Rick coughed as the ash dust he kicked up got into his nose, but he smiled again when the conspicuous rock formation appeared in the distance. He picked up his pace.
There were no signs anyone had been there first as he slowly circled the rock, looking for the cache. He grinned and placed his hand in a fist-sized opening, then stepped back as a precise, man-made line appeared in the stone’s face, then widened before the rock face became a swinging door that opened to reveal several glowing icons.
Halo Boost Points +4
Boost Points +1
Passive Skill Acquired!
Suffer for it: Blocks cause the opponent significant pain and can stun. *Note: Player character’s speed and/or strength stats must exceed those of opponent. Pain and stun effects are greater depending on how much the player exceeds the opponent in one or both of these stats.
Active Skill Acquired!
Back Tackle: A tackle to the ground from behind that has a high success rate if not countered. Great for sneak attacks, but can be used any time opponent has their back to the player. 2 minute cooldown.
Boost Points +2
Active Skill Acquired!
Flying Knee: An airborne knee that hits high. Fast move with little preparatory delay. No cooldown.
Wow! Rick stared at the menu, trying to prioritize which moves or boosts to address first. He moved for the boost points first. He spread them out, but put more into speed than anything else. He was certain he could still make Iron Fist work for him. When he finished, his stat sheet was much improved.
Strength: 5
Speed: 7
Stamina: 4
The Flying Knee was a gift. Though it only hit high, it had no cooldown. He could deploy it from most standing positions. He crouched and tried to deploy it from there, astonished when it succeeded. Damn!
Back Tackle was a much more specialized move, but one that could help end a fight if used properly. Once a fight went to the ground, it rarely took long before it ended, unless he faced more than one opponent at a time.
The player count at the edge of his vision caught his attention.
55…
54…
53/52/51…
50…
It rapidly flashed as it dropped to 39, then held. Rick clenched his fist as something moved along the horizon. He spun a slow circle, picking out other combatants on their way to the center.
He tried to determine which would get there sooner. Within a minute, some had already met and were fighting one another.
The player count dropped to 35. Then, while he waited, the number dropped again.
32…
31/30/29…
Then, in a flash, it dropped to 25.
Not much more…
He turned slowly every few seconds, monitoring the fights, and the numbers dropped again when the lightning ring appeared. Several opponents were close enough now to see more clearly, and a few of the skirmishers nearest the ring stopped fighting and ran.
The ring-out overtook more, including one burly man wearing blue face paint.
22…
18/17/16/15…
The ring stopped its approach as it arrived at the final circle, and blue lightning walled them into the ash land, stirring up clouds of grey dust at the perimeter, but moving no farther.
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In ragged packs, they came, like some sort of post-apocalyptic cheerleading team trying to form from various scattered starting points.
14…
A blond-haired, musclebound man was the first to get into striking range. Rick dashed forward to get the man to strike, then dashed backward, then back in with the Flying Knee, knocking him into the female avatar just behind him.
The woman, a Black woman of medium build with a short, naturally curly mohawk, pulled the man into a choke hold and his body faded.
14…
The woman’s face lit up, but if the defeated fighter left boxes or icons, Rick couldn’t see them.
He punched her in the face while she was distracted. Then, before the next combatant could get within range, he began Iron Fist. Her eyes went wide, but because of his speed stat, she didn’t recover in time.
Bang!
Rick felt her bones break as his fist came down on her neck to one side of her head, cracking her collarbone and tearing through ribs into her chest cavity. She let out two cackles of pain-laughter before her body faded. She hadn’t even had time to hit the ground.
Victory!
13…
Rick didn’t bother with the icons, as a shadow passed into his visual field from behind, and he rolled away. When he stood, he rolled his head to scan his peripheral vision, making sure an as yet unseen threat didn’t wait for him while he dealt with the most immediate. For a moment, there were no other opponents.
The next man who confronted him was pale, with dark hair and dark eyes. He wore a crown that looked broken where it tilted to one side. His black leather jacket matched his belt, and although his belt buckle wasn’t the same as Rick’s, they were similar in their punk rock aesthetic. Beneath the jacket, the man’s chest was bare, and heavy black boots adorned both feet.
The man dashed in, but when Rick blocked his punch, a jolt of electricity shot down his arm, rendering it momentarily numb. Though shocked, Rick didn’t hesitate, elbowing the opponent’s nose with his good arm, which appeared to surprise the man—dubbed ‘Punky_6x6’ according to his tag. Rick followed the elbow to Punky’s face with a Flying Kick, but the man blocked it hard, sending Rick stumbling backward. He transitioned it into a roll, and when he came up, Punky was there with his own non-airborne knee.
Rick slammed it down again without thinking, and his arm, which had recovered from its numbness, again got a jolt.
Don’t make the same mistake twice! Alex’s admonition echoed in his mind.
Punky’s next attempt was a grab, but Rick’s elevated speed stat allowed him to pull away, then spin to the man’s back. He employed Back Tackle, and Punky went down face-first. After fifteen seconds, Rick broke the avatar’s neck in panic instead of waiting for the choke, as a group of three raced toward him, pressuring him to get back into a position to fight again.
Victory!
12…
Two women and a man arrived at the same time. Rick began a Flying Knee, but used Roamin’ Cancel to abort the move immediately after initiating it. The act of instantly resetting to a standing position jarred him—should have practiced that first—but it faked out all three fighters, forcing them to block or dodge instead of surrounding him, which is what it appeared they were trying to do.
Rick dashed backward and tried to circle them, but they clung together. A fourth opponent, a tall Black male avatar named PingZ_min3 arrived, but rather than join the other three, the man snuck up behind one of the women in the group of three, and, in a surprise attack, choked her out.
11…
The other woman of the original three fighters, a stocky Asian female avatar, broke away to deal with PingZ_min3, leaving Rick to face only the last, and likely most dangerous of the original three.
His tag read “P00nist_ler,” and he wore a skin tight unitard like some old-fashioned wrestler. Scars adorned his pale body in keloid patterns similar to tattoos. Some appeared to be old burns, as if he’d branded himself, or his avatar, which was a far less impressive thing. He reminded Rick of an old fire plug, with short, bulky limbs and a bald head.
P00n reached for him, but Rick pulled away. Before he could recalculate, an unexpected blow to the base of Rick’s skull filled his vision with stars, and he blindly rolled left, into the feet of another unknown assailant.
He rolled again, but an enormous hand plucked him into the air. The hand belonged to P00n, who raised him still higher before slamming him to the ground. Rick winced and waited for the next blow, but other fighters had already arrived on the scene, and the blur of a woman in a karate gi filled Rick’s vision before she kicked one of the new arrivals, a man, down to the dirt.
Rick frantically crawled though a constantly shifting maze of legs before finding a relatively empty spot from which to rise to his feet and reassess.
10…
9…
To call what confronted Rick’s senses a “free-for-all” was criminal understatement. Half mosh-pit, half barroom brawl, the clump of the remaining nine combatants furiously strove for dominance. One of them, a blue-haired Latinx woman with fangs of all things, caught him in her gaze and began moving toward him.
Rick began the jab-jab from his Detonate skill, then again used Roamin’ Cancel to halt the movement and reset him back to where he began the move, which was just out of the woman’s strike range. Her eyes were wide as her right hook whiffed. A gloved hand pulled her back into the melee, and Rick lost sight of her.
8…
Though he now knew he’d place, Rick didn’t let himself breathe as he scanned for targets of opportunity in the increasingly heavy cloud of dust that hung in the air, kicked up by all the shuffling feet. A blonde-haired woman backed out of the mob and she and Rick exchanged knowing glances before she dove back in.
7…
6…
A man with a bloody face roared and charged him, but Rick stepped aside and tripped him as he ran, then followed it with a stomp to the man’s head.
Victory!
5…
Rick shook off the nervous realization he’d broken the top five. The blonde-woman he’d seen earlier succumbed to the choke of an enormous, bear-like bearded man.
4…
Rick tried to position himself to take advantage of the bearded man’s distraction, but at the last moment, he caught sight of a fist coming from his right. He ducked and uppercut the offender without even seeing clearly who it was. The powerful strike to the man’s jaw flattened him.
Victory!
3…
The remaining two combatants panted, moving at a pace that suggested each was out of stamina. Rick’s bar was at half.
He shot out another Flying Knee, then quickly grabbed the other opponent and dragged her away from the one he’d kneed, though she slipped free of his choke hold and twisted his arm, driving him into the dust. Had it been a one-on-one, she’d have had him then, but the pressure of her body on his back lifted as the other attacker tackled her.
As he stood, the counter dropped to “2.” In the otherwise quiet air, the lightning crackled and thunder boomed. He dusted himself off and faced his last opponent.