Chapter 92: Chapter Ninety One

Callie and I covered the field in black smoke before they knew we  were there, and I went straight for the red haired G ranker even as the  others arrived. Not being able to see meant Cark couldn't blanket the  whole fucking place in a towering wave of blazing hellfire, which seemed  like a good idea if we wanted them to live. Not that I expected he  would willingly risk finding his sister, but this was the hear of  battle, and recursion was a bitch for fire based Ascendants. They had a  strong reputation for being temperamental.

Luckily, his  extremely high Might stat let him engage physically. He was able to see  somehow, and while I couldn't be sure I was guessing he had some kind of  thermal vision. Then again maybe not, because he was only dealing with  the ones who got close. I supposed with that much of a leg up in Impact  he didn't need to worry too much and could just react as they came  close. As he dealt with them I came in at the redhead, my tonfas,  smashing down at his head, but my strike was interrupted when one of the  leather straps lashed out and wrapped around one of the weapons.

I  yanked it free, and barely managed to slip back before several of the  other straps cracked out like buckle tipped whips at the spot I'd been  standing. I eyed the straps warily as they waved in the air like seaweed  underwater. Despite the creepy red haired man staring off into space  unflinchingly the straps seemed to have a life of their own, actively  defending him even when he apparently couldn't see. It was a weird power  to see in action, but a surprisingly effective one despite how odd it  seemed.

I was guessing based on the strength of the  strikes he had a not inconsiderable amount of Might at his disposal, and  that closing in would be tough to manage unless I dealt with the straps  directly. I invoked Consecration of Flame and Touch of Tears, my  weapons crackling to life with that acidic green flame, then I ducked  into range, triggering Flurry of Blows. Instead of aiming for the red  haired man I aimed at the straps, tapping them each a time or two with  the high speed tonfas.

The poison flame climbed into the  straps, and despite the power in them, they began to disintegrate into  chunks of green embers and burnt leather as they moved. The sleeper  finally reacted, grunting in apparent pain as I destroyed the straps. He  was clearly connected to them somehow. I dipped in while he was  distracted and tapped his limbs each once with the tonfas. As a G ranker  he had enough Vitality and Impact to be somewhat resistant, so I was  confident the taps wouldn't kill him, even if they would disable his  limbs.

Sure enough his arms and legs seemed seize up,  causing him to fall to his knees in pain, but before I could deliver a  boot to his head to knock him out more of his outfit unwound into straps  and viciously crashed into the ground where I'd been standing only  seconds before as I barely managed to avoid the surprise attack. I  winced as I looked at the ground, it was decimated by the attack and I  had to wince at what that kind of force would have done to my body,  assuming my costume hadn't managed to tank some of it.

I  circled slowly, lucky that his weird strap senses seemed confined to a  specific area around him as I stalked him in the dark. Despite that I  still needed an opening to get back at him. His limbs were starting to  function again as he got control of them despite the blazing pain the  poison must be inflicting. Which left me with a need to put this bastard  down fast and hit hat guy before the mistwalking dropped and this  turned into a free for all. I ducked down and tossed a rock from the  ground at strap guy.

The straps  lashed out and constricted the rock, seeming to feel it for a few  seconds before crushing it into powder. That gave me an idea. I planted  both arms on the ground and triggered Stone Limb, coating them in rock  before lurching forward with my arms in front of me. Sure enough the  straps naturally constricted around incoming threats. On the offensive  they used whip like attacks, but ever time I'd seen them stop something  incoming they restrained rather than broke the object.

Stone  Limb provided me an extra later of protection just in case he decided  to squeeze my arms like that rock, which was plenty of time to trigger  Double Trouble. Whatever senses strap guy was using they were clearly  fooled by my illusionary duplicate, because as it backed up the straps  whipped out at it. Meanwhile, I was standing behind him now with a free  shot. I dismissed the poison fire and smashed my tonfa into the base of  his skull. Vitality or not, that blow dropped him like a rock, ending  the fight.

Before  I could hit the ground I caught him by the back of his costume and  triggered sucking mud. My radius was still small, but given his  absolutely immobile state it was simple to let the ground swallow him up  to the shoulders and then allow it to solidify. I was pretty sure none  of those straps would have enough power to move through solid ground  without any sort of build up or momentum, and with his limbs immobilized  while he was unconscious the poison fire should ravage them enough to  stop him from tearing free if he did wake up.

With  that out of the way I turned to hat guy. The others were dealing with  the H rankers pretty easily, but they couldn't see, and hat guy had  apparently decided to get out of dodge. Luckily HE couldn't see either,  and was having some trouble figuring out which way would take him out of  here. I wanted to just charge up and beat him down, he seemed like kind  of a dick anyway, but I had no clue what his ability was and I was  beginning to realize that there were some pretty weird ones out there.

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Instead  I cast sucking mud again, aiming it at his feet. While it only affected  a ten foot circle, it was within line of sight, so it did start pulling  him down. With no way of seeing and his feet slowly sinking into the  ground, hat guy made the worst possible choice. He stopped moving and  panicked. He lifted his hands and started waving them around, and I saw  ice coat the ground. If sucking mud had been heat based that might have  stopped it, but it wasn't, so he kept sinking, the skill keeping the  ground fluid even as the temperature dropped.

My  arms were still covered in stone, so I used Consecration of Flames on  my limbs, seeing the two skills mix together to create the magma arms  effect I'd seen before. Knowing what his ability was I was pretty  positive I could handle it, so I sprinted in at the man. He was knee  deep in the ground so I canceled the Sucking Mud skill, causing him to  flail around a bit, and then I cancelled mistwalking. Seeing the mist  vanish Callie dispersed her own covering and everything became visible  as I got in near hat guy.

I  could see with a quick glance before engaging that the H rankers were  down and my friends were taking steps to secure strap guy with Benny's  rope and his tranquilizers. Once he could see me, hat guy snarled and  lashed out with a spray of ice clearly meant to freeze me solid. I  punched it. Minor Boxing Mastery was resonating with Stone Limb and  Consecration of Flame and it had me in the zone as I bashed my way  through the ice barrage, my mask shielding me from the spray of steam as  I got in close.

Hat  guy's eyes widened and he reached out to grab me, probably planning to  use some kind of ice grip to give me frostbite or something. Sadly for  him I got my arm up and he grabbed that instead, and quickly began  screaming as his hand was burned into a claw around my arm. With my  Might as high as it was, Consecration of Flame was damn strong, and that  magma was perfectly suited to an ability like hat guy's.

As  he screamed and nursed his hand I hauled back and punched him with my  magma limb. It was clear from his reaction that the mask wasn't a  defensive item as it shattered on impact. I felt a slight resistance  from what I assumed to be some kind of ice shield around him, but my arm  went right through the slight frosty resistance. He fell over, but knee  deep in dirt his fall was brief and looked uncomfortable. I waved over  to Benny. "Clockwork, come tie this one up. Make sure the others don't  wake up first though. This one isn't going anywhere."

I  was hoping that being unconscious would stop the puppet master from  taking control of them and blowing their heads up like he did the  others. I noted Skanda off to one side, looking the worse for wear after  matching muscles with Cark. The big fire used hadn't killed the  musclebound student, which was a definite plus to the whole situation.  After Benny knocked them all out he came and tied up hat guy.

The  other student was whimpering and nursing his hand, and I finally rolled  my eyes at him. "Oh for the revenant's sake. Calm down. It sucks I'm  sure, but if you tell us what we want to know we have a healer who can  patch you up. Consider it an incentive. Now. Tell me your name, what  relation you have to the Heartripper Society and who the hell sent you  out here if you ever want to be able to use your fingers again."

That  was a bluff, he could almost definitely find another healer, but I was  based on his screams hat guy wasn't used to agonizing pain. I suspected  he would be terrified about losing permanent use of his hand since he'd  presumably been mortal until a few years ago tops. People didn't  question things they heard when they were scared, especially not things  that lined up with those fears. Sure enough, his eyes went wide on his  now bloody and visible and slightly burned face and he scrambled to  answer.

His  voice was high and panicked as he responded. "My name is Cold Snap. I'm a  G ranked student of the Fantasy faculty. I do some work for the  Heartrippers sometimes, nothing big, just the occasional errand for the  boss. I don't know who he is, not really. He wears this big black robe  whenever I meet him and he makes the meat puppets refer to him as The  Prophet. I'm six foot four, one hundred and eighty pounds and I was born  in January, I'll tell you literally anything else you want to know just  please for the love of the gods fix my hand!"

I  blinked at that. That had been...easy. Wow this guy was a coward. Which  explained why the asshole wasn't more well informed. No one with any  sense would trust this bastard with any valuable information. He'd spill  as soon as it was convenient. Still, I suspected he knew some things he  didn't even know he knew, or at the very least had an idea about  meeting places for the Society nearby and upcoming movements. We needed  to move fast in case "The Prophet" realized something was wrong. With  that in mind I let out a loud annoyed sigh. "Clockwork, Cark, go get  Agria, we want this guy cooperative when we question him." I had a  feeling this would be an annoying conversation.

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