Weapons training continued for many hours after that conversation. Different drills and sword stances to best deal with a variety of opponents likely armed with a variety of weapons.

Caius stayed in his Shifted form throughout the spar which made it the longest time he had ever spent in his vampiric skin—so to speak—but also made him realize that as much as he had claimed to have accepted what he was, he might still have some reservations.

Caius didn't think the reservations were actually from him and had a strong feeling that he had inherited them from the original Caius through the memories and body he had gained.

There just seemed to be too many years of pent-up suppression regarding his Vampiric Nature, and it always seemed intent on surfacing throughout the spar. Fortunately, Lucian could take all of his attacks no matter how feral, savage, and uncontrolled they might become so he gave Caius free rein to let it all out.

The wound Caius had caused on his midsection earlier had already stitched back together and when he eventually wiped off the blood, it looked like a week-old injury rather than one that was inflicted less than an hour ago.

Caius didn't get to inflict any more of such injuries though.

Lucian always stopped him before it got that far because as much as he felt the pain from the attack was just a bit of the punishment he deserved for what his son had become due to his actions that aggravated Athenodora into causing it, Lucian also understood that spilling blood that tempted his Vampiric son and drove him to lose control even more than he was already close to because of his feral nature was… unwise.

All in all, the Feral Nature that Caius was encouraged to embrace was a lot more of a hindrance to his sword skills than it was a help. Sure, his senses were as heightened as they should be for a Vampire that he was, but he was also moving purely on instincts and those instincts favored the use of his fangs and his claws rather than a proper weapon.

"You must tame it, son," Lucian instructed, "You must tame the savagery. It's not so different from a human learning to control their emotions. Learning not to let their anger get in the way of their goal. A true Mage-Knight is a Master of their emotions who has honed it, knows when to use it, and knows not to be carried away by it.

You must do the same."

Caius understood the instructions well enough and this should have even come naturally because, again, the Feral nature is normal to a Vampire. It's the state they are in constantly as long as they remain shifted which most do for most of their vampiric existence. Most also indulge in their impulses and through that learn control.

Caius had never done that. Hence his struggle.

He had never let himself let loose to drink from a victim until there was no more for him to drink.

He had never gone wild and ripped into a vulnerable form with his claws, feeling their innards all over his hands and their blood against their face, the warmth soothing a different hunger besides his sanguine thirst.

He had done none of that and might only be able to tame that side of him after he did.

That was a problem and it worried him.

He hadn't even known this would be a problem and how could he? The only Vampire whose perspective was shown enough to reveal these sorts of issues in the original story, was Caius and he wasn't a True Vampire. Never tasted human blood, never evolved as a Vampire, and never faced this particular problem.

Any other Vampire in the story didn't struggle with their Feral nature. It was accepted by them long before they even showed up in the narrative.

This was a very unique problem that Caius was having because he was likely the first 'Vampire Spawn' to ever exist because of the 'special' circumstances in which Athebodora changed him. And thus, he was also the first Vampire Spawn to staunchly reject his nature hence a five-year-long suppression that was causing the nature to spill out of his control.

Lucian just kept stopping the sparring duel to call Caius to order before starting again and he lost track of time in all the stoppage/restart because he kept expecting Caius to just… get it.

Lucian had stared into the eyes of many Vampires. He had seen them cornered and scared. He had seen them angry. He had seen them hungry and their reactions to those emotions were always the same; unbridled savagery.

But they never let themselves get lost in the savagery. They always remained focused on their goal despite the Feral nature that had overcome them.

That was what Lucian found was missing in Caius's Vampire Red eyes. And he expected that if Caius was given enough avenue to let loose, he'd eventually gain that control. Alas, rather than gain control, Caius just ran out of energy at some point and passed out, turning out of his Vampiric form as he fell into Lucian's arms instead of hitting the ground.

Lucian felt that the fact that Caius returned to his human form might actually highlight the issue; Caius still thought of himself as a human first.

Lucian got misty-eyed at that but his eyes were clear by the time Caius came to.

"Here," he said offering Caius a canister.

"Thanks," Caius answered and opened the canister, downing more than half of the blood within in seconds.

He didn't even realize how thirsty he was. All that sparring had sapped him of his energy. Only after he took the canister away from his lips did he feel a bit sad that he had so drastically reduced his Alchemical ingredient.

"Oh, what beast blood is this?" He asked the question that had plagued him since yesterday. This blood was the same he had gotten from Orland for two mornings now.

"Umbral Fox," Lucian said, "You prefer it to the Wyvern?"

"Just a bit," Caius answered.

"Really?" Lucian said sounding surprised, "It's rated one star lower than the Wyvern, you know."

"Oh, I can tell," Caius answered, "It's just… it has an affinity with Darkness."

"I see," Lucian said, "I'll try to get you more then."

"Thank you," Caius answered, "I'd still like the Wyvern too tho."

"Now, you're just being greedy," Lucian said with a little chuckle and then nodded, "But I'll see what I can do."

Caius smiled and then let out a breath. Minutes passed as he and his father just sat there with neither saying a word and then Lucian looked to the side at him,

"Ready to continue?" He asked and it was clear by his tone that he didn't want to push his son. A good quality of a trainer is to know when your trainee is at their limit and they can no longer go on.

But Caius wanted to be pushed.

His father might not be aware but this was all important to him and that included taming this Feral nature of his. And so he let out a breath and said in a resolute voice.

"I'm ready."

With that, he was back on his feet and the training continued well into the nighttime.

***

-The next Morning-

It was time for another school day at Lochxen and Caius was dressed quite early and headed off to school with the usual entourage of Carriages.

He had expected something different about the carriage. He wasn't sure exactly what it would be but he expected something that would hint at the major secret he had revealed to his father the day before about his secret Vampiric dealings.

But there was nothing.

It was all just normal.

Accepting that his father was probably still thinking about the matter and had not yet made an actual decision on how to proceed with it, Caius decided he might as well just shut it off to the side for now and enjoy the ride to school.

He was going early for one reason; Arlette.

Caius hadn't communicated with her since last week when she told him about the pick-up she had to make of Allegra's Legacy and he was unable to wait until Break—at the earliest—to get an update on how that went.

When the carriages stopped at the large Lochxen Gates, Caius realized a problem with his early-bird plan; He hadn't communicated with Arlette. Or more accurately, he hadn't been able to communicate with her so he had no idea if she was up and ready to meet him so early.

This world had quite a number of ways to make long-distance conversation happen, a couple even including moving images of the two speaking parties, and Caius felt it was high time he got himself one of those.

Alas, that was something to be fixed later and could not affect the current oversight so when Caius knocked on the door, he was only too glad to hear Arlette's beautiful voice answer from behind,

"Come in."

She had to have known it was him. There was certainly no surprise in her eyes when he entered and closed the door behind himself.

She just smiled at him knowingly with her ass seated on the edge of her desk while her hands were holding a small box between her thighs.

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