AA-92

  Despite the logical fraction of her mind still whispering in her ear about how horrible of an idea this whole thing was, Carmilla’s coiled body released and sprung into action like a spring the moment she heard the word ‘one’ leave Mia’s lips.

  It was only because she herself was also certain that building a resistance to her instincts was a good idea that those whispers stayed as ignored as they were.

  Her sneakers stuck to the polished floor, and she launched herself towards the pink-haired minx grinning at her, practically begging to be pushed to the ground and drunk dry … or something else.

  Sometimes there was a hunger in the halvyr’s eyes that made Carmilla question who the vampire was between the two of them.

  Her mana sang to her, almost coming to her aid without prompting before she sent it back into her energy pool. Had she not stopped it, the Blood mana would have already been coursing through her channels and seeping into her muscles, giving them a reprieve from strain and pushing them beyond what they should have been physically capable of.

  Only stats. Carmilla thought, her feet practically devouring the distance between her and her delectable prey.

  When she got halfway there though, a spell danced between Mia’s fingertips before racing right at her.

  Carmilla threw herself to the side, ducking low as her palm slid across the floor before she bounced back into a dead sprint.

  Mia giggled and flicked her hands in tandem, and two spherical Bolts as wide as she was tall shot at her, travelling right next to each other and forcing Carmilla to throw herself to the side.

  Landing with a roll, Carmilla cleared the line of fire a split second before the twin spells would have sent her flying. She sprung back up, her ears tracking the flighty footfalls of her prey who’d danced away in the direction opposite to the one Carmilla had taken to dodge the spells.

  “Come and catch me,” Mia sang, her thrill clear in her voice.

  Carmilla was already running, her vampiric instincts filling her with a thrill not too dissimilar to the one Mia’s words were dripping with.

  The next spell came, accompanied by a flickering grin she caught before the pink sphere bloomed into existence and shot right at her.

  This one was just a hint sloppy, flying just far enough above the floor that when Carmilla threw herself into a slide, she slipped right past it.

  There was a momentary panic on Mia’s face as Carmilla threw herself at the smaller woman, and then the vampiress was upon her with a quick leap.

  A hand caught Mia by the shoulder, tripping her over easily with the sheer force difference between a running vampire and a floaty halvyr barely weighing 40 kgs.

  Carmilla wasn’t quite so drunk on the thrill of the hunt that she ran into her girlfriend full force. As Mia fell, she grabbed her shoulder and carried her to the ground, only then remembering their little rule about keeping her back pushed to the ground for three seconds counting as a ‘win’ for her.

  As far as Carmilla’s instincts were concerned though, she had already won the moment Mia failed to ward off her claws. By the time she had Mia pinned to the floor under the weight of her body, with her arms locking both of the girl’s lower arms firmly in place, all that was left to do was to take her prize.

  Mia stared up at her, beautiful azure-blue eyes wide as they glimmered in the dim light seeping through the old windows and face flushed from exertion.

  Her breaths came out ragged, and Carmilla knew her own were no different as they stayed like that for three long seconds, just staring into the other’s eyes.

  “Time’s up,” Carmilla said when her mental count reached three and grinned down at her helpless girlfriend who blinked in surprise. “I win this round.”

  “That you do …“ Mia murmured after a moment, giving her a brilliant smile before she started squirming. “Now unless you’ve changed your mind about physical intimacy, get off of me. You’re heavy.”

  “Eh? Oh, right!” Carmilla startled, jumping off of Mia like a cat drenched in water and she caught a disappointed look fluttering across Mia’s features for a brief instant. “Sorry about- … just sorry.”

  Carmilla stifled a grimace, scratching her cheek as she looked away in embarrassment. She didn’t know whether the apology was for going too far … or being too afraid of herself to go further.

  Taking another glance at Mia as she stood up, her petite form picture perfect even with her ponytail in disarray and her face glistening with sweat. Mia had clearly wanted that to go further, Carmilla understood that now and she couldn’t help but imagine it.

  Where the vampiric instincts would have her go for a bite at the halvyr’s neck, Carmilla’s eyes lingered on a pair of pouty lips curving into a soft smile.

  “It’s fine,” Mia said, her face still flushed as she shook her head, fanning herself with her hand. “That was … intense.”

  “Yeah …” Carmilla said lamely, forcing her thoughts not to spiral but a few fluttering images still made their way into her head before she banished them.

  Images that brought a flush caused by something distinctly other than the little physical exertion her vampiric body barely even felt.

  It felt silly. Despite having been stuck in a hospital bed for most of her teenage life, Carmilla was still a hormonal teenage girl with needs back then and while she lacked many things, a laptop and internet access was not one of them.

  As a result, she had seen stuff and should not be blushing from just thinking about getting to see a girl without a shirt on.

  “Ready to go for another round?” Mia asked, visibly psyching herself up with little hops left and right. “I almost had you there at the end … if I didn’t panic and just blasted you in the face with a Bolt or deflected your hand with a Shield, I could have brought myself a few more seconds. Maybe enough to get some distance.”

  Carmilla wanted to refuse, but she couldn’t say no to that hopeful smile. It wasn’t that she wasn’t having fun, no, she was just worried she would be having too much fun.

  “We can go another round,” Carmilla said after a moment, deciding to go with her original goal of pushing her limits a bit. “Just give me a quick minute to … stretch?”

  Mia raised an eyebrow, but Carmilla kept an impassive expression on her face despite her words. She needed a minute to calm down a bit.

  “Sure.” Mia shrugged. “Might as well work on that Flexibility to relax between rounds.”

  *****

  [Base Agility: 8 -> 9]

  [Base Flexibility: 7 -> 8]

  [Main Body: 12 -> 13]

  This workout was proving to be phenomenal to her stats, and Mia had thought about how much greater her gains would have been had she drank one of those potions of unleashed potential. It wasn’t just her body that was getting a workout, either. With the blindingly fast movements and attacks the vampire was sending her way again and again, Mia’s reaction time and reflexes had been pushed to the limit and beyond.

  [Base Cognity: 8 -> 9]

  [Main Mind: 16 -> 17]

  [Base Will: 7 -> 8]

  She had been exceedingly happy with the last notification, which came right after she had climbed back onto her feet after being slammed into the ground for what felt like the hundredth time, but was more likely to be the twentieth at most. Carmilla had looked a hint worried, but Mia just asked for another round with a grin she liked to think was ferocious.

  Back in the present, Mia squinted her eyes, trying to control her breathing as she kept moving with quick dancing steps.

  Carmilla came at her again, now jumping and kicking off the wall to go past the blunted Bolt. She always did that, knowing that if she just dodged them to the side, Mia could keep her at bay for practically forever.

  Mia narrowed her eyes and stifled a smirk, knowing she was going to get it right this time. By the time her next Bolt was ready, Carmilla was out of the air and zigzagging towards her on foot, so Mia took a gamble and sent the spell to the left while she readied a Shield in her offhand.

  Carmilla spun out of the way, landing on one foot before kicking off and landing mere metres away from Mia. Sadly, even without her body enhancement, Carmilla could run circles around Mia even when the latter ran like her life depended on it.

  Which was why she had to resort to using tricks and spells.

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  The claw came, though it was translucent, and Mia knew it’d shatter without harming her more than a foam knife would have. She watched Carmilla, not daring to focus entirely on the claw, or even the eyes, as she learned that to be the mistake it was.

  In a previous round she had managed to deflect the claw strike, but with her attention being so focused on it, she hadn’t seen the haymaker coming at her stomach.

  Now it was different.

  After a few rounds of getting blindsided, Mia had taken to staring at her girlfriend’s centre of mass which let her peripheral vision keep track of the woman’s whole body. That doing so had her gaze glued to the vampire’s chest was … a happy little coincidence.

  The Shield flickered into being and with a swat of her hand, Mia parried the clawed hand to the side before ducking low and sending out a palm strike at Carmilla’s abdomen.

  The vampire looked bewildered for a moment, before the surge of kinetic energy flowing out of Mia’s hand sent her staggering.

  A blunted Bolt followed not a moment later and Mia gave a triumphant whoop as Carmilla went flying.

  It wouldn’t work twice, but it didn’t have to. She only had to surprise someone trying to kill her once to change the outcome. If this wasn’t a spar, she would have used a dozen times the mana or just pure arcane mana instead.

  Though just switching the last Bolt for a piercing one would have worked too.

  Mia was still grinning like an idiot when she heard a growl and felt a flare of mana, which made her snap her gaze over to Carmilla.

  The vampiress was on her feet; her cascading crimson curls left in disarray as her eyes glowed a red deeper than Mia had ever seen before.

  “Carmilla?” Mia asked, her voice wavering a bit as she felt some anxiety crawling up her spine with a cold dread coming not from her conscious mind, but from her Bloodline.

  The woman leaned forward and Mia could see the muscles in her thigh flexing before she practically disappeared.

  Next thing she knew, Mia was back to how the first bout of their ‘spar’ ended, with her pinned under the vampire with little hope of escaping.

  Carmilla had just been a lot more rough this time around, knocking the air out of Mia’s lungs as her back smashed into the floor.

  Did I push her too far? Mia thought, trying to disregard the unnatural wave of dread washing over her. Doubt still remained as she stared up at the vampire with some uncertainty.

  Mia took in a shallow breath, her eyes meeting Carmilla’s, and she wished she could say she had no fear in them, no doubt or regret, but she tried to push those away and convey her trust.

  Even like this, Mia was almost certain she would survive this. She could take being nibbled on, having her blood drained a little. She trusted Carmilla to stop before going too far.

  “Carmilla,” Mia said, her voice barely a whisper as the vampire above her stilled. “Camie, can I call you Camie? I think it’s a cute nickname … actually, I’ve been thinking about one for the last week for you, but I think Milla just doesn’t work with me being Mia. Though we could be the M-and-Ms if you went with that- Anyway, what do you think?”

  Mia blabbered for a bit, feeling a bit silly halfway through as Carmilla just stared at her unblinking, but she forged on. Vaguely, she remembered that shocking people out of manic episodes or some fudges was best done by saying something so outrageously stupid and unexpected that the shock took them out of it.

  “You smell really nice,” Mia said, taking in a sniff of that scent of roses and pines with a smile spreading on her lips. “Roses and pines. It fits you so well, the beautiful thorny roses and the wild pine forests that would make the perfect hunting ground for you. I know it's corny and kinda cringey, but I think it’s nice. It reminds me of the garden we had at home. Makes me feel … safe.”

  Carmilla shuddered, blinking and shaking her head like a wet dog before refocusing on Mia with a slightly less feral look in her eyes.

  Mia could see the battle in her girlfriend's eyes and smiled. Her own doubt still lingered in the back of her mind, whispering of what ifs and wondering whether getting drained to a husk would just kill her or turn her into a lesser vampire.

  Carmilla leaned down, her lips parting, and Mia gave a mental shrug. A part of her was even looking forward to this, an edgy part of herself that has lived within her since her teenage self got into reading vampire romance novels.

  Mia angled her head, baring her neck to the vampire as she said, “It’s alright with me if you want to take a nibble.”

  She felt the vampire’s soft lips on her neck and a shudder ran down her spine, making her squirm in Carmilla’s grasp. Closing her eyes, she awaited the pain of fangs piercing her skin, or perhaps the euphoria that some novels described getting bitten came with.

  Instead, she felt the lips close into a lingering kiss on her neck before pulling away. Then she heard a knock next to her head and as she cracked her eyes open, she saw Carmilla had her forehead pressed against the cold floor right beside Mia’s head.

  Camie let out a soft groan, which made Mia want to give her a hug. Alas her arms were still pinned so she was left without that option.

  With a start, her arms were released as a result of her squirming and she smiled before wrapping them around the vampiress’ back.

  “It’s fine,” Mia cooed, rubbing at her girlfriend’s back. She turned her head and saw Carmilla still had her eyes scrunched shut. “You did so well, Camie. I’m- … Is it weird if I say I’m proud of you?”

  That drew a strangled snort out of the vampire, who then let out a long, slow breath and raised herself back up to stare into Mia’s eyes.

  Regret and guilt swam around in those ruby eyes, but Mia just smiled soothingly.

  “Well, I am proud of you,” Mia said, hesitating for a moment before leaning up and placing a soft kiss on Carmilla’s cheek. “So, what do you think about Camie as a nickname? I can’t translate vampiric growling too well just yet so I’m still not sure what your opinion on it is.”

  “Yet?” Carmilla asked with a slight smirk and Mia let out a mental sigh of relief she didn’t know she was holding. Carmilla was fully back to being herself.

  “We’ve only been together for what?” Mia mused. “A few weeks? Maybe after a year I’ll be able to deduce every little growl’s meaning. Only time will tell.”

  The vampire smiled in what Mia took for embarrassment.

  “About, uh … the nickname,” Carmilla said awkwardly, a slight coloration coming to her pale cheeks. “I li- I mean, you can call me by that name, if you want. I don’t mind.”

  “Camie it is then,” Mia said, her heart fluttering at the bashful smile tugging at the edges of her girlfriend’s lips, but then it stilled and turned into a nervous frown. “What is it?”

  “So,” Carmilla said, halting to gulp and avert her gaze. “Does that mean you still want to be with me? Even after I … lost control.”

  “Yes,” Mia said — she was proud to admit — without as much as a moment of hesitation. She reached up to caress Carmilla’s cheek with a palm and gently turned her head back to face her. “Really, you shouldn’t even feel sorry since it was me who goaded you into doing something I knew would rub your vampiric urges the wrong way. Also, as I said. I trust you, I trusted you to not go beyond taking a nibble out of me even in that state you were in, but you held on even better and just gave me a spicy kiss on my neck.”

  “Spicy?” Carmilla asked in slight bewilderment.

  “Hmmm?” Mia hummed, tilting her head.

  “Ah, uhm, sorry.” Carmilla mumbled, shaking her head and rolling off of Mia. “And … Thank you. I really don’t know what I did to deserve that trust, but thank you.”

  Mia just smiled, propping herself up, not really knowing what to say to that. She had some risque flirty lines at the tip of her tongue about getting that trust rewarded, but she didn’t want to ruin the moment.

  *****

  Mia’s mind was a tranquil lake, her breathing perfectly rhythmic as she followed the exercise laid out in her manual to the letter.

  Her consciousness coalesced, compressed and sank inside her mind. Senses slowly left her one after the other, hearing went first, then taste quickly followed by all the rest before she felt nothing but the mana crackling inside her pool and the dozen energy channels running across her body.

  Her focus was on her pool, at the crackling and roiling chaotic arcane mana inside of it.

  After a brief moment she spent just ‘watching’ it, she did what she had to do. The next step of the exercise was simple and straightforward: she had to let her consciousness spread over the mana before crushing the roiling energy into an orderly stable state with the weight of her spirit.

  With her Spirit stat being at 16, that should be easy. Well, easier compared to the uphill battle it would have been had she just a single point less in the Attribute.

  She didn’t really know what she was doing, the manual and all her other books only gave her the bare minimum understanding of how the mind, the spirit and mana interacted to make this exercise possible to do.

  Overthinking it made it harder, apparently and knowing more made overthinking that much more likely to happen so Mia willed herself to focus on her goal.

  She sent her consciousness forth, seeping into her pool and over her mana. For a moment, she took in the feeling, the enhanced sensation of her mana moving around like an unpredictable storm of supernatural power.

  Then she let her Spirit fall, crashing into it like a sledgehammer. Next came pushing, constricting her mana and beating it into submission, which was an exercise of Will rather than merely that of the Spirit.

  Spirit was the hammer that pounded her mana into compliance, but Will was the arm that wielded it, the power that lifted it back up after each blow and smashed it back down.

  It wasn’t a perfect analogy, but it worked.

  Her mana started calming after the third ‘swing’ and went almost docile after the tenth. Mia didn’t stop though, docile wasn’t enough, it wasn’t nearly enough. If her mana wasn’t perfectly, absolutely still by the time she stopped, it would just spring right back into the previous chaotic state it had been in.

  Mia let herself be absorbed by the repetitive motions of the exercise, just pounding away at any bit of mana that started to get rowdy.

  Time started flowing by quickly, minutes and hours having little meaning in the lightless expanse of her inner self.

  Soon, or maybe hours later, she reached the final stage of the exercise: her mana started fighting back like a cornered rat.

  It was strange; it had taken the beating without recourse before, just expanding and roiling in random spots she had left alone for too long, but now she felt every smack of her Spirit having a rebound.

  Mia steeled her will, knowing she was within arm’s reach of the finish line and put in twice the effort. Her mind was tiring, her willpower having been sapped away over the course of the exercise, a tiny bit of it eaten up by each ‘swing’ of her ‘hammer’.

  Still, she forged on and despite the stinging pain coursing through her from her mana snapping at the borders of her pool, she never wavered.

  Every single iota of mana in Mia’s pool suddenly stilled, every tiny wisp of energy just moments before fluttering about now stood frozen. Everything went static, not a single smidge of mana moved.

  Mia let herself relax, dissipating her vice-like grip on her Spirit, but lingered for a moment as she sent a last firm command to her mana to gather up.

  There was movement, not the unpredictable chaos of before, but like every clump of stilled mana was a squad of soldiers marching firmly towards the centre of her mana pool.

  A sphere formed, appearing like a pinkish orb to Mia that could have been coloured glass for how solid it seemed.

  With satisfaction spreading through her, Mia broke the deep meditative state she’d been in and opened her eyes with a tired, but triumphant grin tugging at the edge of her lips.

  “I did it,” she whispered, her grin widening. “I finally did it.”

  [You have unlocked the base Elemental Arcane Aspect: Order]

  [Base Control: 7 -> 8]

  [Main Spirit: 16 -> 17]

  [Base Will: 8 -> 9]

  Mia grinned so wide she felt her cheeks would tear, and the grin would be forever stuck on her face. Two points of Base Will in a single day. Two points, in a single day. Mia could scarcely believe it. The first time she opened her Attribute page, she saw her pathetically low Will, which was still clear as day in her memory.

  In just a few weeks, she had made significant progress in multiple aspects of her life. However, although numbers couldn't capture the entirety of her growth, they clearly indicated her improved ability to confront challenges rather than avoiding them like the plague.

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