The three Birthrighters swaggered into the center of the gym, clearly wanting a fight. Rick glanced toward his boss, but the older man simply sat back and pretended to be absorbed in the magazine he was reading. Unless the place got trashed, he didn't care. In fact, for a miserable little school like the House of the Cosmic Fist, any attention at all was good attention.

"It's time for my usual sparring match," the leader of the group said, "but we found ourselves too far from home. Somebody will have to step up, or it will harm my development."

A feeble reason to beat up someone, but when someone with a generation rate of over 100,000 lucrim spoke, logic tended not to matter so much. Beside him, Rick saw that Henry was moving forward, trying to do things the right way.

"We might be able to find someone to spar with you, but since you aren't members, it will b-" The head Birthrighter punched Henry in the stomach, instantly folding him in half, then dropped him like trash.

Though a real blow from someone with that much strength would have killed, even the light blow must have dealt terrible damage. Henry curled up around his stomach, gritting his teeth to avoid crying out in pain. His whimpering made the Birthrighters laugh and the leader tossed two pearl bars onto his body.

"That should cover the fee, shouldn't it?"

Rick did his best not to stare at the bars. They could hold far more lucrim than the cheap little marbles that most used to transfer lucrim, perhaps 1000 or more. Those two bars might be worth more than he was paid in a month. Part of him wanted to grab for them, but he knew that would just invite the Birthrighters to mock him. He might be poor, but he had his dignity.

Across the room, Jimmy glanced up from the counter. "Yeah, that'll do it. You spar with him, Rick."

One of the Birthrighters standing in back laughed. "Funny, that's almost like your nickna-" He hurriedly cut off as the leader glared at him. "Just saying."

"It doesn't matter." The leader turned to Rick and gestured for him to step out onto the mat. "To you, I'm Mike. You'd know my family if I mentioned them, but there's no point. I paid good lucrim for the chance to kick someone's ass, so I hope you don't fold right away."

"I'll do my best." Rick smiled politely and took his time getting into position, pretending that he needed to stretch.

Meanwhile, he actually worked on his lucrima. Though he set aside his phone to prevent it being broken, he knew exactly what it would say about him:

Rick Hunter's Lucrima Portfolio Foundation 7000 Lv II Offensive Lucore 3000 Lv II Defensive Lucore 5000 Lv III Total Lucrim 15,000

Normally, his current available power would be divided between the different Lucores in proportion to the investments he'd made during training. That wouldn't work now, not against an opponent with over 100,000 lucrim at his disposal. There was nothing he could do to avoid spending almost half of his strength on the foundation that allowed him to fight, but he poured the remaining 53% into his defensive core.

It might not be anything special to his opponents, but Rick was proud of his defense. The exact formation of the Lucore had been his sister's idea, actually, built to help him avoid serious internal injuries. Lots of people who worked at sparring gyms ended up broken by middle age, and he couldn't afford that. Fueled by all the strength he could muster, it offered Rick a defense much stronger than anyone would expect for someone like him.

As Mike pulled off his jacket and let his lucrima aura blaze up around him, Rick wondered if it would be enough. He'd never sparred with anyone who had a generation rate in six digits before...

"Come on, little man. Show me what you've got." Mike put up his fists and hopped back and forth a few times, inviting an attack.

So Rick punched at his face. Even if the blow had landed, it had nothing more than physical force behind it, so it wouldn't have done any good. But as he'd expected, Mike didn't give him a chance, slapping his arm aside and then slamming a fist into his ribs.

Even though the blow had been pulled, Rick felt pain rush through his entire left side. He wanted to lie down and groan, but forced himself to stay on his feet. The only way through was to endure it.

Mike looked surprised that he hadn't fallen down, but only let it stop him for a second. He attacked again, a wild swiping blow that Rick barely managed to dodge. His opponent kept lashing out, each blow fueled with more power than Rick could generate in an entire day. And that was just a fraction of the power being put out by his Birthright Core. Seeing one up close, Rick was infuriated by how unfair it was.

His fury made his focus waver and he lost his position. Mike closed on him, furious blows pushing him further and further back until his only choice was to take the next one. Instead of dodging until he failed, Rick chose a blow to endure, raised his arms in a cross before his chest, and let it strike him.

Immediately he slammed into the opposite wall, his arms aching as if they'd broken. The wall was reinforced by ether enchantments for the sort of fights that took place here, yet the force of the blow shook it and made a few cracks expand.

"You can take a punch, kid!" Mike grinned and slapped his fist into his palm a few times, even those gestures radiating out more force than Rick's actual attacks could. "But you're not gonna win unless you can hit me!"

Obviously, Mike wanted to goad him into a reckless attack, then counter hard enough to drop him. Judging from the way his two friends were snickering, he had done this before. Rick knew he would be seriously injured if he didn't focus on defense, but he also couldn't make it through unless he let Mike get what he wanted somehow.

So Rick moved back onto the mat, making a few weak attacks while working to defend against his opponent's brutal blows. What options did he have? Henry wasn't watching the fight, clutching where he had been struck. Jimmy had collected the money and likely wouldn't be any help - he might be able to stop these Birthrighters, probably even beat all three of them, but he wouldn't do a damn thing.

Another blow crunched into his shoulder and Rick couldn't hold back his grunt at the pain. When his opponent laughed and began a series of weak jabs, he decided to just take them. These blows didn't have the strength to break his arms, so better to let his opponent enjoy landing a lot of blows.

Each one of them sent pain shooting through his arms as he desperately tried to defend, but Rick wasn't paying attention to that. Instead he focused on the Defensive Lucore within him. Though it was failing to defend him from the overwhelming power, it was also growing.

Lucrima cores grew in strength either from individual training or from interacting with other lucrima. Faced with such staggering power, the core couldn't help but absorb some of the excess lucrim thrown against it, adapting to the new challenge. That was the real reason he'd been willing to stand up and get the crap beaten out of him: losing this fight might earn him more power than months of training.

So he endured the barrage of punches and tried to ignore the signs that his body was failing. He let himself forget about his core as well, needing all his attention to avoid taking a devastating blow. Even if it didn't cripple him for life, he might not be able to afford the treatment for a serious internal injury.

"It's over!" Mike let out a roar and charged at him, swinging in a wild haymaker with huge openings.

Before Rick could stop himself, his training took over. He grabbed his opponent's arm as it passed, endured the burning of the other man's aura, and used his own momentum against him. The technique should have slammed his opponent to the floor.

Yet as he tumbled, Mike let out a shout. His aura went from a glow surrounding his body to a raging fire, hitting the floor first and stopping his fall.

For a moment, he floated in midair, staring at the floor and realizing that he would have crashed into it. But a moment later he recovered from his surprise and let out a growl, propelling himself upright on aura alone. He might be a clumsy fighter, but he was no novice.

The next blow, fueled by anger, was going to be the worst one. Rick knew he couldn't dodge or his opponent would just get angrier. He needed to let it clip him and hope he could survive the impact, but-

A leg slammed into the back of his knee and Rick fell. Too late he realized that one of Mike's friends had gotten behind him. Though he managed to catch himself by landing on his knee, his body ached too much to dodge, much less retaliate.

"We paid you for a sparring match!" The last of the Birthrighters kicked him in the chest, flipping him heels over head. Rick hit the mat painfully and then the young man put a foot on his chest. "Where do you get off using tricks?"

"He threw me fair and square." Mike stomped over to them, his aura fading slightly but his eyes hateful. "Step back. We might as well continue this little match."

As soon as his friends retreated, Mike kicked him in the side. Rick couldn't hold back a cry of pain as he was flung across the room. Had one of his ribs cracked? His defensive core had been growing throughout the fight, but it couldn't keep up with this. His opponent lunged after him, raining down blows, and he felt his core beginning to give out entirely.

Without it, blows like these would destroy him. Defending effectively was impossible now, it was the most Rick could do to focus on his defenses and keep them intact. And hope he could recover from this... no, that was a distraction. All that mattered was lucrima defense.

"That's your time." Abruptly Jimmy was standing beside them, holding out a fresh towel. It didn't seem like a man of his bulk could move quickly or quietly, but somehow he had crossed the room. "You won. Congrats."

"Obviously I won." Mike glared at him, but after a tense pause, accepted the towel and began to wipe off the sweat. "You need better sparring staff, old man."

"I work with what I got. Thanks for not breaking him."

"Hmph. I was holding back too much for this to even be fun." Mike kicked at Rick again, exactly where his ribs were sorest, and Rick barely choked back another grunt of pain.

He knew that the smart thing to do was stay down. Tried to tell himself that he was the winner in realistic terms, because he had increased his defensive strength and his opponent had gained nothing. Yet when Mike kicked him, he found himself grabbing the other man's leg and beginning to pull himself up.

"Know when to stay down!" Mike punched him in the chest and Rick automatically reached up to grab at his wrist. He couldn't stop the blow, but he ended up striking the other man's watch. It was an expensive ether piece, radiating power out in all directions at the impact.

The blow knocked Mike back a step. He looked infuriated, but when he moved up for another kick, Jimmy subtly moved into his path. "You've had your fun, kid."

"He could have broken my watch! My father gave this to me!" Yet as Mike examined it, his face twisted into a sneer. "But no harm done. Apparently Rick here isn't even strong enough to damage a watch."

"Yeah, I'll think about replacing him." Jimmy slowly herded the group toward the door. The three Birthrighters hadn't gotten exactly the fight they wanted, but as they looked back at Rick lying on the floor, they seemed satisfied to have shown him his place.

Which is why he really should have stayed down. Yet Rick found himself struggling back to his feet. His entire body ached, he was pretty sure several of his ribs were broken, and blood from a cut on his forehead was running down into his eyes, but he forced himself up.

As he left, he caught a glimpse of Mike staring at him. For just a moment, the Birthrighter looked surprised. After that moment, he sneered again and left with his friends, laughing a little too loudly. But Rick had seen the uncertainty in his eyes in that moment.

Rick wavered on his feet, trying to feel inside himself to see how his Defensive Lucore felt. It felt like pain, but he thought it had improved. Possibly enough for it to be rated IV instead of III, which would be significant progress. Almost worth the serious injuries.

A moment later, Rick collapsed to the ground. Strangely, as he fell unconscious he heard a woman cry out in dismay, but he was out before he could recognize the voice.