There were a lot of people here. More than I'd been expecting, and more than a few of them were F-rank. I don't think they had taken the four into account, probably because their addition to the party had been last minute, so there were only five F-rankers total. I was pretty sure those were prepared specifically for Rime, based on the way they efficiently spread out to surround and begin to take down the dome.

G-rankers were much more numerous. Easily twenty of them. This lineup would have been a death sentence for us if we hadn't taken the precautions we had, but even so it was damn dangerous. I thought back to what Natalie had said. This was a concerted attack, and would have taken massive resources. What was the point of this?

Callie grabbed me in a hug when I landed. "Oh thank the gods. I was about to come out and get you."

"I'm fine." I said with a smile. "Is everyone in here ok?" I looked around to check on everyone, Benny and Jessie were still here, presumably because while in existential danger, they hadn't been placed in direct life threatening trouble yet and as such hadn't triggered their emergency escape wishes. Those had really been a good value so far, even if they hadn't seen use yet.

Abel, who was looking around in annoyance, spoke up. "We're fine, though I can't help but notice that all our E-rankers are gone." That was Zeke, most likely. I wasn't sure why though. I knew he couldn't interfere, but the only reason to actively draw off our protection would be if he thought that letting these people attack us would be useful for some reason. I doubted it was training, which implied that they might have some sort of information we could use.

Or he just wanted me to be ready for assassins. Who fucking knew? I looked to Callie, seeing what the plan was. She looked surprisingly furious, but I could feel her reign in her temper through the bond, forcing herself to calm down as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "We don't need them." She said calmly, her voice level and her eyes still shut. "We'll be fine." She raised her voice. "Don't suppose any of you shadowy asshats feels like talking?"

To our surprise, a figure slipped from the fog, a short man in a dapper suit and top hat, complete with mantle, cane and monocle. His mustache looked a little thin, like he wasn't quite old enough to grow a proper one, which sort of ruined the effect, but he gave us a perfunctory smile. "I suppose I might be open to a dialogue. I have to admit, we were led to believe your force would be less...formidable."

Which meant whoever had given them our information had been working on out of date information, though they had also been watching us, clearly, otherwise they wouldn't have waited until the E-rankers left. Had they not been able to tell the four were F-ranked until they engaged us? Maybe their scout couldn't differentiate Impact from a distance and they were working from photos, or maybe Silent Dagger had ways of keeping that information hidden at range.

Callie nodded. "Well, what's your offer? Going to say you'll let half of us go if we stay out of the way? What's your name by the way? If you're going to threaten us we should at least know who we're talking to."

The man smiled. "Miles. My name is Miles Blakely. And I've been hired to...dissuade you, from taking part in the remainder of the tournament. Violence isn't an inevitability, simply one of our options. Though I caution you we are not unaccustomed to such methods."

I thought back to what Natalie had said. She'd said the other teams were attacked, not killed. Of course, I somehow doubted that these people were as reasonable as they portrayed themselves. If we hadn't been such a tough nut to crack I was pretty sure they'd have just crushed us.

Still, I understood what Callie's next move would be. We'd already talked this over, and I told her I'd understand if things got too dicey and we needed to back out of the tournament. Which why I was shocked when my usually rational and cool headed girlfriend fucking SPAT at the guy. "Fuck you!" I...blinked at her in shock. What was she doing?

Miles seemed thrown as well. "You realize you're throwing away any chances for a peaceful resolution." If he was trying to talk her down, he fucking sucked at it. Nobody liked being patronized, and his tone was pretty condescending, I got the confusion though.

Callie just sneered at him. "You assholes just attacked my boyfriend right in front of me. It wasn't a tournament match, you sucker punched him. If he wasn't as good as he was he'd never have made it in here, and would probably be out there as a hostage, or worse, a corpse. So no, I won't reconsider or rephrase. Fuck. You. If you'd made the offer before attacking I might have accepted, gods know I've considered pulling out of this mess, but if you think I'm going to let some bullying assholes tell me how to live my life your intelligence is as pathetic and minimal as your wispy little mustache."

I burst out laughing, and everyone turned to look at me, but I just shrugged, ignoring them all to turn and grin at Callie. "I'm so proud of you right now I can't even stand it. You really took that whole 'do stupid shit because you feel like it' thing to heart huh?"

She rolled her eyes. "Honey, if you aren't going to be helpful, please shut up." I snickered but didn't say anything else.

"Excuse me." Said Benny in an offended tone. "Shouldn't WE have a say in this too?" We both looked at him and he stuck out his chin. "I mean, I don't think we should surrender, but it would be nice to be asked."

I scoffed at him. "You aren't even on the team. Abel and Mel might have a say, but lets be honest, it'll be a cold day in hell before Abel walks away from a fight, and Mel won't let him run off and punch some random assassins on his own. You two won't even be targets."

Miles, who was looking annoyed at this point, cleared his throat. "If you are quite finished, I take it that your answer is no, and so we will move onto more...forceful methods of persuasion. I admit, I shall perhaps enjoy these more than is proper. You've all been quite rude."

"Oh kiss my ass." I said indignantly. "You came here to fucking attack us." I looked around. "Dibs on top hat. I want to light him on fire a little bit."

Surprisingly, that seemed to annoy Teague. "Can he just call dibs like that?" Everyone looked at him, and he said defensively. "It seems a bit childish is all."

Callie clicked her tongue reproachfully. "Doesn't even respect dibs. Pirates. You all have no sense of honor. If we don't submit to dibs we're no better than animals. It's like ignoring when someone calls shotgun. Some things just aren't done."

Miles had apparently had enough, because he made a sharp motion with his cane and the figures surrounding Rime's dome of ice all moved at once, each condensing a different kind of energy. I saw a few flashes of fire, that same acidic purple sludge, and a few others, all collecting above one guy holding up what looked like some kind of empty glass hammer.

As they channeled the energy to him he siphoned it into the hammer, which began to fill with a riotous cascade of all the colors of the different energy types. Id assumed they encircled us for some sort of joint attack, but it looked like they were just trying to block us off as this one guy built up his attack. His ability seemed to be almost a different kind of invocation, though it looked like it was much less of a strain on the soul.

When the hammer was full he stepped forward and, with a heave slammed it down at the dome. Rime had been watching it grimly and was preparing to tank it, but at the last minute I saw a warping in the air. Abel manifested a massive palm outside the dome, space warping as it waved through the intervening area. I expected a slipstream like usual to guide the hammer out of the way, but to my shock the F-ranked hammer slammed into the hand manifestation and SHATTERED it.

Abel grunted in pain, and I saw his hand flash and begin to blacken and crack. Jessie hurried forward, laying hands on him as Mallory took up his other side, the two of them beginning to treat his hand. Still, despite the breakage, he'd managed to divert the hammer enough that it hit at an angle and skittered off, only cracking the dome instead of shattering it like I suspected would have happened.

There was a cavernous boom as the hammer hit the ground off to one side of the dome, shattering the pavement of the parking lot and creating a massive crater beside us. As the dust and debris slowly cleared away, we all braced for a second attack, but the guy who conjured the hammer looked completely wiped out by the move.

Miles was glaring at him in irritation as Abel stood back up, flexing his now repaired hand. I was amazed to see that the water based healing energy Mallory had fed into Jessie's life force and compounded the effect, managing to knit Abel's hand back together despite it having been damaged by a higher ranked enemy.

"Fine." Sneered the top hat wearing man. "Your little shield is still up. But we'll have it demolished within the next ten minutes even without Samuel's ability. What are you going to do? Just sit inside and wait for us to come get you?"

Surprisingly, Callie actually started laughing. "Oh we won't need to do that." She said with a wide smile. "Because I know something you don't seem to be aware of." Her tone was smug, and I could feel the brutal amusement over the bond, though I had no clue what it was pertaining to.

The monocled man sneered. "And what, pray tell, might that be?"

Callie's grin got sharper. "I know that there were thirteen people inside this dome a minute ago." My eyes widened even as Miles's did, and I quickly looked around, checking the number of people nearby, only to realize that at some point (probably when the hammer had smashed up the ground and drawn my attention) the four had vanished, each one of the quadruplets using the cover of the dust to exit the dome.

Miles spun to scream a warning, but it was too late. Four dark forms appeared behind the encircling F-rankers, each one landing a textbook perfect sneak attack with either a small blade or some kind of power. As that happened Rime dropped the shield, and the rest of us blurred forward, Rime engaging the last remaining F-ranked as I went for Miles.

Abel and Mel joined up with Teague and his people as they hit the small crowd of G-rankers and everything became a blur of motion, violence, and power. I triggered cast poison fire on my cane then triggered a fire attack through it, creating a massive wave of green flame that headed right for Miles.

Callie circled around behind him to attack from his blind spot, and I smirked behind my mask where it wouldn't give anything away. She was technically honoring my dibs, but I would definitely be complaining about the interference later. For now though I just focused on the battle. We needed to capture a few of these bastards. I had questions.