Overlord: When Human Meets Inhuman

Chapter 54: New training: Ε

Ahh, life is such a mountain of shit. I am in love with Shalltear, both because of her blood and my feelings, but I’m gonna put an end to this. And I can’t do this unless I get all of her blood out of myself. So…yesterday I asked Shalltear to borrow her encyclopedia and I read a bit about vampires, blood and such. If I start bleeding, my body will expel any foreign blood before my own, so I will lose the 70% of Shallltear’s blood I have in me before the 30% of my own blood. And half the blood in her is mine. Any person in their right mind wouldn’t donate more than half their blood for a transfusion, also because it starts getting dangerous after that point. And most of all…she will be forced to expel my blood out of her body to give it back to me. So she will end up with having half of the normal amount of blood, and it will only be hers. And I will end up having around 70% percent of the normal amount, considering additional blood losses. And that 70% will be nothing but mine. I frankly have no idea why I’m orchestrating such a plan when I could simply tell her “it’s over”. Oh no wait, I do. First, she won’t stop loving me with my blood in her, and I won’t stop loving her with her blood in me. It's not like I will stop loving her without her blood, but at least I won't be forced to. Second, she deserves somebody better than me. I don't wanna force it on her. Third, I can't just tell her "I don't want you anymore". She's gonna hate me, be sad, even kill me maybe. Now the only question is: how do I do all this? 

I don't really have time to think about that now, I'm about to begin another session of being beaten up by one of the Pleiades. 
"I see little Marky is nervous!" Lupusregina jokes patting me on the back. 
"Eh? Well…yeah." I say quietly and stretch my arms out. 
"You should be! You've still got three of us to go, and today you're gonna fight no other than Solution!" 

Yeah...I'm nervous alright.

And as soon as Lupusregina pronounces her name, Solution materializes beside her sister, also making me remember she's a slime. There's the usual smug look on her face, with the bold grin. She is one of the most beautiful and attractive women I've ever seen in my life. At least, she looks like that. She's a slime, so she can change her appearance as she likes.

Still, she's very attractive…

"I haven't had a good fight in a while. I'm actually looking forward to this." Solution says looking at Lupusregina, then at me, with her big blue eyes. 
"And I'm sure our little vampire here is as well! Aren't you kid?" Lupusregina says energetically. 
"Of course." I say smiling a bit, to conceal my nervousness.
"Let's have a good fight then." Solution says walking to the other side of the Amphitheatrum. 
"Alright kid, you're up! Good luck!" Lupusregina says stepping next to Cocytus. 

Shalltear couldn't come and see my training today. Oh well, that's better. I'm gonna have to get used to being apart from her. 

I can't hurt Solution with normal physical attacks. My sword when it's on fire will do its job though. From what I know, she likes using poison and stuff. I gotta be extremely careful. The downside is that I have to get near her to attack her, but I'll also give her the opportunity to fight back, and she's got loads of different ways to hurt me. And she knows that very well. After Cocytus gives the signal, I draw my sword and point it at Solution, gradually taking steps closer to her. 
"Heh…you do know that won't be of much use, don't you?" She says amused with her arms crossed. After making a small cut on my hand, I let a drop of blood stain the blade of my sword, lighting it on fire. I keep walking at a steady pace towards Solution, who doesn't even flinch.
"Hm…you're not stupid then. If you want a duel, I'll be glad to give you one. But on my terms." 
Her arms grow longer and her hands become the tip of two very sharp spears. She attacks me with her right arm, but I dodge, then with her left arm, and I dodge again, this time by a hair. I interrupt my steady walk all of a sudden and start charging. I get close to her in a matter of seconds, and start swinging my flaming sword at her. She either dodges or deforms her body though. She's guarding well against blocking my attacks with her arms, she knows it's a bad move. Now, I only know a couple of spells or so. One is the energy spear I used against CZ, another is a fireball, which Lupusregina taught me. I try throwing a fireball at her at point blank, and she doesn't manage to dodge it. She gets hit and jumps back, and I have some time to catch my breath. 
"Not bad…" Solution mutters, a pleased smile forming on her lips. Then, one of her arms turns into a very narrow…tube, and she starts stretching both arms out towards me. She thrusts at me with her right arm repeatedly, and I'm forced to keep dodging. I suddenly feel a light sting on my right shoulder, and see Solution's other arm sticking in it like a needle. She takes her arm back and turns the spear arm into a whip, sweeping me away with it. I immediately stand up from my fall, but something's wrong. I feel weak, and dizzy. 

I almost can't stand up…I'm sweating...what the hell happened to me? She must've poisoned me…

"Are you alright? You don't look so good…oh, right, silly me. I just poisoned you, that's why you're feeling dizzy, that's why you're feeling weak…" 
Solution starts slowly walking in my direction, and her face turns into a creepy distorted grin that chills me to the bone. 

Okay, focus. You can't give up now...focus, dammit! 

She swings her whip arm at me, but I cut off the tip with my sword, making her twitch back and making her face turm back to normal, thank God. As she extends her tube arm towards me and retracts the arm I just damaged, probably to heal it up, I throw a fireball at her again, and I do hit her, but her arm pierces my left shoulder and stays in it for a second or two. 

Now I can't stand up anymore…

I stagger back until I find myself against the arena's wall, and I sit down leaning my back on it. I keep panting and sweating, trying to remain lucid as I look at Solution slowly still walking to me. Some of her body parts are a bit burned up, but nothing more.

Ah, shit, my sword ran out of fire. 

Solution stops in front of me and looks down at me with a pleased grin. 
"It looks like you're-" 
I interrupt her as I stick a good half of the sword's blade through her belly. She raises an eyebrow and her grin grows a lot wider. 
"That doesn't work on me, remember?" 

That's where she's wrong. 

I run my wrist over the toothed part of the sword, getting a good amount of blood on it and lighting it up again. I burn my hand in the process and let go of the sword, but half of the flaming blade is burning inside of her body. Solution screams and pulls the sword out of her body, staggering back. As I stand up and pick up my weapon though, she turns both her arms into tubes and sticks them in my arms with a grin of victory. 

Ah, I'm feeling dizzy again…dammit, I thought I had this one in the bag, more or less.

"Well played." I whisper as I crumble on the ground on my back and try not to pass out. 
“So, are you going to give me the victory or am I going to have to make you pass out?” I hear Solution’s voice above me. 

She’s being sassy isn’t she? Well, there’s not much I can do, considering I can’t even raise my hands. 

“I’ll…go for the first one…thanks…” I say in a whisper. I feel another sting in my right shoulder, and some of the dizziness goes away. She probably drained some of the poison out. At least I’ll be able to get up, and my vision is no longer blurry. I sit up still feeling quite dizzy, and I recognise Solution’s silhouette in front of me. After a few more seconds, my sight comes back and I see her holding out a hand. 
“Well-fought, by the way. I thought I’d get the best of you in no time.” 

Hey, compliments! I’ll take compliments any day! 

I grab Solution’s hand, she helps me up, then we walk over to where Cocytus and Lupusregina are standing. 
“So, how did it feel?” Lupusregina asks immediately. 
“It felt…thrilling. It’s so much better than just murdering humans!” I say without thinking. 
“That is precisely why I chose this training regimen for you. I expect you to make a lot of progress in the upcoming weeks, Mark.” Cocytus says, sounding quite impassive.

Cocytus expects me to make progress?! Nice! 

“Yes, me too. He’s got potential, he just needs some experience.” Solution adds with a grin. 

Why so many compliments? I’m not used to them! Why are monsters being so nice to me? I...this is so strange. But by now I should have understood that monsters are way better people than humans.

“Yeah! If you’re gonna keep fighting us, you’ll eventually be able to beat us! I don’t know how much it’ll take, but you’re surely on the right way Marky!” 

I’m on the right way…sounds nice. Then, I'll work even harder with the two opponents I have left, and I'll score a victory. I'll prove to Nazarick that I'm a being worthy of its name.