Ander ambushed and fought the mariners for hours in the jungles of the lower floors. As he fought, he used Analyze on each enemy he found. He found that the one he fought originally was actually a rather weak specimen at level 15. Most of the ones he found ranged from level 16 to 20. Ander had seen what they usually ate down here. It was a form of large rabbit that looked like it might actually be pretty good eating. Ander figured that the one he fought up top had been sidelined, not allowed into the good hunting grounds for its comparative weakness.

That didn’t stop Ander from taking on all these groups however. Ander found that once you took one down, it became very hard for the others to stay in control of themselves. It made for a large flaw in these creatures that was quite easy to exploit. It was actually rather disappointing. He kinda wished that they were actually level 15 hell badgers. Maybe then they would actually give him a bit of a fight. But now it was a simple problem to kill one, and then execute the rest while they were in a feeding frenzy. It wasn’t exactly fair, but one look in their malformed faces caused any sympathy to go right out the window.

Finally, Ander made it to one of the doors into the hangar room. He hid behind some plants and observed what he could. He could see the mass of mariners milling about by the edge of the trench that held the giant ship. Nothing really seemed different from what he saw up top until a group of hunters came back carrying several dead rabbits. Ander frowned at that. Every group he had seen went out of their minds whenever they saw food, but this group brought back several choice corpses. They then proceeded to make their way through the group before setting the corpses down before a particular mariner and slinking away. Ander couldn’t see anything different between this particular mariner and the others, but the others gave him room and respect. Ander watched as it tore into one of the rabbits, gorging itself. When it was done, iot picked up the other rabbits and jumped from the edge of the trench to the side of the ship before scuttling up the side and disappearing over the top.

This made Ander far more wary. Some of these creatures were far more in control of themselves than the others. Though maybe they regained control of themselves after they had eaten. If that was the case, Ander would have to be more careful in the future. On another note, Ander had managed to fire off an analyze on the creature before it disappeared and found that it was a worrying level 25. Sure he had killed things ten levels above him before, but a nagging suspicion told him that level 15 against a level 25 was a far worse matchup than a level 5 against a level 15. Include that in order to fight the level 25 he would have to wade through the hordes of other mariners, most of which were also higher level than him. For now, He would stay by the sidelines and kill the hunting parties for as long as that would last.

A scream pierced the air as one of the mariners at the edge of the group suddenly sprang toward Ander, the whole mob trailing behind. Without thinking Ander sprang from his hiding place and started to run, but the mariners were faster. One tore a line of fire across his back, and another gave him a gash in his shoulder. Each was decapitated with a quick swipe of the blade. Ander hoped that the other mariners would take the bait,and some did, falling down to feast on their dead brethren. However most did not, instead choosing to trample the ravenous members of their group to more quickly get to Ander. Ander fled, taking the twists and turns as fast as he could as he fought off the mariners.

After ten minutes of running fights Ander finally made it to the stairwell, and with an effort managed to close the door in the faces of the pursuing mariners. He had killed several dozen in the chase, but there were so many. They had just kept coming. He was fast, but these mariners were faster, despite the growths and protrusions that should slow them down. He couldn’t remember how many times he had delivered a killing blow, only to chop off some sort of vestigial limb instead. Ander worked to bring his labored breathing under control.

It was then that he noticed that the mariners had not left when he closed the doors on them. They repeatedly slammed their bodies against the door in a crude attempt to break it down. The problem was that it was working. Cracks surrounded the door where the wall was starting to give way. Ander ran again. Fortunately for him, the door didn’t come down in one big slam. Instead it got wedged against the wall and only allowed a few through the door at a time. Mariners took this smaller entrance while others tried to batter it down the rest of the way.

That was the same moment that Ander was back to running and fighting. At one point, Ander tried stopping and holding his ground. The narrow stairs made it relatively easy to only fight a few at a time. It would have been a good idea too, except that his fighting skill was called Way of the Wind and not Way of the stone or some such. His fighting style was highly mobile, and a significant number of his moves were completely useless while trying to hold ground. After nearly being overrun, Ander fled again, fighting as he went. Using the wind at his back, Ander made it to the top in record time, his back and sides covered in cuts and scratches. He ran through the ruined section until he got to a clear spot underneath the sky at the bottom of the ravine. This was where the old walls of the ruins held up the side of the ravine, allowing for some clear space that widened out the bottom. All in all, he had some hundred feet or so of space from side to side.

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He had managed to get a bit of space between him and the mariners by throwing bits of rubble down the stairs, but he could hear their shrieks getting closer. There was really nowhere else to run. Nowhere he could hide that they wouldn’t eventually find him. Paradoxically, this was the best place for him to stand and fight. Where he could see the sky. The first mariner tore out of the ruins, and was followed by the flood. Instead of running, Ander charged, launching into a wind assisted sprint. As he flew toward the enemy he drew his shortsword with his left hand, relegating his longsword to his right. Normally this would be an awkward combination, but the Wind whispered that it was right. At the last second, Ander jumped. Not high, just far enough that he could dance across the mariners as his two swords flashed down into the group cleaving heads by the dozen. As his momentum ran out, Ander jumped to the wall of the ravine, and pushed back off of it, launching himself into the group. Even with the skill, the wind whispering in his ear, it wasn’t enough.

But the wind said that it could be. He simply had to let go. With nothing left to lose, Ander surrendered to the skill.

In that moment, Ander knew that the skill was far more than just a skill. What Senoc had created all those years ago had been enhanced by the blessing of a wind spirit, who had bound itself up in the skill, making it into something greater.

Ander hit the ground, his legs perfectly absorbing the impact as he fell into Reaper Stance. He flashed forward with wide sweeps of his blades, each one slicing through several enemies at once as the wind tore them apart. As soon as he was surrounded, he shifted into Whirlwind Stance, and peppered the surrounding mariners with deep thrusts through their bodies. Several times he even flung them off his sword into the crowd. Ander used stance after stance, each one suited to the particular niche situation he found himself in. He lost himself in the carnage, and the incredible feeling of ultimate mastery that coursed through his veins.

Eventually, everything stopped. Ander was surrounded by a sea of several hundred dead mariners. As he looked around in a daze, he felt the foreign presence retreat into a part of himself he had never quite sensed before. He could feel the skill there, housing the foreign presence, which was weak and sluggish. He understood that it was a wind spirit. Not one that had ever been free to roam, but rather a part of that original wind spirit that had blessed Senoc’s skill. It gave the skill the essence of wind if that was a thing, something the skill couldn’t otherwise have.

Understanding he had gained from his Walker of Memories skill told him that skills could vary wildly and have some pretty awesome effects. But it was incredibly rare for a skill to be attributed in such a way. Souls could be attributed, allowing skills using that attribute to be far more powerful, while hampering skills that use other attributes. But the skill itself was attributed, and carried the essence of the attribute to boot. It meant that he could, with practice, get all the effect of an attributed soul, but only for that skill. It would not help or hamper any other skill.

Something also told him that learning this skill should not be possible. Under normal circumstances trying to learn this skill, even from Senoc himself, would have given a rare advanced martial prowess skill or something of the like. But there would have been none of the wind related powers at all. Somehow, Ander had gotten the whole thing.

One thing that had concerned Ander at first was that the wind spirit would try to take him over. However, he could feel the wind spirit, and could tell that was of no worry. It had drained the little thing just to be in control that long. Additionally, its mentality was very rudimentary. Ander got the sense from it that it was never supposed to be separate from him like this, that it was supposed to be a part of his soul. That was why this fight had tired it out so much. It was still a foreign entity taking control. The better it was integrated into his soul, the more powerful it would become, while at the same time being more a part of him than ever before. In the end, there would be no difference between him and the little spirit.

Ander dragged himself out of the pile of bodies. He was glad the entire group hadn’t followed. The little spirit was strained to the breaking to fight off this many, and wouldn’t have lasted much longer. Ander felt that there should be a way to help the spirit, feed it more energy. It wasn’t like he had any use for his mana. Ander walked to the spot in the ruins where the pipe had burst and washed himself off. Blood and viscera had coated him liberally, and he was glad to get it off. He also swore to himself that he would make some new clothes. As he washed, the tatters of his old ones pulled away, leaving him with little more than glorified shorts. After he was mostly clean, a number of his wounds were bleeding freely, he walked back to his cave to grab his medical supplies and patch himself up. After that was done, he cleaned up one last time and laid down to rest.

As he laid there, he opened his notifications.

You have leveled up! You are now level 20.

+8 Conductivity

+8 Wisdom

+8 Regeneration

+4 Beauty

+8 Presence

+80 free stats.

Congratulations! Skill: Way of the Wind has leveled up!

Skill: Way of the Wind is level 10.

Congratulations! You are a novice in Skill: Way of the Wind!

You can use the wind to allow you to jump higher and farther than you could before! Effect increases with skill level.