Chapter 12: Kivara

He lurched forward, his sword slashing, but it was as if she was the breeze itself the way she avoided him. He didn’t even get near her before she was gone.

“Oh, you’re angry? But I thought you wanted to hear the truth.” Her mocking voice came from behind, and Riven whirled, but she was now a few distances away from him.

His jaw clenched. What gave her the guts? She thought she could just come and insult him after he saved her. There was no need to rub it in. Riven knew he was inexperienced, but he would learn because he was willing to take.

Even if he had to die.

He realized that she was just like everyone else. She might share a build with his sister, but they were miles apart in every other way. She was exactly like those villagers who mocked him, like Vaelith. All they did was look down on others.

And so, without giving thought to his own safety, he turned toward her and began to chase her around. It might be true that he was inexperienced, but he wasn’t that naive, and he had put some things together.

She wasn’t as healed as she was acting. He saw her wince in pain when she landed earlier, and the way she was moving—jumping around—she was doing it in ways that wouldn’t make her use big movements.

She was minding her stomach. The wound wasn’t fully healed, and she must not have wanted to rip it open again. But unlike her, Riven was in peak condition. Slightly more powerful than a normal human in his just-activated rank, he still had more than enough energy to tire her out.

And she knew it as well when she saw him relentlessly chasing her everywhere. If she jumped to a branch too high for him to reach, he would start stoning her, all to make her move.

Finally, she grimaced and waited for him to catch up to her, and Riven pressed his sword against her neck. His anger had cooled, but it was still there. “Why do you say such words?”

She didn’t look away from him, as if daring him to slice her throat. But they both knew she was only in that position because she wanted to be. She answered, “Because it is the truth. You are not suited to the practitioner world.”

Riven smiled, and then he let all the anger he was carrying show on his face. The grief mixed with it, together with the pain of death—both his own and his sister’s. It blended with the little aura pressure he was able to create and turned into a bloodlust that washed over her.

Her eyes widened in shock, and she took a step back, shuddering and gasping. “What happened to you?”

Riven clamped down on his bloodlust and shrugged as if nothing had happened. “The aura practitioner world.”

She shook her head in disbelief. Bloodlust was an intent; it could be added inside an aura pressure. It was a reflection of anger, sadness, and pain.

What she felt from him wasn’t what someone his age and rank should have.

He met her eyes. “And I will head into the practitioner world. It is my world too.”

“And if you die? Are you not afraid of death?” she asked, her tone more curious than mocking.

Riven laughed at that, and there was even a little mirth there. “I’m not afraid of death. Not anymore.”

She looked at him for a while, then shrugged. “I guess it’s none of my business. We all have our paths.”

“Then why do you try to stop me?”

“Maybe because I am paying you back for saving me.”

Riven wasn’t going to have that. “No. I saved you twice.”

She smiled—the first smile he had seen from her—and it was more like a flash of fangs. “It seems I was mistaken about you not fitting into the practitioner world. So, what do you want?”

Riven shrugged. He was ready. “Information, and then you will train me in the Path.”

She stared at him, blinking several times before she suddenly began to laugh. She sat down on the ground with a huff and gestured for him to do the same. “We will have to do this while sitting. We have a lot to talk about. First, why are you still alive? I know you were near death when I passed out, and now you are not only healed, but you are perfectly fine.”

Riven met her eyes and let her see just how serious he was when he said, “Some of us have secrets. Leave it at that.”

She frowned but nodded slowly. She didn’t seem too interested, but she pointed at her stomach. “I don’t know what you did, but it gave my regeneration ability time to recover, and it boosted it as well.”

Riven shrugged. No way he was going to tell his secrets to someone who could just turn around and decide to kill him, not to mention the fact that there was no trust between them. They were practically strangers to each other. Instead of answering anything, he asked a question of his own. “What is your name?”

“I am Kivara.”

“I’m Riven. So, Kivara, what are you doing in the forest? Getting chased by a monster?”

Her voice sharpened. “It was my stupid master’s fault. He sent me to trail some people into the Shadowwood because they might lead to another catacomb. You know a catacomb appeared at the edge of the Shadowwood, right? I guess you don’t. Where one catacomb appears, you usually find more nearby.

“Anyway, I followed them, and I’m very good at tracking, but for some reason, they detected me and chased me. I ran, and they nearly caught me before they just stopped running after me. Turns out I entered the territory of nasty monsters. I killed three of the smaller ones, but then their mother wouldn’t leave me be.”

Riven nodded slowly as he processed all she said. Seemed he wasn’t the only one with bad luck lately.

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