Street Cultivation 3: Chapters 49-51 (Patreon)

Triple chapter time!

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Chapter 49: Rick vs Raggest

"Finally finished your dawdling?" Josiah smoothed down his bristling mustaches. "Step into the ring, Richard. And do send a servant to summon Raggest! My lands, the cock crowed hours ago!"

Most of the other immortals watching looked apathetic about the delays, and while Rick had been standing there, several others had arrived. Clearly, starting on time was not as much of a priority for them as it was for Josiah. Yet as the delay stretched on, he had to wonder what they would think.

Part of him wanted to flee right then, but Rick forced himself to jump the pool surrounding the octagon. He sat down to meditate as if preparing for the fight, though he was really just keeping himself calm. Time stretched on, and on, and some of those waiting began to suggest that the match be forfeited.

"Rick!" Raggest thundered the word as he exploded from the front door, staggering toward them. All eyes were on him and Rick was shocked at how much worse the other man looked. He had dark bags under his eyes, his forearms were torn up, and there was blood under his fingernails.

"You... you did this..." Raggest slurred his words so much that Rick wasn't sure whether anyone else could understand, but in any case he was frozen in shock. Even if he could act, what should he do?

Trying to leap the circular pool, Raggest tripped and nearly fell. He recovered and leapt over it, landing in the arena with too much force. There wasn't rage in his eyes, just bloodshot desperation. Everyone else looked taken aback, and fortunately they weren't focused on Rick yet, but he wasn't sure how to react.

Then Raggest let out a cry and released a beam of aura. The threat snapped Rick out of his trance and he used a Bunyan's Step to evade it. He glanced toward the others, not sure if the fight would really begin like this.

"If you arrive looking like a ragamuffin, you can fight that way!" Josiah glared daggers at Raggest, then jumped backward out of the arena. "Let the match begin!"

Immediately Raggest staggered forward, trying to strike Rick physically. His blows each carried huge surges of lucrim, but they were clumsy and slow. Rick could have blocked them easily, but it felt almost wrong, like beating up a child. He had never even imagined that the withdrawal would hit Raggest so hard.

Before Rick could decide what to do, Raggest let out a roar and charged him headlong. Again Rick shifted just to the side, but to his surprise Raggest stumbled onward, tripping off the side of the pool. His head cracked against the sharp edge and even some of the immortals winced.

Though there wasn't any blood, Rick wasn't about to risk it. He quickly leapt to the side and shoved his arm in, grabbing the back of Raggest's shirt and dragging him out. For a moment the other man lay troublingly still, then he began to cough, expelling water from his lungs. The mania seemed to have faded, leaving him groaning and convulsing again, so he would live.

Rick couldn't say the same for himself. Everyone around the arena was staring at them, and him in particular. Alger watched with a cold anger, but it was nothing like the rage that Rick would have expected if Alger had known the truth. But he had to figure out what had happened soon enough, and when he did, it was obvious where his suspicions would go.

"The boy spoke of blame," one of the Nokan immortals said. "Could he have been poisoned?"

The bottom dropped out of Rick's stomach. His instinct was to run, but he knew that would only make him guilty in their eyes. Everything was ruined because he'd tried to help Raggest. He should have kept arguing with him, or ignored him entirely, but now his life was on the line.

Then the Siberian candidate spoke scornfully. "If he can be brought down by poison, then he deserves to lose."

"I didn't poison him!" Rick almost shouted out the words, drawing everyone's attention over the rising voices. He could only hope that his truthfulness was clearer than his guilt. "I don't know anything about using poison. Feel free to test him and search my things."

"There is another possibility," Qing Shan said, rising to her feet. "Who is this boy's sponsor? None other than our host, who has been in complete control of everything the candidates eat and drink. I cannot help but note that his candidate focuses on defense and the most powerful offensive candidate has just been eliminated."

"You dare?" Josiah leapt to his feet, looking like he would attack then and there, but others were joining in as well, shouting over one another.

Would it actually come to a fight? Rick saw everything sprawling into chaos and knew that the sensible thing to do would be to run. Other than the servants, the weakest people in the mansion were those equal to him. Getting involved could be suicide... yet standing back could be worse. All at once, he knew that this was his chance.

"I forfeit!" Rick's shout was barely audible over the commotion, but his words led to an immediate silence and all attention turned toward him. "There's no need to insult my honor as a fighter or Master Craw's honor as a host. Neither of us want a victory that was unearned. So I voluntarily resign from the tournament."

There was a moment of silence in which Rick caught his breath. He hadn't been sure how Josiah would react, but the immortal actually seemed pleased at the chance to restore his honor. Both Alger and H looked furious. If there had been any doubt left in his mind, it would have died then.

Arguments immediately exploded, but they had changed in tone. Some wanted to investigate before doing anything else, others wanted to reorganize the tournament, and some seemed to argue simply to disturb their rivals. Thankfully, Alger and H were both too engaged by others to come after him, so Rick began to walk away. This was exactly why he'd carried everything he needed with him.

No one stopped him as he left the tournament grounds, but as he reached the driveway Qing Shan appeared in front of him, watching him thoughtfully. "Were you behind this after all?"

"All I want is to be done with this." Rick just stared back at her, letting her see his weariness. "Shouldn't you be happy? Two of your opponents are taken off the table in the very first round."

"Ah yes, our house is quite pleased. We will make sure that the others cannot force you to take back your forfeit or otherwise disturb you. In fact, I would like to bestow one last Jade Seal on you, if I could have your card."

"Sorry, but it's back in my room. You can apply it to my record." With that, Rick walked past her. This time, she didn't stop him, merely examining him with inscrutable eyes.

Miraculously, no one else stopped him as he headed away from the mansion toward the highway. Or maybe the truth was that he just wasn't important enough in the grand scheme of things. Alger and H had used him in order to play these games, after all, not because they cared about him. Maybe he could actually walk away. Rick texted Lisa and Melissa to tell them what had happened.

A swift blow struck the phone out of his hands, shattering it before it even hit the ground. Rick leapt back, arms raised defensively, and saw James Travis standing in his way.

"So you're a cowardly little shit after all." James readjusted his tie and sneered at him. "Have you realized that you can't match your superiors? Just what I'd expect from someone like you. But the thing is, I really hate you, so I'm not going to let y-"

"Why do you hate me?" Rick threw the question like a blow and saw James hesitate for just a moment.

"It would take too long to count all the reasons! I hate mouthy little shits who don't know their place. I hate the commoners fouling the Showdown with thei-"

"I don't believe you." After everything that had happened, the hatred just seemed too flat, too forced. It was a bit of a shot in the dark, but as he thought about how he'd met James, Rick realized the truth. "Did Alger hire you to harass me?"

For a moment, neither of them moved. Then all the hatred on James's face melted into a slightly irritated expression. "How the hell did you figure that out?"

"I guess I'm used to being manipulated by now. Let me guess: he had you insult us in order to motivate Raggest and me to give us a rival. Everything you've done makes a lot more sense if I assume you were working for him. I just can't figure out what you get out of it."

"Money." The suited man shrugged casually, all the anger gone from his face. "He hired me to make sure you and Raggest met up, then to keep you motivated in the Showdown. So you're right, it's not personal at all."

That fact was troubling, but not nearly as troubling as the potential implications. "Has he done this before? Did he ever talk about hiring mercenaries, or someone named Jack?"

"This is just a job to me. All I care about is getting paid."

Realizing that he'd find no answers, Rick simply gave the other man his best stare. "Are you paid to actually fight me?"

"I guess not, if I can't trick you into staying."

"Do you want to fight me?"

Rick was gratified to see just a flicker of fear in James's eyes. The other man hesitated, then stepped aside and let Rick pass. In the end, he was just another employee, another way Alger intended to control him. He was also a dangerous opponent that Rick wasn't confident he could defeat, but he'd avoided the fight without throwing a single punch.

No one else stopped him as he reached the highway. Rick pulled out his bike chip and manifested it again after so long. Though he worried that he'd have lost the knack, he was soon cruising down the completely empty highway.

The oblivion of the wasteland around him was strangely calming, as if the mansion behind him and all its scheming immortals didn't exist. There was only the wind cutting into his body as he increased his pace. It seemed to stream over him, pulling away all the secondary thoughts and leaving him free.

It had been terrifying for a time, but somehow he had passed through. If the immortals did investigate, they would find absolutely nothing in Raggest's system. It occurred to him that his fingerprints and DNA would be in the room, but given how everyone roamed through the mansion, that hopefully wouldn't prove anything. He also thought that Qing Shan would help a little, for her own self-interest if not for his.

At last Rick began to pass by lampposts, which meant he was near the bus stop. He looked back over his shoulder and could no longer see the mansion in the distance, lost in the endless plain. Of course, there might not be any bus scheduled for a while, so he'd end up with a boring wait. All the planning he'd done and he hadn't thought to check the bus schedule before-

Molten aura smashed into him from above and suddenly Rick was flying, his momentum smashing him into the highway several times before he ground to a halt. Hitting the tarmac hadn't injured him, but his body burned from whatever had struck him.

Some distance away, he saw his bike lying as a crumpled piece of metal. Behind it, H stood without expression, a cigarette between his lips, embers burning bright.

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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.

-

Chapter 51: The Last Match

"I have never been so simultaneously proud of and disappointed in one person." Alger walked forward calmly, his cane tapping against the road, his face fixed in that awful smile. "You've essentially ruined poor Horatio, after he served me well for so long. Pity."

Alger flicked a finger and Rick started to raise his fists, but the attack wasn't aimed at him. A roar of aura surrounded H's body, tearing him apart in an instant and leaving only a bloody splatter. Rick took a shuddering breath and lowered his hands.

"But all of that remarkable growth is matched by equally remarkable unwillingness to take a rational path to power. Always getting in my way, working with my rivals, being a nuisance. I'd have killed you already if you weren't so much fun."

"What do you want?" The question came out ragged, but Rick didn't care if he was facing down death. He just wanted answers.

"I told you exactly that from the beginning!" Alger spread his arms wide and his grin even wider. "I want to see a warrior's spirit in this dying age! Clashing rivals, perilous training, desperate last second gambits! I want the flames of your ambition to burn this world down to ashes!"

All Rick could do was stare as he realized that Alger's strange clothing had nothing to do with the madness seething within him.

"I'm really quite irate, you know. Not only did you kill H, you've nearly ruined Raggest. That boy was an almost perfect find... utterly naive and devoted to nothing but strength, happy to go from step to step without ever stopping to think about why. In a way, he was one of my most perfect toys, shaped exactly to my specifications."

"Using him that way is just cruel. Let him go."

"But you... you are a toy of a different sort." Alger went on as if Rick hadn't even spoken. "A toy that I discarded and assumed would break. At every turn, you try to defy me, and yet you grow stronger. It makes it so much fun to watch your growth."

"I want nothing to do with your plans." Though Rick doubted that he could get through to Alger, he refused to back down and listen to the insane manifesto. "Now that I've seen how you work, you won't be able to manipulate me any more."

"Don't you understand? Everything is part of my plan. If you turn away from the paths of power, you will become yet another disappointment in a long line of forgotten disappointments. If you continue fighting me, you will either die or become ever more interesting."

"And if I get strong enough to kill you?"

Alger's eyes lit up and he leaned forward, his voice coming in an eager whisper. "Do it."

The sight of his joy at the thought forced Rick to look away. He was fairly sure that Alger wouldn't kill him now, but he was coming to realize that there were much worse things than death. Yet he was utterly exhausted, rendering any attempt to flee useless.

"But I suppose I cannot allow this to go unanswered." Alger became slightly less manic, staring down his nose at Rick. "All those seals you've earned... yes, they would be a bit annoying. I think I'll take them away. Before you went against me and ruined the tournament, you should have thought about the fact that your entire card is vulnerable. Once you're dishonorably disqualified from the Showdown, none of those seals have any meaning at all."

"Can you disqualify someone who's already retired?" Rick asked. Alger's eyes immediately narrowed, and for a moment Rick thought he would attack, but then the madman smiled.

"Clever lad. You were still a Showdown member when the tournament was officially organized, so I can only assume..."

"Someone else has my card and all the documents needed to retire me. It's already over, unless you can go up against all the world powers alone."

"Oh, there would be no point in that." Alger tapped his cane on the street thoughtfully. "But I can't leave you to continue meddling, because if you had your way, the world would be less fun. You've done so well with torment, let me see if you won't grow to meet a new challenge..."

From the corner of his eyes, Rick saw the soft glow of several lanterns. He didn't want to turn to look, but it was already too late, Alger had noticed. There were three floating lantern vessels moving toward them from the direction of the mansion, Qing Shan at the front with her aura blazing. Rick breathed a sigh of relief.

The sky descended and crushed everyone against the ground.

Rick's face was pressed against the asphalt and he struggled just to breathe. He could feel Alger's raw power hitting him like a waterfall, but it didn't seem to pour from Alger, it struck down from the heavens themselves. When he managed to turn his head to the side, he saw that all the lanterns had been grounded, warriors and immortals just as pinned as he was, his hope extinguished.

Just what was this incredible force? It was lucrim, but lucrim that was absolutely nothing like anything he'd felt before. Rick had fought warriors from many countries, wild beasts, and demonic techniques, yet all of them felt like first cousins compared to the alien lucrim driving him to the ground.

"Oh, now this is becoming tedious." Alger sighed and tapped his fingers along the top of his cane, as if casually considering whether or not to kill everyone. "The pity of it all is, I still need other players for all these games. This does make it rather more difficult to punish you."

Though Rick couldn't possibly fight the power that was bearing down on him, he realized that his lucrim portfolio was reacting automatically. His battered defensive core struggled to let him rise against it. Deeper than that, the Dark Blood Kettle was attempting to absorb the alien lucrim. It would never master it, but he was adapting, one small step at a time.

"How vexing... but I suppose you've always been outside the plan. Yes, perhaps it's better this way. I'll let you persist in following a path I think is a mistake and perhaps it will become something interesting. After all, you'll either come to nothing and disappoint me, or you'll defy me and make me proud."

Rick took a deep breath and managed to rise to one knee. The force overhead still felt overwhelming, but his soul could recognize it as a lucrim flow. An unimaginably powerful one, yet he struggled to get his other foot under him, then strained to his feet. Standing was all he could do, but he was able to straighten and look Alger in the eye.

"Marvelous!" Alger clapped cheerfully. "At the moment, you are certainly making me proud, so perh-"

"I don't want to make you proud or excited or disappointed," Rick said, staring Alger in the eye. "I want to make you worried."

For the first time, Rick saw the strange man hesitate, a moment of uncertainty crossing his face. Then he tapped his cane on the ground and he was gone, along with all of his impossible lucrim.

The air that remained felt thin, leaving Rick gasping for breath. Within him, he could feel the Dark Blood Kettle subside, overwhelmed by its attempt to adapt to such a force. He had absolutely nothing left, but he thought it was finally over.

Behind him, he saw one of the lanterns rise into the air, though two of the others had been crushed beyond repair. Rick thought of going to help them, but they could obviously handle themselves. And truthfully, they didn't really have his best interests at heart. Rick continued limping forward to reach the bus stop.

He managed to drop down onto the bench and just sat there for a while. Eventually he caught his breath and gained the presence of mind to stare around the landscape. He saw that the lanterns were only partially repaired, someone returning for another vehicle. If the sect followed him, he'd talk to them, but for the time being he'd just sit.

The bus actually arrived first, moving to park next to the stop. The driver kept the engine running but stepped out to take a smoke break. Rick flinched at the sight of the cigarette, but a moment later he saw a much more welcome sight.

"Brother!" Melissa nearly tumbled down the bus steps before rushing to embrace him. "You're alive! ...though just barely."

"Yeah. Uh, be gentle, my defensive core is shot." Still, he was glad for the pain of her embrace and patted her on the back.

Behind her, Lisa emerged from the bus as well, relief and concern mixing in her eyes. "I did everything as soon as I got your text, Rick. They accepted your resignation just like you said. So unless something went wrong here... are we done?"

"Plenty went wrong, but... yeah, we might be." Rick let his head roll back and stared skyward.

"So what now? You're unemployed again, but I suppose that's fine?"

"No. This time it's not." Rick pried Melissa a little further from his neck and sat forward. "I need to reestablish contact with Katenka and then work on our demonic bonds. I doubt it will be much of a business, but it should make a difference. Beyond that... maybe I should open a gym. I have the credentials for it now, and I might be able to do better than the House of the Cosmic Fist did for me."

"That's... a remarkably reasonable goal." Lisa smiled more broadly than he'd expected. "Maybe we can work together. My clients probably wouldn't have a use for your bonds, but gyms always sell serum and supplements."

"Yeah, that would be a good idea. We should talk about it sometime." Rick hesitated, but from beside him, Melissa elbowed him in the ribs. It hurt, but it also reminded him that he needed to take a step forward instead of waiting for things to come to him. "And... would you like to get coffee sometime? I don't mean to talk business or as training or anything. I mean a date."

"Well, I honestly thought you'd never ask." Lisa gave him a smile that was partially happiness and partially relief. "I think we need to talk about where we're going and what we want out of life... but I'm looking forward to the conversation."

Rick sighed in relief, since that could easily have made their victory awkward. Melissa pressed a thumbs up into his side. For a while they just sat there as he struggled to explain everything that had happened.

Before he could finish, the bus driver finished his smoke break, flicked his cigarette to the ground, and called for them to get back on or get left behind. Lisa went to snuff out the cigarette while Melissa helped him get up. He still ached all over, but less than before. Once he got some serum or elixir into his system, he'd feel much better. Fortunately, he knew a good person for that.

As they started to walk forward, one of the lanterns floated overhead. It had been repaired rather quickly, and now Qing Shan leaned down from the side, regarding him somberly. "You've seen the enemy now, Rick. Actually removing some of his pieces was more than we ever expected of you. There's no need to ride in this filthy vehicle... bring your allies and join us. You're free to join our sect and we'll do everything in our power to strike back against him."

For a long moment Rick looked upward at the floating lantern with its powerful immortals, then he looked toward the bus with Melissa and Lisa. He said "No thanks" and then went to take the bus home one last time.

-

This isn't quite the end: there's an epilogue after this, in direct contradiction to the "Life Has No Epilogues" chapter back in the first book. It isn't any shocking revelations or changes, but rather a glimpse of Rick in the future.

From the start I've been trying to do something a little different with Street Cultivation, both in terms of setting and in terms of the core message and character arc. I'm grateful to those of you who have come along with me and I hope you find Rick's self-realization satisfying. It's not exactly a conventional approach to cultivation characters, but I did my best to write the arc I had in mind.

Months ago I agreed with Tantor that the release date would be on November 20, which gives time for the free chapters to catch up and then an interim period before publication. Chapters of TWC will continue to post, and I hope you look forward to the epilogue! In that post I will say some more about the future of this Patreon.