It was painful and created some fright in him, whenever he was hit by someone, but after some days he began to feel his surrounding with his new arcane senses and tried to assuage the incoming attacks. Most of the time he wasn’t very successful but sometimes he got lucky and deflected a hit that would had surely hurt like a bitch.

A week went by when he got the skill his attackers wanted to give him. With uncanny dodge came another pleasant surprise that called Levat back to the training ground.

You got the skill Arcane sight.

Iranueel dodged the attacking members of Razell’s team in one moment seeing nothing, only to anticipate their movements the next as if his eyes weren’t closed. Additionally he also got a much wider viewing field.

Where before he only could deflect their blows he was now able to attack them again which took one quite by surprise when Iranueel’s elbow caught him in the ribcage breaking some bones with a nasty sounding crunch.

All went silent for a moment except the wheezing guy on the ground that tried to get back his breath.

The young avatar just kneeled down and put his hand at the exact spot where he hit the guy and began his healing.

Silence ruled the place and everyone tried to understand how Iranueel suddenly could see as clearly as them. The young man was surprised himself by how easy it was for him to sense everything around him now, especially when he caught the strong aura in his back now.

When his back suddenly hardened he heard Levat’s voice, “Well, well! You seem to be able to suddenly sense me. Interesting skill you got there. Your arcane magic develops much faster than I had anticipated. Would you be so kind to tell me the name of the skill?”

Iranueel wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to tell the old vampire his whole character build but the old guy didn’t give him much of a choice and he was at least someone he could almost call an ally.

“It’s called Arcane sight and it seems to correspond with my spirit sense skill, maybe it is an evolution of it, because I can now sense you whereupon before I wasn’t able to get you on my radar.”

The sight was also not the same like with his eyes. He could see the elemental composition of everything around him quite easily which would make his healing spell much quicker to be used. Everything around him had a new color to it and gave him a bit of a migraine just from taking all of it in.

“Amazing! You would be quite an addition to my team if you are able to discover me now. Not that I especially tried to disguise me, but with some training you’d be also possibly be able to spot my disguised aura. And that would mean that other vampires wouldn’t be save from you too.”

The old vampire looked eager to check Iranueel’s newest power but then remembered that the young avatar still had some work to do. With a smirk he added, “All of this will come at a later time. For now you have to train some more.”

He turned around and went some paces away before he took a look back to Iranueel, “Oh, I have forgotten something. The triads will send an envoy to discuss a cease fire after some of my guys took out some major operations of them. I sent them the corrected version of the story and their boss seems to have come to his senses after almost loosing another son. They also want to fight you to test your mettle and show you that you messed with the wrong guys. Most certainly your opponent will be the second son of the boss.”

“That’s something I don’t understand. How can his sons get back to him? The rules should make that impossible.”

Levat shook his head disappointed, “Use your head, young man. He’s an avatar, they are avatars, so there’s no problem at all, because he sired them as an avatar and had told them of his supernatural origin. I think it’ll have cost him quite some power to make them strong enough for ascendancy because a normal mortal has to do some serious power up to get strong enough for becoming an avatar, but it is possible with the right methods and much money and connections. Something this guy isn’t lacking even if I have taken him somewhat down a nodge.”

He seemed quite satisfied right now.

Iranueel only nodded and kept silent.

“Anyway, train a bit harder because as sure as hell they at least have discovered who helped Misako and will be bent on murder to get back at you. For now you are under my protection and still will be for some time but after you leave my home, you and Misako will be again open game for them. They will do it disguised and use methods I won’t be able to directly retrack back to them, so they will be safe from any further attacks from my allies without direct proof of violating the cease fire. So get your ass up and improve yourself.”

He turned around again and walked away with a song on his lips Iranueel didn’t recognize. The old sucker surely knew many songs from his time on this planet. The young avatar would have given his right arm for the knowledge of the vampire. Not that he wouldn’t have been able to regenerate his limb again.

The next week was a repeat of charging and hurting with short lessons of sword practice with Razell who, what a surprise, didn't hold back much in driving his lessons right into Iranueel's body, often literally. His Sword mastery went up like crazy as did his pain tolerance. Also did his stats get a solid increase, mainly his endurance and dexterity.

In the evening he got 3 hours for lessons in ritual magic and spell techniques from Levat and Misako who had a significant increase in her necromantic powers. That didn't make Iranueel happy. Her increase in levels did as it also increased his power using their connection.

On one occasion when he prepared for another sword fight with Razell he asked his teacher.

“Before we start the next session of you hitting me into pulp I'd like to know if any of you guys knows any teleportation magic?”

“I know that master Levat knows some ways to get around quite fast but as you still have some time to serve it wouldn't be surprising if master would turn down your hopes of learning this. Among us grunts there isn't anyone able to use teleports, sadly. Would be a nice surprise for anyone I try to kill.”

Then he suddenly accelerated and tried to disembowel Iranueel with a fast slash against the stomach region but the younger avatar jumped to the side and threw a fast slash himself at Razell's head.

He just turned his head to the side enough for Iranueel's attack to miss and kicked his attacker hard to the knee which gave way with a crunsh, and Iranueel's painful cry.

“Nice attack there. You got faster but you've still got a long way ahead of you.” He smiled like a villain and turned around, whistling quite falsely.

Iranueel fell on his back and healed his knee again. This wasn't the first time it happened but even with his increased proficiency he wasn't able to block or evade the counterattack. It was driving him mad and added humiliation to it too. He was sure that there was something that could help him against Razell just outside his reach. A small pressure that made itself known some time ago and yet he couldn't grasp it.

He looked to the other guys and nodded to them after he was combat ready again. This time he just tried to defend with everything he got and draw out this strange feeling.

With every hit the pressure grew and he could feel new passageways created in his mind but only after all four guys hitting him from every angle he felt the power move.

He felt his maximum mana drain away to almost half and heard his opponents cry out in surprise suddenly. A faint aura surrounded his whole body like an armor reducing the power of their strikes to something he felt like a slap to the face in strength. It hurt but didn't really represent any danger.

You learned Arcane armor.

A magical armor surrounds your body and protects it from any direct damage. With rising proficiency the mitigated damage increases and the reserved mana is reduced.

Iranueel could only grin. His attackers stood back and watched him warily waiting for him or their boss to do something. He heard someone clasp and turned to see Misako standing against a tree and watching the show.

“I swear everytime I think you've reached your limit you surprise me again. Say, does this energy field need an upkeep or does it reserve mana?”

For a moment Iranueel hesitated before he sent a party invite to the lady. She accepted with a nod and grinned from ear to ear.

“Hey, you learn! Last time you gave the information away to everyone able to hear your answer. That's so much better. So, what gives?”

“The power is called Arcane armor and reserves a part of my mana. I'll have to increase my mana capacity again to make up for it but it should be able to reduce any incoming direct damage to an degree I can survive as long the attack isn't overkill.”

She thought for a moment, “So only direct attacks? Fireballs, bullets, the like?”

“I think so. Any indirect damage like poison gas or a camp fire wouldn't be blocked. Sadly.”

Misako shook her head, “You idiot! You've got an almost invisible armor that doesn't weigh anything and is able to level. What do you want more? Elemental immunities must be bought and leveled separately. That's nothing new so no surprises. I would kill for a skill like yours. When the triads send their fighter against you to test your mettle he will break his teeth on your armor that's for sure.”

Her vicious grin was reflected on Iranueel's face. He was much stronger with this newfound power and developed ever more to a tank with some nasty surprises.