World of Alvarra: Rise of the Vampire Lord

It's been two months now since Van had left, and Luna was finally getting the hang of trying to read the flow of her opponent's body. The way life energy moved, the way blood would flow, to the body part that was going to be used to attack her next.

Sometimes her mother would keep her on her toes by switching it up, hiding the intent of her body, and attacking in a different direction, other times it seemed she almost disappeared from right in front of her, even though she could still see her with her own two eyes, the flow of blood and life simply gone, ending with her mother giving a mischievous grin and a promise of teaching her that trick while Luna layed on the ground from where she was thrown.

Annoyed, she tried to do that trick where a person jumps back up using nothing but their legs but failed miserably at least twice before finally getting it, much to the amusement of her mother as she watched.

“You have come a long way sweetie… it does the heart good to see how much you have improved after only two months of training… you are far more my daughter than I could ever hope you to be…” Thea said with a great amount of pride.

“What do you mean by that?” Luna asked, a little confused and curious at the same time.

“Oh, uh… nothing, I’m just… really proud of you, you make me really happy…” Thea said sincerely, her love for her daughter being shown through.

Luna blushed a little at the compliment, but still a little hesitant to leave that remark unquestioned. But then again, she had always wanted to ask her of her father, her biological father that was. But whenever anyone even broached the subject, a strange look would befall her mother, a strange, distant, and dark look, not one of darkening emotions, but one of dark memories that one may wish never to relive. Something she could somewhat understand after her experience with the main branch of Moonshadow, so she always left such questions unasked and instead hoped that her mother would move on from such thoughts.

Of course, all of that still didn’t discount the feeling of her own pride swelling up within her when her mother complimented her so openly and genuinely. Her mother always complimented her for every little thing, but when she meant it, that was when it was truly special, you could feel it in her tone of voice and through the gentleness of her eyes when she did it.

“Come now, I think we earned an early break, let's go have some tea, and afterward… Perhaps I will start teaching you form three of blood weaving?” Thea said with a sly smile on her lips, expecting and seeing the look of excitement on her daughter's face. Knowing that she understood what it meant to so quickly go through the forms as she was, meant that her efforts were being rewarded like she hoped it would be.

The two sat down and had some tea and snacks, Luna almost scarfing down all the food placed in front of her to the growing pride of her mother who watched her eat her third plate of biscuits and drink her third cup of tea. Feeling like for the first time in a long time she was truly living her life the way she was meant to be.

“Perhaps when I’m done training her and she and Van are sent off. Maybe… maybe we-” the we referring to Alv, Lil, and Lore, “could go out for a week or two, out in the wilderness, do some exploring…” she thought with some hint of trepidation, fear, and perhaps the tiniest bit of… her old wanderlust…

Her thoughts were momentarily disrupted when she noticed her daughter asking for more. She couldn’t help but look at the adorable face with the small bit of crumb on the left side of her chin. How much she had grown to be an even more beautiful woman, the training helped her body become more well defined, giving her a more hourglass figure with a flat stomach and a slightly more toned body.

Luna, noticing her mother's gaze, looked up and somewhat self-consciously asked. “Wha?” after quickly chewing some of the food left in her mouth.

Thea chuckled and gently wiped a stray crumb. “Nothing love… just enjoy your meal, I’ll ask the cooks to whip up some food for an early lunch, we can rest until the next training session. You're going to need it, after all the third form is far more difficult than the other two.”

Luna puffed out her chest. “Whatever you can throw, I can take!” she said, pumping herself up with confidence, making Thea amused once more, but gently nodding along anyway.

“Be sure that you do, because if you think you had it bad before, you're definitely going to wish you could quit after I’m done with you,” she said with a somewhat evil grin that made Luna swallow roughly what’s left of her food in the dawning realization that she might have bitten off more than she could chew.

---

The third month of training was one of the most difficult but saw the most gains for Luna. After doing about a hundred pull-ups then stretches, she then starts running the obstacle course set out for her swift-running training, something Van would call, parkour.

Over and over again, she tried to complete the course set out for her, doing her best to finish it in the most efficient and fastest method possible. Turning wheels, moving columns and more were placed to bar her from reaching her goal. All courtesy of Lore who Thea asked to help out in making said obstacle course.

All the while, Luna had to keep what she was taught about the third form of blood weaving in mind. The ability to manipulate one's blood and body to do superhuman feats of skill and acrobatics. Allowing the user complete control over the most minute of twitches and movements. Making it so that she could dodge out of the way of an incoming attack with a fraction of an inch to spare.

But running this obstacle course and trying to pay attention to every inch of her body, while also trying to pay attention to any surprise attacks her mother might throw at her, made it feel like her mind was going to melt. There was even some question whether or not she should do a mind awakening to help. But Thea insisted it wasn’t necessary, after all, she could do it, therefore so can her daughter.

Which was a good point. Most people don’t have access to the resources that they do, and yet the world still will produce an amazing warrior or mage from the more common strata of society through sheer hard work and determination.

But Luna was able to convince her mother to do a body awakening, which was only fair since even her mother got a body awakening and most anybody who was trying to train could at least shell out a few coins to hire someone to do the same for them.

Since then, her growth, while saying it exploded might be too much, still exceeded what most would say was common talent by a wide margin. Allowing Luna to do feats she originally thought she was incapable of doing.

With her new strength, came confidence, with her confidence, came determination, and with that, came her pushing herself harder than ever as she made gains and surpassed her old self by miles.

Luna was beginning to feel like a new person in a way. Like she was breaking out of a shell she didn’t even realize she had. Gone was the easily intimidated Luna of the past, now she carried herself with a straight back and a ballerina's grace of movement wherever she walked. Months of agility training and balancing on beams paying off.

The only thing she felt was a little annoying out of it all, was her newfound appetite, not just for feeding her stomach, but for the urges that came to her alone in bed. Making her miss her husband even more. It got so bad, she even had to talk about it to her mother.

“Oh sweetie, it's just a natural part of growing up,” Thea said gently over tea. “Before you didn’t feel like you deserved a husband like Van, you felt inadequate, but now that you have some confidence, and your body is brimming with energy. Your urges are rising, and it doesn't help that Van can be… such an odd fellow…” she tried to say gently.

“But now that you are finally becoming the woman you were meant to be, perhaps you can finally take charge of the harem like you are meant to,” Thea said thoughtfully.

Luna hesitated, “I… don’t mind him being in charge… but… I don’t know…” Luna tried to say, her feelings on the matter all over the place.

“Well, whatever you feel like you should do, you should at least show him who’s in charge, or if not that, at least show him that you mean business and that you are an equal partner in all this. It's about time you finally put your foot down and start growing your harem, or at least start making the connections necessary for our house to grow.” Thea said, trying to sound sagely.

“If that's so, why haven't you grown your harem with Alv?” Luna asked.

Thea winced a little before turning to a more amused expression. “Alv already has a hard enough time handling me as is, plus Lillia of course. Not to mention he has the whole castle to do and… after everything that has happened… we feel like perhaps a smaller and more intimate harem would be better for everyone.”

“Look, I take back what I said, you don’t have to grow your harem more than you want to, but at least show your husband that you mean business and that you are not just a member of his harem, but his wife and that you also have needs and demands and are an equal player is this family. And if you want to fuck, fuck, and if you don’t, don’t. Just make it clear you have needs and he has to help you with them, it's only fair. That’s all I'm trying to say.” Thea tried to say helpfully.

“I’ll keep what you said in mind,” Luna said thoughtfully, realizing how right her mother was on this matter. When Van got back, whenever he did, she would show him how much she grew as a person and that it was about time she acted like the proper wife she was. No more misses nice girl.

“Do that,” Thea said then changed the subject back to training. Allowing Luna to ask questions about how to properly control form three of blood weaving and what she could do to help deal with the mental overload. With her reminding Luna it was okay to cheat a little with aura so long as she only uses the minimum amount.

“It is okay to use a little aura, just make sure you try to do all these tasks with your own strength and skill as soon as possible so that when we do start training you to add the benefits of aura to augment your strength and skill. You won't come to rely on it as a crutch and instead use it as the force multiplier that it is. It is understandable after all, that you might need to use a little aura as you learn it to help make sense of what you are trying to do.” Thea said, wanting to make sure Luna understood where she was coming from and why she insisted Luna only cheat a little.

After that, and finishing their tea, they went back to training. Said training got progressively harder as time went by, with Thea making sure to also add weights to Luna’s body as she trained and progressed through the courses set out for her.

As time moved by, Luna was forced to take progressively harder tasks and complete harder challenges with handicaps that weighed her down or just made things more difficult. She had to climb trees, cliffs, run at a sprint for hours if possible, all the while trying to pay attention to every move and twitch of her body to optimize each and every movement.

Swimming exercises, breathing exercises, and sometimes just getting beat so that she can get used to the pain, over and over again. She endured it all for the sake of getting stronger and making a small amount of difference in her life, even if she wanted to quit each and every day she trained.

By the mid-fourth month, she was being trained to turn her fingernails into bloody claws to help fight, climb, and more.

“The fourth form of blood weaving is the ability to manipulate your body enough that you can create claws that can cut through flesh or be used to help you climb or grab objects. It only requires some blood manipulation on your part, but can also be done by training your mind and body to the point where the manipulation of each cell, organ, and muscle becomes ingrained into your mind.” Thea began, sitting down crossed-legged in front of her daughter who was doing the same.

“While at first, it may be a little difficult to understand or do, once you master it, you can not only harden your nails to become like claws but be able to harden other parts of your body before a hit to reduce the damage you may take. Or even go so far as to dislocate parts of your body and put them back again, which while not sounding like something you may want to know, can be extremely useful in fighting when such incidents can occur when you wish you could just pop your shoulder back in. Not to mention it could help you get out of a sticky situation…” she said that last part thoughtfully as if being reminded of something from the past.

“Now, look towards your hands… you have manipulated your blood before when you were studying with Van and Sheri right? It’s kind of the same, except you will use your own sheer willpower to do so. This is something we vampires can do, even if it's within our own bodies. Again, don’t be afraid to cheat a little, I want you to get a feel for it before we start training it for real.” Thea said gently, bringing up her own hands and showing how her nails grew by half an inch and blackened and become very sharp and deadly looking.

Luna took a breath and let it out and focused on her nails, trying to use the same feelings she got while trying to be aware of her body as she trained and moved it towards her fingers, but without much success.

“There are some people who have an easier time first learning it when they are angry or extremely emotional. The most important thing to keep in mind is that you have to want the change. Put yourself in the right state of mind, get angry if you have to like you’re going to become a monster and you want to rip something up. Or if that doesn't work for you, you can try to harden your hands so you can become more defensive if that helps. Just remember, you have to want the change, you can’t just force it.” Thea said helpfully.

Luna’s eyes narrowed harder on her hands, she tried to get angry, but it didn’t really help. She was frustrated sure, she had been through a lot lately and this training was killing her, but not enough to want to feel like a monster. So she changed direction and instead tried to harden her hands and felt some more success trying to do that than trying to make her hands into claws.

After several minutes, she finally succeeded in turning her fingers a little darker, which scared her at first, but after a few times, she realized that it was a natural byproduct of the skill she was practicing. Spending an hour on making sure she had a proper understanding of what she was doing, she began to experiment on how quickly she can do it and how hard, plus where on her body, Thea all the way giving her advice on how to do it efficiently.

“Very good sweetie, hardening your hands will allow you to both defend yourself better and hit harder. You may even be able to smash through rocks one day if you train yourself well enough. And now that you have the basics down, it's time to put what you learned to the test. Now not only will you have to learn how to properly master this skill, but you will have to start punching a boulder. I had the servants move one over near the field. The goal is simple, you will punch it while trying to keep your hands hardened, or you will break your hands… and don’t worry… I brought a lot of health potions…” Thea said with an evil grin, making Luna lose concentration and having her hand return to normal as fear played through her heart.

Thea got up and made a motion to follow her, which replaced the fear in Luna’s heart with dread, but forced herself to follow anyway. Once near the field, Luna noticed the large boulder, which was twice her size.

“We all know it's possible to break rocks this size with aura, but your goal will be to be able to break this with your bare hands without the use of aura. Using only what you have learned so far and with the ability to harden your hands to prevent yourself from breaking them. So you can say this training has two parts to them, learn to master the skill to the point you won’t break your hands, all the while you will break the boulder. If by some miracle you break the boulder but still break your hands, we will just replace the boulder and try again until you get it right.”

Thea then turned to smile at her daughter, “I hope you are as excited about learning this as I am…”

Luna couldn’t say anything at all, she looked towards her mom, then the boulder, and with a sigh of resignation, getting ready for the training to come.

Varenes

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