Depthless Hunger: A Progression LitRPG, page 58
The ship was indeed beginning to rise now that it had gotten away from the city wall. Kai wasn't entirely sure what Zae Zin Nim intended and decided that he would have to trust her. He'd get himself in the right direction, then trust that she could provide the force to get him the rest of the way.
"I must point out," Zae Zin Nim said as they got close, "that this is another problem that would be immediately solved if we had a flying vehicle."
"If you get me up there, we could try to take it."
When he hit the side of the city wall, he began running up it. He only managed a few steps, but with his new strength that propelled him into the air over twice his height. Just when he reached the peak of his jump and worriedly looked down, he saw Zae Zin Nim leaping up at him.
Her palm hit his boot and a circle of blue fire expanded from it. Unlike most of her palm strikes, this one didn't strike his inner body, only propelled him upward. His leg had gone cold, but he was hurtling higher than he'd ever jumped before, directly toward the side of the airship.
He hit hard enough that the wood cracked and barely grabbed the rigging. As he clambered his way up, the guards on the deck stared in shock. As they started getting their weapons ready, Kai managed to vault up the last distance and wrestle them both to the ground.
After seeing them push away a fleeing civilian, Kai wanted to hurl the guards over the edge, but he restrained himself. All his wrath needed to be saved for whoever had ordered the flying ship to retreat instead of helping in the battle. Across the deck he saw only clan officials and chests filled with goods, not even as many people as the ship should have been capable of carrying.
"You!" The enormous Orgoron hunter bearing a hammer thrust it in his direction. "How could you give up your humanity and join monsters?"
"I'm still on your side!" As Kai objected, he spent more time looking around the deck, because he didn't expect this to end with words. A few areas were blocked from his sight by boxes, but he didn't think there was any way to control the ship on the deck. Then he needed to look below.
"Your blood will be the next spilled, you miserable... now!"
The call gave Kai a second of forewarning, but not enough. Vines erupted out of pure mana, not breaking the deck as they lashed around all four of his limbs. Now he spotted her off to the side: the woman who controlled vines had been getting into position for a perfect strike.
He should have known the two of them would be working together. Now he was being stretched in four directions while the man with the hammer rushed in to deal a finishing blow.
Solely with his human strength, Kai would have been sorely pressed to defeat the two. They both had power in the 70s and they worked well as a team, so they might be able to make up the gap in strength.
But they had clearly heard more about his monstrous nature than actually seen it. Kai flexed his full strength and tore free of the vines just before the hammer struck his face. He ducked just underneath it and rammed his shoulder into the larger man's chest, sending him flipping overhead and into his partner. They both crashed to the deck and Kai was on them in an instant.
"If you're so concerned about the monster horde," he said as he dragged them to the edge, "then do something about it!"
As he threw them both over the side of the flying ship, he realized that might have been reckless. He hadn't had time to examine their Physique Levels or to check how high the ship had flown. Fortunately, it looked like they hadn't risen far: the two hunters crashed into the city wall and started to fall before the woman grew more vines to slow their descent.
Ultimately, though, he wasn't going out of his way to help them. If they had been willing to abandon Monskon City despite everything it had given them, they were cowards.
When he turned back, all the guards and officials were staring at him. Kai didn't really know much about sailing ships and considered demanding information from someone, then decided that would be a waste of time. The only way to search was down, so he pulled away some sort of wooden grating and jumped down to the level below.
He landed in a hold that seemed to be mostly filled with supplies. No guards, and only a few passengers behind him. There were none at all toward the front, so he immediately turned his attention there. When he pushed through the door, he discovered a large room at the front of the ship, glowing with many colors of mana. Most emerged from a device that must have controlled the ship, being used by a slim figure.
"Oh Kai..." Inafay Corinin turned to him and her face fell. "I didn't want to believe it was true..."
Chapter 104: A Windy Rematch in the Clouds
As she stepped away from the controls, Inafay rolled her shoulders like she always did before they sparred. There was no delay in summoning her skills anymore: she would be ready in an instant. The only thing keeping her from attacking was the way she was looking at him.
"I don't know what you've heard," Kai said, "but it isn't-"
"I heard that you had turned yourself into a monster, and that seems pretty damn clear!" She smashed her gauntlets together and took a step forward.
"Don't use your spiritual sight, just think! What does it mean for me to be a monster, if we're standing here talking like this?"
"Hannagan said that you had been corrupted and would do anything to sabotage the city's defenses. I figured it was bullshit, but now you fought your way through the guards, threw people off the edge, and went straight for the controls. What am I supposed to think?"
"He's the one sabotaging the defenses!" He almost wanted to growl and tried to shove the instincts back down. "Why are you running away instead of helping everyone putting their lives on the line?"
"We're going to come back to rescue more people, unless you break the ship!"
"Look around you! You're not evacuating the citizens, you're running away with the Guild's wealth. Just be logical and think about everything Hannagan has told you. After what he did to get me banished, how can you trust him?"
Inafay might have hesitated, but then her eyes narrowed. "He said that you weren't yourself and that you'd say anything to accomplish your objectives. Are you even in control? It sounds like the real Kai talking to me, but would you know if you had been corrupted?"
"Dammit, Inafay, you have no idea what you're talking about. This is-"
Without warning her fist caught him in the chest. Wood splintered behind them as they shattered through multiple boards and they didn't stop until they'd broken through above the deck. She continued pushing forward, her wind driving them on, until she slammed him onto his back.
"Don't condescend, Kai. Take me seriously!"
He took her seriously by punching her in the face as hard as he could. Inafay tumbled back across the deck, but she managed to stop herself with one hand and then pulled back to her feet. Kai's chest ached from the impact of the wind, so it took him almost as long to get up. All around them, the guards and officials were backpedaling to whatever crannies they could find.
She wanted him to take her seriously? Kai finally opened his spiritual sight to examine her the way she had as soon as he'd entered.
<
Name: Inafay Corinin
Total Power: 98
Windcutter Class: 34 (44)
Physique Level: F-4 (38)
Soul Level: 4 (16)
>
Inafay Corinin had certainly been training hard. Her Windcutter Class had already grown to the point where many adults reached their limit, and her Physique and Soul Levels had almost caught up to his. Not only did her strength total to 98, every aspect of her soul was in balance.
When she began unleashing wind strikes at him, their old dance resumed as if there hadn't been so many months apart. She still used the same punching movements leading into concentrated bursts, her technique was just more refined. He adjusted to the new speed and dodged back and forth as he tried to close the distance.
Kai began edging to the side so that some of the officials would be behind him. He knew that Inafay wouldn't risk harming them, and in her moment of hesitation he could get within her range. Of course she still had her sphere, so...
Realizing what he was planning, and how it would look to her, Kai hesitated and then shifted in the opposite direction. That weakness was too much in such a close fight and one of her blasts caught him in the chest. The instant he fell, she didn't let up, hurling more intense blasts in his direction.
He just barely managed to push off the ground to dodge the next gust and flipped up to one of the piles of boxes. Even if he needed to fight Inafay, tactics that made him look like a monster wouldn't work.
The most logical thing to do would be to use his claw technique. He was almost certain that her wind couldn't deflect pure energy, so that might end the fight on its own. But as much as he told himself that he could explain afterwards, trying to fight her with his monstrous skills caused a sense of dread to claw up his throat. It was true that he had been less in control lately, and he didn't want to cause a fatal wound...
Without those skills, he had no choice but to dodge behind the boxes. Inafay didn't hesitate for a second and she would circle around the pile soon. Fighting just as a human... did he have a chance at winning? Using just his human strength she was stronger than him, plus he hadn't cultivated long enough to equal her Class skills. A logical hunter would say that it was impossible.
But he'd been finding ways to beat opponents he had no business fighting from the beginning. Kai took a deep breath and grabbed one of the boxes.
When he hurled it at her with his full strength, Inafay had no choice but to dodge. He'd already picked up another box and thrown it. She cast another wind burst against it, but she only broke open one corner and sent Goralian Eagles scattering all over the ship. Her blow didn't redirect the center of the mass of the box very much, so she still needed to dodge.
Kai had already hurled a third box, and this time he rushed in after it.
Just before he arrived, he saw the grin on her face and realized he'd miscalculated. A green tornado of mana burst around Inafay, so powerful that it knocked the box skyward. He had almost reached her anyway, but she didn't need any time to recharge: she knocked her gauntlets together and the tornado transformed into her sphere of wind.
The wind slammed against his chest like a wall, the currents of mana opening dozens of shallow cuts. He staggered back as coins and broken boards showered around them.
"Ha, gotcha that time!" Inafay grinned, and for a moment it was just like they were in their old training courtyard.
If he reached out to Aquagorgon's Health, the bloody lines across his chest would begin to heal immediately. But she would see it and make the wrong conclusion... and in a strange way, that would feel like cheating. Without his monstrous regeneration, all the injuries were slowing him down and his stamina was flagging, but there had to be a way...
"This is all I really wanted." Inafay smiled sadly at him. "Human or monster, I just wanted to fight you again, instead of... everything..."
That sealed his decision. He would keep all bestial instincts and powers in check for this, win or lose. He'd trained in many disciplines before becoming a hunter, hoping that one of them would serve him after he awakened. Even though his life had taken an entirely different path, that discipline would serve him now.
Inafay began punching wind in his direction again, so he was forced to retreat. As an idea formed in his mind, he moved back toward another set of boxes. Along the way, he had to roll underneath one horizontal arc of wind and he grabbed a fallen coin from the deck. Inafay had the advantage, but she was running down her mana and her Physique couldn't take many more blows, if he could just create an opening.
When he reached the boxes, she snorted mockingly but didn't let down her guard. Kai threw one at her, just as he had before, but he also dropped the coin he was holding.
Inafay didn't play around with this one, she simply knocked the box skyward with a rush of wind. He'd already kicked the coin as hard as he could, directly into her head. It pinged off, not doing much damage to her F-4 Physique, but she reeled back at the unexpected blow.
In that moment, Kai leapt the distance between them. In midair he grabbed the box she had knocked skyward, then slammed it over her head.
All the mana-driven wind died as Inafay crumpled. Immediately the adrenaline of combat faded and Kai rushed to her side. She was bleeding from a cut on her forehead, but she smiled at him.
"It is... you..." Her eyes fluttered closed the next second, but he could feel that her heart was still strong. Kai smiled and reached down to brush her hair out of her wound.
Then he realized that someone was charging him. He reacted instantly, slashing upwards with a claw to drive them back.
When he rose to his feet, he saw that Fhazi Lantrian stood on the deck of the flying ship. Judging from the warriors emerging from the back cabin, he had been hiding inside until then. Unfortunately, it looked like he had his Earthenshield bodyguard and both Tonjin brothers along with him.
"It's just like grandfather said!" Fhazi grinned at his minions and gestured them forward. "You can all stand back - watch me put down this monster!"
Kai straightened his back and let all his monstrous abilities loose. This battle had nothing to do with humanity.
Chapter 105: The Unstoppable Oversights
As the last of the monsters in the north died, Zae Zin Nim wondered why she was still fighting. The fun had drained out of the combat with Kai missing and there were no longer any threats capable of climbing or damaging the wall. Since the extended fighting had drained her, both in terms of qi and mentally, she began to retreat closer to the city walls.
Overhead, the flying ship continued to circle. She interpreted that as a somewhat positive sign, but if Kai had gained control, he would have used it to defend his little city. It meandered over the center now and she doubted that she could reach it, even if she leapt from atop the wall.
Instead, she began moving around the outer edge, mostly just observing. Despite the battle plan's obvious weaknesses, the middle portion did seem to be working. As the monsters scrabbled around the walls of the city, searching for human targets, they were slowly killed off by projectiles and attacks from above. If their average citizen had a stronger cultivation base, they could have wiped out the majority of the horde then.
Lacking that, the monsters that got past were allowed to accumulate near the gates. Zae Zin Nim noticed that more seemed to have gone wide, only later curving back toward the city. Perhaps some of those should have drawn her attention, but she was growing apathetic. She didn't really want to fight vermin anymore, she was just curious to see the gates.
There, she saw that the strategy wasn't going so well.
While the number of bodies around the gates showed that the defenders had kept them off for some time, their mana was running low and they struggled to keep up with the tide. Most of them were mediocre vermin, but there were several giant ape monsters who ran through most attacks. They danced up to the gates and clawed at both wood and metal with their bare hands. Bit by bit, they were tearing down the entrance to the city.
Something about their movements was rather strange. Monsters could never be sensed as easily as qi, but Zae Zin Nim's vision for them had been improving due to her training with Kai. Something was strange about the hideous monkeys... their tails lashed unusually swiftly, enough that she expected attacks from them that never came.
The gates began to come down and other monsters crawled in between the monkeys. It looked as though the city might fall, then a wall of solid rock erupted in the gap. When the monkeys ran in to batter it, they were struck from the sides by defenders who had been waiting for that exact purpose.
Still, they resisted enough of the mana that it seemed they would break down the new barriers. While watching them, Zae Zin Nim suddenly realized what she had been seeing.
She stepped closer and then fired one precise qi attack. It severed the tail of one monkey and then both pieces shrieked in pain. Instead of a tail, the back half proved to be a furred worm that thrashed wildly with its head severed. The bulk of the giant monkey died even faster, shriveling up as its source of energy was destroyed.
To their credit, the hunters on the walls noticed what she had done and began redirecting their fire. Even though the monsters attempted to hide underneath their generated bodies, Class systems were adept at hitting precise targets. Several warriors jumped down from the walls to strike with melee weapons and they quickly cut down the monsters pounding against the new gate.
In their absence, the earthen wall was quickly restored. The plates of stone shifted aside to allow the warriors to enter and Zae Zin Nim wondered if she should go as well. It seemed that many of the peasants on the walls were waving at her, perhaps cheering...
No, they didn't sound jubilant. She realized that they were urging her to hurry and pointing at something behind her.
An enormous monster almost the height of the city wall lumbered closer. Its body appeared to be made of nothing but armored plates, from the spiked segments of its tail to the mess of angles that formed its face. As it neared the city it slowly reared back on two legs, revealing that the underside was just more armored plates. The upper limbs were somewhat longer with sharp edges, but they ended in heavy chunks of armor.
Zae Zin Nim absently identified it as an arthropod-imitating monster while the rest of her mind spun uselessly. This one was far more powerful than the others. She didn't know how the locals might rate it, but it was the sort of beast that made Body Refinement stage cultivators run in terror. Clearly, in ordinary times the warriors at the Frontier would have stopped it.
Most of the defenders began focusing on it, but bursts of flame and ice skittered off the armored plates just as uselessly as arrows or rocks. She wasn't sure if anything had harmed it even slightly. As it reached the wall, the monster raised a limb with terrible slowness and struck the stone barrier. It shuddered and many defenders were thrown from the edge to the monsters below.
