(One Week Later)
I stepped through the teleportation gate that led to the Orc Crypts and appeared inside of the base. I already said my goodbyes and was ready to get my hands dirty. I wanted to be bathed in blood today, I couldn't wait.
"It's good to be back." Callias said out loud to our group as we took a couple more steps. "Veer, you ready?"
"Of course." I told him.
"You must be the new team." A man in silver armor asked us, he had brown spiky hair, skinny frame like me, with a little more muscle, and spoke very clearly.
"Yes, Commander Bronx." Victoria said and saluted the man.
"It's good to have you guys here." He turned to me and said. "You must be the Devil of Dicathen."
We all froze, I've never been called that before by anyone. "What?" I asked him. "What did you call me?"
Callias, Samantha, and Victoria turned to the Commander, then me, but Samantha was the one who answered me. "Sorry, Commander Bronx, he doesn't know." She paused and gave me a weird look. "Word got out about what you did to the one hundred Alacryans by yourself, and people started calling you a Devil."
I sighed, how original. "I guess Adam was close enough." Callias pushed me jokingly.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, Veer." Commander Bronx assured me. "You are kind of famous with all of the people fighting in the dungeons now, I still can't believe you are a Blood Deviant." He ran a hand through his hair. "I can't wait to see it in action."
"I can't wait to show you." I nodded and turned toward the tents.
"Where are we staying?" Victoria asked him.
"That one right there." Commander Bronx pointed at a tent, and I sensed a familiar person near it. "Everything is set up for you guys, and since we just got here, we've only cleared a couple floors."
I started walking, ahead of my group, ignoring everything else said. Callias ran up from behind and walked alongside me. "Why you in a rush?"
"I want to see a friend." I told him simply, and we quickly arrived at our tents.
"Oh, who is that?" Callias asked as he examined our tent.
"You'll see." I said as I looked over at another tent, with a fire going. I could see the team around it very clearly. "Come on, I'll show you."
"You walking over to that team?" Callias joined me at the side, and pointed at the team I was talking about.
"Yes." I smiled, and the one boy, with blonde hair, and a frail body stared at us approaching. I could see him mumble something, then everyone stood up and turned to us.
"Is that?" Callias spoke softly as Tessia's face lit up, and she started to walk toward me.
"Hey, Tess." I said as she got closer and hugged me.
"Veer, you're here." Tess said, and I looked up at her team. It seemed like the three of them already knew who I was. We stopped hugging, and she backed away. "Come on, let me introduce you to my team."
"Okay." I sent her a smile as we walked over to them, as they watched from the fire. Callias walked slowly behind me. I didn't want to tell Tess that I knew who they were already, that would be weird.
"Guys, this is Veer." I smiled at them.
"This is Arthur's younger brother, and the kid who's supposedly killed all the Alacryans." Caria was staring at me. "It's nice to meet you, Tess speaks very highly of you. My name is Caria."
"It's nice to meet you as well, Caria." I motioned for Callias to step up. "This is Callias, he's a member of my team."
"Hey, everyone." Callias spoke up. "I didn't know Veer was friends with the Princess."
"Yes, you did." I told him. "We spoke about it a couple times."
"Oh, yeah." Callias laughed.
"You are the so called Devil, ha." Darvus stepped up. "You don't look like a Devil."
"Darvus, stop." Stannard said. "My name is Stannard, and this is Darvus, I'm sorry for my friend's behavior."
"It's okay, Stannard." I smiled at him. "Darvus, it's nice to meet you."
"Tch." He turned around and sat back down around the fire.
"Join us." Tess exclaimed as she grabbed my arm and pulled me to a log on the ground. Everyone sat down, and all I could think about was going into the dungeon. It was very nice to see Tess again, but I wanted to fight.
"I should go tell Victoria and Samantha where we are, they might think we ran into the dungeon already." Callias said from next to me.
"Probably." I responded, knowing that they probably did think that. "I'll be over soon, then we can go in."
Callias nodded. "It was nice to meet you all." They all exchanged brief head nods, except for Darvus, and then Callias left.
"He seems nice." Tess turned to me from my side.
"Yeah, Callias and I have grown quite close over the past year." I told her as we watched him walk away.
Wow, thinking about a year, Arthur should be back in eight months or so.
"We have only gone into the dungeon once so far, we did clear two floors by ourselves, but nothing has been found yet." Tess said.
"That's what I heard." I took a look around the base, it was pretty much like all the other ones.
"Virion, you are a Blood Deviant?" Caria asked in a excited tone.
"Yes." I answered.
"Bullshit." Darvus quickly shot out. "There is no such thing as a Blood Deviant, the kid is lying, no way this little boy could defeat the things he says he has."
I activated "Blood Oath" and started to feel for the blood inside of Darvus, thinking that this was the fastest way to show him. "You really think that I am lying?" I asked.
"Yes, of course you are lying." As he spoke, I made Darvus fall to his knees and look across at me. "What the hell?"
"Veer, you didn't have to do that." Tess chuckled as she looked at me.
"I'm controlling your blood right now, Darvus." I released him but kept phase one activated. "I hope you believe me now."
He shot me a glare and stood back up. "You are a monster." Darvus said as he sat back down on a log.
"That's not nice to say, Darvus, he is just a kid, you know." Caria told him.
"He is no kid." Darvus turned away from her and back to me. "The Devil of Dicathen fits you."
"Well, thanks." I said to him and turned to Tess. "Are you guys going into the dungeon anytime soon?"
"No, not today." Tess shook her head. "We went in twice yesterday, so we are taking a break today."
"Oh, alright." I wanted to stay with her and everyone, but I really wanted to go into the dungeon. "What type of mana beast are inside?"
"Orcs, we are at the Orc Crypt." Darvus answered the question for Tess. "You might be strong, but you are an idiot."
"Darvus." Caria hit his shoulder.
"And they have weapons." Stannard added.
"I figured." From my knowledge of Orcs, they usually have weapons. "Are the Twin Horns here?" I didn't sense them, but they could be in the dungeon.
"No." Tess answered me, which means Elder Virion put me here because of Tess. "It's just you and me." She smiled at me, then it darkened slightly, like she was afraid to ask something. "Have you heard anything about Arthur?"
I knew that was what she was going to ask, I sent her a smile. "I did actually." Not just her, but her whole team, except for Darvus, who was glaring at me still, were looking at me with curiosity now.
"And?" Tess brightened up a little.
"I heard that he has grown tremendously in strength, and that he might be back soon." It wasn't a lie, but I never really heard that from anyone.
"Really?" Tess exclaimed. "He might be coming back soon?"
I sent her another smile. "Yes, but you didn't hear that from me, okay?" I didn't need anyone to think I was spying or something, even if I was.
"I won't say anything." Tess made the motion of her zipping her lips, then went on. "I heard you took a break from entering dungeons, and trained with someone as well, how was that?"
"It was alright." I couldn't tell her my new abilities were on a whole other level. "I learned a couple new things."
"Awesome, I can't wait to fight with you, Veer. I've never fought alongside you, I'm excited." I agreed with Tess, I was also excited to fight with her. We've only sparred together; she's never seen me in a real battle.
"Same." I stood up. "I should go get ready, I think Victoria, and everyone wants to go into the dungeon today."
"Stay for a little longer, Veer, they will come and get you when they are ready." Tess grabbed my arm and pulled me back down.
"I guess I am ready to go in." I shrugged and made myself comfortable again on the log.
"We are going to find the last floor before you." Darvus said randomly. "You aren't going to clear this one by yourself, we are going to beat you there."
"Since we'll most likely be together, after we get on the same page, we'll find it together." I grinned at him. "Don't you want to see what this Devil can do."
"Kind of." Darvus uttered, then went on. "I want to see what's so special about your powers."
"He can control your blood, Darvus, that's pretty special." Caria smiled at me. "I'm excited to see you fight as well. Tessia told us that the Leywin brothers were both amazing."
"Well, I hope I can live up to your expectations." I knew I would, the Serpent inside of me wanted bloodshed, I needed to go.
"Veer, let's go." I heard Callias shout from behind me, and my excitement grew. It was finally time to fight again. Samantha and Victoria were walking behind him, and we all stood up and stared at them.
"This must be the rest of your team." Tess said as they arrived in front of us.
"This is Samantha and Victoria." I motioned to the two. "And this is Tess, Darvus, Caria, and Stannard." I introduced the two teams, and after hearing Tess, and seeing that she was an elf. Samantha and Victoria knew immediately who she was.
"Princess." Victoria bowed, and Samantha joined her.
"There is no need for that." Tess told them. "Please, we are going to be fighting together, I am not a Princess inside the dungeon."
"I'll see you later." I sent Tess a smile as my team started for the exit of the base.
Tess gave me a caring look. "Don't die, Veer, and don't do anything stupid in there."
"I won't." I turned away from her, then said over my shoulder. "I'll see you four soon." I ran up to my team as they walked on.
"Let's see what this training did to you." Callias nudged me.
"I forgot." I exclaimed and they all turned to me as the exit began to open. "You can't tell anyone about my new abilities."
"What new abilities?" I could see that Callias was excited to learn what new abilities I discovered.
"Why do you want to keep them a secret?" Samantha asked as we walked out of the base, and toward a teleportation gate, that led into the dungeon. "Everyone already knows you are a Blood Deviant."
"I know, just for now." We stepped into the gate and appeared in a tunnel. The cavern could already be seen fifty yards ahead of us.
"Alright, we will." Victoria spoke up.
"Thanks." I stopped walking, and they did too.
"What's wrong, Veer? We are almost there." Callias wanted to fight, it was obvious, I did too.
"Hold up." I closed my eyes and rested both of my palms over my eyes. "You said you wanted to see a new ability."
I pushed blood into both of my eyes, into the Cornea, the Iris, and all the nerves that make it function. It was time to activate my "Scarlet Eyes" not my choosing, Wren is making me call them that.
I removed my hands and opened my eyes. "What the hell?" Callias's own eyes widened, and Samantha and Victoria backed away from me. "Your eyes are almost completely red; I can only see the black pupil."
"It's really creepy." Samatha was right, they were, but they gave me great strength. "What do they do, Veer?"
I turned to Samantha, and the blood inside of her was in my view, I could see her body, but red particles aligned themselves throughout her.
"I can see blood, but it also gives me an ability to, well, I guess to best explain it, I can predict what someone is going to do next in a fight. I can see where blood goes in their body, and what they are going to do next." This will give me an upper hand in hand to hand combat, it does drain a lot of my mana.
"Damn." Callias ran a hand through his hair. "Awesome."
"Let's go." I started to walk to the cavern, and Callias walked alongside me, Samantha and Victoria were behind us.
I'm back.