After doing Rime's wishes and handing over the elixirs to Benny (officially maxing out his elixir cap and bringing his Might up to one eighty nine and his stat total to five hundred and three) we headed for the arena to wait for the match to start, and we went over our various strategies for the fight in the waiting area.

The plan for going up against the Burning Heaven Abyss was pretty much "Abel fights the Master Candidate" again. I had zero delusions that I could beat most Master Candidates, but even less of a hope of taking down a fucking gunslinger who could use the terrifying abilities I'd seen from Abel and Lament. Which left us going up against the other three that Sloane had mentioned.

Two augmenters. Callie and I should be able to take them, but it would be stupid to assume they didn't KNOW that. More likely than not at least one of them would probably be buffing the defender, who was apparently already a total monster. Hell, both of them might be doing that, you don't really NEED more raw power than being a Master Candidate in a tourney like this. Either way, the defender would definitely be sticking close enough to protect those two as well as the gunner.

Unfortunately we had no idea what the gunner's ability was, since Sloane hadn't been able to push him to use it. As a Master Candidate her spear skill was enough that it had taken a full team to push her into using her lightning power, and one with a HUGE terrain advantage to boot. We would most likely be enough to force the gunner to use his, but that still left us blindsided.

When they finally called us out we moved into the arena slowly and with extreme caution. I was half expecting to be ambushed, but when stepped onto the sand we found the other team waiting for us calmly.

Burning Heaven Abyss were...impressive. They wore what looked like black leather armor accented with gold, hoods over their heads and the top halves of their faces hidden by black metal masks that glinted almost like mercury. The cloaks themselves were lined with bright red silk, and a few tassles of red were strategically placed along the armor. They each wore a mantle over their shoulders, and gloves, leaving their arms bare from mid bicep to mid forearm, and lined with black tattoos that matched the golden traceries of symbols on the armor.

There were two women and two men, the women almost identical short brunettes, and the two men being a study in contrasts, one tall and muscular with olive skin and one incredibly short and pale with pitch black hair. Based on the holsters on his hips the shorter one was the Master Candidate, but it was jarring to see them standing so orderly and relaxed waiting for us.

The tall man was the one who spoke when we stepped out. Based on the MASSIVE F-ranked shield on his back he was the defender, and I was kind of annoyed that shields counted as defensive equipment because I was sure he could and would smash us over the fucking heads with that thing. "Greetings." He said in a resonant baritone.

Callie nodded. "Hello. I'm Nightstrike from the Starchaser Pavilion, these are my teammates Appolyon. Starbreaker, and Solomon."

"Of course." Said the man politely. "I am Raka, these are Sult, Truva, and Forn. We represent the Burning Heaven Abyss." He had an indefinable accent I'd never heard before, something crisp and formal, it put me in mind of nobility of some kind.

Forn, the gunner, smirked. "I doubt they know what that is Rak. Remember we're talking to hicks here. Admirable they made it this far, but even among the wider scale forces we're tougher than most." He sighed, as if he was being given a chore of some kind. "Tell you what. How about you all just concede. No reason for us to slap you around just to be mean. This way you save some face and we don't have to waste the energy stomping your teeth in."

Raka put a hand to his face with a sigh. "Forn, I've told you that making offers like that is counterproductive. They WON'T be saving face now, because you just put it like that, and will be almost obligated to fight us. Not to mention your antagonistic and condescending tone."

"Oh." Said the smaller man conversationally. Then he shrugged. "My bad." And his hands blurred as he drew both guns and leveled them at us.

The bark of firing pistols filled the air as he unloaded them at us, though I noted he mostly aimed at limbs and other nonlethal spots. Regardless, it didn't matter that much because Abel was just as fast and his own hands blurred. My eyes widened in shock as my mentor pressed his fingers in the air and created a series of finger width spatial slipstreams, one in front of each bullet.

Watching each of the bullets slide around us like that was shocking, especially since something in those guns was propelling them at ABSURD speeds. Forn looked genuinely shocked at the response, telling me he hadn't done much research on us, but he calmly ejected the magazines, letting them slip to the ground, and, letting go of his guns midair, withdrew a pair of new ones and calmly reached up to grab one gun after another to reload them.

Abel, not one to let an opening pass him by, stepped forward, vanishing in a blur of warping space and appeared in front of the group, throwing a punch at the gunner. Instead of throwing a bus sized punch this time though, he stopped right before he reached them and raised both arms. Space warped and a series of smaller images of his arms were left behind, and when he punched out, the six blows overlapped in a way I'd never seen him do before.

Raka reacted FAST. Managing to get his shield out and slam it into the sand in front of his teammate. There was a catastrophic BOOM as Abel's superimposed blow smashed into the shield and the fucking F-rank artifact CRACKED. Granted, it was a really small crack, but still. The explosion of sand and force would probably have blown him away, if Sult and Truva, the twins hadn't lashed out a hand each to augment his power.

Still, even with the boost, the explosive pressure of that single punch hurled the team apart. Raka was forced to dive for the twins, who were the much weaker part of their party, leaving Forn open as he brought his now reloaded guns back up to bear on Abel.

A pair of train sized barrels appeared in the air, and Forn blitzed a series of shots at Abel, absolutely monstrous bullets tearing through the air at my teach. Abel raised both hands, manifested a pair of palm images and neatly redirected the flurry of bullets, taking a step closer with each movement.

Sadly I wasn't able to watch too closely because I had to back up Mel, who was in the midst of attacking Raka as buffed by the two girls. The big bastard was strong enough to tank what I was pretty sure was the first serious punch I'd seen Abel ever throw and sure enough, when we got in close we realized he was MUCH stronger than any of us individually.

Mel, being a fire user, was monstrously stacked on Might, so she wasn't exactly helpless, and combined with the flames themselves was able to at least get his attention, but he'd condensed the sand around him into some kind of earthen battle form and the heat wasn't getting to him.

He swung the shield forward at her like a club, and I lashed out with my cane, touching Mel's shoulder and focusing as I triggered my strongest defensive ability over her whole body. The strain of using Stone Limb across a whole person and triggering a density shifted triple strength attack and a Mercy Kill, along with Consecration of Flame just for the boost, was almost too much for me on such short notice, but I felt the bond flex and Callie take on some of it, allowing me to get away with the move with only a quick burst of head pain.

Even with the huge increase in power from the gala training that had been rough, but it was enough that the powerful blow of the shield stopped, only slamming Mel back instead of seriously injuring her. As she caught her footing again, she roared with effort, and a massive wave of flames appeared behind her, before condensing into a huge fire avatar of herself. She snarled and slammed her palms together and the avatar condensed, layering over her body and turning the magma covered figure into a living statue of flame.

She hauled back with a roar of rage and, driving her fist forward with almost as much power as I'd seen from Abel, smashed it into the cracked shield.

There was a tortured groan from the metal as the already fractured artifact was superheated and the crack widened. Before the man could adjust, a MASSIVE hammer or shadow slammed into him, sending him sprawling. I triggered Double Trouble, appearing behind him and swung my cane, which I'd spent all of yesterday charging up a blow for, at the shield, triggering another triple strength density shifted blow, and a Mercy Kill as I released all that stored up power.

Two things happened when I did that. First. The still fragile shield finally broke under the immense amount of power I'd had stored in my cane. Second. My cane fucking EXPLODED. Without even thinking I released the thing and triggered Double Trouble as fast as I could, just in time to MOSTLY avoid the fucking conflagration of toxic flame as the shattering cane released not only the stored force, but all the power inside it at once.

I cursed, dropping to my knees and holding my currently charred arm, which had been flash fried even under my armor, though the F-rank defensive item had mostly spared me from the poison aspect of the flame. I triggered a healing burst and scan heal, and when that wasn't enough did two more for good measure. I almost groaned with relief as my skin started the repair itself.

Once I attended my injuries I looked up and around, trying to figure out what had happened. Raka...looked bad. He wasn't dead, and I dropped the poison fire skill instantly so he wouldn't die, but he looked like a melted action figure. I winced at the twisted rock armor that had warped onto his very badly burned flesh.

The twins we staring in horror, and at my glance immediately dropped to their knees, putting their hands behind their heads. I felt kind of bad. I could hear the booms of Abel dealing with the other Master Candidate but I didn't have the spare attention for it as I sprinted over to where out opponent was. Kneeling down, I started peeling off the rock as quickly as possible.

There was...a lot of skin and muscle that came up with it, but I used scan heal again and started dumping in healing bursts. I couldn't do more than five apparently, because his body just wouldn't accept more life energy at that point, but that seemed to be enough.

It took me a few minutes, but I got all the rock off him and his skin had healed enough to cover all the exposed muscle. Knowing he was going to live I exhaled in relief, and found a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see the others around us. Forn was beaten pretty badly but he looked more focused on his teammate. I couldn't imagine what this must look like to them, but I was just glad I hadn't accidentally killed someone. Still...I guess this was a win. Gods I hoped the prize was worth all this.