Chapter 52

Kalishka didn’t waste a second in closing the distance. She led with an outstretched hand, and only [Twitch Reflexes] kept Luke out of the way. He faded back and sidestepped her grasping lunge, which didn’t slow Kalishka down at all. Smoothly, she pivoted off her lead foot and swept her other leg around to crack against Luke’s shin.

The blow was surprisingly weak, coming from the number three ranked fighter at the Harbor. Whatever her style was, it didn’t focus on strength like Tantoro or agility like Zammin. Considering how quickly her fight had ended against Zammin the other night, he didn’t suspect stamina was her high stat either. The only conclusion he had left was that she was a balanced fighter like himself, or that all her stats were garbage and she’d spent her AP on skills instead.

So far, he wasn’t seeing anything that supported any use of combat skills. It was only seconds into the fight though, so that didn’t mean anything. He just wished he knew what she was trying to do. It involved her touching him, obviously, but without the strength to back it up, it couldn’t be a grapple. Maybe she was a magic user. Luke didn’t know much about them other than just gaining the ability to use magic consumed tons of AP, not even counting the spells themselves.

He should have asked Zea, but the conversation had been focused on other things and he hadn’t gotten the chance. He was sure she knew though. She was plenty familiar with the stable of fighters that entertained the patrons of the Harbor.

Kalishka pursued Luke across the pit while he backed away from her and tried to find an opening that would allow him to land a blow without her touching him in return. Her style was too fluid for that, unfortunately. Her attacks weren’t trying to hurt him, just make contact, and it was a hell of a lot harder to dodge someone who just needed to tag him once than it was to trade blows and blocks with someone aiming for vulnerable points.

It was inevitable that she was going to touch him sooner or later, so Luke decided to trade it for as much as he could get. Kalishka wasn’t stupid; she knew his strategy as soon as he stopped running. Her next attack was a feint, but Luke went with it anyway. When she tried to pull back and come at him from a different angle that would prevent him from pushing through her guard, Luke just chased her down.

He knew the attack was going to be light, and he was willing to trade a little damage to his arm if it meant getting a solid body blow in. Kalishka’s hand slapped down onto his fist to push it aside, and she grinned triumphantly. That grin disappeared an instant later when he activated [Power Strike] and blew past her attempts to deflect him. The punch landed squarely in her stomach, strong enough to pick her up off the ground and throw her across the pit to slam into the wall.

“Ooooohhhhh! That looks like it hurt!” Fatty roared over the crowd. “Who knew he was holding back this whole time!”

Kalishka pulled herself back upright, but her whole body was shaking and she wobbled in place. “Didn’t know you could hit that hard,” she said. “I’ll enjoy paying you back for it.”

“I could do it again if you want, but I’m afraid I’d kill you,” Luke said. “You could give up though.”

The wobbling stopped and she stood up straight. “No, I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“Quick recovery at least,” Luke said.

She smirked and said, “Must be the high stamina. But it’s nothing compared to the strength.”

“Huh?”

He’d gotten a feel for her strength and agility during the opening few seconds of the fight. Unless she’d been sandbagging or had some skill he didn’t know about yet, neither were that high. He would be able to outmuscle her easily if it came down to a slug-fest.

Kalishka took a deep breath, then rocketed forward so fast that Luke almost missed it. [Twitch Reflexes] kicked in and he threw himself to the side, then turned that movement into a spinning kick aimed for her hip using [Counter]. Somehow, Kalishka was already out of range and coming around for another attack.

She was definitely stronger than she’d been a minute ago. Luke blocked some of her attacks, only to find himself grimacing in pain and his bones creaking from the impact. There were going to be a few spectacular bruises on his arms pretty soon, and his opponent was showing no signs of letting up.

She was as fast as him, maybe even a bit more. Luke didn’t get it. If she was this fast the whole time, there was no reason for her to hold back. The only logical answer was that she wasn’t. Somehow, touching him had increased her stats. Or had his dropped? They didn’t feel any different, but Luke risked a moment of distraction to call up his status and confirm they were at normal levels.

Nothing had changed, and there was no status ailment like that one time he’d been cursed. Whatever she’d done had been a buff to her, not something that affected him. But holy hell, she was kicking his ass now. It was all Luke could do to keep up with her attacks, even with four different skills working to keep him safe.

Kalishka came at him from every angle at once, displaying an agility higher than anything he’d seen from anyone else combined with flawless technique. [Peripheral Awareness] wasn’t something that normally saw a lot of action in a one-on-one fight, but in this case, she struck like lightning, often skipping off to one side and throwing punches and kicks in such rapid succession and so far outside the normal range of vision that he could barely track them.

Worse, he couldn’t afford to ignore the blows. A single one that got through unguarded could be the one that dropped him. Kalishka was faster and stronger, and she didn’t appear to be tiring. Her face was set into a wicked smirk.

Luke blocked a strike to the left, ducked under a follow up from her right, then threw himself backwards to avoid a knee that almost connected with his nose. [Counter] flared once again as he landed on his back and both feet shot out to catch Kalishka in the chest. She flew backwards, but landed with grace and rolled right back to her feet.

“You are very strong,” she said. “I like that. It’s intoxicating having stats this high.”

“Well then you won’t mind if I stop holding back,” Luke told her as he climbed back upright himself. He set his feet and brought his arms up.

“Please, don’t limit yourself on my account. I can take it,” she practically purred.

“Okay then. If you’re sure.”

Then they clashed again. Luke triggered [Life Surge]to pump his strength and agility even higher, then pummeled her with a one-two [Power Strike] combo. Kalishka tried to block the first one, but he broke through her defenses, and the second caught her cleanly. Once again, she went flying across the pit to smack into the wall.

Luke didn’t wait for her to get back to her feet. He was on her in an instant and stomping down as hard as he could. She jerked her head to the side, wrapped her arms around his leg, and heaved. Even from such an awkward position, there was so much strength in her upper body that she threw him up into the air. Luke twisted to reorient himself for a landing and slammed down onto her with both feet.

She rolled, just barely fast enough to avoid him, and he drove his feet down into the dirt hard enough that it came up to his knees. Luke ripped one leg out, then the other, and climbed back up to the pit’s floor. That was all the time Kalishka needed to regain her feet, but she was starting to tire now.

Luke charged in with only seconds left before [Life Surge] gave out. He slung vicious punches one after another, hoping to tag her with a knockout blow before it was too late. He even hit her once too, but then his skill gave out and exhaustion flooded his limbs. Kalishka noted the change immediately and, with a desperate grimace, cocked an arm back, then slugged him right in the face.

Luke went down to one knee, shook his head, and tried to get back up. His limbs were lead now though, and it was all he could do to keep from blacking out while the world spun around him. He saw a leg coming at him, impossibly fast, or maybe he was just impossibly slow to react. It connected with his shoulder and shoved him sideways with a flash of pain.

Before the leg could disappear, he grabbed the ankle with his hand. Then Luke brought his arm up and around, leg still attached to the rest of Kalishka’s body, and swung her overhead to slam her face first into the ground. A second later, he fell over on top of her, and everything went dark. The last thing he heard was the ding of a system notification.

* * *

“Holy crap,” Zea said. She was too poor to attend fights regularly, but she’d still seen her fair share. That had been without a doubt the most vicious, no-holds knockdown fight she had ever seen. Aldrick and Kalishka had gone at it like madmen and beat the bloody hell out of each other. She had no idea how either had still been standing half-way through.

The crowd loved it. There was blood all over the pit, and Aldrick had stopped a hole more than a foot deep into it. It was probably a good thing that attack had missed; she could very easily imagine it crushing Kalishka’s ribs and killing her. But every blow, right down to the end, had driven the spectators into a rabid frenzy of cheering and screaming.

Sideon himself was yelling so loud his whole face had gone red, but she couldn’t hear a word he was saying. Whatever it was, he looked excited. She just hoped that would translate into good medical care for Aldrick, otherwise tonight’s fight was going to be a loss. It was going to cost two or even three times as much as he’d made to patch him back up, and he was going to be down for at least the next four days while he recovered.

They had to get two other fighters to remove Aldrick and Kalishka from the pit since neither were in any shape to climb out on their own. Hell, it was a minute or two before Kalishka even woke up to find Aldrick passed out on top of her. She groaned and heaved, which was barely enough to roll the other fighter’s weight to the side so he’d flop onto the ground.

That was what woke Aldrick up, but he just lay there in silence, his eyes blank and staring up at the ceiling. After the pair had been dragged back to the fighters’ waiting room, Zea circled around the outside of the room and followed them in. She found them both laid out on the floor with Zammin and Tantoro looking down at them.

“Looks like you two had fun, huh?” Zammin was saying when Zea walked in.

“Hah,” Kalishka gasped out. “Jealous?”

“Nah. You look like shit. I prefer being beautiful.”

“Fuck… you.”

“You’re too tall for me.”

“Sideon wanted me to let you know once you were coherent that he has a healer coming around to look at you in a few minutes,” Tantoro cut in. “You should try not to move too much until then.”

Zea squatted down next to Aldrick’s head and looked down at him. “I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. You are an idiot.”

He laughed, but it was a halting, painful thing. Maybe he’d learn his damn lesson, but somehow Zea doubted it.