Chapter 53: First Skirmish

Though Rick expected to be attacked from all sides, they actually ventured some time without seeing a single person or getting attacked. They were kind of just rushing forward mindlessly, which was a good way to lose the competition. He gestured for them to stop and glanced at his sister awkwardly.

"I guess if there's nobody nearby, we should actually try to find anomalies."

Melissa shrugged. "I can't help with that, so I'll stand here and look fabulous, I guess."

"It shouldn't take long. I've been using the surveying technique often enough." He'd partially expected an additional twist, but the aura between his hands lit up as easily as usual. In fact, the environment seemed to have less interference than many areas of wilderness, much less the Peakless Wildlife Refuge or the lucrim meth area. Soon he'd have a clear target.

"Uh, bro?" Melissa elbowed him, her eyes locked on a nearby hill. "Are those things the entities you were talking about?"

He looked up and saw that she was right. Small semi-visible shapes were coming through the grass toward them. Most of these moved more like spiders than dogs, which he hoped would reduce the amount of jumping they could do. In any case, this was the moment to find out if bringing Melissa would be an effective strategy.

"Alright, sis, do your thing." Rick positioned himself in between her and the entities. There were several in view, one of them speeding up toward them. "If it doesn't work, I'll counter them, so just focus on technique."

"Yeah, I got it. Don't worry." His sister closed her eyes and focused, then a void expanded across the ground around her. A circle of leeched life and color expanded from her position. When it passed Rick he braced himself, but he just felt a harmless burning around his legs. Eventually it stopped, having formed a dark circle about ten paces across.

The question was if that would be good enough. He watched carefully as the first of the spider-like entities drew close and entered the dark circle. At first he thought it didn't work and began to step forward...

Then the creature let out a brief screech and crumpled up in an instant. Utterly destroyed. Melissa let out a whoop and Rick let himself relax a little, though he kept an eye on the next several as they approached. In theory, the number wouldn't matter, since the effect applied to the entire area around her, but he wanted to be sure. All the entities died instantly as they entered.

Behind him, Melissa laughed diabolically. When he turned to glance at her, she raised her hands to either side of her head. "The power, the power! I can feel their feeble lives being consumed to feed my hunger!"

"Haha. Stay focused, sis."

"Actually, they're not really alive, they're like constructs or something. But my aura is consuming them basically instantly, so they shouldn't be a problem."

As if to contradict her, at that moment a large, four-limbed creature rushed toward them. When it entered the void circle it didn't hesitate, it just kept charging. Rick met it with a kick to the head, snapping the creature's neck. Once it fell, it crumpled up alongside the others, but his sister frowned.

"Okay, it looks like if they're not weak, my aura does no good at all. I don't think it even slowed that one down."

"That's fine. You keep all of the small ones off me while I keep surveying."

They advanced forward as Rick went back to the survey technique, zeroing in on a nearby anomaly. Smaller entities rushed them regularly, but they were always consumed. One ran in with a flying leap, but crumpled in the air just the same. Though only a dark circle was visible along the ground, Melissa's technique extended in a full sphere around her.

Occasionally a larger creature immune to her aura approached, but few of them were actually strong. Rick usually didn't even need to stop surveying, just dealt with them via quick kicks. Once they did get rushed by several large entities at once, but Melissa showed off her combat training and managed to beat one down with just a scrape on her arm.

With Melissa's technique, they burned their way through the entities and found an anomaly in surprising time. Rick had expected some kind of final challenge, or for their way to be barred by someone else, but it was possible that they were moving faster than average. When he applied the wooden sphere to the anomaly, the entire thing vanished and a light glowed in the sky above them.

"Oh, shit." Rick gestured for Melissa to go, glancing at the light nervously. There'd been nothing said about that, since the lights effectively made successful candidates into targets. As they tried to find another lucrim anomaly, he spotted several other glowing lights, but they were far enough apart that he thought their little duo might actually have found more than anyone else so far.

Could they win this? He certainly couldn't fight the strongest candidates, but they might be able to move faster and he thought he was good with the survey technique. If they kept moving and avoided too much combat, then maybe he could get into the top three and get the insane philosopher's elixir. That might take some luck, like one of the top candidates getting eliminated, but they could try.

Then without warning they rounded a hill and stumbled across a battle. There were several candidates Rick didn't recognize, but also Jack and his allies. He instantly dropped the surveying technique, at first thinking to scout around the fight, but Jack's head whipped around, noticing him. The other man grinned and his tattoos glowed stronger with light.

Though the other fighters would provide a distraction, Rick had to assume that Jack and his allies would come for them. The worst threat among them was the gunslinger, since he could target Melissa, attack from a distance, or easily support Jack as he fought.

Fortunately, the man was distracted and vulnerable. Rick used a Bunyan's Step to cross the distance between them in an instant, yet somehow the man noticed. He'd been aiming with a rifle, but dropped it in order to draw a pair of handguns.

The first swung up and Rick struck his hand so he couldn't aim, but the second gun had also risen. Rick barely managed to dodge to the side before the gun fired. This guy was stronger than he looked - there was no sense in holding back. Instead of just striking, Rick flattened his palm against the man's side and pushed Melissa's void flame into him.

Realizing that something was wrong, the gunslinger clutched his chest and began to try to resist the flame's consumption. Before he could, Rick kicked him savagely, sending him crumpling to the ground. On the other side he spotted Jack and the woman in the tank top.

At first he felt relief that they hadn't seen him use the void flame technique. Then he saw that they were targeting Melissa.

Rick knew that they would be expecting him, but he still had to rush to intercept. Melissa had dropped into a combat position, but she couldn't fight both of them. In fact, it seemed that she understood, retracting her aura and letting several nearby entities come in and make the fight more chaotic.

He used a Bunyan's Step to throw himself directly into the woman in the tank top with a kick. She saw him coming and managed a block, but he just kicked off her defense. His only goal had been to stop her assault toward Melissa anyway, maybe knock her into some entities.

Instead he launched himself toward Jack. The other man didn't look until the last second, when he proved that he'd been waiting by swiveling without warning to attack. His fist blazed past Rick's chest, pulsating with aura, but there'd been just enough time to dodge. Unfortunately, before he could counter, Jack was already kicking at him.

This was what Rick had been training for, though. Instead of blocking as he normally would, he pushed aside the attack, redirecting all the force. It surprised Jack just long enough for Rick to land a body blow. Just a light jab, then he ducked aside from the next swiping punch to jab again. The purpose of refining his technique had been to avoid overextending himself and instead chip away at his opponent.

Before they could fight for long, a wave of entities crashed over the nearby hill. The unaffiliated fighters panicked and retreated, defending themselves in a ring, but Rick and Jack were too distracted. Both of them were knocked sprawling by the swarm of entities, Rick suddenly having to defend himself from many teeth and claws at once.

Then all of the spider-like creatures near him crumpled up and died. Rick felt the familiar void and saw that it had extended from Melissa... but he also saw that she was barely managing to flee from the woman in the tank top, who was completely unharmed by the void aura.

Rick pushed off the ground to stop her, but this time the woman was ready. He barely ducked under her first swipe, which put him into position for her uppercut. Fortunately, he was just a bit faster than her, dodging aside. He retaliated with an elbow directly to the throat.

The woman grunted, but didn't give way.

Damn, she had a strong defensive core, maybe stronger than his. His momentary lapse had let her regroup and keep attacking. Rick nervously gave way, risking a glance to the side. Melissa was free now, but uncertain how to help. Jack was tearing his way free from the entities and would be on them soon. He only had a short time...

A loose rock behind him sent Rick tumbling to the ground. The woman roared and lunged down at him, intending to pummel him against the ground. Rick kicked at her torso and she just took the blow and kept coming, aiming to pin him.

But that had been a distraction. Rick braced himself against the ground and swiftly pushed both feet into the woman's stomach. Not in a kick: he used a Bunyan's Step off his back at the same time he extended his legs. The blow did no harm, but it sent her flying through the air so far that she hadn't landed by the time he hopped back to his feet.

"Wow, how'd you blast her like that?" Melissa came up beside him, still in a cautious stance.

"I didn't." Rick brushed himself off a bit, taking the free moment to get his focus back. "She was too tough to harm easily, but her defensive core doesn't keep her anchored in place. So it doesn't stop her from getting pushed a long way away."

"Good thinking... uh oh, I think Jack is-"

Rick felt the surge of power while she was still speaking. Even as he turned toward Jack, he saw a gleam of gold from the corner of his eye. Based on his research, he knew that it had to be the Raging Eagle technique... so he pushed Melissa in one direction and leapt in the opposite one.

A sphere of pure lucrim tore through the air where they'd been standing, trailing remnants that looked like golden feathers. But that was only the beginning. Instead of the normal aura of Jack's tattoos, all the ink on his skin shone pure gold. He raised his hand and released another screaming sphere.

Though Rick dodged with a Bunyan's Step, he knew what was coming next. Jack released two spheres in quick succession. Rick dodged the first with a Bunyan's Step, which put him directly in the path of the next. Only by flattening himself to the ground did he avoid it, feeling the sphere sizzle overhead and the trailing feathers burning against his aura. Unfortunately, he couldn't straighten in time and barely dodged back.

The next sphere exploded against the ground in front of him, knocking him backward. It hadn't been a direct hit, but he was stunned and his ears were ringing. Jack was panting, the golden aura in his tattoos flickering, but then it roared back to life and he raised a claw-like hand to launch another one.

Just how long could he use that technique? Rick had counted on it exhausting him, but Jack was no idiot who spent lucrim like water. This was a carefully constructed technique polished by combat. If Jack could keep it up for long, that would be seriously bad.

As Rick dodged again, he saw something even worse: the gunslinger was standing on a nearby hill. Though he smoked faintly, he'd overcome the void flame already and he was still able to fight. Worse, he was raising his rifle and sighting for Melissa.

When Rick tried to use a Bunyan's Step to charge at him, he had to desperately throw himself back to avoid another sphere sent to intercept him. Dammit, Jack had seen him, noticed, and adapted already. Rick was hard-pressed just to avoid the spheres bombarding him, leaving him helpless to assist his sister or even call out to her, as she wasn't looking toward the gunman.

He was completely helpless to do anything but survive as the gun slid toward his sister.