Chapter 28 - Family [3]

A/N: I have just realised I picked the Princess's name off a character from my novel subconsciously. Didn't ever occur to me that the name Charlotte didn't just come to me randomly.

***

I looked at Gunther Hyperius, I felt it. He was strong, stronger than both me and Charlotte. In fact, I didn't doubt that he was stronger than both of us combined. But, I couldn't properly gauge his exact strength compared to my own unless I were to fight him.

We were currently having our starter, which was a soup and bread.

And so, just as I was about to ask him to spar with me later on. He locked eyes with me, and smiled warmly before speaking.

"Reinhardt, I don't know what you remember, if anything at all. But, I want you to know something. I'm your big brother, so understand that I'll always be on your side."

I nodded, I didn't think very much of what he said. I'm sure he was being serious, but I couldn't take him seriously. How could I? After all, I barely knew the man.

Then, I continued eat. I eat, without regard for class or manners. I hadn't had any food in so damn long. I had arrived quite late in the day, and got too into the whole 'Blood Manipulation' thing to bother eating.

But I was still starving, I was hungry. And if I was hungry, what else was there to do but eat? The way I ate was a little messy, but nobody seemed to mind. In fact, the Princess concluded that starters wouldn't be near enough to satiate me.

And so, she had the servants bring in the main meal a little earlier than expected. I didn't even pay attention to what I was being fed anymore, when I was given my plate of food I just began eating.

The others, Selene excluded, just watched me eat. They didn't look disguisted,or annoyed. Just a little sad.

"Big brother... when was the last time you ate?"

Selene asked me with a bit of worry, it seemed Charlotte and Gunther had the same question in mind, after all the way I was eating wasn't exactly normal.

So, after wiping my mouth with a napkin, I answered her question.

"I don't think I've had any food since... Yeah, I have no idea."

I genuinely had no idea when the last time this body had eat any food, so I answered honestly.

After answering her question, I went right back to my meal, eating a little slower. I was feeling a little fuller after all.

***

We had finished our meal around twenty minutes ago. And now, me, Selene, Charlotte and Gunther were in my training. I had asked Gunther for a spar.

I was armed with a large greatsword, I hadn't decided what sort of sword I wanted to use yet. So I went for a totally random one.

Gunther had no weapon with him, nor did he have any armour. In fact, I didn't have any armour either. Armour would only restrict my moments, and shattered or fragmented armour would probably just hinder regeneration. So, I probably wouldn't ever wear armour.

I decided not to summon my cloak for now, just to make things a little fairer.

I gripped my sword with both hands, and locked with eyes Gunther as I began to enhance my body and weapon with Arcane Magic.

"You're not gonna use a weapon? Are you making fun of me? I'm aware that you're stronger, but this is doing too much."

He smiled, as if understanding my confusion.

"Reinhardt, you're not understanding something. I am the weapon."

And with that, he rushed in, and without hesitation he punched my liver. But, the attack was odd. It was like I getting both punched and pierced by a blade, this caused blood to pour from my side, thankfully the wound was shallow.

Then, acting on pure instinct, I punched Gunther in the chin. A small shockwave was produced as I used the highest level of physical power that I could muster. But, he was wholly unphased.

'That impact... it didn't feel normal.'

Then, I swung my sword, and he took a few steps back to dodge. Then, I deactivated my weapon enhancement, and I began to heal myself.

But, in the time I took to heal my wounded liver, he dashed towards me and threw a punch at my stomach. I stumbled backwards and dodged, and then swung my sword at him after I enhanced it.

This time, he didn't even dodge it. My blade connected with his throat, but my sword just bounced off of him.

'What?'

The difference between me, and Gunther Hyperius was immense. And, it didn't help in the slightest that his body was abnormal. To top it all off, this guy wasn't even fighting at maximum output, nor was he using his Attribute Magic.

And so, I decided to take this fight up a level. I then began to use Blood Manipulation.

Gunther looked a little confused as the whites of my eyes filled in with red.

"Haa..."

I released a breath, and then, I attacked once more. My physical prowess hadn't increased that much, but what did was my eye sight.

And with that, I unleashed a wave of blood. The sheer volume of blood would be enough to kill someone from blood loss, of course, I replaced this blood with Arcane Healing. This however made it so I could no longer maintain the Enhancement on my blade.

"Blood...? How?"

As he was confused, I focused all the blood I had unleashed into a small arrow. There was just too much blood to turn into anything smaller, and so I released the arrow of blood at Gunther at top speed.