Wish upon the Stars chapter 148 (Patreon)

Being unconscious, while not enjoyable, was a pretty convenient way  to travel. I passed out in that hot stuffy cave and woke up again on the  top floor of the hatchery, mask off and costume stripped away so they  could treat my wounds. I looked down at my leg, which while wrapped  mostly seemed to be healing pretty quickly. I imagine Jessie had given  me what she could and hadn't had enough to knit my wounds together  completely.

I looked around for my clothes, feeling sort  of naked without my H ranked combat gear. Sure they weren't as good now  as they were when I got them, and I imagine they were slightly holding  me back at this point, but at the same time I'd grown so used to them I  couldn't imagine going without. My costume was my second skin, it was  with me everywhere I went. Almost since I first became an Ascendant I'd  been wearing it constantly, and being here without it made me feel all  kinds of vulnerable and exposed.

I tried to sit up and  winced. My whole body hurt, but the wince made my face move, which was  an agony on a whole different level than the slight soreness in my  muscles. I couldn't tell if my nose was still broken, but it certainly  didn't feel great. "Hey!" Callie's voice cracked the air and she was  next to me in seconds. "Lay back down you absolute moron. You got hurt  really bad, you need to rest." I blinked and looked at her, and seeing  her anxious expression I sighed and leaned back to lay on the ground.

I  groaned. "Did anyone get the number of that bus that hit me? Because  ow." I closed my eyes, and it felt nice to let myself relax and shut out  the light. i hadn't realized but it wasn't helping the headache. "Also  when did we get back? And is everyone else ok? I got dragged off there  at the end. i didn't see what happened to the others. I take it they  aren't hurt or anything?"

Callie gave a hysterical laugh.  "You got your face stomped into hamburger meat by a deranged biker and  you're asking if everyone else is hurt? No Shane, no one else got hurt."  She sounded on the verge of crying. "What the hell is wrong with you? I  saw what you did as I was grabbing the Heart, but I couldn't make it  back in time. Who grabs a more powerful Ascendant around the leg and  hangs on like that. He could have killed you. If he'd kept kicking I  think he actually might have."

I opened my eyes again to  see hers overflowing with tears. I felt like an asshole, though I wasn't  entirely sure WHY. Still, I wouldn't apologize for keeping her safe. I  just gave hear my best reassuring smile, which admittedly probably lost  some of the effect given my split and bleeding face (I definitely felt  some wounds reopen when I stretched my mouth) and reached out for her  hand. "Hey, I'm fine. I knew you were out there and he was heading for  the Heart. I needed to make a call about what to do, and I sort of  panicked and did the first thing I could think of."

She  swallowed hard and threw herself into my arms, giving me a tight squeeze  that kind of hurt, but I wasn't complaining. Even with my Perception I  barely heard her as she murmured into my shoulder. "You moron. Who cares  if we win this stupid hunt if you die. I love you but you're an idiot."  She held me close for a second before her body went stiff, clearly  realizing what she'd just said. She jerked back, clearing her throat. "I  mean, right, we won, the others are fine, we're waiting for the call to  head back. How are you feeling?"

I decided to leave her  slip alone, she would talk about it when she was ready. I joined her in  pushing on. "I'm fine. Not particularly happy to be awake right now, but  with my Vitality I'm sure it won't last too long. If Jessie is ok she  can probably top me up once she's back to full charge. What did I miss?  Last I saw the hunt was ending and we were trapped in a cavern with a  quartet of pissed off G rankers."

That got a wet chuckle  as she helped me sit up. "Well, you probably saw the important parts.  After we finished they halted the hunt. But we found out the  announcement wasn't across the whole event, just for the teams that had  completed their lists. It was us and about four others from what Jessie  has been able to find out with the ravens. The other teams are still  actively searching for their list items. We haven't gotten any responses  but we're pretty sure this is normal. Letting the other teams finish  and then cutting in some of the more interesting footage before the big  footage so they can get some more air time."

I listened to  her explanation, nodding along. "Well, as long as we're out of it I  have nothing else to say. If you think about it that makes sense. If  they stopped it now they would miss out on some decent fights. Are we  still vulnerable to attack here?" I hoped not, I just wanted to slump  down and sleep off this pain. I was pretty sure Zeke wouldn't intervene  against Ascendants unless they tried to hurt Cass directly since it  would be violating the parameters of our deal.

She shook  her head. "Nope. Apparently the overlap items that can't be found  elsewhere have faded from other lists. We were told we're protected now,  though they didn't bother mentioning how. Celine is pretty sure they're  using the beacons to warn people off attacking the teams who have  completed the hunt. This isn't the earliest it's ever ended by a long  shot, but it's not a bad result. They're giving the other teams a few  days to try to get some good footage and then they'll run the stream and  do a mass pickup. The rest of them will get picked up at the end of the  month."

We sat there like that for a while, me leaning  against her for stability, until I finally felt a bit better, and she  helped me to my feet to check in on the others. Everyone was out front  of the hatchery, the only exception being Jessie, who was still sleeping  off the energy drain. She'd wanted to stay up and try to heal me more,  but once it was clear that I was safe and out of immediate danger Callie  forced her to sleep. My Vitality could patch me up until she woke up  and was feeling better.

I was glad Callie hadn't let her  run herself into the ground, I'd have made the same call. When we  stepped out everyone's eyes snapped to us. Celine was sitting with Benny  while Martin and Sarah reclined against a tree and Cass ran around the  clearing watched by Cark and Zeke. When they saw us though everyone got  to their feet, with Benny being the first to cross the distance and pull  me into a hug. "Shane! Revenant, man, you were looking messed up there  for a minute. That Fisher guy didn't hold back."

He  sounded angry, but I just patted his back with a chuckle. "Nope, but he  didn't go as hard as he could have either. I have no doubt he had the  leg strength to break my neck in one kick if he was really trying to end  me. I'll take living and beat up over dead and barely injured any day. I  was just worried about the rest of you. I'm glad everyone is ok. Where  are the wolves, I don't see them?"

Benny snickered,  pointing to the edge of the creek off to the side of the clearing. It  was a decent distance away, but I could  easily make out the massive  furry shapes slumped wet and bedraggled on the beach. "Cass decided the  wolves should go swimming with her. I have no clue how she talked them  all into it honestly, but they were not happy to be soaked. They're  drying off now. Everyone else is fine too. Hell, Cark is actually pretty  excited."

The big man shrugged at my questioning gaze.  "Honestly I wasn't expecting any benefits from this other than finding  my sister when I agreed. Now that you guys won though, I'm going to show  up in your battle footage and will get some of the same promotion as  all of you. Granted they won't be pushing the narrative for me the same  way, but since I'll be there I'm probably going to see a big bump in my  stats just like all of you." He smiled ruefully. "I stayed to pay you  back and ended up getting an even bigger favor. I really have no idea  how I'm supposed to repay you for all this."

That got  another eye roll from me. "If you keep talking about favors and debts  I'm going to think you don't like us. I told you, you're a friend,  there's no need to keep score. Any of us might have ended up dead  without you here. I can't think of a way to repay you for that either,  the lives of my friends are priceless. Since we both owe each other more  than can be reasonably paid back why don't we just call ourselves even  and move forward as friends."

Cark had put himself in  harms way time and again for all of us, and I absolutely wouldn't hear  about any of this payback bullshit. I considered him part of our group,  even if only for the hunt, and I was going to treat him that way. If he  benefited from working with us then all the better. He gave me a  grateful smile and clapped me on the shoulder. "Well if you put it that  way how can I refuse? Come on, come sit down. We were just talking to  Celine about how this whole thing is going to work."

Callie  helped me over to sit by a tree and we looked over to where Celine was  sitting. Benny had rejoined her, and though they weren't exactly  cuddling, the two of them were sitting pretty close together. I smiled  at my friend, who avoided my gaze but couldn't help the satisfied smile  on his face. The elf girl waited until everyone was settled and nodded.  "As you know great deeds trigger stat growth. The accumulation of renown  bursts out at these milestones and allows us to upgrade our strength."

We  all nodded, this was something we had experienced multiple times  ourselves. "As usual, the milestones tend to be fit into certain  categories, triggering based on a specific event or series of events.  Due to studying these sorts of milestones for quite some time, the major  forces have developed methods of setting up their events to count as  singular milestones over longer periods of time. This is why we haven't  seen a slow trickle of points during this hunt, and are going to see  large returns all at once in the end."

We'd  heard this already, but I hadn't realized it was an intentional thing  that they had done this way. I wondered how long they had studied the  way renown worked before being able to set up events like this. Either  way I was looking forward to the windfall. Celine went on to explain the  payout, the timing that we could expect, and what kind of stat numbers  we might be looking at (though she admitted that was mostly guesswork)  and by the time she was done I couldn't help but be excited for the  upcoming boost in power. Once the promotion began we would all get hit  with the points at once, and I couldn't wait to see how strong all this had made us.