Chapter 143: Chapter One Hundred Forty Four

Despite them being assholes we had Jessie patch them up first thing.  The last thing we wanted was their deaths on our conscience, and since  we triggered their beacons we didn't need to worry about them attacking  us. They were out, and they'd lost all their materials to us, which kind  of sucked for them admittedly, but it was great for us. Obviously they  didn't have the last thing we needed from our list, but they DID have a  bunch or really expensive shit we could sell, which was just a nice  bonus and an excellent note to go out on after we got the last item.

To  my surprise though, none of them seemed particularly angry once we  healed them up. I expected more sneers and insults, but they actually  seemed to have gained a measure of respect for us. We had them  restrained at first, but Boreas brought that up once his teammates were  all healed. "Well...that was impressive. Teach me to underestimate the  new bloods I suppose. You can release us by the way. We're out of the  hunt, and attacking you now won't just look bad, it'll count as outside  interference and bring the whole Academy down on our heads."

Knowing  the Academy punished interference was interesting, because it made me  even more sure Aiden had people on the inside helping him avoid  detection. Still, I didn't sense any dishonesty so I glanced over to  Callie. "What do you think? I don't see a reason to keep them tied up.  hell they could probably break loose if they really wanted to. That rope  is only H rank, and lack of leverage or not I doubt it would hold up to  a serious attempt to get loose." They were sure to have noticed the  rank of their restraints already so telling them cost us nothing.

She  stared at them for a second and then sighed, gesturing for Benny to cut  them loose, since the rope was his and he had the easiest time handling  it. "Oh what the hell. It's not like we lose anything by being polite.  But if we're springing you early we could use a bit of information on  the remaining players. You mentioned another group besides Fisher, info  about them and any of the others you can mention seems fair." She  phrased it like a demand, but let Benny keep freeing them even before  she got an answer.

Boreas, who was the first untied,  rubbed his wrists. "That's...borderline interference. But since you had  us captive we can consider this payment for our release. That should be  valid, at least according to the rulebook." I tried to hide my wince at  the reminder that I'd been a total idiot and forgotten to even see if  there was a rulebook, but once we freed the others they all sat back  against the wall to wait for their pickups while they told us about the  other players we might run into in the final leg of the hunt.

Astara,  who was rotating her shoulder to loosen it up and glaring at me, was  the first to speak. "Ok, well first of all. Ow. Also fuck you. Second of  all who do you want to hear about first? We don't know everyone who's  involved. Hell, half the people we expected to make it to the end might  not have stuck it out. Our own loss kind of makes that clear." She  gestured unhappily to her group. "We were some of the favorites to win  and we got taken out by nobodies. No offense, but we literally didn't  know you existed."

Callie probably could have taken that  badly, but instead she just shrugged. "Fair enough. We're pretty new to  the party. But yeah, that does kind of leave the option of a shakeup on  the table." Granted it was less probable than they seemed to think. We  weren't exactly your average joes in terms of freshman ability. "So tell  us about the group you mentioned before, and Fisher. We're pretty sure  he at least is still in the hunt. We saw him recently from a distance.  Chances are good we'll run into him when we got for the Heart."

Astara  nodded. "Fisher is...shit, Fisher scares me. There are some vicious  bastards at the Academy, some of the upper ranks grew up with power and  it shows. It isn't really common, recursion tends to take the rough  edges off the real psychos, but Fisher. Fisher isn't vicious in that  way. He isn't hateful or condescending or cruel. He just...does not give  a fuck about literally anyone. He WILL hurt you. Not because he wants  to or because he doesn't like you, but because he wants you out of his  way and that's the fastest way to remove you."

That  wasn't...great news. But it also wasn't what we needed to know. Hearing  how this guy would torture us all without feeling bad about it gave us  no actual tactical info, something Callie clearly agreed with. "Yeah, we  get it, he's a cold bastard and we should be very afraid. What can you  tell us about how he fights? His weaknesses. We know he phases through  stuff and rides a motorcycle. We know he has chains that he wears around  his body. Anything to add to that? Anything at all?"

Astara  looked sheepish. "Sorry, not really. Fisher doesn't really have long  drawn out fights. I can tell you he's efficient. He doesn't believe in  dragging things out. Every time we've seen him fight someone he ends it  fast and brutal. The least effort for the most result. Economical. If  that makes sense. His bike is FAST and it synergizes well with his  powers. He can go up walls and shit, not just through them, and he uses  those chains to catch people as he goes by. They aren't just chains  either. There are hooks on the end. Getting caught up in those things  doesn't end well, so avoid them if you can."

None of this  was sounding particularly reassuring. But still, the more we knew the  more prepared we could be. I kind of wished she wasn't stuffing that  information full of so much fatalism and doomsaying but hey, beggars and  choosers right. Callie clearly felt like we weren't getting much more  about this topic from her, because she changed to a different one. "Ok,  tell us about Macdonald. Your boss mentioned him earlier. Is he another  one of the freshmen most people have heard of?" She looked to Celine,  who just shrugged. Which was fair, we couldn't expect her to know  everything.

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Astara, who was apparently the spokesperson of  the group, sighed. MacDonald is one of the freshman favorites, yes. His  father is an E ranked, so he grew up on the fast track. He's kind of  like that shitbag Cold Snap, only he isn't useless and annoying.  MacDonald is one if those people that manages to keep just high enough  of a profile to be consistently talked about without being the center of  attention, and he likes it that way. He tends to move around quietly,  but that's what makes him so dangerous."

Boreas groaned.  "For the love of the revenant Star, you are the worst at this. You're  just repeating useless hype that doesn't tell them anything of worth in a  fight." He rolled his eyes at the now glaring redhead. "What my  extremely dramatic teammate is trying to say is that  he downplays his  power by making it hard to notice in battle, but everyone is pretty sure  he's telekinetic. He's Might focused, we tend to have the advantage in  the early ranks because Might based powers are more impressive at low  levels. Point is he's subtle with how he uses it. Coats his body in a  force field that let's him exert his strength more effectively through  physical combat."

I had noticed the plethora of Might  based Ascendants who dominated the public eye. The fact that Might based  powers had an advantage early on made a lot of sense. Might tended to  be the driving force behind big flashy powers. Stats like Fantasy and  Perception were much more subtle until they scaled to a high enough  level. Still, that physical enhancement trick sounded nasty. He was  essentially getting twice the bang for his buck Might wise. Not to  mention the flexibility of telekinesis outside the way he was using it.

Sadly  our question and answer segment seemed to be at an end, because the  beacons flashed a warning, letting us know to prepare them for  extraction. Without much fanfare the next to use cracked and a door made  of blue light ripped its way into existence in midair. A bored looking  man in a yellow checkered suit stepped out, looking around until he  spotted The Wavestriders. "I'm here for a pickup? I was halfway into my  nap when you called so if you could hurry up and get your things  together that would be great."

I  stared at the blue doorway in the air in shock. The last time we'd  triggered the beacons the pickup had been with shuttles. Granted we had  been outside, but I hadn't realized the Academy had a long range  teleporter with a portal power on hand. I couldn't imagine what kind of  power you needed to tear a hole in reality across a planet, though I  supposed he could have just been nearby, but either way that was  impressive. I was guessing he was firmly in the E ranks. Though I  supposed he could have been F rank, I didn't really have any context for  the scale of powers like that.

Hell,  even at my current scale I could kind of see something like that being  possible. I could run fifteen hundred miles per hour, having enough  power to tear a hole in space could easily be within the realm of G rank  possibility. Longer distances could be F rank pretty easily. Who knew  how shit like that even worked. Hell I could probably grant a wish for  long distance travel with the stats I had now, granted that was a bit of  a special case, but still.

Boreas,  Astara, and Raleigh all stood up. The bigger man turned to give me a  once over shooting me a grin. "You've got a mean swing on you, man. Not  to mention you're annoying as hell to fight. Don't think that'll work on  me if we ever go up against each other again though." Raleigh held out  his hand. "Thanks for showing me where I need to improve though." I  smiled and took his hand, shaking it, and he nodded, heading through the  portal first, Boreas headed through next, but when it was Astara's turn  she lingered behind.

She  turned to look at Callie. "Hey, try to win this ok? If we have to get  beaten by a bunch of rookies I want all the other favorite teams to lose  too. It's only fair. You guys aren't too bad, just be careful and you  might actually pull this off. Remember what I told you about Fisher and  MacDonald. Whatever Boreas says that was solid advice. Fighting is about  more than moves, knowing how your enemy thinks and acts is important."  She gave one last nod and then walked through the tear in the world,  vanishing into the blue light.

The  guy in the yellow checkered suit didn't even bother to acknowledge us,  just following them into the light before letting it wink out, leaving  us alone in the huge lava cavern. Callie looked around, but didn't get  up. "Last leg of the journey guys. Let's take a break before we go  looking for the Heart. I have a feeling this next part is going to be  tough. Might as well make sure we're in top shape." None of us could  argue with that. We all just leaned back to get a quick rest. If The  Wavestriders had been telling the truth, we were going to need it.

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