Hunter didn't wait for the pilfer to announce the start of the battle. He wanted the power within the tiefling's souls. There would be no quarter given and no honor maintained. He was a creature of greed and power. Something as basic as dueling etiquette wouldn't stay his hand.

His first move was to launch a Diving Eagle at the spell caster. The demon was mostly unarmored, and Hunter wanted to end his threat before taking on the melee demon. As Hunter closed the distance, the tiefling was buffeted by the hungry wind that surrounded the young warrior. He raised his arm to block Hunter's downward blow and summoned green fire to wreath his limbs in gloves of liquid fire. The effect was interesting, but it didn't stop Hunter's attack in the slightest. The demon likely hoped that the fire would absorb the momentum behind Hunter's attack.

However, with the young warrior's staff covered in Black Wind, it canceled out the defense of the tiefling, and Hunter's spire cracked into the forearm of the tiefling. Hunter felt the bone shatter in the tiefling's forearm, and the demon gasped as Hunter blow turned the arm into an abused mess of broken bone and rent flesh. Hunter grinned in malicious glee while withdrawing his staff to perform a Reverse Talon. He swung aside and spun his staff to connect with the spell caster's unprotected jaw. The force behind the strike was powerful enough to crack the demon's temple and collapse its face into a bloody mess.

With the spell caster incapacitated, Hunter had the presence of mind to step back as the other enemy brought her sword down in an arc. Had it landed, Hunter would have been cleaved in twain. Instead, Hunter gracefully dodged the attack and responded with a flurry of his own. As he attacked, he activated Tempest Strikes but found that the tiefling was able to keep up with a series of blocking maneuvers that redirected the energy behind Hunter's strikes.

The back and forth nature of the battle made Hunter grind his teeth. The tiefling had a better ability than Hunter's own. There were no fancy skills or tricks with fire. It was pure technical skill that let the tiefling prevent Hunter from landing a winning strike. Hunter growled as he backed up a couple of paces and summoned a Black Tornado to his palm. He threw the deadly wind while advancing with his staff.

Finally, the swordswoman used a magical ability to disrupt Hunter's black tornado. Emerald fire ripped up her blade and greedily consumed the Black Wind that encircled her. Hunter snarled as he watched his skill effortlessly rebuffed. He paused his approach to activate Wind Lance and launch his spire at the woman's face. Hunter continued his aggressive approach as the tiefling hastily tried to divert the oncoming projectile.

The swordswoman was barely blocked the staff, and the blade of wind slid to the side to cut her shoulder. The wound caused her sword arm to drop momentarily, and Hunter took advantage of the weakness. He summoned Black Wind to cover his fingertips in talons made from wind. He punched into her sword arm by the forearm with his sharpened fingertips and spun into her guard. His claws punched through her armor and gave him the purchase necessary to pull her arm over his shoulder and flip her over his body.

The tiefling grunted as the air was knocked out of her and her sword went flying. Hunter didn't hesitate as he plunged his wind-tipped fingers into the woman's exposed throat. He felt his claws punch through and rip the flesh underneath. He set his feet and pulled with all of his might. There was brief resistance, and then the tiefling's esophagus was wrenched free with an explosion of black blood.

Hunter held the ruined flesh aloft with an evil grin. The other tieflings had looks that varied from shock to outright fear. Hunter ignored them and gazed at the pilfer. The demon had a satisfied smile on its disgusting body.

"Well done, Vessel! If I'm not mistaken, you're on the precipice of learning two new skills! Quickly, use your abilities to absorb your foes' soul energy and crystallize a soul gem."

Hunter let the flesh in his hand drop to the ground. He pointed a palm toward each of the corpses on the ground. He slipped into the meditative state that allowed him to see the ambient energy of the world. He could feel the souls of the fallen tieflings starting to separate from their bodies and evaporate into the atmosphere. Hunter couldn't let their sweet life essence escape his greedy clutched.

He channeled black wind toward each of the bodies. The wind buffeted the corpses and collected the gray smoke that was trying to disperse. He copied the weave that he had seen from the pilfer. If the system had been working, Hunter was sure that he had just learned a new skill.

Even without help from the Archives, he saw the weave of soul energy rush toward him to coalesce into one of his palms. He could see the grains of sand collect and form into a pearl larger than the one that the pilfer had created. Hunter assumed it was because he was using the energy from two souls rather than one.

In less than a minute, Hunter had consumed both souls and converted them into a gem. When Hunter finished the process, he proudly showed the gem to the demon.

"Good! Very good! Crystallizing the souls before consuming them allows more of their experience to be retained. If you consume the energy before creating a gem, much of the potency is dispersed. Go ahead, feast!"

Hunter didn't need to be told twice. He let wind scour the pearl and grinned as the ash settled upon his skin. He felt a flood of information enter his mind. The two techniques he had used earlier became more solidified in his mind. The first, Claw Grasp, allowed him to punch through armored opponents and find purchase in their flesh. The second, Talon Punch, was a finishing move that allowed him to rip into an exposed enemy and strike vital areas. The skills were similar but slightly different in their utilization. He felt them become part of his Kata of the Black Wind.

When the young warrior had fully absorbed the knowledge of the techniques, he realized that there were applications of his wind that he hadn't considered. He wanted to practice more hand-to-hand fighting so that he could learn more of the subsidiary skills.

He looked up at the pilfer and grinned. Blood speckled his face and made him look more demonic than the assembled tieflings.

"I want to fight the next groups with just my hands."

The pilfer studied the young warrior with one of its unblinking eyes on its palm. It seemed to consider Hunter's word before finally agreeing. It made the grotesque sit-up motion that Hunter associated with a nod.

"That will please the Keeper. I approve of your request. How many tieflings do you want to face?"

Hunter considered the question seriously. This training seemed expressly designed to make him more formidable in combat. Right now, his style revolved around single-target damage, and that's where he should start to learn more hand-to-hand skills. However, if he scaled up his opponents as he learned more abilities, he might be able to take on multiple opponents at once without having to use his staff.

"Just one for the first couple bouts," he decided. "After that, let's increase them until I can take on multiple opponents at once."

Hunter looked around the assembled tieflings and noticed their pale expressions. They had realized that they were simply food for Hunter's growth. They had likely thought the fighting was a chance to prove themselves to the pilfer. Their fantasies of power were going to be consumed by Hunter's development. The teenager couldn't help but bare his teeth at the demons. They were going to learn their place in the grand scheme of things.

"Agreed," the pilfer announced. "Let's begin."

The pilfer made a gesture to one of the tieflings, and the humanoid demon reluctantly stepped forward. Nodding, Hunter walked over to his discarded staff and picked it up. He set the spire outside of the battlefield. After that, he grabbed the three corpses with Claw Grasp and dragged them outside of the field of battle. The other demons stepped out of his way to get him room to maneuver the bodies. Hunter decided that it felt absolutely delicious to be feared. It was the natural way of things.