I'd expected anger when I announced that I wanted to kill Pietro, but oddly, he just seemed...shocked. "You...you dare?" It was like the idea that I was willing to kill him was some kind of alien concept to him. I was suddenly really glad my old man had sent me off to grow up a normal person instead of raising me in the clan. This was obviously what happened when you gave someone an unlimited amount of leeway and protection.

"Yeah." I said bluntly. "I literally just said that." I looked around at all the people attending the auction. "Anyone else down for a battle? I somehow doubt that Petey here is going to let everyone spectate from the side. Might as well join up with our side so you can get some support."

This was mostly aimed at Macgregor and the other outsiders, they were the ones who would most likely make the most difference. Sydney and Megan both looked ready to fight, as did the Spear Legion group, so that was hardly an issue. The four wouldn't let Callie be hurt, but if we could get support from the other factions like Slime Hall and the Twilight Order we could ensure we could come out of this ahead, even if we had to bleed for it.

Looking closer there were several F-rankers among the enemy. Not corpses, since they had to bring those in all at once and didn't want trip the restrictions, but a few people who had most likely come as guests to hide themselves among the attendees and wait for this exact moment.

Glaring around at the others Pietro snapped. "Trash, can your forces even withstand the anger of the Black Sorrow Cult? Don't get involved beyond your means. I could see all of your factions razed to the ground, so just shut up and sit there while I deal with this peasant."

Mordaunt was looking almost embarrassed to be working with someone this stupid, which was fair because I would be too. The others didn't seem to notice how dumb he was though, because they actually looked worried. Callie spoke up to reassure them. "Friends, there's no need to worry. This is an isolated attack by a moron. If the Black Sorrow Cult could just charge into other peoples territory and slaughter whoever they wanted, they would own the whole universe."

I nodded. "Honestly I doubt this is going to be ignored as completely as he thinks it is. I wouldn't be shocked if Petey's daddy ends up having to pay off some kind of price on his head to keep the Unity from hiring professional killers to take him out." Of course, the fact that the Cult were the ones people usually paid for that would probably help. Still Pietro looked flabbergasted at the idea.

"You all should die!" He roared. "This is unacceptable! To think I would be forced to endure such disrespect. Kill them all!" Well, that solved the whole 'convincing everyone to help' dilemma. Revenant, keeping this idiot alive must be a full time job.

Regardless, he WAS in charge of the enemy forces, as evidenced by the tide of the bastards that rushed toward us at his howl. Guess the battle was on. Callie appeared at my side without either of us needing to say anything, and we both swept forward to meet the oncoming tide. Despite his arrogance and stupidity, Pietro DID attack himself, though I didn't get to fight him directly as soon as I'd have liked because he wasn't very fast and one of the corpses got there first.

I decided to test out their defenses, and see what the Darkling Institute could do, so Callie and I engaged with a pair of the things directly. I kind of expected the four to stop us, but they just fanned out nearby, taking care to keep any F-rankers off us as we fought. Probably instruction not to hinder our growth too much.

The first of the monsters we came up against were strange, but very different from each other. One was short and fat, with orange flesh shot through with lots of metal. The metal bits had spikes on them, and each spike gleamed with a toxic looking green substance. I took that one because my armor had more coverage, while Callie took the tall pale blue one with the beefy frame and the glowing sharp fingernails.

I noticed as I engaged orangey that these things weren't EXACTLY a combination of science and necromancy. More like zombies with scientific parts added in. Some of them looked more integrated than others, but they struck me as being something more like Benny than anything else. That didn't stop them from being dangerous, and as my poison fire enhanced cane landed on the orange thing, I grimaced at the lack of obvious effect.

My first blow smashed into the zombie's side, driving it back a few steps, but not actually damaging the orange flesh much. It triggered a berserk charge from the monster, who planted his hands and kicked up his feet in a sort of failed handstand that let him back flop on the ground in my direction. I activated double trouble, appearing behind him and attacking his exposed face as his body passed through my illusionary double.

Which didn't have as much effect as I'd have liked. I used Mercy Kill on the strike, and even dumped in a triple strength density shifted blow, and while I felt a crack as the facial bones shattered and saw the poison fire seep into the broken flesh, it didn't do much to actually slow the thing down.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to worry about that as I got a sense of impending danger and rolled to the side as laser nails flashed forward to try and carve me up. As he did orangey rolled to the side in a whirling spin that was much more graceful than I'd expected him to manage and attacked Callie, the two of them seamlessly switching targets...or trying to at least.

Sadly for them, they were showing off in front of an expert. Callie took the short reprieve as an opportunity to create a few clones, and I grinned under my mask as I felt her slip away as the orange one attacked a clone, only to crash right through it as Callie appeared behind laser nails, condensing a drill of shadows aimed right at its spine as I triggered the triple stack density shift attack combined with a spider leg attack to intercept the things claws.

The pair of golden spider legs smashed into the wrists of the monster as Callie speared it through the back of the neck, where the brainstem would be. Heart blows weren't much good on undead, so she aimed for the spot where the spine met the brain to do the most damage.

Laser nails dropped like a rock and we both turned in time for Callie to intercept orangey, who wasn't doing great as his head was slowly consumed by venomous flame. The damage from the initial strike hadn't been much, but over time it was seeping in and seemed to be driving the thing crazy. As it bounced off I triggered a Sucking Mud and a shadow attack, creating the mud tentacles that snagged the rabid monster and started to drag it under.

With that out of the way, I turned to look for the next target, only to get a feeling of danger just in time to dive out of the way of a bandaged fist that would have easily crushed my skull if it had landed.

Looking up, I saw Rahm staring down at me coldly, the silent behemoth positioned right next to his mistress. Mordaunt looked annoyed. "Damn. I thought that would get you. You're much more annoying than a G-ranker from a backwater like this should be. Your freak of a teammate I get, he's a Master Candidate, but can you just hurry up and die already so I can get paid?"

Looking back I saw that fully six of the damn F-rankers had engaged the four, drawing them off and away from us to free us up to attack. The only saving grace was that Pietro appeared to have been waylaid by Megan and Sydney, with Riley playing support as Lament and Abel took on the guards. Mel was showering the corpses with fire, to minimal success, so we were on our own here.

That was fine. I didn't believe we couldn't beat the Darkling Institute monster maker. She wasn't Lament or Abel. Just a crafter with a scary bodyguard. I climbed to my feet, taking up a spot next to Callie. "Well." I said pleasantly. "That answers the why question. Thanks, that saves me an annoying conversation. Also a lot of wondering after we crush you both."

Mordaunt snickered. "Confident aren't you. No idea why. Rahm could take you both alone. With me here you have no chance." With a snap of her fingers she materialized a pair of wicked looking black daggers. The metallic potion was straight and thin like a needle, and the hilts were clear glass, full of a sickly glowing green liquid. Along the length of them I could see lines denoting measurements, like they were a pair of really dramatic syringes.

In the distance, I heard a roar, and then a crash, as Randall the bear came plowing through a wall of corpses and slapped Rahm out of the way like a wrecking ball. Jessie was sitting on his back, with Benny following behind her and carrying a huge hammer that I was pretty sure he had just randomly stolen from one of the auction lots. There was a lot of sickly green blood on the head though, showing that he'd been crushing corpses with it.

Mordaunt glared as she walked over to kick at Rahm. "Oh get up!" She hissed. "You'll be fine." The man groaned, rising to his feet as some of the bandages fell away from his face, revealing a pale blue visage covered in stitches and traceries of circuits. She reached up to check him over, not in concern, but more like someone checking their car engine to make sure it still works.

Jessie cheered. "Whoo!" She bellowed. "Did you see that? He just went flying. Bear to the face! Hey clockwork, did you see what Randall just did? You can only crush their heads with that stupid hammer, my big buddy is a corpse killing machine!" I grinned at her. Jessie was a sweet girl, but she could be scary when she considered you an enemy. Zombies and kidnappers weren't people she would worry too much about. Especially zombies. We'd killed tons of undead.

Benny sighed loudly. "Yes Agria, I know. Still, the thing is pretty useful. F-ranked Mass Impact Hammer. I wonder if they'll let me keep this when we're done? Probably not I guess. Shame. No wonder Beat and Sever were so overpowered. Seriously, using an F-ranked weapon is like playing on easy mode." Despite his cheerful tone, I could see that he seemed to be talking softer than usual. I was guessing the soul weight of an item like that wasn't light, though the belt was probably helping. He was most likely using his triple strength density shifted attack pretty often.

Mordaunt glared up at them. "Oh what fresh hell is this? Can't a girl commit murder in peace anymore? You know what, FINE." She whistled, and another five or six corpses surrounded us, as well as a single F-ranker who had come from opposite of where the four were holding down the fort. "No more messing around. Every single one of you is going to die if that's what it takes. I'm GETTING paid." Rahm began to unwind his bandages, and as he did, I could feel his power spiking. Not just his power. His conceptual weight. As we watched, the big zombie officially broke through to F-rank. Huh. Well that's one way to hide from detection. I hadn't considered that. This...could be a problem.