I wasn't worried about Abel being hurt. Not after his showing  earlier. But I still whistled at the sheer fury of the attack. "Well  that doesn't seem like a healthy relationship dynamic at all." Callie  giggled against my side and poked me in the ribs, shushing me so the two  powerful warriors didn't hear, but they were both far too busy with  each other for it to be an issue. Still, I felt it bore mentioning.

Alden  chuckled from his place next to us. "Violence is more a part of their  lives than most. They're training lunatics who often talk with their  fists, and their relationship mainly grew out of sparring to begin with.  Still, they care for each other and would never actually try to hurt  the other out of anger. Mel is just confident enough in Abel's strength  that she isn't worried that blow will actually land. He won't stop her  though. It's good for her to let off some steam, and once she's wasted  some of her frustration she'll listen better. He knows her well enough  to let her vent."

I frowned but didn't comment. It wasn't  my relationship, so it wasn't my place to say anything. Callie and I did  spar, so I supposed I could see a bit of the point. But I felt like  this was a bit outside of a consenting and informed battle. If both of  them were happy with this way of doing things though it wasn't my place  to comment. Not like I could do anything about it even if it was.  Besides, I could see the smile on the unmasked portion of Abel's face.  He wasn't upset or even afraid. He looked almost relieved that she was  trying to burn him alive. Alden had been right. They WERE lunatics.

Still,  Abel wasn't the only one having fun. Despite the blazing glare on her  face, I could also see a small twinkle of enjoyment twinkling in Mel's  eye if I wasn't mistaken. She was raining down golden flames on Abel,  who was altering the space around him to create alternate paths so the  fire would pass him by. He didn't even look warm as he casually swatted  away torrents of fire that probably would have cooked anyone else.  Despite not being the same impressive blue color, Mel's fire was  seriously powerful, and pretty damn distinctive too.

"So  what exactly is her power?" I asked Alden. "Because those flames are  weird looking. That shade of gold isn't natural at all, they're almost  metallic somehow. I've never seen anything quite like it. I assume that  isn't a pure fire ability. She mixed in something else right?" Despite  acting like regular flames in terms of motion and effect, the fire was  visually pretty distinctive. I remember Burning Fist mentioning that  most fire wielders mixed other attributes and Skills in with their fire  to provide extra power.

Alden nodded. "I won't give away  trade secrets obviously, but the name isn't exactly unknown. She calls  it Starflame. It's why her title was Starbreak, back when she bothered  to use one. Some of the circus performers still use that, but for the  most part she's just Mel. Starbreak was Apollyon's partner, and after  Abel left she had no desire to use it anymore." His voice sounded sad.

I  felt for the man, but I was more focused on something else. "Apollyon?"  I asked. "Was that the name Abel used?" I'd never bothered to find out  what his original name was. Thinking back, I doubted it had always been  Spruce Bunny. "I've never heard anyone mention it before. Was he  important back in the day or something?" I couldn't imagine anyone as  terrifying as Abel not having a hell of a reputation. He'd made it to  G-rank at the very least, and young enough that he didn't strike me as  having aged much.

Alden nodded. "He was a member of the  Titan Twenty way back when. He and Starbreak both. The strongest twenty  Ascendants under tthirty years old in all of Rajak. If he hadn't  vanished when he did his Ascension to F-rank was expected with a year or  so. Once he was gone he got replaced and people forgot him. Such is the  way of renown sadly. People have short attention spans. There's always  someone clawing to be relevant, so if you don't make a move for a while  they'll forget you within a month. Especially with the mastery some  forces have over the media outlets."

"The Titan Twenty?" I  asked, intrigued. "That sounds awesome." I was still only eighteen.  "Wait. The top twenty Ascendants under twenty? Wouldn't they just all be  from the Academy?" I imagined anyone who managed to gain that kind of  renown could write their own check in the Academy. I wondered how many  of those people were at the school, and what their rankings were?

That  got a loud snort out of Alden. "They'd certainly like to think so. But  no. As you've seen from our training methods stat pumping isn't the best  way to make a strong warrior. Don't get me wrong, there are some real  monsters at that school of yours, but there are plenty outside it. Hell,  they aren't even all members of the Unity or WCP. There are at least a  few independents last time I checked, and a few from other factions  living in town. The Twenty are anything but uniform."

That  sounded...fucking awesome. Callie looked as excited as I did. Granted,  we had a ways to go for sure, but still, we had years to go. I glued my  eyes to the formerly irrelevant fight, trying to pay attention to how  they were both engaging. Looking close, I could see Mel's flame waves  looked big and sloppy, but they were actually incredibly precise. Abel  was forcing them off course to avoid being hit, but the heat in those  waves was tightly controlled. No radiant energy was leaking off to singe  or bother anything around them. Granted in Abel's case that might just  be his own power, but she wasn't burning or damaging the objects nearby  either, and I couldn't feel the fire from here, or even a spike in the  ambient heat of the Pavilion.

It was astonishing to notice  given the wild shifting waves of fire, but the obvious implication was  the Mel had pinpoint control over those flames. There was no stat for  that, though there was a Skill if it was like Shadows. Still, the  absolutely absurd amount of effort and training needed for that level of  control must have been insane. It also spoke to Alden's point that they  were just playing around. If she had that kind of control she could  have made something much hotter and more focused. I still wasn't sure  what was mixed into those flames, but I somehow doubted it made them  LESS dangerous when condensed.

She hurled fire at him for  about ten minutes, and he just stood there and let her, deflecting and  avoiding it. He didn't stand still the whole time, probably worried it  would come across smug, and actually ran off to let her chase him around  the Pavilion for a while. They both knew it wasn't a real threat, but  they did it anyway, and seeing that made me rethink my earlier reaction.  They weren't anymore insane than any other couple, though they were a  bit more vigorous. Eventually though, Mel calmed down and let the fire  fade away, vanishing in a swirl of flames and appearing right next to  him, hurling herself into his arms.

She buried her face in  his chest, and I was pretty sure she was talking based on the slight  body movements, but I didn't hear a word. It took me a second to realize  the air was slightly warped around them, and figure out that Abel was  using his ability to catch and funnel the sound waves away from anyone  else around the tent so no one would overhear. It was another display of  absolutely terrifying control on a much finer scale than I'd seen from  him, and made it clearer than ever that I hadn't even scratched the  surface of what he was capable of.

Abel had been a monster  before he'd vanished all those years ago and it seemed like despite not  accruing any stats after he dropped off the map, he'd kept up his  training. His easy defeat of that F-ranker had shown me exactly what the  difference was between a true Ascendant and someone who just made  numbers go up. I remembered what I'd heard before, about how some more  powerful clans had full heritages where they taught people the control  and Skill combinations that Abel had learned on his own, just because  they all the family ability and had been able to spend years working on  it.

I even briefly wondered if I'd have learned things  like that back at the WCP if I'd grown up with the family. Then I  dismissed that. My combat style was massively impacted by my DS Mastery,  which was gained from the way I spent my life when I was on my own. I  might not have a heritage to show me what direction worked best, but I  truly believed I could be stronger than any other candidate if I just  learned to use what I had better. I'd make my own path, and become  stronger than any other Wishmaster, candidate or otherwise.

My  new attack stockpile would certainly help, but I was sure plenty of  other candidates had figured out the uses of that. No, my main advantage  was in DS Mastery, and how it combined with my new style. My character  abilities tended towards buffs and augmentations, giving me unique  twists on the attacks I copied that no other candidate could match. It  was just one more reason to finish ranking up DS Mastery to  Intermediate. Once everything calmed down between those two though I  hopped down and headed over. I wanted to talk this out with Mel before  she had a chance to adjust to what had happened, especially since Abel  was here. That would be my best shot at getting her on my side.

As  I approached, Abel let go of Mel and stepped back a bit, just enough so  she would look up and see me coming. She cocked her head to one side,  her gaze complicated. "So I heard you helped bail Marc out, and held  some assholes off Alden until this dumbass could make himself useful and  save our teacher. Still, I get the feeling from how this all went down  that there's more than a bit going on that I'm not aware of, and I'm not  really a fan of being kept in the dark."

I  turned to find Alden approaching, and at my gaze he nodded, ready to  fill her in. He caught her up on finding out about us, the talk, his  worries and his attempt to keep an eye on things. By her clenched fists  she wasn't happy, but Alden didn't even give her a chance to interject  before cutting her off. "And before you go mouthing off to your teacher,  girl, consider how the situation went down. If anything, I wasn't  paranoid enough, and if I hadn't come alone that idiot Marc would have  been slaughtered."

"Fine."  Snapped Mel. "I'll admit your sneaky bullshit was mildly useful in this  instance. I'm still not happy you let spies stick around and even  trained them." She shot us a pointed look but then sighed. "Not that the  plan is even still viable, so there isn't much to spy on now.  I'm not  working with Cicero, but given what a mess this turned into I'll at  least hear you kids out."

She turned and headed into the back area we'd  met her in originally. "Come along then, all of you. We can figure out  our next move. Somehow I doubt those bastards will let it go at this  after losing an F-ranker, and we'd better have a plan when they arrive."  With a glance at the others I shrugged and trailed after her. She  wasn't wrong, we'd need a hell of a plan. Luckily I already had the  beginnings of one. I just hoped it would work.