Chapter 5: Damian's Challenge

Though the blow sent Rick staggering back, he'd been attacked far too many times for a sucker punch to take him down easily. Even with his defensive core active, it stung, but his head was still clear. That left him time to consider what the hell had just happened.

Damian was advancing on him with an unbelievably arrogant smirk... that Rick suspected was actually unbelievable. This was an act, so the question was its real purpose. Whatever Damian wanted, it must require his cooperation in some way, unless that was a ruse to set up some even more complex plan...

The other man might be flashy, but he wasn't slow. Rick had no more time to think before Damian was punching at him again, jabbing out in testing movements reminiscent of Wing Chun style. There wasn't excessive power behind them, so Rick's instincts took him into the blows, raising his forearms to defend himself and closing the distance.

Another blow swept at his head from the side, but Rick deflected it away from his body, pushing Damian's arm back. While the other man was off balance, he lunged in, slamming his elbow into his opponent's head.

Though the blow connected, it didn't feel like a clean hit... and yet Damian went flying backward, sailing through the air with far more force than the blow had contained. Rick's suspicions were confirmed when his movement turned into an elaborate flip that sent his coattails flying, then Damian landed back on his feet, unharmed.

"So the dog can bite!" Damian ran a hand through his hair to sweep it back away from his face. "But you're going to regret attacking me!"

"You attacked me!" Rick wasn't sure if he was acting or not, but the irritation came easily. Everybody was watching except the CSLA employee, who was still messaging on her phone.

"I'll show you your place, dog!"

With that, Damian lunged at him, but Rick wasn't going to play the fool. If this guy was going to say vague things like "play along" he could only blame himself if Rick played along for keeps. Rick dodged aside from the lunge and lashed out with one elbow, this time being easily blocked.

As soon as they made contact, Rick invoked his Bunyan's Step core, sending him bursting forward. His momentum pushed through Damian's guard, and more importantly took him off guard. Rick landed a solid kick on his opponent's hip, earning a flinch, and reversed to bring his other elbow directly into the other man's arrogant smirk.

This time he felt the blow land heavily. Damian fell back, blood spilling from his split lip... and something dangerous glinted in his eyes.

A crimson aura lit up around him again and he blurred forward. When Rick aimed a kick at him, Damian leaned out of the way while still moving, sliding through the air even at the unnatural angle. The strange movement brought him closer with troubling speed and Rick automatically punched at him, but his opponent easily spun aside from that as well.

Then a fist hit his side, a sharp but not overwhelming blow. It was followed by three more strikes in quick succession.

Fighting through the stinging pain, Rick brought his guard up and tried to back away as Damian pummeled him from every side. He managed to stay on his feet, trusting in his defensive core, until a foot hit him in the back of the leg, dropping him down to one knee.

Though his instincts told him to counterattack when Damian tried to finish him off, Rick found that his body couldn't follow through. There was nothing special about those blows, but they came so quickly. Without his defensive core, he probably would have had multiple broken ribs and been lying beaten on the ground.

But Damian didn't take advantage of his weakness, instead drawing back. He touched his lip and looked at his finger as if noticing the blood for the first time, then flicked it away and smirked again. "So you've earned a bit of brute strength on the streets. But you have nothing more than that... certainly nothing compared to my family's secret technique."

With that, Damian raised his hand. Black aura began to build around it and Rick found himself momentarily mesmerized by the lucrim he could feel behind it. Not due to any effect of the power, but because it was staggeringly complex. He had no idea what could possibly require such a complex construction or what it would do.

"Kneel, dog!" Damian rushed at him and Rick realized that he had only a split second to make a decision.

If there was ever a time to play along, this was probably it. On the other hand, that black aura made him nervous - was it possible that everything had been a bluff to get him not to take it seriously? Part of him was suspicious, but another part of him noted that Damian was actually moving rather slowly, certainly slowly compared to his unnatural movement with the red aura. He'd seen the Bunyan's Step before, so surely he wouldn't be that foolish.

So Rick went with something that might be extremely stupid and just blocked the attack.

When Damian's hand hit him, the black aura dissipated... and so did all of Rick's aura. He blinked in surprise, because it was such a strange trick. It wasn't like his fighting style was particularly reliant on his aura, and his body and lucrima soul were completely unharmed, so he could just generate more.

Yet he realized that a hush had fallen over the watching fighters, and Damian smirked as if in triumph. "I said kneel!"

Now that he had nothing left to lose, Rick made a choking sound and dropped to his knees. It was actually easier than he expected, given the injuries he had taken. Damian might be playing some absurd game, but he was far from weak. In fact, Rick was fairly certain that he hadn't seen the other man's real strength.

Damian started to say something about his superior breeding, but at that moment the official stood up, brushed off her pantsuit, and clapped again. Despite the fight that had just taken place, everyone turned to look.

Well, almost everyone. Damian glanced at him and mouthed the word "later" before looking. Rick just struggled back to his feet, nursing his injuries. Whatever that had been, he could get to the bottom of it after he'd accomplished his main purposes here.

"Thank you for your patience, everyone," the woman said. "The Vice President of Remnant Acquisition is going to speak to you briefly, and you need to pay close attention, because this will be your first test. If you do well enough, perhaps you'll have a chance to meet with him again and obtain a real position in the organization."

With that, she threw a jade marble onto the ground. Rick thought it was a lucrim sphere at first, then realized that it was some kind of complex ether construct. Whatever it was, it formed a connection and then a human form appeared above it, realistic except for a slight green waver. The Vice President was a dark-haired man in a conservative gray suit, with the oddly youthful look of one who didn't age naturally. Perhaps even an immortal, though it was impossible to tell anything about his lucrima from over the spiritual link.

"Once this was a simple job, simply locating flows of lucrim that had slipped through the process." The man had a quiet, resonant voice. "Recently, however, global lucrim flow has become more unstable. So now, in addition to maintaining the highest levels of control and professionalism, a degree of flexibility is required. That is the reason for these extended trials."

The figure raised his hands and aura began to flow between them in a complex pattern that Rick automatically tried to untangle. After only a moment, the Vice President continued to speak with the aura still flowing. "This is a proprietary technique. Useless under most circumstances, but essential for recording errant lucrim and locating anomalies. For that reason, the most basic requirement for this position will be the ability to duplicate the technique. I will not be demonstrating it again."

With that, the suited figure lowered his hands and then winked out of existence. Several people in the audience grumbled or let out curses, obviously not having expected that. Rick was glad that he'd happened to stare at the technique so closely, though he wasn't sure if he could piece together the parts he couldn't remember. If that was really just the first step in the challenge, it demanded an extremely high level of skill.

"Did you get that? I hope so." The woman smiled blandly at all of them and Rick realized that he still hadn't learned a single name of anyone in the organization. He doubted that was an accident. "You have two weeks to recreate the technique you saw the Vice President perform. Unless you withdraw now, we will contact you with more information about where to meet. An imperfect re-creation may be passable and you will not be graded on a curve, so do whatever it takes to succeed."

That seemed to be trying to get them to work together. Judging from the grim expressions in the crowd, not many would be going outside of the groups they'd arrived with. Others looked smug, either because they were lucrima geniuses or because they intended to get the technique from their outside sources.

"That's all for today. If you want to decline the position, just speak to me before you go. If you continue, we'll expect you to do your best. A poor performance will be kept on your permanent file with the Global Lucrim Authority, so please think carefully if you have the necessary skills. Thank you for your time."

With that, she gave a brief bow and moved to the other side of the tree. A few of the most thuggish-looking fighters went after her to drop out, presumably having expected this job to require less technical expertise. That was probably better than having a bad record with the Global Lucrim Authority - Rick had no idea what effect that would have, but it couldn't be good.

Perhaps more importantly, he needed to find out what the hell Damian had been up to. But when he found the well-dressed man again, he was already striding out to get in his car. Rick started to move in his direction and got a scornful glance for his trouble.

"You're lucky that this contest is more interesting than putting you down, dog." With that, Damian stepped into his car and the door automatically slid down... but just before it did, Damian's eyes flickered down the road, toward the bus stop. As soon as the door came down, he sped off wildly.

After staring for a bit, Rick turned and went the other direction to the bus stop. It would actually be a while before the next bus, so he'd have a bit of a wait. At least the other candidates for the job were likely to go the other way back to central Branton and wouldn't bother him.

On his way back, Rick tried to push thoughts of the strangeness with Damian out of his mind and instead focus on exactly what the Vice President had been doing with his aura. Rick had been fixated on it due to the complexity and so he was fairly certain he had the basis of it right, but his memory was already trying to fill in the details and probably making mistakes. The whole formation hadn't been stiff like normal aura, but instead receptive to outside power. There had been a strange pulse to it...

By the time he reached the bus stop, Rick still wasn't quite sure he could do it. As he sat down to wait, he found himself wondering if he shouldn't have gotten involved at all. He still didn't have enough information about this job, after all, and there were other openings that might call him back.

Going back to give up now would just embarrass him, though. Rick decided that he would do his best to replicate the technique in two weeks as a bare minimum. If he did it successfully and then said he couldn't accept the position, he doubted that would reflect poorly on him. In that time, he might get a call back from another job and he could check out some new apartments. Plus, it was now obvious that he needed to do more research about the organization behind all this.

"That was even better than I'd hoped." Though the voice came out of nowhere, Rick wasn't entirely surprised to see Damian step out from behind one side of the bus stand. The other man gave a mock golf clap. "I honestly wasn't quite sure what you'd do, but you performed wonderfully."

"What the hell was all of that about?" Rick stood up, glaring at the well-dressed man. Damian seemed different now, less dramatic, but he held the same slick arrogance.

"People were watching closer than you might think, and I needed to make a good first impression. This contest will be about standing out from the crowd, after all, and we certainly did that. Though truthfully... working with me was pretty stupid of you. Now everyone watched you get beaten and mocked. Agreeing to play along has cost you a great deal."

"I don't think so." Rick folded his arms and stared back, not letting the other man's presence intimidate him. "How many lucrim is pride worth again?"

At that Damian gave a wolfish smile. "You're telling me that you thought this through?"

"I think the cost was worth it. I know that your family's 'secret technique' is a cheap trick. More importantly, I got a sense for your power and the fact that you want something. I may not know exactly what, but that gives me leverage."

"Oh? And what if I decide it'd be best to eliminate that leverage?" Damian reached into his suit jacket as if for a weapon, eyes hard, but Rick just let out a snort.

"You won't, not this close to someone who manages lucrim for a living. Besides, I think you need more than just a one time show."

"Not bad." Abruptly Damian's entire body relaxed and he grinned, less carnivorously this time. When he pulled his hand from his jacket, he was only holding a small white box. "I targeted you on a whim because you had everyone's attention, but that turned out to be a good decision. You're right, it would be more convenient if we could pull off another deception later."

Something about his words set off more alarm bells than the threats from earlier. Damian might have relaxed, but he was still lying. He wanted everyone to think he was a peacock who acted on whims, but all of this was calculated for a specific purpose. What purpose, Rick had no idea, but he wasn't going to fall into the trap.

"This is both thanks and apology." Damian handed him the box, which Rick carefully accepted without touching it too much. "I didn't mean what I said earlier, but I had to put on a show. I actually figured you would be more injured, so I don't know how much help this will be, but I'm sure you'll find a use for it."

"Uh, thanks." Rick considered if it could be a trap, but decided to open the box. The top slid off as if it contained jewelry, but the plush interior instead held a small crystal vial. Whatever it was, it looked expensive.

"Oh, don't thank me. This isn't about being friends: you helped me when you didn't need to and so I'm compensating you. After this, it's anyone's game." Damian stuck his hands in his pockets and began to walk away, though not before shooting one last glance over his shoulder. "I won't tell you what you should do, but... think about quitting after two weeks."

With that, he headed away, walking to the road. Rick belatedly realized that the other man's car was nowhere to be seen, but it wasn't that great a mystery given his opponent's ability to move so quickly. He stared after the strange man for only a moment before looking back to the vial.

He definitely wasn't touching it until he got someone to check it carefully, but he thought it was an authentic gesture. Most likely some sort of helpful potion or elixir, as promised. What mattered was not so much its exact effect as its meaning.

For now, the meaning was that Rick really had no idea what he was getting into.