Chapter 85: Flicker

    My Spark spun to life as the bike suddenly found itself riding over nothing, dropping down about a foot and catapulting me forward.

    Despite my increased mental capabilities, instinct took over, and I tucked my head in and somersaulted, bracing myself for the subsequent landing.

    Moments before my body hit the ground though, a gentle cushion of air curled around my body, lowering me to the floor.

    Screams rang out shortly after.

    “Shit!”

    “Watch out!”

    *Crash!*

    The crevice harvested more victims, most of those in front unable to register my unscheduled short-range flight. I had to hurl myself aside to avoid a tumbling bike and its rider, a death grip on one handle and a look of blank shock on his face. Thankfully, most crashers were Knights hardy enough to take a hit and warlocks with spells to save themselves, so nobody was particularly hurt.

    Well, I was glad I wasn’t the only one.

    Just then, Umara slowly rolled to a halt beside me, crossing the crevice at a much lower speed and infinitely more grace.

    “Are you okay?”

    “Yea, thanks to you.”

    I took her hand, pulling myself up before glancing at the others.

    Sure enough, all of them were perfectly fine, at most a little dirt marring pristine white clothes.

    The bikes seemed fine too, their sturdy construction and greatly reduced number of moving parts resulting in increased durability.

    My own bike was still active at first glance, so I slung myself on and tested the throttle. It jerked; the back wheel worked perfectly fine, but the front wheel snapped off from the pressure and went rolling off into the distance.

    I jumped off just as it fell over.

    “Oops.”

    “Is everyone alright?”

    Mina jogged over. She had been thrown off as well, but there wasn’t a speck of dust on her dress.

    After everyone nodded in confirmation, she sighed.

    “Alright, we should continue. Don’t worry about anything that’s broken. Just find a partner to take you. Everything else can be left behind.”

    She spoke while lifting her bike, checking and finding that it was okay.

    Hearing her, I shrugged and walked over to Umara.

    “Looks like I’m with you.”

    “Mm. You want to drive?”

    “No, I’ve had enough fun. I’d rather just cruise with you.”

    I spoke while taking a seat behind her, putting my hands on her waist before pushing them around her belly, wrapping her in a hug from behind.

    She looked away, her ears burning as she tapped the gear switch.

    “A-Alright. Let’s go then.”

    “Let’s.”

    I smiled as she rolled forward, all the others getting themselves situated and following behind Mina.

    Four bikes were left behind, but it didn’t seem like Mina cared at all. With so much money, what was a few broken toys?

    We continued on our way, our target thankfully not far.

    Within 5 minutes, we crested a hill to meet an untouched field filled with vibrant blue grasses.

    I looked out, wondering where these Flickers were. I had no idea what they even were, so I was curious, especially since hunting them was supposed to be so much fun.

    After a few seconds, I noticed some shifting in the field. The blue grass was close to 3 feet tall and hid quite a bit from view.

    Still, I was able to pick out something splitting the grass as it moved, slithering like a snake.

    It wasn’t all that fast, until I suddenly saw a small gleam of light in two places.

    There were several other entities that moved at that moment. There were around 5 at first glance.

    My brows raised, I saw Mina pull forward on her bike, her scarlet red hair shifting in the breeze as she peered out toward the field.

    “Whoever catches one gets to keep it!”

    “Really?!”

    “Out of my way!”

    With her word, everyone suddenly rushed down the hill and stormed into the field, moving as fast as they could.

    Umara was right with them, forcing me to clench her torso as she sped off.

    “Find the main body, and don’t let it trick you!”

    “Okay?”

    I answered back confusedly, not sure what she meant.

    Still, I looked out and felt an Aura nearby. It gave off no indication of danger whatsoever, so these Flickers were either non-hostile or weren’t dangerous.

    That made them much harder to find though. Still, blots of Aura sped their way through the grass, matching the rustling paths the grass made for them.

    “There!”

    Umara pressed the accelerator as she spotted the closest one, speeding after it.

    The bike finally flexed its speed, shooting off like a rocket with incredible acceleration. Umara was forced to make some sharp turns, but with the magic of the bike, so long as we didn’t hit a crevice and could hang on, it wouldn’t lose traction.

    I pressed against her body, shifting my weight with hers as we turned with the Flicker. We managed to draw closer, pulling up nearly directly behind it while splitting off from the others. That’s when I finally saw what it was. It was a wolf, but also not a wolf. The body carried a certain lupine grace, but that’s where the similarities ended. A pair of wings, translucent blue, sprouted from between its shoulder blades. Six legs gave it an unfamiliar gait, and reversed horns similar to that of a goat’s sprouted before its ears. Light blue fur, much closer to white than blue, gave off an impression of coldness.

    “Okay!”

    Umara jerked the bike, causing it to drift and turn toward the running creature.

    At the same time, I pointed my trench gun at the clone that turned to fight, firing and scattering the illusion.

    After that, the clone that ran to the left also dissipated, leaving only the one that I had pointed toward.

    Umara caught back up to it with ease. Her skill on a bike impressed me. Then again, she had done this before, probably several times throughout her life.

    The creature continued to run, even flapping its wings to change directions with incredible agility. Umara almost skid out a few times, barely able to keep up.

    But it couldn’t escape us, especially with suppressive fire. Firing bullets even illusively still utilized as much energy as firing normal shots. I still had to empower it with my Psyka and conjure spirits from my dimension. It was combat as I had always known it, except every shell I fired let out illusions that only I and the target could see and hear.

    Well, Umara could also see it since she was within proximity. But all the others running around chasing their own targets couldn’t.

    The Flicker was just fighting a losing fight at this point: our bike’s speed wasn’t tied to our mentality like the Flicker’s evasive maneuvers were.

    Sure enough, after I let off enough shells, the beast slowed to a halt, unable to continue. Its Aura flickered out of control, barely able to maintain itself as its six legs buckled.

    We slowed down not far from it. I jumped off then with my gun raised, Umara staying on the bike just in case it wanted to run off again.

    “So what do we do with this thing? Is there a way to capture it?”

    “Mina has the collar, but I can bind it.”

    She took out her staff, a large complex spell winding its way through the air.

    The wind was kicked up a bit, the blue grass around us swaying with her magic until the streams of air compressed and wrapped around the creature. I could see her magic coalesce around its body, binding and holding its figure in place.

    It could no longer flicker and release clones, even when it tried. Although Umara wasn’t launching Aura attacks like I was, Mana could still affect it. It was still a physical being.

    She walked up to me, the spell continuing to operate after having been cast.

    She had a huge smile, barely containing her excitement as her focus started to ease.

    “We did it! You made that battle far easier.”

    “I can see why they would be difficult to hunt. I attacked its Aura, so someone who doesn’t know how to do that would have to expend a lot more energy to whittle it down.”

    “Of course. I mean, look at those guys.”

    She pointed, causing me to turn to all the other bikes flying through the blue field.

    The others were rapidly throwing spells at sprinting animals or using their insane reflexes to try and slice at it with swords and spears. None of them were having an easy time; some were outright failing since they couldn''t track the main body as well as I could.

    The key to this game was Aura. Without that, you couldn’t win without overwhelming power.

    These Flickers didn’t seem amazingly powerful beyond their Aura. This one didn’t fight back with magic or its body. After I disrupted its Aura, it was too weakened to do anything.

    After chuckling at the hilarious figures of everyone fighting to capture those Flickers, I turned back to my own prey and walked over to it.

    I didn’t feel any danger from it, only warning. Fear was predominant in its posture, but an alien intelligence was easily visible behind those crystal blue eyes.

    It observed me as I squatted down in front of it. Umara also silently strengthened her magic, worried that it might try to hurt me.

    I reached out with my hand, slowly and without malicious intent. If it was a creature of Aura, it could no doubt feel my intentions, especially when I made them obvious.

    I was still surprised when it didn’t try to stop me, only apprehensive as I touched its shoulder.

    Its fur was incredibly soft, but the body underneath was rigid. It was definitely as strong as a knight of its level.

    From its shoulder I moved my hand to the base of its wings. It twitched, wanting to start but heavily restricted by Umara’s strengthened air currents, so I ignored the attempt.

    Despite seeming more like shards of crystal than anything else, the wings still had a corporeal presence, tensioned like metal threads and unyielding to my poking and prodding.

    After the wings I felt the horns. They weren’t metallic, but they may as well have been. I couldn’t really test it, but I felt they would be incredibly hard to damage. They were also pitch black, contrasting against its snowy blue fur.

    I stood with a sigh, admiring it like a piece of art.

    “What an amazing creature. Are they all like this?”

    “Every Flicker is unique. They’re all hybrids of various animals. Snakes with feathered wings, turtles with the head of an eagle, lions with the tails of a scorpion. No two are the same, however, these also aren’t normal animals. They’re spirits.”

    “Spirits? Like summoned spirits?”

    “I believe that’s the consensus, yes.”

    Umara nodded, walking closer to the creature.

    “From the legends, Flickers start out as little wisps, aimless spirits that spawn from other dimensions. And once they come to our world, they see all the creatures within it and create their body in their own image. This is why all Flickers are unique. They aren’t born from parents, at least not that we know of, so each one is its own entity and chooses its own form. The body of a Flicker is its personality.”

    “Hmm.”

    I tilted my head, scanning the creature before me.

    “I guess this one likes strength. It’s also agile.”

    “Yea, it''s slippery. The only reason we had a chance at capturing this thing was because you took it down. Speaking of, how’d you do that?”

    “Just used my Aura. I’ll tell you about it later.”

    Such a thing would be better explained during a discussion, so I brushed off the topic and continued looking at the creature.

    Suddenly though, I frowned with a thought.

    “Do these things ever take on the form of a human?”

    “Actually, no. I’m not sure why they don’t, but I’ve never heard of a humanoid Flicker. Some people say that they’re not intelligent enough to mimic us. Others say that there’s another power that stops them. Perhaps there’s something special about the human form. Regardless, everyone seems to agree that there’s no such thing as a Flicker taking on human characteristics.”

    “Curious.”

    I rubbed my chin in thought. From my perspective, there wasn’t any reason why they shouldn’t be able to take on human form. Beyond some intelligence and whatnot, humans were animals too. We had organic bodies just like every other creature on the planet. Or, at least from the perspective of Earth. I wasn’t so sure that was the case here.

    Regardless, the form shouldn’t matter. Humans walked on two legs and used two arms to carry out tasks. And if they could mimic the organ design of animals, they could do it for humans.

    Was there something else there? Maybe there was something special about the human form, just not in the way people thought. Instead of Flickers being unable to mimic humans, perhaps the smart ones did it and something special happened to them. Maybe the reason nobody thought that Flickers mimicked humans was simply because they were never able to detect one that did.

    It was an interesting hypothesis that couldn’t be answered anytime soon. Nonetheless, the very existence of a creature like this was fascinating.