped off my face and fucking ate him. Not like...in one bite either. It streaked over and latched onto his head, the wood expanding to encase his entire skull. "What the fuck?" He screamed. "What is this? Boy get this off of me. I'll kill you!" He reached up to try to tear it off and his hands sunk into the wood, submerging in the grain and being swallowed. His screams grew louder as his arms were pulled in deeper, then the wood expanded over his shoulders, his body being swallowed and compacted at the same time.

We all watched in horrified fascination as his whole body was consumed by the wood, which then fell to the ground with a thunk. By the time it hit the floor, it was back in its normal shape, just a simple wooden mask with no adornments or eyeholes. There was no sound as we all stared at the spot where a fucking E-ranked Ascendant had just died within seconds.

I'd...been wearing that on my face. For months. And apparently it could murder people who tried to hurt me. Which on the one hand was reassuring, since it meant I was safe without Zeke having to interfere directly and would probably help keep my identity from being blown, but on the other hand...creepy. I shook that thought off, turning to Pietro, who suddenly looked very afraid. I shot him a grin. "So...Petey. Where were we? I believe we were in the middle of a duel to the death." I should probably be worried about my face being exposed, but I didn't really have a secret identity anyway and the mask was freaking me out right now. Besides, I wanted him to see how smug I was. This was going to be fun.