Chapter 12: Blood manipulation

The blood trickled slowly on Ray's hand. He was nervous but also excited to try his new powers. If it was really strong then this will be a big step towards his revenge.

"Ok, let's do this." After saying that he channelled his mana in his body and then he pointed his finger in front of him. The droplet of blood on his finger started moving in weird ways. Its shape started changing from a circle to a square-ish shape and then another unrecognizable shape. All of this while Ray was trying very hard to make it float in the air, which seemed pretty hard from the way sweat started appearing on his sharp handsome face.

After several seconds, the droplet finally levitated from his finger a few millimetres. Even though it was barely called 'progress' but still a small smile appeared on Ray's face. He thought that it will be way harder than learning how to use his new mana reservoir efficiently but he was able to make his blood move to his command to some extent in a few minutes.

"Ok, this good. If I keep using this spell, I will be able to master it in no time!" He said as he watched his blood levitate on his finger quietly. It was a weird thing to see but he still felt happy. After that, he kept making that droplet of blood levitate and then fall on his hand just to get the hang of it before moving to the next step: Making it move away from his hand.

"Hmm, this is a bit harder. I guess this is expected." He thought. Ray's first attempt was a fail, the droplet barely moved a few millimetres away from his body before falling. It was like it got out of his area of control and also one other thing to mention, it consumed a huge ton of mana. Nevertheless, he tried again and again making a new record every few attempts. Hours passed with him totally concentrated on his training not noticing that it was noon and the sun was setting on the horizon making a beautiful reddish scenery to behold and appreciate, something that Ray, unfortunately, couldn't admire as he was in his own world.

Now he was able to make his droplet of blood move at a considerably quick speed horizontally for a few tens of meters. Making it circle around him and moving and hitting a tree or a rock.

"This is quite easy. if I continue like this, I will be able to master blood manipulation faster than expected. Right, Sanguis?" He asked his grimoire that uncharacteristically was silent the whole time. No answer.

"Oyy, Sanguis, you there? Hellooo." He tried calling a few times but still no answer. Then an idea came to Ray.

"Ok, this should work. OYYY, SHITTY GRIMOIRE ARE YOU DEAF OR WHAT?"

"Ughh, you fucking brat. You never learned how to wake up someone. Fuck, the nap was very good!"

"What? books could sleep?"

"Of course, I can. If a retarded brat like you could sleep then why can't I?" He retorted with a snort.

Ray couldn't reply and just ignored him and looked up. "It's already night? I should go back." And then he disappeared inside the forest in the blink of an eye. But the thing he didn't know about, nor did Sanguis know about was that hundreds of meters up in the sky, hiding between the clouds was the silhouette of a person. He was watching Ray training with great interest.

"Very interesting." He left those words to no one particularly before dissipating as if he had never been there in the first place.

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It took Ray a few seconds to reach the house and he entered sneakily. But to his bad luck, he found Galdof waiting for him in the living room.

"Literally one day here and you're out in the forest alone. You're one hell of a kid, Ray." Said Galdof while laughing calmly at his own joke.

But no one laughed, as Flora was glaring at Ray with a frown. She was really pissed for some reason. She then stood up and walked towards him with the same expression on her pretty face.

When she reached him, she pulled Ray from his collar so that his face was closer to hers. She then said with an angry face.

"Going out alone like that. You have a death wish?" she said coldly. And the only thought that Ray could think about is 'She's worried about me?'.

"N-no...I didn't find anyone when I woke up so I thought maybe exploring a little around the house wasn't bad." He said with a cough and a nervous smile. He lied because he knew that telling them about his new powers wasn't the greatest idea. Until he builds unshakable trust with these two, keeping this as a secret is for the better.

"And this 'little exploration' takes hours?" She asked with the same cold face. 'Shit, I'm a very bad liar' Ray thought.

Fortunately, Galdof stopped this interrogation with a hearty laugh "Come on Flora, spare him of your questions."

"But grandpa he could've got himself injured or maybe dead?"

"No buts, he came back safe and sound and also don't underestimate that boy. He's pretty strong." He said matter-of-factly. Then he added "Now enough of this chit-chatting. Let's have dinner I'm starving."