Roland Wilder, the man known as the Walking War, was every bit as terrifying as his moniker suggested. While Firn battled with the Hyde (who was managing to just barely degrade her permafrost with his dark energy, and then using the weakening to smash holes in it with his massive fists) Valk and Abel were teaming up to combat the storm of conjured swords sweeping down on them from above.

While he didn't seem able to manually control the things one at a time, Roland WAS able to direct the torrent of conjured weapons, turning and shaping the attack pattern to try to avoid the hand. Abel stepped forward, making a circular motion with his palm, and created a rotating trail of lubricated space leading inward. The motion had the effect of making a sort of vortex in space that sucked in all the swords the other man was trying to get past the hand manifestation.

It was an interesting and terrifying move, but I could see how he wouldn't use it. Without the gel power Abel's manifestations were part of him, and could be harmed. It wasn't direct translation, but it effected him. Now though, the manifestation was catching the swords like flies in amber.

Which, as it turned out, was kind of the point. Roland had purposefully filled the hand with swords, something we didn't know until he used the next wave as a path, stepping on swords in the air and heading up after them.

This seemed like a supremely bad idea, but I realized as he got sucked in the the palm had been packed so full of swords there was barely any gel left. With a wave of his hand Roland dismissed the swords, and suddenly there were big open holes in the construct, and Roland stepped off a summoned sword and dashed through it.

Abel, not one to shrink back, flickered forward to meet him. Roland grabbed a sword from his summoned masses and brought it to bear in a powerful swing that Abel diverted easily with his power. I expected Valk to jump in, but I realized I'd been so concerned with the big show I'd missed the red bearded man leaving. Looking around, I spotted him engaging the Hyde, and was confused as to why he wasn't in position until I saw the dark energy wrapped around the whips on his hands.

I wasn't the only one who had noticed either, the distraction had been plenty of time for Firn, as a dragon made of black ice came howling down from above to swallow Jack whole. Seeing the opening, Valk turned and sprinted back to the fight between Roland and my mentor.

The swordsman had been trying unsuccessfully to get his blade on Abel, who had been using trails of lubricated space to divert every blow, never coming into contact. Roland wasn't a pushover though, and as Valk came in behind him he noticed, and with a stomp a barrage of swords erupted from the ground like spikes to perforate both fighters.

Abel avoided easily, and Valk used the dark energy whips to tear the blades apart. Before he could actually attack though, there was a roar as Jack came hurtling out of the ice dragon, shattering the black frost as he threw himself bodily at Valk, clearly enraged by the distraction even more than the actual confinement.

Abel flickered again, stepping into a trail of lubricated space that took him in an arc around the edge of where Valk was preparing to combat Jack. Valk didn't hesitate, turning and lashing out at Roland with the whips as Abel intercepted the Hyde.

The towering form of the monstrous brawler brought his hands down, collecting dark energy, and Abel dipped to the side to avoid it. Reaching up to pluck off his mask and slip it into his pocket, Abel flickered sideways, circling the Hyde and leaving a trail of duplicates, overlapping them again as he completed a second circle and empowering himself with his Cicada Stacking Step.

I blinked at the realization that Jack was STRONGER than my mentor. Whatever being a Hyde did for you, it apparently prioritized Might, and got some kind of natural modifier to strength like the Wendigo had. Jack lashed out with another punch, but this one Abel met head on, using a coating of warped space to prevent his hands from being degraded by the dark energy of the Rath and the Ruins.

Jack snarled at him, baring yellowed, uneven teeth, and snapped something we couldn't hear through the barrier before redoubling his efforts, attacking twice as fast, raining down blows. Abel whipped his jacket off and hurled it up at the other man. Jack slapped it aside nearly instantly, but that nearly was all the opening Abel needed. He used his spatial lubrication to slip around behind the Hyde.

Wrapping his arms around the giant man's waist, Abel bent over backwards, lifting Jack off his feet and slamming his skull into the dark stone of the ring. His tophat, which had somehow stayed on this whole time, went flying as his head slammed brutally into the stone, cracking the F-ranked material with the force of impact.

Abel would have followed up, but before he could attack, he seemed to sense danger. He pulled Jack in front of him as a rain of razor sharp black icicles came down on both of them, using the giant Hyde as a human shield to intercept the ice spikes.

Which turned out to be extremely wise, considering every place the permafrost slammed into Jack, ice spread over his bodyu, darkening his flesh with frostbite. Even though we couldn't hear him, the expression on his face made the pain clear. Firn had apparently taken the distraction as time to build up for something really nasty, because once Abel tossed aside his shield she didn't do that again.

Jack just writhed on the ground in pain, ignored as Valk faced off with Roland and Abel matched Firn head on. My cousin's guard was doing shockingly well though, his dark whips easily matching the torrent of blades Roland was bringing to bear. That dark energy was dangerous, and even G-ranked blades weren't able to stand up to it in combination with the force the whips were bringing to bare.

At this point, Valk was the one bringing the pain, and it was gratifying seeing the calm and cheerful Roland get serious, deflecting blows and being forced to abandon and resummon the swords he had in each hand as they became unusable under the assault.

Abel meanwhile, had rushed Firn, who had reacted by erecting some sort of spherical shield with nine large heads emerging from it, each a sucking tube of black ice with consecutive rotating rings of black frost teeth. Abel was bouncing from tube to tube, sliding down them on lubricated space trails to speed himself up and tying the damned things into knots.

I even saw one about to catch him, but as it chomped down he shed one of his Cicada shells, his strength dipping by a chunk but his body surviving the attack completely unscathed. He took advantage of the gap to push off heading for the shield, manifesting a massive fist, condensing several blows together even on top of the enhancement from the Cicada Shedding Step as far as I could tell.

His fist image hit the shield of dark ice and shattered it, smashing Firn INTO the stage, creating a crater deeper than I was tall. Abel turned on a heel, flickering in an arch along a trail of space I hadn't noticed him making, and came down with a smashing axe kick on a distracted Roland, who took the blow to the shoulder and was forced to the ground with a grunt. Judging by the expression on his face I was guessing his collar bone was either broken or cracked.

The two of them turned to Jack, who had dragged himself to his feet to glare at them. The Hyde took a step forward, and both of them prepared to fight, but he just toppled over face first. With him down, the two final competitors turned to each other. Valk spoke calmly, saying something I couldn't hear. I wished they'd left the shield noise permeable after Midknight vanished.

Abel flashed forward, and Valk whirled his whips in front of him in a defensive barrier. Sadly for him, the black energy had been used up quite a bit fighting Roland. I'd seen the effect waning as the fight went on, but now it was barely present. Abel slipped out of another shell, leaving behind a duplicate as her flowed behind Valk. The red bearded warrior shredded the shell, but realized too later what had happened as Abel hammered a spinning back elbow to base of his skull.

He fell to the ground heavily, and Abel looked around the area, eager for more despite the sweat and obvious exhaustion. The dome began to fall. The armored form of Midknight stepped up onto the stage, choosing to avoid. He approached Abel, grabbed his hand, and held it aloft triumphantly.

"Your champion!" He roared. "Winner of the ten spots for the Moonsong Glade, to be distributed however he sees fit. The rest of them fought bravely, but in the end only one warrior ca-" He was cut off as a blast of black energy detonated in the center of the stage, both Abel and Midknight being thrown clear.

I saw the armor dissolve from the blast, and Abel hit the sand rolling, having survived the explosion by virtue of being further away and having Midknights armor between them. In the center of the ring stood a trio of dark figures, each clad in a dark robe, the air around them crackling with the familiar black energy.

The one at the front of the triangle formation grinned widely, a flushed, boyish faced E-ranker with curly red hair surrounding a round face set with bright green eyes. "Sorry to interrupt!" He boomed happily. "I'm afraid we disagree with the results. Actually, we disagree with the tournament entirely. We've decided the Black Sorrow Cult will take the slots, and since you did such a poor job distributing them, we'll be taking this planet for good measure."

I froze, staring down at them. Of course they would try something, they'd been way too quiet lately. But this...this was crazy. I turned to Zeke. "They can't do this right? They know you're here! It would be insane for them to attack a world with a B-ranked protector on it."

He just shook his head. "This is faction business. This kind of thing happens. Callus would normally be too backwater to warrant a takeover attempt, but under the circumstances...I could see it. But the planet is my current home, and I have loved ones here besides you." He seemed confused. "There's no way they could be stupid enough to think I'd ignore that."

As if the words had summoned it, the redheaded cultist turned to grin up at us. "But please, don't think we're looking down on you bringing only a trio. We have many more agents placed around the planet, and even more than that, we made sure to bring some extra special helpers who will make sure that things are finished up fast."

The two figures behind him stopped holding back, and I felt the world slam down on my shoulders as the weight of their Impact manifested on the air. My eyes widened as I struggled to breathe under the suppression, not because they were trying to hurt us, they weren't, they were just that powerful. A level of powerful I recognized, though I couldn't pinpoint exactly where they fell on that scale.

B-rankers. They were both B-rankers. This was insane. Why were they here? What was going on? People like this shouldn't be on Callus. Zeke was staring at them with a glimmer in his eyes I'd never seen. Real, genuine fury was radiating off my uncle as he stood. Their eyes locked on him, and the redhead smiled. They knew he was here, and they'd come anyway. I just hoped they'd bitten off more than they could chew. Otherwise we were all dead.