A twelve-foot-tall armored giant barreled at Kay with her spear pointed at his chest. Kay braced himself to deal with a trampling charge and was caught off guard when she suddenly slammed her foot down and pivoted, the shaft of her spear elongating as she stabbed at him from the other half of the arena. Polls of blood that covered the field and were about to spring up into small walls and tripping hazards instead lashed out with red dripping tentacles that wrapped around the spear and attempted to drag it off course. The tip of the spear punched into the armor over his shoulder, then skidded upward as he reshaped his armor while simultaneously dodging. Sparks and drops of blood flew from where the weapon scraped along before it ripped a portion away, tearing off to the side as Honor tried to wrestle back control of her spear.

Kay glanced down at his shoulder as he reshaped the armor there, trying to keep most of his focus on ripping Honor’s spear away from her completely. He grinned savagely as his armor sealed itself, and he began trying to figure out his next move. Back on Earth, he’d never really been much into fighting or even most fighting adjacent activities. He played video games, sure, but when it came to real life, he tried to keep violence away from him. He would occasionally go to a shooting range with his friends, and he’d tried a martial arts class or two with his buddy Chase, but he’d never gotten into it. But now? He didn’t know if it was the new life he’d built, the trials and tribulations he’d gone through to grow into his new self, or if it was just something new he’d discovered about himself, but he was having a blast. Whenever he could fight like this, where he didn’t have to worry about anyone else, and it was just him versus his opponent? It was exhilarating.

Shrinking her spear to be ‘just’ proportionate to her expanded body didn’t free her weapon from Kay’s bloody tendrils, so Honor resorted to jerking it wildly in all directions. Kay didn’t have enough blood in his constructs to match the contortions they were going through trying to hold on, and they burst a few at a time. With her weapon free, she slammed down her shield in front of her and pulled back her spear arm. It looked like she was going to stab the back of her shield for a second, and then a slot opened, and she drove the spear through. Charging once again, she came at him like a snow plow with a lance attached, a dangerous wall of metal with a sharp pointy bit extended out in front. She crushed every barrier, hazard, and trap Kay tried to throw in front of her with ease as she sprinted at him.

Either that transformation increases her strength or the Class she has that lets her get strongest against someone the more she fights does it in more than one way! Kay thought to himself as he dove out of the way. He had to dive and roll another time immediately after when Honor suddenly turned on a dime and came after him again within a second.

She chased him from one end of the arena to the other as he leapt, rolled, and threw himself out of the way of her attacks. Each time she got a little closer, and each attack got more accurate as she learned his timing before she cornered him against a wall. He could see her eyes through the tiny gap in her helmet, and he saw understanding of what he was doing. He wasn’t just running like a coward; she knew that. He was setting up a trap as he ran all over the place without fighting back. He could also see her confidence as her shield came from one direction to crush him, and a short thrust of her spear aimed to shish kebab him. If he tried to dodge away, she just had to crush him before he could finish, and she’d win.

Kay looked up at her with a grin. He’d already finished the trap.

Blood sluiced off of Kay’s armor and covered her helmet, blocking off her vision as waves of blood rose from either side of her. The volume of blood that had been stripped off of Kay during each of his close shaves dodging and his narrowly times blocks had been stealthily added to, and he’d rolled up all of it plus every bit of blood that coated the arena into two masses that grabbed onto Honor’s arms. Hands made with Blood Shaping wrestled to undo the buckles on the straps that kept her shield on her arm, thin films crept in between her hands and her spear shaft, and the sheer mass of all of that liquid pushed down on her, trying to drag her to the floor.

The veins near the surface of Kay’s body visibly bulged outward as he pumped Blood Boost to the highest level he’d ever tried, increasing the amount of oxygen in his blood and the sheer volume of it in his veins at the same time. His skill inflated, and he gritted his teeth against the pain as he shoulder-checked the gargantuan tower shield right as he shifted the blob that was weighing down that arm into pulling her shield away. The last of the buckles he hadn’t undone popped open, and the slab of metal spun off through the air. As it hit the ground with a clatter, it shrunk back to its original size within seconds.

Seeing that, Kay changed tact from trying to disarm Honor completely to just getting enough blood in between her hand and her spear. Her fingers crushed layer after layer through sheer strength, but he had more than enough blood, and the spear reduced in size until it was too small for her hands. With a thought, he threaded it out of her grasp and tossed it in the opposite direction from her shield.

Honor bellowed in rage and ripped her arms free long enough to slam Kay up against the wall and throw a brutal haymaker at him. Pinned between her and the wall, he punched himself in the back with his armor while keeping pinning his ankles in place, sending his face rocketing toward the floor like a drawbridge opening up as his armor peeled away from him. The wind created by her blow dragged at his hair as he passed an inch underneath her fist and then rolled between her legs.

Panting from exertion, Honor pulled back her arm and went to throw another punch. Instead, she flinched back, seeing only a smashed blood stain on the wall. Kay seized the opportunity her hesitation provided, and the amorphous masses that covered her body merged together into one before he shaped all of that blood into thick chains. Pointed ends shot forward into the wall, and he dragged her forward, slamming her face first into it. Immediately realizing the fight was still on, Honor began to struggle and thrash against her bonds. She managed to push off against the wall with both hands and look over her shoulder at her opponent.

Kay stood there, one arm holding the other as a whirlpool of blood condensed down into one tiny marble that floated in front of his palm. Honor could feel the danger rolling off of that tiny still-forming sphere and struggled even harder to get away. She managed to get one arm free and was reaching to rip the chains off her legs when Kay finished preparing his attack. She looked at the minuscule red dot floating in his palm and realized it was over.

Groaning, she let the chains drag her back against the wall. “I yield!”

The writhing, twisting chains stopped in place, then started dripping down her onto the ground. When there was enough space for her to move, Honor stepped back and turned to stare at Kay. “Damn, you’re tricky! I thought I was supposed to be the one that got stronger the longer the fight went.”

Kay grinned at her as she shrank back to her normal size. “I guess you don’t have the monopoly on that particular facet of your fighting style.” He made a small cut in his arm, and the public-swimming-pool-sized conglomeration of blood started slowly trickling back inside him.

Honor pulled her helmet off before gagging, “Okay, that is freaky as hell. I don’t want to look at that.” She gave the bead floating over his hand a nervous look, “And why do you still have that out?”

“Honestly?” He glanced at it with a chagrined look, “This is the strongest one I’ve made, and I’ve never actually tried disarming one; I just fire them off. There’s a chance it’ll explode, so I thought I’d wait until you left the arena.”

“Let me get my stuff!” She high-stepped while she ran, grabbing both her spear and he shield before she sprinted up the stairs away from him.

Kay felt like his Manipulate Blood Skill was getting a workout as he decompressed the miniature orb and let all of it flow back into his body. Since he had the time, he checked his notifications, alerted by the blinking light that something interesting had happened during the fight.

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

Choice Available!

-Skill: Shape Blood has gained enough experience to level!

Please Choose:

• Gain a level in Shape Blood

• Regain Blood Shaper Class

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

Mentally taking the second option, he opened his status for a moment to look at his returned Class.

[————————————————————]

Name: Kenneth “Kay” Davis

Race: Vampire

Age: 27

Highest Tier: V

Total Tiers: 29

Class Slots: 12 Combat Class Slots/7 Non-Combat Class Slots

5 Combat Class Slot Used/2 Non-Combat Class Slots Used

Classes:

Combat:

- Lord of Spilled Blood: Tier V -

Skills: Manipulate Blood - Level 40

Shape Blood - Level 40

Meld Blood - Level 40

Create Simulacrum (Blood) - Level 40

Blood Transfusion - Level 40

Healthy Blood - Level 40

Blood Regeneration - Level 40

Enhance Blood - Level 40

Blood Boost - Level 40

Leadership - Level 40

Domain of Blood - Level 8

Create from Blood - Level 5

Identify - Level 5

Appraisal - Level 5

Inspect - Level 6

Mandate to Blood Spilled - Level 1

Folded Veins - Level 1

Lord’s Bloody Domain - Sublime

-Blood Manipulator: Tier IV -

Skills: Manipulate Blood - Level 40

-Blood Shaper: Tier IV -

Skills: Manipulate Blood - Level 40

- Expert Swordsman (Bastard Sword): Tier IV -

Skills: Swordsmanship (Bastard Sword) - Level 39

- Expert Polearm Wielder (Halberd): Tier IV -

Skills: Polearms (Halberd) - Level 39

- Empty

- Empty

- Empty

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

Non-Combat:

- Cartographer: Tier IV

Skills: Spatial Determination - Level 31

Expanded Sight - Level 33

Sharpened Memory - Level 30

Stable Footing - Level 32

Drawing - Level 32

Cartography - Level 37

- Expert Mapmaker: Tier IV

Skills: Effective Communication (Drawing) - Level 32

Drawing - Level 35

Cartography - Level 37

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

-Empty-

Non-Class Skills: Punch Daggers - Level 5, Writing - Level 5, Reading - Level 5, Running - Level 5, Sprinting - Level 5,

Titles: Class Line Progenitor, Class Creator VIII, System Access (Minor), Blood Lord of Avalon, First Vampire

[————————————————————]

Simultaneously grinning and mentally groaning at the work ahead of him to get the tier-five Classes he was planning to get, he also mentally noted that even he had limits on gaining Skill slots. “Regaining” a Class wasn’t the same as getting it in the first place, so he didn’t get a new level of Class Creator from it.

Once all the blood he’d shed was back where a normal person would say it belonged, he mounted the stairs and came up next to a waiting Eleniah.

“Did you level?”

“Yup, got Blood Shaper back. I think the sheer number of things I was trying to make at the same time helped with that, even if they weren’t that complicated.”

“Good! You just need to get back a few more Classes, combine them again, then repeat the process three or four more times after that, with each time getting slightly harder!”

“Great.”

She snorted and elbowed him, “Suck it up; most people have it ten times as hard.”

Honor and Gemglass walked over.

“Thanks for the fight!” Honor stuck out her hand for a shake with a grin. “That was a good one, even if I lost. I’ll have to think of something else to get you so I can get a rematch.”

“It’ll have to be something good to make it worth it,” Kay chuckled.

“I’ll figure something out.”

“So, how do I get the Adventurer Class?”

She rolled her eyes, “I’ll get you a primer; I don’t want to deal with that again.”

“Was it bad?”

“It was weird as hell. You’ll probably get it since you’re an Outworlder like my dad, but for me and my moms, it was a pain in the ass. Took me years to get it right.”

“How bad could it be?”

“I said I’ll get you a primer! There’s one back in my room; my dad sent it over when he told me to try and get you to fight me again.”

“Well, I’m extra interested in reading it now.”

“I bet you are,” Honor muttered, “Weird ass Outworlders with your arrows that aren’t arrows and whatever the hell a ‘click’ is.”