Chapter 12: Special Event

Participating in an underground fighting tournament seemed like it should be the sort of thing that would revolutionize someone's life, but in the end not much changed.

Rick worked the fights into his schedule as if they were just an extracurricular activity. He developed a three day cycle: fight on the first day, training exercises to solidify his gains on the second, recovery on the third. Occasionally he extended the latter two steps as necessary, since he absolutely needed to avoid taking a permanent injury.

So far he hadn't been in serious danger. It seemed that many of the main melee contestants were just looking for a friendly fight. That wouldn't stop them from smashing you in the face or shooting you, but they weren't out to kill. A few times they'd ganged up on him and he'd gone down, but he'd only needed to use some of his winnings for healing with no long term harm done.

Of course, he kept hearing hints of much bloodier matches. There had definitely been blood left in the arena sometimes when he arrived, and based on the crowds, he could easily imagine more dangerous events. But so far, he'd played it safe, content with the smaller rewards available.

After the first, he'd competed in six general melees. That had earned him 1500 lucrim, a decent amount of extra cash, and 51 points. He'd intended to put all the lucrim toward getting rid of the leeches, but instead invested much of it into his combat cores, using the justification that he needed to get stronger if he wanted to keep earning. It might just be an excuse because he was getting more of a taste for combat, though.

In any case, he didn't regret another use of his winnings: doing a little better for himself and Melissa. When she aced a set of tests, he decided to splurge and they ordered out from a decent Chinese place. Both of them sat on the floor of their living room eating out of their to-go boxes when Melissa abruptly looked up at him seriously.

"Where'd you get the money for this, Rick?"

He didn't hesitate a second. "Selling meth."

"Be serious."

"Fine, I got it by taking meth. It's a very complex scheme."

That got a bit of a smile from her, but she didn't joke back, so he knew she was serious. Rick examined his sister for a moment, realizing that there was really no question as to what he should do. Obviously it was best to be honest with his own family. That didn't mean he couldn't stretch it out more, though.

"In all seriousness, I've been selling my body. A randy old rich woman-"

"Richard Hunter!" Melissa folded her arms and pretended to scowl. "If you don't stop messing around, I shall be very cross!"

He paused for a moment, finishing his current mouthful, then set down his box. "I'm fighting in a place called the Underground. So far it's been mostly safe, but I'm not sure that will last. I didn't want to worry you unnecessarily, but I get that it was a bit of a dick move to keep it secret. Sorry."

"Oh, is that all?" Melissa sat back and began chopsticking more food into her mouth. "I saw that you were in bad shape some days after you came back, so I was worried that you were getting into something drug-related."

"Seriously?"

"Not, like, dealing heroin or something. But I figure people who sell lucrim-related drugs probably need muscle to do things, and my imagination got away from me thinking about how you might have convinced yourself you had to get involved. But underground fights? That's not such a big deal."

"I'm glad you're taking it well."

"I mean, now I do kind of want to go with you and see you fight, but I'm guessing there's no way that you'd let me do that, huh?"

"Absolutely not." Rick spoke more sharply than he'd intended, but didn't apologize. He tried to never pull rank with his sister or act like a parent, but he didn't want that idea going anywhere. "It's been safe so far, but I'm honestly in over my head, Melissa. I need to get stronger and learn a lot more about how the Underground works before I feel remotely safe there."

"That's fine, I get it. I wish you didn't have to do this, but..." Melissa drifted off and he stayed silent to give her time to think.

But some time later, when she set down her box, he saw her hands trembling violently. Rick immediately pushed his food aside and moved closer to her, checking her forehead. No fever, but she was trembling all over and he could feel her body's lucrima destabilizing.

"I-I'm okay." Her words were barely a whisper. "This is... a m-m-minor one..."

"We should still take it seriously." Rick leapt up to fetch her medication and brought her a pill with a glass of water. Her hands shook when she took the pill, but she managed it without spilling much water. He considered taking her to rest, but she resisted when he started to pick her up.

"No... I was having fun..."

His instincts told him to carry her anyway, but she did know her own body better than he did. Besides, the shivering seemed to be subsiding, even before the medicine would have taken effect. Just to be sure, he passed some of his lucrim into her body. It disappeared into a void, as usual, but the emptiness seemed weaker than before.

There'd been a time when he'd hoped that small incidents like this meant that she was getting better. Rick no longer held much hope of that, he was just glad that the danger had passed. Melissa scooted a bit so that she could lean back against the couch, then reached for her food.

"Gimme." He passed it to her as he sat down beside her, their backs against the couch as they faced the dark television. Melissa shoveled food into her face for a bit before speaking up again. "Have you learned big fancy techniques like they always have in the movies?"

Rick chuckled. "You're joking, but there's actually more of that than I thought. The fights ultimately make money by attracting an audience, so I guess it makes sense."

"Huh. So are you seriously gonna get something flashy?"

"Not for now. I've done a little research on it, and it requires a substantial investment in a new core. I don't think it makes any sense to do that until I've improved my foundation and gotten rid of the aura leeches."

"So you're just going to run around punching people, huh?" Melissa smiled over at him. "You're not dressed for it. Doesn't this underground fighting ring have some sort of dress code? Bunch of S&M-looking gear or something?"

"There's no dress code, but I might have to expand my wardrobe."

"Or you could go the other way and kick ass in a frilly pink tutu. That'd definitely give you a psychological edge in a fight, wouldn't it?"

"I think they'd get over it way before we started fighting."

"Nope, that's why you'd wear one of those big flasher coats. You'd really freak them out thinking you were some kind of pervert, then you'd throw it off to reveal the tutu and they'd know you were a huge pervert. That'd probably be enough to take them out on its own, no punching needed."

Though he stayed alert for any further complication from her condition, the night passed without incident. Despite the brief scare, it was actually quite relaxing, and he felt better now that he'd told Melissa about the fights. A cynical part of him said that it was necessary, since there might come a day when he couldn't come home, but all he could do was keep working as carefully as possible.

On his next fight day, he headed out earlier than usual in order to catch Henry's fight. His coworker had been skipping more days at the House of the Cosmic Fist lately - Jimmy wasn't happy, but apparently Henry was starting to make enough money from some of his fights that he could afford fewer hours. It might be interesting to check on his progress.

By now the route to the Underground was familiar. Nobody really recognized him, but he had the confidence to walk through the neighborhood with no more than normal caution. Ever since the first time, he'd entered via a different secret entrance that led directly to the main arena, though the procedure was basically the same.

Inside, he discovered that he was a bit late. Pushing through the crowds, Rick searched through the melee for Henry. Odd that there were so many people for a simple brawl like this. Though Henry wasn't on the trash tier like he was, the melees generally didn't get a huge audience. Perhaps there was someone popular taking part.

At that moment a yellow light pulsed through the underground complex, briefly illuminating even the upper boxes. Rick tracked the source and finally found Henry, his eyes glowing yellow and his body encased in phantasmal yellow armor. He struck out and sent one of his opponents flying, then tore into the others.

Huh, maybe Henry was the one people had come to see.

Though the armor was definitely powerful, it wasn't enough to completely dominate the match. Henry seemed to know that, choosing his opponents intentionally and avoiding getting mobbed. As he watched the fight, Rick realized that it wasn't exactly armor: instead, it was more like a ghostly shell in the shape of a rather stereotypical demon.

That might explain how he'd gained so much strength so quickly. The bell rang to end the match and the remaining fighters all cooled down, giving Rick a chance to check Henry's profile:

[Name: Hendog69 (pseudonym)

Ether Tier: 16th

Ether Score: 216

Lucrim Generation: 27,500

- Demonic Bond: 10,000

Current Lucrim: (private data)]

The demonic bond seemed to be working quite well for him. Though his encounter with the aura leeches left Rick unwilling to even consider anything of the sort, he had to admit that his friend had made far faster progress than he had. No doubt the power available through the bond made it even easier for him to expand his natural generation rate as well.

With the match ending, Henry caught sight of him and loped up to the stands. "You finally caught one of my matches, huh? What did you think?"

"That's a strong technique. You manage that yourself, or did you get it through your bond?"

"A bit of both - they upgraded my bond, by the way, which is nice." Henry flexed his fingers, eyes unfocusing as he looked within himself. "I figured I've always trained with martial arts, so there's no point trying to gain an entirely new skill. But the shell basically just enhances all my physical abilities, so I don't need to relearn anything."

"Smart. I'll consider that, once I actually get some lucrim to spare."

"You'll get there, man. Especially if you keep doing well." Henry sat down beside him, staring out as the arena was cleaned. "You fighting yet tonight? I'll stick around if you are."

"Yeah, I'm fighting. But it will be a bit, yet, so I'm guessing there will be other matches first."

They stuck around to watch, since there was no point trying to go somewhere else. The melee was followed by two one-on-one matches, but they proved disappointing. One was ended almost at the beginning by a powerful technique, while the other dragged on with two durable warriors pounding on each other.

The audience was getting restless... troublingly so, Rick thought. He'd grown used to the types of crowds at the Underground, and they were usually only as raucous as the audiences at normal sporting events. But the crowd tonight seemed bloodthirsty in a way he couldn't interpret.

Following the two quick matches there was a brief pause, two staff members talking to Alger. He was looking glum after the disappointing matches, but perked up and suggested something. After some time reorganizing, he clapped his hands to signal the start of something different.

Instead of either a duel or a melee, the next match appeared to be a battle between four different warriors, all of them rather strong. Rick hadn't seen any of them before, so he eagerly watched their skills as the match started.

In the beginning they watched each other cautiously, but the crowd began to jeer and scream. The noise pushed one of the men to lunge at the others, his aura expanding into a spiky shape that threatened anyone who came near. It seemed to be a strong technique, because it pushed back the first man who tried to strike him.

Without warning, the spiky aura split in half. For a second Rick didn't even know how it had happened, then he caught sight of one of the women in the match. She stood nearby, one of her arms encased in a purple aura that extended beyond her hand in a long blade. Not only had she crossed the distance immediately, she'd cut through the man's aura in a single blow.

The crowds roared in approval and the other fighters immediately converged on her, but she had clearly been expecting that. With her aura blade slicing around her, she could threaten a huge area, effectively preventing them from using their numbers against her and even turning the momentum back on them.

Rick gave her a closer look. She wore shapeless gray slacks and a dark hoodie, like someone going out of their way to look unremarkable. But she had a lean, pretty face, and her dark hair had a streak of blue in it. He had to wonder just who she was.

More importantly, how she was fighting so effectively. He judged her lucrim generation rate to be around 85,000, which was nothing to sneeze at, but all four fighters had at least that much and one of the men had 125,000 or more. Were her cores that efficient? If so, the fact that she could ward off multiple opponents meant that she was even better at punching above her weight than he was. There weren't any major flaws in her movements, though she wasn't too much better than him. Yet he couldn't help but feel that it was something else he was missing...

"Noticed her, huh?" Henry elbowed him hard in the ribs. "I'm shocked that you would cheat on poor Lisa."

"I thought you were done with that joke." He took his eyes away from the woman to stare at Henry. "She's strong. Do you know who she is?"

"Her name is Emily and she's one of the mid-tier fighters. Not so famous because she only participates in matches occasionally, but I noticed her because she's smoking hot. But before you ask, I'm pretty sure she's a lesbian or something, so don't even try."

"Lesbians can't discuss lucrima techniques?"

"Oh, haha. Don't pretend you aren't interested."

Rick didn't bother, instead focusing on the match. Emily fought to a draw with one of the others before the time ran out. The crowd cheered when they left the arena, but there were a few yelling angrily as well. He was starting to get uncomfortable with the whole thing, yet at that moment it was announced that the next match would be his melee.

Since he was in good shape and his schedule called for another fight, Rick headed out to the arena with the others. It looked like a mix of people he'd seen before, along with some new candidates, only a few of whom looked dangerous. His mind was running hot with ideas to improve himself, but he resolved to play it safe and stick to battle-tested strategies. There would be time enough to take risks later.

Once everyone was in the arena, Alger rose to his feet. It was rare that he announced the matches, but now he spoke loudly, audible even without a mic. "Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for a very special event! All of our noble fighters enjoy these melees, but their warrior's spirits call for more. Can they be satisfied with these simple matches? I tell you, no! True warriors must be forged by true challenges! They must be forged in blood!"

At that moment, one of the new arrivals threw off his cloak, revealing that he had jagged metal claws attached to both hands. But far more dangerous than his weapons, the man's aura intensified rapidly, taking him from an average 25,000 fighter to a generation rate of over 150,000. Rick's first instinct was that this must be a mistake, but even as he thought it, Rick knew that wasn't true.

The crowd sat forward, fixated on the arena, hungry for spectacle. Henry was on his feet, eyes wide, but there was nothing they could do. As the man with the claws began hunting, the chain link barriers around the arena solidified with lucrim and all of them were locked inside.