Chapter 50: A Mentor's Guidance

This was the point beyond any plans, where Rick could only hope that he could pull himself through. He activated the Triune Golden Spheres so that he would be fully aware and defended, but he hoped that it wouldn't come to a fight. Going up against his former mentor would be a bad idea, even if he only needed to buy time.

"You think you can just walk away?" H spoke as gruffly as usual, but there was something new in his eyes. Rick slowly rolled his shoulders and stood firm.

"Yes, I think I can. Our contract said exactly that."

"After humiliating me in front of all those immortals? After throwing away your chance at-"

"I know you work for Alger." Rick saw no reason to play games, so he just struck out with the accusation. He saw the hesitation in H's eyes, the consideration of whether or not to try to deceive him. Eventually his former mentor's scowl faded into an empty gaze.

"So, you figured it out." H took a long drag on his cigarette. "Alger thought you would never catch on, so long as I was rude enough."

That set Rick back a bit, but he didn't let it slow him down. "So you're telling me you aren't really an asshole, you were just playing one?"

"I do my job."

"And exactly what job is that?" Rick stared forward, trying to find some trace of emotion or intent in the older man's face. "Why do all of this? It can't be to make lucrim, since Alger obviously has more than he knows what to do with."

"Alger likes his toys." After a pause to blow a long stream of smoke, H continued. "He does this every few years, getting excited about some new young warrior he thinks will upend the status quo. Eventually he grows tired of them and throws them away. I guess this is happening sooner rather than later."

"What, you're going to kill me?"

Rick had said it mockingly, but H only stared at him without expression, face wreathed in smoke. For a long time they stood facing one another, the highway stretching forever in either direction, the only two people in the world.

Then H moved his hand, faster than Rick had known he could move, and golden light encompassed him. He could feel it pulsing through his veins, trying to drain everything he had... and failing.

There was no time to think, Rick just used a Bunyan's Step to propel his elbow into his opponent's face. The attack that H had once scorned and easily blocked now smashed into his shocked expression, sending him tumbling back over the asphalt. His cigarette spun in a different direction, embers fading in the wind before they snuffed out on the ground.

"You..." H started to pull himself up, and though Rick tried to kick him while he rose, this attack was easily blocked. Rick backed away, watching carefully. "So it was the Formula T that tipped you off, huh? I wouldn't have expected you to get clean so quickly."

"So it had a method to disable me built in?" Rick was surprised that they hadn't even noticed such a thing, but he should have known, given how good his opponents were. "Why go to so much effort? I would have gladly worked for you just based on the terms we agreed upon."

"No, you wouldn't have. You didn't even last a year before you began rebelling. So we needed hooks to reel you back in."

With that, H flicked his fingers, releasing a wave of burning embers. Rick's defenses hadn't been able to handle the attack the last time they'd sparred, so he used his absorption sphere to consume the embers as he closed the distance between them again. This time he didn't aim for an elbow, just a blow to the ribs to soften his opponent.

It didn't land, and H was hitting back just as quickly. The two of them exchanged blows, a far more vicious version of their common sparring. Rick realized that he was actually the better hand to hand fighter, but H had a larger portfolio and could hit harder and faster. Those two might cancel each other out, except they were intimately familiar with the other's style.

Instead of just using his sensory sphere for incoming attacks, Rick directed it toward his opponent's every movement. He could feel each shift in H's weight, each movement of muscle and lucrim. Using that, he could get a slight edge, anticipating each step until at last he had opened the tiniest of windows to strike...

Then his senses went dead and fire struck him directly in the face.

Rick skidded backward across the road, still in shock and unsure what was happening. He couldn't sense anything at all, but he could see that H was leaping after him. Without thinking about it, Rick Bunyan's Stepped away from the stomp that smashed deep into the road and scrambled into a better defensive position.

"You should know that we gave you everything." H advanced on him with a simple confidence, sure of his victory. "You were a mediocre talent before Alger noticed you. Everything you have is a gift, and these gifts can be taken away."

The spheres of light rotating around Rick had flickered out. He desperately tried to relight the Triune Golden Spheres, but they felt dead inside him, refusing to respond to the flow of his lucrim. His eyes widened as he saw the crystal spheres fall from out of his soul like dead weight, then shatter into dull shards. A hollow space remained in his portfolio where the Triune Golden Spheres had been.

He knew an attack was coming and used a Bunyan's Step to escape, but his spirit was in shock and he could only manage leaping straight back. H was already coming for him, so Rick rushed back to the fragments of the spheres, trying to gather them up. Yet the lucrim seemed dead and unresponsive, refusing to...

A hand clamped over his face.

Embers poured into his eyes and nose, and when he screamed in pain, they flooded down his throat. Rick collapsed backward, trailing flames as the embers seared into him from within and without.

His extra defenses were gone, he could no longer absorb aura, and he could sense nothing. Yet as Rick lay on the asphalt, half-blinded by the embers, he realized that he still knew his opponent was attacking. Not through lucrim senses, but simple instinct. And though the embers hurt deeply, his original defensive core was up to the challenge.

When H lunged down to deliver the killing blow, Rick struck back, ramming him with a shoulder. He tried to follow up with a knee to the chest, but his opponent straightened back up too quickly. Rick focused on staying on his feet and wiping away the embers while his opponent recovered.

"You're really going to keep fighting?" H stared at him flatly, slowly drawing a cigarette from his pocket and putting it to his lips. "You realize that without the Triune Golden Spheres, you're nothing. You've been strutting around as if you really had a six digit generation rate, as if you weren't as much of a guided fool as Raggest. You can't win this fight."

"If you expect me to lie down and die, you haven't been paying attention." Rick kept his shoulders up, now mostly free of the embers. Yet it was true that he didn't see a way to win. The Triune Golden Spheres had left a space hollowed out in his soul and vastly decreased his total strength. Without them, the difference in raw power stretched wide.

"No, but I expect you to posture." H flicked the burning cigarette from his mouth, and for a moment Rick thought that he had drawn it for no reason.

Where the cigarette landed, smoke began to billow up from the ground. It spread in a circle around them, and as it grew, it began to glow with the light of hidden embers. Soon they were both trapped within a broad ring of smoke and flame. The walls continued to grow, forming a dome. Not only did it keep him in, Rick realized that he had to assume that it might hide them as well.

Then there was no more time to think, because H was attacking brutally. No more physical blows, he simply released ember after ember. Though Rick dodged the first ones with Bunyan's Steps, he knew that he would become exhausted far faster than his opponent. Dodging was a path to failure, yet he saw that H was keeping his other hand ready, preparing for a direct attack.

The embers came more quickly and soon Rick was drawing on the demonic bond just to survive. There was no anger or glowering in H now: his former mentor simply continued to kill him in tiny cuts of a few lucrim at a time.

But holding on to survival gave Rick time to realize something: H must be vulnerable to his own embers. If not, he would have made the cloud simply close over them both. Even now, he stood carefully several paces away from the smoke.

It was a desperate gamble, but Rick would have to take it. He used a Bunyan's Step to charge at his opponent, then instantly leapt away.

As expected, H hurled a torrent of embers at his former position. But Rick had moved directly next to the wall of smoke... and plunged his leg into it, a spinning kick swift enough to create a gust of wind. It blew smoke and embers into H's face, sending the man staggering back, and Rick struck.

He didn't see the blow impact his chest, just felt it send him hurtling backward. The next moment his back collided with the column of a street lamp at the edge of the circle, bending the metal. Its light fell to the asphalt, but it only cracked instead of shattering.

Rick realized that the blow had been carefully calculated to keep him within the imprisoning ring. Even taken off guard, H still had enough of an edge over him to plan that. The gap between them was simply too large. As Rick struggled to smooth the cracks beginning in his defensive core, H smothered a few embers and began to walk toward him.

"I'm not trying to kill you, Rick. I'm trying to show you that fighting is utterly hopeless. If you surrender, you could still have a life, of a sort."

All Rick could do was raise his fists alongside his face. H sighed and continued approaching, more embers gathering in his palms.

"Very well, then. Keep showing me the very tricks I taught you."

When the embers came toward him, Rick plunged into them instead of dodging. They burned fiercely across his chest, but it took H off guard. And there was one thing that his former mentor had never seen.

Rick slapped a hand to H's chest and pushed the void flame deep inside him.

The resulting scream of pain caused a shockwave that made Rick stagger back as the void began to consume H from within. He cried out in pain and clawed at himself, lucrim attempting to smother the attack but only feeding it. Embers began snuffing out all around them, the smoke fading as H was overwhelmed by the flame.

Though H tried to struggle to his feet, Rick kicked him in the side, knocking him onto his back. The other man fell unconscious, his lucrima soul barely surviving as the void flame began to flicker out. Standing over him, Rick realized that he could kill him in that moment. A kick to the throat would be all that it would take.

But he didn't want to be a murderer, he just wanted to escape. Rick took a deep breath and a step back.

A column of red light erupted around them and Rick staggered away, crying out.

He had a single glimpse of H rising in the air, floating on his burning aura. Rick knew that he should have moved, but he was too worn down from the many embers and all he could do was brace himself as the hand within the red column flickered.

When the ember hit him, it was like being struck by a small meteor. Rick staggered to the side, clutching his ribs where the massive ember still burned into him. He struck it away and leapt to a different position, but there was already another ember flying for him. The light had faded around H, but he hovered above the road, eyes burning like coals as he released ember after ember.

There were no more words, no more lectures. As Rick dodged yet another ember flying toward his face, he realized that H was striking to kill. With his life on the line, he should have been driven to new levels, but he only realized the truth.

This was not a fight that he could win with raw determination. His opponent was too experienced, too skilled, too familiar with him. If he had a dozen void flames, he might have been able to come up with a strategy, but he had spent everything Melissa gave him. If he had somehow been able to master entirely new Lucores in his spare time, he could have surprised his old mentor again, but that was a fantasy.

Instead, all he had were his familiar techniques and the gaping void where the Triune Golden Spheres should have been. Those wouldn't be enough. Just when he started to despair, he felt a cool breeze whispering into his ear.

"I can buy you time, Rick. Draw everything from our bond."

Katenka was right. Rick reached for his demonic bond and demanded every single lucrim it could possibly give him. In an instant, he was deeply in debt, having done everything he'd promised he'd never do with a demonic bond.

But the next moment, Katenka materialized in the air overhead. H had a split second to look shocked before a spear of ice impaled him through the arm. He sagged toward the ground, already retaliating with embers, but a blizzard swept up from nothing, sweeping away his remaining smoke and assaulting him from all sides.

Rick staggered away, bracing himself against the bent lamp post. Though Katenka had meant to buy him time to escape, he knew that wasn't an option. With his bike gone, he couldn't get far enough away. Even if the bus came, there was no guarantee H wouldn't attack him anyway. And if he fled now, they would only pursue him.

No, what he needed to do was use this precious time to regain some advantage. The only thing he could possibly leverage was all his training in the Triune Golden Spheres: the lucrim in them might have been stolen from him, but H couldn't take the knowledge from his mind. There had to be something...

His eyes fell on the cracked street bulb. A crude object compared to the perfect crystal spheres, but maybe that was enough. H had said the crystals were the best focus for the technique, which implied that worse focuses were possible. Rick picked up the cracked bulb and began doing his best to rework the technique in the broken structure.

It would once have been impossible, but he'd spent a long time working on his theory and practicing construction with the demons. The Lucore came together surprisingly quickly, as if he was tracing old lines he could still faintly see. His new version wouldn't add any strength or work on its own, but it just might be enough to let him absorb aura.

There was still a war of embers and ice, so Rick looked further. A sensory orb was next most important, but that would also be difficult. Defense might be easier. Rick looked to the concrete at the base of the lamp post, then smashed it apart with his hand. He grasped one of the chunks of concrete, forcing his lucrim into it.

As expected, the defensive sphere was easiest, completed almost immediately. It wouldn't multiply his defenses, but it would spread out each hit a little more. The two objects began to rotate around him, but their orbit was unstable. He needed something for the third Lucore...

Then a bell rang through the air and the blizzard simply vanished. When he turned to look, there was no sign of Katenka or any of her ice.

"I didn't expect your little demon to be so much of a problem." H looked weary, but the blood running down his arm didn't prevent him from drawing another cigarette. "But now, nothing is getting through from the demon realm here, not even the tiniest of bonds. So now you're nothing but a thug."

"You think I'm going to give up?" Rick knew it was a stupid question, he was just desperate to buy time to get his new Lucores fully working. H gave him a disappointed stare.

"You think that this is going to be another fight perfectly calibrated to challenge you but make you feel good about yourself? I'm not some mercenary Alger hired to motivate you."

"Did he hire the mercenary in Vietnam?" Despite his best efforts to remain calm, Rick growled out the question. His makeshift spheres trembled, but he didn't care, just watching his former mentor for any hint as to the answer.

"I don't make those decisions, but I believe so. You were growing confident and distracted, so you needed something to m-"

Rick let out a cry of rage and rushed forward.

H scornfully shot an ember directly at him, but Rick felt only a cold murderous fury. He concentrated fully on his absorption and didn't slow down. Just before they collided, the ember shivered and was drawn into the street lamp. H had a moment to look shocked and then Rick was pummeling him across the face and shoulders.

But though he landed several good hits, the next was blocked, and then H started hitting back. His former mentor might not be a defensive master, but he had a massive portfolio capable of taking a beating. And now that Rick didn't have a sensory Lucore, he couldn't keep up as they fought.

In that case, he only had one choice. Rick let one of the blows through, wincing as it cracked into his side... and then hammered H in the throat.

Choking and staggering back, H threw up a wall of embers to defend himself, but Rick wasn't intending to attack. He needed the moment to catch up himself.

The chunk of concrete and broken lamp bulb still floated above his head. They were laughable compared to the priceless crystal spheres, yet they'd worked. He knew that he couldn't absorb very many embers, and the concrete already had a few cracks through it, but having them vastly improved his ability to fight. His lucrima soul was almost flowing normally again around the absence, if only he had a third Lucore to balance the others...

Except he wasn't going to get one. H straightened up, drawing a cigarette and lighting it with one finger. As the end reflected in his burning eyes, there was no question of it being posturing.

"You think you can win with an imitation of what I taught you? That's an insult." Despite his words, H was moving more slowly from all his injuries. Where once he would have attacked immediately, now he needed time to prepare his technique.

But then aura erupted from him and Rick felt a growing sense of horror. Embers began rising into the air, smaller and sharper than the others. Dozens of them, then hundreds. They formed a cloud, then suddenly one of them zipped forward.

Rick ducked aside, but a second ember hit his chest the next moment. Instead of clinging and burning, it bit straight through his shirt and his skin, sending a line of blood sailing into the air. Though Rick used a Bunyan's Step to get away from the massive rush of shards, he was free for only a moment before the cloud turned on him.

Bit by bit, he was cut apart. His defensive core could prevent the ember shards from burning holes straight through his body or disemboweling him, but each one tore a bloody line across his body. By the time Rick staggered to a halt, he was bleeding from countless wounds, his blood staining the asphalt even darker black.

There were shards all around him now, preparing to sweep in and slice him apart from all sides. Rick desperately sought a solution, surging everything he had, but he knew that he couldn't survive all the ember shards stabbing into him at once.

Then one of them plunged toward the back of his neck and he felt it. Rick didn't think, he just dodged. More were already flying at him, but he felt the arc of every one.

As H hesitated for just a moment in surprise, Rick struck. He crossed the distance between them instantly with no time for a blow, he just smashed the crown of his head directly into his opponent's face. H hurtled backward and all the embers winked out.

Though Rick knew that he should have taken advantage, he was too wounded and dizzy to keep moving. He could feel a sensory Lucore within him, but where the hell had it come from? There shouldn't have been any focus...

Over his head, he saw a third sphere rotating with the others, formed from his own blood. It glistened darkly in the light as the Dark Blood Kettle surged inside him.

"A shadow version of the spheres." H had yet to stand, but his face was hard. Somehow he hadn't lost the cigarette, holding it from his lips as he slowly rose and spoke. "I see what Alger saw in you, but it doesn't matter. You need to die."

The cigarette suddenly burned away, becoming ash in an instant. H breathed in all of it, then exhaled hell itself.

Rick threw himself directly up with a Bunyan's Step and that instinct was all that saved him. While he hung suspended in the air, he saw a terrible mass of smoke and flame roiling over the highway. Had that struck him...

But it had to be almost over. Though Rick was injured and exhausted, he knew that his opponent was flagging as well. Multiple blows had rattled H and using such lucrim-intensive techniques must be draining his reserves. Rick managed to squeeze out one final Bunyan's Step, taking him to the road behind H instead of into the maelstrom of embers.

Instantly another one hit him in the chest and Rick realized his mistake. H was on his feet, bracing his injured arm but still calm. He'd tracked Rick perfectly and now sent ember after ember toward him.

The second one Rick managed to absorb, but with the third, he could feel his sphere heating up. Even his old sphere couldn't keep absorbing such potent aura attacks, and the street lamp was much weaker. He heard it crack and staggered back a step, but he was too weak to fully dodge. Besides, H could just keep targeting him without needing to move a step.

Was this all he was? A brute using city trash to imitate the skills of his betters? As he heard another crack, he almost believed it.

But no. The blood, trash, and concrete rotating above his head might represent who he was, but he refused to believe that was a limitation. Rick drew the Dark Blood Kettle higher and thrust it into the absorption Lucore - not to imitate the old skill, but to create something new.

All the embers began spilling from the broken light, tumbling down over his body... but they didn't burn.

Each of the embers was drawn into his lucrima soul, burning in a shell around him that flexed like a second skin. It happened almost automatically, more instinct than technique, but they kept flowing. H growled and began hurling more embers at him. As the heat rose, Rick cried out in pain and threw everything he had into absorbing the assault.

When the next ember struck, it hit a wall of fire and was absorbed. Rick was surrounded in a massive suit of armor formed of burning embers, barely holding it together, barely able to see the world around him. But he endured, and he could see H staring at him in shock.

Rick stepped forward and drove the entire fist filled with embers down on his former mentor.

Then everything faded and Rick dropped onto the ground. His opponent lay unmoving, lucrima soul burned to ashes, possibly beyond repair. Rick was completely exhausted, far beyond his limits, having tapped everything he had. He was alive, but he was so drained that all his injuries were still bleeding freely.

What next? At first Rick just sat there, too numb to answer his own question. But eventually, he managed to haul himself back to his feet and think again.

H was still alive, which meant he wasn't a murderer. Thinking about what had been done to Melissa, he wanted to be. Yet he couldn't help but realize that the authorities might be on their way, and he couldn't know how they would react.

As Rick thought about it, he gathered up the fragments of the Triune Golden Spheres. They remained dead, and he doubted that he would ever be able to access the lucrim within them again. Rick shoved the fragments into his pockets and stared down at H's body.

No, killing him wouldn't be a victory. It wouldn't take away Melissa's torment and it wouldn't strike at Alger. He needed to contact the authorities and reveal whatever he could. His phone had been destroyed, but he thought there had been an archaic pay phone at the bus stop. If he could limp his way there, he might be able to place a call, or at least sit until Melissa arrived.

For a few limping steps down the highway, Rick felt a bit of relief. Then he saw a man in a black suit standing in the center of the road, his hands laced over his cane. Alger was smiling.