Skill Hunter -Kill Monsters, Acquire Skills, Ascend to the Highest Rank!

"Yeah? What do you need?" Wisp asked.

"Listen…" Ike explained his plan to her. At the end, he paused. "And can you get Mag over here? We're going to need an extra layer of distraction."

"You going to be good on your own for a bit?"

"I can handle her for this long."

Wisp whistled. "Whoo-ee, big boy. You were just complaining about your swords being short a minute ago, and now you think you can handle her?"

Ike narrowed his eyes in Wisp's general direction.

Wisp chuckled and ran off, leaving Ike alone. "I'll be back."

The pigwoman charged after Ike, barreling through the forest after him. She uprooted trees and kicked boulders aside in her mad rush. A cloud of dust blew up behind her. She'd given up on her spear-throwing to put her all in chasing down Ike. Her huge feet tore up the ground, her trotters literally tearing up the forest floor.

Ike ran at full speed. He was fast, but there was no denying he had the disadvantage here. His legs had to pump hundreds of times to make up for one of the momma pig's steps. And she was no slow runner. For all her hugeness and bulk, she could run with incredible speed. Her legs spanned hundreds of feet with each swing, and she knew how to swing them. Her rolls of fat flopped around her as she ran, but her bulk did nothing to slow her down. She was built to be big. Big and powerful.

The momma pig's foot slammed down in front of Ike. Ike swayed to the side, dodging her hoof. His heart leapt. I'm fast for someone of my side, but I'm not fast, absolutely. Compared to something huge, I'm a slug.

It made sense, when he thought about it. He could easily catch the fastest of bugs. The smaller something was, the harder it had to work to cover large areas of ground quickly. He was a bug to momma pig, so she outsped him, even with his speed focus.

I have to get faster. I've been neglecting speed, because it's been my strength for so long, but this isn't the upper limit of my speed. And if I rest on my laurels here, I'll never get faster.

A meaty pink hand swept at Ike from behind. It dug into the earth, fingers digging furrows in the dirt as easily as Ike would scoop up wet mud from a puddle. They chased toward him, intending to snatch him and the ground around him at the same time. The ground rumbled under Ike's feet. Furrows marred the path ahead. Fingertips breached through the earth, seeking to close him in.

Ike jumped out of the pigwoman's grasp. Her hand slammed shut behind him, sending a cloud of dirt into the air. Her other hand swept toward Ike in the air. She'd been waiting for him to jump out, and she was ready to grab him. She chuckled "In midair, you can't escape!"

A wall of pink rushed at Ike. His eyes narrowed. He tensed, waiting for the perfect moment. Three. Two.

The fingers brushed against his skin.

Ike kicked off the top of her round, chubby fingers, bouncing up them like a ladder. He landed on the top of her hand as it shut and raced up her wrist. Sprinting at top speed, he rushed toward her shoulder. His feet pattered over flesh, then leather armor. Her flab absorbed some of his speed, but he fought against it and kept going. It felt like running through sand, like the ground was sucking his energy away. Her other hand flew toward him, trying to flick him off. Ike hopped it and kept going, eyes locked onto her neck. Even if I can't kill her, I can try again! I have some ideas on how to cut deeper. If I don't try them, I'll never know which one works!

The pigwoman shook herself. Her arms quaked, throwing Ike off. As he fell, he hooked his ankle in her flesh and kicked backward, forcing himself back upright and toward her arm. He landed on jiggling flesh and immediately kicked off again, so the jiggle couldn't throw his balance off. Her eyes were shut, her whole self given over to the shake. He closed in on her neck and drew back his sword.

This is the River-Splitting Sword. If I master it, it should split rivers, let alone cut some pig's neck! He put his all into the technique. Not all his aether, but all his focus. All his killing intent. He swung for her neck with his toothpick of a sword, compared to her bulk, and he swung to kill.

The blade sank into her neck, and then beyond. It cut further than its metal reached, digging deep enough to draw blood—but not enough to kill her. She shrieked in pain and slapped a hand toward her neck. Ike kicked off her shoulder and dropped to the trees. He wouldn't be able to survive if she went all-out on slapping the bug off her neck. Better to get out of there before she started.

She slapped her neck, and then something red and black hurtled out of the sky and struck the top of her head. Frustrated, she grunted and smacked her head, only to hit herself. Mag was long gone, arcing into the air to prepare for the next swoop.

"Ike! I'm back," Wisp called. She scurried up beside him in half-spider form, with four additional spider legs helping to clamber along the trees. "We still good for that plan of yours?"

"Yep. You want to get started on the setup?" Ike asked. "I'll start focusing mine."

"You got it." Wisp vanished again.

Leaving her to it, he dashed back and forth, using Storm Clad to run at full speed. He kept his eyes on the clouds, but at the same time, he focused on his legs. On running. Sure, he mostly needed the conditions to activate Lightning Caller, but as he'd thought earlier, he needed to get faster. He'd been neglecting his speed for quite a while. The pigwoman had jolted him back to reality. Lightning Dash might be a Unique skill, but that didn't make it unimprovable or ultimate. As he should know, better than anyone! He'd advanced Lightning Dash into Storm Clad, after all. And still, he'd taken his speed advantage as a given. Looking back on it now, he could see how foolish he'd been. There was always room for improvement. He was Rank 3, far from the apex of any of his abilities. If he didn't constantly improve his strengths, they would fail to remain strengths, and become nothing instead.

The pigwoman thrashed and squealed. She snatched at Mag as he darted down, but Mag had more experience swooping than the pigwoman had at bird-catching. He weaved around her grasp with ease, flitting in and out of her arms and repeatedly striking her head and tearing her hair without her hands ever coming close.

Even higher than Mag, the clouds darkened. Thunder grumbled, and flashes of lightning burst in the high clouds. Ike looked upward. "Wisp, I'm ready."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"I'm… ready!" She flew toward him, trailing a thread. Handing off the thread to him, she scampered to a safe distance.

Ike chuckled, watching her go. "Tell Mag to get out of there, too!"

"Got it."

He turned his attention to the spider thread and pushed his aether into it. The energy flowed through Wisp's spider thread. Her thread was able to carry her own aether, and since he used aether as she did, it could also take his aether. It took him a few moments before he'd circulated his aether through the entire spider thread Wisp had thrown, time that almost exactly corresponded to how long it took Mag to escape. Then it was just Ike, Wisp's thread, and the pigwoman.

"Hey, piglady!" he shouted.

She grunted and turned. Her eyes lit on Ike, and they narrowed. She lifted her arm to smash him for once and for all.

Lifting his arm to the sky, Ike activated Lightning Caller. Lightning darted down. With his other hand, he yanked the spiderthread. All the thread Wisp had cast around the forest yanked shut, wrapping around the pigwoman. She only had time to stare at it before the lightning struck. It coursed through Ike's Storm Clad skill without harming him and chased along the path of his mana, zipping through the spider thread. Lightning struck the pigwoman from all directions. It blasted her over and over again. Her body trembled, her limbs shaking.

He sent another surge upward, calling more lightning down. Lightning struck over and over, and Ike sent every single volt of it into the pigwoman. It crackled along the spider thread and into the pigwoman. There was no dodging or escaping. All she could do was stand there and take it.

At last, the lightning fizzled out. The clouds cleared. Ike kept his hand raised, staring at the pigwoman. Was that enough?