Chapter 8: Blood Cult Branch

Alex is a little startled when he hears the secret door open. He knows that since the old man wasn't at the front of the entrance, the people might suspect of something being wrong, so might be on guard against a sneak attack. 

So Alex immediately started concentrating on his mana and getting ready to cast spells.

On his palm, a blood red magic circle at the size of a man's head is formed. It has very intricate designs on it in the format of a star.

"Blood Familiar." Whispers Alex, trying to not alert the people that came inside as he says that. 

Slowly out of the red magic circle on his hand… the head of a red snake appears, with its tongue flickering around. The snake is completely red, even his skin is red. He is about as long as an adult's arm and about as thick as a garden hose.

The snake lands on the floor and Alex immediately has a mental connection with it. So he simply orders the snake to hide inside one of the numerous holes on the wall and sneak attack when he says so. But before the snake can slither away, Alex just whispers another spell, in the snake.

"Blood Bomb"

He models the spell to explode when mentally signaled to. After that another red magic circle appears in his hand as he touches the snake. 

"Blood Poison"

This is a strategy used by the players, after the snake attacks, it explodes and it's poisoned blood will splatter all around the vicinity… and poison anyone around them, by combining these easy and low cost spells you can create an AOE attack with a relatively low mana cost.

'But how many are there.' Thinks Alex as he closed his eyes and put his ear to the ground to listen to any vibration sound. Trying to determine how many people there are...

He obviously isn't a Warrior class so his senses aren't so acute, but even he can determine that there seems to be a group of them. 

He knows that most likely they are Rank 1, fighters but it doesn't matter after all. Even though Alex is a Rank 2, if he fought against ten Rank 1 Mages, he knows that he will lose.

So Alex just waits until they get close to him… he doesn't make any sound as he waits for them to approach his location. He has the door to the library only slightly opened, so when they pass by, he can immediately get out of it and attack them. 

He even holds his breath, in case there is some high level Warrior with VERY acute senses. As they get close he can even hear them talk.

"Wonder what the old man is doing. He is usually at the front of the entrance." Said one of them, sounding like a male.

Alex has to stop himself from swallowing in nervousness. 

'Are they talking like this because they want to make me let my guard down slightly. Or is it just normal talk… well it doesn't matter anyway as I will fight them while giving it my all.' Alex, didn't make any assumptions yet and decided to assume the worst case scenario. They had multiple Rank 2 or even a Rank 3 with them. And that they already know of him.

"Who knows… Maybe a new member joined us. But who cares anyway, I have almost mastered the Blood Tiger Fist, so when I reach Rank 2, I will beat the old man and take the place as the leader of this camp." Says a female sounding voice. 

Since the figures were all wearing red cloaks and white expressionless masks. It was hard for the normal person to figure who is really who.

They mostly wore this attire because, in case they are found and have to run away. They don't have their identities exposed. Also in case any of them is caught, none know each-other's exact identity so there will be no possible betrayal here. After all, they have all joined the Blood Cult out of selfish desires and greed. The Blood Path is a forbidden path but it is rumoured to be a very fast way to power… 

Suddenly as they all just walk past the library and go towards the meeting room, that is when suddenly a snake jumps in front of them. Out of nowhere the snake starts bloating up and before any of them could react...

*Burst!*

It exploded in a blood shower covering them all in blood, painting even the walls red and turning off some torches due to blood splashing on the fire. 

Immediately the carefree people were on guard, this was abnormal and sometimes that hadn't happened. There were five people so they immediately made a circle so they don't get caught by surprise again.

"What was that." Said one of them, the voice this time sounded like that of a middle aged man.

"Shut the hell up old man and focus. We need to find who did that. Hey! Annoying blood mage cast some type of detection spell or something like that." Says the young man.

"I don't know something like that." Said the one who had the voice of a middle aged woman.

"Aren't you mages supposed to be versatile and counter stuff like this."

"Well we aren't all mighty ok. Plus weren't Warriors supposed to have good senses. Then use them to find the attacker."

They continue arguing at pointless stuff like this, showing their inexperience. And letting their instincts take over, after all when normal humans are in panic and things go wrong, the first thing that they do is try to dodge the blame.

Alex appeared out of the door, immediately he was noticed by one of them. 

"THERE IS A KID HERE. IT'S PROBABLY HIM." Says one of them. They all turn around, the mage prepares to cast a spell, and the other four warriors circulate their Ki and get ready to attack. But they are too slow as Alex has already pre prepared his spell and points a magic circle towards them. 

"Blood Scream"

Out of the circle a face appears a human face made out of blood and it opens its mouth as if it is in pain and it screams.

*SCREEEEEACH!*

A loud noise app comes out of the mouth of the blood face. Immediately as the Blood Cult members are about to act they feel their body suddenly be constricted. As if their own blood has become heavier. They are temporarily paralyzed, by Alex's spell. As a Rank 2 spell it has quite an effect on the Rank 1 Cult Members.

Alex just points his palms at them again and this time two magic circles appear on his hands.

"Blood Needles"

Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!

Like bullets, needles shoot out like bullets and pierce all of the Cult Members. Some of them even hit places like arteries and even brains, as two of them immediately died, fell to the ground. Their bodies are not moving anymore.

The other three left immediately panick, they try getting out of their Paralysis status. They can't believe that a kid is doing stuff like this. 

Alex just has a small frown on his face as he can feel his mana reserves go down. So he just makes two bright orange magic circles in the palms of his hands. And two fireballs appear on top of the magic circles.

Alex just points the two fireballs at the two of the unmoving Cult members, and the fireballs shoot forward.

""AHHHHHH."" Immediately the two members started screaming, one of them was the female mage.

Alex doesn't even flinch at this, so he makes another fireball and throws it towards the last member.

"AHHHH." He too starts screaming, just like his two fellow Blood Cult members.

They start to burnin in front of Alex. Even though he has a cold look on his face, he has to try hard to keep his food down. He almost throws up, a couple of times. Especially when the flesh starts to burn, and the disgusting smell starts filling the place.

'I must control myself, I must adapt to things like this or I will never even live past twelve if I act hesitant in Magic Academy. Plus they were not good people… NO… I WON'T LIE TO MYSELF… it doesn't matter, whether they were good or bad… all that matters is ME. Even if they were innocent I will do the same. 

It's for my benefit… after all, I don't know these people, they might have been good. So who am I to assume that they were evil. But it doesn't matter… other people's pain or feelings don't matter. I might have killed someone's father, brother, sister or mother. But in this world only I matter. 

I don't want to die, death is something uncontrollable… I HATE things that I can't control. Who knows what even is in the afterlife for me. 

This world has a type of afterlife … but do I have one like every other soul in here?... Whatever, it doesn't matter, I don't plan dying after all. 

Because in this world, when someone goes to the afterlife they lose their earthly memories… their sense of self… I WILL NEVER LOSE MYSELF. ' Decides Alex as he just looks at the people in front of him. 

He knows that him being from a modern world, his will power and his sense for cruelty is nothing compared to the people in this world. So he will slowly train it, forcing himself to look at what is considered nightmare inducing stuff in his first world.

'I must adapt fast. After all, the world waits for no one.' Contemplates Alex, as the last screams of the Blood Cult Members die down… until only silence is left… and their still burning dead bodies, who had left behind twrrifying images, especially with the melted skin and eyes sockets completely melting off.

Alex just pours a couple of waterballs to get rid of the fire.

After that, Alex just looks at his hands. He contemplates the battle that he just had with the blood cult members. He remembered how he overestimated the enemy… that is almost as bad as underestimating the enemy. 

He knows that he is a control freak… and he let himself be controlled by this, leading him to not making the best possible decisions in that battle. Due to expecting a Rank 3 fighter to pop out if nowhere…

'I WILL CONTROL MY IRRATIONALITY.' Decides Alex, finally getting control of himself. Vowing to himself, to never make mistakes based on his control freak tendency.

…..

A/N: The Blood Cult members were all just Rank 1. Also we see that the MC is forcing himself to experience and see different things so his willpower and experience in dealing stuff like this goes up.

P.S: Alex finally tries to get control of his Controlling Compulsive Behaviour. In a way it works better for him. HE will be in control of himself and not overestimate enemies needlessly. Though he will still be careful and controlling, he will also let logic overrule his unnecessary speculations.

P.P.S: The MC is not doing this to be unnecessarily cruel. He is doing this to prepare his mind for gruesome stuff.