I was surprised he had offered, honestly. That seemed  counterproductive for a guardian, but then again having been stuck down  here for so long would make any squirrely. It was odd how hearing we  were from the Academy had changed his mind, and I realized that Cicero  hadn't mentioned that and might not even know it was the case. I turned  to Callie, muttering under my breath. "I don't think we have a  legitimate chance of beating him at full strength. What he just did  was...terrifying. We should limit him with rules, it's our only shot."

I  couldn't believe how strong he was. Not just the Might, we hadn't seen  much of that, but just the overwhelming aura of pressure I was feeling  from him. It was like being locked in a room with a hungry monster. I  felt like nothing we could do could touch him. I remembered Emry  mentioning that he was supposed to be the strongest G ranker in the  whole WCP, and I thought that I might have underestimated what that  meant. I'd heard stories of course, of people who could fight up ranks,  but I'd never really seen any evidence of that. I was pretty sure this  guy was one of those. No wonder he set the maze up to keep F rankers  out.

Rather than rush us, Abel just stood there casually,  an amused smile on his face. Callie and I chatted back and forth for a  bit before speaking. We came up with three rules, and Callie was  planning to state them, but before she did I had to ask a question. "How  are you so strong. I've never seen anyone our rank thats that powerful.  Some of the older freshman in the scavenger hunt at the Academy were  powerful, but they didn't give me the same feeling of being unbeatable.  You just seem like you're on a whole different level."

Just  the way he avoided Callie's strongest blow so easily showed he was in a  weight class above ours. He just smiled at me. "You're new. I can tell.  People at the Academy, hell most people on Callus, are obsessed with  progression. They try to constantly improve and progress, throwing  themselves into combat to get more stats. Some of us though, once we get  to a reasonable rank where we won't age too fast, like to take our  time. There are more ways to grow in power than just getting higher  stats. I've been at G rank for decades, honing myself, polishing my  abilities. Not to show others or gain renown, but for my own  edification."

I cocked my head, and he chuckled. "Skills  are a decent way of illustrating it. With enough time you can get and  raise dozens of Skills that qualitatively increase your ability to  leverage the stats you have. Its more than that though. Skills are  useless if you can't apply them right, and the Skill itself isn't the be  all end all of application. Combining skills, maximizing your ability,  efficiency, and economy. These are all aspects of combat normal hurried  Ascenders ignore completely. "

I hadn't ever really  considered that. Sure, I knew everything he said piecemeal, but I'd  never put those things together the way he was talking about. "Is that  even worth it though?" I couldn't help but pry. "I mean, maybe you can  punch up a rank, but you definitely can't punch up two. Is it worth it  to basically hobble your reputation in exchange for power at the level  you're at?" I couldn't imagine being stuck at G rank for decades, maybe  centuries. Some people were stuck by necessity I knew, but doing it on  purpose? How much discipline did that take? Hell, how much had it  annoyed Cicero, who was pretty obviously still at G rank and definitely  wasn't some kind of combat ascetic. Talk about salt in the wound.

He  shrugged. "I do what I do because it's what I want. I love battle,  perfecting myself, growing. I have other interests of course, I like to  cook when I have the time, but in a general sense, my life is what I  want it to be. Besides, I think of it as solidifying my foundation. Once  I perfect my combat art and decide to finally take the stage, I'll  demolish the rest of these pretenders. It'll be hard for someone like me  NOT to rank up by that point, and it'll give me a much more refined  starting place for F rank, carrying over even into later ranks. Now. I  believe you two came to an agreement on rules?"

Callie  raised an eyebrow questioningly at me, but when I nodded she exhaled and  turned to Abel. "Fine. We're instituting three rules. If you'll accept  them. Rule one. You can't move your feet from that spot. If you move  them even an inch you lose. Rule two, you can only use one hand, your  off hand, whichever that is. Rule three, you can't use any weapons. Only  your hand or fist. Do those rules sound acceptable to you?" I didn't  expect them to. Honestly they didn't sound acceptable to me. They seemed  like overkill.

Despite that though, they also  felt...necessary. Maybe this was Fantasy again, letting us read a bit of  the strangeness of the world, maybe our Perception picked something up,  or maybe it was instinct. Whatever it was, I felt like we needed these  rules to have a chance at winning, and even with them it might not be  enough. Abel was just too calm, too collected. None of this seemed to  mean much to him, like he was just playing with us, and even with  concessions we would be leaving empty handed.

I didn't  trust his comment about wanting to leave, he'd as good as told us that  wasn't important to him. He just loved to fight. It was all he cared  about. He was doing this because he thought it might amuse him a bit,  not as a favor, and that meant he really thought he could still win.  Even when we listed the rules, he didn't look upset or worried, just  smiling jovially as Callie spoke. "Sure, those are fine. Decent ideas,  I'm curious to see how much good they'll do you. I'll let you both  decide when your time starts."

The more he talked the less  certain I was that we should be doing this. Still, we didn't have too  much choice at the moment. As much as working with Cicero was annoying  to consider, it was the best lead we had. I supposed we could approach  Melissa as enemies of his for real, but I imagined anyone as sneaky and  dickish as he was had countermeasures for that. Besides if he did go and  convince the real Abel to come get the thing we'd have burned that  bridge for no reason and possibly fucked ourselves in the process.

Callie  and I looked at each other, nodded, and then spread out a bit. Since he  could only use one hand, attacking from different sides should give us  an advantage. With that done, we confirmed aloud we were starting, and I  immediately cast Sucking Mud. I condensed it into a small area, making  it reach down instead of out since her couldn't move his feet, and once  it was activated we attacked, hoping to distract him from noticing.

We  came in from both sides, my cane lashing out at the mans head while  Callie tried to attack his ankles and make him move his feet. Abel just  smiled, his expression sharpening from his previous placid joy to a new  expression of bloodlust, this new grin all teeth and violence. His left  hand lashed out at me, and as it did I had to yelp and retreat because I  was positive it was going to hit me, Callie made a similar noise and  backed away, and Abel just waved at us mockingly. "Hard to beat me if  you don't get close. What are you doing all the way over there?"

His  tone was condescending and teasing, but he wasn't wrong. The issue was  that closing the gap was dangerous. The odd lubricated space ability he  had was useful for dodging, but in close quarters combat it was deadly.  As long as we were within range of his wingspan his fist could basically  collapse the distance between us. It wasn't just speed, it changed the  way his hand interacted with space in a way that made it feel like his  punches were following us without actually changing their trajectory.

I'd  felt a massive sense of danger from that blow, like his punch was  inevitable and unstoppable, and I didn't know how strong he was, but I  was pretty damn sure it was strong enough that I didn't want to get hit  by that punch dead on. Callie looked pale and frightened, and I could  tell she'd sensed the same thing I had when she dodged. No wonder he'd  agreed to this, rules or not there was very little chance we were going  to beat him in the allotted time, We could just retreat and wait him  out, but he'd said we had to last in a fight, and I doubted he would  count that as a win. We needed to change tactics.

Abel  was grinning at us viciously, but his smile dropped as he looked down  at his feet. "Some kind of skill to compromise footing? No, maybe an  earth bind. Sneaky. Fine. If you're going to put a shorter clock on this  I'll have to stop playing around." I blinked in horror that what he'd  been doing so far was considered 'playing around' but I prepared myself  as best as I could to block an attack. I stepped over next to Callie and  put a hand on her shoulder. She looked over at me and nodded, clearly  as worried about this as I was.

Abel  cocked back his fist, and I wondered what the hell he was going to do  but I doubted we wanted to just stand here and take it. Callie threw up  her hands, erecting the thickest shield of shadows she could manage in  front of us, condensing the thing so it only barely took up the space in  front of us. I was pretty sure this move was going to be the only one  we would manage before this ended given that Abel seemed convinced he  was about to end things with this next blow.

To  prevent that I started triggering skills. Consecration of Flame, Mercy  Kill, Afterburner,a modified Stone Limb, even Touch of Tears just to add  a bit of extra kick. I poured them into Callie as she mounted her  strongest defense, and the shield became...more. Harder, dense, and  imbued with flashed of green fire in the depths of its now obsidian  structure as the thing condensed into an aegis of power the likes of  which I'd never seen from any of us. Callie's eyes were wide and her  breathing was heavy as she struggled to hold it together.

Abel  in the meantime had thrown his punch, and I realized I'd made a pretty  big assumption. No one had ever said Abel's ability was confined to  close range. I felt the air warp and shift as Abel reached out to the  whole fucking room with his ability, creating that odd lubricated space  just like before. He threw the punch, and while it did that same ground  eating homing thing the last one had done, it did it with the whole  room. My head was splitting as I watched because his fist didn't change  size at all but somehow that punch took up as much space as an onrushing  train.

There  was a rumbling boom as the fist hit the shield in front of us. Callie  had wrapped it around us like a cocoon once she saw the blow coming,  making sure the fist didn't have an in. The room shook, and Callie's  face paled, noticeable even in the sickly green light inside the thing.  Boom after boom echoed out, raining down on us, and Callie's nose  started to drip blood as she tanked the hits.

I used the skills as a medium, passing her as much power as I could,  but I didn't really have the skillset for that. Eventually though after  what felt like eternity, the booms stopped. An annoyed voice rang out.  "Alright. Fine. That's your win. Damn it. The original is going to be so  annoyed at me." The shield dissolved and I had to catch Callie as she  blacked out. She was smiling as her eyes rolled up though. I guess we  really could call that a win.