Death had a way of making life taste all that much more sweet. Now long departed from the harrowing events with the dead and monastery, it was easy to push those events to the back of the mind and accept the lot we had before us. You found contentedness in the simplest of things. Anything that didn't want to kill or ruin you, but acted as a contrast to the horrors became a treasured thing, coveted and sought after.

"You said I wouldn't hit you!"

I grinned. "Perhaps I meant you wouldn't hurt me."

She scowled and tried to assess how much damage she had done to me. "Well, why did you allow me to do that?"

"It would be a bit too presumptuous of me not to think that you are still soft despite living the life of an adventurer. I'm sure you've killed and destroyed plenty with your fire, but there's a difference with a blade. When you're close up to someone, the damage you do is visceral and personal."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm well aware. But there's no need for me to actually cut you to learn that."

"Maybe not," I looked away towards the doorway. Angelos was perhaps right. There will be one day when I would become trouble, and it would do the party well if they were at least prepared in some manner for that eventuality. "Pick up the sword, then, and let's do some actual work."

She did, but she gave me a scowl along the way. "No more tricks, and I'm not going to learn if you just make it uncomfortable."

"Fighting is uncomfortable." I grinned. It was not in my best interest to rile her up, but in a way, it was part of the training too. I withdrew my greatsword and held it ready. "There's not a great deal of room inside the house, but it should be enough to practice some swings.

I placed the palm of my left hand on the flat of the blade, "Let's work on defending. Try and strike me now."

There was even less hesitation this time as she stepped forth, swinging the blade again. Her attacks were amateur, telegraphed quite blatantly, and without the muscle memory that would come from being used to the weight and movement of the sword. It was simple for me to block each of the strikes. The ringing of metal filled the small room as she continued to swing wildly at me unabated. I took a step backward and to the side to prompt her to move her feet more, as she had been quite planted in one spot unless she was moving to account for her own attacks.

Eventually, she tired and went lax as she stopped to catch her breath. I grinned and placed the tip of my blade on the floor.

"Not terrible," I said, tilting my head. "You use the same amount of ferocity with the sword as you do with your fire. However, you must act with a cool head if you wish to best an opponent. Smart opponents will read your moves."

She sighed and swapped the sword to the other hand so she could wipe the sweat from her forehead. "Perhaps I should have been a Barbarian," she grinned.

I smiled and gave her a nod. "Perhaps, in truth, you would make a better Barbarian than I would make a Mage." Although without my full vampiric powers, I had no control over magic in this form, aside from the small amounts of learned experience from the centuries I had lived. "I won't get you to try and defend against my attacks," I said, thumbing up the pommel of my greatsword. "Unfortunately, even holding back, I have both the advantage of strength and size over you."

"Well, that's not everything," she exhaled, returning her sword to her right hand. "I would like to make an attempt."

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I allowed myself a small smirk. It had been my intention to tap into the small thread of her wanting to give it a chance. Of course, I wouldn't hold it against her if she had taken the easy out, and we gave it a rest for the day. Even men of experience in melee combat wouldn't eagerly step up to spar with me, not only for my size but for the commanding presence I had. They should have seen my main sword I left at the estate, something that had drunk more blood than almost myself over the years.

"Alright then," I rolled my shoulders out to limber up. "I shall wield one attack against you. Okay?"

She nodded and prepared herself. It wasn't a particularly effective defensive style. In fact, given my current speed, I could easily skewer her or perhaps lop off her left arm before she had a chance to even move her sword in the way. But this was a learning experience, and losing a limb was a bit too harsh of a lesson at this stage. Instead, I went for a simple downward swipe, nothing too strong, no intent to cause any harm. The sword didn't even glow.

There was a clash of metal as she brought the sword up and struggled slightly against the weight. I held my sword there, slowly pushing as her arm started to shake and her own sword edged towards her chest, just as mine was, relenting to the pressure. Then, I saw a spark in her eyes. That firey will of hers that was stubborn and didn't want to die out so soon. Amber light quickly illuminated the dim house as flames burst up along her sword, flickering briefly before going out as she stepped back in surprise.

I withdrew my greatsword to avoid cutting her, and she looked at me with a slight shock on her face. "Inherited, huh?" I shook my head. "Can't do anything simple, can you?" I grinned widely, and she returned the smile gingerly.

She gingerly stowed the sword back into the scabbard and shook her head. "That's going to need a bit more time to come to terms with, I think. Hopefully, we'll get more chance to practice before I'll ever need to use it."

"I hope that too," I nodded as the door opened, and Jakob and Angelos entered, brief confusion on their faces.

"What have you been doing in here, then?" said Angelos. "Not needing to fight the bastard off already, I hope?"

"Just some sword training," I rolled my eyes. "Need all the practice we can get."

"Yeah, yeah," he waved his hand. "In light of the recent information of you being bloody death waiting to happen, I got a little fail-safe should we need to deal with the... problem."

"The problem being me?"

"Yeah," he nodded with a grin. "You absolute shite, Victor"

That was fair and very pragmatic of him. In fact, the looming gravity of me potentially getting my first bite at some point and turning on the first day of drinking blood was weighing on me a lot lately. Once it happened, I would be unrelenting and couldn't be negotiated with. If he had some way of ending me to protect the others, then I accepted that fate. I didn't need to know what he had planned in case I absentmindedly started making contingency plans against it.

"We did get some food, Jakob, didn't we?" Angelos gestured to the Ranger, who nodded his head but pulled his hood around his face.

The rest of the evening went by in a blur. We had tidied the house to make it a bit more livable and a bit more of a home rather than a temporary hovel. We had cooked up meat and some vegetables on the stove, and for the evening, we were just content to live, to enjoy warm food, and to bask in the company of these newfound companions. Sleep had even come easy, the shadows of the evils surrounding us seemingly washed away by the light of our better spirits.

It was soon morning, and despite it only being two days since our near-fatal experience at the graveyard and the monastery, we were in good humor and physically fine. I drummed my fingers on the table as Angelus made us some hot tea. "Are we thinking we'll go for our quest today?"

Each exchanged a quick glance before nodding toward me. We all agreed that the sooner we can get out, then the better in the long term. The Guildmaster had dangled the next rank up in front of us, and if all we needed to do was go and kill one monster and return back safely, then we didn't want to put that off any longer. I started to feel like things were never that easy, but brushed those thoughts aside for now.

There was almost a slight buzz of excitement as Petal began to pull the wagon out from the town. I glanced back at the drab buildings and narrowed my eyes, thinking I saw untoward shadows lurking between some of the buildings. But after a few more seconds of observation, there was no movement or change. For now, I assumed that it had been a trick of the light or just my eyes wanting to find things that weren't really there. That was the hope, anyway.

But truth often had a sour taste to it, and we were caught with cutlery in our hands and plates still wanting.