Maya couldn’t do it.

She could make the wind swirl around her in a gust. She could make it push out in all directions in a brief flare. She could focus it into a tight ball and slam it into an opponent at short range.

None of which was any use against a heavily-armored enemy with a massive flaming hammer. If she couldn't get this combo move working, she had nothing.

Shadow wasn’t a mage himself, so his advice tended to be theoretical and generic, rather than specific enough to be helpful. When pressed, he admitted that he couldn’t actually be sure if the abilities could be combined in the specific way he hoped, but that she should keep trying until the last minute anyway.

So she did. She threw knives and cast the spell, she cast the spell and she threw knives. She could knock a knife off course. She could send it whipping around her in a blur of wind. But she couldn’t seem to master transitioning between one state of Wind Whisper’s ability to another.

She could gust, but only if she wasn’t already holding. She could hold it close to her hand, but not figure out how to push it away once she told it to stay.

Maya grew increasingly frustrated, but Shadow insisted she must be making progress.

She didn’t feel like she was making progress. She felt like she was wasting time. Going around in circles.

Finally, her scheduled rematch arrived. She followed Shadow out of his training area and back to the fighters’ entrance.

“Good luck. And don’t worry if you can’t beat her yet. We’ll keep trying.”

Maya sighed. “Thanks,” she said, without much emotion. “At least the fights don’t take too long.”

She waited until the announcer called their names, then stepped out into the arena. She didn’t advance, wanting to give herself as much space as possible. Not that it mattered. Venix could close the distance easily while charging her attack.

“BEGIN!”

Maya started casting Wind Whisper, overcharging it. Venix charged, whirling her massive hammer over her head as she approached.

Maya felt desperation and fear rising at the sight. Venix had killed her last time in less than a minute. Adrenaline blazing through her, she pushed the Wind Whisper out, not at Venix, but into a curved arc. It wasn’t planned, wasn’t calculated, just pure instinct. Or perhaps instinct honed by her hour of practice.

The gust of wind blasted upward, directed in a wide loop above Maya’s head, then back around next to her. She could feel exactly where the gust was at every moment. Time seemed to extend as she drew her knife and threw it just as the looping gust rushed past her toward Venix.

The wind caught the thrown blade and whipped it forward. Maya’s breath caught as she pictured the blade slamming into her opponent’s chest with all the Wind Whisper’s force and the knife’s sharp pointiness combined. This was it! This was what Shadow wanted! She was doing it!

But the wind continued to curve, the blade continued to rise. The attack flew well over Venix’s head and skittered up the far wall, bouncing off the protective shielding for the audience with a loud PING.

Maya had just enough time for her pent eager emotions to drop into dread, then the familiar smash as Venix’s hammer crashed into her and sent her flying, followed by a wave of fire.

-24 health.

-5 health.

Maya wondered if she should practice throwing knives specifically while lying on the ground. It seemed to be where she spent most of her time during these fights. Then again, the ability system seemed to compensate well enough without help.

She jumped to her feet, beginning to cast again. She wouldn’t have time to put as much of an overcharge into it this time, but she wanted to try that loop again. Apart from leaving too much spin on the wind so it ended up going high, that was the closest to success she’d come all day.

Wind, up and looping behind her; knife, throw just as the wind rushes past, hopefully right into her foe. . .

Miss. But not by as much. Maybe all she needed was to practice in an extremely high-stakes fight?

SMASH.

-39 health.

"I'll give you this much, at least you're persistent." Venix laughed. "But mage is not a good arena class. You should consider a different archetype."

Ignore her. Try again. Wind Whisper. Overcharge until the last moment, loop up and around, throw knife.

This time Maya had timed it poorly; the wind hit Venix before the knife left her hand. At least it chipped a tiny bit of her health, and the thrown knife dealt another minuscule amount of damage.

Maya grabbed a knife and tried to charge Wind Whisper with it in her hand, but that difference was enough to prevent the ability from triggering. Without magic to cast the spell manually, it wouldn’t work. She dropped the knife back into her inventory, cursing at the lost time, and started casting again. She poured more levels of overcharge in this time and tried to specifically cast it slower.

It didn't work. She missed the timing and the wind blasted the knife off course. As an upside, at least the overcharged Wind Whisper did hit.

Then, so did Venix.

-39 health.

Try again. She could survive one more hit, and Venix's attack was significantly slower than Maya's, the long windup taking more preparation than either Wind Whisper or Throw Knife.

She missed again, the wind rushing past just before she threw, but this time they both hit Venix. Of course, her health bar continued to look untouched, while Maya's sat well below half, but that wasn't the point right now.

She still had time. Venix was swinging her hammer, but hadn't stepped forward to smash it down yet. Wind Whisper, overcharge, knife.

Not quite. Both attacks hit independently, but they didn't combine.

-39 health.

One more try.

"You know you're wasting your time, right?"

Maya couldn't engage in banter while casting Wind Whisper, but she shook her head and glared at Venix, heartbeat speeding way too fast. Last try.

Cast. Loop. Throw. Miss. The wind caught the blade, but then didn't fly straight. While each attack on their own seemed to home in on the target, the moment she tried to combine them the aim became something under her control rather than an automatic hit. She'd have to practice that afterward. She was starting to get a feel for it, starting to understand how to guide her Wind Whisper once cast, but it was far from combat-usable.

She channeled all her remaining energy into one last supercharged Wind Whisper, giving up on the knife-throwing part for now. She wasn't going to win this round, and didn't want to waste any more of her blades needlessly.

Her attack hit. Then so did Venix's, with significantly more impact.

You have lost a duel to Venix Heartstealer.

“That was pathetic,” Maya groaned, slumping against the waiting area’s wall.

Someone giggled nastily. “Yeah, it sure was.”

Maya opened her eyes, to the least welcome sight of the day. Kittykitty, pink fur barely visible beneath all her new items, decked out in scale mail and carrying a shield and mace.

“What are you doing here?”

Kittykitty slunk forward, laughing in a harsh voice which did not fit her seductive persona. “Same as you, fighting. Only, while you’re getting smashed into the ground, I’m the one doing the smashing.” She gave her mace a menacing twirl. “Shame you’re too much a coward to fight me fairly, or I’d ask for a rematch here and now. Guess we’ll have to wait for you to fight your way up to me. Though, I admit, I kinda prefer it this way.”

Maya took a deep breath, trying to keep her frustration and irritation under control. “Just remember,” she said icily. “You’re the one who attacked a player five levels lower than yourself and lost. No matter how great you think you are now you’re sponsored, remember that I beat you with nothing but my own skill. So, sure. Enjoy watching me get knocked around by those stronger and faster than me. But I’m not doing this for you. I don’t care if we ever face each other again. I beat you. As far as I’m concerned, this is over. But if you insist on coming after me, I will defeat you again as many times as it takes.”

She turned and pushed through the far door, hurrying to Shadow’s practice arena. She had to try that new attack variant some more.

But first, she had to smash something.

Maya found it surprisingly cathartic to scream at the top of her lungs, kick, punch, and eventually stab the nearest target dummy in increasingly hysterical fashion.

She eventually exhausted her stamina and lay on the ground panting for breath, eyes narrowing as she regarded the foe standing over her seemingly aloof from her attacks.

With a throaty screech, she clawed herself to her feet and drew a second knife. “Just you wait. I’m not done.”

“I’d hope not. We’re just getting started.”

Shadow.

Maya turned to face her sponsor, weary and angry, emotions still running high. “I certainly hope you didn’t sign me up for another rematch.”

“Naturally. Venix may not be the best matchup for you, but she's the only one anywhere close to your level. Unless you want to challenge that pink creature from Cobalt's group?"

Maya shook her head. Kittykitty seemed vindictive enough without giving her more reason to consider Maya her rival. The sooner she moved on and forgot about Maya entirely, the better. The last thing she wanted was an insane cat-girl chasing her around for the rest of her life.

"By the way, did you level up again?”

Maya checked her stat sheet, and shook her head.

“Pity. Should be soon. At level 5 it doesn’t take much.”

Maya hefted her knife. Her stamina was back to full. “Are you finished?”

“By all means, carry on stabbing the unbreakable inanimate object.”

Maya narrowed her eyes, then proceeded to do just that.

The seven knives she’d used in her duel hadn’t returned to her. She’d known it was a possibility that they were one-time use, but she’d hoped otherwise since they’d all been undamaged by the practice throws here.

Rapidly stabbing the dummy reminded her of her confrontation with Kittykitty. The woman seemed to have a personal problem with Maya, and she sincerely doubted the felinis would be willing to let it go.

“I beat you before and I’ll do it again if I have to,” Maya snarled, increasing the tempo as she stabbed and stabbed and stabbed. Then she ran through the last of her stamina, dropped the knives, and toppled to the sandy floor.

“Do you want to talk about anything?”

“You’re my employer, not my confidant,” Maya growled. She pushed herself back up, swaying unsteadily for a second until her stamina started to recover. “If I wanted to have a heart-to-heart it wouldn’t be with you.”

“Harsh. But it’s true, we only met a few hours ago, and showering you with fame and fortune is hardly the way to show my true depths of character.”

Maya began juggling her knives, one in each hand, flipping them up and catching them, disregarding the nicks as she grabbed the blade as often as the handle. -1 health, -1 health, she could handle it. “I can’t tell if you’re trying to make me distrust you more, or if you just can’t help being sinister."

“Synister is over there, the big feathered guy with the kilt.”

Maya stopped juggling her knives and stared. Indeed, one of her fellow trainees was a large grey-feathered harpy man, deep blue-black crest feathers as long as a peacock tail flowing down his back, wearing a very skirt-like kilt.

“What’s his level? Is that all his equipment?”

“He’s a Savagery Berserker, level 34. He actually gets a bonus for each equipment slot that’s empty. That kilt is his class item, believe it or not.”

Maya’s stamina had recovered now, but her curiosity surpassed her annoyance so she didn't return to stabbing the practice dummy, electing to continue the conversation instead. “What kind of bonuses?”

“You should come by tomorrow night if you want to see him in action, he has a match scheduled.”

“I’ll see. It depends on my schedule. I’m planning to do a lot of quests to level and earn money, so I could be busy.” She was a bit curious, but couldn't say she really cared that much. Watching other people fight sounded even less interesting than getting beat up herself.

Maya sheathed her knives, then drew the OceanBlade. It felt awkward, unfamiliar weight and balance, but undeniably a beautiful weapon.

“Is there any way I can learn to use this properly?”

“Of course. If that’s where you wish to direct your time and attention.”

“Not today, I want to figure out that wind-knife combo first. Next week.”

Shadow nodded. “Certainly. I’ll find someone to assist you. You didn’t complete the basic melee tutorial?”

Maya shook her head, embarrassed. “It sounds silly now, but the teacher was a sinister vampire and he scared me.”

“Hmm. So not a vampire?”

“Yes. No. I don’t really care. I haven’t seen many vampires around, actually. Are they an unpopular class?”

Shadow laughed. “Far from it. But you’ve been around mostly mages so far, yes? It is the preferred race for assassins and thieves.”

“Ah. That explains it.” Maya considered the attack target before her, suddenly weary. She didn’t want to keep casting her spell, throwing knives, and missing. She took a few steps back, squared her shoulders, and focused very hard. She needed a strong enough attack that she could bring Venix down in a few hits, but one that could charge and activate quickly.

Which was impossible.

It took two and a half seconds to cast Wind Whisper with a single charge. Another second to throw the knife. Two seconds worth of overcharge would be enough damage to match Venix’s hammer strikes, but she needed the knife too or else the wind resistance on the armor would negate too much for it to be effective.

Even with her increased speed, Maya couldn’t do it.

She tried. She tried to move faster, tried to combine the abilities, but abilities were static. Repeating the same thing over and over didn't make her faster - couldn't make her faster. The abilities never changed.

So she stopped activating them.

Maya started throwing the knives freehand, resisting the instinctive pull toward the specific movements that would guarantee a hit.

And she missed. A lot. The knives flew over the target, fell short, flew past on either side. They grazed, bounced off hilt-first, and stuck briefly before toppling to the ground.

Her next rematch arrived, and she attended with ill grace. She didn’t waste any of her knives this time, instead squaring her stance and pouring all her energy into a single, super-overcharged Wind Whisper at the very start.

She fully expected the half-charged spell to break when Venix’s hammer sent her flying back, but to her surprise it did not interrupt. She continued pouring power into the spell, even as her merla opponent smashed her again.

Then the spell hit full overcharge, her energy drained to 4, and she pushed it out at her foe.

The result was spectacular. Since Maya was casting from the ground, the upward momentum of the spell picked Venix up and threw her into the air, smashing her into the protective barrier hard enough that she also took collision damage. Maya laughed. The single hit took out almost a quarter of Venix's health.

Venix hit the ground hard, her health dropping another percent or two at the impact.

For the first time, Maya didn’t feel like the fight was a complete loss. She had a flat benchmark now. And now she knew her abilities wouldn’t be interrupted as easily as she’d anticipated.

Might as well gather some more information while she was at it.

She stood and waited, counting the seconds as Venix charged her attack, hit Maya, waited out the cooldown, and attacked again. It was very rhythmic, perfectly timed, perfectly even. Six and a half seconds between hits, as close as Maya could figure.

Venix didn't vary her attacks at all, just wound up the flaming smash, then employed it to devestating effect. Maya supposed she wouldn't need anything else, if she could take out an opponent in five hits.

Speaking of. . .

-39 health, right on time.

You have lost a duel to Venix Heartstealer.

Maya ignored everyone around her and hurried down the hall toward the black door. She had some solid data now, enough to plan her next fight. She still had to combine the abilities successfully, and increase her speed, but she had a good general idea of Venix’s health now.

Maya's fully overcharged attack could do 60 damage in 6.6 seconds. But a single supercharged Wind Whisper was the least efficient use of energy, even if it was the most efficient for time. The most energy-efficient would be to cast it singly, 5 damage, 5 energy, making her total damage output 115. But she'd only have roughly 28 seconds from the fight's beginning before Venix's attacks finished her. Only enough time to cast Wind Whisper seven times, since half the time would be spent on cooldown.

Without needing to worry about interrupts, she could basically create an attack sequence and simply perform it, ignoring her opponent smashing her around the arena. Abilities were so useful.

Her supercharged Wind Whisper brought Venix down by between 20% and 25% - the bars were visual only, with no numbers or other indication aside from their length, so that was just a guess. Assuming it was 20% to be safe, that meant that Maya needed to deal 5x the current max damage in order to win.

Changing the damage type of her Wind Whisper to physical would double it if it bypassed Venix's armor resistance. But Venix had to have at least 250 health. Wind Whisper's maximum damage output was 115, even if Venix stood still for ten minutes to let her slowly chip it away. Her knives did 3 damage. Add five or six of those, and she still wouldn't surpass 200. Nowhere on the scale between 90 and 200 lay a number above 250.

She couldn't win. Not at her current level. Not with her current stats.

"Shadow, we need to talk."

"Yes, Maya?" She wished she could see his expression, but he remained stubbornly silhouetted.

"How long until my next rematch?"

"Four hours. Venix will be taking a break shortly, and I thought you could use the time."

"I can. And I want to fight someone else in the meantime. I need to level up." It may be stupid, playing into this imagined rivalry, but right now Maya needed every advantage she could scrape together.

Shadow nodded. "The pink thing?"

"Yes. Send my challenge to Kittykitty."

Character Maya Starborn Average Androgynous Harpy Level: 5 Affinities: Magical Physical Tier: 1 Class: Trickster Specialization: Path of Life Total Base Items Modifiers Sturdiness: 13 8 5 0 Momentum: 20 12 5 3 Agility: 14 8 5 1 Control: 13 8 5 0 Attunement: 31 12 18 1 Focus: 21 8 12 1 Intelligence: 39 12 25 2 Flexibility: 17 8 8 1 Luck: 40 35 - 5 Unassigned: 0 Health: 144 of 144 Will: 30 of 30 Stamina: 75 of 75 Energy: 119 of 119 Speed: 117% Switch penalty: -47%, 9.7 secs Stealth: 133% Chain bonus: +6% Awareness: 129% Cooldown: 91.5% Max abilities: 3 Abilities Abilities: [3 of 3] Wind Whisper

[5 energy] Blow into cupped hands, then push the air toward the target.

Creates a light breeze, a quick gust, or a damaging slash.

[Overcharge: +5 energy, +0.2 sec cast time, +50% force/duration/dmg] 2.2 sec

5 dmg

(wind) Throw Knife

[5 stamina] Throw a knife at a target with high accuracy. Requires a knife. 1.1 sec

3 dmg

(physical) Sense Balance Discern if an area is lacking in or has an excess of any materials, creatures, etc. Equipment & Inventory Item Name Slot Stu Mom Agi Con Att Foc Int Flx OceanBlade Held 1 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 OceanBlade Held 2 Mage's Circlet Head 1 1 1 1 Mage's Hooded Cloak Shoulders 1 1 Handwraps of Focus Hands 2 Mage Robes Body 2 1 2 1 Leggings of the Mage Legs 1 Mage's Sash Belt 1 1 1 1 Mage's Sandals Feet 1 1 Armband of Intelligence Arm 1 4 Armband of the Mage Arm 2 1 1 1 Mage's Pendant Necklace 1 Mage's Ring Ring 1 1 1 1 Ring of Intelligence Ring 2 1 Ring of Intelligence Ring 3 1 Ring of Intelligence Ring 4 1 Attunement Trinket Misc 1 2 Attunement Trinket Misc 2 2 Intelligence Trinket Misc 3 2 Intelligence Trinket Misc 4 2 Trickster's Mask (Mage) Special Money: 3 Silver 152 Copper Quality Item name Details Soulbound Trickster's Dice Soulbound Trickster's Orb 3/5 uses remaining Flimsy Shary's Orchard Brochure Normal Apple x2 Consumable Special White and Blue Orb 3/3 uses remaining Special Key - Arrival Plaza Apartment Expires in 29 days Normal Basic Throwing Knife x14 3 damage (physical) Special Key - Room 6, Sapphire Hall Flimsy Newcomer's Tunic Flimsy Newcomer's Leggings Normal Acrobat's Footwraps Level 5, +2 agi Special Arena Equipment Token Registered to Maya Starborn Exceptional Lesser Bracelet of Control Level 2, +4 con Uncommon Minor Chestpiece of the Dancer Level 4, +1 mom, +1 con Uncommon Minor Waistwrap of the Dancer Level 4, +1 mom, +1 con Legendary Ordinary Gloves of Control Level 4, +13 con Missions Mission Description

Time Reward Arena (Shadow) Spend at least one day every week fighting in the Arena. Variable Trickster Day 3 Lose a fight to another player in the arena. DONE Ordinary Gloves of Control

+5 reputation with The Trickster Gazebo Construction Construct a new gazebo for Maylon the Poet.

[Optional] Also varnish the entire structure once built. DONE 3 silver 50 copper

+5 reputation with Maylon the Poet Trickster Day 2 Lose a fight to another player in PVP. DONE Lesser Bracelet of Control

+5 reputation with The Trickster Windy Creek Reconstruction Locate the missing workers' tools.

Construct a new dam to redirect Windy Creek to the mill run.

Clear the wreckage of the old Windy Creek Dam.

Complete construction of the new Windy Creek bridge. DONE 5 silver, 80 copper

25 reputation with Windy Creek village Trickster Day 1 Side with a person who is losing an argument or disagreement. FAILED -5 reputation with The Trickster Missing Delivery Find the overdue delivery boy. Ensure his safety and the successful delivery of apples to Shary's Produce Stand. DONE 5 copper

3 apples

+10 reputation with Shary and Elaph