Everyone moved to create an open space in the courtyard, leaving Chika and I standing face to face.

A mysterious observer is excited to see you fight

An unnamed observer thinks the human Player Daniel will lose

A mysterious observer wonders if the unnamed observer is willing to make a wager on that

An unnamed observer is always ready to gamble

A mysterious observer suggests the reward of a Random Reward Box to the winner

An unnamed observer agrees, and will pay for it if the human Player Daniel wins

Hmm, nobody’s reacting to these messages. Am I the only one who can see them?

Chika and I bowed to each other, then it began. Her jiu jitsu skill was at the Adept level, the same as my omni-do, but she’d been very good at it back on Earth so her practical ability was higher than the nominal skill level indicated on her Status. I knew she was an aggressive fighter, so I was ready when she came right out of the gate with an attack to my legs. She wanted to take me down and use her ground skill to win quickly. That’s what I’d do in her shoes.

I stepped away. She followed up with a series of attacks, which I used some blocks pulled from karate and kung fu to avoid, then took her by surprise by grabbing her wrist in an aikido hold and using her own momentum to flip her over. She bounced back up immediately, grinning.

“Try that again, I dare you,” she said.

Sigrid whistled from the sidelines. “Come on, Chika!”

I turned to look at Sigrid. “I thought you were on my side.”

Chika came at me before Sigrid could respond, hoping to use my momentary distraction as an opportunity, but I was ready for it. Once again, I used another aikido move to seize her wrist and flip her over onto her back. She bounced up again, looking flustered.

She kept attacking, a relentless combination of moves that I countered with a series of defenses culled from various techniques, frustrating her every effort. If she got me on the ground I’d be at a serious disadvantage; omni-do includes several grappling-based arts, but her experience would be tough to overcome, and even though we said we wouldn’t use Powers, she had a Gift that gave her extra strength that wasn’t easy to turn off. If she got me tied up on the ground, that would probably be it for me. I kept switching it up, agitating her and throwing her focus off as my defense pulled from various martial art forms.

“What the hell is this?” Chika said after backing away to catch her breath. “MMA?”

“Sort of.” I shared the skill description in a Status screen.

Skills:

Omni-do - Adept: Custom martial art synthesizing the techniques of Aikido, Boxing, Brawling, Karate, Kickboxing, Kung Fu, Muay Thai, Ninjitsu, Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Tae Kwon Do, and Wrestling.

“Ah,” she said. “So it is MMA. That explains things.”

“Not quite. Mixed Martial Arts is a catch-all thing that means something different for every fighter, depending on what they bring into it. Right now you’re only using your jiu jitsu against me. If you tossed in some of the kung fu you also know, that’d be MMA. Omni-do is a standardized fusion of all styles that brings a heightened synergy.”

“That’s a mouthful,” Sigrid said.

“I wish I could take credit. That’s how System explained it to me when I asked the same question. I knew using Synthesis to combine them would make the sum better than the parts, I just didn’t know exactly how.”

“So you really did create it?” Chika said.

“More like System created it. Whenever I pick up a new combat technique I add it with Synthesis. I’m thinking about adding in weapon skills too.”

“Kung fu includes weapons,” Chika said.

“Yes, but it wouldn’t be the same.”

“You mean it’d be better?”

“You said it, not me.”

She grinned at me. “Can you attack with it, or are you just going to keep playing defense and avoiding me like a little wuss?”

“Bring it, girly. I’ll show you offense.”

Jane snorted. “Don’t underestimate how offensive he can be.”

I went immediately to the attack, flowing seamlessly between different styles, never attacking the same way or at the same place twice. She couldn’t tell what to expect, a strike, a kick, a lock, a throw, and she began to get sloppy as her confidence waned. I took advantage and went in to end it with a judo throw followed up by a choke hold. I expected her to tap out, but she persisted in fighting it. When I felt that she was about to stop struggling because the lack of oxygen was about to make her pass out, I loosened my hold a little. It was just enough to let her escape my hold and reverse it.

And that was it. As I expected, once she got me on the ground it was over for me. Her thin but shockingly powerful arm wrapped around my neck to cut off the blood supply to my brain and the edge of my vision grew blurry. I waited as long as I could, but when I felt myself about to lose consciousness I tapped out.

I didn’t think anyone watching would know that I eased up early on purpose, but I could tell by the way Chika glared at me afterwards that she knew what I’d done. I hadn’t thrown the fight, not exactly, but I hadn’t gone full bore against her. Nonetheless, once we were both back on her feet she turned to face me and bowed deeply. “Thank you for the match.”

I bowed back. “The Player’s Champion remains undefeated. I’ll get you next time.”

While we were both bent over and our heads close together, she whispered to me. “Next time, I want a real fight.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, but we both knew I was lying. I also knew that the observers were about to make good on their wager, so I was watching Chika for her reaction when she saw that she’d won a Random Reward Box. I was not disappointed.

“What is this? Who are these observers?” Chika said.

“What are you talking about?” Jane said.

“Can’t you see them? All the notifications.”

“Again, what are you talking about? System notifications?”

“No, these are different. They look different and aren’t from the System. They say they’re from a mysterious observer and an unknown observer.”

“How mysterious indeed,” I said. “What do they say?”

“They placed a bet on our fight and because I won I’m getting a reward.”

A box appeared in front of Chika. It was wrapped in a bow like the one I’d been given after defeating the orcs, only this one was covered in question marks, like it was a present left for Batman by the Riddler.

“There are people watching us?” Jane said. “Who?” I saw her look at me and scowl. “Do you know anything about this, Daniel?”

Crap. How did she know?

“I’ve seen messages like that before, yes.”

“Who are they?”

“I don’t know.”

She stared at me. “But you have a theory.”

How the heck does she know these things? Am I that transparent?

“Shush,” I said. “Chika’s opening her reward box.”

I could see Jane scowling at me through the cloud of virtual confetti that poofed from the box when Chika opened it.

“Aces!” Chika said.

“What did you get?” I said.

“There’s a scroll. Oh, it’s a new Power! It’s called Life After Death.”

“What does it do?” Sigrid said.

“I bet it lets her keep going even after her health is gone,” Wayne said.

“Nope, it’s way better,” Chika said. “It’s not my life, it’s someone else’s. I can turn a dead body into an undead minion.”

“Sounds like my summoned skeletons.”

Power:

Life After Death - Novice: Create minions from corpses

“I don’t think so,” I said. “Chika needs an actual corpse to raise, you can make them appear out of nowhere,” I said.

“So she can take a creature we kill and turn it into a zombie under her control?” Byron said. “That’s cool.”

"So cool!" Chika said.

“So creepy,” Nina said.

“Doesn’t that make it less powerful, though?” Sigrid said. “If Wayne can make them anywhere, anytime, but Chika needs an actual, you know, body...”

“Not necessarily,” Bruce said. “Imagine if Chika had a dead dragon to raise.”

“Yikes.”

“I bet there’s another important difference,” I said. “Wayne, you need to keep pumping mana into them to maintain your summons, right? I bet once she creates hers that’s all the mana they need.”

“Then what?” Sigrid said. “They just keep following her around?”

“A true necromancer,” Wayne said, holding up his hand. “Our powers are unstoppable, Death sister.” Chika gave him a high five.

"I'm so gonna wreck some people with this," she said.

"Hang on," I said, looking at Chika. "What's that?"

"What's what?" Chika said.

"That," I said, pointing at her mouth. I'd never seen a physical change happen when someone acquired a new ability, but since getting her Arise power Chika had grown a fang. It was like a vampire's fang, a single white point that stuck out over her bottom lip.

The girl's hand went to her mouth, feeling around. When she touched the fang she reacted with a startle. Morgan came over and used her power to create a small hand mirror, which she gave to Chika.

"That is so coooooool!" Chika said as she examined her pointy new tooth in the reflection.

“So creepy,” Nina said, but she was smiling.

Chika went to hand the mirror back, but Morgan simply waved it away and it vanished. This was similar to the difference between Wayne's summoning and Chika's new power. Morgan's ability to create objects wasn't like how Byron made things using Artifice. Her objects lasted only as long as she kept squirting mana into them; after the initial cost of creation, Byron's fabricated items were forever.

Jane was still staring at me, but her death glare had softened into something completely different. We locked eyes, then I saw hers dart toward the reward box, then back at me. She smiled.

What was she thinking?

Then I noticed Chika looking at me.

Uh oh. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking either. I noticed both her hands were balled into fists. For a moment I thought she was getting ready to punch me, but then she surprised me by bending into a deep, formal bow.

“Teach me omni-do,” Chika said. “Sensei.”

I was only just getting used to her calling me senpai or onii-chan, now it was sensei. From senior to big brother, now to teacher. Keeping track of all the honorifics Japanese people used was exhausting.

“Hell, if you’re giving lessons count me in too,” said Andy.

“I would also like to see more of this technique,” came a new voice from the back. It was Sifu Chow Bo. He made his way closer and we all bowed respectfully. Chow Li glided along beside him.

“Sifu,” I said. “You saw that?”

“I saw enough,” he said.

“This skill isn’t so simple to learn. First you have to be proficient in enough of the component techniques before you can learn to meld them properly. System explained that too.”

Chika gnawed her lower lip. “So that means if I want to learn omni-do, first I have to learn aikido, karate, muay thai, brawling, and all the others.”

“Gotta catch ’em all,” Jane said.

“Oh,” Andy said, yawning. “In that case, I think I’ll pass.”

Chika grinned and tightened the belt on her gi. “I’ve already got jiu jitsu and kung fu. I’ll start on the others tomorrow.”

Sifu regarded Chika for a moment, then nodded approvingly before starting to walk away, “I need you for a minute.” Chow Li went with him and it wasn’t until Sigrid gave me a push that I realized he’d been talking to me and I was who he meant to follow them. They led me to a corner of the courtyard where there was a tidy garden with a burbling fountain. They sat on the bench and I knelt on the ground in front of them.

“You let her win,” he said.

“You could tell?”

“Please,” he said, looking offended.

Yeah, as if he couldn’t tell.

“Letting your opponent win helps nobody,” he said.

“This time it did.”

Sifu studied me in that disconcerting way of his.

“I have a mission for you,” he said.

Is this a quest? Looks like I get a reward after all.

“I shall do as you ask.”

“I need constituent articles,” Sifu said.

“Uh, ok,” I said.

“He means more raw materials like the Jackalope parts,” Chow Li said, no doubt seeing my confusion. “For his alchemy.”

“Ah,” I said, nodding. “Of course. Whatever you need.”

“Now that he has two Jackalopes, there’s something he wants to make. But he needs more ingredients.”

“There is a dungeon,” Sifu said.

Yes! It is a quest!

“Few know of it,” Sifu continued, “fewer have seen inside it, and fewer still have returned from it.”

“So it’s dangerous,” I said.

He gave a raspy chuckle. “Without question.”

“Just tell me what you need and where to find it.”

Chow Li slipped me a neatly folded piece of paper. “The what and the where.”

I unfolded the paper and read what was written on it.

“I think I may need some help,” I said.

The hoarse chortle rattled around in his throat again. “Without question.”