“Vampire society is terrifyingly complex and brutish,” a large-muscled chiawandean man declared. He wore bright training fatigues with both arms ripped out and he paced under a large tree canopy, addressing a gaggle of knights seated in front of him.

“They’re vampire army is a perversion of ours, structured by their lords and leaders to match and out-pace our soldiers at every level.

"Their soldiers are twisted half-blood monstrosities made from races that match and sometimes dominate ours in sheer strength alone. Think of Dragonkin, The Selcera, and other brutish clans.” His voice was like gravel, his body tensed, and sure. Blue runes trailed down both his arms and they hummed with a soft light. Seth thought he could pop skulls with those muscles.

“Their knights have magic as you do but they far outstrip us in physical strength. Only knights blessed with multiple reinforcements and aura spells really stand a chance against them. You’d be crazy otherwise to face them in a brawl. Although most knights won’t admit it, the ‘advantage’ rides up to even the Grand knight level. Their Golden horn lords are almost impossible to kill, and don’t get me started on the monsters with bloodlines!”

His voice had been slowly rising as he spoke, and suddenly, his head snapped to his students. His eyes lingered on Seth as he demanded.

“How have we historically overcome this handicap?”

“By relying on their elemental weaknesses, Sir. Fire and Light are deadly to them, Earth and Water are excellent for trapping, and Wind aura helped us outpace them.”

The answer rolled off him with barely any thought. It was his first day and he was going to impress, but he was somewhat disappointed by the questions...It was basic knowledge. Unless...I hope it’s not happening again.

“Correct, boy,” he said as she strolled up to Seth. He leaned so close Seth could smell his aftershave. “But you missed something. Cunning!” his voice boomed.

It is happening again, Seth sighed as his instructor Mr, Arkis, drifted back and paced toward the sandpit in the middle of the training space.

It was the fourth time it’d happened that same day: being singled out. The first was when Collin came to pick him up, the second was with the guard at the tower gate. The third was with an Old weapons instructor who stopped him mid-jog to give him 'advice' on his way to the class he was currently sitting in —Advanced Vampire Tactics and Dark Creature Trappings. Now, the instructor, Mr. Arkis was doing it again.

Three times was a coincidence, but after the fourth, he thought there had been a secret meeting behind closed doors, addressing how they would approach instructing him. He was a half-baked knight posing as a real one, who had somehow gotten a private meeting with the General. He understood why they paid him attention, he'd even accounted for it, he just hoped it would not impact his education too much.

Mr. Arkis raised his voice again. “They’re feral monsters. Drunk on their strengths, with egos the size of the General’s horses. They will underestimate us at every turn and will only recognize how much of a danger we are when they’ve felt the heat of our runic spells.”

Some of the students seated upfront smirked and nudged each other at hearing that. A life of privilege and fresh rune spells made them almost as arrogant as the vampires. Mr. Arkis stopped his march to pass them a look.

“While they might be fools, they’re not entirely blind to their own shortcomings. Given enough time, a vampire will recover, and he will come after you with everything he’s got. You’ll be lucky if you walk out of the fight without losing a limb.” He was now standing at the center of a pit of sand with dozens of boxes filled with metal knick-knacks glowing with rune light.

“In this class, I’ll teach you how to make sure they never recover after the first hit.”

He gestured to the boxes beside him. “For the next six months, I will teach you everything I’ve learned about Vampires. Their weaknesses, how they think, and how to use the Tools and abilities the Empire has provided you to their fullest potential.”

He snapped his fingers and several teaching assistants hurried beside him and stood at attention. Arkis's face brightened a bit. Seth thought he almost smiled.

“General Roko’s Runescrivers have generously provided us with some artifacts to train with. Who wants to learn to properly hunt vampires?”

Seth couldn’t help but smile at that. The entire class scrambled to their feet and joined and Mr. Arkis and his teaching assistants on stage. There were five knick-knacks in the boxes, and the assistants took turns explaining and demonstrating.

The first was a small tetrahedron that required large amounts of wind mana to power and produced a powerful electric net when triggered. It was predictably dubbed the Electric Net.

It could hold a Copper horn vampire knight for five seconds, silver horns for even less time, but it gave the attacking team plenty of time to close the distance and land a crippling blow. Seth thought it was more trouble than it was worth, considering the element-specific charge requirement and mana required, and but when he learned of its delayed activation features, he reconsidered his position. He was beginning to grasp the tactical advantages of having such a versatile trap.

He looked at Instructor Arkis newfound respect, and the man sent a nod in his direction. It could have been nothing, but the Empire being the Empire and Roko's men being who they were, he knew he would receive special attention from him in the coming months. The man might also expect something in return like a personal recommendation to the General, or something more substantial, but extra-care, from a great teacher, was a good thing.

Being teacher's pet would bring more attention to him, but everyone in the city most likely already knew who he was. It was as Roko said, there might be criminal elements stalking him now. He would take all the advantages he could get. He would need it if his plans were to succeed.

The second artifact they showed was the flashbang, and it was Seth’s favorite.

“They produce a small flash of white light that blinds everything in its immediate vicinity,” explained Avin, a tall Netean instructor. The runescrived item was a smooth cylinder with hundreds of smaller marks scattered about it. The students' eyes eagerly followed the cylinder as the instructor chummily tossed it up and caught it.

“One of them saved me and my team on a rescue mission to a concentration camp,” he added. “Here’s a tip, shut your eyes before you use them or you blind yourself along with the vampire!" he laughed at his terrible joke. "I nearly got my team killed because I was all jumpy”

“How do you refill them with mana?” Can anyone with Light mana do it, or is that limited to the Runescriver” Seth asked, his eyes following the cylinder. It was light attributed, something he could possibly learn to create, the gears in his mind spun.

He stopped throwing. “You don’t. Only Arch Magic knights, Mages or Runescrivers with Light mana can fill it up, and it falls apart after a couple of uses.”

"Oh," Seth said. That was disappointing to hear, but it could still have its uses.

“That sounds familiar,” Seth heard Sera say somewhere behind him.

“Don’t be greedy,” the instructor said. “If items and artifacts were all-powerful, what would be the point of training knights? They are tools that help us, not crutches.”

Arkis, who was standing to the side, gave an approving nod.

There was some grumbling among the knights, but it quieted quickly.

“That being said, keep your eyes open at your own risk. I’m about to throw this.” He gave the cylinder a good shake, pivoting it by the very tip, pumped red mana into it, and chucked it at the sky. Some of the knights fell to the ground in panic, others shielded their eyes, Seth simply just stared, the man’s warning barely registering. The flashbang turned into a blurry circle as arced into the sky and exploded with a bang. He felt like his eyeballs almost melt from the light, but it had entirely been worth it. It was like the condenser, but without the fields or other sensory attacks.

It prickled Seth that he'd be limited to a single charge despite having light mana-- it would certainly make fights with vampires and other creatures far less challenging.

The two other instructors took their time demonstrating the next two artifacts—a Fire bomb and an Ice bomb. They came in near-identical cylinders, with the Firebomb being the rounder of the two, and exploded in parabolas of elemental mana. The ice bomb felt like it stole the heat in the air, flipped it, and unleashed a cloud of crippling frost. The firebomb set the very air on fire and exploded outward with a wave of orange and red.

The last one was his favorite by far, and from the look of the other student’s faces, it was thiers too. It was a single-use mine that wormed deep into the ground after being primed with earth mana and exploded violently when it was crossed.

Arkis spent the rest of the class explaining how the different equipment worked, and towards the end of the class, moved them back into their storage containers. Seth and a few other students protested at this.

“Instructor Arkis.” Seth ran up to the man in his most charming smile. “At the beginning of the class, you mentioned something about teaching us how to use the devices?”

The man gave him a once-over look before he laughed out loud, startling Seth and a few other knights.

“Every year,” One instructor said.

“I expected it would the Seno girl, she was particularly prickly,” Avin laughed.

Arkis waved both of them shut, before he looked down to Seth, straight into his eyes.

“I said I would show you how you blow vampires up, never said I would let you touch the artifacts.” Seth took a single step back.

“At least, not on your first day,” the man added and flipped around. His instructors burst into laughs again and trailed after him with the box of artifacts, leaving Seth standing and blinking there.

Seth recovered quick enough to follow after the rest of his class to the next lesson hall. Overall, he thought the class went amazing. He had no doubt advanced tactics would be the best class, only after Runescriving and weaponsmithing, of course. He wondered if he could actually manage to reproduce any of the tactics artifacts he’d seen with enough time, but his favorite part of the class by far had been Mr. Arkis and his instructors. He was glad to know they wouldn’t roll over and break rules just to favor him, even if he thought they had ample reason to.

His next class was at a large battle arena, similar to the one he’d fought Ugo in, except with large braziers with open flames, no seats, and an open water drain at the center. It was combat training, and the class he’d been looking forward to the least, having no runes and all. He feared the next instructor would treat him like he was fragile and hold him back, where his tactics instructor had only thrown a wink.

The instructor, Penta Cavendish, a young Igrit knight not attention to the introduction class until she did. She started the lesson with a loud clap that carried through the space and silenced everyone. She too had a teaching assistant, standing some distance behind her, and with a voice that brooked no-nonsense, she said, “Observe.”

She wore a light beast armor and carried herself in a prim, and proper manner. She picked up training sword and shield in the racks beside her, gave them both quick shakes, before shifting into a fighting stance.

She took in a deep breath and blurred out in action. Penta started with a shield bash that let out a flare of powerful fire, flowed into a horizontal cut that traced a radiant arc, and followed with three precise thrusts that let out small gouts. Just when Seth thought she was done, she screamed and spontaneously combusted.

It was all flashes and light from then on.

She dashed around the arena at near unnatural speeds stabbing, bashing, and thrusting. The entire arena filled up with bright arcs of half-extinguished flames that lingered in the air. It was a dazzling display and almost suddenly she came to a rest, and her self-immolation rune extinguished.

Her training fatigues let out a shifting trail of smoke and soot-covered blond hair bobbed as she approached them. The new knights gawped at their new instructor and even Ellie looked visibly impressed by the display. Seth hadn’t bothered checking up with Sera and Brick. He thought it best to avoid them both for the time being. There was simply too much to talk about. Penta spoke in slow heavy heaves.

“That is what you should be able to accomplish in the next six months with decent instruction. Now, Nyssa, come up and teach these baby knights how to channel properly.”

She excused herself to recover and a large Netean woman stepped in front of the class of excited knights and whipped them into form with nothing but a sharp look. Her golden Irises were piercing.

“Basic magic manipulation is next to impossible for the Untouched, but for knights, its second nature.” She raised her palm and with a sudden spark, conjured a fireball.

Gord Goldstein, a knight standing beside Seth stared at the fireball in wanderlust. He was a fellow Magic lover too. Nyssa seemed to notice his expression and continued explaining.

“For the next few weeks, it is all we shall practice. Learning to reliably channel your mana and power your rune spells lays the foundation of your mana manipulation. In time, it’ll become the key to pushing improving your skills and advancing to arch knight.” She conjured two more fireballs in the same hand and made them dance around her fingers, before smoldering them with a firm clasp. “Of course, you’ll have to prove yourself to the Empire first.”

“Now, I will teach you how to channel your mana.”

She directed the students to stand in a straight line, each one in her visible sight, and began.

“Close your eyes and look inward,” she said. “Search for the source of divine energy flowing within you. For some of you, it’s a crackling hearth, others a relenting storm. Some see it as warm light, and others might feel the pull of the earth…”

Nyssa’s voice slowly lulled Seth into a deep trance, and piece by piece, everything fell away until he found himself in a vast plain again. The same place, where his control of blood mana brooked from. It felt more tangible now—his blood mana. It was a writhing, floating mass of pure potential hovering in front of him, waiting to burst out.

He’d almost been tempted to reach for it, but a faint light at the corner of his vision drew his attention. He wandered towards it, walking through the near-endless sea of nothing until he came upon a floating light orb covered in Runelight, and another floating Runescript tethered onto it.

It was his core and runes.

Looking at the orb, Seth saw what the General spoke about. There was a smaller, denser orb, covered in runes, sitting in the corner. It was plump with starlight, soaking up most of the mana that sat in his core. Seth frowned at that and reached for it before an electric shiver ran through his consciousness and he understood what he was staring at.

It is Light… pure Light mana, and it was his.

A delayed explosion of joy overcame him, and he realized he hadn’t yet taken the time to admit he was a knight now—an incomplete one—but a rune spell slinger nonetheless.

Introspection done, he tried again to reach for the light, but he found the runes on the orb rebuffed him. It was nothing like how he called on blood magic and used it. He hadn’t accounted for that in his feverish planning that morning, but it was not a deal-breaker. He'd accounted for resistance.

Boiled down to its essence, his plan was to master runescriving enough to make weapons for himself fueled by blood magic, remove the bomb that the gods have tagged on him, and flee the Empire with his sister, all while evading the inquisitors, General, and any other faction looking to control him or pry into his secrets.

No pressure.

He had no delusions he would accomplish this any time soon, but he will not be waiting around for a second Judgement. On average, it took a knight 7 years to become Arch knight, and another 10 more to become Grand. After that point on, the power and time requirements became very muddy—another divine requirement bullshit, he was sure—but it hardly bothered him. He would be out before his Arch knight promotion came up.

Instead of calling for his mana, this time, he poked around the orb instead, feeling for the runes and studying them until eventually, he felt a bit of energy waft around his core and disappear behind a gathering of runes at his core.

He focused on that instead and tried to make it pull in more mana. The core bomb was his biggest concern and limit. He needed to understand how limiting it was.

He sat down in the lotus position, stretched his hands forward, and focused on pulling in light into his core. With a gradual creak, his consciousness snapped back into reality, but he was not awake. He stood before his body, incorporeal, and inspecting it, it felt it lacked more… pull. He assumed the lotus position again, and his body followed suit, and together, they both stretched their hands towards the sun, the source of all light, and pulled.

Distractions and random thoughts came and went as he pulled. A flash of anger at Uvu; concern at his fellow knights' sudden attention; a vague sensation of concern that he was doing something wrong. Everything sank to the background as he focused his entire being on the task.

And that was why he was entirely frustrated when the light resisted him at every turn, slipping from his fingers each time he gathered more than a handful. It felt almost like Sabotage. Uvu’s doing—the bully of a god was fucking with him again, but he stayed on task, his concentration never waning. For how long he sat there, Seth forgot, until finally, he managed to hold over a fistful of light and feed it into his accumulation rune. It sparked to life and began to drink Light mana, and Seth laughed out loud in triumph, but there was no reaction, and the pull felt still too slow.

So, he dived back into his body and observed as it worked and drank. Soon enough he saw the pattern behind the accumulation rune and tried to force his intent on it and push it faster, but it rebuffed him again. Two more tries yielded no further results, neither did the orb in his sphere show a visible change.

Switching tactics, he mimicked the accumulation runescripts instead, using a bit of mana he stole as mana circulated his accumulation rune. He formed a model identical to the one on his core—swirl, runes, glyphs, and even parts he didn’t understand—and tried to overlay it on his primarily accumulation rune. His absorption speed exploded for a bit before the rune collapsed violently, snapping him back into consciousness.

He felt his head ring, and a line of blood droop down his nose. He gripped his head, and muttered,

“That was incredibly stupid of me.”

“Yes, it was.”

Penta stood in front of him, glaring down. Her eyes burned like two torches. “Who the hell do you think you are, and what are you doing!”