Vampire's Blood Ascension-Chapter 15: Vampire’s First Sword Swings

After stuffing himself with various free meals, Rudy walked out of the mess hall.

While walking through the metallic corridors alit by the ceiling lights, he raised the haloband before his face and whispered, "Map."

The holographic map of the syndicate’s headquarters floated above the round screen, and he walked to the training grounds.

As he walked, his fingers trembled occasionally, his eyes were sunken and dull, and his pale face was gray with worry. It was as if he were trying his best not to break down and keeping himself busy by doing things he would normally do.

As per Rudy’s wishes, that was how Vlad Belmont was meant to appear in the eyes of the syndicate’s higher-ups — a scared newbie that had been mystically teleported into their territory.

Other members stopped and glanced at him, but none walked closer for two reasons: first, the way he was acting, and second, he hadn’t revealed his emblem of the Shadow Syndicate.

The first meant that he was just one of many new members, and the second meant that he wasn’t here on his own will, which wasn’t rare either, because many promising talents were forced to join the syndicate, and that was what Rudy wanted them to think.

Being seen as a promising talent would make them hesitate before trying anything with him, so he wouldn’t have to deal with anything useless.

As he stepped inside the training grounds, a long corridor with three gates — one on the left, right, and the end entered his vision.

Nameplates were placed above the gates: Gymnasium on the left, Fire range on the right, and Combat ward on the last one.

He walked towards the combat ward’s gate and stepped inside it.

Once inside, he looked around with wide eyes.

Vast numbers of private arenas filled the place; a red barrier veiled the arenas, and no sound escaped from the inside. It was so silent that if a nail fell onto the ground, its sound would echo throughout the combat ward.

A baffled expression appeared on his face, and he mumbled, "What the hell is this place...?"

Just as those words left him, his haloband began to flash red, and a hologram appeared above its screen.

Rudy lifted it in front of his eyes, and much to his genuine surprise, it was a tutorial on how to make use of the private arenas.

’Hmm. Their training facilities are much better than Moon Weavers, but why is everything red and black?’ He genuinely wondered as he walked towards two panels on the left and right walls.

He stopped before the left panel and scrolled down to any of the empty arenas. Once he found one, he clicked on it, and a new tab opened.

[Please Enter Your Haloband Number: ____]

[Bind.]

Without delay, Rudy entered 17394738, and just as he pressed the bind key, his haloband chimed, and a holographic message appeared.

[You can make use of Arena L4-6 for the next 12 hours.]

A faint smile appeared on his face, and the next moment a hum resounded in his right ear. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

He turned around and saw that the hoverboard was already there to take him to his arena. He climbed onto the hoverboard, and it moved towards his arena.

Two minutes later, he stood in arena L4-6 and looked at the holographic panel on his haloband.

[Arena L4-6 Control Panel]

[Stage: Combat]

[Mode: None]

[Barrier: Active]

As he clicked on the mode, three options appeared before him.

Drone, Golem, and Dummy.

’Even though I can move and act similarly to before, I am not sure if I fight just as well within this new body.’

A chuckle escaped him, he changed the stage to non-combat, and the ground behind him parted, and metal weapon racks with both hot and cold weapons came out of the ground.

He instinctively ignored all of the weapons and walked towards the weapon he had been wielding since his childhood — a sword.

His fingers wrapped around the hilt of a long sword, and a grin split his face.

He lifted the sword, reverted the stage to combat, and selected Dummy mode.

Similar to the weapon racks, three dummies came out of the ground.

He stepped forward with a wide grin and swung at the dummy on the right.

A loud clang rang out on impact; Rudy wobbled backwards, and his expression turned sour.

He looked at the long sword and thought, ’Just as I had expected... I’ll have to learn everything from scratch...’

His grip tightened. He shook his head. ’No, not from scratch. I have the experience, so it would be much easier for me to get into my rhythm.’

His gaze shifted towards his left leg. ’And I don’t have to wear a support brace like before...’

His lips curved upwards; he changed the mode back to none and began swinging his long sword without a target or opponent.

Four hours later, sweat drenched his body from head to toe, and the uniform was sticking to his body.

With an irritated look, he lowered his sword, took off his jacket and shirt, and threw them on the ground before he began swinging again.

The sound of splitting air came from each of his swings, but only one thought filled Rudy’s head. ’It’s not good enough. I can do better. I know I can.’

With that in his mind, he continued to swing, and hours passed quickly.

His muscles groaned under the continuous labour, and all of a sudden, his haloband buzzed and glowed red.

[Arena duration ended.]

[You may return after 12 hours to use it again.]

Rudy brushed his wet hair to the back and muttered with a disappointed expression, "Dammit."

He placed the sword back in its rack, picked up his jacket and shirt, put them on, and walked back to his room.

A few minutes later, another member came to train in the same arena, but just as he stepped inside, his eyes went wide, and he stammered in shock, "W-What? Why is it like this?!"

The metallic floor had sunk into a shallow flood, dotted with deep imprints from Rudy’s steps.