Adonai:
Ah... the sound of whatever creature is outside my window... the rumble on the streets, and the feeling of tardiness. It must be morning, hence the hard sensation pressed on my abdomen
...
A hard sensation pressed on my abdomen?
I tried to get up instantly but I couldn't, after the weird dreams I had this only served to make me feel more anxious about what we should do.
Instinctively I opened my pure mana and spread it through my body ready for an attack.
But if someone wanted to kill me they didn't need to wait... and I'm not someone important to kill anyway.
"Good morning sleepy head, do you like the nice surprise Gothica prepared for you?"
... I should've guess
"You're sentencing me to years in Jail... get off!
"But I already told you" She protested as she got off me but I cut her off, mid sentence.
"I know but the sight of you in the morning is still not the most pleasant thing."
She pouted while sitting down on a chair next to the bed, and I purposely ignored the bratty vampire who claimed to be oh so many times older than she actually is.
But the situation didn't stay like this for long, as she reverted back to what I assume are her default settings from back when we first met. Running around my room, well my rented room as if it's hers and snooping around everywhere.
...
I have nothing to hide anyway but this is still annoying, the speed at which she's going at... I know she's not human but this hyperactivity is making my brain numb.
"Stop!" I said and she came to a halt at once, almost like it was a military order given to a cadet.
She looked at my serious face and then started blabbering once again.
"You know, not only do you not know how to talk to a woman, you also have a scary face most of the time. You're gonna repel every woman coming your way."
Not taking her words into further consideration I just stared out the window and gave what to me seems to be the best reply.
"I don't need to attract them either do I... the one I loved, she..."
But she surprisingly stopped me, coming beside me and giving me a heartfelt pat on my back, or well the part that she could reach on my back.
"I can smell it through your blood... a mix of sadness... regret... constant pain... But someday you'll have to forgive yourself, for her sake just as much as yours."
I blanked out, not expecting such an answer, for an overthinker like myself I usually run scenarios in my head one after another, yet none of them comes true... and this is again one such example.
Turning my expression away from the vampire and also wanting to get out of this situation as fast as possible I asked "So... why are you here?"
That seemed to snap her back to reality and she became her energetic self once again.
"I'm here to train you!" She said... deadpan... "You will have to take harder quests if you want to reach your goal and in order to do that you'll need to train... frankly speaking I couldn't care less about your friends and I only extend this invitation to you, and you alone... I'm quite an experienced 'mage' as some would say."
Being surprised twice in a row in a matter of minutes is surely a way to start the day but there are still questions lingering in my head.
"Why are you doing this, also what do you mean my objective? What do you know"
She didn't make eye contact with me, but turned her back, chuckled and then started speaking in a bit of an eerie voice.
"Let's just say that I have more connections than you would like to know and my 'employer' would like to keep you safe... but me training you comes out of my own accord... I perceived a wall somewhere in your blood, something's blocking your potential and I want to see if I can break it."
As she said break she turned back to face me giving a devious smile that could mean nothing but trouble...
But thinking about it I have no reason to refuse, worst case she's lying to me and she actually sucks at using magic so it's just more wasted time in an already existing charade going against my own accord.
"Alright I'll go."
"Perfect, let's go!" Gothica exclaimed.
"Wait what?"
But without answering my question even she wrapped her hands around me and her back transformed, revealing two pairs of wings.
"You see, after you reach a certain point you can choose which part of your body to morph into your original."
She said while smiling at me, her teeth sharper, her appearance a bit more mature, but her eyes dead sharp as well, her small hands now more skinny than before even made me question if she's a vampire or something else entirely.
"Off we go!" But the cheerful tone remained the same... without a doubt... this vampire might suffer from some illness.
...Aren't vampires supposed to not go into the sun?
But without time to ask she flew out the window and seemingly... She is completely fine.
"How are you completely fine out in the sunlight? Is the stereotype false?"
She took a bit to wonder what the hell am I asking about even.
"Mind you... there's no sunlight... like I understand your confusion but it's dark around us, even if you just woke up... did you hit your head or something?"
...Old habits die hard, I'm used to referring to sunlight and morning well when I wake up but on this planet there's no such thing as day/night cycle.
"And to answer your question... mostly false, we don't die in the sunlight, we're weaker... but that doesn't apply to me anyway. I have immunity thanks to my father's bloodline."
The tale of a vampire being immune to sunlight, well whatever can be referred to as a "sun" in outer space sounds familiar, but I can't pinpoint the name at this very moment.
"We're here, prepare for impact!"
"Prepare for what?!" I exclaimed
And my instincts once again kicked in, pure-mana rushing through to my body to reinforce me and alleviate part of the pain from the crash.
She just yeeted me, who in this god forsaken world just yeets someone from mid-air?
As she landed she resumed her normal form and stretched her limbs, well her arms mostly.
I can't say why but I heard multiple cracks from her bones when she did that...
"We're in a part of the Shimmering Wilds, the territory you're accustomed with, the plains where you hunt the Headless Mules pack leader... but this time your opponent is not any normal type of beast... prepare yourself."
... If she's lying or not I can't tell but I get the feeling that I shouldn't let my guard down, and she won't kill me from the info I know, but still as a training I must take this with most seriosity
So I summoned my Scythe...
"Strange human... your scythe has no name?"
Huh? My scythe needs a name?
"I guess no one told you... names be it a Soul-Forger or an Elementalist, give power, it gives meaning to a weapon or a move, you've poured your all into perfecting your skills and not giving them a name is just insulting. This is my first lesson to you... not retract the weapon and call upon it again."
With a stern tone she said it so I couldn't refuse so I did as I was told.
But what should I call it?
"Don't force it... the name will come naturally, listen to your weapon... listen to your soul..."
From the boundless space inside my soul I could hear the crying of a weapon, the blood dripping from the front of the blade, the chains, this familiar yet alienating feeling...
"Come out... White Flower..."
*Giggle*
"White Flower is quite a feminine name for a weapon but I guess it's fitting, I can see the influence of a woman on you... so much time has passed yet you still can't let go... quite the lucky woman she was and you quite the unfortunate man you are... But I like it... it complements my own special magic quite well."
As she said that a red, flower scythe spawned in her hand, but she didn't call any names for it, so she must be hiding it. The design is quite simple, but the pressure emanating from Gothica is no joke... does she really intend to not kill me?
But I didn't have time to think about it, the pressure I felt applied on my abdomen felt like a deja-vu yet I knew exactly what it was... the handle of the scythe, pushed me back about 10 meters.
I gasped for air, but right after that I sensed the dread coming from my right... I'm sure she could hide her presence if she wanted but she did it on purpose... to give me a chance to react... this is meant to be training after all so I reacted.
My Scythe clashed with hers making audible sounds, and a small shockwave was sent from the force of our attacks.
I can stand my own but I also know she's holding back, she's smiling and even more obvious, only one of her hands is actually holding the weapon while I'm being almost pushed back.
"Rule number 1 when fighting an Elementalists. I USE MAGIC!"
She exclaimed as red vines rushed from her other hand attacking my left side.
Unable to block both I was forced to retreat but by the time I got back she was already there.
"Slow..."
She grinned as she swung her scythe in a flashy way provoking me and then swung it down once again aiming to cut me in half.
But at that time I guided most of my pure-magic into my legs, stopped mid dash and changed direction to a nearby tree... it feels so natural to decide which part of my body to enhance as needed... is this instinct?
*Whistle*
"Like a wild beast, but still a weak one."
Her image became blurry as multiple sanguine clones appeared from the ground... one, two... around 15.
"Now let's see where you're gonna jump from that tree."
"You're not even taking me seriously are you?" I taunted... being the dumbass I am. "Where's your special move?"
But she did not take the bait.
Instead what she did was manifest her wings, and at the same time the clones repeated the movement...
"If you're not gonna go down.... I'll be coming for you."
In the midst of this eerie forest, far from home. I found myself fighting a girl I had only recently met—Gothica. She was cheeky, playful, and sometimes lady-like. Despite the fight barely starting, I was already being pushed back. It took me a moment to realize, through the haze of adrenaline, that I was bleeding and more than that... that I was smiling.