In a single strike Sora lost 10% of his HP. Sora could no longer dilly dally. 10% HP may not seem much. However, 9 more strikes like that and he would be dead. In Sora’s mind, it wasn’t 90% HP remaining that was swirling but rather 9 more hits.

Will it be enough? Sora wondered.

Sora would not have time to think it through, the woman rushed at him again. She wasn’t the type of opponent who would give the fallen one time to get up. This woman was a fighter through and through. She was the type of fighter to kick someone in the guts when they were down – very similar to Sora who normally goes all out.

The woman repeated her attack. Her speed for most of the distance between herself and Sora and when there only two feet left, she used her speed burst…

“hah!” Sora exclaimed, anticipating the attack. “You think that would work…”

Before Sora could complete the sentence, he was sent flying again.

This time her speed burst was even faster than before; one and a half times faster to be precise.

What the hell! Did she play me?

Sora quickly recovered this time, which was a good thing because if he hadn’t he would have been hit a third time. The third time, Sora only narrowly dodged her attack. He missed her strike by the breath of a single hair…which didn’t imply he took no damage.

Realizing that her attack had been evaded, the woman simply shifted her aura from the front of her palm to the left side of her wrist as it brushed past Sora. The attack wasn’t as effective but in the end it served its purpose...Sora received some of the damage.

In a mere matter of seconds, Sora was down 25% of his HP. At this point most normal players would panic and turn desperate. However, Sora was calm as ever – he was furious and pissed off with himself mentally for underestimating the opponent but other than that he wasn’t worried.

In his understanding, there were still 8 more strikes required to kill him. He was cautious but not worried – 8 strikes should be enough to flee or disable the opponent. Even if he couldn’t do either, there was no need to panic about it now.

Sora jumped two steps back – but that was a mistake.

Jumping was the mistake – the moment Sora was in the air, he had no control over his movement speed. It would be constant to the initial force but he could neither accelerate nor decelerate.

Given, the savage fighting nature of his enemy – it was a pricey careless mistake. The woman, shot forth like an arrow and threw two jabs at Sora’s chest – rib bones.

Sora was unable to fend the first punch however he managed to get his guard up for the second.

Sora stared at his HP in dread; he was now 40% down. Sora slowly stood up and began brushing of the dirt that stuck to his bones casually - he had been hit out of the chambers. He did so with no care in the world - was he no longer afraid of the vicious woman?

‘Is this even an NPC?’ Sora wondered as he stared at the woman.

This woman would be considered a world class fighter. Her strength was not formidable, her speed was not astonishing. Yet, her skills were world class. There was no wasted move. This woman used every known tactic. There was element of surprise, deceiving the enemy about one’s true strength, not giving the opponent a chance to recover, no gloating, no time wasting fear inducing mind games. This woman was very precise – destroy the enemy who stood in front of her; no more and no less than that.

Sora had plenty of experience fighting strong opponents. This woman may not appear strong but she was clearly strong. Just like the Sora who didn’t have strong stats but through use of advance martial arts technique was able to dodge attacks, this woman lacked powerful attacks (or was still holding many cards up her sleeves) but was very effective in the fight.

“Who are you?” The woman asked spitefully, she stood at the edge of chambers doors. She was no more than three feet away from Sora yet now she stopped to talk to Sora? The very woman who previously didn’t give Sora time to breath, was now talking to Sora. Why?

Why was she not attacking? And why was Sora not worried about her any more?

It was because Sora was standing outside the Gatekeeper’s chamber. The woman was bound by chain and this was as far as she could go. Even if she stretched her hands out, she would not be able to touch Sora. As she could no longer attack him, she chose to speak with Sora – at the very least she wanted to know the name of the person who killed her beloved.

“Sora…” Sora answered her question as he continued to casually brush the dirt on his bones.

“You knew?” She asked Sora as she stared at him. Her stare displayed her anger, her hatred but also her shock and some begrudging awe. In her haste to finish of the enemy, she punched the enemy outside her fighting arena accidentally but was it a mistake or was she manipulated by Sora? This is what she wanted to know.

“What do you think?” Sora asked her with a completely uninterested tone.

The anger, the pain – everything seemed irrelevant to the woman now. That confident attitude…could it have been he let me hit him on purpose so that I, myself, would push him out to escape?

The woman bit her lips as she recollected the attacks; everything was done perfectly by the teachings. Each attack was immaculate and came with an element of surprise. How could Sora have possibly manipulated her to shove him beyond her reach? Each strike connected so perfectly, it made no sense how Sora could have planned all this.

Maybe, I am over thinking this… The woman thought; she was frowning.

Sora stretched out his hand and pointed it at the woman, “Ice Dagger…”

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Author's Note:

1. At the very least, to make up with my wonderful readers for the period (2 weeks) I didn't post, I offer them this chapter as sacrifice.

2. EDIT: Thanks ScaryCrow, I wrote most of this today and haven't had time to review it. :)