25 Chapter 23: Training and Hunting

The sun had just risen to illuminate the landscape, the breeze was fresh and the mutated animals woke up one by one

In a silent forest, a deer could be seen running at high speeds, avoiding trees and jumping obstacles, it seemed to be running away from something.

The deer fled almost relentlessly for a couple of minutes before slowing down and stopping to look around.

He seems to have lost his pursuers

The deer lowered his guard and headed towards a nearby stream that was a few meters away.

At the moment in which the deer lowered his snout to quench his thirst, a piercing sound was heard behind him.

This alerted the deer but unfortunately it did not have time to escape.

An arrow of ice traveling at high speed lodged directly into his brain, taking away any chance of survival.

"Yes! I still have the touch! What do you think Blanchie?"

"Well this certainly brings back memories...although you're only good because I taught you"

"Pff~, you wish"

Blanche and Marceline came out of some bushes several meters from the deer

They got up early today to hunt some food for the camp and spend some time together like old times

"Do you think this will be enough? There are more than 30 people, should we continue hunting?"

"Okay, we still have reservations at the camp, plus I need your help to train, remember?"

"Yeah yeah, breaking boundaries and stuff, but after lunch!"

-A few hours later-

We can see a fairly clean beach, it had a good view of a large ship tied to a pier crossing the small sea and only the sound of the waves was heard

The only presences in the place were two people with peculiar appearances standing face to face in the middle of the beach.

A white-haired boy with round blue glasses in front of a black-haired girl with a big blue hat and a strange-looking ax

They were Marcy and Blanche

POV: Blanche Petrikov

After dodging the invisible Marcy for a bit, we spent the rest of the day together practicing with her powers and testing her limits.

As the sun started to go down I told her about my new training plan and she agreed surprisingly quickly.

in her words 'she couldn't wait to kick my ass again'

But it was already quite late and it was getting dark, so we headed to the camp to have dinner with the humans and to sleep to train the next day

After a bit of hunting to keep our reserves full we head towards the island that has become our place to hang out.

So here we are, facing each other on the beach under the annoying sun.

"Are you sure about this nerd? It seems a bit silly to face me without your powers"

"Okay, it's something necessary, besides it won't be like the last time, this time I'm prepared"

"As you wish, it's your face anyway"

They both prepared to fight

Marcy raised her ax high and Blanche brought his arms up like a boxer.

They both stood still

"Here I go!"

The first to lose patience was Marceline, who flew from her place at high speed towards Blanche.

He stood motionless in his place it seems that he could not keep up with the speed of Marceline who was seconds away from hitting him with her ax

she didn't seem worried about hurting him

She had promised Blanche that she would not hold back, although both of them would only use their less deadly abilities.

When the edge of the ax was a few centimeters away he made his first move, narrowly dodging the attack with a minimal movement.

his haki was at the penultimate stage of his after all his training

He could predict the actions of his enemy and dodge them quite easily.

"Ah!"

This did not seem to discourage Marceline who continued with her ferocious assault trying to cut Blanche's body into several parts, although this did not work, he dodged each cut by centimeters.

He seemed to be dancing between each swing of the ax without any difficulty, waiting for the opportunity to attack.

"Stay still, nerd!"

Marceline raised the ax high to power her next cut.

This opening was clearly captured by Blanche who approached a minimum distance and attacked Marceline's unprotected stomach with a blow.

The blow connected and the impact briefly left the demi-demon paralyzed with the air in her lungs being expelled.

Blanche took advantage of this moment to continue the attack with a side kick that sent Marceline flying several meters down the beach.

Marceline lay on her back lying on the beach catching her breath, those two blows didn't hurt her too much, but she still needed to catch her breath

"Do you need to take a break? I can wait you know"

Blanche spoke with a smile and a teasing tone.

"Don't even think about it nerd, you hit like a girl"

Marceline got up almost as good as new, Blanche's blows did not have much effect on her besides making her angry

that look she had in her eyes didn't mean anything pretty

"Okay, enough of the games, why don't we try this?"

A strange red energy surrounded Marceline's hand, she did not hesitate a bit and touched the ground, the energy spread at high speed throughout the beach like a wave

Blanche seemed confused, the energy did not change anything about the place nor did it have a visible effect

Unfortunately those seconds of confusion did not last long, Blanche's haki captured a large amount of energy gathering at incredible speed under his feet

He barely had time to roll to the side to dodge when a large pillar of red flames incinerated the spot he was standing on and turned some of the sand into glass due to the high temperature.

A little sweat fell down Blanche's forehead looking at the place completely burned

"Ey Marcy! Don't you think you exaggerated a bit!?"

"Oh don't be a baby! I knew you could dodge it! And speaking of dodging....."

Another large amount of energy quickly built up under Blanche.

He again narrowly dodged a pillar of fire that incinerated everything.

He was soon attacked by several pillars of fire that did not seem to stop, soon his body lost speed and energy, the heat was affecting him

Blanche's tired body barely maintained the speed necessary to dodge and was losing more stability the longer Marceline's attack lasted.

But he had an idea

If he can't defend himself, he should attack.

So he ran with his tired body towards Marceline while several pillars of fire grazed his heels.

It seemed like it might work, but he made a fatal mistake

he didn't remember that beach sand is an irregular and unstable terrain

His sweaty body, his legs tired after running and narrowly dodging several pillars did not allow him to keep his balance when one of his feet got stuck in the sand while he was running.

Losing his balance, his body fell to the sand and rolled several meters due to the speed at which he was running.

Marceline thought that maybe she should stop magic, but she finally didn't, Blanche would surely use his powers to save himself.

The pillars soon reached him, he tried to get up and keep running but his legs no longer obeyed him, this was his current human limit

A second later his body was swallowed by a great pillar of fire.

When the pillar of fire went out, only small pieces of glass and smoke remained.

Marceline looked around but saw no sign of Blanche anywhere, a slight worry began to grow in her mind.

But this concern was strangely alleviated by an ice dagger held by an incomplete hand that appeared out of nowhere at her neck.

Several snowflakes began to accumulate to form a body from the hand

"You know princess, you could have turned me into a roast chicken"

"Don't be a crybaby Blanchie, I also think you needed to get a tan"

You could almost see a swollen vein on Blanche's forehead.

"haha...very funny"

-meanwhile with Tom-

Several humans were building a part of the floor near the captain's cabin while several others arrived from the forest with wood to process.

Tom was directing the reconstruction giving orders to the humans

"Hey guys we need that tight cover!"

Most of the humans were working on the ship or collecting materials in the nearby forest.

None seemed worried about being attacked as vampires no longer approached this area for fear of being killed.

Or so they thought...

Soon the sun began to hide, the sky darkened and the temperature dropped several degrees.

The humans were about to return to camp to rest and eat some animals that Blanche hunted with Marceline this morning.

As everyone got off the ship

they did not notice the shadow that watched them between the trees in silence

Pov: Blanche

After almost being roasted by Marceline's magic, I decided to take a short break sitting next to Marcy on the beach to think about my limitations.

I could easily beat her using my magic and my powers but that would make this training meaningless, I want to improve not show off... yet

It seems that without the use of my powers I am quite vulnerable against attacks with a large area of ​​effect and long range.

And if Marceline had decided to fly, I couldn't really have landed any punches.

I'm limited in ranged attacks and air combat, plus my hits don't deal enough damage

But I have a solution for this

enchanted equipment

I could combine my scientific knowledge with my ability to create objects with different magical effects.

Maybe a crossbow or a rifle?

I still have my enchanted dagger but it's a bit out of date, as are my clothes.

And how about a katana to look great?

Too many possibilities and options

I slightly turned my head towards Marceline, she was lying on the sand in the shadow next to me, she seemed asleep, maybe the use of her demonic magic exhausted her

Some of her hair was on her face so I decided to smooth it out a bit by running my hand down her cheek.

Sleep like a baby even after almost turning me to ashes

She really has changed a lot.

Gently remove my hand and watch the waves again, not noticing the slight blush on Marcy's cheeks.

the human ship could be seen in the distance, there was no movement on it so the humans must have already left for the camp

I looked at the sky, it was already quite dark

I think it's time to go back too

A/N: that's right, I'm not dead

Sorry for the delay, but I am very busy preparing to enter a university to have a future, I hate it, but it is necessary, I will not stop writing but it will take a while