The biggest issue going forward was that I was about out of charges. I wasn't completely tapped, since I was still conscious, but too many more DS skills would put me out of the fight, which only left me with normal Skills and stored attacks. I was so glad I'd started stockpiling those, because I was pretty sure this whole thing would have gone way worse without the new tricks I had up my sleeve. Invocations were out now too, since lifeforce might restore Vitality, but I knew from experience it couldn't completely recover you from the effects of soul weight.

Still, we had an advantage now, even if they didn't know it, given that Abel and Mel were both raring to go now. I had to imagine Serenity would be at least a bit tired after holding off a monster like Abel for however long the fight had been going. Mel had already let the wall of fire drop since we were all grouped up, and I suppose she thought Abel would catch any attacks that came our way.

Beat and Sever were flanking Serenity, who looked stared blankly up at us, expression as serene as her name would suggest. Beat, however, was less stoic, snarling silently at us as Sever tried to treat the still smouldering wounds on his arm and leg. He stalked forward, and we all tensed, ready to fight, but he stopped halfway to the stands, staring up at us murderously, fists clenching. "Why the fuck are people like you even here?" He hissed up at Abel and Mel. "We aren't high up in the Titan Twenty, but even being on the list makes you pretty much untouchable at the same rank. Being able to fight all three of us means you would be top five level on the planet, minimum."

Abel gave a casual shrug. "Does it? Maybe you're just having an off day. You could always try again to see if you do better the second time." His voice was as light and teasing as ever as he goaded the angry brawler, but Beat wasn't as big a hothead as he seemed. He didn't even tense to step forward, ignoring the sing song mockery lacing Abel's words. When there was no reaction Abel sulked. "Ah, a cautious one. Those are never much fun. Fine, tell us what you want to do here? I can hardly see an amicable way out of this."

Beat turned to Serenity, who gave a calm smile and stepped forward to speak at last. "I suspect we may have more options for diplomacy than you might think." Her voice was...soothing. Melodic and calming, like inhaling the vapor from herbal tea. It made my hair stand on end. Was she doing that on purpose? Or did she have some kind of persuasion Skill? Whichever it was, I didn't like being fucked with, and her voice tricks rolled over me without finding much purchase, not affecting any of my team much either.

It occurred to me that every person currently with us had a pretty solid amount of Focus. Benny was at 75, I was at 88, and even Callie, who had the lowest in the group was over fifty. I checked her face to be sure I was on the right track, and I noted her eyes having a slight glaze to them. She seemed to catch herself even as I looked, shaking off the effect, but it confirmed what I suspected. I bet that mesmerism thing worked much better on H-rankers than it did us too, it was probably still a Lesser Skill.

Abel obviously barely even noticed. I didn't know what his Focus was, but considering the speeds he had to move at when fighting, I was guessing high if only to keep up with his own movements. Mel seemed fine too, as did Alden. and all of them being high G-rankers that made sense. I knew the higher your stats got, the more the lower ones filled in just by virtue of the reputation you had as a powerhouse. Not to the same extent, but people tended to catch up. Hell, Jessie would probably start seeing some of that soon, given her lack of several stats. I should take some time to check in with her about it.

Despite not being affected by her mind fuck though, Abel did look mildly curious. "Ok, you've got my attention. What exactly are you suggesting here? Because I can't see an out here where we don't have to throw down. You want the circus gone or under control, and you can't afford to leave one of those undone, not with all this ruckus. You won't get another chance to try this without the other major factions stepping in. This is my brother's circus, my circus, I helped found it. What could you possibly give me to make up for it."

"A bigger one." Serenity didn't even miss a beat. "You're a powerful and impressive man, and your brother has clearly built a skilled and loyal following. Staying down here is a waste of your talent. Sign on with us and we can pay anything you wish, within reason. We'll give you a place in F-district twice this size, and provide F-rankers to help you hold it until you can Ascend. We aren't idiots, Mr. Castleton. This fight alone speaks to a staggering amount of potential. I was unaware of your skills, clearly an oversight on my part, but I can see your value."

Mel's eyes narrowed. "Watch it bitch. Your tone gets any more flattering and I'm going to think you're trying to steal my man. I don't put up with poachers, especially not ones whose flunkies just tried to cut me to pieces and lopped a limb off my teacher. Speaking of which, what about Alden? You think we're just going to forget that you took his leg in your little attack, not to mention all my boys you tore up." She pointed demandingly back to the bearded man.

"That is hardly a concern." Serenity said with that same placid, reassuring tone. "We have access to the best healers on Callus. We're more than happy to restore your employees to perfect health as part of our deal. We're open to discussion of terms as well. We simply ask that you walk away from here. The deed will default back to the Wish Curse Palace upon the destruction of the circus, as is stated in the contract itself." She paused. "If you wish to save even more time, you could hand over the deed itself."

Which explained so much about this whole situation. Destroying this place in the war had seemed odd to me up to this point, but since I didn't have the context to question it, I'd just chalked it up to Ascendant weirdness. The war thing made sense, and I knew it would be a win for them politically if they wrecked the place, but this little tidbit made the way they'd gone about things so far much more logical. Not that it helped at all us in the moment, but it was nice info to have at least.

I glanced over to Abel, who was just standing around waiting for her to finish, looking more bored than anything else. His eyes were glazed behind his rabbit mask, and once Serenity stopped talking he just stood there for a second, before jerking back to awareness, eyes flicking to her in surprise. "Oh, sorry, were you done? Those usually take longer, so I tend to zone out. I was going over the statements for my sausage carts." He shook his head ruefully. "Taxes down here can be such a pain. If you're finished though we can get started, I was about done anyway."

He didn't even wait for a response before throwing a punch. With his physical power restored, he was clearly going all out from the beginning. The fist he threw came rushing at them like an oncoming train, large enough to target all of them at once. Serenity's placid expression finally broke into a very satisfying expression of jaw dropping shock and a small amount of panic as the colossal punch smashed down at them. She threw up both hands and created a massive field of golden energy to nullify the punch.

Unfortunately, she was still exhausted from their fight, and Abel wasn't anymore. Her peace energy nullified a portion of the blow, causing the fist to fade to a translucent image, but she didn't manage to disperse this one. Beat and Sever stepped up, the red edged knife flashing out to bisect the fist image twice, cutting it into quarters that beat proceeded to smash with that rippling energy on his fists, but despite the quickness with which they handled the attack, they both looked visibly shaken by the ferocity of it.

Abel rolled his shoulders, cracking his neck with his hand by pushing in each direction on his chin, limbering up for the battle. "Not bad, I'm surprised you managed to counter that. But as you can see, I don't need to negotiate with you. You're weak, and I'm strong. When prey attacks a predator, it dies. Of course, I'm not stupid enough to think you didn't bring any insurance, but I'm not exactly here alone either. Let's quit with the chit-chat and you all get serious, otherwise I'll just flatten you solo and save my friends the effort."

I felt a chill at that, but on second thought it made sense. Even my team had trump cards in case of emergencies. Someone from a place as wealthy as Sanctuary Hall was bound to be strapped with some serious gear to break out if they needed it. Serenity, face now pretty much the exact OPPOSITE of serene, snarled at him before flicking her wrists. The gold bracelets that appeared on them were new, I was pretty sure, but the jingling when the clanged off each other easily dragged my attention to them, and the sparks of golden light glinting off them sparkled ominously in places light SHOULDN'T be hitting them. They were G-ranked, but seemed like they were complimentary to each other.

Beat didn't even speak, just reached into his cargo pants and took out a pair of black leather gloves with no fingers and dull metal caps over the knuckles. They looked well worn, but otherwise ordinary, if not for the obvious sense of weight that told me they were F-ranked artifacts. Apparently being a member of the Titan Twenty who worked for cash paid well. Sever's knife vanished without him even moving, and was suddenly replaced with a short, leaf bladed sword of tarnished bronze, covered in a tracery of golden swirls. It was also F-ranked, and it looked OLD.

Knowing that they hadn't been worried enough to use these bothered me for a bit, but then I realized that I was making a lot of assumptions about the items. They might be limited use, or fragile, or put lots of strain on their wielders. The weapons in particular must be taxing. F-ranked armor was passive, and wearing it didn't do much more than require a period of adjustment, but weapons were an active use item, it was probably a strain to use them to focus abilities like I did with my cane. Hell, it would have to be, otherwise people would just carry around massively overleveled items everywhere to crush their enemies with.

For the moment it didn't matter though. Whatever they did, we only had to deal with it as it came. Don't get cut or punched, and leave Serenity and her weird bracelets to Abel where possible. I felt out my limits, checking to see if I could manage one more charge without straining myself too much, and I noted that I should have some left, though I was tiring quickly using my soul strength so often today. I had enough to trigger the same combo as earlier. Before they had a chance to react, a Shadow Swamp sprang up beneath their feet, tendrils of shadowy earth shooting up to grapple them, and the rest of us attacked.