Now I have reawaken from my sleep. After getting up I hear the ccking of the door as it opens and a familiar voice sounded in my ears.

  Mifune: Celine! You're awake!!!

  Mifune then pounces and hugs me. It has been a while since that trip outside. It was 3 months exactly. In this time I have gone back to my previous schedule and I am slowly getting stronger.

  Although I have not changed in rank, I can tell that the me before and the me now are on two completely different levels.

  I finished washing up and eating and I am now heading to the training grounds as usual. The guards and maids on the way all greet me as I nod in response. I head to an empty space in the ground to start practicing.

  Celine: Sanctuary of Blood - Miniature.

  The domain expands only to a small range around me. Unlike before, I have learned to control the range of my domain. This is one of the techniques that Ptinum level fighters learn to use their domains. I asked both Carlos and my dad and they both taught me different ways to use it.

  Carlos uses his domain shrunk down to the point that it becomes skin tight. This concentrates the essence of the domain and allows him to absolutely manipute his domain and even the domains of his enemies right at his body. My dad, on the other hand, uses his domain for perception so he doesn't need it to be so overbearing. His summons also have domains so a thin perception domain doesn't interfere with his own summon's domains.

  Compared to my dad and Carlos, My domain has its own effect and is closer to Mifune in effect. After asking her, I learned that summon type domains don't need to be spread thin as the thinner domains weaken the summons summoned while too concentrated a domain can summon a stronger summon, it won't be as controlble.

  According to my own feelings, the natural domain I expand is just right as it allows for absolute control of my summons at a strength I can completely handle the consumption of.

  In addition to my base abilities state, I have developed a miniature and massive domain state.

  In the miniature domain I have now summoned, I can only summon a single skeleton, but the skeleton is not only more skilled then me, but it is also a lot stronger than me overall.

  I raise my hand to summon the swordsman. It took longer than a normal summon, but looking at it gives a good reason why.

  A massive skeleton that looked to be nearly 10 to 11 feet tall towered over me. In its hand was a massive Great sword that almost longer than the skeleton is. It looked at me with the fming soul in its eyes. It then brought down his left hand for me to step upon. Upon standing banced, it brought me upon its shoulder to stand on. Unlike what Mifune said, my summons seemed to absolutely obey me regardless of strength.

  It might be because of how unique my technique is or perhaps reted to that dream I had before. Either way, that means that I will have an extra hole card in case of future danger. Unlike my normal skeleton, this giant skeleton is surprisingly flexible and fast and can even use its own bones in combat. After imbuing it's sword with fighting energy, it was able to even temporarily compete with a gold level fighter.

  In contrast, with a massive domain, I can summon a group of weaker summons that are good at harassing the enemy rather than in direct combat. By relying on myself for the direct combat, I can use the skeletons as support mid fight.

  The skeletons won't differ in size to my regur summon, but the bones will be both thinner and frailer while costing an almost negligible amount to summon. Although I can summon skeletons almost indefinitely, I can't control that many currently. Because of this, I have instead been training my basics and practicing using the other two modes in combat until I can grow further in level.

  My massive skeleton summon towers over me as I begin my daily training. I have recently been training to extend the time I can keep my skeleton summon stable while I do swordpy. In the future, I might have to face a situation in which I may need to fight while he is out there, so I have been practicing for the arrival of that day.

  After the summon dissipates due to loss of control, I resummon him over and over till I run out of energy. After resting a while, I go to duel my standard skeleton summon. Due to the addition of fighting spirit, my fights have gone more one sided as I myself don't have fighting spirit to counter the skeleton.

  Fighting spirit is the energy and emotion that is brought out through confrontation. Although I spar a lot in the training ground, it is mostly against my own summon or guards. In either fight, I am not truly putting my all in the fight. It is more of a training experience.

  According to Carlos, I need to face someone of a simir skill level to me in a battle where both sides go all out. Unfortunately, no one in the manor meets those criteria. My dad and I have been struggling on that problem for the past few days. Nevertheless, life goes on and even without fighting spirit I can still train in my skills until that day comes.

  At least, that was what I thought before one day my dad had something new to tell me.

  Warren: There is a competition that I thought you might be interested in.

  Dad takes out a letter from his breast pocket and hands over to me. After looking at it I saw that it was an invitation to a competition between all of the younger generation of vampires. It was called the Little Blood Cup and only allowed for those of the Bck iron level to participate.

  Warren: No one in the manor is on your level so participating in the competition can increase your own understanding of fighting spirit as well as letting you meet your generation of vampires.

  After thinking about it for a bit, I decide to ask my mom while I think it over. I say goodbye to dad and head off to the garden. After arriving I find my mom attending to the garden as usual with the two guards stationed nearby.

  When I walk over, she notices me and greets me with a bright smile.

  Melissa: Oh what brings you here honey?

  Celine: I want to ask you about the Little Blood Cup.

  After a moment of thinking, it suddenly clicks and mom responded.

  Melissa: Oh that competition. What did you want to know about it?

  Celine: I want to know how previous competitions went and if I am ready to participate.

  After nodding, mom told me to wait till she was done caring for the flowers. I offered to help and we took care of the personal garden before heading back inside. Once inside, my mom lead me to a library like room and asked one of the caretakers there a question.

  Melissa: Do you know where the archive for former Little Blood Cups are?

  Librarian: Oh, Madam Melissa, the book you are looking for is over by that corner and I can bring it over.

  After nodding, the librarian quickly heads on over where he pointed and after a little rummaging took out a blood colored disk. After handing it over to my mother we bid the library caretaker farewell and went to my mom's room. My mom headed to a projector like device and pced the disk upon it.

  After it was pced, a hologram like projection appeared in front of me. On it was a wheel that depicted various years.

  Melissa: For this kind of viewing we should watch the original first.

  Mom then scrolled to the first option and pressed it. The projection then showed a series of screens of different points of the competition.

  Melissa: The first screen is just an old man droning on. You only need to know the fights to get a rough idea on what to expect.

  She then picks the first fight and my attention rises. On each side of the field stands a kid a little older than I am. A referee between them starts a countdown and after the fight begins I see the blood techniques used.

  Left Fighter: Blood Weapons!

  Right Fighter: Blood Chains!

  The fighter on the left creates a Blood Axe and on the right a series of chains extend from magic circles on the floor around him. The left fighter rushes forward with little coordination as the one on the right extends the chains to interrupt his charge. The chains and axe csh, but the result seems to be that the axe has a slight advantage. The match ends when the axe wielding vampire finally gets close enough to the chain user and gets a good hit off on him.

  From just that fight I can't see what my dad was saying when he was saying when he said they could challenge me. Since it was only the first fight I thought that it might just be that the current pyers aren't that great. As I continued, I found that I overestimated the competition. Most of the vampires here in the first competition have not trained at all. I even saw one who couldn't even call upon his own blood technique.

  After nearly falling asleep my mom suddenly shook me as a certain fight was beginning. This time, both fighters looked quite different. On the left side, was a cssic vampire looking boy. They had a regal attire and short silver hair while acting in a haughty manner. The right side had a burly fellow. Before the match I paid attention and heard the pyers introduced.

  Announcer: On the left side we have the heir of the marquis Veluse. On the right we have the rising newcomer, a count by the name of Fust.

  With bated breath I watch both sides as the countdown timed.

  When the countdown hit zero I heard both sides activate their techniques.

  Veluse: Call of the Night!

  Fust: Fluttering Wind Wings!

  On Veluse's side, a crowd of bats and wolves made of shadows spread from him. Each bat flew to surround the opponent while half of the wolves stayed by Veluse's side while the other half rushed to Fust.

  On Fust's side a pair of wings made of wind sprouted from his back as he jumped into the air and stabilized. He extended his arms and a familiar technique was activated.

  Fust: Blood Weaponry!

  Unlike my blood weapons which was dual bdes, his weapons were two spears. He first swung his spears to disperse the bats around before flying towards and stabbing the incoming wolves. With each stab he would quickly dash back into the air to reposition himself before swooping down for another kill.

  After a few swoops, the bats suddenly aimed their mouths at him while he was recovering in the air. Loud screeching noises echoed from the bats. The screeching disoriented him causing him to lose bance and drop closer to the ground. As he fell closer, the wolves ran over and leapt to his prone body.

  Right before he was about to be attacked, he suddenly held his two spears and began spinning. While spinning he slowly extended his spears using the bdes at the end to cut what was below him. He then tilted his wings and started flying again. This time, his spears glowed blood red and he aimed them at Veluse.

  He suddenly unched a spear like a javelin while turning to deal with the bat summons. While that fight was ongoing, Veluse had let his guard wolves block the spear before summoning more units onto the battlefield. It was then he pulled a weapon from one of the rings on his hand. He pulled out a whip and hovered his hand over the length of the whip as a yer of magic glowed upon it's surface.

  He whipped the wolves near him as he commanded them to attack Fust. He then suddenly began chanting as the battle was ongoing. When the chant ended, magic circles appeared at the mouths of the bats near Fust. Noticing the change, he tried to dash away, but was too close and was hit by the dark arrows unched from the bats.

  Fust clicked his tongue before looking over at Veluse and finally steeling himself. He dashed over and ignored the wolves and bats attacking him. With an all out charge he thrusted his spear towards the vampire in front of him and just as he was to hit, a whip hit right at his spear which weakened the blow. They both collide and roll about on the ground as the bats and wolves catch up. After getting pinned down, he finally surrenders and the referee calls the match before separating the two.

  Watching the first match that was actually interesting really excited me. And that wasn't it. From this point forward, the matches kept up the pace and almost all of the following matches were of simir caliber. Each contestant was using their own techniques in various different ways.

  From weapons to magic, all kinds of abilities were on full dispy in the various matches. The most exciting of which was a duel between two duke rank vampires. Although higher levels of blood exist, they do not bother with smaller competitions like these.

  The two vampires were a vampire with a blood technique called Blood Ocean while the other had a very familiar technique.

  ???: Blood Oath!

  When I saw this, I was excited since this was the first time I would see how my family's technique would actually work. His opponent used his technique and an illusory flood of blood covered the battlefield. Within this illusory flood were a bunch of illusory fish that leapt towards the Vodol heir. When the fish were rushing forth, the vodol heir used their oath to summon a rge floating manta ray. Although the technique is called Blood Ocean, it is mainly a mental ability to project an ocean-like domain onto the battlefield.

  The manta ray was one that was able to levitate and fly around on its own. It flew away from the ocean and as the Blood Ocean user maniputed their domain to send water spouts full of fish to attack, the Blood Oath user summoned various creatures to stand upon the manta ray and fire attacks towards the fish below.

  The two sides constantly cshed and both ended up tired out by the end. Both of them then started to build momentum before both sides unleashed one final attack to decide the winner.

  Blood Ocean user: Blood Ocean - Camitous Crash!

  Blood Oath user: Blood Oath - Unison Fsh!

  The ocean around suddenly turned into a massive cage filled with tsunamis and hurricanes with all kinds of aquatic creatures attacking.

  On the other end, all of the creatures summoned through it's oath sent their energy to the manta ray which fired an ultimate bst using the condensed energy.

  Eventually, the dust settled and the battle was decred a victory for the Blood Ocean user. Although the fsh broke past the barrier, the remaining remnants of power didn't finish the blood ocean user and the continuous attack of Camitous Crash finished the blood oath user off.

  As I was still calming down from the excitement of that battle, I heard my mom ask me something.

  Melissa: Are you disappointed that your father's technique didn't win the match?

  Celine: No, both sides did their best and they still pushed each other to the limit.

  Melissa: That's good, although I would like to expin for your father that the Blood Oath technique is a te developing ability. Although it is strong in the early stages, It only shows its absolute advantage the more summons you can make. The power of the unison fsh increases significantly the more summons are added to the equation.

  As she said that she goes on to show several years that stood out. Watching all of these finalist matches really helped broaden my horizons. Although I am powerful for my age, these people are all stronger than me while only being a few years older than me. Than my mom showed me how various summon type fighters usually do in these kinds of competitions.

  Since everyone is still young and not fully developed in strength and technique, most fighters have weakness that can be exploited. Melee fighters have difficulty against ranged and especially aerial fighters. Ranged and summon type fighters fear assassin type fighters and so on. Looking at how I fight now, I don't really have a good way to deal with ranged attacks other than the archer skeleton. Although they are accurate, just a few arrows likely won't take me too far.

  If I had fighting energy, I could ignore some weaker ranged attacks and maybe send a few sword waves at the enemy, though my purpose in joining this competition is just that.

  How else could I deal with ranged and aerial opponents? Although I can learn some magic, the magic I can learn in the short term would likely not suffice in the various competition matches.

  As I thought this a fight was pying in the projection in front of me. That was when I found the answer to my question.

  On the screen was a dual sword wielding user like me who imbued their sword with wind magic and released wind sshes through their bde.

  Seeing this, I began to ask my mom how to learn this technique.

  Celine: Mom, mom I want to learn that!

  Melissa: Oh Magic Swordsmanship? It's a rather niche technique, are you sure you want to learn it?

  Celine: Yeah.

  Melissa: Alright, I'll find someone to teach you by tomorrow, but you should watch some more matches to see more techniques in action.

  After hearing that I decide to wait to learn magic swordsmanship and to continue watching the various matches in order to understand more about various techniques and ways to counter them.

  Time passes and we finally reach more recent tournaments and the sky was turning dark so my mom lead to me back to wash up before getting back to bed.

  Waking up the day afterwards, I greeted Mifune as always and started washing up. Then I headed towards my mom's room to see if my mom has found a magic swordsman instructor for me yet.

  At my mom's room, I saw my mom who was preparing for the day. After greeting her I asked her whether she had found a tutor for me.

  Melissa: Oh, so I haven't told you. The instructor for teaching you magic swordsmanship is none other than...

  Mifune: Me!

  I turned to look behind me as Mifune suddenly rushed up from behind. I turn a little and she couldn't control her movements and hit the wall lightly. After a little moment of disorientation she perks up and gives me a big hug.

  Mifune: Oh Celine! I thought that I would have to teach you magic someday, but I didn't expect you would be so interested already!

  After a little face rubbing, she finally calms down and speaks seriously.

  Mifune: Now, as an instructor I have to ask you this. Are you learning magic to understand magic itself or for other reasons.

  Celine: I saw someone using magic with their sword to hit ranged opponents and I think that I am cking in that department. I am interested in magic, but my technique is still my first priority.

  Mifune: Hmm, I understand now. Let's begin first by going to a more reasonable location to train.

  She then grabs me by the hand and focuses her mind and teleports the two of us to a more remote area.

  Mifune: First of all, I must roughly expin the basics of magic to you first. Magic is the manifestation of phenomenon from a combination of our willpower and the energy in our body or out of body for certain magics. The first step in these cases is to first see what elemental affinities you have.

  She pulls out a crystal simir to the crystal used when activating my technique.

  Mifune: Now, just like you did with the other crystal, imagine a strand of energy flowing into the crystal and it will show you your highest affinities.

  I stretched out my hand and willed a strand of energy to flow into the crystal. As I felt the strand flow, I saw the color of the crystal begin to shift. Suddenly a violent fsh of crimson glowed from the crystal. After looking at it for a while and saw Mifune let out a sigh.

  Mifune: Well, I figured as much. Let me expin, crimson fsh signifies that your element affinity is heavily pointed towards the blood element. Most vampires have affinity towards the blood element but few are as overwhelming as yours.

  She then massages her forehead for a second.

  Mifune: It's good that you have such a strong affinity towards an element, but you want to use magic for the Little Blood Cup don't you? All vampires have a natural resistance to blood based magic. Your affinity for blood magic is so overwhelming that I can't see any other affinities that you could use. This is a problem alright.

  Celine: So can blood magic be used for magic bdes?

  Mifune: Correct, it can. Blood is one of the special elements that are cssified as special elements. Unlike other magic bdes, Blood magic bdes depend on the strength of the blood you use. In a match like this, the easiest and most consistent blood source avaible to you is your own blood. The problem with this is that using your own blood will not only deplete your physical stamina, but also your energy.

  Mifune then shakes her head before pulling out a bck board like device from a pocket.

  Mifune: I'll start teaching then. First of all, to cast magic you must be able to turn your energy to the specific element.

  She reaches into that same pocket and pulls out a bloody smelling stone.

  Mifune: This is a bloodstone. I got it when hunting monsters a while back. The stone contains blood energy which you should probably be able to sense.

  She gestures for me to grab it so I take the stone and try to feel for the energy inside. After a while, I could sense a bloody and sticky energy and I ask Mifune for confirmation. She nods before continuing the lecture.

  Mifune: Now, try to let your energy match the blood energy in the stone. This step is what most people are stuck on...

  Right as she was finishing her sentence, my energy suddenly fluctuated to match the blood energy in the stone. The actual way I did this was imagining my energy to have a radio frequency and imagining a nob that I turn till it fits the frequency.

  Although I say this, it was most probably my incredible affinity for the blood element that also pyed a part for this quick learning.

  As I turned my head to ask Mifune what to do next, I saw Mifune sulking in a corner.

  Mifune: I was always called a prodigy and a genius and now I guess this is how all the others felt when seeing me. It took Celine a few minutes to attune herself to her element, but I took a month and was still called a genius. What a farce this all was.

  I patted Mifune's back as she continued to sulk before she was finally perked up enough to continue teaching me.