As expected I didn't have time to show off much. My gear was similar to my initial loadout but with a hooded coat instead of a cloak as Callie suggested. The sleeves were somewhat loose to give a similar vibe and all in all I looked amazing, the crafter had paid special attention to the detail work on the leather armor to make it harmonize with the coat properly but I didn't have time to enjoy it because fucking Cicero was calling us in for his nonsense mission. I added an extra strike to my throat punch tally for that mustachiod bastard.

We got back to the cavalcade quickly enough, and Callie and I both stared at Spruce Bunny from afar as we passed. He gave us a jovial wave, and we waved back, feeling conflicted to be exchanging such jovial greeting was a legendary monster who have been able to crush us in a fight even years ago, nearly beating us one handed from across the room. Knowing such a terrible combatant lay underneath that cheerful rabbit mask made the entire image go from amusing to kind of terrifying.

When we got to the cavalcade we were about to head in (just the four of us, Cark was already starting to become known down here, and since the people working with Melissa were enemies of the Militia it would be stupid to bring him) but we were stopped outside the entrance and waved over by a hooded figure. Since we were already in a mess down here and it was unlikely we could make things more complicated. I checked with Callie before we moved in, and at her nod we stepped up to speak to the hooded figure.

Once we got close enough to see him through the deep shadows of the hood (I suspected it was some kind of artifact since our Perception should be too high for a little dark to be a problem, especially at this range) I was able to recognize Emery, who was standing placidly off to the side of the entrance, looking for all the world like he was waiting for a cab. As expected of Cicero's master of sneakery, the supposed assistant wasn't fidgeting or drawing any attention at all, blending in easily by virtue of his surety.

When we got within range he smiled lightly. "Good. You arrived in decent time. Melissa is having one of her combat trials tonight. If you'd missed it you'd have had to wait a week, and Mr. Castelton isn't the most patient of men at the best of times, never mind when on such a time crunch. Given we received word of the arrival of your new costumes we decided to make sure you had the best chance of infiltration in a reasonable time frame." He held out a hand, palm up, and passed us a few small paper tickets.

I took the stubby red paper, a square with a pair of half circles punched halfway up each side. I grabbed them, passing them to the others. "Ok, so what the hell is this trial anyway? You didn't say much. Do I need to worry about bringing all my team members into this? Our healer is pretty scrappy admittedly, but I don't know if she can keep up with someone like Abel. Not that WE can keep up with someone like Abel. If the trial is beating someone even half that strong there's no way we're passing."

Emery just shook his head. "If that was the test no one would pass. If you think there's even a fraction of a chance you could beat Abel he wasn't fighting you seriously. Melissa is one of his devotees, but not on his level, and you won't even be fighting her. Melissa prizes talent for combat over raw power. You can gain stats, but instinct and creativity are inborn. She'll probably put you through the mirror trial, it's her most commonly used appraisal method. You'll be fighting a mirror duplicate of yourself if she goes with that one."

That sounded...awful. "What? How the hell are we supposed to beat an exact copy of ourselves?" I had nightmarish visions of trying to punch myself only to slam my fist into the fist of the other me when he tried the same move. It sounded like the most frustrating exercise in futility I could imagine. The only upside was it meant Jessie should be fine. Benny I was less worried about given all his tricks, but Jessie's Might had been falling behind recently. I'd been working with Callie to increase Might, and had gotten twenty points of Vitality out of it for her twenty point bump in Might, but I'd let Jessie fall by the wayside given Callie's involvement in this whole mess seeming more direct.

The worst part is fighting a mirror image meant my girlfriend's now one hundred seventy seven points of Might wouldn't even be an asset. It was effectively pointless. Emery finished filling us in on what he could find out, but given they were in a rival faction he didn't have all the answers. Sneaky or not, he was known to be loyal to Cicero, and that meant Melissa's people watched their mouths around him. No one with common sense ran their mouth in front of the enemy. Once he finished filling us in he gave us a solemn nod and slipped off into the shadows, vanishing. It was an impressive trick.

With that done we headed into the circus, following the path Emery had mentioned to get to the tent where Melissa held court. She tended to keep her people together when possible, with the grouping only changing slightly as people had to go and do work or tests. The trials especially she did her best to have everyone attend. She was under the impression it would build camaraderie for her people to see how tough new entrants were. Anyone who didn't put on a good enough show to impress probably didn't belong there anyway, and the ones who did would have a much easier time winning respect from the old guard there.

The tent we got to was orange and black striped, as opposed to the green of Cicero's tent. I wasn't sure if that had any sort of special meaning or if Melissa just liked the color, but regardless, it was definitely the right place because when we stepped in the similarities ended. Where Cicero had been in a mostly empty and quiet tent (aside from the fucking deathtrap labyrinth he had in that weird annex) Melissa's tent was a riot of color, sound, and energy.

The other members of her faction stood around a giant dirt ring, drinking, cheering, and hollering as a blue haired boy around our age danced around a huge roaring bear in battle armor, dodging it's blows by skating over the ground on small waves of water under his feet. It was my first time seeing a water element cultivator since I'd come up as far as I could remember. Unlike pyros hydrokinetics weren't flashy or overly impressive by nature. I knew that there were more than a few out there, it was a big universe, but none had been good enough to catch the eye of the people or Rajak that I'd seen.

Apparently I was now seeing different. The blue haired guy was holding his own well against the F ranked bear, and I wondered how the actual fuck they kept that thing under control. The armor, on second look, had chains on it, and might have been some kind of restraint system, and I was pretty sure the weight slowed the bear down a bit. Under those conditions it was actually kind of interesting training, drawn out combat with a much stronger opponent to try to figure out how to hit hard enough to damage it.

Sadly for blue hair, punching up ranks wasn't so easy, and he hadn't even managed a small cut through the bears thick pelt yet. I saw Jessie's eyes narrow at the big beast, and I felt for her. I didn't like seeing them use an animal like that either. Ferocious or not that bear was a living thing, and being trapped and attacked every day sounded like hell. I'd have used a zombie or something. I put a hand on Jessie's shoulder and squeezed. It was shitty to ignore it, but we had a job to do. We could negotiate with Cicero to free the bear after we helped him cut off Melissa's faction.

She gave me a sour grimace but nodded, and I sighed in relief. As much as it sucked we were way outclassed here. These people were all combat fanatics and there were LOTS of them. We took a seat off to one side of the ring, waiting for the trial to start, and the water guy lasted another five minutes or so before he slipped and got tagged in the arm by a paw. I could almost hear the bone shatter over the crowd as I watched his arm almost get powdered and the people on the other side of the ring hauled on the chains, dragging the bear back as a healer rushed to his side.

I was curious how their healers power worked, but when he arrived at the blue haired guy's side he just held out a hand and encased the limb in some kind of light cast. I was expecting it to fade, but once the cast was on he nodded to the guards and they picked up the blue haired fighter as best they could without disturbing the limb and carried him off behind the seating to who knew where. I turned to look at Jessie, being our resident healer I was sure she had a better idea what that had been than I did.

She saw my head shift toward her, and even without seeing my face she got it. She shrugged. "Healing powers are pretty varied. Powers like mine that work directly with life force aren't common. Most healing powers you see come from synergizing with a first aid skill, but without a life based ability like my plant growth. You end up with something more akin to a regeneration buff. The ability amplifies the Vitality of the recipient rather than using the power to directly heal. Of course, nothing is perfect. Powers like that are useful for long term engagements or large crowds. My power is much more draining to use."

I could see how larger forces might find some use for that, but I was glad we had someone like Jessie. I hadn't realized she was so impressive in terms of healers, though looking back it should have been pretty damn obvious. Her lifeweaving ability was insane in terms of scope. I wondered exactly how she ended up with it. Was it really just a random combination of her ability and Skills? Horticulture couldn't be that common, but still, I would have figured if there was such an overpowered path people would know about it. I wondered if stat totals and similar factors played some part in the way abilities evolved or if it was really just a Skill and power addition sort of thing.

That was a question I wasn't going to get an answer to anytime soon though, so I just shook it off to focus on the dirt pit. As we watched, the crowd quieted down as the bear was led...somewhere. As it left a woman came stalking out. Tall and lithe with leather pants, a bright red crop top, and a red full face mask with no features save eye holes, as soon as the others saw her they fell silent and the woman stalked out into the center of the circle. When she reached the middle she threw up her arms. "My friends! It's that time again! Time to see who comes to join our number."

Her hip length red hair was shot through with bright yellow streaks, and I wondered if she had a fire ability like Cark, given the obvious themes. I was pretty sure this was Starbreaker. I had to hand it to her, she knew how to work a crowd. She had a pleasant and energetic voice that thrummed with excitement, like she was playing a song to get everyone psyched. She scanned the room slowly before turning back to the crowd. "So, any of you that are here to compete please step forward." I could hear the wicked grin on her covered face in her very words. "We can't wait to see what you all can do."