Depthless Hunger

When it was finally time to meet with Inafay again, Kai found himself oddly nervous. Their relationship had always been comfortable, yet there had been so many new thoughts going through his mind lately. Or maybe it was the fact that everything had turned against him while she had just finished an extensive clan-funded training.

At first when he arrived to find her absent, he was worried that her priorities had shifted, but she joined him not long after. Oddly, she was wearing light armor over a long tunic, quite unlike her usual outfits. Her hair was back in a bun as well, which was an odd look for her.

"Sorry, I've been all formal lately." She poked at the bun irritably, but didn't undo it. "Anyway, stop looking at this, use your spiritual sight!"

"I, uh, thought it might be impolite."

"I demand you check out my progress!"

If she was being so insistent...

Name: Inafay Corinin

Total Power: 49

Windcutter Class: 17 (27)

Physique Level: G-8 (18)

Soul Level: 2 (4)

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Kai let out a low whistle. After fully developing her Class, its power had shot up until it was the majority of her overall strength. She'd kept up with her physical training as well, so once she broke through to the F rank, she would be immensely strong. At the moment they were still somewhat evenly matched, but he could easily imagine her leaving him behind.

"That's impressive, Inafay. Not to make light of your work, but I take it things were easier after the barrier?"

"Oh, it's no insult, it was a lot easier." She put her hands on her hips and mock-scowled at him. "But you have no right to act all impressed when you've come so far. How the hell are you outdoing everyone when it comes to Physique Levels?"

"Breaking through obstacles by ramming them with my face, I guess." He didn't want to complain with her, so he just grinned. "I assume you want to get back to work to get yourself over the barrier?"

"I do, but I think it's going to take a while. There's actually something else I need an outside trainer for. This will be weird until I explain it, but I want you to attack me completely at random. Like, no set start to the match, just take a swing when I'm not-"

Kai punched her in the shoulder with a fair bit of his strength. She winced and fell back, laughing.

"Alright, I guess I asked for that! And it actually proved my point."

"Which is?" Kai asked as they walked to the center of the private training yard.

"While training, I've noticed that Class abilities seem to take a while to warm up. That delay has been improving as I train, but it still takes too much time to connect with the mana, gather it into the appropriate form, and deploy it. I can do it quickly in an exercise, but real combat is too different."

"I think I know what you mean." Kai had seen the delay in some other fighters, but it hadn't been relevant the few times he'd fought humans. "I imagine that if you're fighting Class against Class, both of you just spend the first few seconds preparing."

"Exactly!" Inafay took a few more steps away and raised her fists. "But monsters aren't going to wait around, and some opponents might not either. Those few seconds are a weakness, and one I can't ignore."

"That makes sense. So what should our training schedule be? I was thinking-" Kai cut off with another strike, but this time Inafay was ready. A burst of wind flowed around her arm and her range vastly expanded, hitting him before he could get close enough.

Kai grunted in pain, but the blow hadn't been disabling with his new Physique. He would need to test its limits later, though for the moment he was more interested in the delay she mentioned. In the past, he had been watching his opponents' bodies, noting the tells in their muscles as they prepared to move. Now that he was thinking about their mana requiring a moment of setup, he had a new target.

Over the next hour, they practiced quick strikes, both at random and with Inafay prepared. Her actual speed at summoning her wind didn't increase, but her instincts improved so that she began preparing her mana instantly instead of unintentionally hesitating. She would have started hitting him every time if Kai hadn't improved in a way he hadn't expected: he was developing footwork and technique for a single powerful strike to try to take human opponents down before they could summon their Class abilities.

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Both of them agreed that the training had been productive and Inafay immediately set up the next. For some reason, their meetings changed location more than before, and frequently weren't in the upper city. The potential reasons for that bothered him, especially because Inafay didn't talk about why, but that didn't stop their sparring from being fun.

If anything, he found himself too invested in their training over the following weeks. Perhaps it was because Inafay was such an optimistic presence, or perhaps it was because their sessions were one of the most productive parts of his life. Throwing himself against her wind was one of the best ways to improve his Physique and he was getting better at ending fights on the first strike.

Focused on his training, he could almost forget about the ways that dumb luck had ruined his life. Occasionally he wondered if that meant something had to go wrong, and sure enough, fate decided that he had been ignoring it for too long.

One day, just as Kai was finishing sparring with Inafay, he heard laughter from overhead. They had been working on her offense and his defense, so it looked like she was just beating the shit out of him. It had never occurred to him to care about that, but he instantly understood the derision in the laughter.

He looked up to find a group of three young hunters sitting on a nearby roof. Though he didn't know any of their names, he recognized all three from the Hunter Trials: the Flamecaster who had awakened before him, the woman who controlled vines, and the enormous hammer-wielder. All three of them had evolved their Novice Classes, with the accompanying power boost.

"What's even the point of having F-rank Physique if you can't hit anyone?" the woman asked. Not only had her Class strengthened, there were living vines wrapped around her forehead and waist.

"I doubt that was his goal," the Flamecaster said, "he just broke through the barrier from people hitting him all the time."

"Is this what you've been doing, Inafay? And here I thought you had a paramour."

"Don't be dicks!" Inafay scowled up at the three of them. "Maybe you have time to go mock people, but I need to train."

The Flamecaster glanced at Kai and sneered. "Do you get anything out of beating up a cripple? Or is this a cruel side of you that we've never seen before?"

"I had to look for other training partners because you're all too busy being gossipy bitches!"

Staying silent while Inafay defended him made Kai's cheeks burn with shame, but he couldn't find any words. Though he had suspected that the strongest young hunters felt that way about him, hearing their scorn in person gutted him. Even if he could beat them now - and he wasn't sure about that - they would never really respect him.

"You're underestimating him." The hammer-wielder hadn't spoken before that point, but when he rose to his full height, the others cut off. "This one always has a scheme. He knows how little his Class is worth, so he's trying to worm his way in."

With startling speed for such a large man, the hammer-wielder dropped down in front of Kai and grabbed his shirt. His eyes held a deep distaste worse than mockery.

"Do you really think you can seduce Inafay? The fact that you're even trying is a joke. Her clan would never let someone as worthless as you stain one of their strongest young hunters."

Kai was too taken off guard to respond and Inafay looked shocked as well. She recovered first and jabbed a finger at the taller man. "Back off, Balgahai."

"I'm just telling the truth. You need to pay more attention t-"

When Inafay struck, there was almost no warning. Green arcs of cutting wind exploded around her arm even as it thrust forward. Balgahai's eyes widened and he began to summon his hammer, but he was too slow. Her blow swept him off his feet and a small tornado threw him into the two others, knocking them over and shattering the shingles.

"If any of you have a problem with me," Inafay said quietly, "you can schedule a match. Otherwise, keep your mouths shut."

It looked like the Flamecaster was about to say something else, but the woman pulled him away. Balgahai returned to his feet and brushed himself off, more angry than harmed. He didn't say a word as they turned away and returned to the upper city.

Leaving a very uncomfortable silence in the courtyard.

"You, uh..." Inafay turned back to him with an odd expression. "You weren't trying anything like that, were you? I didn't think so, but I'm terrible at picking up hints."

"Uh, no." Kai swallowed. "Umm, not that you aren't attractive, but I mainly wanted to spar with you. Does this make things awkward?"

"No, I'd prefer it if everyone was just honest about these things! No weird ambiguous flirting."

"Then maybe we'd better talk, just to be sure?"

Inafay tilted her head from side to side while working her mouth, as if trying to make the thoughts roll into place. "I'm afraid I'll say something dumb but I'm just going to go for it. I like you fine, but not in that way. If my parents were going to force me to marry someone, and you were one of the options, I'd be relieved. I mean, I think you're pretty handsome and we get along great. But given the way things are..."

"Your parents might have married you off like that?"

"Even if I'd awakened a weak Class, the Corinin name has some weight." Inafay visibly forced herself to grin and summoned a sphere of wind around her fist. "But now, nobody can tell me what to do. I want to focus on training first and wait until I'm really swept off my feet in love, you know? Maybe it's silly to believe in soulmates, but I'm still hoping."

It was surprisingly romantic, given what he'd seen of Inafay, and Kai found himself smiling. "I guess I feel the same way. It looks like my best hope in life might be getting married by someone stronger, so I wouldn't be upset if you were offering. But since you're not going the decadent route and taking ten husbands..."

"Has this all been a roundabout way of submitting your application for concubinage?" Inafay's grin turned real and she punched him in the shoulder. "No way, you deserve better than that. I have no idea what to tell you about Classes, but I think you're the best fighter of any of us. This is just a game or a way to get status to most, but you have this vicious edge that I wish I could match. So whatever happens to you, I hope you find someone who really loves you."

"That's..." He wasn't sure what to say to that, so he just swallowed the strange sadness. "I hope you do too."

"Okay, enough sappy talk! I guess we'll need to figure out a way to prevent them from harassing us again."

"Is that the reason we've been moving around?"

"Yeah, I wanted to spare you all that shit. Plus, I don't want them learning about the new advantages I'm trying to develop. Thanks for not defending yourself and revealing anything, by the way. It's best if they think I'm just wasting my time out here."

"Uh, no problem." He'd been too puzzled to speak, but he was happy to let Inafay think he had been honorably stoic.

They made arrangements for their next training session and Kai made himself smile until he left. As he walked back home, he had no idea if he felt better or worse.

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