43 The Warning

The silence in the room was unnerving. Milas didn't know what to say to his master and Deogratius wasn't in a hurry to speak. Milas decided to act ignorant by pretending not to know why Deogratius was in his room.

"Greetings master, what brings you to my humble abode?" Milas would always speak unusually around Deogratius without having to think about it.

"You have the guts to act so casually after what you did?" Deogratius' voice was cold and threatening when he spoke. Milas knew that he was doomed so he attempted to do some damage control by apologizing.

"I'm sorry that I killed that guy but they attacked me and I was doing what you taug..." His apologies and excuses were interrupted by Deogratius.

"Not that you idiot, I may be proud of how you handled the situation but I'm still pissed by what you did in my room." Deogratius sounded like he was about to snap and break every bone in Milas' body.

"Hold on, let me get this straight. I get in trouble for killing someone and you only get pissed about some blood on your curtains. Okay, one question, WHAT?!" Milas was now sure that Deogratius was more than a little crazy. This man's reasoning just wasn't reasoning.

"Why would I be mad when they attacked you and retaliated? And why would I not be mad when those curtains cost more than your life?" Deogratius was mad but Milas was too confused to apologize. "The first year competition will begin in a few weeks and I want you to win it. The competition will be tough so don't get cocky. As motivation, if you lose it'll be your blood that stains those curtains next."

"And what if I win?" Milas wouldn't waste an opportunity to get something off Deogratius.

"If you win, I'll remove one of the restrictions I placed on you."

"Wait, you placed restrictions on me?"

"You must be stupid to think that I would let my slave walk around with no limitations." Deogratius stood up and started walking towards Milas. Milas was resisting the urge to run away since he knew how useless it was. Deogratius held his hand out with the palm facing upwards. A small, dark circle materialized above his palm and a small metal cube came out of it before the circle shrunk and vanished.

"Here is your ring of shade, just make sure not to lose it cause I'm not giving you the money to make another one." Deogratius handed the cube to Milas who was still pressed against the door. He was expecting an attack because that was exactly what happened everytime Deogratius got close to him.

"Where did the box come from cause it seemed to materialize out of nowhere?" Milas decided to start another conversation before Deogratius got any ideas of testing how much he improved.

"I have a storage necklace that works in the same way as that bracelet of yours. What did you think that clear crystal is for?" Now that Deogratius had said it Milas realized that he never questioned it's use or even the red crystal for that matter.

"What about the red crystal?"

"That one keeps track of your blood energy and sends a signal to the school staff when it goes below a certain point. That's how the librarian found you." Things finally made more sense to Milas as he didn't believe that the librarian could hear the fight due to how far they were from the desk.

"I have to leave but I'm reminding you not to kill anyone else unless you have no other choice." Deogratius said and lightly pushed Milas aside and opened the door before leaving. Milas couldn't believe that he just got out of the encounter completely intact. He walked to the bed and noticed a piece of paper probably left behind by Deogratius. Milas wanted to ignore it but his curiosity got the best of him.

"Remember to sharpen your skills before you meet a sharpened blade." The message was short and made little sense to Milas before it suddenly did.

"AAAHHH!"

Milas couldn't hold back his scream as something punctured his chest. He ducked and looked at the window seeing a hole in the glass. Milas looked out of the now cracked window that overlooked the sprawling academy compound. The first thing he noticed was Deogratius standing at the gate while smiling menacingly at him. His master then turned and left.

Milas sat down and carefully pulled the spike out of his back. The long, bloodred, spear like spike broke apart and disintegrated into glowing particles that soon vanished. Blood aura attacks were usually a pain to heal but Milas had experienced it so many times during training that he learnt how to overcome the effects.

He focused on his pulsing blood crystal and willed it to speed up. The next thing that happened was blood spurting out of his wound. Milas then steadied his breathing and slowed down the pulsing which in turn reduced the blood loss. The hole in his back quickly closed up as the flesh repaired itself before flawless skin covered it.

Milas had learnt that blood aura attacks left traces of the stuff in the wound which temporarily hindered healing. The fastest way to remove the particles from the injury was to either peel off the top layer of the wound or to use blood to push it out. Milas took off the bloody school shirt and grabbed a towel before entering the shower to clean up. Milas walked out of the steaming bath with water dripping from his long hair and a towel wrapped tightly on his waist and met Asher.

"Do you happen to enjoy getting hurt? Cause this is just ridiculous." Asher said as he held the blood stained shirt that Milas had left on the floor.

"It's a parting gift from someone. He isn't exactly right in the head." Milas casually answered and grabbed a spare uniform from his wardrobe. "Some privacy please, I need to get dressed."

"I changed your clothes when you were unconscious, what do you think I haven't seen." Asher said with a disturbingly casual voice. Milas' face had a weird expression as he didn't know whether to feel embarrassed, disgusted or angry. "Hahaha, you should see your face. I'm just joking, it was the nurse who changed you actually. I just had to keep Step from barging into the room with how worried she was. That girl is very attached to you, are you related or something?"

"We aren't and you shouldn't joke about something like that. You scared the shit out of me. Now leave so I can get dressed." Asher left but Milas knew that he was standing in the hallway. He quickly put his uniform on and left the room to meet Asher.

"We can't go to class right now since the first lesson is still ongoing. We should head to the library to get your weapons." Asher said and immediately started walking while Milas followed beside him.

"If the lessons are ongoing then how are you here?"

"I told my homeroom teacher that I was having an instability and she let me leave class." Asher said and continued walking down the hallway.

"And what is this instability?" Milas often got curious and he didn't shy away from asking even if people think that he is clueless about basic things.

"An instability is a natural flaw that half breeds have. It occurs when either one of the energies from our blood overpowers the other. For me, it usually happens when my ghoulish side overpowers my vampiric side. I get hunger pangs and I eventually lose control if I don't eat, killing anything near me. It's occurrence is random and the symptoms are different between half breeds." Milas was kind of jealous that half breeds have a handy excuse to get out of anything.The duo reached the library and Milas instantly felt the strange look from the librarian.

"Shouldn't you two be in class right now?" The librarian asked and Milas was searching his mind for a lie when Asher spoke.

"We just came here to get my friend's weapons. He left them in the library a few days ago." Asher was straightforward and the librarian found no reason to argue. She reached for something under her desk and handed a bag to Milas. He checked that everything was in order before they left the library.

They hadn't gone far before encountering Master Sanim. The duo was silently praying that he ignores them but as fate would have it, he blocked Milas.

"Listen kid, you've made enemies with the wrong people and they won't let this go. I owe Deogratius a lot so I'll give you some advice, trust no one. Your time in the academy will be hellish and Deogratius can't intervene. You need to do everything to survive the storm that your murder has started." After the ominous warning, Master Sanim walked away like nothing happened. Milas didn't know why but he was suddenly feeling paranoid as his eyes furiously scanned his surroundings.

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Dear readers, I apologize for not updating for the past few days. An urgent family matter came up and I had no time to write.

Updates will be going back to normal and I hope to have your support as this tale is only just beginning.