Back in his room, Thalion took a look at the blood, which now hummed with power in his blood sense, but he would wait a bit before consuming it. First, he wanted to try some things out. He began by creating blood mist from the blood the sanguine thorn provided. It was actually easier than he thought, and after a few tries, he could switch the blood between liquid and mist form.
Next in his training was controlling blood rivers and moving them through the room with incredible speed, gradually increasing the river in size. Then, he tried to alter parts of the river to form sharp spears, intending to use the entire river as a giant weapon to destroy his enemies. But he couldn’t make it happen. Every time he tried, he partly lost control of the river, and liters of blood fell to the ground. He could change it a bit, but not enough to pierce armor plating or reliably use it as a weapon.
Thalion summoned his blood armor a few times to make sure he didn’t forget it and practiced some maneuvers with his mana blade, strengthening his strikes by controlling the blood armor. The control wasn’t as good as he had hoped, but it was good enough for now. With that done, he finished his blood training and moved on to his regular skills.
He wanted to improve his fireball skill—more precisely, his flamethrower. Not only did he want to intensify the flames, but he also wanted to try moving the flames around him, like he did with the blood river. To increase the heat of the flames, he poured more mana into the skill. The challenge was that the skill had a limit to how much mana it could take, and Thalion was slowly working on increasing that limit. The wall he and Sylas had used for training was now completely black from the onslaught of flames, but he didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was making the skill stronger.
From time to time, he stopped to regenerate mana and then worked a bit on his swordsmanship to recover. After hours of constant training, he switched to something he hadn’t trained in a long time—his mana barrier. He altered the form of the barrier, making it thicker and more stable, so that spells would have a harder time penetrating it. His blood training had helped him a lot in this regard. Sadly, time passed quickly, and before he could start training the mana wave, which he also wanted to do, it was already morning.
That meant it was time for body tempering. He transformed into the umbral predator and began devouring the plants Zyra had prepared. These plants held even more energy than the last ones, meaning it would take much longer than last time. He even had to take a pause and fully focus on his body tempering after devouring a fourth of the first hill of plants. It took him over ten hours to finish them all, but the effect on his body was immense. He could feel power rushing through his veins, the sheer strength in his muscles. He would have loved to have a rematch with the red orc right now.
He could tell he was nearing the end of stage two of his body tempering method for the umbral predator. The difference in how much energy he could absorb as an umbral predator compared to earlier stages was insane, and it definitely had to do with the rarity of the race. He didn’t have any more time—he needed to get to the training hall. Thalion thought this while transforming back into his human form. The body tempering had taken far longer than expected. He felt the desire from the sanguine thorn to devour the vials filled with blood when he left his room, but he ignored it. He wanted the blood to absorb as much mana as possible. There were easily around 500 liters of blood stored in those vials, and it would take time until they were fully loaded with mana. He hoped it would be enough to push the sanguine thorn even further.
He was extremely lucky that no one else needed that blood, so he didn’t have to share it and had it all for himself—not even vampires should have such a luxury. When he arrived at the training hall, he immediately noticed something different: four guards were standing outside.
“Hey, what are you doing out here?” Thalion asked the guards.
“We were waiting for you,” the woman said. "There are over twenty shapeshifters waiting for you inside."
“What? I thought the training hall was for guards only,” Thalion said perplexed.
“Yes, but they were quite aggressive, and we didn’t want to throw them out since they belong to Garrick’s force,” the woman replied.
“Not like they would train anyway,” another guard interjected. “They’re just watching and waiting.”
“Well, let’s get this show on the road,” Thalion said with determination as he stepped inside, ready to throw them out himself.
“There you are! We thought you’d never show up,” a muscular man shouted at him the moment he entered the training hall. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing to watch the conflict unfold.
“I guess you’re the shapeshifters from Garrick,” Thalion sighed. At least would be done with those people after today and could do more important stuff.
“Yes, and we think it’s an embarrassment that so many people look up to you, and—"
“I hadn’t finished,” Thalion interrupted the man in an ice-cold tone. “You’ve not only annoyed most people in this base, but you’ve also threatened an alchemist, and now you’re standing in a training hall reserved for guards. You people are no longer welcome here. You’ll be moved to the outer districts where Michael and his followers live, so we can keep an eye on you.”
“You want to do what?” the man screamed in anger. “You’re useless! Your only form is that of a bird. What are you going to do against us? I think it’s time we set the record straight.”
The shapeshifters all stood up, their eyes radiating hatred. Damn, he’d really hit a nerve, Thalion thought. It was time for some slaughter—this behavior should be enough to justify killing them outright.
“You just threatened another member of Kael’s base. If you don’t leave now and accept your new situation, I will bathe this hall in your blood,” Thalion said with determination, motioning to the guards in the hall to stand back. The hall was almost empty compared to last time, with only about ten guards training, and Thalion didn’t want any of them killed.
The shapeshifters looked surprised by the threat, but before the man could say anything, the woman next to him spoke up with an arrogant sneer on her face, “You and what army? Do you think those low-leveled guards can help you at all? Why shouldn’t we just kill you all right now? We came to show you your place, but it seems we were too benevolent after all. Why shouldn’t they believe us when we say you went crazy and attacked us? After all, we’ve fought hard to help you against the orcs and—”
She couldn’t finish her sentence because Thalion had made his move, firing a blood thorn through her head, silencing her for good. There was no real reason for talking any longer so why not start in exp farming.
After that, the hall erupted into chaos. Some of the guards fired spells at the shapeshifters, who all transformed into different beasts. Thalion yelled at the guards to get out of the hall and to block the entrance, which they did reluctantly, seemingly not believing he could kill them all on his own. Most shapeshifters transformed into variants of black bears, while others became black lions. Each form differed slightly—some had longer claws, others were bigger, and some even had bone spikes protruding from their backs. There were a few outliers: two transformed into hornets, and one into a large snake. The most powerful were definitely some of the bigger bears and two lions, who radiated strength.
Their levels were higher than his—none of them were below level 40—but Thalion was confident he could kill them. None of these beasts were a match for the umbral predator, which he would use if his human form couldn’t handle them. There was already another group of shapeshifters: those who hadn’t transformed at all because they were dead. Four shapeshifters lay lifeless on the ground, blood thorns lodged in their heads or hearts.
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Thalion fired blood thorn after blood thorn, triggering his movement skill with full power, dashing back and to the side to avoid the charging beasts. Then he leaped into the air and unleashed a dense stream of flames at the shapeshifters. The large bear in front charged through the flames and tried to bite him, its eyes glowing with hatred. Thalion reacted quickly, firing a blood thorn into its open mouth, causing the bear to fall to the ground, screaming in pain.
On the side, Thalion saw the last of the guards leaving the training hall and closing the door. Good—now he could use his other forms without any concern. Thalion triggered his movement skill to keep distance between himself and the shapeshifters, who were now splitting up so he couldn’t avoid them for long. He summoned his mana blade while firing blood thorns at the shapeshifters, who tried to dodge but often weren’t fast enough and got badly injured whenever a thorn hit them. Normally, their recovery would heal them quickly, but the blood thorns happily prevented any healing.
Thalion summoned his blood armor and unleashed a mana slash at the feet of the faster-moving lions. Some managed to jump over it, while others lost their legs and fell to the ground, screaming.
Thalion dashed to the side to avoid one of the lions' claws, but he wasn’t fast enough, and he felt how the claws scratched along his left arm, leaving deep cuts. Thankfully, the armor had prevented most of the damage; otherwise, his situation would be much worse. In turn, he cut the lion in half with a charged mana slash and dashed to the side to at least keep his distance from the bears. The two hornets were moving in surprisingly fast, but they both died just as quickly as one mana slash separated their heads from their bodies.
Sadly, the swing gave another lion an opening to strike at him, ripping his belly open with a swipe of its claws, which made him scream in pain. Thalion quickly summoned blood armor around the wound to stop his organs from falling out. The damned strike had been powered by some skill, as the talons had glowed in orange light; otherwise, his armor should have blocked it since he had infused it with extra mana. Thalion returned the favor by letting a vine of the sanguine thorn pierce the side of the lion and, with a swing, rip the whole beast in half, while the sanguine thorn greedily drank all the blood it could get.
It was getting more and more difficult to keep the distance. Even flying up wouldn’t help him much since most of the cats could easily jump to the ceiling. When he kept the fight near the ground, they at least blocked each other from attacking, but time was up. One of the smaller and faster bears reached him and slammed him with its shoulder, throwing Thalion against the wall.
“This is just getting too dangerous,” Thalion thought and transformed into the umbral predator. The bear, who had charged him to hopefully finish him off, only had time for a quick surprised look before Thalion ripped its whole face off with claws of shadows. Thalion grabbed the bear, which must have weighed tons, and threw it at the attacking lions.
Next, he activated the umbral predator's instincts, and shadow gathered around him while he now could feel where every living shapeshifter was. He charged at the last four bears. The bears had a shoulder height of over three meters, but Thalion didn’t fear them in the least as he ripped the bears into pieces. A lion wanted to attack his back as he tore out one of the front legs of one of the bigger bears, while the shapeshifter roared in pain, but Thalion felt the lion’s approach. He turned around, and with a swipe of his claw, ripped through the head of the lion like it was butter.
The last two bears activated some boosting skill, which sent them into a frenzied state, but he didn’t care. He was much faster than the bears, and even when he got hit by the claws, so what? His wounds healed in seconds. Shortly after, he finished off the last two bears. The six lions and the snake who were still alive stood back, watching him in fear.
“What are you?” one lion asked in fear, its voice female.
“Please, mercy! We give up,” the snake tried when Thalion didn’t answer.
“There is no mercy,” Thalion said in the deep voice of the umbral predator, like it came from darkness itself, while blurring forward. He grabbed the lion by the head before it could dodge and ripped it off. A second swipe with his claws ripped another lion almost in half. They all fled in panic, running toward the door, except for the snake, which wasn’t really good at moving fast.
“Please don’t,” the snake begged, but Thalion ended her life with a swipe of his claws, ripping her head into pieces.
The surviving lions arrived at the door, which was over three meters high and made out of steel, smashing against it with full force, roaring in desperation. The guard had locked the entrance to the training hall and was most likely pushing with all their might against the door from the outside to make it harder for the lions to break it open. The struggle didn’t last long. Thalion appeared behind the lions, and his long claws made of darkness ripped through them. Two tried to fight back, but after a short exchange of blows, they lay dead on the ground, completely disfigured.
Thalion looked around. Blood and corpses, completely ripped apart, lay everywhere. One of the bears, whom he had fired a blood thorn at, was still twitching on the ground, and Thalion flashed over and ended the life of the bear. He contemplated if he should devour the corpses, but he decided against it. Let’s make an example of these people, he thought, and maybe the alchemists could even use the corpses for crafting. He looked down at his form; there was no blood on his skin. The dark mist that was rising from it had turned all the blood that had spread on him into darkness and absorbed it. The power of a mystic creature was truly astonishing.
Thalion transformed back into his human form and knocked on the door. “It’s over. You can open it now.”
A second later, the door swung open, and he walked out. There were over forty guards waiting outside, all looking at him with surprise and shock.
“Please send an alchemist to gather the materials,” Thalion asked Rowan, who had joined the guards holding the door, before he transformed into his eagle form and shot into the air, heading back to his room to do some more blood training.
<--
Zyra was excited when a guard asked for her help to clean up the training hall after Thalion had dealt with the shapeshifters. She and four other alchemists were on their way to the training hall, one of them complaining that they didn’t need so many alchemists to gather a bit of blood. She agreed with the old man but was too curious about what had happened, so she sped up a bit, hoping to see the body of the shapeshifter Thalion had beaten. She hoped it was that Maik.
In front of the training hall, the area was full of people, and the guards had to push many aside to make way for them.
“What has happened? Is Thalion all right?” Zyra asked the guard, now worried that something might have happened to him. What else could attract so many people?
“Oh no, he didn’t even have a scratch on his body after fighting all the shapeshifters on his own,” the guard laughed.
“Wait, he fought all the shapeshifters?” Zyra exclaimed, her mind racing with questions.
Before the guard could answer, they arrived at the entrance of the training hall. The tall doors were open wide, the scene inside visible to everyone standing near it. Zyra remembered the conversation yesterday where they talked about banishing the shapeshifters to the outer district and giving them tokens, maybe even beating them up a bit. She never would have expected a scene like the one in front of her. Blood was everywhere in the training hall, and corpses lay scattered about—some ripped apart so badly that body parts were lying everywhere.
“What exactly happened here?” she asked the guard, still in shock.
“According to the other guards, the shapeshifters had waited for him in the hall and even threatened Thalion’s life,” the guard explained. “Then the fight started. The guards fled and barricaded the door while, as you can see, Thalion killed them all.”
“You’re sure? How could he kill all of them alone?” Zyra asked, still unable to comprehend.
“I’m sure. I was close by and helped the guards who fled from the training hall to keep the door closed,” the guard said. “When we opened the door, he was the only one alive, walking out like nothing special had happened. Then he transformed into his bird form and flew away after telling us to get some alchemists to gather the important materials.”
“Okay, I guess I’ll get to work,” Zyra said to the guard. Inwardly, she wondered what Kael and the others would say when they heard what had happened here today.
<--
Kael stood at the top of a watchtower, overseeing the fortress while holding a map in his hands. He wanted a better connection between this wall and the other ring walls the orcs had used as blockades. Maybe they could connect the towers with bridges too. Why was this all so difficult? In general, building upwards might not be a bad idea. The best idea he had so far was the outer districts for people they couldn’t trust and the tokens that tracked their location in real time. It was one of the best tools to keep troublesome people under control and use them for the benefit of his citizens.
Every day, new people were joining his base. Over a hundred just yesterday. For those people, he had created what he called the second district, and after some time with tokens, once they had proven their worth and shown that they weren’t psychopaths secretly planning to kill their comrades, they were allowed to move on to the first district. This was where most survivors lived, and where all the craftsmen had their shops.
Kael got distracted by the door opening behind him and Kai stepping out.
“Did something important happen?” he asked Kai. The swordsman rarely interrupted his sword training when he came up here, so it must be something important—or he couldn’t improve and wanted to talk a bit.
“Thalion killed all the shapeshifters alone,” Kai said calmly.
“He did what?” Kael shouted in surprise.