Chapter 228: Chapter Two Hundred Twenty Nine

The biggest issue going forward was that I was about out of charges. I  wasn't completely tapped, since I was still conscious, but too many more DS skills would put me out of the fight, which only left me with normal  Skills and stored attacks. I was so glad I'd started stockpiling those,  because I was pretty sure this whole thing would have gone way worse  without the new tricks I had up my sleeve. Invocations were out now too, since lifeforce might restore Vitality, but I knew from experience it  couldn't completely recover you from the effects of soul weight.

Still,  we had an advantage now, even if they didn't know it, given that Abel  and Mel were both raring to go now. I had to imagine Serenity would be  at least a bit tired after holding off a monster like Abel for however  long the fight had been going. Mel had already let the wall of fire drop  since we were all grouped up, and I suppose she though Abel would catch  any attacks that came our way.

Beat and Sever were  flanking Serenity, who looked stared blankly up at us, expression as  serene as her name would suggest. Beat, however, was less stoic,  snarling silently at us as Sever tried to treat the still smouldering  sounds on his arm and leg. He stalked forward, and we all tensed, ready  to fight, but he stopped halfway to the stands, staring up at us  murderously, fists clenching. "Why the fuck are people like you even  here?" He hissed up at Abel and Mel. "We aren't high up in the Titan  Twenty, but even being on the list makes you pretty much untouchable at  the same rank. Being able to fight all three of us means you would be  top five level on the planet, minimum."

Abel gave a casual  shrug. "Does it? Maybe you're just having an off day. You could always  try again to see if you do better the second time." His voice was as  light and teasing as ever as he goaded the angry brawler, but Beat  wasn't as big a hothead as he seemed. He didn't even tense to step  forward, ignoring the sing song mockery lacing Abel's words. When there  was no reaction Abel sulked. "Ah, a cautious one. Those are never much  fun. Fine, tell us what you want to do here? I can hardly see an  amicable way out of this."

Beat turned to Serenity, who  gave a calm smile and stepped forward to speak at last. "I suspect we  may have more options for diplomacy than you might think." Her voice  was...soothing. Melodic and calming, like inhaling the vapor from herbal  tea. It made my hair stand on end. Was she doing that on purpose? Or  did she have some kind of persuasion Skill? Whichever it was, I didn't  like being fucked with, and her voice tricks rolled over me without  finding much purchase, not affecting any of my team much either.

It  occurred to me that every person currently with us had a pretty solid  amount of Focus. Benny was at 75, I was at 88, and even Callie, who had  the lowest in the group was over fifty. I checked her face to be sure I  was on the right track, and I noted her eyes having a slight glaze to  them. She seemed to catch herself even as I looked, shaking off the  effect, but it confirmed what I suspected. I bet that mesmerism thing  worked much better on H-rankers than it did us too, it was probably  still a Lesser Skill.

Abel obviously barely even noticed. I  didn't know what his Focus was, but considering the speeds he had to  move at when fighting, I was guessing high if only to keep up with his  own movements. Mel seemed fine too, as did Alden. and all of them being  high G-rankers that made sense. I knew the higher your stats got, the  more the lower ones filled in just by virtue of the reputation you had  as a powerhouse. Not to the same extent, but people tended to catch up.  Hell, Jessie would probably start seeing some of that soon, given her  lack of several stats. I should take some time to check in with her  about it.

Despite not being affected by her mind fuck  though, Abel did look mildly curious. "Ok, you've got my attention. What  exactly are you suggesting here? Because I can't see an out here where  we don't have to throw down. You want the circus gone or under control,  and you can't afford to leave one of those undone, not with all this  ruckus. You won't get another chance to try this without the other major  factions stepping in. This is my brother's circus, my circus, I helped  found it. What could you possibly give me to make up for it."

"A  bigger one." Serenity didn't even miss a beat. "You're a powerful and  impressive man, and your brother has clearly built a skilled and loyal  following. Staying down here is a waste of your talent. Sign on with us  and we can pay anything you wish, within reason. We'll give you a place  in F-district twice this size, and provide F-rankers to help you hold it  until you can Ascend. We aren't idiots, Mr. Castleton. This fight alone  speaks to a staggering amount of potential. I was unaware of your  skills, clearly an oversight on my part, but I can see your value."

Mel's  eyes narrowed. "Watch it bitch. Your tone gets any more flattering and  I'm going to think you're trying to steal my man. I don't put up with  poachers, especially not ones whose flunkies just tried to cut me to  pieces and lopped a limb off my teacher. Speaking of which, what about  Alden? You think we're just going to forget that you took his leg in  your little attack, not to mention all my boys you tore up." She pointed  demandingly back to the bearded man.

"That is hardly a  concern." Serenity said with that same placid, reassuring tone. "We have  access to the best healers on Callus. We're more than happy to restore  your employees to perfect health as part of our deal. We're open to  discussion of terms as well. We simply ask that you walk away from here.  The deed will default back to the Wish Curse Palace upon the  destruction of the circus, as is stated in the contract itself." She  paused. "If you wish to save even more time, you could hand over the  deed itself."

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Which explained so much about this whole  situation. Destroying this place in the war had seemed odd to me up to  this point, but since I didn't have the context to question it, I'd just  chalked it up to Ascendant weirdness. The war thing made sense, and I  knew it would be a win for them politically if they wrecked the place,  but this little tidbit made the way they'd gone about things so far much  more logical. Not that it helped at all us in the moment, but it was  nice info to have at least.

I glanced over to Abel, who  was just standing around waiting for her to finish, looking more bored  than anything else. His eyes were glazed behind his rabbit mask, and  once Serenity stopped talking he just stood there for a second, before  jerking back to awareness, eyes flicking to her in surprise. "Oh, sorry,  were you done? Those usually take longer, so I tend to zone out. I was  going over the statements for my sausage carts." He shook his head  ruefully. "Taxes down here can be such a pain. If you're finished though  we can get started, I was about done anyway."

He didn't  even wait for a response before throwing a punch. With his physical  power restored, he was clearly going all out from the beginning. The  fist he threw came rushing at them like an oncoming train, large enough  to target all of them at once. Serenity's placid expression finally  broke intp a very satisfying expression of jaw dropping shock and a  small amount of panic as the colossal punch smashed down at them. She  threw up both hands and created a massive field of golden energy to  nullify the punch.

Unfortunately, she was still exhausted  from their fight, and Abel wasn't anymore. Her peace energy nullified a  portion of the blow, causing the fist to fade to a translucent image,  but she didn't manage to disperse this one. Beat and Sever stepped up,  the red edged knife flashing out to bisect the fist image twice, cutting  it into quarters that beat proceeded to smash with that rippling energy  on his fists, but despite the quickness with which they handled the  attack, they both looked visibly shaken by the ferocity of it.

Abel  rolled his shoulders, cracking his neck with his hand by pushing in  each direction on his chin, limbering up for the battle. "Not bad, I'm  surprised you managed to counter that. But as you can see, I don't need  to negotiate with you. You're weak, and I'm strong. When prey attacks a  predator, it dies. Of course, I'm not stupid enough to think you didn't  bring any insurance, but I'm not exactly here alone either. Let's quit  with the chit-chat and you all get serious, otherwise I'll just flatten  you solo and save my friends the effort."

I felt a chill  at that, but on second thought it made sense. Even my team had trump  cards in case of emergencies. Someone from a place as wealthy as  Sanctuary Hall was bound to be strapped with some serious gear to break  out if they needed it. Serenity, face now pretty much the exact OPPOSITE  of serene, snarled at him before flicking her wrists. The gold  bracelets that appeared on them were new, I was pretty sure, but the  jingling when the clanged off each other easily dragged my attention to  them, and the sparks of golden light glinting off them sparkled  ominously in places light SHOULDN'T be hitting them. They were G-ranked,  but seemed like they were complimentary to each other.

Beat  didn't even speak, just reached into his cargo pants and took out a  pair of black leather gloves with no fingers and dull metal caps over  the knuckles. They looked well worn, but otherwise ordinary, if not for  the obvious sense of weight that told me they were F-ranked artifacts.  Apparently being a member of the Titan Twenty who worked for cash paid  well. Sever's knife vanished without him even moving, and was suddenly  replaced with a short, leaf bladed sword of tarnished bronze, covered in  a tracery of golden swirls. It was also F-ranked, and it looked OLD.

Knowing  that they hadn't been worried enough to use these bothered me for a  bit, but then I realized that I was making a lot of assumptions about  the items. They might be limited use, or fragile, or put lots of strain  on their wielders. The weapons in particular must be taxing. F-ranked  armor was passive, and wearing it didn't do much more than require a  period of adjustment, but weapons were an active use item, it was  probably a strain to use them to focus abilities like I did with my  cane. Hell, it would have to be, otherwise people would just carry  around massively overleveled items everywhere to crush their enemies  with.

For the  moment it didn't matter though. Whatever they did, we only had to deal  with it as it came. Don't get cut or punches, and leave Serenity and her  weird bracelets to Abel where possible. I felt out my limits, checking  to see if I could manage one more charge without straining myself too  much, and I noted that I should have some left, though I was tiring  quickly using my soul strength so often today. I had enough to trigger  the same combo as earlier. Before they had a chance to react, a Shadow  Swamp sprang up beneath their feet, tendrils of shadowy earth shooting up to  grapple them, and the rest of us attacked.

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