Chapter 8: Coat of ashes

Fang stared at the dragon with no fear just anger. This thing wanted to take something from him but he would not give it away regardless if he knew what it was or not.

It even talked about taking his freedom and that was something he would never give up as a thief having his freedom was extremely important and being caught would only be allowed after he attained everything the world had to offer.

Without realizing it the same black coat that had appeared on him during the fight in the arena appeared once more on him and protected him. With his sword in one hand and the blood tome in the other Fang quickly thought of a strategy to defeat his opponent.

There was no way he would be able to defeat a dragon in combat in his current state so the only thing he could do was complete the blood tome and use the dragon as his imprisoned creature. That however would be a difficult task as it would require him to somehow draw a blood array around the dragon and have more at least half of the amount of mana that the dragon had.

The first condition he thought he could somehow or other meet but the second was impossible seeing as he could neither move, store, nor use mana. Another and less likely way of getting the blood tome to imprison the dragon was to get it to agree to become his blood tome. Taking his sword in hand he cut part of his wrist and let his blood run down the edge of the wooden sword.

“... Fang Fae what sort of ritual are you trying to accomplish by spilling your own blood? I have seen various blood rituals and it is not something you should be doing.”

Despite what it said he had no intention of halting his movements. In the past three days he had practiced control over his body to a great level and although he could not do much in terms of inner organ control making precise movements would not be too difficult.

“Fang Fae this spell of mine will take roughly two years if you ignore my words and continue with this pointlessness I have little problem with that but you will tire eventually and die of blood loss.”

Fang had no plans to converse with the dragon instead he began swinging his sword and sending his blood to the correct places using his sword as a sort of long distance brush.

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Bahamut seeking that Fang Fae was ignoring her simply watched him spill his blood in the surroundings.

She was not dumb she knew that his seemingly random strokes were forming a pattern but could do nothing as the spell required her to stay still if she hurried the spell it would not only further the damage caused to Fang Fae who would be her new companion but also might damage the treasure.

So she simply watched confident that nothing he did could harm her. She decided to occupy her time by examining the coat of killing intent that had materialized on Fang Fae. It gave her a deep sense of dread that anyone below her level would likely colas from fear, this seemed to be the treasure but she did not believe that this was it’s only function.

If it was then the spirits would have known this, instead she believed that Fang Fae was incapable of using it’s full potential. After about an hour Fang Fae’s Array seemed to be nearing completion and he was looking pale from the abundant amount of blood he had lost.

“Don’t you think it’s about time you told me what it is you’re trying to do after all from now on we’ll be spending a long time together.”

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Fang finally finished the blood array and looked towards the dragon who had done nothing but observe him while he completed it.

“This is a special array to make a blood tome. Why haven’t you stood be from completing it?”

In his mind a blood tome while rare was not something that would have been kept secret, especially to a being that had the intelligence of this dragon and it’s strength.

“Blood tome is it? And what does this blood tome do exactly?”

Seeing as the dragon did not know what a blood tome was or did Fang saw no need to answer the question and tore a part of his shirt to stop the bleeding from his wrist.

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Both Tal and his wife stood outside their house staring at a dome made of tightly packed arrays. The two of them had tried various methods to break through the dome but nothing worked even with the combined force of the two along with Liz the dome never wavered.

“Luna, Tal don’t worry I'm sure your boy is fine. Those are dragon arrays but if you look closely it has spirit and fairy arrays. A fairy’s magic cannot hurt those of the Fae and Fang has elf blood making him one. Unless that is a royal fairy or dragon taught by the Royal fairies your son will be fine.”

Neither of the two responded, that information was something that had been known to them for a while and the confirmation did not help them in the slightest.

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After Fang stopped answering her Bahamut began to grow annoyed at the boy who seemed to be fazed by nothing and continued at his own pace. Suddenly she had a strange feeling like chains binding her soul.

The feeling intensified more when Fang Placed his bloodied hand in a circle of the array he had drawn and the blood scribbled book in another. Realizing what was happening Bahamut grew angry she was trying to soul bind Fang to her in order to take the treasure but Fang was trying to not only doing something similar with the exception that his aim was her mana and body.

It her mana was stolen or sealed off her spell could not be completed and if he gained control of her body who knew what he could do. Most importantly she would never be able to complete her mission.

“FANG FAE DO NOT ATTEMPT WHAT YOU CAN NOT ACCOMPLISH.”

Releasing her mana she repelled the binding spell array that Fang had set up around her. To her dismay however she could not destroy the array only keep it from binding her. At this moment Fang once again let his blood flow and began to strengthen the array by adding more blood.

Cursing on the inside Bahamut knew she could overcome the situation if she used her array at full power but did not wish to damage the treasure. Other than that she would have to wait and see whose binding array was more powerful.

On one hand she had complete confidence in her spirit array on the other hand the blood array used by Fang was unknown and could potentially become a problem if allowed to take in more blood. Having full confidence in her ability but still following the side of caution she decided to speed up the process but not by a large margin.

“Hear me spirits and heed my call this one would request the guidance of the. Grant me success in mine endeavor.”

Finishing her chant the array began to move and reform itself. Paying close attention to the spell and it’s effect on Fang Bahamut was presently surprised to find that the spell did no harm to his soul or the treasure.

Thinking that it would be okay she silently sped up the spell all the while Fang also increased the strength of his blood array. The two seemed to be in a race to determine who would end up serving the other.

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As the spell changed dread appeared on the face of Luna as she could now partly see inside the dome. Inside she saw her son covered in blood and what she believed was an adult dragon continuously chanting.

In her mind she could think of nothing but the bloodied body of her son. She blamed herself for his current state after going around the world and playing to her heart's content she lived a happy and peaceful life with her husband. That in and of itself was not bad but she had neglected her training and never improved.

She had grown arrogant. If she had reached the pinnacle of mana abilities and me come a saint mage no one would dare touch her son, not even the dragons who lorded their power and intelligence over all the other mana beasts.

At this moment she felt determined that if her son did not live through this then the dragon race would become extinct regardless of what methods she had to employ.

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Fang paid no attention to the dragon as the words coming out of it’s mouth made no sense to him. Instead he focused on his condition, if he lost too much blood then he would die but if he didn’t use enough his array would not work.

“Dragon I will seal you in this book and use your mana for myself. I originally planned to use and random animal for this but your strength is good. Submit and we will have a good relationship or fight it and we can argue about things for a long time.”

Normally talking while locked in combat, whatever form it may take, was not something Fang would do but if the dragon submitted it would make things easier on him.

“Fang Fae clearly you know a powerful blood array but I will not be taken down so easily and my array is near completion witching the next couple of minutes your soul will be mine and so will that treasure of yours. While I'm at it I'll have you give me that blood tome and in exchange I'll teach you some ki arts.”

Fang felt even more anger than ever not only was she trying to steal his treasure that he knew nothing about she was also after his freedom, his soul, and his blood tome. This was not something he could let go no longer caring he flexed his muscles and forced more blood out of his hand.

If he could not keep his things safe and on him then he would take them with him. If he completed the blood tome and then die then that would make it so that the dragon would be sealed and the tome would be useless to anyone else. The dragon seeing his resolve let out a deafening roar to the sky and locked eyes with Fang.

“My array is complete you are lucky to be able to live through it. Suddenly a black shadow engulfed the two. With in the darkness a purple light raced towards Fang and crashed into him at full speed. Fang had no time to dodge and began to grow dizzy as the light began to aim at his soul.

Suddenly the black coat that had been largely inactive disappeared and wrapped itself around Fangs soul protecting him from further harm. But it did not stop there the coat released ashes that overtook control of the array from the dragon.

“WHAT, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!”

The panicking dragon lost control of the array and in the time she slipped control of her magic the blood array took effect. Not only had the blood array started to seal it’s mana the dragon’s own array began to overtake it’s soul binding it to Fang. Because of the soul binding array not only would she be his tome she would also be his servant.

Not going down without a fight the dragon began to thrash around but did not have much space to move due to the effects of both arrays. Fang had regained full control over himself and began to prepare for the final part of the blood tome sealing ignoring the strange occurrence with the dragon’s array.

The final part of the array was simple he drew to locks of blood and threw the book towards the dragon so that they could merge and become a living blood tome.

:)