Chapter 14: I Think We’ve Both Suffered Enough

The Griffin screamed with such rage that Zishan immediately threw the timber away.

Screech!

"HAHAHAHA—OH, FUCK! SHE TOOK THAT PERSONALLY! FIGHTING IS ACTUALLY VERY FUN WHEN IT’S LIKE THIS!"

He activated Rift Steps before her claw could catch him.

The Griffin chased him. Whatever attention she had been giving the medical station disappeared completely. Apparently, assaulting the dignity of a female Griffin was an extremely effective method of drawing aggro.

Zishan sprinted across the muddy ground while wind blades struck everywhere behind him. One cut through a supply wagon, another ripped a trench deeper into the earth, and a third passed close enough to his head that several strands of white hair flew away.

"NOT MY PRECIOUS HAIR! WAIT, MY HAIR IS ACTUALLY WHITE? HAVE I GONE SENILE?!"

Maela stared at him from behind the barrier. "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO HIT HER THERE?!"

"I SAW AN OPENING!"

"THAT WAS NOT AN OPENING!"

"IT WORKED! SHE STOPPED ATTACKING THE PATIENTS!"

Maela opened her mouth, looked at the enraged Griffin chasing Zishan across the medical station, and apparently realized that she had nothing to say for that specific part.

Zishan laughed while using Rift Steps to escape another claw. "SEE?! TACTICAL!"

[The System reminds the Dumb Host: Your Mana might fall to zero anytime if you continue to use Rift Steps.]

"Then, let it be zero!"

The Griffin screamed again.

Screech!

"Okay! Stop screaming! I already apologized in my heart!"

But the female Griffin was so furious that she continued chasing after him.

The fight became increasingly ridiculous after that.

Ashen Banner had activated the moment genuine danger surrounded him. Heat moved underneath Zishan’s skin, sharpening his instincts whenever the Griffin attacked. Appraisal helped him recognize where Wind Mana was gathering before each Skill was released, while his newly acquired Wind Affinity made the movement of the air around the Griffin significantly easier to feel.

Eternal Wellspring was helping too.

His Mana was still disappearing frighteningly fast, especially with how often he kept activating Rift Steps, but his recovery was noticeably better than it had been during the battlefield chase.

Then, there was the Stormwing Rend.

For the first time, Zishan actually had something offensive.

He avoided another claw, moved around the Griffin’s side, and sent a wind blade across one of her wings. The attack tore several feathers free.

The Griffin shrieked.

Screech!

Zishan saw the feathers floating through the air and could not resist. "HAHAHA! YOU’RE GOING BALD!"

The Griffin charged even faster.

"WHY ARE YOU GETTING ANGRIER?!"

[The Dumb Host has repeatedly struck, insulted, and humiliated the target.]

"She attacked us first!"

[The System was merely answering the question.]

Zishan clicked his tongue and kept moving. Somewhere during the fight, he realized something else. His abilities were actually beginning to work together.

Rift Steps allowed him to avoid attacks that should have been impossible for his actual combat experience. Ashen Banner became more responsive the more dangerous the fight became. Appraisal showed him details he would otherwise miss, the Wind Affinity improved his sensitivity to the Griffin’s attacks, and Eternal Wellspring helped prevent him from emptying his Mana reserve quite as quickly.

Even the absurd Perfected Glimpse of Stormwing Rend had a limitation that worked in his favor. Zishan could not produce the same output as the Griffin, but he knew exactly what perfect execution was supposed to look like.

For someone who had arrived in Cyrune less than a day ago, that was completely unfair.

Zishan loved it, though.

The Griffin lunged again.

He disappeared through Rift Steps, passed underneath one wing, and released Stormwing Rend almost directly into her side.

The Griffin stumbled.

Zishan landed several meters away and started laughing. "HAHAHAHA! THIS IS GETTING FUN!"

’Am I seeing a battle maniac right now?’ Maela, who was still protecting the medical station, looked at him in complete disbelief. "You were desperately running away from soldiers the last time. You were even complaining about it!"

"They had weapons! Of course, I need to run!" Zishan answered from quite a distance, his voice straining just to make Maela hear what he was trying to say, not knowing that the higher one’s level was, the more perceptive they’d become of their environment.

"You’re fighting a Griffin, kid!"

"Humans with weapons and a magic beast—they’re completely different!"

"A Griffin at Level 50 is so much worse!"

"EXACTLY!"

Maela looked like she had temporarily forgotten what point she was trying to make.

The Griffin suddenly spread her wings and launched herself into the air. Zishan stopped laughing.

Wind Mana gathered around her body. And there was a lot of it.

His Appraisal Skill immediately returned a warning.

[Stormwing Rend.]

[Estimated Output: Significantly Above Host’s Capacity.]

Zishan looked up. "Oh..."

The Griffin continued gathering Mana.

Zishan stepped backward and prepared Rift Steps, thinking he could avoid it.

’Probably?’

Then, he heard the little boy shouting at him to be careful from behind the overturned wagon. Zishan glanced over his shoulder.

The little boy was not the only person behind him.

The medical station was directly in the path of the attack. Wounded soldiers filled the tents; Maela was already using a large part of her Mana maintaining the barriers and couldn’t simply abandon them, and several healers were still trying to move the patients who could not walk on their own. Moreover, the soldiers back there were all basically useless.

Zishan looked up again.

The Griffin released Stormwing Rend.

The wind blade was significantly larger than anything Zishan had cast.

"..."

"..."

"I’m... I’m fucked..."

He stopped preparing to run. Instead, he planted both feet in the mud and gathered Wind Mana around his arms.

The Perfected Glimpse immediately showed him everything wrong with his plan.

The Griffin was Level 50. He was a Level 10 nobody. Her body, as a Griffin, was naturally suited to the Skill. And his was clearly not. Moreover, she had vastly more experience using it, while he had acquired it just a couple of minutes ago.

Apparently, every measurable factor in the situation suggested that Zishan should move out of the way.

"Well, that’s unfortunate," he said as he closed his eyes.

Then, he compressed his Mana.

The Perfected Glimpse guided him away from trying to copy the Griffin’s wide attack. He did not have enough Mana for that. Instead, he narrowed everything into a smaller point, allowing less of his power to scatter.

The Griffin’s attack descended.

Zishan swung both arms. "STORMWING REND!"

His wind blade shot upward. The two attacks collided.

The collision produced a loud explosion; the impact ripped through the entire medical station.

Canvas snapped violently above the tents, mud blasted away from Zishan’s feet, and the impact pushed him backward even though he had planted himself as firmly as possible.

His attack immediately began breaking apart.

"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"

Ashen Banner responded to the danger.

Heat surged through him.

His muscles tightened as he forced more Mana into the Skill. Eternal Wellspring continued feeding him small amounts of recovered Mana, although it was nowhere close to enough to make up the difference between them.

The Griffin’s attack continued pushing downward.

Zishan gritted his teeth. "YOU’RE LEVEL FIFTY! WHY ARE YOU BULLYING A LEVEL TEN NOOB?! HAVE SOME FUCKING SHAME!"

The wind blade above him cracked. Then, the pressure suddenly shifted.

Zishan’s concentrated attack cut through the weakest section of the Griffin’s wider Stormwing Rend. The larger blade split. Both halves passed around Zishan and struck the ground on opposite sides of the medical station.

The impact shook everything.

Silence.

"..."

"..."

Zishan remained standing in the middle of the damaged ground.

His arms were shaking from the effort, his Mana felt horribly low, and his white hair had become such a mess that he was afraid to see himself in a mirror.

Still, he was standing.

The Griffin landed several meters away.

She did not immediately attack again.

Zishan noticed that her breathing was heavier now. Several feathers were missing from one wing, mud covered most of her lion half, and she was staring at him with an expression that Zishan had no trouble understanding even without Appraisal.

She hated him. To the core.

Probably more than she hated the people she believed had stolen her eggs.

Zishan pointed at himself. "Look, if this is still about me hitting your butthole earlier, I think we’ve both suffered enough."