Once Beat went down it was only a matter of time until Abel and Mel took down the others. Sever was frantic and distracted after seeing his brother dropped like that, and that wasn't a safe way to fight Abel (assuming you could claim such a thing existed). Still, with the gaps they were able to beat the two of them into submission, with Mel overwhelming Serenity with a split second attack out of nowhere that forced her to lose track of Sever while he was distracted by trying to get to and check on his brother.

Abel disarmed him and knocked him out cold with a brutal blow to the back of the neck, and the two of them teamed up to take Serenity down with the pressure off. To my relief, no one suggested or attempted killing the elites, probably because two members of the Titan Twenty and the daughter of one of the richest E-ranker's on the planet were people likely to be missed.

When it was finally done I didn't even bother dragging myself to a seat, I just collapsed in the dirt. The sensation of being energized and ready to move while my head felt like a used dishrag was jarring, and I needed to lay down for a second to try to recover from my soul fatigue at least a little. I closed my eyes, trying to let my head settle as the Pavilion members dragged the three powerhouses out of the way to restrain them.

I was interrupted by the feeling of a weight slamming into my midsection, and I let out a grunt before forcing one eye open to find my girlfriend sitting on me, apparently uncaring of my feelings on the subject as she casually watched the other work. I groaned. "You know, some women show concern when their boyfriend keels over in the dirt. Or at least they don't treat them like a chair."

She reached down to pat my head condescendingly. "Don't be so hard on yourself baby, you're more of a couch." She wriggled around on me, grinning at my eyeroll. "Besides you're so comfy." Her smile dropped, eyes narrowing. "Unless I'm making you uncomfortable. Why, am I too heavy for you to deal with? Should I move before I injure you?" Her tone was sweet, but oblivious or not, I wasn't stupid enough to answer that verbally.

Instead I reached up, grabbed her around the midsection and rolled, drawing a squeak of surprise from her as I let my weight fall on her completely, going completely boneless. She shoved at me lightly, not enough to actually move me, which she could have easily done with so much Might, but just enough to wriggle me into a more comfortable position. I chuckled at that. "Oh, I'm sorry. My mistake. I thought this was how we show affection now." I put on a saccharine tone. "Unless I'm too heavy for you to deal with?"

"Can you just not?" I heard Benny groan from behind us. "Because I haven't seen my girlfriend in days because of all this nonsense, and the last thing I want is to watch you cuddling in the dirt. Besides, they have the prisoners secured. We're supposed to go check in on the others. Since they weren't here I assume the Jerks were in that team, and I really want to see the results of those idiots trying to fight an F-ranked bear. You know one of them tried it. Probably Way Crazy Wyatt."

I had to choke down a laugh at that. He was right, I could definitely see Wyatt doing that. I knew that it was possible someone had been hurt or killed, but the results here made me hopeful they managed almost as easily. I was trying not to dwell on the fatalities we'd already racked up until this was over. Especially not the ones I'd caused personally. At least I knew Jessie and Cark would be fine with Randall there as protection.

Still, he'd killed the mood so hard it was already starting to decompose, so just gave an annoyed snarl and pushed off the ground, leaping nimbly up and back to my feet, cheating slightly with my still active Leaf on the Wind to look cool. Judging by Callie's eye roll as she blew her hair out of her face it hadn't worked, but judging by the twitch of a stifled smirk on the corner of her lips it had at least amused her. I held out my hand and she took it, letting me pull her to her feet.

If nothing else, out little back and forth had distracted me from my brain pain enough that I was barely noticing it. I turned to Benny. "I'm sorry, if you're going to be a huge buzz kill at least you can be a useful one. I assume you have some sort of next step you want us to do, rather than just ruining our cuddle time for no reason. Or are you as good at ruining my day as you are at being short." I made sure the smirk when I said that was obvious in my voice, just so it twisted the knife even further.

Benny glared at me. "You son of a bitch. You're ONE INCH taller than me, and its not even natural! You're a cheating bastard. You might as well be wearing lifts." He shook off his annoyance. "No, we should go meet with Abel and Mel and see about making the trip to find the others. I'm not getting sucked into your childish antics."

I nodded sagely. "You're already the size of a child, acting like one too would be embarrassing." I had to fight down a laugh as his jaw clenched for a second and his face turned bright red. It looked for a second like he might lose it and try to slug me, but eventually he couldn't hold out and burst into gales of laughter.

He reached up and clapped me on the shoulder, and Callie looked at us like we were insane. Benny decided to explain. "He saw how stressed I was and decided to poke me a bit so I could let off some of my frustration. I'm not THAT sensitive about the height difference." He narrowed his eyes at me. "Even if it is absolute bullshit." He shook off the expression. "Regardless, things were getting grim, and he knew I needed a laugh. Hell, so did he. This was just an easy way for us both to calm down in such a tense situation."

"You're both lunatics." Callie said with another eye roll. "But whatever keeps you sane. Or at least the poor approximation of it you try to put on for the masses." She winked at me to take the sting out of that, getting into the spirit of the ribbing, and I laughed, grabbing her and pulling her against my side. She She poked my ribs again lightly, but it was clearly playing around, and I couldn't help but try to hold onto the joy I was feeling. Despite still being a bit worried, it was important to take happy times as they came. This was a win, we needed to treat it like one.

We also needed to be serious about the next part though. With all of us we could handle the remaining forces even if the others hadn't, not that I expected that, but we weren't invincible. Going over there without a care would be dangerous and stupid. So as we walked over I let the calm of pre-battle fall over me. I was too exhausted to do much more than swing my cane, but I could still do that much if needed.

Abel and Mel gave us wide grins when they saw us. "There are my favorite customers." Said the rabbit masked man. "Caught some of your fight, not bad at all. Creative, well optimized, and cheap as hell. Perfect strategy, I give it a ten out of ten. Of course, it could have easily failed, which would have made it a stupid plan with no redeeming value, but we believe in results here. Remember that the world is based on reputation, if you do something crazy and it works, that was your intention all along, and you can definitely do it again, no matter who asks."

Mel rolled her eyes at that but didn't really correct him. "We were about to take everyone over to check on the others. We had the hard part, so I'm sure they're fine, but more than a few of ours got pretty beat up, and we could use Agria's help on this. They're all stable and in no danger of course, but no use leaving wounds that could impede progress. Actual battle injuries aren't the same as bruises from spars. Having those healed as soon as possible is a priority." She held up both hands. "Of course, we'd pay for her services if needed, or we can send for someone else, but we trust her so we figured we'd at least ask if she would help out."

She would, Callie and I both knew it. Jessie wasn't the type to leave people hurting when she could help them, especially people she liked. It was nice of them not to assume though. I turned to stare over at Alden. The older man was walking around completely fine with only one leg. It had apparently taken him no time at all to figure out how to suspend himself with his gravity ability as he moved his leg, which was an odd sight to see but seemed pretty smooth by the time I spotted him doing it. Still, it was a jarring thing to see, and I made a promise to myself to offer him a wish if Jessie couldn't fix his leg. He'd done a lot for us, and my abilities were partly out now anyway.

Callie told the two of them she would ask, but didn't think it would be a problem, and we set out to check on the others. Walking through the paths between the tents we found...bodies. Lots of them. Most of them in robes and masks, but there were a few dressed in the eclectic clothes of the circus employees. I even saw one or two members of the Pavilion I recognized. No one big or important, just people I'd shared a drink with at the party that first night.

My stomach twisted. It hurt to see people I'd met and liked just...snuffed out like that. I hadn't been friends with them really, but I'd known them, talked to them, and the difference between the lively people I'd spoken to and the bodies on the ground was all the more unsettling for the environment we'd crossed paths in. This was why I'd tried my best to enjoy the time decompressing from the battle, I had the feeling I wouldn't be in a celebratory mood after this, even if all my friends were ok.

It was easy to forget the nature of the WCP. The Unity was cold and brutal at times, but it also at least pretended to embrace heroism, in a world like ours that was almost as good as actually being a hero. The WCP made no such pretentions. It was simply a proving ground. It was where people came to get stronger, to accrue power no matter the cost. This was my first time seeing that cost myself. Paying it in person too. It was a sobering thing to see. I'd killed monsters, seen people die, but this was my first time taking part in a battle like this, and I didn't think I'd ever be the same.

I pulled Callie against me tightly as we walked among the dead and the remains of the traps we'd built ourselves. I didn't think the traps had obviously killed any of our own that I could see, but I didn't know for sure. One more weight to add to my conscience. I could see how Zeke had ended up as unattached and blase as he had. I might cut people off if I had to see things like this all the time too. I felt my scan ring buzz and looked down to see a text incoming from a blocked number. It was my cousin congratulating me on my victory and asking to meet. I didn't bother to respond, there would be time for that later, once I knew my friends were alright.