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Chapter 34: Thirst for blood

Cael wasn\'t sure for how long he was walking in circles. Never would he guess that after acquiring magical power, escaping from Ginevra, and avoiding the following chase, the thing to bring Cael to his knees would be geography.

Cael\'s leg slipped. The ground that looked even at first glance hid a slope under the even cover of grass. He flailed his hands, trying to regain balance, but the earth gave out under the sole of his boot.

Cael tumbled down a meter, landing on all fours with his face right in some bush. A bush without thorns, at least.

And now he literally was brought to his knees…

He sighed, stood up, and shook the grass off his clothes. After all that time wandering around, he was ravenously hungry and just as lost as before. At least he found a stream some time earlier, from which Cael drank his fill and washed the blood off his face.

*I should climb a tree again,* he thought. *And if that doesn\'t work again, I will make a camp and catch something to eat, since clearly, I\'m not going to Father with my current speed!*

Cael sighed again. He lived his entire life in a city. Here, in a forest, every tree looked the same to him. If he climbed one, he could see the edge of the forest, but as soon as he climbed down, he wouldn\'t know where it was.

A remote sound of explosion shook the air, jerking Cael out of his thoughts. Flocks of birds flew into the air, crying in alarm in dozens of voices.

Cael\'s eyes widened.

Whatever promises to be careful he made to his father, now they were all forgotten. This was the decisive battle! This was where Cael had to be, helping Father.

Gathering the blood of their enemies.

He read the Windstride spell and broke into a run. The explosions quietened, but new noises took their place—screams and clashes of weapons. It wasn\'t too far, and the closer Cael approached, the harder the battle was to miss.

Soon he spotted the first soldiers darting between the trees, aiming their swords, arrows, and cantrips at each other. Then Cael stumbled on a corpse with an arrow at the back of his throat. His uniform was in Nuvoloso\'s colors, and Cael took it as a good sign.

He ran several meters forward when he saw another man in Nuvoloso\'s uniform, aiming with a bow at soldiers moving between trees far away. At Cael\'s approach, he turned, alarmed.

"*Arrow of magic, fly true!*" Cael exclaimed, pointing at the man with his left hand, and immediately ducked, dodging a normal wooden arrow aimed at his head.

His Arcane Arrow spell struck the archer in the shoulder, protected only by a leather jacket, and shattered, leaving a bleeding wound behind.

While the archer clutched at his wound, Cael raised his trophy sword and charged for the kill. Only a few steps separated them; the archer didn\'t have time to prepare or grab his dagger.

Cael\'s sword slashed at his throat, creating a fountain of red. The man fell down, dead.

Cael stopped at his corpse and lowered his sword. He spotted more men moving around, but they didn\'t seem to pay him much attention yet. This was his chance.

"*Crimson river, follow your master!*"

The fresh blood, free of its confines of veins, followed the spell\'s command eagerly. Cael consumed everything he gathered with this Lesser Exsanguination and did it again.

*You now have 25 BP, Cael. 125 BP until the next upgrade.*

Cael did some mental calculations.

*How much BP do I need to restore my mana?*

*17 BP, Cael. Should I proceed?*

*No. Heal my injuries, then put whatever is left in restoring my mana.*

*Understood.*

Prickling sensation filled his stomach, his face and his mana pool. In a second, it was gone, together with Cael\'s injuries. His mana still wasn\'t full, but he had enough for another couple of first-rank spells.

This was just the beginning.

He drained the dead man dry, using gained Blood Points to restore his mana for the next Lesser Exsanguination spell. It was barely effective, but Cael didn\'t stop until he was interrupted.

"Who are you?" another Nuvoloso soldier, brandishing a sword and a bleeding wound in his leg, limped from behind a tree. His eyes fell on the archer\'s corpse, then filled with anger. "Die!"

This time, Cael didn\'t even need to kill him first. The first Lesser Exsanguination spell made the soldier falter; the second one felled him to his knees; the third one killed him for good.

After he was done here, Cael kept skirting the edges of the battlefield, searching for both enemies and his father.

The enemies were closer.

Two soldiers, pressing down on a lone man in Oliveira\'s red and golden colors—Cael truck the first one with an Arcane Arrow while he didn\'t expect, then stabbed the second one with the sword.

A first-rank mage reading a fire spell to throw between the trees—Cael was faster with his attacks than the mage\'s reactions. And he made sure to gather all his blood to the last drop.

*Cael, you now have two upgrades ready for purchase.*

He blessed the time spent writing down System\'s information in his journal, planning his future upgrades and talents.

*Put both into mana. Tell me, how many upgrades after that I need to spend on stats to reach prerequisites for Greater Exsanguination?*

His mana pool swelled with new magic at the same time as System spoke again.

*Four, Cael.*

He raised his eyes at the two soldiers that noticed him killing their superior and grinned. Exhilaration filled him. The thirst for blood, literal and figurative. Cael felt he was born for this.

Gathering those BPs won\'t take long.