Scarlet

The first thing I do is take off my jacket, which garners a raised brow from Sylver. Then I activate Blood Claws, watching the mana drip down slightly on my status by about a point or so every five or so seconds. I keep my eye on my status as I draw my claw down my arm, cutting it open a little and seeing my mana decrease at a faster pace of about one point every second instead.

Okay, so using my claws increased the mana cost of the skill.

I keep my eye on my status as I drain some of my own blood and find the mana decrease slowing down again. So I pull the claws out of my forearm, leaving it a little bit soaked in blood.

After a second though, I use clean to remove the blood before turning to Sylver, who’s just staring at me like I’d gone insane.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, slightly confused as to why he’s looking at me like that.

He just shakes his head and mutters, “The way you can just cut open your arm like that is honestly a little disturbing.”

“Oh,” I mutter before shrugging and adding, “well, it won’t be hurt for long. You’re gonna help with that.”

This time he looks genuinely confused. But I don’t give him the chance to say anything as I use life drain while keeping an eye on both my wound and my status.

I also make sure to glance at him from time to time as his expression twists into discomfort, and he raises his hand to his chest. And it’s because of that that I notice a tiny little stream of red energy, almost like a fog leaving his chest and going into mine. But he doesn’t seem to notice it.

At the same time, my mana begins to drop rather quickly. About ten or so mana a second. And the wound on my arm closes up in just about three or so seconds as well.

“Interesting,” I mutter, only for my eyes to widen as I realize that I never asked about-

“Don’t worry. Just like HP in a video game, life energy regenerates with time as well,” Tar says, predicting my bout of worry somehow.

I let out a sigh of relief before looking at Sylver, who is giving me and my arm a strange glance.

“Don’t mind me. Just testing out my skills,” I tell him, hiding a smirk.

Now then. Let’s see what blood boil does on a Class II Guardian!

I continue experimenting with my skills for nearly an hour before he seems to get sick of having his blood played with and starts the combat lessons. And he actually turns out to be a good teacher, against my expectations.

Or at least I think he’s good. I’m learning at least.

Not like I’ve ever had a combat instructor before, so…

He starts off with teaching me various stances, followed by correcting my manner of punching and kicking, and showing me more ways to attack with parts of me other than just my hands and feet. Such as using my forearms or calves for example.

Then after finishing showing me everything and having me repeat it once or twice each, he goes through and has me redo everything from the start. Over and over again. For three hours.

And the first time I ask to call it a day, he just says, ‘You’re quite a bit stronger than a normal new Guardian for more reasons than one, your Predator Skill likely having something to do with that at the very least. So I think you can continue on for another hour.’

Then after two more hours, I collapse onto the ground with a groan, thanking the stars that I had the clean skill. Otherwise, my clothes would’ve been soaked with sweat.

Despite that, every last muscle in my body aches, feeling almost as if my muscles would all just split apart at the seams. Assuming muscles had those. Which I doubt is true unless you consider tendons seams?

Whatever. I’m not a biology major.

“Are you talking to me or yourself?” Tar asks, hearing my brief insanity caused by mental exhaustion.

Either way.

“That was because I used blood boil on you too much, wasn’t it?” I manage to groan out to the Sylver who is currently popping his neck and grabbing his coat, ready to leave.

He glances at me, mirth clear in his eyes this time as he says, “No. It was that other skill you used to heal yourself. It really was quite uncomfortable. Like having pins and needles piercing through my heart.” Then he turns around again and leaves the training hall with me still a mess on the ground.

“Ya know, Tar,” I pause to spit up a tiny bit of blood, “I think I’m growing on him.”

Tar just snorts.

Hey, it’s probably true. He would barely even look at me when we first met!

“And do you care if he likes you or not?” Tar asks, the sarcasm clear in his voice.

Well, no. Not really.

“Exactly.”

Huh. Good point.

Out of nowhere, I feel a wave of relief flowing through my body that almost has me groaning just from the sheer comfort of it. But I don’t. Barely. Instead, I roll over onto my back to look up at Michael, whose hand is glowing green.

“Hello there,” I hear him say with a smirk of amusement as the green light begins to fade.

“Hi,” I respond back before trying to get up and stretching my arms, feeling all of the kinks and pain having vanished. “Huh.”

“Another perk of joining my team,” he says while flashing me a grin showing all of his teeth, “I have nature magic, which pretty much specializes in healing and summoning.”

Oh. A healer.

Interesting.

“Don’t you remember that blood magic can heal too?” I ask while walking over to my jacket and reaching down to grab it off the floor.

“Yes, but I’m pretty sure most blood magic users need other creatures nearby to heal themselves or others,” he says from behind me, making me wince. But since he’s behind me, he can’t see it as I put my jacket on.

After that I turn around and put my hands in my pockets while saying, “True. I’m still thinking about it, so be more patient.”

I wonder why he’s in such a hurry? Guess I can ask if I ever do decide to join his team.