Chapter 3: Training

Today, I didn’t get the luxury to wake up on my own, as Palazar shook my body, to wake me up. He directly pulled my arm, shoving me down to the floor.

“Hurry up, and get dressed. Your training begins in ten minutes, so make sure to be in the courtyard on time,” Palazar ordered, before he turned to exit. Heeding his words, I quickly got dressed, and tried to find my way out. Too bad for me, this damned mansion was a maze! I tried to find my way out, but in the end, I was still ten minutes late. It was a mystery, how Palazar and Old Crow could navigate this place.

Palazar looked at me with a stern look, and I knew I was in for it now.

“You’re ten minutes late! As punishment, you have to do a thousand extra laps around the house, as a warm up. That means you have to run around the mansion two thousand times, and at full speed.” Palazar said. His words startled. I was supposed to run around the mansion two thousand times! How the hell should I accomplish that! It would take days!

“How the hell am I supposed to do that?! It will take all night!” I complained. Palazar just shook his head, in disappointment.

“Did you forget? You’re not human anymore, you’re a vampire. Your stamina is far superior to before, and you can run faster. Although two thousand laps might sound like a lot, it’s not actually that much. Around the mansion, is around a hundred to two hundred meters. That would be two hundred to four hundred kilometres. That’s not so much.” Palazar said.

I could only lower my head, and give in, “Fine then, I’ll try,” I said, as I started running.

I was running as fast as I could, and it truly was a lot faster than I ever ran before. As I saw the courtyard over and over again, I began to truly believe I could do this. I started running even faster and faster, and the corners appeared quicker and quicker, but then, all of a sudden, Palazar stopped me.

“Alright, that’s enough. It’s been three hours already, and you haven’t even come halfway yet. This is slightly my fault too, as I forgot, you are still young. Training is finished for today,” he said. I looked at him weirdly, surprised that it had been three hours already. So much for me being able to easily do this. I waited for a bit, to catch my breath, as I was quite exhausted, before I spoke again.

“Thirsty,” I said, as I couldn’t utter another word. I was truly thirsty. Maybe all the running had accelerated the thirst, or maybe it was just that long ago since I last drank. Palazar responded to my plea, with throwing me another blood red vial.

“You’re going to have to make do with these for a while, since there is no cattle in the mansion yet. When I go on journeys, Crow usually kills the cattle, and feeds them to the dogs,” he explained,

“There are dogs? How come I haven’t seen any?” I asked. Although, it had only been one day since I arrived here, so maybe I just hadn’t seen them,

“Yes, there are indeed dogs here, but they’re not normal dogs. These dogs are supernatural beings, and are even more dangerous than wolves, although they have been tamed, so they won’t hurt you. As for why you haven’t seen them, they might be out in the forest, or you just haven’t seen them. I forgot to ask Crow about them,” he explained. I was quite marvelled, at these dogs. They were supernatural beings? I wondered what they would look like.

As I was thinking about the dogs, Palazar was dragging me into the mansion. We went through a few halls, and eventually arrived in a room, where Old Crow was already ready to teach.

There were numerous papyrus scrolls, and parchments, as well as writing tools, like a small hollow object, which looked like bamboo wood, as well as some thin, and sharp sticks. I looked at all these things with curiosity, as I had never seen what tools you needed to write.

I had seen some scrolls from time to time, but it wasn’t often, as my old family was poor, and we couldn’t afford any schooling, so I never learned to read. Palazar pointed to a chair, and said,

“Sit down there. Crow will teach you all you need to know.”

I obeyed, and walked over to the chair, and sat down. Old Crow didn’t wait at all, and immediately began his lecture,

“Alright, Parmasus, listen carefully. First I will explain what all these tools are. As you probably know, these are all papyrus parchments and scrolls,” he said, as he pointed to the papyrus,

“These are what we will write upon, and those scrolls, are what you will read from. As for these little things, this is a reed pen,” he said, as he grabbed one of the small pointy sticks,

“And this is a cane pen,” he said as he grabbed the thicker counterpart,

“They are both used for writing, but the cane pen can hold more ink. As for the ink, they are kept in these little containers,” he said, as he grabbed one of the little black flasks.

As he had finished explaining all the tools, we would use, he grabbed one of the scrolls, and unrolled it. He immediately started teaching me all the signs and marks, and explained me what sound they would make. He taught me how they would form words, and before I knew it, several hours had passed.

I was surprised to find how quickly I learned all these things, as I already knew all the letters, from front to back, and vice versa. I found that it was easier to remember things, than what I was used to. Perhaps, it was another benefit, brought by the dark gift?

As the night was nearing its end, I found that I was very tired. Not so much physically, but mentally. After five hours of constant schooling, not even a vampire would be exempt from the drowsiness.

The next day, I was outside in the courtyard again. This time I made sure, I wasn’t late. Palazar was already there,

“Good, you’re on time today. Considering the fiasco of yesterday, we will start with a hundred laps. Begin!” He immediately ordered, and I didn’t dare wait. As I quickly began to run, I stumbled in the panic, and almost fell down, face first.

I quickly managed to regain my balance, and immediately, started running, almost frantically.

One lap quickly turned into ten laps, and eventually I had finished all one hundred laps,

“Good, you’re finished. Now the real training begins. This training will mostly focus on training your skill and technique, as well as giving you fighting experience. For us vampires, it is very hard for us to gain physical strength, through training, but as we age, we naturally grow stronger. Now, grab this wooden swords, and do as I say,” he said, as he threw me a wooden sword. I quickly caught it, and readied myself.

“Alright, first put your left foot forwards, and your right foot backwards,” he said, and I complied. I stepped front a bit with my left foot, while moving my right foot backwards. Palazar walked over to me, and slightly adjusted my stance, until he nodded his head, satisfied.

“Alright, now hold your sword in front of you, like this,” he said, as he demonstrated how I should hold the sword. I quickly complied, and this time he didn’t do any adjustments.

“Now, when I say swing, you swing, when I say thrust, you thrust, and so on. Are you ready?” He asked. I nodded my head, affirming that I was ready.

“Swing!” He yelled, and I quickly swung my sword. He adjusted my swing, then told me to swing again.

“Thrust!” He yelled, then I thrusted my sword. Once more, he adjusted then, told to repeat. Like that, I would swing my sword, thrust my sword. I would swing it down, swing it sideways, and even swing it upwards. Every time I swung or stabbed, he would adjust, until he was satisfied.

Eventually, he told me to swing in a certain pattern, while he went to get something. I complied, and practised my sword in the specified pattern, and after a few minutes, Palazar came back, with what seemed to be a big humanoid doll.

“This little doll here, will simulate your opponent. I will tell you where to attack, and you will comply,” he said, as he placed the doll on front of me. Even though I say it’s a doll, it’s actually made of wood, so it wouldn’t move at all.

“Arm!” He yelled, before I was even ready, and I stumbled, as I tried to attack. He told me to attack again. This time I was prepared, and managed to do it, without stumbling.

Like that, the hours passed, as he I trained in various ways. I didn’t fight with Palazar at all, this time, as he wanted me to focus on technique first. After that, it was school time.

Surprisingly, I found that I remembered almost everything from yesterday’s schooling session, but Old Crow didn’t seem surprised at all.

This time, we reviewed what I learned yesterday, and then he taught me how to write the various letters. It looked quite sloppy, but at the end of the day, it was more presentable.

Like that I spent several days training, and learning to write and read. After two months, I had completely learned to write and read flawlessly. Even though I say flawlessly, I was still a little bit slow at reading, but apparently, it would take a mortal human much longer to learn all this.

In these two months, my sword skill had improved a bit, as well. Every day, we would spend three hours training, and five hours schooling, not resting a single day. After that, I would have four hours of darkness left. After the sun rose, I could still wander about the mansion, but going outside would be suicide.

As the day and night only lasted twelve hours each, there were only twelve hours, where we could be truly active. This was one of the biggest weaknesses of vampires, but there was nothing we could do. There had never been a vampires who could roam in the sunlight, in the history of vampires.

After these two months, Old Crow finally began teaching me other things, like mathematics, and history. While teaching me history, he would just talk about certain big events that happened in last few centuries. He didn’t tell my anything about the Blank Period. He said that I would naturally come to know, sooner or later.

As for mathematics, they were truly brain wrenching. There were so many calculations and adding and subtracting. I always knew basic math, like counting, and adding and subtracting, but this was on a higher level. My knowledge was limited, and I couldn’t count past a few tens, so it was hard, but I still managed.

After only a few months, I was already pretty good at these mathematics. Old Crow said I was already at the level of mortal humans who spent several years, maybe even ten years studying mathematics, so I was quite proud. This good memory of mine was quite the blessing.

I eventually came to know that vampires wouldn’t naturally possess a very good memory, so it was my own, special trait. But vampires would still learn quicker than humans, since they could think quicker, so my memory just made it even better.

As for fighting, Palazar said I possessed quite good talent there, as well. After a few months of training, we started sparring as well. Palazar would always wipe the floor with me, but just that he decided that we should spar as well, meant that I was improving.

After I had spent two months in the mansion, the time I had been waiting for, finally arrived. I got to see the dogs! Old Crow had said that they were out in the woods, playing with the animals. Of course, that meant they were hunting and killing them.

As for now, two months after our return, they finally came back. And it horrified me.

The dogs, they were huge, they came above my waist. If I wanted to, I would easily be able to ride one them. But their size wasn’t the scariest thing. No, it was their heads, they faces. They possessed red, glowing eyes, and their mouths were huge. If I wanted to, I could fit my entire head inside it. And the teeth, they were sharp and numerous.

As for their bodies, they were grotesque. They were black and reddish in colour. In some areas, like the legs, they had muscles so large that they could put the strongest of warriors to shame, while somewhere it seemed as if their bones were exposed.

I didn’t doubt that they could easily rip a mortal to shreds, and most likely have, at some point.

As for what these ‘dogs’ were, I learned that they were called Hellhounds. Just the name caused me fright. Dogs that originated from the Realm of Damnation, also commonly known as Hell.

They were truly dangerous beasts that lived off the flesh of others. If a human were to come upon one, there was only one thing they could do. Sit down, and wait for your damnation.

But the most horrifying thing I learned of them, was nothing of that. No, it was not that they ate the flesh of humans, not that they were from the Realm of Damnation, not that they were unholy beings.

No, it was that one particular ability of theirs, their one terrifying trait. They consumed the souls of others! As they fed, they would eat their prey’s very souls, and entrap them in the Realm of Damnation, trapping them in the realm of eternal torture.

In the blink of an eye, four years passed. After the two year mark, Palazar decided to increase my training time to six hours, and my schooling time to four hours. This meant I only had two hours of free time, but I didn’t mind too much. After all, there wasn’t much to do here anyways.

It was also at that time, when Palazar began training me in hand to hand combat. He said it was also necessary to be able to fight when one doesn’t have a weapon, so one should forge one’s own body into a weapon. Thus, we would spend four hours a day on sword training, and two hours hand to hand martial arts.

One thing that bothered me these years, was my body. I was already nineteen years old, but my body hadn’t changed at all. I still looked like a fifteen year old kid. Not that I hadn’t expected it, but all these years I had put it at the back of my mind.

I really wanted a little older body, but I knew it was impossible. After all, a vampire’s body would never change…

And now I had been a vampire for four years already. As vampires grow older, they also grow stronger. After only four years, I had grown much stronger than before. In the first few days, after I became a vampire, I was only a bit stronger than mortal humans.

I could run a few times faster, and was a few times stronger, but now I was much stronger. Doing a hundred laps around the mansion, only required a few minutes, and I could easily punch through a wall with my bare fists. But I was still far inferior to Palazar. It made me wonder, just how old is he? Where did he come from? I had asked him about this, on numerous occasions, but he would always avoid the subject.

Then, one day, Palazar entered my bedroom, just as I was preparing to go out and train,

“We’re not training today, nor will Crow school you,” he said. I looked at him with a weird look. In these four past years, there had not been a single day, where we didn’t train. I never got to rest, for even a single day, so I wondered what it could be.

“We’re not training? What’s going on?” I asked.

“We’re leaving. Pack all your clothes, and prepare for travel. Also, this will be the last time we see each other, for a while,” he said, before leaving me behind, in my room.

We’re leaving? Where would we go? I wondered about what his plans were, but then I realized. Could it be we were going to the Clan? In the past four years, I had learned a bit about our Clan, as well as a few things about some other clans.

I quickly packed my things, then, only a few moments later, I was outside. Palazar and Old Crow both stood there, waiting for me. There were two horses, standing to the side. That meant only two of us were going, so Old Crow would most likely stay behind.

I looked to Palazar, and asked,

“So, where are we going?”

“It’s been four years, since I took you away from that father of yours. Back then, we had been met by destiny, and then, for the next four years, I raised you as my own. I trained you, and Crow schooled you. Now you have already become a nineteen year old man. As for where we are going, it’s the Exsequor Tenebris Clan. These four years, have all been to prepare you for the clan. Now, let’s go,” he said, as he jumped unto his horse.

This time, I knew I wouldn’t be coming back for a long time, so I looked back to Old Crow,

“Goodbye, Old Crow. Thank you for teaching me many things in these past few years,” I said, as I, too, jumped unto my horse, before riding away into the horizon.

End of chapter 3.

This is where Parmasus' journey truly begins. How did you like this little training chapter of mine? Was it good? Bad?

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Thanks for reading!