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The only problem is that the king—or at least his men—are all far stronger than me. All I can do is give everyone the strength to save themselves when the time comes. I can\'t actually challenge the king.

Not yet, anyways.

The last few days, he\'d continued absorbing the mana from the puppets. Unlike when he was Rank 1, though, it did little to fill him up. He could spend all day absorbing mana, and only fill his core a little. Making progress on his next Rank was almost impossible. He no longer worried about sharing mana with people at a higher original Rank than him. They\'d take longer than he\'d spent in the mana field so far to fill up their cores, let alone restore or ascend their Rank.

He sighed quietly. Opening his storage ring, he looked at his gold to assuage his sadness a little. Piles of coins glittered welcomingly up at him. He sighed happily. At least I\'ve made a profit. So much gold… if my uncle could see this, he\'d die of envy.

Ha. If I saw my uncle now… Ike clenched his fist. They were the same Rank. He no longer had anything to fear. If anyone had something to fear, it was his uncle.

He walked the field. Figuring that he ought to tap the remaining puppets if the gig would soon be up, he drew out the spider\'s fang and worked through the back half of the puppets. He tapped their ankles for maximum flow and let the gunk pour out, not bothering to burn it for mana. If I have time, I\'ll come back and burn it later. But given how little this mana is moving the needle for me at this point, it\'s not that big of a deal if I lose it. Better to pour it out and not use it, than allow the city lord\'s plan to go through when I\'m right here, able to act against it right now.

It really is strange that the city lord is limiting himself to acting through the king. He grimaced. He definitely does not care about this contingent, huh. But if that\'s the case, where\'s his true army? Where…

No. That\'s not really a question, is it.

He turned, looking back toward the city. His grimace deepened. Plenty of souls there. Lots and lots of helpless souls, prime for the plucking. And given that the puppets were going to absorb the souls of ex-mages in Abyssal, I don\'t think they needed mages\' souls to power the puppet. Probably any old soul will do.

And gods know there\'s plenty of souls in the undercity.

Stolen story; please report.

Ike took a deep breath and sighed. He gazed at the sky. Silver\'s probably fine. He barely enters the city anyways. Orin and Cara… I don\'t have any way to get a message back to them. If I get out of here, I\'ll be sure to send them warning.

Aside from those three, I don\'t really have anyone I care about back in the city. My uncle can go fuck himself. Liz is already dead. There\'s no one else.

A figure appeared in the sky. Ike jolted. He looked around him. "Field\'s closed. Everyone go home."

"What? I just paid my entry fee!" one of the men protested.

"You can stay, but there\'s about to be a fight," Ike told him. He nodded upward.

The man jumped in place. He looked up and spotted the figures. His eyes widened, and he booked it, quickly vanishing into the forest.

The other people absorbing mana vanished as well, leaving Ike alone on the mana field. He continued to work down the line, tapping one puppet after another. Black goo ran over his shoes and tracked after him, forming a thick mud behind him. "Wisp, are you ready?"

"Ready to get off your head. Seems like a bad place to be pretty soon," a friendly voice commented from too close to his ear for comfort. He caught a brief, blurry glimpse of a fluffy, bulbous body as Wisp jumped away from him. A white thread zipped into the air, and she flew off.

Ike shuddered. He ran his hands over his body involuntarily. Gods. Every time, I feel things all over me the second she reveals she was on me. I couldn\'t feel her, but gods, it\'s so much worse once I know she was there and I couldn\'t feel her… ugh. I need to ask her to alert me to her hanging out on my head.

Putting his heebie-jeebies aside, he pressed on. Tapping the puppets. Sloshing through black mud. The figures in the sky grew closer and clearer. Hunched over, pretending to pay them no mind, Ike eyed them. Three figures, riding on a flat wooden platform that looked vaguely like a sled. Two of them he didn\'t recognize, but he did recognize the man in the lead. The man who\'d complained, who he\'d overcharged for access to the mana field, pointed down at Ike. He looked back at the other two and nodded, speaking energetically.

Ket told me to run if more than one showed up. I\'m not so sure that\'s an instant loss. With the trap Wisp and I set up, f I can take one, I can take two. And it\'s not too late to run after I try to fight.

He kept on tapping the puppets. The sled scraped down just outside the mana field, and the three of them walked in. One of the men looked at the spiderwebs surrounding the field, while the other strode after the leader, who pointed at Ike. "Here he is. This is the one who\'s been illegally providing mana without a permit!"

"Illegally… does nature need a permit?" Ike instantly rebuked the man, still distracted by the puppets. He extended his aura, testing the other two men\'s auras. Both were firm. On the left, the low second-Rank. On the right, mid second Rank. The lead man\'s aura shimmered, struggling somewhere in the low first Rank.

The lower-level man scoffed, looking down at him. "Take him away."

Ike tapped the final puppet and stood at last. He looked at the man in front. "Leave."

"Ha! You think you can order me—"

Ike threw a punch. Green shockwaves flew off his fist. They flew past the man\'s ear, close enough to send his hair into a flurry. The man\'s eyes widened. He staggered back.

The highest-Rank man turned. "Leave," he repeated.

Saluting quickly, the low-Rank man fled.

Ike faced down two Rank 2s. The Rank 2s stared at him. Neither of them moved.

A small smile crept over Ike\'s face. They see me as a threat. They know they can\'t step on me.

Crazy how much one small Rank up changes. A few days ago, I would\'ve been dismissed just like that man who led them here. And now, they hesitated to make the first move.

He looked them in the eye. "Gentlemen."

They nodded back. The higher-Rank man stepped forward. "You know why we\'re here."

Ike nodded. "I do."

"Then there\'s no need to draw this out. Garrus Sarmine." The man saluted.

The lower-Rank man copied his gesture. "Damain Belnor."

"Ike of no name." He didn\'t salute, watching the men instead.

A blur of motion. The two of them leaped at Ike.

Ike grinned. "Now!"