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.

Without warning, Raggest appeared beside James, punching him in the face. Though the suited man recovered, he wasn't able to dodge the beam of gold that sent him sailing away. Rick wiped blood from the corner of his mouth and tried to straighten.

"Thanks, Raggest."

"It wasn't for you. Just wanted to hit that asshole." Raggest grinned at him, aura gathering around his hands. "Get up and I'll hit you too."

An idea leapt into Rick's mind, not fully formed but enough. He met Raggest's eyes and straightened up, then jumped into the air as if to hit him.

A beam of light met him in midair, of course, blasting him backward. But all of Rick's strength had been focused on his defenses, not attacking. The beam sent him shooting up the side of the pyramid, smashing through one of the other contestants and then colliding with the man who held the top. Rick barely managed to catch one of the corners, which felt like it would tear off his arm, but then he pulled himself up.

The surprise move had, insanely, gotten him to the top of the pyramid. His chest hurt like hell, with a large hole burned through his shirt and a massive burn across his chest. He didn't want to look down to see how bad it was, but even the brief moment of Raggest's technique had done serious damage to his defensive core.

But he'd reached the top. He'd held it for a full second... which meant that now all eyes were on him.

Rick knew that he couldn't possibly see and react to attackers. Simply assuming that they were coming for him, he used a Bunyan's Step to shoot him directly into the air. Several bursts of aura collided where he had been standing, followed shortly by physical attackers. For a surreal moment Rick was suspended high over the pyramid, with a clear view of everyone struggling for the top.

Then he used another Bunyan's Step to shoot himself directly down.

He slammed into the top with all the force he could muster. The impact hurt, but the nearest attackers were knocked back. Did that count as controlling the top? There was no time to check, he already had more people coming at him.

When Rick saw a woman spinning at him with a sword in each hand, he simply hurled himself at her in another Bunyan's Step. He felt the blades bite into his body twice, but he collided with her and sent her sprawling down the side. Landing just beside the top, he backstepped just in time for a large man to tackle him from the side.

Rick staggered, but managed not to fall from the peak. He hit back, not even seeing his attacker, just operating on pure instinct. Everything dissolved into chaotic reactions and then somehow he was still standing at the top, panting for breath.

Then he was sailing through the air.

Whatever had struck him, it hadn't hurt, but he hadn't even seen it. Rick collided with the reinforced roofs and that hurt like hell. His defensive core could protect him a bit, but smashing into ether-reinforced tiles was still painful. He felt surprisingly drained, having poured as much as he could into those few moments atop the pyramid.

Had it been enough? Rick wanted to look to H, but he was disoriented and couldn't find his seat. According to the screen, he had credit for 4.62 seconds at the top of the pyramid. That wasn't the top, but it was better than many of the contestants. Was that enough to rate?

Robes fluttered as someone landed beside him, and Rick looked up in time to see the elderly Chinese woman who had given him a seal in Branton. She was watching him coolly until he looked up, which prompted her to smile.

"You're an interesting one, to fight with such odd handicaps. We would... like to extend you an invitation."