Chapter 30: Warrior's Reward

If Rick had been the fighter he was a year ago, he would have lost. He might have given up, or he might have fallen from the sphere before he even realized what was happening. But after juggling so many different Lucores, Rick had already figured out what had happened and he reacted on instinct. As he broke through, he reached out and used his own aura to grab the edge of the sphere.

His body jerked away from him, out in the cold air, but his arm remained inside the sphere.

For a moment he hung there, disoriented outside the sphere. The crowd cheered thunderously, nearly stunning him, but his instincts insisted there was no time for that. If he wasn't disqualified, he needed to get back inside before he was targeted.

Bursts of aura began slamming into him, but Rick held his defensive cores firm and dragged himself back inside the sphere. He'd barely pulled his head in when he was hit head on by a blizzard, but he channeled lucrim to Katenka and she manifested around him in a swirl of snow. Not only did she prevent it from freezing him, she managed to blunt the force and he was able to fully pull himself back into the sphere.

"That was great!" Despite the fight still going on, Raggest turned to him with a grin. "But others are going to try to copy you."

Rick didn't understand at first, then saw that the idea of partially leaving the sphere had caught on. A woman was crawling around the outside to get into a better position, while someone else hung on the outer curve with just one hand inside.

Raggest gathered aura in his fists and then unleashed two massive beams simultaneously. Without a firm grip, both of the contestants were blown away from the sphere and immediately disqualified. Though Rick braced himself as Raggest clenched fists again, no more blasts came his way.

"I want to fight you without any tricks!" Raggest grinned, then threw himself at another opponent instead.

Did that mean a temporary truce? Though Rick didn't trust it entirely, he didn't target Raggest. There were fewer competitors now, which gave him more space to work... but also made him a target. A huge woman was stomping around the side of the sphere toward him, walking on the steep angle as if it was even ground. Running would just seem like cowardice, so he braced himself for a brawl.

Her fist hit hard, but it was nothing his defensive core couldn't handle. But the force pushed him back a step, and he lost his balance while trying to keep his foot in the aura. Before he could catch himself, another blow came. Rick managed to block that too, but it sent him staggering.

He realized that if he kept that up, he would never regain his balance. So Rick gritted his teeth and let the blows through. They hammered into his chest and head, each one slamming into his defensive core. But without trying to block, Rick was able to regain his balance and push back, gripping the side of the sphere some distance away. That earned him a moment, but only a moment as the woman leapt at him with both fists rising overhead.

In midair, a white-hot beam of aura blasted her out of the side of the sphere. From the other side, Raggest gave him a thumbs up.

But a moment later, he was struck by a flurry of dark motes. They impacted strangely as they struck him, not exploding but seeming to shake his entire body. Raggest shuddered as his body was battered by the flood of motes, but managed to raise his hand toward the man who was releasing them.

A beam shot out, but for the first time, Raggest saw it stopped. It hit a wall of motes and they seemed to consume it, eating pieces of the beam with each impact until it was reduced to nothing. The storm of particles only intensified, battering Raggest down to the bottom of the sphere. He tried to summon a barrier around himself, but the motes ate away at it as well. They would obviously overcome him soon and he would be forced outside the sphere.

For a moment, Rick hesitated. It would be a good strategy to let Raggest get eliminated, but he discarded that as bad sportsmanship. What made him hesitate was the hungry way Alger watched the match, and that nearly forgotten dream...

Rick leapt off the side of the sphere, trying to absorb the motes. They shifted direction, swept into one of the crystalline spheres, and Rick closed the distance to his target. But the man frowned at him and began releasing more, and suddenly the sphere felt unbelievably heavy. Though Rick tried to absorb them better, he realized that was a mistake. They were overwhelming his capacity to absorb and some motes began to touch his body.

Each impact didn't hurt, they simply left part of his body feeling as though it was completely gone. If he hadn't been under assault, he would have looked down to check that they hadn't erased holes in his flesh. His defensive core strained to compensate, and the Dark Blood Kettle surged as it rarely did, but he could tell that it wouldn't be enough.

Then a beam hit the man in the chest and the assault of motes stopped. He managed to hold on, but Raggest released another beam and struck him against the side of the sphere. Their opponent struggled, forming a wall of motes that ate away Raggest's next attempt.

Rick plunged directly through it, his elbow slamming into the man's jaw. Their opponent finally flew backward, leaving the sphere and collapsing to the ground.

When Rick turned around, he realized that the sphere was almost completely empty. Only Raggest remained, straightening and wiping some blood from his mouth. He grinned, but didn't say anything. Rick found himself smiling back and let himself skid down the side of the sphere so they were facing each other.

For a moment they were silent and Rick became aware of the crowds roaring around them. He let that sound fall away and just focused on his opponent. At any moment Raggest would move, then the fight would begin.

He saw the other man's arm shift and leapt in a Bunyan's Step. When Rick caught the side of the arena, he saw blinding beams shooting both where he had been standing, and where he was most likely to have leaped beside Raggest. Doubting he could outplay his opponent that way, Rick went straight for him the next moment.

Though he felt a beam impact his body, Rick hadn't been planning to appear beside Raggest and then strike him: he ran straight into the other man shoulder first. Unfortunately, Raggest wasn't knocked back enough, digging his feet in and blasting Rick in the face with another beam.

There was no more time for technique, Rick just tried to pummel his opponent. He wasn't sure if his absorption Lucore was overloaded or if it didn't work against the pale beams, but every impact seared through him. Despite all the lucrim combined into so many cores, they were rapidly being burned apart. Rick started drawing heavily on Katenka's bond just to hang on a little longer and land a few more blows.

All at once he saw it: Raggest failed to defend his neck. Rick struck for the target even as he saw a blinding light flash at his chest.

When Rick could feel again, he was flat on his back on the arena floor. The bleary smears of white and black gradually focused into the dark stands around the stadium. Rick realized that he had made a mistake, going for a weak point when the actual goal was to knock his opponent out of the arena.

Which was empty.

Rick struggled painfully to get up, staring at the empty sphere. Across the arena, he saw Raggest lying on his back, having fallen out of the sphere as well. He had absolutely no idea what had happened... but then his attention was captured by the large screens overhead.

They were showing a slow motion replay: Raggest's blast had knocked Rick out of the sphere immediately, but the blow to the neck had sent Raggest falling backward. Rick had left the sphere nearly a full second before Raggest, yet the announcers and commentators seemed to be talking excitedly. One of the replays showed a close up of the strike to the neck, apparently approving of its brutality.

Abruptly worried, Rick looked down, but Raggest was struggling to his feet, grinning. "That was - ow - that was amazing!" He rubbed his neck in pain, but then rushed over to Rick. Though Rick thought he was probably in better shape, he felt burned out and didn't feel like moving so quickly.

Still, when the other man thrust a hand toward him, Rick was able to lift his arm enough to shake it. The crowd roared approval around them.

The aura sphere finally faded, leaving Rick momentarily blinded in the absence of its light. An enormous man with a beard half the size of his considerable chest smashed down onto the arena beside them. Rick instinctively tried to raise his arms to fight, only to have his wrist grasped and thrust into the air alongside Raggest's.

"Best fight I've seen in years!" The man roared out something in Russian, then turned back to them and stopped dangling the two by their wrists. "Mark my words, you both receive great seal of Siberia."

Rick found himself smiling. It hurt to stand and it was taking all his self-control not to rub his scorched torso, but he actually felt good. For winning, yes, but more importantly because the fight had been a satisfying success for him.

"I would like to pay my respects as well."

The sound of the smooth voice made all Rick's sense of accomplishment drain away. Alger stood beside them, both hands still over his cane, looking genteel except for the grin on his face. It spread wider and wider, as if it would tear out the sides of his face.

"This is what the Showdown should be! This is what the new generation needs!" Alger raised one hand toward them and a stylized letter A burned into the air in front of their faces. "I grant you both my seal as well, in the hope that you will go on to do great things!"

It should have been his moment of triumph, yet Rick could only stare at the mad grimace that no longer resembled a smile. Alger walked toward him, eyes burning with the fires of a thousand battles. When he spoke, his voice was quiet, ignoring the arena to speak to Rick alone.

"This is all I've ever wanted from you. Brutal striving, endless ambition. This is only the beginning, you know. In time you will grow stronger and stronger, leaving behind the limits of these civilized matches. There will be only the savagery of true warriors' spirits, and then, in the end, there will be only power."

Rick turned away from the mad grin and tried to focus on the cheering crowds.