Iris slowed down as she approached the entrance of the tunnel blocked by a waterfall coming from the cave's ceiling. Stepping into the dark cave Iris had all of her clothes being instantly soaked as the heavy downpour limited her vision to one or two meters in front of her. She knew that Shiro was lurking somewhere in the darkness but non of her other senses could locate her as the sound of the rain falling around her was deafening.
Iris felt something moving behind her causing her to turn around, ready to defend herself. She squinted her eyes trying to pierce the wall of water and spot the nekos. The dark outline of the cave was the only thing Iris could see and she began to think the nekos had run further into the tunnel system. Straightening her back the risen began to walk toward the direction she came from.
The hoplite saw a shadow dance in a corner of her vision which got closer and closer. Before the elf turned toward the shadow, Shiro burst through the darkness and began to attack her. Just like before the warrior who Iris felt had gained an incredible advantage and could have easily pushed further with her attacks retreated as suddenly as she appeared.
Iris couldn't understand what Shiro was doing, she could throw a hook or kick the nekos but what demi could do with her fists was mesmerizing. The only thing saving the risen from having her head kicked off was her racial attributes helping her keep up with the beast woman. She expected her training to consist of having to follow Shiro's commands for hours at a time punching and kicking the wall but it seemed that the demi-human had a different idea of training than the paladins in Havenfall.
In the corner of Iris's lips, a crimson drop slowly gathered before flowing down her face and neck, leaving a faint red trail behind it before being soaked by her clothes. The water drop sticking to her arm flew into the air as she blocked Shiro's fist. Even with her body absorbing enough punches to knock out anything except a dedicated tank, Iris showed little if no signs of exhaustion or uncomfortableness with her eyes scanning her surroundings with the same sharpness as ever.
The undead began to feel her body begin to move on its own as her ability finally had enough time to activate fully. Even with the cat woman remaining in the fight she still found the high-level warrior almost impossible to hit with her bare hands.
Shiro jumped backwards, avoiding Iris's left leg before jumping right in, grabbing the still-moving leg and pushing it upwards. The small smile on demi's lips turned into an awkward look as the beast woman found herself too short to lift Iris's leg high enough for the undead to fall down causing her to stop for a split of a tick. Capitalising on her one opportunity, Iris pushed down as hard as she could, causing the wet leather to slip from Shiro's hands.
A puff of dust rose into the rainy atmosphere as Iris's heel smashed into the stone. She let out a huge sigh as the cloud quickly disappeared and she saw that Shiro's head wasn't between her boot and the rock floor. In fact, her opponent was standing in front of her, still in a combat stance.
Shiro stepped forward, motioning to Iris that the fight was still on. The beast woman leaned to the side barely dodging the undead's fist, pushing her extended right hand to the side Shiro baited the elf to attack her with her other hand. As she held out both of her arms in front of her Iris realised that she was tricked and tried to jump to the side only to find that Shiro had used her foot to sweep under her.
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Iris lifted her head feeling the cold water running down her skin as her clothes refused to take in more water and saw Shiro walking quickly back to their camp, leaving the fallen undead alone in the rain.
"Are you hurt?" Iris asked as she saw Shiro waiting for her at the other side of the waterfall, for some reason her words caused the silent nekos to break into a small giggle.
"Are those your first words after what I did to you?" Iris knew from where the demi-human was coming from but she felt no pain from getting her three letters beaten. If she felt those punches, she would absolutely be furious at Shiro. She did feel disappointed in her abilities that she couldn't land a clean hit on the warrior but that just caused her to be more determined on getting the nekos to tell her the purpose of their sudden duel.
"About that, what was the purpose of that?"
"Straight..." The white-furred nekos sat down, cracking into a large smile as she caught her breath. "...To the point. Pfff, I don't like fighting the undead. They never get tired forcing me to be quick, efficient and take risks. That's why I didn't speak while fighting, too much energy and attention goes into such a simple thing."
Status
Iris
Race: Risen {Undead}
Age: 3 months
Title: [Anchor of Undeath]
Classes: [Risen Level 31 ] [ Hoplite Level 21]
Talents: [Masterful Translator] [Pure Mana Manipulation(awaken)]
HP 1944/1950
Strength 430
Constitution 426
Dexterity 436
Wisdom 428
Intelligence 428
Charisma 425
MP 1049/2250
...
Letting the woman catch her breath Iris checked on her status. To her surprise, her mana was slightly higher than before after having to regenerate her wounds on multiple of occasions. At first, she believed that her regenerative power came with no mana cost but right after ending combat, she noticed her regeneration becoming faster but at the cost of consuming mana. She wasn't great at math but whenever she finished a fight her mana regeneration slowed down and her Hit Points grew faster for roughly half a bell, each Hit Points varied in cost but on average her body consumed two mana for each HP. She wondered if Kia was giving her own mana at the cost of her life to her but she quickly dismissed it as the girl was way too smart to do that. Her mistress had left her half of the mana to use after all. In addition, her mana had a habit to refill with random amounts right after a fight, maybe her racial class had a hidden attribute buried somewhere in the wall of text which was the status sheet.
"I think we should lower the intensity of our training." She suggested to the sitting nekos who looked like she had caught her breath and was ready to go again.
"Are you worrying about me?" Shiro pointed her thumb at herself. "Don't be concerned about me, how can you learn if you are looking at your mentor instead of focusing on training."
"If you say so but I'm limited on how much HP I can regenerate until Kia is healed." She might be able to somehow generate mana even with the undead mage syphoning all of her surplus mana her soul created but the amount was incredibly inconsistent and appeared randomly. Given her current situation, Iris treated her HP and mana as precious supplies, not to be wasted.
"I didn't know that," Shiro looked a bit apologetic before her crimson eyes smiled again. "I learned what you are capable of so I can go a bit easier on you."
"How can you tell of what I'm capable of if I'm a spear user just like you and not a monk?" The tall risen asked as she followed the dripping cat to their camp.
"That's the thing, I don't need to know how good you are with a spear," The forked tail wrapped itself around Iris's hand and pulled her closer to the nekos. "Your hands are not used to actual fighting, I bet you won every battle since now with either your sheer strength or active abilities and if neither of them worked on your opponent, you got whacked like a child." She would disagree with the demi's description of getting whacked like a child but on multiple occasions, Kia had to save her from certain doom.
"..."
"We are going to dry ourselves and I'm going to explain some things to you."
"Thank you." Iris noticed Shiro's crimson eyes look at her but she choose to not comment.