Street Cultivation, page 27
"I appreciate it. On that note..." Rick reached into his pocket and pulled out the bottle. "Do you think I should be concerned about these? She has me taking them and the side effects are pretty bad. Nothing I've read has been able to tell me if those are normal or if I'm going to cause problems for myself."
Emily barely glanced at the bottle, instead opening it and examining the pills before looking back to him. "I'm no expert on medicine, so I can't tell you a lot. But based on some research I've done for myself... maybe you're right to be concerned. If there was a medicine that gave you an immediate benefit and caused long term damage only after the match, Whitney wouldn't hesitate to give it to you."
"Yeah, that's what I was afraid of."
"I suggest getting a full medical exam. Ideally as soon as possible, but it might make sense to wait until you can stop taking the medicine. Then you can probably get the damage healed before things go on a bad path. You need to be careful about any training that alters your physical fundamentals."
And like that, a bit of distance appeared between them again. Emily lived in a world where she could just get a medical exam if that was best for her health. That wasn't an option for him, and the surgery or healing would probably be far beyond what he could afford.
Still, he thanked her as they headed out. It might not be enough to bridge the gap, but now he felt like he could at least see how far away his opponents stood.
Chapter 36: Fight Patrons
As Rick signed his name on the form, he reflected just how many decisions in his life were controlled by circumstances. Yes, he was technically signing up for this Underground match of his own free will. But given how strongly Granny Whitney had suggested that he take it, and the fact that she needed him to get more points before the big match, it wasn't really his choice.
Rick slid the paper across the desk to Alger, who beamed with his usual cheerfulness, but Rick could barely focus on him. It wasn't just the blackmail keeping him in the Underground. Joining a combat sect or a university had never been options for him. He'd ended up stumbling forward into whatever jobs he could get, leading to his present situation.
Strangely, even though his life was so restricted now, in some ways he was more free than he had been before. He had the strength to stand on his own and he'd managed to help Melissa gain control of her condition. Once he was done with this, he might be able to make his own choices.
"Boy? You still with us?" Alger peered at him and Rick realized too late that he had been spacing out. "This is a wonderful opportunity for you! I don't give fighters on the lower tiers named matches very often!"
"Yes, I'm very grateful." Rick did his best to push other thoughts aside and just smile. "I want to participate in the upcoming tournament, but it's looking like it might be a struggle to get to 250 points."
"I have no doubt you will, my boy. You have the pluck and good heart to make it." Alger paused, glancing toward the arena itself. "But you know, you still have some time until the match itself begins. Would you be willing to listen to an old man for a moment?"
"Sure." Though that made Rick a bit nervous, he absolutely needed to stay on Alger's good side... though the strange man's favor had problems all its own.
"I understand you are thinking about fighting for Granny Whitney in the little tournament coming up. As it happens, I will be fielding a team myself, and I could use a good featherweight. Tom is developing much too quickly to compete in that power class, I'm afraid."
That made him wonder about Tom's development and Rick wanted to check the other man's profile, but he resisted and just stayed focused on Alger.
"You seem like a promising young man and, though it pains me to say this, I'm afraid that Granny Whitney is really not a very good role model for you. I think you could do much better if you were to work with my team. Trust me, I would take care of all the details, and I do very well for those who are working for me. What do you say?"
For a moment, Rick considered it. Though Granny Whitney had multiple potential threats to use against him, the initial blackmail had been over the death of the Slayer. But she couldn't go to real authorities with something like that, which meant she'd go through Alger. If Rick jumped ship and went all-in with Alger, perhaps he could negate that threat and get out of the tormenting relationship.
But of course it couldn't be that easy. Granny Whitney would come after him, since he'd be effectively stealing what she'd given him at the beginning. Rick also wasn't sure that Alger would necessarily be any better - better the devil he knew. No, better not to take the risk.
Keeping all of that off his face, Rick responded with a generic smile. "Sorry, sir, but I gave my word that I'd help her. And I like to think I'm a man of my word."
"I see." For a moment, Alger stared at him, his eyes no longer dancing. But a moment later he smiled broadly. "It's good to see a lad with some backbone! I regret I didn't get to talk to you earlier, but that's how it goes. Have fun in your match!"
That was obviously a dismissal, and if not, Alger made it obvious by getting up and rushing from the room. Rick didn't linger, trying to refocus himself as he prepared for the match. Though there was more time before the multi-tier event, he wanted to reach the 250 point entrance requirement today, so that he'd have plenty of time to prepare for the tournament.
As he headed out toward the arena entrance, he discovered one more obstacle in his way: Granny Whitney stood beside the double doors. She smiled pleasantly at him, but he could only groan.
"This time too? I thought the point was to do well and get enough points to qualify."
"If you can't make it with a handicap, dearie, then you won't stand a chance in the tournament." Her smile broadened and she handed him another pill. "Now take your medicine."
He swallowed it as usual, trying to focus on the benefits to his foundation instead of the impending dizziness and weakness. Yet this time, after he took it, she handed him a second pill. This one was pitch black and much larger than average, enough that he wasn't sure if he'd be able to swallow it.
"This should help a little. Just be quick, dearie." With that ambiguous suggestion, she pushed the pill into his hands and waited expectantly for him to swallow it. He needed to work up some saliva, but he managed. With that, she gave him a pat on the shoulder and pushed him toward the arena itself.
Within, he found that the crowd was surprisingly large and raucous. Most likely that wasn't for his match - given how things had gone the last time they were like this, he hoped not - but the fact that a match he participated in was part of a major event night indicated how his status had changed. Unless this was going to be another unpleasant surprise, of course.
But this time, he didn't see anything amiss. The match was supposed to be three on three, a competition between some of the newer members of the Underground. According to Emily, it was also likely to be for the purposes of hyping up the lower tiers that people wouldn't generally care about. Alger really wanted this next event to be a huge one.
Tom and Henry already stood on his side of the arena, waiting for him. Rick headed to join them, looking to the other side. At least he wasn't last: one of the other team hadn't arrived yet either. He didn't recognize one of them at all, a slightly older man, and the second was someone he'd seen in a few melees, a ranged aura attacker he couldn't name.
"Oh, thank god, it's you." Henry glanced at him and grinned. "Based on what he was saying, I thought the third person would be some loser."
Rick raised an eyebrow. "Was that an insult or not?"
"I really didn't know, man. Think we can do this?"
Before Rick could answer, Tom stepped in, frowning at Henry. "Just who was saying that? Did you get a patron?"
Henry gave them both a sly grin. "Maybe. But does it really matter? We need to focus on winning this fight."
"It does matter." Tom glanced once to the other side of the arena, then turned to face the other two. "This isn't really the best time to discuss this, but I guess we're waiting anyway. I've come to believe that there are three real contenders for the victor of the multi-tier match. Alger, Granny Whitney... and someone from the criminal underworld."
As he said the names, Tom pointed to himself, then Rick, then Henry. Getting it several seconds later, Henry glared at him. "Are you suggesting something? Look, I don't really know my patron, I just know that he's a big deal. And that he helped me get a new bond to bail out my previous two. What does it matter?"
"Because according to my research, the hitman wasn't sent by Granny Whitney. And unless you think Alger is playing fourth dimensional chess attacking his own fighter, then there's only one major source left."
"You don't know that! There might be only three major contenders, but there are way more minor ones, and any of them could have been behind the attack."
Tom frowned and stepped up to Henry, who began summoning his demonic shell. Before things could get out of hand, Rick stepped in between them. "I'm not saying this doesn't matter, but whatever the truth is, we all need to finish this match. If we can't work together, that doesn't help anyone."
They glared at one another one more time, but they both stepped back. Hopefully they'd be professional enough to work together, because he didn't relish the idea of trying to carry this match. At least one fighter on the other side was in the welterweight tier, so Rick was overall out of his weight class.
The only bright side was the fact that he didn't feel too bad. Though the first pill seemed to have kicked in, his vision only swam a little and the drain was perfectly manageable. Whatever that second pill was, it was canceling the side effects of the first... or delaying them. Based on Granny Whitney's warning, he wanted the match to be over as soon as possible.
Fortunately, they didn't have to wait too much longer before the final contestant arrived, and he realized that he actually recognized her. It was the young woman with the spiked club, who he hadn't seen in quite a few matches. Did that mean anything? Possibly that she'd been recruited by someone else, but otherwise it didn't make a difference.
"Finally, it is time!" Alger stood up from his usual position, arms spreading wide. "Six of the finest new warriors in the Underground, all joining within the past year. This is their last chance to win glory for themselves through their grit and determination! Fight!"
Nobody expected his speech to turn into the fight declaration so quickly, but the sound rang through the air. The fight had begun.
Chapter 37: Three on Three
Before any of them could move, the old man stepped forward, one foot stomping down on the floor. Light green aura spread from his foot, a spiderweb of lines that raced across the floor toward them. Tom jumped aside, summoning his lightning, while Henry tried to move and didn't quite escape in time.
The aura lines leapt from the floor, snapping around his leg and binding him in place. Since they didn't appear harmful, Rick decided not to dodge: the beginning of the match was the best time to take his opponent's measure.
When the aura snaked around his legs it burned a little, but it wasn't an attack. Instead he struggled against the lines of power, testing how well they bound him in place. Meanwhile, the old man's teammates wasted no time attacking, as if they'd planned this. Perhaps they did, spending their time coordinating instead of arguing.
While Rick tested his strength against the aura bonds, everyone else began to attack. The enemy aura user began hurling spheres at them, but Tom made all of them explode early with a few bolts of lightning. Meanwhile, the woman with the bat leapt at Henry, who barely managed to activate his demonic shell in time. He rocked backward from the first blow, cracks beginning to form in the shell, but then struck back and the two of them began fighting toe-to-toe.
Taking a deep breath, Rick leapt upward, tearing free from the enemy aura. It hadn't been all that strong in the end, though if it caught him unawares it could hinder him at a critical moment. So long as he kept moving, he didn't think the old man's aura would be a problem.
But the aura user targeting him would be. Since he was suspended in midair, he was the obvious target, and several explosive spheres hurtled in his direction.
Fortunately, he'd chosen Bunyan's Step for exactly this purpose. It propelled him through the air, past the spheres before they could explode. The aura user had only a moment to look shocked before Rick rammed into him shoulder-first.
His opponent staggered back into the chain link fence and bounced off toward him. Rick tried to meet him with an elbow to the face, but the man sent his aura bursting in all directions, providing a cushion that pushed Rick back.
Not by very much. He'd expected to have been thrown back or stunned, yet Rick felt fine - he'd experienced much worse than this. While his opponent looked on in shock, he reached through the man's aura to grab him by the neck, then slam him to the ground.
Though he'd planned to hit him while he was down, the old man was advancing on them and he was extending a lot of tendrils along the ground. Even if they were individually weak, if that many grabbed him, it could be difficult to break out. Not willing to risk getting trapped on the enemy's side of the arena, Rick leapt back across.
That didn't mean retreating, though. He struck at the bat wielder from behind, and though she sensed his attack and pulled her weapon back to block it, the blow staggered her.
She lashed out with her spiked club and he managed to block the blow, but he regretted it - one of the spikes tore through his sleeve and drew a line of blood across his arm. Clearly, she'd been increasing her offensive abilities considerably. It looked like she'd dealt so many blows to Henry that he couldn't even take advantage of her back being turned.
A moment later lightning crashed down where she stood. Somehow she leapt back to her allies, so it only served to blind all of them. Rick stumbled through the blindness, grabbing Henry's shoulder under his crumbling armor.
"Get it together, man. They'll come again soon."
"Yeah, yeah..." Henry shook his head sharply and restored the yellow shell of aura, but he didn't look well. Had some of her blows gotten through?
Both sides took a moment to recover, but the rest wouldn't last long. In the brief pause, Rick realized how much the crowds were cheering. It seemed that the six of them had advanced enough for their fight to be interesting to watch, even if it wasn't exactly a heavyweight bout. Perhaps that was why the multi-tier event started with the featherweight class.
Then there was no more time for idle thoughts, because the other side was attacking. Surprisingly, the old man began, not with the aura tendrils but with aura bursts. They were weak and slow compared to his ally's sphere attacks, so Rick just dodged to the side.
Henry let out a roar and charged directly at them. His demonic shell looked impressive, but charging into fire was a bad move. Rick was too surprised to provide support, so aura tendrils soon began snapping up around Henry's legs.
Though Henry broke through them, he wasn't so lucky when the aura user attacked. Sphere after sphere slammed into his armor, increasing the cracks through it. Henry got off a wild blow that knocked the old man backward, but his armor was taking heavy damage and the woman with the spiked club was getting ready for a counterattack.
Before she could, Tom clapped his hands together, releasing a lightning shockwave just in front of Henry. It knocked all their opponents back and drove the old man to the ground, but Henry also staggered back. He didn't look well at all, yellow veins standing out on his face.
By that time Rick had moved to support him, trying to intercept the woman with the spiked club. She redirected to attack him with a clumsy swing. He easily deflected it... and realized it was a feint.
As soon as he lost his momentum to deflect her swing, she sprinted directly at Henry. Tom launched a bolt of lightning at her, yet she spun aside to dodge it and came back around just in front of Henry. He let out another cry, flooding more power into his shell and swinging down.
Her blow shattered through the shell around his fist and kept going, smashing through his helm as well. As pieces of solidified aura rained throughout the ecstatic crowd, Henry crashed back to the ground, his shell crumbling.
Rick darted in, grabbed him, and rushed out with another Bunyan's Step. He was still nearly struck by the aura user's spheres and more tendrils, since it looked like the old man was back up. Dammit, then both sides still had three fighters.
When he got back across the arena with Henry, however, he realized that even odds might be over-optimistic. Henry looked horrible and his lucrima portfolio felt utterly drained. It felt as though... no, hopefully not. While Tom kept the enemy at bay, Rick tried to slap him back awake.
"Stay with us, Henry!"
"...nothing left." He shook his head. "I drew all the bonds to the maximum... they won't give me any more... damn demons..."
From the corner of his eye, Rick saw a sphere of aura moving toward him, passing Tom's lightning defenses. If he grabbed Henry he just might be able to make it... but Rick realized that his coworker was down for the count. He leapt away on his own just before the sphere hit.
The explosion sent Henry sliding across the arena to the fence, where he lay still. That meant it was three to two, so they-
Out of nowhere the woman with the club was swinging at him. Relying on his defenses, Rick managed to fend her off, but each of her blows was heavy. Now that she was in range she could wear him down, so unless Tom...
At that moment Tom released a bolt of electricity at her back. Yet she again moved with impressive agility, ducking beneath it so that the bolt hit Rick's chest.
Where it had always been intended to go. Rick channeled the current through his body and slammed his knee up into the woman's chin.
The explosive force sent her stumbling backward, dropping her club. It was impressive that she didn't fall, but she was stunned long enough for Rick to close in and deliver several quick jabs that dropped her. Good, perhaps the most dangerous of the enemy was down. Without her, the ranged attackers...
