Bloodlines Online

Ezekiel was annoyed that he had to put more effort into beating this team but this was mostly caused by the coven working so well together.

His mana enhancement skills were active with his clawed gauntlets prepared for battle.

The coven stared at him with shock and a strange expression he couldn't read but he dashed forward with his weaponized body lashing out.

A demoness attempted to bring her blade down on his leg but he didn't even try to dodge, he simply covered his armor in a mana barrier which cracked under the force of her swing.

As he watched her face return to a look of shock he blinked out of the previous position and appeared behind her where he struck with his claws as hard as he possibly could.

With his hand in a shape that would give him the most stabbing power which he drove into her ribs.

His claws didn't penetrate very deeply but the wound was set ablaze.

She threw herself away with a shriek before doing something shocking, she used her blade to cleave the flesh away.

"Don't let him hit you! It's the worst pain I have ever felt!"

She backed away while her wound glowed green with life affinity.

Ezekiel simply sighed and let his guard down while looking at the women.

"I'm a mage... you think I can't hit you with my spells? I may be fighting with my hands but I do have spells..."

As he finished speaking he created two voide frenzy bombs which he threw casually.

The women easily avoided them but then they saw that they did not immediately vanish, instead lingering as a cloud of black fire.

This effect was more concerning to the coven who began to look at one another, before anyone could speak the devil who had been the most vocal spoke up.

"When will we ever get the chance to see a shadow mage in action again?! NO SURRENDER!"

Her declaration seemed to reinvigorate the coven as they began to work together to push him back.

Fire spells and attacks launched at him with a few poison spells thrown into the mix, the poison caught him off guard a bit but he just tried to avoid it while watching them.

Eventually he cast his Frenzied Void Wing and with a casual sweep of his wing the needles launched with a speed they were not prepared for.

The needles stabbed each of them once or twice with the mages getting the worst of it, they tried to cut away the wounded area but this was when the needles exploded.

Ezekiel knew he had designed the spell to make the wound as brutal as he could think of but he hadn't used it on a living person before... the effect was enough to make him want to vomit.

The mages who had low body stats had large holes blown in them while one even had an entire arm blasted away.

The shards that penetrated deeper inside clearly caused more severe wounds because the mages collapsed to the ground before vanishing outside of the barrier.

The three demonesses saw how easily he dispatched their coven members and as they looked at the severe wounds they suffered each of them chose to concede the match.

As the barrier vanished with each of them being fully healed Ezekiel began to leave.

Some of the audience tried to stop and ask him questions but he ignored them in favor of just exiting the arena.

While leaving the area he took flight to soar over the students rather than slowly walk out.

He wanted to get out of there before the other students heard about what happened, in his anger over the way those women acted he had not cared how much his challenge had caught the eye of other students but he could see how reckless his actions were now.

~

In the arena the coven that had lost the duel, the Breakers, had approached the coven they had seen Ezekiel with.

"Jamaya! What was that?!"

"You brought some kind of mage prodigy to the academy and said nothing to anyone?!"

"How well do you know him? Would you ask him to show me how that blinking skill worked?"

"He didn't have a single mana signature, we couldn't see anything until he made his move!"

Jamaya stood there in astonishment at what was happening, the Breakers were known for their arrogance but they weren't really hated.

People just tolerated them as one of the most well trained teams in the college since they frequently won inter-college Kal-rekas.

"Hey do you think they'd allow otherworlders to participate in the winter Kal-reka?"

"... What?"

Jamaya had spoken aloud with the random thought and this had confused everyone for a moment until one of the demonesses began to laugh.

"She wants to bring the male to the duels! Imagine if we had that devil in our lineup we would easily win all three categories!"

She was laughing loudly which caught the attention of the crowd around them.

~

In the top floor of the tower a pair of devil women were watching a crystal ball closely.

"This one uses strange spells, it appears he has chosen to construct them using mana to contain other constructs..."

"It's not a terrible method. He needs to be properly trained."

"The queen has likely noticed his existence already, it would not surprise me if she is watching him as well."

"The queen would be an excellent teacher for such a devil but it is unlikely such a noble being would take an interest in an otherworlder who appears to have no real status."

"He is a shadow mage, given time and proper rearing he would match her power so why would she ignore him?"

"By that logic the beast king would be a better fit since he has the status to exploit for his affinity to the same level she has."

"The beast king is not a devil... she would never disgrace her people that way."

As the two figures continue to debate they eventually come to an agreement.

"We shall invite him to our prestigious academy and we will teach him to properly harness his skills."

~

Ezekiel was on his way back to the dungeon with the hopes of gaining more levels.

'Poison spells are problematic, I should try to gain the full resistance as quickly as I can so I can survive fights against stronger NPCs in this region... and others.'

When he reached the dungeon entrance he saw that the region was mostly empty, what few people were present appeared to be demons and devils that were just pushing for higher levels.

As he entered the dungeon he heard a coven chatting with one another.

"We barely got any silver gear, this dungeon is terrible for loot."

"It would be nice to get something but at least the experience and mana are good?"

"Very true, did you break through?"

"No but I'm very close, I think if I get more mana into my core I will succeed."

Ezekiel began to think about cultivation once again as he entered the dungeon.

In his own world the stories about cultivation were so plentiful that he could probably guess how much was needed to cultivate with mana.

'So most of those cultivation novels begin the process with the veins...'

He started to think about the methods he had read through as well as the basic knowledge of anatomy he could remember from school.

'Ok so the process begins with blood because the blood has to be enhanced to carry more oxygen... or in this case mana?'

He remembered that his veins were already enhanced by mana and his blood was enriched by it, he could still try it out however.

'You would probably have to make your bone marrow enhanced to make your blood naturally enriched by the energy but if you do that without properly enhancing your veins they may end up with issues... my veins are already enhanced however.'

He thought about the process further as he began to slay enemies and absorb poison mana.

'Once the blood is fully enhanced you would have to start with the bones, if you want a powerful body then your bones must be strong enough to handle the force you put out.'

He could feel the mana growing more dense as he got closer to the lake but he would slay every creature in the area before that, after a certain point he just began to slash and burn the swamp.

'Consuming all of these creatures should give me an amazing stat boost so I'll do that while I'm here.... now after strengthening the bones you have to enhance the muscles, the muscles have to be kept dense as well but if the skin is to weak the strength of them could tear the skin open...'

As he thought about the process in a step by step fashion he watched his experience bar rise at a steady pace from each kill he gained.