Shadow Slave: Bloodborne

After Ragna's hunger and thirst was satiated he removed his mouth from Celeste's wound and then casually walked away, leaving her alone.

'What should I do now ? Jet told me to join Wilderness Survival so maybe I should check out the class.'

And so Ragna decided to go to the class ... but he didn't really know in which room it was supposed to be.

he asked some random sleepers like him but no one really knew the answer and so he decided to search the room himself. He spent a hour but still didn't find it, making him frustrated.

It felt like he was going through the same corridors over and over again.

"Argh, where is that fucking room ?", said Ragna frustrated but then he felt someone tapping onto his shoulder so he turned around and saw a slightly older man with bushy grey hair and thick eyebrows.

"What are you searching for, kid ?"

"Im searching for that shitty room for the Wilderness Survival class but no at this fucking school knows where the room is. Some people even asked me if that class even existed."

The older man just grinned slightly.

"Didn't expect to find another one so soon after sunless"

Ragna just raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean another one ? Who is Sunless and who are you ?

"Oh, im the one you've been searching for. The humble professor of the Wilderness Survival class ... Sunless was a student of mine some time ago. He should be inside of his second Nightmare right now.

So you want to join my class, huh ? Smart boy, the kids these days don't know whats really important for surviving in the Dream Realm so they often only pick fighting classes. Let me show you the way to my room, boy"

***

After he arrived in the classroom with his teacher, teacher Julius, the lesson instantly started.

He quickly found out that he was the only one taking this class so Teacher Julius thaught him directly.

Ragna actually had fun and learned much so he didn't understand why he was the only one partaking in this class. He learned about basic survival, different kind of runes, the basic map of the Dream Realm and more. Right now Teacher Julius started with a different subject.

"Now let me explain to you how to find food and wat-"

"Oh, we can skip that. My flaw makes me not needing to eat and drink normal stuff. I can only satiate my hunger and thirst by drinking fresh blood of humans"

Teacher Julius cleared his throat

"I see. We can skip this subject then. What an interesting flaw tho"

***

After learning more stuff from Teacher Julius for a few hours he could confidently say that his Teacher was a genius so he was really happy that he was the only one taking his class since he would be the only one with that kind of information and because Julius could teach him more directly, which was way more beneficial than a normal class.

It was 6:30 am right now, the time were most kids spent their free time doing stuff with others. Ragna decided to go back to the gymnasium again but this time it was way fuller then when he and Celeste were the only ones there. There were dozens of kids, sparring and training together and Celeste was there too.

After Celeste noticed Ragna she grinned and walked towards him.

"Ahh, if it isn't my best friend Ragna. What a perfect timing for you to appear. The physical training Instructor is hosting a 2 versus 2 tournament right now so what do you say? Wanna team up ?"

Just before he could answer he suddenly heard a slight pang again and blue strings of his [Unseen Link] attribute appeared. The strings connected 3 persons inside the gymnasium. Celeste, him and a mysterious girl in the corner.

The girl had silky, dark black hair which fell smoothly around her shoulders and looked slightly tousled. Her skin was pale, absurdly pale, maybe even white.

She wore a full black loose fitting and sleeveless shirt that showed her shoulders. She also had a dark tattoo of a flower on her arm, even tho she was maybe just 17. And her eyes were onyx black, maybe even translucent.

Overall she looked mysterious and calm, maybe even alone.

The blue strings connecting them were a little bit thinner around the girl, telling him that she maybe didn't have a divine Aspect or a True Name like him or Celeste but she was defenitely connected to them, somehow.

"No .. I won't team up with you. There's someone else I'm interested in."

As Ragna walked away from Celeste and to the mysterious girl Celeste just looked disappointed, knowing that she would have to team up with some random weakling.

The mysterious girl noticed Ragna moving towards her but she didn't do anything.

As Ragna arrived he stood silent for a few seconds before speaking up.

"Hey, wanna team up ? You don't seem like you got a partner yet. Im Ragna, by the way

The girl just looked at his eyes for a second before speaking up with her quiet and calm voice.

"Yeah, I don't got a partner yet. We can team up if you want. I'm Layla .."

Both of them just stood awkwardly in silence for a few minutes, waiting for the teacher to start. She defenitely wasn't as lively as Celeste but she still had something about her.

Trying to start a conversation with her while waiting he asks the only question on his mind.

"By the way, what kind of Aspect do you have ?"

Layla just continued looking forward for a while, probably thinking if she should tell him, before silently speaking up again

"My Aspect is a mix of a fighting Aspect and a debuff Aspect, I guess. It has something to do with Ink".

And after telling him that Teacher finally asked everyone to gather up. Altogether there were 32 teams of 2 people each, Celeste being with some random scrawny kid.

The teacher basically told us the basics and put us into 2 brackets. Him and Layla were in the first bracket while Celeste was in the seconds, meaning that they would only meet in the finals, of course only if both of them got there.

Layla and Ragan would actually be participating in the very first match so they got ready, standing a few meters in front of two arrogant looking guys.

All of them got into their stance, using provided training weapons since memories weren't allowed. Ragna used the same sword he used against Celeste earlier this day while Layla picked out a whip ? Their enemies both just picked a sword.

The teacher started the match with a bell and Layla instantly held her palm over the whip and fully covered it in ink while the enemies both also used their Aspect.

One covered himself in wooden armor while the other one made stone scythes appear around his arm. Just when Layla was done everyone dashed at eachother.

Because Layla used a whip she had more ranged and quickly hit both of them guys, splashing them with the ink she smeared on the whip and suddenly the wooden armor and stone scythe dissapeared.

"Huh, why did my Aspect disappear ?"

Ragna, seeing the opportunity augmented his whole body with a thin layer of blood before quickly dashing at them and knocking them out in a single hit.

Everyone just froze since the match only took a few seconds before they started to cheer. After that Layla and Ragna walked off the fighting stage and walked towards a corner while the next match started.

"Hey, layla. Did you deactivate their Aspect with your Ink ?"

"Uhm ... yeah. My Aspect lets me summon Ink. When I hit an enemy with it i can chose from 3 debuffs. I can either temporarily weaken them physically, disable their Aspect or make them blind.", she spoke in a calm tone.

'Huh ? Isn't tat fucking overpowered ? I got a divine Aspect and mine seems weaker ! Well, we only got our first Aspect abillity since we are sleeper so comparing them isn't smart but still !'

"Cool, I guess"

***

The small tournament continued for a while but it was pretty boring, till they arrived in the finals, where they would be fighting Celeste and a scrawny boy, or rather only Celeste since the kid was pretty much useless.

This time the fight wouldn't be that easy like when Ragna and Celeste sparred earlier this day since he only won by suprise attacking her with his extended bloodslash that happened when he augmented his sword. But this time he also had Layla.

This match started exactly like the rest where Layla covered her whip in ink and tried splashing it at our enemies. The boy got hit but since Celeste saw Laylas powers in the earlier matches she put a gravitational aura around her that instantly pushed the ink down when it came close to her in a radius of 1 meter.

Ragna augmented his sword and quickly overpowered the scrawny boy so it would be a 2 versus 1 now.

He then turned back and saw that Layla was struggling against Celeste since she couldn't hit Celeste with her ink. Ragna moved the thin blood layer move from his blade to his body, strengthening his overall physicality, before sprinting at the two girls while Celeste was trying to crush Layla with her gravitational buffed pole.

Sadly Ragna took to long because Celeste quickly pushed Layla out of the fighting space, disqualifying her. So now only Celeste and Ragna remained.

'Shit, this is bad. I won't be able to suprise her with a secret of my Aspect this time.'

Ragna was fighting very defensively right now, Celeste slowing him down with constant gravitational force.

'Fuck, what do I do'

Suddenly Ragna got an idea but he didn't know if it would work. He poured as much blood as he could into sugmenting only his feet before dashing to the other side of the ring.

'Force and velocity is power ..'

Ragna poured every last drop he could afford, pouring it into his feet before full on dashing at Celeste and crashing his body against her.

The gravity slowed him down a little but he still made her get pushed back. It wasn't enough to throw her out of the ring but she still fell onto her back. Ragna quickly pushed himself more, dashing forward again before holding his training sword against her neck.

"I won ... again"

The people around them started cheering as the teacher announced Ragna and Layla as the winners.

The teacher gave each of them one soul shard that he personally earned in the dream realm. After that everyone slowly disappeared till Celeste, Layla and Ragna were the only ones left. Layla just stood in the back, just listening while Celeste laughed and grinned.

"Didn't expect you to pull that last move. You got me again, huh ?"

She then walked behind me, looking at the slightly shorter girl.

"You were also really strong. I would have probably lost if you would've hit me with you ink. Whats your name ?"

Layla just awkwardly started at Celeste, not knowing how to communicate with someone so loud and confident so Ragna spoke up.

"Her name is Layla"

"Layla, huh ? Then from now on your my number 2 best friend. Nice to meet you. I'm Celeste."

Layla really didn't know how to act now since she never really had friends with her calm and aloof personality so "gaining" a friend like this was kinda weird.

"Uhm .. o-okay, nice to meet you, Celeste"

After talking for a while the three of them decided to end the day for now and go to each of their respective rooms.

——-Author's Notes——-

Words: 1977

Next chapter finally done !

I don't know if I already wanted to add the next important character but I decided to add her cuz why not.

Since we got the main main cast now I'll send pictures of all of them. (Only on Wattpad since I dont think I can post pictures in my chapter)

Peace !