Vylt: The New Dawn

Chapter 9: First Blood

We spent the next four days attempting mana manipulation. During that time, Lily had proven to be extremely talented. She could already control the flow for several minutes, and Anna decided that was enough to see if she could learn healing magic from her. Allison and I, on the other hand, showed no progress whatsoever. I was growing more desperate with each day.

Concerning my transformation, the nicti-something membranes Anna mentioned made themselves present. Unlike my wings or tail, I had no trouble moving them from the start, and I could see through them almost as if they weren't even there. They were a single transparent eyelid that closed from the side of my eye and fully covered it. They looked alien, but I couldn't deny that they were quite useful, especially when taking a shower. No more shampoo accidentally getting in my eyes. I also challenged Allison to a staring contest while using them, and it took her some time to notice that I was cheating because of how difficult to see they were.

My skin patches also reached their final hue. One trait all demons shared was that this skin colouration always matched our nails and hair. The purpose of this pigmentation was still a mystery. Some thought it helped reduce glare, like a raccoon's mask, while others claimed it was meant to be a form of sexual selection. Dr. Blake supported both of them equally.

I didn't really care about its purpose, though. The dark colour only made my already scary eyes stand out even more. No matter how long it had been since they changed, I still couldn't ignore them whenever I looked at myself in the mirror.

The training area was slowly taking shape, too. The biggest change was a group of wood, rubber and straw target dummies Dr. Blake gifted us in hopes of increasing our morale and in case we actually discovered a more destructive kind of magic.

I heard that the workers were quite curious about the dummies at first. Despite being hired by the government, it was probably hard for them not to wonder about their purpose. To avoid any further suspicions, Dr. Blake built a big shack and filled it with some training swords of varying sizes and six rustic wooden bows. Word of them being mere recreation props for the staff quickly spread, and it seemed to quell the worker's interest.

His statement soon became true, as Anna was the first one to make use of this new equipment. With her being an elf, I thought it would be cool if she tested her abilities with the bow. Anna liked the idea and grabbed one of them to begin practising with it. She gave us a good scare at one point when she dropped the arrow before firing, causing the bow to crack loudly. Our first thought was that the bow was simply defective, so we paid it no mind. That was until the second one broke in the same manner.

Having lost a third of our bows, she did some research online and learned that 'dry firing' sent the energy meant for the absent arrow straight to the bow instead. Our low quality weapons couldn't resist the force, so they broke. I wished Anna had done such an investigation before losing them in such a way, although I doubted her father would be too stingy about buying more.

Regardless of her initial disappointment, Anna kept working on it and was steadily getting the hang of the weapon. Though she still got tired rather quickly and got hurt with enough frequency that Dr. Blake was forced to get some protective equipment, regardless of her insistence in simply using healing magic to fix it. Her accuracy was definitely not the best either. So much for the stereotype.

While the elf kept on juggling with practising and helping Lily, Allison and I concentrated on our mana unsuccessfully. We repeated the same procedure over and over, and I even tried changing my approach a few times to no avail. I couldn't imagine how Anna was able to come up with it so easily. From what she told me, it came naturally to her and Jack after Dr. Blake was badly hurt, days before my arrival. Apparently, one of the angry patients she had told me about didn't like the doctor's 'informational speech' and went violent. According to her, they got the hang of it pretty quickly after that emergency push.