by Sarah Lin
There was considerable shifting in the demonic stands as the Showdown ended one phase and entered another. Based on the first event, it seemed they were entering the physical stamina stage. More and more demons packed in and Rick had to close his eyes again to avoid growing anxious.
It couldn't stop his event from coming up. When they began, Rick took a deep breath and focused fully on the contestants.
This time there was no boasting or milling around. Each contestant was challenged by a series of fighters with less than a second or two in between. That meant that staying inside the inner ring for a full minute was more of a challenge than it had been during the preliminaries, yet he saw several different contestants manage it.
Worse, there was no simplistic strategy of testing out each contestant as there had been before. Instead the challengers were aggressive from the very beginning. Rick had hoped that they would use entirely physical attacks, but there were still plenty of aura bursts and other ranged attacks. Judging from the crowd reactions, the demons were more impressed by the human ability to endure aura than the physical attacks. That meant he could be up against almost anything.
"You're up soon," H said. "You need to last for at least a minute."
When his name was called, Rick barely felt as though he had a grip on the event. As he walked out, he told himself that it hadn't really changed. All he needed to do was defend himself, and he'd been doing that for years.
Entering the circle, Rick checked the clock... and saw that it was already counting fractions of a second. His eyes widened and he barely had time to set his feet before an attacker rushed in at him from the left.
Off balance and unprepared, Rick only blocked one blow before a second dug into his ribs. The blow might once have been crippling, but his defensive core managed to blunt the blow. He desperately held his ground until the six seconds elapsed and his attacker was swept away by a wave of aura.
He only had one second to prepare, but after pushing himself so hard, that felt like enough. Rick shook out his hands, took a breath, and summoned the Triune Golden Spheres around him. Bathed in the golden light, he felt prepared for the next attacker. This one came at him straight from the front, which was a mistake. The man began releasing bursts of aura, and though they were powerful, Rick now had over 50,000 lucrim in his combined defensive cores.
After weathering the bursts, Rick had a second to look at the screens around him. The demons appeared to be cheering, though not too wildly, since he'd only just begun. It was surreal to see the crowds while hearing nothing but the sound of wind... and quick steps behind him.
The third attacker struck from behind, almost completely silent. If she hadn't needed to reach the outer ring first, Rick would never have even heard her. Instead of closing the distance, she reached out a hand and silvery aura lashed out like a whip.
Whatever it was, it knocked Rick back a step. He desperately knocked aside the second whip strike, only to find a third already lashing into his side. Yet this one didn't sting nearly as much, and he kept his position. The technique might be slightly exotic, but he could feel his defensive core already adapting. If the attack had been able to shatter it, he might have been overwhelmed, but since he was strong enough to endure, he was rapidly mastering it.
Though the woman's assault rose in intensity, perfectly planned for her six second time limit, Rick was adapting faster. Since this might be his best chance to make an impression, Rick just shielded his face and took the attack head on. He saw the woman falter as she finished and realized that he was grinning.
That seemed to draw a wilder response from the demonic crowd and even earned him a few seconds' reprieve. Yet as he watched the timer count from 0:22 to 0:23, Rick realized that the competition was much more intense at this level. Whether or not he could make it to a full minute would depend on whether he encountered someone who could pierce his defenses.
A man wearing modern robes stepped into the outer ring, already raising his hands and releasing emerald bolts of aura... upward. They began raining down on Rick, but he simply braced his arms overhead and weathered them. Others curved and struck his sides, but each individual bolt wasn't that powerful. He was aflame with aura, yet in no real danger of being taken down.
Six seconds elapsed... and the bolts kept hammering into him from all sides.
Rick's eyes widened as he realized the strategy. Was that permitted? No one stopped the fight, but the real question was whether another contestant was allowed to-
Aura spiked directly through his chest. It didn't tear through his body, but it punctured his lucrima soul. Rick staggered, barely deflecting another attack, but he was still blinded by the bolts raining down on him. They had never been intended to eliminate him, just leave him distracted. He could barely see the opponent attacking, and a third blow hit his side, embedding another aura spike through his torso.
Worse, he realized that the spikes remained in his body, draining away his stamina. If he had enough time, he might have been able to resist the effect, but he could barely defend himself. When the round ended, Rick had four spikes driven through his body, still burning away his energy.
Though he managed to straighten painfully, to the roar of the crowd, he saw the next attacker entering. It was a tall man carrying an over-sized war mace, shaped like a lion and nearly the size of an actual lion. Horribly impractical for real combat, but in this event...
When it swung at him, Rick couldn't overcome his instincts: he ducked. The mace whistled overhead, but shifted direction surprisingly quickly, hammering down at him. There was just enough space within the circle for him to dodge aside, even though he knew that wouldn't impress anyone.
The man wielding the mace started to sweep it to the side, to simply push him out of the ring, but Rick finally overcame his survival instincts. While the mace was still nearby, he simply grabbed the over-sized head, binding it in place. His opponent grunted and flexed, trying to use it to push him back out.
As Rick felt his feet scraping across the arena floor, he realized that he'd made a mistake. He might be tough, but he wasn't physically strong enough to compete on the Showdown level. If not for his superior stance and position holding the mace, he would already have been overcome. As it was, he would soon be eliminated...
Only the wave of aura saved him. The large man was pushed from the rings, leaving Rick standing holding the mace. He tried to toss it aside contemptuously, but his arms felt weak and it simply dropped outside the inner ring. Though the aura spikes had mostly dissolved, he was too exhausted to last much longer.
He wanted to check how long he had lasted, but realized that the Triune Golden Spheres had flickered out. There wasn't even time to restore them - there was an attacker sweeping at him with a series of palm strikes.
Finally Rick got a break: the attacker seemed to be striking at his inner organs. The blows still hurt, far stronger than the opponents Granny Whitney had prepared him for, but Rick was familiar with working through the pain. He managed to deflect about half, weather the rest, and endure the round. As soon as his opponent was pushed back, Rick managed to take a deep breath and restore the Triune Golden Spheres.
Though he wasn't completely stable, he was recovering from the rough series of challengers. His body ached, but his Graham's Stake core was slowly restoring him. All he needed was one more easy round...
James Travis emerged more slowly than the others, smirking as he walked forward. Rick had to resist the urge to smirk as well, simply raising his defenses. After enduring two assaults of James's lucrim injection technique, the Dark Blood Kettle was more than ready for it. Assuming he'd become stronger, Rick decided to block as best he could anyway.
The first stabbing strike hit him and did nothing. Nothing at all. Rick was surprised at his own defenses for a split second before a blow exploded against his chest.
Rick staggered backward, the Triune Golden Spheres shattering and his own defensive core breaking. Had James been holding that in rese
rve? Though Rick knew he was severely weakened, his core could still function. If he could last the round, he might be able to rebuild it enough to...
He was outside the inner ring. Only one step, but it was over.
Across from him, James looked down at his own fist, grimaced as if it had been dirtied, and made a show of cleaning it off with a handkerchief. Rick couldn't even be offended, he just looked past the other man to the screens. He'd completely lost track of time and wasn't sure how long he'd endured.
Only 0:53. As Rick limped off the field, he turned to find H, and saw his mentor shake his head.
Chapter 19: Last Ditch Effort
"I won't say I told you so," H said tersely, "but I will say that you're an utter fool who should have listened to me. You managed to overcome your sloppy decisions through sheer hard-headedness, but in the end you were simply overwhelmed. The additional strength from a demonic bond could have entirely changed the course of this event."
Rick sat numbly, his head low. Not from shame, he told himself, but from simple exhaustion. Less than a minute in a real Showdown event and he was battered as if he'd been through a battle. The fact that he'd gained significantly from the experience wasn't much comfort when he considered that he might well have failed. Both himself and the demon brothers.
"Nothing to say for yourself?" H bent lower, scowling. "You do realize this is your career at stake?"
"I wish I'd done better." Rick took a ragged breath and managed to straighten. "But my life is more important than my career."
"Then maybe you don't actually belong here." Though H stared at him contemptuously, he wasn't throwing Rick out just yet. Instead, he bent down to a small case beneath his seat and pulled out a thermos. Though it was opaque, it still glowed with golden light. "Fortunately for you, I anticipated that you might blunder like this and enrolled you in a second event. You might be able to qualify for the competition, presuming you can recover in time."
"And that will help?" Rick accepted the thermos cautiously, feeling the power thrumming in his hands.
"This is a different variant of Formula T. It is not something that can healthily be taken with regularity, or even more than once a month. It's also an expense I didn't want to waste on you, but we don't have a choice. Otherwise you're not going to be able to compete."
Too tired to argue, Rick screwed open the thermos and drained it in one breath. Or he tried. After only a few gulps, he was gasping for air, feeling the power flooding through him. It was vaguely like the Formula T he knew, but far more intense. Yet H kept urging him to keep drinking, so he forced himself to continue a little at a time.
By the end his vision was swimming and his muscles twitched like they intended to rip out of his skin. Rick sat down and forced himself to focus, going through his usual exercises. This time the energy failed to join his lucrim, instead merely healing his defensive core and refreshing the Triune Golden Spheres. It passed through his spirit in a surprisingly short time, leaving him utterly drained.
Rick collapsed onto his side, all his attention absorbed in simply breathing properly. The world flickered black a few times, and it looked gray even when he could see properly. Yet he was definitely healthier... well, he could fight. The way he currently felt was far from healthy.
"You've watched the Contested Ground events, right?" H didn't look down at him, still watching the events, but his voice carried. "I suppose you'd think of it as king of the hill. It's one of the central events for today, and there will only be one."
"Uhh..." Talking seemed too difficult, so Rick merely nodded. Or slumped his head back and forth against the ground.
"This one will use a series of steps instead of a rounded center. Bluntly speaking, you don't have a chance of actually winning. But the fact that you're an underdog is what makes this a second chance: if you can claim the top position and hold it for even a short period of time, that will be more than anyone expected of you. That will be your goal."
Grunting in acceptance, Rick focused on recovery. His condition was strange: when he focused on his body, he felt like shit, but when he focused on his lucrima soul, everything seemed to be perfect. The real test would be his mental ability to push through the fatigue and pain. He was accustomed to doing that, but he wasn't sure if he could compete at this level.
Drifting in and out of consciousness, Rick wasn't aware of most of the events until it was time. H woke him with a foot to the ribs, forcing him to get up. Another event was finishing, something with the black spheres again. The demon audiences seemed disinterested, yet they were trembling with anticipation. Looking forward to what came next.
There was a lull as the arena was cleared, then new platforms began to levitate in. Each was a thick square of dark marble, about a foot high. The first slammed down to the ground, then a second followed, a yard or so smaller on each side. More and more platforms dropped in until they formed a stair-step pyramid of marble with a small block at the top, just large enough for one person to stand on.
So it was time. Rick pulled himself up and limped into the arena, letting himself look weak. It might be a cheap trick, but he needed every advantage he could get.
All around the pyramid he saw powerful fighters, roughly a dozen in total. He saw a few who he recognized from previous events, including the man who had rained endless bolts down on him, but others who looked completely fresh. As he peered around the side of the pyramid, he noticed that Raggest and James were both participating as well. This would be rough.
A gong was struck and the demonic crowds went wild. Most of the competitors leapt forward and Rick just stayed in place.
Three different fighters chose to rush straight for the top, clashing with one another in an explosion of blows that Rick couldn't have kept up with even at his best. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed that several other fighters didn't aim for the top, just tried to hold positions mid-way up the pyramid, presumably to charge the top later.
After one of the first three kicked away the others, he briefly had control and his time began counting up on one of the screens. Yet he hadn't been there long before another attacker came at him... and the man simply leapt away. Was he going for total time and trying to avoid fights? Rick knew that he didn't have that option, since this was his last chance to impress anyone.
The burly fighter who claimed the top held it for several seconds before he was tripped and sent tumbling down the side, smashing into the sharp ridges on the edge of each step. His body knocked over one competitor and sent several others dodging away, briefly clearing part of the pyramid.
Rick decided that might be his best chance and started forward. The very next second he hurled himself back as a sword flashed in front of his face.
Though Rick made a second attempt to climb the side, he was forced back by more competitors with the same idea. He decided to hold back and find a better time. The top was nearly claimed by a man who had a series of swords flying around him, swinging at anyone who came close.
A moment later another fighter arrived in a flood of aura, blasting aside all the swords. She rammed straight through another opponent and hit the man wielding all the swords with a beam of aura that sent him sailing off the pyramid. Once she reached the top, she slammed a fist down into the marble, aura welling up around her.
The result was a shockwave that knocked back all the other nearby fighters... and then it contracted into a sphere surrounding the top block. Several fighters attempted to break through, but surges of aura kept them back. Seconds ticked by, the longest anyone had held the top position so far. Of course, that resulted in her drawing everyone's attention, more and more attacks striking the aura until it began to splutter.
At that moment Raggest lunged up the side and thrust a hand forward. His glimmering beam pierced through the defensive aura, catching the woman in the stomach. In an instant the aura sphere shattered and she was sent flying off the side of the arena, breaking through even the reinforced roof tiles surrounding them.
>
It looked as though she'd exhausted herself and wouldn't be fighting again, but that had probably been the point. Putting absolutely everything she had into one attempt was definitely a better strategy than wasting strength struggling over position. Rick wished that he could do the same, but didn't think he really had a technique suited to it.
Something flickered in the corner of his eye: James was moving around the side of the pyramid, coming toward him.
Though Rick shifted around the edge of the arena, James kept coming, smiling smugly. This was about eliminating him, then, not winning. Did James just hate him that much? Rick had seen a lot of irrational hatred, but that didn't feel right for someone so polished. Perhaps someone had hired him to fix the outcome of the event? It didn't matter, because he now had an opponent coming straight at him.
Retreating constantly would be a good strategy, but it would make him look like a coward when he needed to make an impression. Rick waited for James to get close, eyes unblinking as he waited for the final movement.
Abruptly James's body twitched as his technique jerked him forward. Rick couldn't entirely follow the movement, but he could react to the twitch. He lunged in, punching for his opponent's face. James twisted his head aside, but that closed the distance and Rick's elbow hit him in the neck.
Though James flew backward, smashing into the lower part of the pyramid and ricocheting into several other fighters, it wasn't enough. Rick knew his blow had connected, but it hadn't dealt crippling damage. Apparently his opponent had a decent defensive core as well.
Worse, he'd been drawn in close. Rick backed away from several bolts of aura, then suddenly had to leap away as James came for him again. This had to be a vendetta or a special objective. There was no time to even watch the top of the pyramid, not and evade his opponent's flashing movements.
Rick had no choice but to retreat, which actually took him closer to the pyramid. James grinned, clearly intending to push him into the main fight, where he'd be taken apart. Though Rick tried to resist and hold position, he now had to worry about threats from all sides.
