Once Lenore took to the air, with me watching from the inside, I was once more intrigued by the sheer amount of information she was gathering while flying. While she wasn’t consciously thinking about it, I was able to focus on the instinctual mental processes, those small, subconscious things that allowed coordinated movement and balance. I wasn’t sure if the amount of information came from her ever-increasing ability with Air-Magic or if she always had been that aware but she was able to feel air-currents in a large radius around her and even used those currents to predict what was happening outside her field of knowledge. Those currents allowed her to quickly rise into the sky on an updraft, without using a lot of energy, and to stay up, simply gliding through the air on spread wings.

From up high, we could see far, looking down upon the forests, meadows and streams beneath us, and even see a few small villages and their fields. The land we were now moving in was a lot more populated than the area we had been travelling through before, with only some ten to twenty kilometers between villages. Sure, without a reasonably high level or the imperial road that was still quite the hike but compared to the hundreds of kilometers that separated villages further north it was practically next door.

Sadly, that meant that there were few actually powerful beasts in the forest below and none that I could see. I didn’t want to stick my new weapon into some low-level beastie that would almost perish just from getting stuck with it, I wanted to attack something with actual power, to see if it could resist the effect. I had yet to see any enemy that could resist my Blood Magic but I had never tried to use it in combat, only on beaten or restrained foes, allowing me to focus on the magic. I had no doubt that an enemy would do almost everything to get rid of the pain, if I started draining them in combat as I knew the pain caused by Blood Magic.

“You see that?” Lenore asked, focusing her vision on a particular spot below. We had been flying for maybe half an hour, and finally, it seemed that she had spotted a worthwhile target. Looking at what she was focusing on, I saw a strange sight and needed a second to realise what I was looking at. What at first looked like a four-legged animal were in fact two humanoids, standing very close together, or, at second glance, only one was really standing, the other was being held up by the first.

“I didn’t think you were interested in humanoid mating practises.” I grumbled, not terribly interested in watching two orcs going at it.

“Normally, I’m not but look closer. The female looks to be in pain, her eyes are squeezed shut and the other is forcing her against the tree, I think even choking her.” Lenore answered, her words making me focus back on the scene, looking closer and I had to agree. What we were looking at might not be quite consensual, which meant that the male had just volunteered to become a test-subject, his actions something that annoyed me greatly. Hopefully, he would have enough strength to struggle against the enchantment on my blade, just so I could see how well it worked.

“I see what you mean.” I answered Lenore, my voice filled with a cold, anticipatory glee. “Let’s put a stop to that.”

With my words, she started to angle down, silently riding the air, bringing us close. She had to circle a little, so we would come out of the sun, just in case he might hear something and look up, but I doubted it. From the looks of it, the female had screwed her eyes shut, wishing to be somewhere else, while the male was using one arm to hold up one leg, the other to pin her neck against the tree while furiously using her. We were still some distance away, when Lenore was able to hear his grunts, the noise sending a shiver down my spine and not in a good way.

Just before we were behind them, I started to focus, initiating the process of leaving my Hallow while trying to use Darkness-Magic to conceal myself. Concealing sounds was difficult but our targets were completely unaware so I thought it might work. Just because I was doing an experiment, I didn’t have to neglect training my other skills.

Leaving my Hallow with Lenore flying wasn’t as easy as I had thought, it was almost like trying to step off a moving vehicle, blindfolded. I misjudged the distance to the ground somewhat, appearing in the air, motionless for a split-second before gravity reasserted itself, causing me to land. What little noise my landing made wasn’t noticed by either orc, allowing me to gather my mind and step up, the new blade leading the way.

Sinking it into the back of the occupied orc was almost too easy and once it was in and I had applied the initial burst of Blood Magic to start the process, I jumped back. In the short moment I had taken to begin the process, Lenore had managed to turn and was now landing on my shoulder, letting me watch through her eyes as the magic took effect.

The instant effect of my stab was quite obvious and not just from the magic, the orc tried to lurch forward, away from the painful intrusion. I felt a smile creep onto my face, he was moving away from the penetration, just as the female was trying to. Before the smile could fully manifest, the female’s eyes shot open and a scream rang from her lips, one that didn’t quite sound like pain, much more like one of pleasure, accompanied by excited and exuberant noises.

They, too, lasted for only a moment before reality intruded into the females mind as the body of the male in front of her was quickly getting drained by my Blood Magic, the vitality ripped away along the liquid that had once carried it. The arm that had held her up turned brittle and withered, causing her, and the remains of the now dead orc to crumble, creating a heap of desiccated flesh, naked orc and fluids I didn’t even want to think about.

The scream she let out while dropping was definitely not one of pleasure and it, too, was suddenly cut short when the dagger that had been stuck in the male’s back cut into her leg when she fell upon it. I had never intended for the dagger to have some sort of friend-or-foe identification, or an off-switch for that matter, and the result was quite impressive. The enchantment had ramped up quite a bit and the desiccation of the female took even less time than that of the male, it looked as if she was crumbling in on herself, leaving behind two still intermingled, completely drained carcasses. At least for a moment.

Once there was no more blood in reach, the enchantment tried to continue draining and, to my surprise, managed to start draining the magic used to create and sustain the dagger, something I had never intended or anticipated. It didn’t work and didn’t even fail to work in a way I could have anticipated, instead of simply breaking or something along those lines, the magic got tangled together, causing Lenore to instantly take shelter in her hallow while I used Overflow combined with my ability to instantly manifest runes to create a wall of ice, right in front of me and not a moment too soon.

The tangled energy managed to untangle itself, resulting in a sudden release of undirected, chaotic energy. Some of it was pure life, causing some of the grass and a brush nearby to instantly grow to twice its former size, some came out as miasma, leaving me nauseated and with a wish to get away as soon as possible as I had a feeling nethersprites would appear soon and some of the energy was released as elemental energy in all its shapes.

Luckily, I was able to smother the resulting fire and a small, muddy hole wasn’t a problem either, nor was the tree that had been destroyed by a sudden burst of wind.

“That was interesting.” Lenore muttered, leaving her Hallow and landing back on my shoulder. Together, we looked at the devastation and the splattered meat, some of it sliding down the Ice-Wall I had created.

“I’m not sure if I’m supposed to call this success or failure.” I admitted, both fascinated and a little shaken by the effects.

“Let’s call it a work in progress, shall we?” Lenore asked, looking at the suddenly enlarged brush.

“I agree. Let’s get back to the others, I wouldn’t want to worry Sigmir.” I suggested, starting to shift into my Hallow.