Depthless Hunger: A Progression LitRPG, page 49
Anaelina started to pass their street and skidded to a halt as she saw them. Too late.
Chapter 87: Monstrous Hunger
Fighting the Irunians had clearly taken a toll, because Anaelina bled from multiple wounds. Yet she still moved with ease and her eyes were glowing silver, just as they had when she'd tried to kill him. As she walked toward them, she flicked her hair back over her shoulder.
"So stubborn!" She clicked her tongue at them like a disapproving parent. "But I'm afraid I'm not letting up now. There's something strange about you that I'm desperately curious about."
Zae Zin Nim elbowed him in the ribs and stepped forward. She still wanted him to try the severing technique? It made the most sense to him to fight together and hope that they could kill Anaelina, but she seemed very determined, so he focused internally.
When Anaelina attacked, Zae Zin Nim met her with a qi strike. This time the silver demon wasn't holding back and her aura smothered the alley. Blue flames lit up around Zae Zin Nim and she didn't even stumble, allowing her to land one solid hit. Not enough.
While they fought, Kai desperately searched deeper within himself. He abandoned the idea of using his spiritual sight and scrabbled for something intuitive. There couldn't be any trace of Anaelina's monstrous nature within him or he would have noticed. Unless it could be the Monstrous Hunger? When Kai pondered it, his vision began to dim, as if he was sinking into a pitch-black pool...
A cry of pain pulled him back. He saw that Anaelina had grabbed Zae Zin Nim by the shoulder and now forced the other woman to her knees. Qi began to flow through her grip and Kai realized with horror that it was only beginning. Soon she would begin to drain away Zae Zin Nim's fundamental cultivation, destroying everything that she had worked so hard for.
Kai attacked with everything he had, but just before he used a claw, Anaelina lifted Zae Zin Nim as a human shield. He hesitated and a second later her hand was around his throat, slamming him into the wall.
"Now, let's see..." Anaelina gave him a predatory grin and squeezed... and then faltered. "What have you done to yourself? I can feel a deliciously strong power, but it's incredibly inaccessible... hmm..."
She spoke like her draining skill wasn't working, but Kai's head was swirling. Even if his strength wasn't draining, he couldn't stay conscious for long. His vision was going dark again, the water was rising, then all at once he plunged through.
.
..
.
At first he thrashed wildly in endless darkness, then Kai flailed into the air. He landed on what should have been a shore, but everything felt wrong. The sand didn't stick to his hands and felt oddly smooth, like it was composed of endless dark beads.
Black water, black sand, black sky, yet somehow he could see. Kai stumbled to his feet and looked around himself in confusion.
The only possible explanation was that he had been sent inside himself, either spiritually or mentally. It was almost like the technique Zae Zin Nim had been trying to teach him, but something had definitely gone wrong. What was he supposed to do in this empty landscape?
Thoughts of her urged him to hurry. Everything felt timeless around him, but the real world might still be moving forward. Anaelina might be draining away everything he'd gained or killing Zae Zin Nim. There was no time to waste.
When Kai pushed inward, a monster erupted from the sand. He raised a fist to fight it, only to stumble directly through. Thrown off balance, he staggered several steps before turning back and beginning to understand.
What he'd interpreted as a monster attack was actually a motionless Direboar. Not only that, he was sure that it was the exact beast he had fought in the Hunter Trials. Now that he wasn't so disoriented, he reached out and touched the fur. It wasn't ghostly anymore and instead thrummed with the strength he so often felt filling himself.
As he walked further, Kai almost stumbled over the Gomodo. Moving a little to one side, he managed to find the Isulfr. None of them moved as they had in life. The more he walked, the more confident he felt. Even if this was some sort of distorted mental technique, he was moving inside his own essence. This strange place was him, so he should be in charge.
Quickly moving in a circle, Kai made all the monsters he knew surface from the dark sand. Then the only issue was finding what didn't belong. One of the statue-like monsters was an amorphous mass and shifted every time he looked at it, but he was sure that was the unknown monster core. No, there must be something else.
Eventually he spotted it: a single brown bead amid all the black. Kai picked it up and immediately felt the long-forgotten sensation of his Laborer Class. Was this a final remnant that hadn't been stolen, or had Anaelina intentionally left it to track him? He didn't see any hint of her silvery power, so the bead was his best guess.
He had worried that it would be hard to destroy, but when Kai squeezed the bead in his fist, it crumbled instantly. That felt right. Regardless of whether or not it broke the connection between them, he was glad to turn his back on his old Class for good.
Now the only problem was that he hadn't left his soul.
Kai tried to run back to the water and only got his pants wet. When he tried to tunnel through the sand, it gently pushed him back to the surface. How was he supposed to leave? People could be fighting and dying outside while he fumbled with a new technique.
"No. Calm down. Think." Kai took a deep breath and examined his inner world more carefully.
It had seemed larger at first, but he was standing on a tiny island of dark sand in the midst of a dark ocean that extended forever. The monsters within him stood motionless... and he noted something about them. Not only were they arranged in a circle, they all seemed to be looking inward.
When he began walking to the center, his legs shook. There was something at the heart of all this, he was certain of it. He tried to tell himself that it would just be the human aspects of his strength or something else that would be a simple explanation. Instead he just kept thinking about the fact that there was one other thing unrepresented...
Something ravenous burst from the sand and leapt upon him with a world-shaking roar and it all came apart.
.
..
.
Kai opened his eyes and saw that Anaelina still had him pinned against the wall. She looked more frustrated than before, but not much time could have passed. He still didn't feel any of his strength draining away as it had the first time.
"I guess I didn't lose you after all." She grimaced up at him. "Honestly, this is the first time someone has resisted like this. Tell me what happened to you - how are you doing this? If you don't, I'll start tearing off the woman's limbs."
When Kai opened his mouth, unsure what he was going to say, he took a deep breath. He hadn't intended to, the air just seemed to flow inward. Yet Anaelina staggered and grabbed her hand around his neck with her other arm.
"Impossible... how..." For the first time, he saw her look truly afraid.
A palm struck her in the side and shockwaves of blue fire exploded through the street. Anaelina hurtled into an opposing building and disappeared.
"Be careful," Zae Zin Nim said. "That didn't finish her, and she might..."
Kai's breath ended and he felt his consciousness slipping away. There was no island to greet him this time, only darkness.
Chapter 88: Final Transactions
Thatch. Kai hadn't woken up staring at thatch since he'd been a young orphan, not yet adopted by the Granfian clan. He blinked several times before trying to sit up.
The rest of the room matched the roof, so he had been moved to some village house. After everything he'd been through, he expected to be in pain, but his body felt perfectly normal. Also encouraging was the fact that Zae Zin Nim sat on a chair beside him, cultivating.
"Are you alright?" he asked. "Did Anaelina manage to drain any of your qi?"
"What kind of question is that? Have some sense of self-preservation!" Her frown quickly faded, however. "No, you jumped in before I could suffer any permanent harm. You've only been asleep several hours and there's been no sign of her since then."
"Then where are we and what are we doing here?"
"It's too much trouble to keep track of everything. Let me get the merchant to explain."
She stalked out and, not long after, pushed Razz into the room. He gave a broad smile and wave as he sat down in her vacated chair. "Hey, Kai! Glad to see you're alright. We suspected you would be, but that battle was rough on everyone. You do feel fine, right?"
"More or less." Kai shifted to a more comfortable sitting position, because he could see what was coming. "What's the situation in Rayakan and why have we been moved to wherever this is?"
"Well, in one sense things are going great. The woman who attacked the market has not been seen again. We've increased the guard and everyone is in communication, so we don't think she's attacking individuals. This is absolutely terrible for the Corinin clan, let me tell you. There's absolutely no way they can dodge the fact that they showed off their new mercenary and then she went wild."
"All of this is good for you, isn't it?"
"Won't deny it." Razz spread his hands in an exaggerated shrug. "The Orgoron clan isn't taking the blame, but they lost a lot of hunters in the fighting and their market event was destroyed with significant losses. The Lantrian clan is the only one coming out of this looking stable."
"Plus you have the support of the Irunians."
"And the general public! But that brings me to the difficult part of this: I'd like to ask your permission to stab you in the back."
Kai stared at him flatly. "Explain."
"There's one little problem about the killer: she was extremely obviously going after you. The public doesn't know why, I don't know why, and frankly it doesn't matter why." Razz's smile turned apologetic. "Regardless of whether it's your fault, a lot of people blame you as responsible somehow. The Corinins are on the back foot, but if I continue associating with you, they're going to use that against me."
"I see how it's going, then." Kai rubbed his eyes as he caught up and realized what would happen. "You kicked us out of the city and you want to deny all involvement."
"Not deny, since that could be disproven, but I'll definitely disavow you. I'm sorry about that, I really am. I would have liked to have you in Rayakan for longer."
"One condition, or I'll march to the Lantrian estate and announce our eternal alliance." Kai stood up to face Razz and waited until the other man rose as well. "I want you to look me in the eye and tell me that you'll run Rayakan better than the Corinin clan did. No expensive excesses. Make the Hunters Guild respectable again. No mercantile games... okay, fewer mercantile games. But don't enrich yourself by exploiting the people you're meant to be leading."
Razz sighed and pushed his hair away from his face. "Didn't we already cover this? Yes, I'll be trying to do those things. But there's no point making me tell you what you want to hear."
"Promise me. If I hear otherwise, I'll come back."
"Hah!" Razz squirmed a little but then thrust out a hand. "Alright, I promise. I'm glad I met you, Kai. Hopefully one day you'll be glad you met me."
Kai shook his hand firmly. The idea of a hunter making a deal with a merchant would have been laughable not long ago, but all the chaos he'd been through had changed more than just his power. When Razz let go, he stepped back and gestured to the door with an elaborate bow.
"I guess it's good you got that agreement out of me now, because I also have a lot of bribes for you. They should still be waiting."
That part Kai hadn't been anticipating at all. He saw that Zae Zin Nim was waiting outside the door, listening more than she had let on. She raised a sack of coins. "He gave us back what was lost during the fight."
"Whatever else you can say about the merciless indiscriminate killer, she wasn't greedy." Razz pulled him into a village square. "But that's just returning what should have belonged to you in the first place. I can do better than that."
Though he didn't recognize their exact location, Kai knew the look of villages around Rayakan by now. This one was slightly smaller than the one where they'd killed the Gomodo, with worse roads and a lot more thatch. He didn't see any actual villagers, just a cluster of Lantrian officials and a few others. Several looked oddly familiar, and he definitely recognized Soeraina Corinin.
"I misjudged you when we first met." She looked like she didn't want to apologize, but she couldn't meet his eyes. "I thought you were another northerner looking to come south and indulge yourself. But instead you showed me just how weak our Guild had become. That will change."
"I'm glad for all of that," Kai said, "but are you sure you want to be talking to me in public?"
"Let the public think what it wants. Razz tells me that you'll be moving on anyway, and I wanted to give you this." She reached into her belt, very like his own, and revealed the pale sphere of the soul fruit. "I think you'll make better use of this than we would. Take it."
He wasn't going to refuse: Kai's hand had already closed around the fruit. "Thank you."
She nodded and turned away. As several men and women moved forward, Kai finally placed them: they were some of the merchants he'd seen at the market. He hadn't expected that at all, considering that he didn't even know any of their names.
"Our trip to Rayakan didn't exactly end the way we'd wanted," the head merchant said. "We lost much of our merchandise and, even though they promise another market in time, the city no longer feels like a safe place to conduct business. Since you were one of the few to show real interest, we wanted to offer you our goods at a very reasonable-"
Razz coughed loudly.
"-at a significant discount. What do you say, can we help one another?"
That didn't exactly help Kai's impression of merchants, but he supposed they were more citizens who had been on the wrong side of the violence. As it turned out, whether because of their gratitude or Razz's pressure, they weren't lying about offering good deals. In the end he purchased a pair of drake fruits and several mana plums for just a little over two thousand Eagles. It hadn't been the path he'd intended to take, but now he didn't need to compromise.
With that done, the final business seemed to be over. Kai glanced around the village one more time before turning back to Razz. "No Irun?"
"They retreated to their own camp. Something about an urgent message, but I think they're just shaken and want some time alone. Oh, but your friend Tusquo survived. The Irunians all fared pretty well in the battle, actually." Razz shifted awkwardly, then reverted to a grin. "I guess there's really nothing else. I'll take care of Rayakan, don't worry. You head back north and do... whatever it is you're doing."
"Good luck, Razz." They shook hands one more time, then Kai gathered his things and left.
When he'd come to Rayakan months ago, all he'd been thinking of was finding a mana pool and fulfilling his promises. Somehow he left it not only significantly stronger, but carrying a small fortune in coins and magical items. A "soft" southern city had proved to contain far more trials than he'd ever suspected.
Zae Zin Nim slipped from nearby shadows to follow him once he got out of the village. "Are we done here?"
"Yeah, looks like it. Where do we go next?"
"I want to stay away from civilization until we can both advance, especially since we don't know the current situation with Anaelina. But we should head north. I'd like to test myself against more of these monsters."
"Works for me."
With both of them in good physical condition, they could walk much more quickly than when they had arrived at the city. They stayed alongside the river for a while, nodding to the sailors who waved at them, then eventually veered away to head straight north. Kai wanted to talk, yet he was still thinking about everything that had happened.
Was all this good or bad luck? Any plans he'd had for Rayakan were gone now and he had no choice but to leave it to Razz. Maybe it was just luck and trying to label it any further was a mistake.
"Noticed them?" Zae Zin Nim asked. Kai blinked, then looked back.
Sunlight glinted off something in the air behind them. A crystal diamond floated in the air, far behind but slowly closing. Even from this distance he could see it was carrying two figures, so Kai just groaned. It wasn't over after all.
"Are the peasants going to come out and defend us this time?"
"No," Kai said, "I don't think so. They'll wait until we're away from any witnesses, then strike."
"Good." As Zae Zin Nim spoke, a wisp of blue flame escaped her lips.
Chapter 89: Exiting like Entering
It was strange, walking along calmly while knowing that a battle was impending. Oh, there was a remote possibility that the two elite mercenaries were following them to deliver a message. Or maybe to give them gifts because the Corinin clan had turned over a new leaf and was just so generous.
Given their opponents' Krysali vehicle, outrunning them was impossible. Turning around to face them offered no real advantage, and neither side was trying to pretend they didn't see the other. Since one area of the wasteland was as good as another, they just kept walking.
"Do you think they'll attack together or one-on-one?" he eventually asked. Anything to break the growing silence.
"They didn't bring allies," Zae Zin Nim said without looking back. "That suggests they're confident and they'll likely fight individually. I'll take the Krysali, unless you aren't confident about the knight's armor."
"Yeah, Barroguk could be a problem, but..." Kai looked down at his hand. He still felt a bit silly bending his fingers like a claw, but he could feel the power within. "No, I want to fight him if they go one-on-one. But what if they work together?"
"If so, they would probably try to eliminate you first. That would be a mistake we could punish. If given the chance, we ruin the flying one's vehicle and armor first. Don't let them escape this time."
