Chapter 102: Too Close To Call

Sean drew the Mystereamer and the Jellyfish Shield out of his pack, bolting towards Eike while he still had some adhesive-based slowness on him. Even now, Sean could see some skill of Eike’s boiling it off of him, baking it into his armor at the same time as it nullified the stickiness of the glue and left him free to move.

As Sean neared his own striking range, Eike was apparently satisfied with his glue-removal progress, drawing his big two-handed sword from its scabbard smoothly, like he was born to hold it. Sean supposed he actually was, in a way.

Pivoting out of the way of an overhand strike, Sean realized that he both had never actually seen Eike seriously fight before, and that the way he fought was totally different than he had imagined. In his head, two-handed swords were swinging weapons, things you moved around more with strength than with skill. Eike proved that wrong in a moment.

All his strikes moved on a sort of precise, well-practiced geometry. He’d bring the sword down diagonally across his body, then let it keep going until it almost pointed backwards before heaving it forward in a lightning fast thrust that in turn flowed into the next strike. Sean was doing a good job of keeping out of the way, but what the sword’s size actually did for Eike was terrifying. He had reach in a way that didn’t come with a single disability for Sean to exploit. He was, somehow, perfect.

Sean realized there was no way he was going to get close without some sort of sacrifice. Gritting his teeth, he stowed his shield, let loose both of his remaining darts, and closed the gap while Eike parried them out of the air. Slipping low, Sean put the palm of his offhand against the pommel of his dagger, driving it upwards into Eike’s sternum. It pinged off, harmlessly. It hadn’t done any damage at all.

“It’s nice armor,” Eike said as Sean dove away from him just ahead of his retaliatory strike. “I’ve seen you fight, you know. If I hadn’t, I might have used my normal set. This set is a little different.”

Sean didn’t have time to talk. He hardly had time to breathe. Eike was moving forward now, chopping at him over and over again with a smile on his face.

“This armor is really only good for a single solid hit. If you managed to hurt me, if I knew that was going to happen, it would be garbage. But for that first hit, before you break its initial buff? It’s incredible.” Eike lunged forward in a poking strike that ripped a furrow open across Sean’s ribs before he could get out of the way. “And I’ve seen you fight. You can’t hit me with any of the weapons you’d need to generate that kind of force.”

Eike wasn’t wrong. Sean had hoped he was lying, and dove forward under the cover of the Jellyfish Shield to try and get a strike in on Eike’s face. The shield was ruined in the process, with no gain to Sean, whose second and third stabs bounced off just as harmlessly as the first had. If this was a big, slow animal, Sean might have thought of using his flails. But against Eike, that would get him killed. His current speed was hardly enough to keep up with him as it was.

“I’m afraid this fight is already over,” Eike said, smirking. “Before you check, the armor’s effect covers me anywhere on my body, whether the armor covers there or not. You’ve simply lost, Sean. Not that I want you to give up. No, please, let me enjoy this.”

Sean deflected a couple other blows while he searched for an answer. If he couldn’t break the armor’s effect, he was dead. Sooner or later, Eike would get lucky, and he got the feeling it would only take one good shot for Eike to put him down. But he believed Eike when the man said the armor had no weak spots, besides that. And with no weak spots, he couldn’t hurt him.

Doesn’t matter. I’ll just make one.

Sean felt a surge of information flow through him as he activated the one-time use skill the system had given him, the one that let him imitate anything he had seen a friend do. He knew what skill he wanted, how it worked, and the limitations of the skill. What it needed, the system let him know, was time. The longer he could let it cook, the better it would work. All of which would be fine if he didn’t have a homicidal maniac chopping at his head.

“You know, Eike,” Sean said, backing off to give himself enough space to talk. “It’s sort of embarrassing, right? Here you are. On a planet I’m sure you think of as full of savages. People you think you are better than.”

Eike grunted in agreement. Sean got the feeling it was a reflex.

“But here I am, right? Worse equipment. Worse training. And I’m still kicking your ass.” Sean grinned. “I heard you were like a prince of your people. But there’s more than one, right? And I’m guessing there’s only one king.”

Eike surged forward with a series of enraged strikes. He could see where this was going.

“I wonder what would happen?” Sean said. “If they figured it out. If one of your people gossiped about how much trouble I’ve given you. How you couldn’t stop me. Sure, you could say you finished me in this last little bit. But it wouldn’t matter. Nobody would believe you. Nobody is here to see it.”

“It won’t matter, Sean. If I win. If I beat the Apocalypse. I’ll be more powerful than the others. Reputation doesn’t matter in the face of power.”

“If, Eike. If. I can’t kill you, maybe. But you can’t leave, either. Not until I’m gone. And you haven’t been doing the best job of killing me, so far.”

Eike glanced behind him, finding nobody was there. No other competitors in the race had made it this far yet. But they could, any time now.

“Are any of your people really that loyal, Eike? That they’d pass up the big prize? I’m guessing it makes them too valuable to kill. Seems like it would be your job to make sure that didn’t happen.”

Eike screamed and rushed at Sean, but his discipline was gone. Sean pinged him here and there on his armor, not accomplishing much in terms of damage but making him even madder than  before.

And then, finally, the skill felt like it was done cooking. Sean looked to make sure, and found the small glowing dot on Eike’s armor, right over where a human’s heart would be. Brady had been good support in a lot of ways, most of which would be useless for Sean now. Blinding Eike wouldn’t do much, and wouldn’t last long enough. But making a weak spot in his armor, one he wouldn’t notice until it was too late? It was perfect.

Sean dodged through a few of Eike’s strikes. The offworlder was hardly guarding now, counting on his armor and Sean’s previous inability to pierce it to keep him safe. At the last moment, just before Sean struck, he seemed to get a sense of the purpose in Sean’s eyes and tried to pull away. It was too late.

The Mystereamer sunk deep into the glowing spot on Eike’s chest, piercing down to the hilt and pulsing with lightning as it hit. Eike screamed in pain and frustration as he pulled away, yanking himself off Sean’s dagger and backing up in panic. Sean pressed in, finding that Eike hadn’t lied about the downside to his armor. Where before all his strikes bounced off uselessly, now he could cut his opponent at will.

Eike scrambled back under Sean’s assault, getting ripped up by the dagger all the while. Eventually, he got his wits about him just long enough to make a massive low-to-high diagonal swing Sean had no choice but to dodge.

“You think that will stop me? Me?” Eike laughed. “Those little swipes?

Sean looked at his enemy, who was now covered with various kinds of burns and effects where Sean had cut him.

“Yeah?” Sean said. “Seems to be working fine.”

“Well, it’s not. It’s…” Eike said, glancing behind Sean with surprise. Sean fell for it. By the time he looked back, Eike was gone.

He’s running away. He’s actually running away.

They had been close to the obelisk when Eike had forced their fight, and the split second he bought himself with the fakeout was a huge lead relative to the short distance to their goal. Sean sprang after him, using every charge of Hard Time he could to close the gap. As they passed through the door of the obelisk, Eike was still a bit ahead, moving towards what appeared to be a simple altar of some kind in the center of the room, topped with a floating, glowing ball of what looked to be some kind of liquid metal.

Sean chucked the Trash Compactor at Eike. It almost slowed Sean as much to do it as it slowed Eike when it slammed into his leg. Almost. As they both recovered, Sean found they were neck and neck. Sean pulled slightly ahead of Eike, only to find the offworlder had at least one small trick up his sleeve still. He pulsed with golden light and pulled forward, keeping up perfectly with Sean.

Sean realized they were going to reach the orb at almost the same time, but there was nothing he could do about it. As they both neared the target, they chose exactly the same footfall to leap, each of them reaching towards the goal. It was impossible, Sean thought, that they’d both touch it at the same time. Someone had to get there first, even if it was only by a hair. The system had never so much as hinted at something like a tie. There would be a winner. He prayed it would be him.

Sean watched as both their fingers sunk into the ball, too close for him to tell exactly who had touched it first.

And then, for the last time in the whole competition, time stopped.

Too close to call!

Does the Apocalypse System know who actually touched this thing first? Of course it does. But you managed to get the increment down so close to exactly the same that it would be both fair and possible for an outside observer to accuse it of unfairness. It would look like it picked one of you over the other, no matter what the truth was.

And that means you aren’t done. Do you really want this? Did you really squeeze every stat point and every prize you could out of this process? Because if not, you can’t win. This is now a battle of wills, backed up by strength. There will be no outside influence and no interruptions. It’s you, your strength, and your dedication to this cause stacked up against another competitor.

Get ready to fight!