Forty-Six

Blood and spit smacked the stony ground as Kon cleared his mouth. This cultivator had a good jab, keeping Kon at a distance as they circled the small pit. Sneering the cultivator, Henten, stepped forward and threw a straight punch, aiming to keep Kon's head spinning.

"This has got to be enough to sell it." Kon decided he'd had enough being punched in the face and dropped to let the pass snap above him. He shot the gap, his legs pushing him forward in a sudden blitz of speed as he got his arms under the cultivators legs, heaving him up into the air just to drop him right back to the ground. Kon got the full mount position, wiggling through Henten's weak guard to begin raining blows down on the alien.

The Teno lasted a few more moments before Kon bounced the independent cultivators head off the stone ground for the third time. Eyes glazed over, Henten slipped unconscious and Kon held his next blow. He wasn't the vicious murderer, that was Diur's role. His was the struggling brute, which he could play well enough.

"These guys' training sucks. Know one knows more than one style of fighting."

"WINNER BY KNOCKOUT! DALE the HUMAN!" the announcer screeched and the pits went mild. A scattering of congratulations and a single one of them offered him a hand out of the pit. Much different from the huge crowds that had gathered to watch Diur's fights.

"Your winnings," the announcer said, their slimy tentacle pressing a few F-Grade cores into Kon's bloody hand before pushing him away. The cores were dropped into a sack and tied to his belt before he pushed through the crowd. Turja's helpers were moving away, their bets much more discreet this time than when they had bet on Diur. All part of the plan.

He pushed through the thin crowds easily enough, the independent body cultivator crowd wasn't that big and Kon had just crushed the strongest of them. It should be enough to get an official match rather than the honor matches that Diur had used to mark her arrival on the scene.

Finding one of the coordinators was easy now that he knew what to look for. A small pavilion had been set up near the side of the cavern and a small squad of Teno bodyguards stood around it, threatening anyone who got to close with hostile glares. Kon endured the stares as he got close to the pavilion, but he paused, waiting to be called.

"Stray, you may enter," a voice came from behind the gauzy silk. Even though the words were harsh, there was little of the arrogance that normally filled the cultivators' voices. Kon brushed past the wide silk cover and into the room to see that nearly the entire room was dedicated to a series of boards filled with names.

A single cultivator stood in the middle of the room. She was tall and stately, her spine erect as she looked over her boards and the dozens of names on them. When she turned to look at Kon he felt a chill run down his spine as aura leaked from the powerful cultivator, sweeping him up and over before retreating in a blink of an eye.

Red eyes blinked slowly twice before she cleared her throat, teal flesh bobbing as she reached up to write down a series of letters that Kon didn't recognize. He waited in silence until the matchmaker finished before looking back at him.

"At least you have manners. Low E-Grade body cultivator, I have five matches that qualify for," she said. She nodded toward the board and Kon bowed his head in a facsimile of what he'd seen the more respectful groups did with each other.

"I will fight them all," Kon said.

"At the same time? How brave," the cultivator said and Kon's heart caught before her whispery laugh reassured him as he risked glancing up as she moved around the names before nodding to herself.

"Tomorrow, twelfth bell ringing. The Golden Shadow reels from the loss of a talented warrior today. They will look to avenge themselves, be prepared," she said, waving him away with black tipped fingers. Kon retreated and left the area quickly, heading back towards the stairs that led to the top of the cavern.

Working his way to the back he doubled and tripled back, looking for anyone who would follow him, but for all the world he looked like nothing more than a poor, wandering cultivator, hardly having taken his first steps. Nobody gave him more than a few second looks until he made it away from the center of the cavern and to the far back wall and he began his climb.

By the time he made it back to Turja's viewing room he was calming down from his fight, body stiffening as his few injuries sent pangs of pain through him. The guards allowed him to pass without word and Kon swept passed them only to freeze as he looked over the massive transformation that had taken place.

Gone were the couches and creature comforts, instead a series of boards had been marked up, names scratched on them while a nearby table was covered in monster cores. Most were weak F-Grades, but there were a few E-Grades mixed in as well.

Diur and Benny stood in the corner talking quietly to one of Turja's helpers who saw Kon approaching and disappeared without a word.

"How you feeling?" Kon asked Diur. His face might be the bloodied one, but she had just killed two people she'd never met in the space of minutes. Diur looked him over and then smiled softly before shrugging.

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"I am a martial cultivator. I shall live, and die, by the blade. They are the ones whose egos drove them into that pit with me. If they had been humble they would have allowed the faux pas to pass and I would have had to try a different target," Diur said.

"Got a decent starting purse to work with, even after Turja's cut," Benny said, cutting off their talk as he jerked his head toward the pile of cores on the table.

"Those aren't even enough for a fragment. I could empty that table in a few minutes and still be needing more," Kon said, shaking his head.

"You're starting to realize how expensive you are," Benny said with a cackle, grabbing Kon's shoulders and shaking him a bit.

"Starting to realize why we can't sit around in one spot," Kon said with a wry shake of his head. Crucible had been a perfect planet for his early, hungry, development. Loaded with decades of built up rifts that had only partially been cleared, it had fueled his growth. Even with Benny's knowledge they hadn't found anywhere that was nearly as good for him continued development.

"Just need a good spot of money. We've established Diur as a bloodthirsty dark horse and you as a barely passable brawler. Make her a hated opponent and the private bets with the high rollers will be plenty. Sect elders will spit blood as their prodigies hop into the ring with her to die and they're going to be willing to pay. The more she kills the more their honor will demand they send more of their best and with that is the ego. She got a few of the young, hungry sects looking at her to make a statement. Kon, we're going to bet on you to win the E-Grade body cultivator tournament, period. Get the early bet in now while the odds are low," Benny said, feverish energy filling his eyes.

"It seems you're having fun with this," Kon said.

"Why wouldn't I? It's free money," Benny said with a sharp bark of laughter before clapping them both on the shoulder and moving away towards the crews who would be making bets. From what Kon knew the sect elders they were targeting wouldn't just make bets with anyone, it had to be strong enough cultivators to even get through to them. Turja's crew only had a handful of the D-Grade cultivators who could move in those circles, so picking the targets of the bets had become a science for them.

"Are you really ok?" Kon asked after Benny had left them. He kept his voice low as he closed the distance to her, their shoulders nearly touching as they looked over the room together.

"It's not the first time I've killed and it won't be the last. It was more cold-blooded than I've ever done, but our path is bloody," Diur said.

"Alright, let me know if you want to talk about it or something. Where'd you stash the sword?" Kon asked, looking around to see if he could spot the claimed blade.

"Oh, I ransomed it back to his older brother. Two full E-Grade cores for it," Diur said.

"Really? Didn't think you'd be willing to sell it," Kon said, thinking back to her room and the dockmaster's sword hanging in her room.

"Why? I'll just go and take it back in a few days. Hlynt'on is one of the peak E-Grade competitors I will have to face."

"Can you face a peak E-Grade?"

"They'll have more energy than me, but they are tournament fighter. We have faced death and insurmountable odds together. I am a more experienced warrior and Benny and Alice's training have given me good experience against stronger opponents. Besides, by the time I qualify to face him I hope to finish the body cultivation to reach the peak of E-Grade for that. It will be a decided edge that he won't be able to match," Diur said.

"Body cultivation seems to go much faster than standard cultivation."

"It is. You remember my screams though. Also, you are beginning to see the cost of such actions. All we earned here today would only buy part of what I need to finish the last bath, let alone yours," Diur said.

"Not like we can spend it anyways. Need to use it as seed money for the rest of the tournament," Kon said. He wasn't the most disappointed in that he wouldn't be hopping into those baths anytime soon.

"Yes. But you see why body cultivation is not widely pursued past an initial start. The pain and expense is crippling while the results do not become easily apparent until entering C-Grade."

"What's that like? A C-Grade body cultivator?" Kon asked as they settled into their corner, there was little for them to do now, just waiting for Benny and Turja to finish their strategy meeting.

"They'll have started their aspecting so it will be highly dependent on what they have begun. But a steel body cultivator like you'll become will be able to turn their flesh into steel, have incredible physical strength, durability, and stamina. Depending on techniques they've learned they could become a juggernaut upon the battlefield, nearly indestructible, unstoppable, unyielding."

"Turn flesh to steel?" Kon asked, skeptical of that claim.

"Beginning in D-Grade and slowly ramping up, rift energy aspects to something. Generally one will want to find something broad to start with, like me with water. Then as they progress they'll find more suitable aspected treasures and energy to absorb, changing the energy inside of their body to something different. My ancestor started with water like me, but added wind energy to her cultivation and finally lightning to become a storm cultivator as she ascended to B-Grade."

"Alright, but that doesn't tell me how my body becomes steel."

"Aspected energy is still energy, it will just have a flavor. When you focus on drawing it forth, as a body cultivator, that flavor will express itself. It'll be massively draining to do so and I doubt most could do it for long. With how your body absorbs energy though, well, it could be something special," Diur said with a shrug.

"So that expression of energy means I become metal? It's not permanent, right?"

"As you drain the power the expression fades, though there can be side effects." Diur shot him a mischievous grin that disappeared a moment later. Kon licked his lips and tried to decide if she had been pulling his leg about that last line.

"What happens to someone like you, a dual cultivator?" Kon asked. Diur blushed instantly even as a scowl formed on her face.

"That is incorrect terminology and suggesting that out loud would lead people to question our friendship," she whispered, embarrassment evident.

"Huh?"

"Dual cultivation is a pair of partners gathering and transferring energy back to each other, purifying it as a team. Generally through physical acts," Diur said through gritted teeth.

"Then what's what you're doing called?" Kon decided not to push the joke, Diur already looked more than embarrassed enough.

"Complimentary cultivation. I will have the pros of both regular and body cultivation while also increasing the efficiency of my techniques. I won't see truly great results until I breach into D-Grade though, that is where energy aspects. Right now I use my techniques to imitate it," Diur said, her blush slowly fading away.

"I'll be excited to see what it does eventually," Kon said, nudging her shoulder with his own. Diur froze for a second before she schooled her features into her normal, placid mask. Kon could see the hint of pleasure in her eyes though at the suggestion of them being still adventuring together that far in the future.

"I doubt it will be as equally as impressive as your own advancements, which I hope to see soon enough," she offered.

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