120 Warming Up

Instead of returning to the tower, I opted to spend the rest of the time I had left in the second basement. It was empty, wide and solitary, just the perfect place for me to train.

But of course there in lies the problem, I had no idea what to train, I had to many cards, so much so that I was not sure which one to play. But it would be wise to be logical about this.

I had relatively new soul runes that I've not so much as thought of, much less actually weave. I was a newly advanced Blood child, but I absolutely did not know the first thing about controlling blood.

I was a swordsman, but I'm sill stuck in the first realm, I had no idea how swordsman even trained, so I was just a bit stuck. I wasn't sure what to do, so I guess I just had to take the first step.

I was close to stepping into the third realm of practice for my soul energy, which is abysmally fast, considering mists weavers take the entirety of their lifetimes to advance from one soul realm to another.

It was extremely hard, and as for a race as short lived as the humans, it was practically impossible for them to reach the peak.Maybe it would be bestif I just stuck with weaving and soul energy, but to do that I think I had to refit this basement to suit my needs.

"Nefisat! I like to train, if you don't mind, is it possible to turn this floor into an obstacle course, it shouldn't change much, just make it challenging and give me a few targets to punch."

[So basically what you're saying is that I should attack you?]

I paused for a moment, somehow I felt like I was going to regret the next answer I gave her.

"Yeah...….that's what I'm saying."

[Okay!]

She had hardly finished talking before a boulder came flying at my face, I had to jump back watching as the boulder narrowly flew over my face. I kicked up back to an upright position and released my soul energy, I spreadmy soul energy to cover my body like some sort of armor, then I prepared for what she was going to throw at me a gain.

This time the attack came from the top as an earth spike descended for my head, with my soul energy covering much of my body, I weaved the rune for push on my palm.

That was a mistake, as it burned like hell, and left something like a brand on my palm. I did not have time to dwell too long on the pain since the spike was really close to me, I raised my now branded right hand and a ripple came forth, distorting the air as it seemed as if the spike met a physical resistance that was slowly pushing it back.

I felt the weight of the spike, it was as if I had an extra large hand made of air or something else since this phenomenon was born from my soul energy. I almost couldn't withstand the pressure, before I made the crazy but life saving decision to infuse my soul energy into my palm.

A deep blue rune circle came to life over my palm, it was not that large, about the size of a basketball, and right in the middle of it,the rune word [PUSH] twirled leisurely in its confines.

Now it was just a matter of infusing my intent. I pushed harder, and the spike began to break apart, making it seem as if it was a piece of glass that met a brick wall.

I looked down on my palm to see that I had really branded a rune word on it by mistake, and while that gave me the idea if weaving on my own body, I had the feeling that the outcome won't be favorable at all, i was just lucky.

I already knew that weavers used the best materials to weave runes upon, common skin regardless of which race you were could not be compared to precious resources that are more resilient and mystical in the origins.

Judging from the burn I received when I branded myself, an attempt at weaving on a living being would probably result in the worst kind of backlash from nature, for both the weaver and the person being weaved on.

But now it seems as if this was now branded on my palm permanently. Seriously how could this go so wrong so fast, I've barely even begun training.

Maybe it would have been better if I had a weapon in hand. Nefisat gave me a little time to orient myself, but to be honest I think it's because she was learning from our previous exchange.

Two spikes jutted out of the ground, and shot straight for my head, I moved a step backwards to dodge them, and that was when my vampire senses went haywire. I could feel vibrations from other the earth, and hear the earth loosening and hardening in rapid fashion.

I leaped up into the sky, going as high as twenty feet, just enough to dodge the massive earth pillar that came up from beneath the spot I was standing on barely just a minute ago.

I heard the same sound again, and saw another pillar coming from the ceiling of the basement, I stretched for my right hand and willed the rune circle to appear as I pushed at the pillar, but the earlier on was still approaching, and it seem as if Nefisat's palm was to squash me between the both of them.

I deactivated the rune and let go, suspending myself for just a fraction of a second in the air, defenseless against the two approaching pillars. But it was enough time for me to palm my next move.

"LION'S SPRINT"

I felt energy course through my body as I turned my body in the air and spread my soul energy two meters away from me and well out of the range of the approaching pillars, then I quickly weaved the word [PULL] on the cloud of hanging soul energy, and did not resist as a suction force pulled me away just in time for both pillars to slam into each other with a bang.

Everything seemed faster and slower at the same time, and my senses were working overtime as I took in everything around me with a clarity I never experienced before.

I fell to the ground and landed with a soft thud, but the moment I landed on the ground, a hole opened up, and glint of fiery orange was all the warning I needed that Nefisat was about to rain fire on me, of curse it was coming from underground, so it couldn't be called rain exactly. I gathered my soul energy beneath my feet, the using my shoes as a medium I weaved the rune word [SHIELD] on both soles.

One infusion later, and a huge rune circle came into existence, and it served as the shield that protected my from the erupting stream of flames and molten rocks, magma, seriously.

I was thrown upwards again, shooting towards a bolt of lightening that was falling from the ceiling, which if I might mention just materialized out of thin air.

The rune shield beneath my feet served as a platform to protect me from the magma spewing from God knows which part of Nefisat's body, but it was also rapidly bringing me close to a massive bolt of lightening.

I waved my right hand at the bolt, and used the branded rune on my palm to push it aside, it was a narrow miss, and the lightening scraped past me, giving me a nasty shock and burn.

I was stunned for a moment, but it was long enough that all of my defenses went down, my brain was a little scrambled, and I fell down like a rock towards the earth.

I was bleeding, though the wound was quickly closing up, I could feel the blood dripping out of it. What I was about to do was stupid, but no time like the present. I felt for the blood, and then I grabbed it, shaped it, and willed it. Taking a page out of Kodak's book, I shaped my spilling blood into a sword.

It was definitely made from liquid, it had the same texture and feel as blood does when I grabbed it. But it was solid, and it had an edge sharp enough to suit my purposes. But I had a different thought in mind rather than cutting, it takes me nothing more than a thought to weave my soul runes into existence.

They were a part of me, no different than my limbs or the cells in my body. In the time it took to blink,I had already weaved [BREAK] in the surface of the blood sword, and to be honest it shocked me a bit that I succeeded.

I've weaved on air before yes, but something made me feel doing such a thing on any liquid form would have been entirely difficult, but I guess I was wrong. I knew Nefisat was going to be throwing something else at me, which was why I was not surprised at the massive shards of metal flying at me and covered in flames to the point where they were red hot.

With every move and counter made,Nefisat was evolving her battle sense, becoming more and more proficient in using her resources which each second that passed.

But I was still the master, I swung my sword, infusing my soul energy into it. A massive blood red rune circle lit up behind me, and released a blood red wave of light that spread towards the incoming projectiles.

It was with a satisfied look on my face that I watched as the metal and even the flames broke apart until they were nothing more than tiny harmless pieces of shrapnel falling to the earth harmlessly. I guess we could say, that I won this round, I have a good feeling about tomorrow.

...….

...…

I looked at the crates in front of me, and then back at Lukas as he made himself comfortable. The crates were huge, about a meter wide, and two long, and just about a meter height too.

There were exactly twenty of those crates, twelve of them were filled with to the brim with the weapons we had asked for, and just from a look, I could tell this were top quality cold weapons, the best that he could get into the pit without falling under Adein's radar.

Of the other eight, three were filled with blood, or to be more precise the Nirvana cocktail, and then the remaining five were filled to the brim with a variety of things from books, refined ores, and three elemental crystals that left me salivating at their sight.

"this are the promised weapons, the blood is complementary, after all you're a big investor in the business. Because of you we can expand the operation outside of the pit, because I'm sue you know vampires are not the only creatures who drink blood, and also there are other vampire communities surviving outside of the pit as you well know. The final five crates are the profits gained from what we've sold, they are the most precious of spell books, martial techniques, training manuals and any other important stuff to get a good force up and running. I heard froma very reliable source that you're in need of elemental crystals, unfortunately the best I could come up with was a lightening, fire, and wood elemental crystal. And also I brought you and the ladies some specially tailored clothes, you're leaders, so I think you should all look the part. I hope this solves any of the bad blood that's left from our last meeting."

I Was happy about everything here, I did not even remember that a fight almost broke out the last time Lukas was here. To be honest I think it's a good thing that Shamir dude did not follow along this time, call me jealous, but I don't like him, not one bit.

But with all this in place, everybody here could get stronger, the others were already back from their recruiting mission, none of them were successful though, since things in the pit were a little too hard, so none of them were confident that making commitments to me wouldn't have them locked in a room with Adein.

But no matter, after tomorrow a lot of things will change in the pit, and then I wouldn't have to worry about recruitment, they will all come running to me. I raised my head up and looked at Lukas with a smile as I said to him.

"Thank you for everything Lukas, and of course there's no hard feelings between us, things just got a little hot last time. Our partnership is still as strong as ever, and I know we're going to achieve great things together. I trust you would be made available for the match tomorrow?"

"Ha ha-ha it's your moment of glory Lord Kael, I wouldn't miss it for the world."