Chapter 4: The Ghost Reflex

There were no tricks. Etzli's ghost was solid mass now. It could be grappled, punched, and kicked. Paras took full advantage, pummeling the ghost with unrestrained brutality.

"Alright, that's just unnecessary," Etzli commented.

The ghost looked enough like Etzli that she felt personally targeted by Paras's brutal attacks. She found herself rooting for the damn ghost.

The brawl skidded around the dusty floor. The ghost blocked every strike Paras threw at it, then mirrored her moves. It threw her own punches back at her. Paras wasn't as quick as the ghost. She ate more fists than she delivered.

Etzli watched, anger heating her insides. There were three to five trials to complete, in order to pass the Criterion. She had a long day ahead of her in the quest to earn her place as an Outranger.

She glanced back at the ancient words carved into the door. "Enter alone. Leave as one."

It seemed so clear to her: if they wanted to cross the room and exit out the other side, they needed to work together. But just how in the hell was Etzli supposed to work with a Domu nutcase whose only plan for anything was punch-punch-kick-thwack?

Pausing to catch her breath, Paras retreated from the ghost and let out an enraged shout. For all her effort, she was no closer to the exit.

Etzli hoped this was the point when Paras would stop and rethink the problem.

Paras raised her fists, ready to resume fighting.

Etzli sighed.

"Quiet," Paras snapped.

Etzli's ghost transformed in front of Paras. It no longer resembled Etzli. Now it resembled Paras.

Frowning, Etzli glanced back at the second ghost.

Sure enough, it now resembled Etzli.

"A-ha," she said.

"Quiet!" Paras shouted.

Etzli put up her hands. "I'm not saying anything."

"Acting like you've solved the riddle." Paras jabbed at her ghost, then threw a heavy punch with her other fist. The ghost blocked it easily, then mirrored the exact same move. Only faster.

Paras took a punch to the skull. Bell rung, she stumbled back.

"Just think I'm starting to understand the rules." Etzli regarded her own ghost, which tilted its head as if it were regarding her right back.

Etzli waved at her ghost. "Hi!"

The ghost waved back.

Even though she knew it was just mirroring her movements, Etzli immediately liked the ghost better. A little polite reciprocation put it ahead of most people she'd met in her life, including Paras.

Etzli walked right up to the line at the room's midpoint. The ghost met her there.

As Paras grappled with her own ghost nearby, Etzli sat down criss-cross-apple-sauce on the dusty floor.

The ghost sat down in front of her.

"Well," Etzli said, "Do you think we can talk this out?"

Her ghost said nothing.

Paras let out an enraged scream as she was flipped over and slammed down onto her back.

Etzli looked over. She saw the blood, the limp, the sagging fists. Paras was on her last legs. "Maybe it's time to try a new approach?"

Hands on her knees, gasping for breath, Paras asked, "You talking to me?"

"I am."

"Well, don't."

Etzli said, "Look, we get it. You're tough. But if this trial was about raw fighting, then I think you'd have passed by now. So, it's something else. You keep just throwing down with that thing, you're gonna get yourself killed."

Paras scowled. "You still talking to me?"

"Oh my gods, whatever," Etzli sighed. "Just trying to help you."

"One more word," Paras warned her. "Say one more word to me and, when I finish with this thing, I'm going to come over there and put you back on the ground. And, I promise, you won't be getting back up."

Etzli muttered, "That'd be super scary if you weren't all ass-whupped."

"That's it!" Paras roared. "I'll show you arse-whooped!"

Fueled by anger, she charged the ghost. She feinted left, dodged right, clawed out. She grabbed the ghost by its wispy throat and slammed it to the ground. She put her knee on its chest. Then she began pounding its featureless face.

Watching, Etzli breathed, "Yikes."

Paras poured all her hatred into her fists. If she could've, she would've shot smoke from her nostrils. She emptied herself into her attack. Held nothing back.

The ghost didn't appear to care.

Paras started to get tired, to slow down.

The ghost waited patiently.

Etzli got worried. This went beyond the trial, beyond her own desires. The ghost was waiting Paras out, preparing to strike. Candidates often got injured during the Criterion. Some even got killed.

But Etzli wasn't going to stand by and watch someone die in a trial, not even a Domu nutcase.

She got to her feet.

Her ghost stood up, as well.

"Paras, back off of it."

"Shut up," Paras slurred. She wobbled a little, exhausted, but she refused to stop hitting.

Etzli started running. "Paras? Listen to me. It's about to counter."

"It's almost... down," Paras said in a distant voice.

"No, it isn't! Get bac--"

The ghost unleashed a powerful uppercut to Paras's chin. Her head snapped back. Her teeth clacked hard. Blood flew. A tooth tumbled off into the shadows.

Paras began to fall.

The ghost pulled back for another hit.

Etzli dove in and grabbed the ghost with both hands. She tried to hold it back. She felt a consciousness there. Very old. And very patient.

A strange sensation of familiarity swept through Etzli, deeper than she'd ever experienced before. This was no random spirit.

It began to grow.

To shift.

The eyes blazed in living shadow. The underbite jutted forward, developing tusks. It towered over ten feet high. Its water-like appendages reached out.

Scrambling back, Etzli screamed, "No, please... No!"

The monster engulfed the second ghost, and grew another few feet.

Etzli fell to her knees and shielded Paras with her body. She knew it wouldn't make any difference, but it was the only thing she could think to do to protect her.

Barely conscious, Paras squinted up. "What is that?"

"Can you run?" Etzli asked her.

Paras pointed past the monster. "Who are they?"

Etzli turned.

Other ghosts began entering the room. A handful at first, emerging from the walls. Then dozens. Hundreds. They all lurched forward.

The towering monster closed in on Etzli and Paras, leading its army of the dead.

"Leave me alone!" Etzli cried, and then the monster was upon them. It attacked with a strength she couldn't hope to match. Hungry shadows descended. Somewhere in the darkness, Paras screamed in pain.

Weeping, punching in all directions and hitting nothing, Etzli begged the monster for a quick death.

***

Crashing waves. The taste of salt on the air. Gulls cried above.

Etzli awoke by the sea. Even in the gloominess of the overcast day, she had to squint. The dull light stung her eyes. She'd been in the dark of the mountain for too long.

She sat up on a gurney, one in a line of many in a long tent. Something crinkled on her chest. A medical patch, placed on the dagger wound. There was pain, but she felt wrung out. Empty.

A line of rock-hoppers waited nearby.

Etzli bit her lip against the tears. She was glad for the biting wind, for the dark bruised clouds racing above, even for the fiery face of Ithilia growing out of the horizon like a tumor. The ugly weather matched her mood.

Other failed candidates, heads down and shoulders slumped, limped to their shuttles. Some were carried out on stretchers. One individual was covered with a blood-spattered sheet.

Etzli hoped it wasn't Paras.

A robed man, an Elder, approached. He bowed politely to her and raised one hand, indicating the shuttle home.

Etzli hesitated. "Can I just ask one thing?"

The Elder nodded.

"Is Paras alright?" she asked. "The... thing that appeared, I mean, I don't know what that was, but it looked dangerous. I think it might've attacked her? Did she make it out alright?"

Before the Elder could reply, she continued:

"And there were others. At first, there were just two, one for each of us, and that seemed to make sense, but then a whole mob of them came in and I started to think maybe that wasn't really a fair test of our skills, you know? Or was it maybe a glitch?"

The Elder tried to answer, but the questions kept pouring out of Etzli:

"Do you get glitches like that often? Is it all simulated, or was that real? Was all of it part of the Criterion? Because it didn't feel like any of that should've happened. I just want to report that, you know, to the authorities. There may be something wrong with your trials, and, and I just wanna make sure you're looking into that."

The Elder waited.

Etzli opened her mouth to ask more, but thought better of it.

Finally, the Elder said, "Yes."

Etzli frowned. "Yes to which part?"

"We are looking into it."

"Okay, but what about Paras?"

"The status of an individual candidate is considered privileged information."

"What's that mean?" asked Etzli.

"I'm afraid if you want more information, you'll have to contact the candidate on your own."

"But I don't know her," said Etzli.

"Well, that's all right then," said the Elder. He once again gestured to the nearest shuttle. "Please move along. There are more candidates on the way down, and we need the bed."

Etzli climbed off the gurney. She didn't understand. Not any of it. Nevertheless, she climbed aboard the shuttle and returned home. The ride back felt longer than normal, three times as long, because Etzli spent the whole way trying not to think about the ghostly monster — and the fact that its eyes were so familiar. She saw them every time she looked in the mirror.