Chapter 97: Chapter Ninety Seven

As I stared at the traps I considered exactly how they worked. I'd  wanted to try to soften up the ones that were coming in, but I didn't  want to kill them. The poison from Touch of Tears would work pretty well  for that. It was way too dangerous to use on someone of lower rank  based on what I'd seen, even if I didn't take add the fire damage from  Consecration of Flame. But I had a way to change that.

I  knelt behind a tree I was using for cover and reached out for one of the  tendrils of the plants Jessie had grown. I put my hand on it and closed  my eyes, invoking Touch of Tears as I pushed the skill into the entire  root system. Not to hurt the thing, but to use it as a medium, a weapon,  that could spread the toxin by touch the same as my tonfas could. I  focused on Touch of Tears the same way I'd focused earlier on Seek  Hidden, and I did my best to shift the way I was using the skill,  changing the parameters.

I didn't have to push as hard. I  wasn't expanding the skill like I had with Seek Hidden, making it do  something it shouldn't be able to do. More like...adapting it. I was  using the poison to cover a much larger area, but I was stretching it  thin as I did it, creating a weaker chemical effect that would be less  likely to kill the H rankers coming in through here. Rather that flexing  my muscles creating new skill potential from raw will, this was more  like the skill itself was dough and I was rolling it out thin so I could  cover a larger area with it.

Luckily the much shorter  duration and strain meant I didn't end up a shaking wavering mess,  though I did feel a bit woozy for a minute. Once it passed though I  couldn't smother my grin of triumph. That would seriously cut down on  the lower level grunts getting through my traps, or at least make the  ones that did so unsteady I wouldn't have to worry about them circling  around.

Once that was done I focused on Seek Hidden, using  it to try to see Heartrippers and sure enough, I saw some red shapes  coming in close. A hundred feet away or so, and there were...lots of  them. Fifty at current count, and I was guessing there were more coming  in from the other trapped direction. Just like I'd expected, the puppet  master wasn't fucking around. Whatever was pushing them to come after me  like this must be extreme. I wasn't sure what the hell my dad did to  these people but I was sure as hell going to find out.

As  they inched closer the glows became more visible. I couldn't make out  any solid details, only general shapes, but it was enough to start  cataloguing things like male vs female sleepers and height and build. As  they came closer I saw the slight movement of the tendrils as the mist  began to rise beneath my feet. It was time. Now that they were this  close the crowd control measures put in place were beginning to  activate. They would be past the tree line by the time the mist was  noticeable, and then the trees would be dealing with keeping them boxed  in.

I could see a single form in the back too, a form  surrounded by a few others that seemed steadier and more fluid in their  movements. They weren't close enough for me to feel their Impact yet,  but I was betting they were the G rankers we were waiting for, seven of  them, and the man behind them was probably the puppet master himself. He  was so close I could almost taste it. I could finally figure out what  the hell was going on, and more importantly, put an end to this  insanity.

As they came in closer I saw them finally break  from the trees, and the large crowd or forty two Ascendants I could now  tell for sure were all H rankers, stepped out into the open field and  triggered the vegetative trap Jessie and Celine had laid down. A sea of  tendrils shot up from the ground to wrap around limbs and restrain the  advancing sleepers. Their reactions were smooth and fluid, but no matter  how good their coordination was it wasn't as good as the simultaneous  barrage of grabs from the massive interlocking plant network.

They  made no sound as the poison flooded into them, but I wasn't expecting  any. They were absolutely incapable of shock or pain in their current  state. I saw the G rankers, all eight of them (I was glad I'd been right  about the puppet master being G ranked) rear back at the trap and turn  to flee, but the trees started lashing out at them. The trees weren't G  rank granted, but there was a LOT of them, and the mist had snuck up on  them, subsuming the area and trapping everyone in a bank of fog that  only my people could see through.

The puppet master froze,  and from my place in the tree line off to one side I watched them take  stock of the situation. The Prophet, as Cold Snap called them, wore a  billowing black robe that had their face and form in shadow. Still, I  wasn't in a rush. This next part would need to be done carefully. I had  to take out the G rankers while they couldn't see without the robed  mastermind noticing, and then I could finally get some answers.

I  eased myself out of cover, not needing the obfuscation of the trunk  with the mist we'd called up making them completely unable to see me. It  was strange, seeing through the mist like this. Seeing the enemies was  one thing, because I could still spot the glow, and that was pretty  standard with the way I used mistwalking. But the trees, the plants,  every blade of grass was somehow both visible and very obviously  obscured, and it was really messing with my head. Still, it was to my  benefit, so I used it, slinking around the edges and heading for the  nearest G ranker to me.

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Unlike with  the H rankers I didn't hold back at all. My poison fire was effective  but survivable for someone with that kind of impact, and I didn't  hesitate to trigger Consecration of Flame and Touch of tears as I  focused on my Stealth Skill. Once again I used my Perception to detect  every little trace I was making and suppress them as I went, getting  more and more silent the closer I got. It wasn't perfect, but it was  good enough for another G ranker in a cloud of fog, especially a  brainwashed one.

The  first of the enemy G rankers was a huge man with braided green hair and  bones poking from his elbows. Assuming he wasn't fae he probably had  some kind of bone based ability. My best move here was to take him down  fast. He wasn't as tall as I was, but he was much wider at the  shoulders. Probably six foot even bet almost wider than he was tall. I  managed to get within a few feet of him undetected, and I slowly  positioned myself in such a way that  I was able to launch a short,  brutal assault at his limbs with my tonfas, before landing a final  strike with the handle to the back of his head.

I  was worried the poison fire would kill them by accident if they took it  to the head, no way of telling how much Vitality they had, but I had to  take him down fast. Despite not being able to see, I had a second or  two tops to get the next one before the puppet master felt one of his  guards go down and reacted. As the first one hit the ground I was  already moving to attack the second, a small woman with bright orange  hair whose eyes flickered with flame. I was pretty sure she was a fire  user like Cark, which meant high Might, so I wanted to get her before  she could react to my assault. My tonfa came crashing down on her collar  bone, and the other hit her elbow.

I  darted back as I saw her eyes flick to me, dropping into a roll before a  burst of flame could consume the spot I'd been standing in. It didn't  effect the wish produced fog fortunately, but it officially closed my  window of stealth. The puppet master had reacted and all of the other G  rankers were on guard surrounding him. He ignored the downed bone guy,  standing motionless, facing my general direction. I saw one of the men, a  bland looking grey haired guy in his twenties, turn in sync with the  figure, and his eyes hardened with annoyance.

This  was definitely the puppet master taking more direct control. Which I  thought was odd. He was right here. Hiding his voice at this point was  meaningless, but maybe he was on guard against some kind of ability. Or  maybe he was just a complete dick who was too lazy to speak. Whatever  the case, grey haired guy became his mouthpiece. "Heretic! I know that's  you. Must you make this such a bother? You have to have seen how many  we are. You and your little girlfriend fought off some of my sleepers  for a while, but you'd have lost eventually. Not to mention I brought  nearly twenty of them. There are eight of us here and ten coming from  another direction."

I  didn't respond, because I wasn't a fucking idiot. With a full seven  possible directions to attack and listen from narrowing down my location  based on response would have been childs play. The grey haired man  paused before clicking his tongue. "Nothing to say? No heroic speech  about how you'll stop me? So heavily outnumbered there's no way you'll  manage to turn us back. Even the addition of the bounty hunter won't  save you." He paused, then smiled in triumph. "Yes, I know all about  that. I have my sources you know. I heard about your last minute  addition."

I  wasn't sure if this guy was an idiot or a genius. This whole gloating  about surprising me thing would have worked better if he'd actually  managed it. In the fog he seemed to just be assuming he had shocked me.  So either he was a complete dipshit, or he was trying to provoke some  kind of response by being cartoonishly bad at this whole villain thing. I  was pretty sure it was the former. I suspected he didn't really get the  chance to interact with others directly much in his cult leader and  just wasn't great at it.

I  really wanted to ask him. To make fun of him, to find out what the fuck  my dad had done that was so bad it had driven him out of hiding for  this ridiculous attack. I wasn't sure what he was getting for killing or  catching me, but I was sure it was SOMETHING. Nobody would be this  rabid about getting someone they'd never met without some kind of  benefit. Granted, it might just be a fanatical cultist thing, but with  an ego like this guy's I doubted it.

But  I couldn't give my position away. Not yet. I had to handle the guards  first. Once that was done it would be time to ask questions. I was a bit  worried about what he'd said about the others, but it was ten to two,  possibly three given I hadn't gotten backup yet, so I could only trust  them. In the meantime the puppet master had done me the immense favor of  completely surrounding himself in guards who were all rightly packed  together to defend him. I readied myself to fight silently and triggered  Sucking Mud. Let's see how his meat puppets did in round two.

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