by Sarah Lin
Sighing, Abril threw up her hands and turned away. As Rick was pulled from the room, he realized that his chance was definitely gone. He swatted H's hand off his arm and glowered at him. "Really?"
"Yes, really." H regarded him with a flat gaze. "I've seen how you interact with the people in your life. You'd just fall into the relationship, then invest too much into it. I'd turn around and then you'd be running off or starting a blood feud or something worse."
"Oh, come on."
"No. If you insist upon having sexual desires, prostitutes can be hired. They're less likely to carry diseases, if properly curated, and more efficient in terms of time wasted."
Time efficiency and careful curation: potent aphrodisiacs indeed. Giving up on the idea, Rick rubbed his eyes and looked away from his mentor. "Fine, message received. Just go away and let me train."
"That's all I wanted to hear."
Chapter 42: Nokan Defensive Ring
Rick had never been to the Nokan Empire in his life and found the experience somewhat strange. Like Siberia, it was an ancient power that still retained a sense of superiority to the rest of the world. But where Siberia wanted to make it clear that outsiders weren't welcome, the Nokan Empire wanted everyone to know how fortunate they were to be allowed inside.
While waiting for their paperwork to be processed, they had to sit in a room and watch a video extolling the virtues of Nokan culture. It went on about being the seat of human civilization and the oldest continuous government in the world, though Rick thought that one was arguable. Getting bored and starting to look things up online, he saw that China and several other nations also made the same claim.
There was no questioning that the Nokan Empire was powerful, however. It had control of many resources in central Africa and a solid grip on Middle Eastern oil. If having its lucrim controlled by an imperial family seemed a bit outdated, it also meant they had an excess to continue refining their lucrim techniques. Even though H said he could use more recovery time, he would be participating in the Showdown because he couldn't miss exposure to local varieties of aura.
Once they got to the hotel, however, things weren't so different. The aesthetic was definitely more rustic than the typical austere hotel, with carved wooden walls and hallways filled with trees and statues. But fundamentally it still catered to the same people, so there was an ice machine hidden behind one of the trees and a training chamber equal to those anywhere else.
"We want to keep our heads down here," H said as soon as they were set up in their rooms. "Not because of the location, but because of the chance of sabotage. After this, we go to a special facility in the US, where cheating will be difficult. This is their last chance to target you."
Since he couldn't really argue, Rick settled into his usual training routine. He no longer felt even the slightest residual pain from the operations and they were back to training at full intensity. With his physical reconditioning complete, H returned to focusing on the Triune Golden Spheres. Despite H's frequent complaints that the Midas Foundation would have been better, Rick felt as though everything was working together well.
When it came time for him to participate, he felt ready. The Nokan stadium was an ancient building of red marble, huge for its time but smaller than modern stadiums. That meant that it had a smaller and more selective crowd, with only raised balconies for the future contestants to watch instead of closed off areas.
H and Rick were alone on their balcony, watching the previous events complete before the defensive events began. This set involved one of the highly dense black spheres, but the contestants were keeping it in midair with kicks alone. The idea of one of those spheres smashing into leg bones at high speed made even Rick wince, which H immediately noticed.
"That's what you could achieve with a properly optimized body." H took his cigarette from his mouth and jabbed the burning end toward the athletes. "Attaining such defenses with raw power would require tens of millions of lucrim, but they can manage it with specialized bodies and portfolios."
Rick wanted to ask what they gave up to attain that state, but kept silent. Though he'd performed well, he could tell that H was still keeping him on probation, looking for an opportunity. He needed to stay in the Showdown, so that meant cooperating.
Once the game was complete, multiple Nokan workers headed into the field to begin reorganizing it. They were strikingly efficient, yet it would still take a few minutes, so Rick's attention wandered. The crowds were mostly ordinary people, but he could feel substantial powers on most of the reserved balconies. In fact, by the standards of many, his seating area was rather under-powered.
He saw Raggest sitting alone in one of them, shuffling around idly. At least Alger wasn't present. While Rick watched, Raggest checked his phone, then grinned and went to pull something out of a cooler at his feet. It looked like a thermos, presumably with a mixture that was also on a tight schedule.
On the opposite side of the arena, Rick noticed a group entirely in tight black combat suits and tensed slightly. Either this group just used the same model, or they represented the American Basilisk. He hadn't heard anything about the notorious gangster in a long time, so he'd hoped that the criminal wasn't involved with the Showdown at all. The hint of him just made Rick even more nervous and his eyes began to shift over the crowd.
Abruptly he spotted someone he hadn't seen in years: Teragen. The warrior sat with his arms folded, his biceps larger than the torsos some of the people around him. Worse than that were his eyes, which still burned like molten fire. Even in elite company such as this, Teragen stood out, his lucrima soul incredibly powerful even when partially veiled.
But that didn't make Rick nearly as nervous as the little old woman seated beside him.
Granny Whitney was carrying a tray of cookies and passing them out to everyone seated with her, a cheerful smile on her face. It was terrifying. He didn't want to know what she was doing there, but if it really was the American Basilisk and Raggest represented Alger, then the three of them must be betting against one another again. Likely with the lives of all the young warriors she had with her.
This time, at least, Rick had nothing to do with it. He tried to reassure himself of that, yet he found his calm slipping. Maybe it was just old instincts, but her presence unnerved him. Even as the defensive events began, he found himself shifting in his seat.
"Stop that," H snapped. "This is your last opportunity to make anything of yourself before the immortals' fight. You need to be focused."
Though Rick nodded, he found himself looking away from the events, trying to figure out what was going on even though he didn't have enough evidence. Teragen didn't seem to care about anything around him, so presumably Granny Whitney had hired him again. Once more, Rick wondered just what she could possibly have over such a powerful warrior.
Just when his anxiety was peaking, Rick heard his phone beep. He should have turned it off, and H immediately glared. But with his discipline cracking, Rick decided to see about the notification.
It seemed that Melissa had sent him another variation on the image they had been throwing back and forth. This time, a cartoon hamster was painting a picture that contained all of the past images. Despite himself, Rick started smiling.
His awful potato hamster seemed to have really captured her interest. The joke was more redundant than usual, but she seemed to find it funny, or maybe she needed the dumb joke to keep her mind off other things. Rick wanted to reply, but there was no way he could draw anything while in the stands. After thinking about it for a while, he created a box around her picture like it was a political cartoon, labeled the whole thing "Capitalism", and then sent it back.
Strangely, as he turned off his phone, Rick felt calm. This fight didn't really matter compared to helping his sister. Whatever Granny Whitney was up to, he needed to stand apart and focus on what mattered.
When it was finally time for the Unlimited Defensive Ring, Rick walked out onto the field without any trepidation. He didn't look up t
o see if anyone was watching, he just activated the Triune Golden Spheres and waited. For the time being, his world would be the rings surrounding him and nothing more.
The first two fighters to attack him were surprisingly young Nokans. They were powerful for their age, but clearly just intended to soften him up. Rick didn't even move, first as one of them punched and kicked, then as the second rained down aura bursts against him. With his new skin channeling aura so effectively, he wasn't even scratched.
After completely ignoring the attackers, the arena was hushed for a time. That brought him all the way up to 17 seconds, but then a fighter approached with a heavy sword over one shoulder. This one wouldn't be so easy.
Rick had to dodge the first swing, as he could feel six digits of lucrim behind it. Fortunately, his opponent was slow by the standards of the Showdown and failed to connect. Not wanting to spend the entire time dodging, Rick blocked the very last blow with his forearm.
He winced as the blade bit into his arm, nearly slicing through his defensive cores. Avoiding the attacks had been the right decision. But blocking the last one definitely made for a more impressive round, as he stood almost untouched while his opponent was pushed away by the next wave of aura.
His fourth challenger was a middle-aged woman who walked into the outer ring calmly. She wasted almost all of her six seconds walking toward him, dark aura growing in her hands. Assuming that she would put everything into one strike, Rick braced himself and readied his defensive cores, hoping that he could survive the attack.
Yet there was no pain and no assault. Darkness simply descended around him.
For a split second Rick panicked, unable to understand what was hiding his vision. Yet he could feel someone else approaching through his sensory core and he understood: they'd disabled his vision to weaken him for future challengers. However it worked, he couldn't break the technique, so all he could do was endure despite his blindness.
A spear flew toward him from behind, completely silent. It should have impaled him through the back, but in his sensory sphere, he could feel its path easily. Rick turned and caught it out of the air.
He heard a gasp from the crowds all around him. Even his opponent hesitated for a moment, though they were too professional to waste more than that. But as they lifted another spear, Rick hurled the one he had caught back at them. Via his sensory sphere he felt them stumble back in surprise, unprepared for a blind opponent to strike back so effectively.
Rick thought that there was some sort of lucrim clinging to his eyes, but couldn't find a way to break it down. The Dark Blood Kettle was surging within him as it usually did when it tried to adapt to something, yet by now he had a sense that it wouldn't react in time. He had no choice but to continue fighting blind.
And yet that was fine. Rick trusted in his instincts and his sensory core and held his ground no matter what they threw at him. One challenger launched a series of truly dangerous aura spikes, so he used his absorption sphere to consume them. Several attempted to strike him physically, but when they were close he almost didn't need his sensory core, he could feel their movements as he deflected the blows. A few attempted poisons or internal disruption, which only slowed him down slightly. Some idiot attacked him with a fierce blizzard of aura that Katenka entirely nullified.
Of course, he was up against some of the best fighters in the world, so he couldn't last forever. One of his opponents was able to nullify her presence in his sensory sphere, coming out of nowhere with palm strikes he couldn't sense until they struck his body, leaving him severely battered. Another launched a spear of aura so fast that it entered his range and hit him before he had time to react. Bit by bit, they wore him down.
The shadows around his eyes were fading, but it almost didn't matter. Rick didn't care about the time or the event, he was simply a creature of pure defense. When he began to see the world fuzzily, he closed his eyes and continued focusing on the next challenger.
Abruptly a monstrous beam of aura encompassed him, instantly incinerating everything not supported by his defensive cores. Rick braced his arms against it and struggled as long as he could, but he was exhausted. Eventually it threw him back and he hit the stone arena hard.
When his vision stopped spinning, however, it was completely clear, the darkness washed away by that final attack. Rick slowly sat up and looked to the scoreboard, shocked when he saw that it declared "3:09". He'd endured a full three minutes in the Unlimited Defensive Ring, in the heart of the Nokan Empire. Even H couldn't be dissatisfied with that.
Though Rick tried to leave, he found himself stopped by a man in a traditional Nokan robe. "The woman who blinded you was my dear niece." The man's voice boomed over the arena solemnly, but Rick saw a twinkle in his eyes. "It has been years since I saw anyone endure her technique and survive so masterfully. I grant you the First Nokan Seal, young warrior."
Rick bowed to be polite, though he had no idea who was awarding him. The man grabbed his wrist and raised his fist to the rest of the arena, which roared out approval. For just a moment, Rick felt a bit of satisfaction, especially at the grudging respect on H's face, but then his gaze turned elsewhere.
Granny Whitney watched with a smile, knitting needles flashing in her hands. Behind her, Teragen might as well have been a statue.
Medics helped Rick recover as they took him back to his seat, but he was honestly still in decent shape. Not in any condition to fight, but his defensive cores would recover stronger for the experience, as usual. As he started to get near his box, however, Rick decided that he needed to take advantage of this opportunity.
He didn't want to get involved with Granny Whitney in any way, but he did want to talk to Teragen. After all, the other man had voluntarily helped him increase his strength for the multi-tier tournament. Though he didn't seem impressed, nothing seemed to impress Teragen. Rick didn't plan to repeat his stunt of punching the stronger warrior again, but just talking with him could produce better results than more time spent on mundane training.
So instead of returning to watch, Rick avoided his own seat and made his way around the arena. The paths weren't as straightforward as in a modern stadium, but they followed logic of a sort. What he needed to do was figure out exactly which path Teragen would take when he left the arena.
As he got into position, Rick realized that he'd jumped the gun. There would be at least another hour of events, and he didn't intend to wait that long... or maybe he could. Rick stretched his legs for a while, checked his phone, and went through recovery exercises.
"Excuse me, sir?" The voice startled him and he realized that there were several security guards in Nokan robes regarding him. "Why are you loitering here?"
"Uh, I wanted to greet my friend when he came out." Rick saw that they were closing on him and realized that he must look like a serious risk to security. He could easily have been an assassin or a crazed fan, and he doubted they would buy his explanation. "I can wait somewhere else."
"I do not think so, sir. We must ask you to come with us and answer some questions."
Rick tried to take a step back, but there were already guards behind him. Most of them had six figure generation rates, and even if he could fight them, going up against the legitimate authorities would be stupid. Yet he didn't like the hard look in their eyes or the idea of being interrogated...
"Wait." The deep voice cut through all the rest of them and Rick saw Teragen emerge from the arena, eyes burning. "I'll take this."
Chapter 43: Casual Drinking
The Nokan guards stepped away, bowing in respect as Teragen walked forward. Soon it was only the two of them outside the arena, the street troublingly empty. Rick thought it was just his imagination that the ground shook as Teragen walked forward, but he couldn't escape the feeling.
Rick pulled himself together and took a deep breath, not backing away. The distance between them had definitely decreased, not that it would matter if it came to a fight. But he wasn't expecting a fight.
&
nbsp; "Hm." Teragen walked up to face him and simply folded his arms, waiting. Rick hadn't exactly expected that, but he was at least prepared with something he thought might make Teragen stay.
"I've been told that there is no peak of combat ability. Do you agree?"
Teragen regarded him with those unnatural eyes for a long time before speaking. "Lucrim numbers are linear. Power isn't."
"I understand that," Rick said carefully, "but they're telling me that I need to give up everything else to maximize one strength."
"True. Just shortsighted." Teragen's head shifted slightly to the side, regarding him like he was a small animal that had just done something interesting. "Absolute specialists are strong, but they are pets who do tricks for the world's true masters. The Peerless are old and their eyes are dim, but what they maximized was flexibility. Anyone who tells you that power is a single mountain is a fool."
It was the longest speech Rick had ever heard from the warrior. He wanted to take more time to think about it, but fearing that Teragen would get bored, he filed the words away and pressed on. "You aren't the equal to the Peerless, are you?
"No. I stand among those who stand beneath them."
"Then what is it that you seek? To be able to fight them?"
A low rumble turned out to be a chuckle. "I seek strength for myself. That is the only reason to do anything."
Rick almost laughed along, since that was a bit more philosophical than he'd been expecting, but managed to hold back. "Why do you work with Granny Whitney?"
"Resources." It seemed like Teragen would say nothing more, and Rick was puzzled for a moment before Granny Whitney hobbled from out of the tunnel behind them. She gave him a beaming smile as she approached.
"Wonderful to see you again, dearie. And before you upset yourself, you should know that this was nothing but a happy coincidence. My only business with you at the moment is that you're occupying my heavyweight when he should be defending me."
