Depthless Hunger

After killing only three lesser monsters, Kai was starting to get frustrated. Not many monsters so far. All the other candidates he'd seen were trying to run out the time. The sun hadn't gotten far up in the sky, but he only had until noon. He wanted to find the Direboar, or at least some other challenge... even getting ambushed would be better than wasting his time.

Then a whirlwind slammed into the ground in front of him and he regretted those thoughts.

For a moment he thought it was a living tornado, then he remembered to use his spiritual vision. That made clear the spinning bands of viridian mana, whipping the air into a frenzy. They dissipated not long after he saw them, revealing a young woman in a green cloak. She looked vaguely familiar, with a mop of blond hair and a slim athletic build. She wore a top that left her midriff bare, but her hands were encased in gauntlets with nasty spiked knuckles.

"You and me, winner take all!" The woman bashed her gloves together with a cheerful grin. "I was planning to do this anyway, but then they told us to fight each other, so..."

"That doesn't seem fair," Kai said. She was obviously going to attack him, he just wanted more time. He pointed at the sack tucked into her belt. "If that sack is filled with your monster cores, I have way more than you. I have more to lose."

"While everyone else was getting cores, I was training my Class. It's a valid strategy." She gestured for him to attack. "My name is Inafay Corinin! Come on, fair duel!"

The Corinin clan was another of the largest in the city, and prominent throughout Goralia. Kai bought a little more time as he drew his sword. "That's not very honorable for a Corinin."

"Dammit, it's not like I targeted you because you got a weak Class. I'm looking for tough fights, and I've seen you kill monsters - you're a beast! So are we going to fight, or are you going to disappoint me?"

She still hadn't taken the initiative, and he didn't think that had anything to do with honor. Still, while she had been talking he'd gotten a clear look at her spiritual presence.

Name: Inafay Corinin

Total Power: 13

Windcutter Novice Class: 6

Physique Level: G-1

Soul Level: 2

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Inafay might be physically weaker than him, but she was no slouch. And she hadn't been lying about training her new Class: she had the highest rating he'd seen from any candidate. The fight could go either way depending on a few variables...

Finally she got impatient and thrust a fist forward. They were still many paces apart, but a burst of wind exploded from her hand. Kai managed to duck aside and felt the wind whip his clothing violently. She was already winding back for a punch with her other arm.

Kai ducked underneath the wind as he stepped in, his sword sweeping up. The tip of his blade would have cut her face, but Inafay leaned back just enough to avoid it. She grinned at him and dodged back with a little dancing step, as if taunting him.

Her next two punches went wide, giving him a chance to run in for a direct attack. Kai closed the distance... and then leapt backward as hard as he could.

Her gauntlets smashed together and wind mana exploded around her, forming a sphere so intense that it tore through the ground. That was exactly what he'd been afraid of: she was clearly a physical fighter, so why had she been spending so much time taunting him to attack? The sphere of wind was more potent than he'd expected, but he'd been able to get out of range in time.

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Inside the sphere, he saw Inafay's eyes widen as she realized her mistake. Not fast enough. As the wind began to fade, he leapt in and thrust directly for her heart.

She barely managed to jerk aside and his blade pierced her shoulder instead. It should have been a disabling blow, but Inafay turned her cry of pain into a roar and slammed a fist into his chest.

For a moment his entire torso was raw pain, then Kai felt his back slamming against the rocks. He tumbled several times, losing his grip on his sword somewhere during the process. When he finally skidded to a halt, he struggled to lift himself up to his elbows, much less get to his feet. If she hadn't been weakened by the stab wound in her shoulder, she might have finished him off then.

Was that the power of a trained Class? The wind had shredded most of his shirt, lacerations covered his chest, and there was already an ugly purple splotch where her fist had struck.

Kai forced himself back up and considered his options. Okay, he couldn't afford to take hits like that. But she was down an arm and couldn't use her sphere technique, so he had a chance. When he went to pick up his sword, Inafay hurled several wind bursts at him, but he was able to dodge around them until he was armed again.

"Damn, that hurts." Inafay let her injured arm hang limply and thrust her other arm toward him. "But I'm not giving up yet, so bring it!"

She unleashed a wind burst the next second, without any punching motion. He barely managed to get out of the way, but when he tried to step in, a second burst nearly caught him in the face. This was her fighting for real, effectively keeping him at a distance.

Every time he tried to get into her range, one of her bursts of wind would clip him. Kai realized that a lengthy fight would benefit her: she might be bleeding from her shoulder, but she could keep up these movements a lot longer than him. If he ended things soon, he might be able to heal with a potion, but at this rate he'd be beaten to a pulp.

So he needed to accept a hit. The right hit. Kai readied his sword, pretending to grip it with both hands while shifting all the weight to his right. Then he charged.

As expected, she retaliated with wind punches. This time he let the first hit him in the left shoulder, jerking his arm back. But he converted the blow into spinning momentum, his right arm thrusting out to pierce her stomach.

Just before he could hit, Inafay ducked. No, she wasn't ducking: she slammed her fist down into the ground and a half-sphere of wind exploded from her. The sword was instantly blown from his hands, and the wind hit him like a wall.

His instinct was to flinch back... but he pushed on. Ignoring the pain as the arcs of wind cut him repeatedly, Kai pushed through the sphere and slammed his head directly into Inafay's forehead. The impact made him reel, but when he could see again, the wind was gone and she was flat on her back.

He limped to pick up his sword, struggling just to raise his arms. His plan had been to hold it by her neck to force a surrender, but he wasn't sure he could keep it in place without accidentally stabbing her. When he turned back, however, he saw the young woman shake her head.

"No need. You could finish me off, so better to call it here." Inafay used her good arm to wipe away some of the blood on her face. "You're absolutely crazy, but I guess it worked."

"Are you going to need help?" Kai asked. "I mean, I'm going to steal all your stuff, but will you be okay out here?"

"Someone from the clan will be along to pick me up. I just keep everything in this... ugh, I guess you'd better reach it."

Kai took the sack that had been tucked in her belt and looked through it. She had over a dozen cores, a few of them reasonably large. More importantly, she had been carrying a healing potion that looked like it had been earned at one of the bigger waypoints. He drank it immediately, because all those cuts from the wind were starting to wear on him. Nothing he could do about the loss of his shirt, though.

"It was a good fight," Kai said. "But do you know anything about the Direboar? I was aiming for that prize."

"I actually took a shot at it earlier, but my wind slid right off its hide." Inafay shook her head, but she was smiling just a little too much. "If you're really taking it on... good luck."

"Why are you smiling like that?"

"Well... I might have been running away from the boar. Just a little."

"What?" Even as the pointless question fell from his mouth, Kai began whipping his head around to search. All the wind battering him had wiped out his sense of orientation. Which direction had she been coming from, anyway?

Soon it didn't matter: there was a cloud of dust growing on the horizon. It was coming straight for him. Kai looked down to talk to Inafay, but there was already a man stepping from a portal. He wore a similar green robe, so he must have been one of the Corinin representatives. The man barely glanced at Kai before he helped Inafay to her feet and into the portal.

"Have fun!" She gave him a little wave just before she was pulled through, then the portal disappeared. Leaving Kai alone in the wasteland to face the rushing monster.

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