Callie didn't use her wishes the next morning, we decided to wait. Not that we would be able to use them during the tournament with everyone watching, but better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them. We got to the arena early so we could prepare and ask around for more details on the Solemn Vow Guild, because what we had on them so far wasn't much.

As far as we could tell Laura was the captain, no surprise since she'd done most of the talking. As for abilities...nothing. One of them had some kind of transportation ability, and they worked in concert, but apparently the visual aspects of the power were so confusing no one in the audience had any clue what was actually happening.

Something about broken glass and teleportation, but no one was really sure, and the others hadn't used any obvious powers. There had just been a lot of movement and blood and then it had been over. Whatever they could do, they didn't fuck around.

We'd come in early to try to get some more leads, but their first two opponents had been so thoroughly outmatched they hadn't needed to show anything. So as we stepped out onto the sand, we were all pretty grim faced at the battle ahead. Well...Callie and I were. Mel was wearing a full face mask and Abel mostly just looked intrigued.

Laura greeted us with a friendly smile when we stepped out, her teammates all lined up behind her in single file. A short dark skinned girl with green eyes and a stoic expression, a tall, pall redheaded guy with freckles and a bushy beard, and an olive skinned guy with a bright smile and wavy dark hair. "Hey there." The team leader said warmly. "Good to see you again. I take it you decided to stick with your original plan? I respect the guts honestly. We aren't going to hold back on you though, I hope you know that?"

Callie seemed relieved by that. We'd expected Laura to be condescending or rude about us deciding to fight. Not that we cared, but her not being too pushy meant at this point in the tournament things hadn't gotten too serious and they could afford to ignore us. Well, that or they were super cocky and thought we would definitely lose. Either way we'd take it.

Before she could respond though, Abel apparently got bored of the banter and threw a punch at the enemy team.

The fist was the size of a bus, but to my shock, it didn't land. Not because they dodged or anything, but because as it hit the air in front of them the space SHATTERED, exploding outward in a cascade of silvery shards.

Mel and Abel both dodged as I grabbed Calli, Leaf on the Wind and Cloud Step getting us clear of the space shards as they tore the air apart, eventually stopping to float in place in a giant web of fragments that looked like nothing so much as a suspended explosion that had stopped mid blast, except without the blast force and with mirror shards instead of shrapnel.

"Huh." Said Abel. "That's...new." Even he sounded impressed.

Laura, whose eyes were now reflective silver all the way through the sclera, grinned at us. "Oh you haven't seen anything yet. Charlie, Olivia?" The green eyed girl and the guy with wavy hair each reached out to touch a shard. The ones in the air flashed twice before Laura said. "Blaine." In a tone like a judge declaring the final verdict of an death row inmate.

Blaine, the red haired guy, spun on a heel and threw a punch containing a mass of condensed black energy at the closest shard. The thing flashed, as did the rest of them and then a fucking TORRENT of black energy blasts began to explode from every one of the shards.

I cursed and Callie and I danced back, using our synergy and my Cloud Steps to dodge most of the blasts as I activated the overlay for both of us. I still took one in the shoulder and one in the thigh, while she got hit in the ribs, but despite feeling like we'd been shot we pressed on and dodged the rest. The actual energy broke on our armor thankfully, because based on what it was doing to the sand I didn't think I'd have enjoyed taking a blast like that to unprotected flesh.

One of these matches we would meet someone like me with armor piercing powers and I wasn't looking forward to it. For the moment we dashed behind Abel, who had been using spatial lubrication to divert the attacks and protect himself and Mel.

Laura clicked her tongue. "I wasn't sure from the reports on the last match, but that confirms it. Spatial manipulation AND a Master Candidate? Nasty combo." She nodded at Callie and I genially. "Impressive moves by the way, him I expected to get away, but the two of you were definitely a surprise. You should be proud of managing to avoid our invocation. Not a lot of teams have the coordination we do."

Callie grunted. "Thanks so much, that means a lot to my cracked ribs." I frowned and put a hand on her lower back subtly, triggering a heal burst for each of us. My thigh and shoulder, which had been killing me, felt much better. She gestured at the shards. "Invocation huh? I'm guessing the spatial breakage is your ability, then probably some kind of teleportation layered with some kind of bilocation ability to mix with it so every attack comes out of all of them at once?"

Laura clapped slowly, an impressed look on her face. "VERY nice. Yeah pretty much. You're in the ballpark at least, I won't be stupid enough to confirm or deny the exact mechanics, but knowing the basics of how it works won't make dodging any easier." She shot Abel a pitying look. "Pretty sure your heavy won't be able to throw punches when he's on the defense. Looks like this isn't going so well for you."

She didn't sound mocking, just matter of fact, which actually made it feel MORE like she was mocking us. I considered how I could take her out and break the effect, but my only real shot at that would be to use Double Trouble to get behind her, and then I'd be standing right in front of all her friends and that would just be asking to get crushed.

I triggered one of my Stealth charges, covering up my voice as I asked Abel. "Ok, this seems like a space thing, any chance you know how to stop it?"

He shook his head as he watched them carefully. "No, it's a mishmash of abilities. I could probably move the shards, but I'd have to basically do it one at a time, and there's no way they'd give me breathing room for that. The whole superposition thing is probably a two way street though. Since anything that happens to one of them happens to all of them, if we can damage one it should break them all."

Which meant our best bet here was probably Mel. I turned to our red masked teammate. "With Abel out of commission on defense, do you think if I juice up your orb with a few stacks of powerups you could smash one of those shards?" I was already going over which abilities would give her the best edge.

She nodded. "Sure, single target attack drills are part of my training. Flexibility is key, but being able to condense all my flames into the smallest area and land a single blow is an important part of controlling my powers. It'll backlash through the shards most likely though." She glanced at Abel. "I'm sure they have defensive measures for that kind of thing, but can you stop the resulting explosion from seriously injuring us?"

He waved her off with a snort, and, question answered, I reached out to put my hand on the orb we'd gotten her. Touch of Tears, Mercy Kill, one of Cark's flame attacks, Consecration of Flames. I stopped there because I was pretty sure if I'd used Afterburner or some of my other abilities it would be overkill. Even so, imbuing that kind of power into the orb was easier than imbuing it into a person since my ability recognized objects. It didn't take much soul strength.

Mel raised her orb wielding hand toward the nearest shard and growled with effort. I could practically see the space around the orb warp for a second, and then a pinprick of light, like a firefly, lit the air. The light got brighter, and brighter, growing slightly but maintaining it's basic size. It was green, and so bright it hurt to look at. Mel groaned with the strain. "Could use a highway."

Abel flicked a finger casually, and a massive manifestation of the digit appeared in the air, swiping the space between Mel's condensed star of fire and the nearest shard. She pushed it forward with a snarl of effort and the thing hit the lubricated space, going from a slow crawl to flashing across the space almost too fast to see. The whole combination had taken us a split second to pull off, and Mel being behind Abel the star hadn't been visible from a distance until it was too late.

Laura's eyes widened in horror and she punched out with her own fist, shattering more space and whirling her hands to bring the shards together into a mosaic dome of warped reality. The others reacted pretty quickly, I'd give them that. When their boss started moving they all dived under the defensive barrier. Just as they covered up the star hit one of the shards.

I saw a blaze of energy in every single one of them, like a supernova being unleashed in a thousand mirrors, and they all blew apart at the same time. Green flame ripped the intervening space inside the field apart as Abel cursed, folding his hands over us and interlacing his fingers to create a defensive manifestation. We'd MASSIVELY underestimate the amount of generated force though.

Callie raised a barrier inside the construct and pulled on the bond, using Stone Limb on the small dome where it came in contact with the sand. Abel snarled in pain and I saw his hands actually catch fire, which I didn't know could happen, and I put a hand on his shoulder, triggering a heal burst.

We dropped the defenses, looking around at the devastation in the arena. Solemn Vow were all alive, thankfully. With the force I'd been worried, but the blast had torn apart their shield and seriously messed them up. They were burned and battered from the backlash, as well as still being poisoned. I was just glad that hadn't killed them by accident.

"Wow." I said, looking around at all the melted sand. "That was...flashy. Note to self, maybe avoid mixing random power interactions outside of controlled circumstances." Mel had predicted backlash but that had been...impressive. We walked over to them carefully, taking our time to crunch across the sand, making sure not to get sucker punched or anything.

They didn't try it. They were all heavily poisoned, the toxic fire having seeped into their bodies at multiple points. We turned to the crowd and Callie raised a fist, and the announcer called it once they didn't move for a bit. Luckily we could still hear them even through the isolation. Once they did I reached out and switched off the skill, eliminating the poison. They all slumped onto the sand from where they'd been writhing in pain, Vitality already getting to work on the damage, though VERY slowly. Laura grinned up at us. "Ok. Ow. Good fight." Callie laughed and offered her a hand to help her up.