by Sarah Lin
"Huh." She glanced at the aura flow briefly, then waved it away. "You actually tried to recreate it instead of just getting someone to tell you."
Rick stared at her, not sure how to take that. "Uh, is that a good thing? Was this some kind of trick test?"
"It doesn't really matter - we only care about results. I'll award you 8 points. You can step out now."
A bit puzzled by the interaction, Rick headed out. That put him at 11 points, well below the top contenders. He suspected that these early points didn't really matter very much compared to their actual work on the job, so instead he wondered what the purpose of it was. If nothing else, he'd learned a lesson about what the organization cared about.
Not long after, Damian scored a full 10 points. Rick had to wonder whether he'd accomplished it by cheating or not, but wasn't going to give the other man the satisfaction of attention.
As the final people finished their test, Rick began to hope there was a greater purpose to all this. If the technique had been meant to judge their flexibility, then the rampant cheating made it irrelevant. That rendered this a bit of a waste of time, and he didn't think that large corporations liked to waste time. Either the purpose hadn't been revealed yet or they intended to keep the real purpose hidden.
Abruptly the board disappeared, the tents folded back up into a crane, and the three CSLA employees strode out onto the field. The woman clapped her hands, again silencing everyone, and spoke once she had their attention.
"Those of you who have chosen to stay, you've now taken your first step as CSLA contractors. But beyond the basic competence you've shown, we'd like to show you the objective of your work. Follow me, please."
They did so, moving further away from the road and into the grassy field. As they walked, the woman raised her hands, effortlessly performing the technique. Except as she moved, the resonance between her hands was changing. Rick immediately realized one of the errors he'd made: the purpose of the skill wasn't to create a certain effect, it was to evaluate effects from the outside.
So it was some kind of measuring or surveying technique... for the types of lucrim anomalies that they wanted to find? That would make sense. He got his theory confirmed when he started to feel something unusual. There was a spark in the air that hadn't been there before.
Was this what ambient lucrim felt like? As a kid he'd imagined what it would feel like for the air itself to be overflowing with lucrim, but this was strange. He glanced to the officials and noted that all three of them seemed slightly disgruntled. Either their target wasn't there... or the wrong thing was.
"It seems we have a bit of a problem." The woman sounded like she was remarking on the weather, but she quickly caught everyone's attention. "Please prepare yourselves for combat in case this doesn't go well."
That said, she bent down, dropped the technique, and began working on something else. It was too quick and complicated for Rick to figure out exactly what she was doing, but now he could definitely feel a change. The air itself seemed to boil in a way he struggled to pin down, as if nearly invisible shapes struggled against one another. When he looked up, he noticed that the clouds seemed to be rotating.
Spinning around a point exactly above them.
"Oh dear." She stepped back with the mildest of disappointment. "It seems you will all see the scope of the problem sooner rather than later. Please defend yourselves."
A few people started to ask questions or shout, but it was too late. The roiling air suddenly condensed into a beast-like shape that crouched, then lunged at one of the fighters standing nearest. As it launched itself, it gained flickering but concrete form, ending in an audible snarl.
All Rick could do was put up his fists as the creatures twisted into being all around him.
Chapter 13: Anomalous Threats
Rick's mind had no idea what was going on, but his body did. The air itself seemed to be gaining solidity, forming beasts that resembled nothing he knew but had plenty of teeth and claws. Several of them had formed now and the strange aura-like nature of their bodies would have distracted him if his life hadn't been in danger. He had no idea what the things were or how to fight them.
Yet when one of them lunged at him, manifesting with an eerie snarl, he automatically ducked aside. He barely restrained his instinct to strike it as they passed, unsure if touching them would be harmful. More monsters were forming from the central point, where the air itself now glowed in some kind of unnatural reaction.
He realized that there was a monster above him a split second before it dropped and he desperately managed to Bunyan's Step away. With a bit of distance, he hurried to reorient himself and observe. Some of the other fighters near the center weren't as cautious as he was, one man shooting at the entities while another kicked those rushing at him.
The bullets did seem to impact on the partially visible bodies, and the man who kicked didn't seem to have been injured in any way. So whatever the things were, they were corporeal enough to fight. That was good enough for Rick.
Wary of teeth he couldn't quite see, Rick didn't throw himself at the enemy, but he did prepare to fight back. One of the creatures was rushing across the ground in his direction, so he turned to face it. The thing leapt at his legs with a snarl - he dodged aside and kicked it in the side.
His leg impacted like he'd kicked concrete, but the creature did go skidding across the ground. Rick leapt after it with a Bunyan's Step and stomped down as hard as he could, trying to disable it while it was still stunned. To his surprise, his foot smashed through the creature's head. It felt like he broke through a shell, and instead of gore, there was only a burst of released power. His shoe and pant leg were a bit scorched but otherwise there was no trace of the creature.
Then they weren't huge threats alone, but their numbers were growing too quickly for him to relax. Two more rushed at him and Rick found that he actually hesitated. His base instincts had carried him this far, but with time to think, he realized that almost all his combat experience was against other people, not against creatures that ran so low to the ground.
The first launched itself at him and Rick met it with an elbow to the head. He felt a burning scrape against his skin, but the strike landed well enough and knocked the creature away. Though he'd planned to kick the other one, it had arrived faster than he'd expected and slashed at his legs.
Rick barely evaded with a quick hop back, then kicked out to knock the creature flying. An instant later he realized that there was a third one flying at the side of his head.
He ducked low, just aiming to dodge, yet it reached out lower than he expected and claws raked his shoulder. It didn't feel as bad as many of the blows he'd taken, but it still hurt. Gritting his teeth, Rick forced himself to keep moving, going after the creature and stomping it as soon as it landed.
One of the others was returning, its growls giving him a bit of warning. Rick whirled to kick at it, but the hasty movement prevented him from getting much power. His kick just thumped against the creature's side and it immediately reached out claws to begin tearing at his leg. Worse, he had a glimpse of the flickering head opening to clamp down on his knee.
Setting his other foot firmly, Rick burst off the ground with a Bunyan's Step that sent his leg tearing through the creature. His momentum actually sent him flipping heels over head and when he landed, he felt a twinge in his hips. Using a Bunyan's Step with only part of his body had been a risky move. Apparently it worked, but the middle of a battle was not the time for such experiments.
Still, it seemed that he'd earned himself a bit of breathing room, so Rick kept up his guard and looked around the battlefield. Fighters and flickering monsters were scattered everywhere in a pitched battle. He saw people fighting with fists, bats, swords, and guns - honestly, that last one worried him more than the monsters. Friendly fire from lucrim bullets could be a serious threat.
There was an unarmed man who was positively swarmed with the things. He seemed to have a defensive core even stro
nger than Rick's, because their teeth and claws weren't even damaging his clothes, but there were so many climbing up his body that he could barely move. Rick went to go help him... and then a flame aura lit up around the man, incinerating all of the creatures. Okay, he didn't need help.
An older man successfully beat down one of the creatures with a baseball bat, but another leapt at his side, tearing away his weapon. As he dropped, the man managed to catch the creature's jaws before they reached his face, but he was pinned down. Rick launched himself into a Bunyan's Step that tore through the creature, then picked up the bat and handed it to the old man.
Though there was blood running down his forehead, the older man grasped the bat and used it to pull himself up, still able to fight. While he made sure the man was alright, Rick kept looking around the battlefield.
Unsurprisingly, Damian was doing fine, spinning among the monsters gracefully. It looked way more like movie choreography than any real martial art to Rick, but even glancing blows seemed to carry a heavy impact that sent creatures flying, if they weren't destroyed entirely. He'd be fine.
The fact that not all of them were destroyed made Rick pause and look more carefully. There were more creatures emerging from the central point - he didn't see any of the CSLA employees anywhere near it anymore. But though it was difficult to determine much about the semi-visible creatures, Rick was quite sure that the ones emerging from the boiling air were getting bigger. Whatever was happening, it seemed to be increasing in strength.
Sounds of feet rushing toward him pulled Rick's attention back to the ground, where he saw several more of the creatures rushing at him in a pack. He turned to face them, bracing himself...
And then flinched backward as a wall of green energy burst past him. It annihilated all the creatures, but it had nearly gotten him, too. His heart was pounding and he swiveled to find the source.
"Oh, shit, sorry!" There was a woman wearing casual clothes and a baseball cap, but the striking thing was her unstable, spiky aura. She waved both hands in what looked like a sincere apology. "This technique is really hard to-"
Her aura wobbled unsteadily, then the side of it exploded in a wall of power that threatened a different direction. Rick realized that the instability was actually intended, like the entire technique oscillated to build up more power. He wasn't about to get closer to her, but Rick decided to call out to her.
"Can you aim that at the source?"
"I've been trying!" She winced and readjusted her hat, making her aura wobble even more violently. "Shit, I shouldn't have tried to use this..."
A short but immensely muscular man appeared beside Rick with a grim expression. "You have the right idea, kid. We need to take out the center, whatever it is. Can you run interference for us?"
"Maybe." He answered cautiously, noting that several others had apparently gotten the same idea. The stronger fighters, many much stronger than him, were tearing through the dog-like creatures and closing on the central location.
Yet in response, the disturbance in the air seemed to become more chaotic as well. Given a moment to think, Rick tried to examine the creatures more carefully, yet he couldn't determine much about them with his normal skills - they had nothing like a generation rate. However, he was willing to bet that the bigger ones emerging were stronger than the others.
Something even larger twisted into existence, this one hunched over but walking on two legs. Rick considered throwing himself into the fight to help and wondered what Melissa's void flame would do against these things. Yet before he did so, he found his gaze wandering further.
There was the woman who led the exercise... standing calmly and doing something on her phone. He didn't see her coworkers, but was pretty sure they weren't involved in the fight. Whatever this was, it wasn't actually a threat to them. Was this just another test? A demonstration of some kind?
He only had instincts to go on, but Rick decided that he wasn't going to use his emergency technique or risk his life too much. Not if there wasn't anything truly at stake.
When they went closer to the center, Rick parted from the muscular man and sought out a target. They might be getting graded on this, so he needed to keep fighting. But instead of taking a major risk to win a fake battle, he'd consider it as another opportunity to train.
Rick kicked aside a dog-like entity and made his way to one of the larger ones. It was a bit shorter than him, not as large as the massive creatures near the center, but the way it was hunched over, it looked like it outweighed him. When he got close it swiped at him, but he easily ducked under the slow movement and hammered an elbow into its face.
The creature shifted back a bit, but didn't fall. There was no time for another blow, Rick just launched himself forward with a Bunyan's Step, his elbow hammering the same point. This time he heard something crack and the creature fell back, but not enough.
One claw swiped out at him and though he blocked, he felt lines of stinging pain along his arm. Rick kicked at where the creature's knee might be, and though the blow connected, it wasn't disabling. Another blow struck his arm, and though his defensive core held, it knocked him to the ground. Before he could push himself up, the creature fell on top of him.
They traded vicious blows, too close to block effectively. This one felt like it was protected by a hard shell, but Rick could feel it cracking. Ignoring the pain, Rick struck repeatedly, hoping to kill the creature before its blows took their toll...
And then a curtain of power descended over the battlefield.
Rick felt nothing but raw lucrim pass by him, but all around him the creatures hissed and screeched as they evaporated away. It was as if a massive hand simply flattened all of them, leaving the humans untouched. He carefully got up, nursing his injuries, and saw that it was completely over. Not only were the monsters gone, there was no trace of the atmospheric disturbance.
His senses were numbed by the overwhelming display of power, but he could guess at the source just based on logic. When Rick turned to find the woman in the green suit, he wasn't surprised that she had a hand raised in front of her. No aura, but she obviously didn't need it.
"This has been a demonstration." She sounded like she was just announcing another step of paperwork, even when the fighters across the battlefield turned on her. Some were angry, but the Lucrim Authority employee obviously didn't care. "We wanted to make it clear why we insisted that only those with combat skill attempt this job."
"You hired us to fight monsters like these?" Rick looked and saw that it was the old man with the baseball bat, glowering at her. The woman shook her head.
"Realistically, you aren't likely to run into a problem anywhere near this severe." There was something in her tone that made him wonder if they'd seen just how severe it really was. "Excess lucrim can lead to local pests becoming more dangerous, however, so we don't want incompetent agents blundering into these situations and making them worse."
A woman in her 40s wearing a tank top, who didn't appear to have been touched during the fight, folded muscular arms and frowned. "Was this the last test? Are we employees now?"
"Right now, all of you are eligible, but you need to prove yourself on the actual job." The woman tapped on her phone and the lucrim ratings board popped up again. "You have thirty days to find and then report a lucrim anomaly. Use these."
She gestured to a box of dull marble spheres that one of the aides brought beside her, then continued. "Outside of emergency situations, you won't be tasked with eliminating the anomalies yourself. Once you locate one, you'll begin collecting a salary and be eligible for bonuses based on future performance. After this, no more tests. But the CSLA doesn't hire anyone who isn't proven."
Rick glanced at the board and saw that everyone appeared to have been awarded 5-10 more points, perhaps based on their performance in the fight. He had to skim down to his name and saw that he'd received 7, which wasn't bad. As everyone adjusted to the fact that the battle had just been a test, many started looking a
t the top rankings, but Rick didn't care about that.
Instead, he focused on the fact that they'd finally revealed the essential information: his job was to find anomalies and stop them before they became disasters. If they'd thrown him against monsters on a regular basis, he would have refused the risk, but he could understand just using their proprietary technique to locate problems. More importantly, he wouldn't start getting paid until he found one.
Despite his misgivings, Rick realized that he'd made his decision: this was the job he'd been looking for. He went to pick up his sphere.
Chapter 14: Dinner with Emily
Deciding to try to get the job with the Lucrim Authority was well and good, but Rick quickly realized that it wasn't going to be that easy. The initial trials had filtered out people who were grossly unqualified, which was just the first step. Everyone who remained had some basic skill with aura techniques and combat ability, which wasn't enough.
The simple fact was that he didn't know how to go about finding one of the lucrim anomalies.
Rick had the surveying technique designed for it, just no training for how to use it effectively. For that matter, he didn't have much training on the anomalies themselves. Fortunately he had been looking carefully when the CSLA employee found the first one, but that was a far cry from being able to track one down himself.
Looking online with his new knowledge, he was able to find a little more information about the subject. The Global Lucrim Authority might not have run a program exactly like this before, but there were other programs with similarities, plus technical discussion of the principles involved. It sounded like there was no easy way to just home in on the goal, which was probably why the company hired people to do it in the first place.
He needed to find one as soon as possible so he could start getting a salary, though, at least if he was really doing this. Rick saw that some of the other candidates were just trying to brute force the problem by searching around the wilderness outside Branton. Since they had more people than him, and most were stronger than him anyway, he needed a finer touch.
