Chapter 78: Blood Sucker

Lila took one look at him in the doorway and the moment she took him in— the way he clutched his side, the subtle shift in his posture and how rough his breathing was, she shook her head. "Absolutely not."

Ethan shut the dorm door with a shoulder and leaned against it. "I’m fine..."

"Really? Because you definitely don’t look fine to me." She stood up, walked towards him and scanned him from head to toe. "So? what happened this time? Did you get run over by an undead?"

He exhaled. "I wish. I was with Ava. We had a light spar where she taught me how to use Death control under battle conditions. She said she’d go easy. Guess this is what she meant by that. She’s an animal. When I landed a hit, she was thrilled." He complained, completely sore and barely able to feel his side.

Lila’s mouth flattened. Worry first, then her voice sharpened. "Of course she was. She gets to rearrange you and call it tutoring." Her fingers eased over his face and she took his hand. "Sit. If you collapse on the ground I’m leaving you there as interior design."

He sat, and when Lila went to get an ice pack from rge fridge, he opened the system...

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[Death Energy: 942 / 1200]

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Two hundred fifty-eight points gone on a single "friendly" exchange. Though the new Death Energy ceiling didn’t make it look as bad, he still lost way too much.

He looked towards the other screen...

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[Undead Recovery: active (90% complete)]

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Both Bef and the Raven had spent nearly two days recovering from a fight he almost died from.

’I really need to get stronger...’

That way, the damages for facing another devil class wouldn’t be as much. That single thought was enough to give him the motivation he needed to keep going...

***

By dawn, Ethan was already on his way to the gym annex with Merrick’s pass and a body that hurt less than it did yesterday.

When he reached, he called Bef out as he finished his warm-ups. The Beowolf took shape in front of him, shaking out remnants of black essence as Ethan felt it settle into the link. It’s eyes were greener now than after the cyclops beating. Undead Recovery had Completed it’s job.

"Laps," he said, "steady pace."

Bef moved, and Ethan followed after it...

The collapse point that had been at lap five when he was had moved. He held his form through eight, nine, ten with lungs that burned but didn’t betray him...

Rank advancement was not only larger pool size and titles. It had also completely rewired his system, placing his body in a state that could now keep up with the status of a C rank. Though his body was placed in that state, it didn’t mean that he had a C rank body now. He was only left with the foundation and all that was left to do was to put work in.

He stopped running before his legs gave out, watered, and was in the middle of core exercises when the door opened...

It was Nora.

She wore a black sports bra, a pair of shorts and had her hair tied back with a small bag slung over one shoulder. She paused when she saw him, stared for a few moments and blinked to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her.

"Ethan."

"Nora."

Bef sat at the edge of the lane, and Nora’s eyes moved over it and back to him. "Exercising?"

He nodded. "Tournament’s in a month too. Gotta prepare, you know," a pause, "what about you?"

"Same." She set the small bag by the wall and rolled her wrists. "I still need to learn how to use my ability for a longer time before I’m completely tapped out. Which meant, making sure even the smallest volume of blood should be able to do crazy amounts of damage."

Ethan nodded. With the tournament coming up, he was probably not the only one who needed training. "I’m not using the gym forever."

"I didn’t ask you to leave." she replied fast, too fast. Then turned and stuttered before speaking again. "Y—you can stay. If you don’t make too much noise."

He looked at her for a moment and shrugged. "Alright."

Nora began training the way she fought: slow at first— thin threads of blood leaving a shallow cut she opened on her forearm shaping into short blades, then a whip that cracked against a punching bag with enough force to echoe across the empty gym.

There was no formation of a bigger weapon other than the short daggers she created. She wasn’t trying to be flashy; flashy only meant wasting blood she shouldn’t waste.

When she moved, the air near her smelled faintly of iron— the thing of smell you’d smell in a hospital.

Ethan watched the control and involuntarily compared it to Ava’s ability. They were different monsters in their own right. Where Ava used her power loudly in bursts of joy, she used hers with a very serious expression and a lot of precision...

At one point, Nora glanced over and caught him looking. Instanly, she looked away, and caught a collapsing blood dagger as her control faultered and heat rose up her neck...

"You look different," she said, dismissing the construct.

"I do? Must have been because of the new rank..."

She stopped. "New rank?"

He nodded. "Rank C."

She turned to look at him. "You’re progressing.... Faster than my brother."

"I see..."

"That’s dangerous."

"Probably..."

He rubbed his neck. "I got a new skill as well." He raised his hand and let the energy crackle against his knuckles. "It lets me use Death Energy as a sort of attack boost."

She raised an eyebrow. "A new skill."

He nodded.

"That let’s you weaponise death..."

Ethan opened his mouth, realised that he was actually right and nodded. "When you put it that way then, yes. You’re probably right."

"Ava’s helping me learn how to use it too," he said, "gave me a beating yesterday..."

Nora stared. "The two of you."

"Yeah, turns out Death Control and Lightning have the same release mechanism. Using it is harder that you think. She spent about half an hour beating it into me."

"I didn’t think you’d actually let her this close, this fast."

"I didn’t want to," Ethan replied, "but I found out that having her around has its perks. I don’t plan to let her get too close though. She’s going to draw a lot of attention to me..."

"Sure you won’t." She turned, opened another cut on her thumb and formed a blood lance this time.

He watched her practise with it, and his brows knitted together as a thought crossed his mind.

"By the way," he began, "If you run out of blood mid fight, is there a way around that?"

Nora’s hands stilled.

"Yes," she said. "I can take blood from other people and convert it for use for myself. The only issue is that direct contact is required, a willing donor is needed as well. Since I’ll need to.... Suck the blood out."

Ethan blinked. "Uh, what?"

"Using my blood is easier than using another person’s blood. And ingesting it into myself technically makes it mine. Its not elegant. I know that. But It’s faster than waiting for my own volume to recover."

Ethan fell completely silent.

He had seen her force a Devil class kill through internal invasion, and he knew that it probably wasn’t easy to do.

But being required ingest blood from another individual to supposedly make things ’easier’ was a bit extreme.

"Aren’t you worried you’ll get infected by some kind of disease?"

She shook her head. "As far as I know, Blood craft only needs useful blood. If I happen to take in blood that is infected or inefficient, it’ll just be discarded."

"Wait. Doesn’t that mean you can’t get sick?"

She shrugged. "Apparently. I don’t think I’ve ever been sick.."

He nodded. Though it sounded impressive, the idea of Nora drawing blood out of a human being mid-battle made him very uncomfortable. She was basically using a human as a living battery.

"That’s... Wow." He was completely short of words.

She raised an eyebrow. "What’s that supposed to mean? You’re a Necromancer. You’re not exactly in a position to judge..."

His mouth opened and he nodded in defeat. "Fair point. But I’m not judging you. I’m.... Taking notes."

She huffed something that sounded like a laugh. "That’s expected. People are usually speechless when they find out that Blood craft isn’t only about creating weapons with blood..."

They trained a while longer in silence, only speaking when they had an observation to make about each other.

When they finished, Ethan dismissed Bef and Nora packed her bag and headed towards the door. "Classes aren’t till evening. See you there."

After she left, Ethan stood staring at the door for a while as he let his newest findings settle.

Nora could drink a fight back into herself from other people’s blood...

He ran a hand through his hair. "This place is filled with... interesting people..."