The Dread of Damned

The next few days went by as I trained to attack while moving. It took me two whole days to get used to depleting myself completely. As a Royal Nocturnal, my reaction time, speed, and instincts were almost unprecedented. It took me a while to adapt to attacking while moving at such an inhumane speed.

I practiced attacking moving dummies while running, and then I progressed to disappearing and appearing targets. The shape of the dummies changed each time, forcing me to get used to attacking from different angles and improving my reaction time.

Three days later, I met Yelena again. We were almost did the same things, but it was a little rougher and more demanding. I was more controlling in small tasks, like sitting on my lap or on the ground, not letting her climax without my permission, and making her ask before sucking me off. I enjoyed seeing her unaware of how she was falling. She repeatedly asked about our next meeting, but my answer remained the same. she needed to anticipate. That was the fun of it; that was the point.

Today, I entered the training room, and Lucian told me we would work on my defense. I stood in the middle as he explained, "The main thing we need to decide first is how you will defend. The possibilities are limitless with your power, but we need to consider the consumption of power before making a decision." I listened intently.

"Firstly, the most critical areas to protect at all costs are your heart and head. For this, we can try creating a small layer of essence on your chest and back—just enough to cover your heart," he suggested.

I followed his advice and guided my power to create a small layer of essence over my chest and back.

"How does that feel?" he asked.

"It's good, but I don't think this will hold up if I run low on essence; the consumption to maintain it would be huge under attack," I replied.

"Why don't we try something different? We can keep this layer as the first defense, but I will also create a layer of pure essence around your heart from the inside," I suggested.

"That's good thinking. This layer can be sacrificed if you need to conserve essence or if the attack is too large and would exceed what you can handle. Additionally, essence is strongest from inside the body, so giving it shape internally will be easier and require less maintenance. The essence won't have to travel through your body to reach your chest since the heart is the source," he explained.

"It's much easier to mold and maintain the essence inside the body with minimal wastage," I agreed, guiding my power to form a thick shield of essence around my beating silver heart.

It took a moment to get used to the sensation, but it began to feel natural by the end. The essence was a part of my body, an organ in its own right.

"Doing this for the heart is beneficial, but not for every organ, as that will divide your attention; you'll have to focus on maintaining all the shapes. Now, let's think about the head," he said.

I looked up at him, and two curved jade-white horns emerged from my forehead, causing his eyes to widen.

"You have awakened your true form—great! Your potential is truly unprecedented," he exclaimed.

"These antlers aren't just for show; extending them actually strengthens my skull, making it almost unbreakable," I explained.

"That's good; it will decrease the essence you need to spend on creating a shield for your head. Now that the head and heart are protected, we need to decide on something for the rest of your body. Even minor injuries can be fatal if they accumulate and start draining your essence," he cautioned.

I created a small round shape in front of my chest. "This could work; it's small, and I can move it around my body quickly, extending or shrinking it based on the situation," I said.

"But I haven't practiced retaining and controlling the essence shape that is not in direct contact with my body," I added.

"This is actually good; this will help you in another application while attacking that I was going to teach you later," he said.

"What is that?" I asked.

"You can send out a ripple of energy, but it largely depends on the shape you manifest and the trajectory while attacking. Your opponent won't be a dummy; they will also be a Nocturnal or a Damned, and their reaction speed will be almost the same as yours, if not faster. So, we need to train you to control the ripple of essence you send out, making it change direction and shape mid-air," he explained.

"The challenge you face is that you need a medium to create a stable attack and give it momentum, but you could train to control it once it has already been launched. That will work on almost the same principle as the mobile shield," he added.

"We can improve both concepts at the same time, and you can slowly improve your control over remote essence without touching it," he said.

"Let's get started," he said, as a sharp projectile flew out from the wall, aiming at my back. I sensed it and moved out of the way.

"It's good to train you in dodging and evading, but for now, you will only defend using the shield," he instructed, as I stood there, trying to stop the barrage of attacks being released. Some collided with the shield and dissipated, while others embedded themselves into my body, causing pain to shoot through my body. This was nothing compared to the hell I experienced during my awakening. I kept defending, as a few shots aimed straight for my heart but fell down after colliding with the shield of essence. The ones that targeted my head pierced my skin a bit before colliding with my skull and dissipating.

"Good; we will do this until it feels as natural to you as breathing," he said, as I continued trying, the shield moving a bit faster, extending and compacting a bit more, but still, many projectiles kept embedding themselves into my body before dissipating. Then, a large streak of light came shooting, its speed so high that I couldn't react as it struck my chest and collided with the layer of essence. This time, instead of breaking, it pierced through the layer, cracking it, and tearing my skin before reaching my heart and striking with extreme force before dissipating.

The second shield had held on, but the shock of taking a direct attack on my heart sent blood crashing through my veins, leaving my whole being shaken. The skin around my heart closed almost instantly as the layer of essence reappeared.

"Now that you have decided to go for this approach, you will need to learn to take a hit on the heart; it will take some getting used to," he said.

I kept trying as a few more streaks of light came, and I tried to reinforce the barrier more and more, but they kept becoming more refined, breaking through each time. A few targeted my head, tearing my face apart, embedding into my eye sockets, but none could pierce through my skull.

More and more scars appeared on my body before disappearing almost instantly, leaving my clothes full of gaping cuts and tears, with silver blood clinging to them.

I kept going.