Blood Power Training

A new day comes inside the mining camp. The events happening last night didn't change with anything the monotonous atmosphere inside the mine. However, if differences didn't follow the camp, one person certainly managed to do it in just a day. This person was Vlad, who was getting out of his bed, still suffering the after-effects of tearing his muscles in the fight with Nius and an indescribable craving for food.

Being the first to wake up inside the shack, he walked as gently he could around, intending to let the rest sleep some more. Surprisingly Aerius, who slept by his side in the form of a ball, seemed to awake simultaneously with Vlad as if he sensed even the slightest movements from him.

The little gryphon saw as Vlad moved towards the storage, towards the cloth full of fruits. When he arrived at the storage, taking yet another piece of cured meat. This one was a smaller chunk and a bread that got some points of mold around it.

Aerius sniffing the smell of the meat washed away his laziness instantly and ran towards Vlad like a crazed person. In no time, the small cat-like creature jumped on the table with some saliva on his beak.

"Shh, don't make any disturbance for the kids. I'll give you some meat, but don't ask for more." said Vlad in a quiet tone towards Aerius, who was looking with sparkling eyes towards the meet.

The little gryphon nodded his head and stared as Vlad cut a piece of the cured meat for him. As Vlad took a good chunk of the meat and gave it to Aerius, he turned towards his meal.

Vlad was okay with what he had. He has eaten mouldier foods than the ones in front of him. Getting with the food in hand to the table, he sat down and slowly started beginning his ordinary day with a meal.

Changes started to happen with Vlad. His heart started beating more cheerfully and, consequently, got into Vlad's bloodstream, a series of enriched blood flowing around his circulatory system. Vlad's initial muscle pain lessened, however this time, he figured out how to control in a beginner manner the flow of his blood, and so slowing his heart from getting more blood into his stream than he needed.

'Hmph, you think I'll use more resources on you, friend? Think more before acting against my will. So what if I have muscle pain? It is much worse to feel hunger than muscle pains.'

'Good, it seems like my thought was right. As long my mind is calm and my intent is certain the blood powers will follow along my orders without question, even if it means that it can harm me.'

'Should I do some training with my devil powers before those brats wake up? Why not? I'm quite curious to see what I can do with the blood inside my body. But I need to keep in mind to do it moderately, or else I'll have to eat again. It might be easy for you Louis to keep in check this draw back and go all out with your powers but me? I'm still just a slave with limited food suplies.'

After calmly eating his meal, he was thinking about all of his problems in silence. Slowly, he started commanding with his powers the flow of his blood in different zones of his body. First, he started playing around with his hand fingers. He let the blood flow from finger to finger, stretching them, tensing them. It was indeed a mystical feeling for Vlad to feel his blood move towards places he wanted to.

'So far, things went easy. Let's increase the intensity a bit. Back me up, partner, don't get too excited when I start to think about different places in my body.'

'Move to the chest.'

His heart gave a stronger beat as if it was in acknowledgement when he thought of moving blood around his chest area. The muscles around his chest started to get tense. He felt a type of energy circulating inside of him that he never thought could happen.

'Now move to arms'

The blood in his chest zone started flowing, following his arteries around his arms. It was a shared amount of blood going toward both his arms moving slowly in his artery. After reaching the end of the artery, the oxygenated blood branched into capillaries. However, the blood, after giving Vlad the oxygen and nutrients needed for his muscles, followed back a journey back to his heart. His blood, after becoming deoxygenated, slowly went back.

For Vlad, this process couldn't be described in words, only by feelings. The flow of blood started to become more familiar to him. Vlad tested around continually without waking the sleeping boys. After getting the hang of his powers with an insatiable curiosity, he went outside the shack together with Aerius, who was seated on his shoulder, moving to his usual training spot.

'If I can control the blood inside my body and move it as I wish towards different spots, what's blocking me from using it on the outside? But first, let me test those passive effects of my blood when it reaches different zones of my body. I'll have to also test my powers on others' blood. But I doubt it would even be helpful because of my lack of mastery.'

Stopping in the center of the training field, he told Aerius to get a bit distanced from him. The gryphon hatchling did as told, without any complaints.

Without having to worry about Aerius getting in his way, Vlad began concentrating on the next set of actions. He got his blood to start another journey.

This time it was concentrated blood containing more nutrients for his muscles and organs. Following the arteries and branching into veins, the blood supported Vlad muscles, stopping around hit hands muscles.

Seconds passed while Vlad felt a strong blood flow in his veins and artery from his chest towards his arms, and later branching around his shoulder and arm.

He started slowly to make some moves. First was a series of punches. Surprisingly he got the same feeling of power as when fighting Nius and clashing with him. His fist felt no force pushing him back, which was relatively light to his taste. However, he quickly increased his punching speed.

'That's it. It is almost the same feeling as when I got influenced by the dark energies. This is the feeling. What if I put more power into the hit?'

Tightening his fist harder and punching in empty air, he could feel his long jet-black hair getting pushed by the winds. It was not the winds produced by nature but the force of his fists. Stopping from punching, the winds also gently settled. His long hair that swung in the wind settled down, flowing over his shoulders and back.

Aerius, who watched from the sides how Vlad started doing his training and felt the winds from Vlad's punches, started getting closer to him and chuckling happily.

"That's it, haha. The winds feel like I'm on the top of a mountain. Do it again Vlad."

"If you wish, little guy. Let me summon the storms." chuckled Vlad as he prepared for another drill.

Getting his hair in check, sliding it to his back, he pushed his devil powers on his muscles again and punched again. He tightened his fists, letting the blood flow through every inch of his tissues. He slowly waited for something to happen. He waited for the feeling of hotness in his hands. When that came, he punched the empty air creating a bigger wind wave.

The winds blow Vlad's hair again, while the dust and small stones on the ground were directly blow in all directions.

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Meanwhile, Aerius seemed to have the time of his life. He extended his four small little wings and directly jumped in the direction the wind was the strongest.

Feeling himself being lifted from the ground by the wind, he started flipping his four wings to try and fly. With the help of Vlad's winds, he was lifted from the ground and managed to fly for a bit before the winds lost his powers. The small gryphon, who was some meters of the ground, tried to keep his flying altitude, but in no time, he dropped on the ground, being picked by Vlad.

"Damn, I still can't fly. But it was a good try. Thanks for that Vlad." said Aerius while being a bit frustrated for not being able to fly.

"Don't worry Aerius, remember you're still suffering under the side effects of the spell that turned you into a stone for all those years. There's no need to force yourself, just to help me out."

"Fine, but it was quite fun to experience that lift-off." smiled Aerius while getting back to his spectating spot.

Nodding his head, Vlad walked to get himself a wooden sword. Taking a middle-stance with his sword, he said.

"Let's train my swordplay while using the Blood Powers. I did manage to use my blood to enforce the wooden sword, but it's clearly not enough. I need to get used to using the blood with my swordplay before I escape the camp. What if this Belple guy actually is hiding his powers and by the time I escape I'm taken with a bad step over the gates? So I better test things out before heading out."

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He switched his blood flow towards his feet after tasting the sweet results of having fast and stable arms. Breathing slowly, Vlad noticed that having a steady breath would help him guide his blood flow in his body.

From his heart following his descending aorta and slowly moving his blood instinctively like the places his blood followed were already in his subconscious. When his blood reached the femoral artery, tibial artery, arcuate and dorsal arteries reached the capillaries, his leg muscles got an upgrade in grade literally. The oxygenated blood turned deoxygenated and passed from the capillaries to his veins later, following a path to the heart for oxygenation.

Regardless of the blood, which didn't stay long, another series of supplies followed the first batch. That's how Vlad's body could maintain this state without easing the transformation.

It will take a long time for Vlad to truly understand what exactly was going on with his blood and how it flowed and where it stopped. He only knew instinctively to move his blood. "You can move here and here" the reason why? It didn't matter to him. In his ecstasy, with the sword in hand started doing a short series of steps.

Soon those steps turned into quick successive footsteps that were repetitive. With the sword in hand, Vlad started doing the basic footwork that he knew since young. His steps were quick and subtitled, not losing his balance one bit. This footwork training lasted 5 minutes.

After he finished his basic slope pass, he followed with something more challenging for his legs. Still, from the basic slope pass doing it casually, he later increased the intensity. After feeling that his slope pass was clean, he added another pass called traverse pass. That increased his speed even more since the traversing step needed the stationary foot's pivot, which quickly orients the hips and torso in the direction the traversing foot needs to move.

Like the first footwork, he didn't linger much on his basics. However, he was genuinely pleased with even the way his footwork got from the blood augment.

"Now, I should do some sword attacks. To see if there's any difference since yesterday's fight."

With sword in hand and prepared foot positioning, he started moving. His powers switched on the entire body, the flow of blood in his arteries turned a notch, enhancing all of his body tissues. From muscle to his vital organs, all felt empowered.

His swings were fast, balanced, and with power. Anyone in close proximity could hear the sound of the wooden sword slashing, and the winds of his cuts and thrusts felt just standing there looking at the young man as he trained his slashes.

The skies, together with Aerius, could only see this splendid showcase of his technique. Yet, he didn't linger long on his slashing tests because he felt that his body was turning a bit exhausted from all the strain.

The sword training in the state augmented by his blood powers lasted for 10 minutes, feeling that it would be a waste to remain to do the same thing for too long.

'Phew, I feel that is enough with only testing those sets of moves. This method of fighting sure puts a strain on your mind, but it can be the backbone of my swordplay, and when I turn my sword in blood it would boost the attributes of it, making it far more easier to take others by surprise.'

'Heh, to think I will become like this. If I had those powers to assist me back home, I would love to see all my enemies dead and get to see a new future for my country.'

'Sadly, it was not to be in my first life. Sigh, now I can only say with certainty that I should enjoy this second life to the fullest. I even got powers that would make me the enemy of the church. A sorcerer, that's what they would call me.' Chuckling a bit out loud, he said, "This is life, full of uncertainties and unknowns."

"True, if it wasn't full with unknowns I wouldn't have placed my trust and get turned into stone." commented Aerius when he heard that from Vlad

"Now, now. Don't bring your problems into mine. You're fine anyway, small but at least healthy."

"Let's not think of the past. The future is ahead of us. A glorious one, I feel from how things turn out to get. However, this is not my time yet. I have to bide my time like I always did. Train myself until I can control all those powers of mine, and once I'm ready I'll take on the entire world. A war to end them all, as the ancestor said. They for sure knew that they had no chance and planned for the future generations to wipe them clean. At least they left those Poneglyph so people can find exactly what happened, but without a reader it is all in vain."

"Hey Aerius, what was the girl's name? Nico Robin?" asked Vlad as if to remember that name again.

"That's what the old man said, so yea. Nico Robin." confirmed Aerius for Vlad, with a confused face.

"I'll place my luck on you Aerius, once we find her wanted poster in Sagletius, you better remember her face to the smallest details."

"Why me? Isn't that your problem that are you supposed to get done?" asked Aerius.

"Little guy, you have plenty of space in that small head of yours to register the girl we're looking for. But don't worry I'll not place the entire burden on you, to check on the girl, you'll just support me looking around when we're in new places."

"Ohh, so that's why. Sure, by the time we found how she looks I'll be on the watch".

"Good, that's how I want you. Now, what's left to test is if those powers of mine can be manipulated outside my body." Getting a piece of glass that he hands at hand close by, he slashed his finger first, making a small incision into it.

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His blood started to flow like drops of water down, with only the side effect that it didn't touch the ground. Instead, it started gathering around his palm. Vlad felt a different sensation when seeing his blood moving, gathering around his palm.

His blood kept flowing from the cut but never touched the ground. After some seconds, the blood gathered was enough to make a small ball, and his cut slowly started to coagulate and harden.

"Hoh, this is the ability I used on the sword under the dark influences. Solidifying the blood can turn my weapon's or even body into a weapon. But similarly to the other powers related to blood, I need mastery to increase the power of all attributes.

Finally, after an entire life of wars, I no longer have to fear getting cuts in battle and just focus on killing others. Blow to blow is no longer a problem now, but I guess it has limitations, I'll get weakened by the power consumption.

If I get a huge cut on me, it might not do anything, or for example, if I get a limb cut, I doubt I can put it back in place. Or wait a minute, from what I remember inside the bones, there's bone marrow, that's still something related to blood, so it might be possible for me to get back in place, lost limbs."

"That's crazy, you've turned close to someone who can't die as long you're not out of energy." said excited Aerius while swinging his lion tail.

"Heh, there's no such thing Aerius, regardless of how crazy my powers might seem from outside, there's a balance inside of me. If I break that balance I can harm myself and render myself useless in a fight."

"I see, so you need to follow a balance." nodded Aerius while staring at the crimson ball made of blood in Vlad's hand with big eyes.

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As for Vlad, he thought of what to do next with it. All sorts of ideas rushed in his mind, but he thought first to play with that ball in his hands, to feel if there could be any changes with the ball's consistency. Sure as told, he passed the blood ball from hand to hand, like someone juggling around. "Heh, this is really my blood? Let's try this."

He thought of condensing the ball, and with only his thought, the blood started reducing, forming a reduced crimson blood ball that had a more solid form. Touching around that ball, sometimes squeezing it in his palm, he could feel the ball's solidness and the menacing look it gave outside.

"Now what? Should I throw this ball around?" asked Vlad while staring at Aerius.

The little gryphon said, still impressed by Vlad's juggling skills. "Switch forms, maybe?"

"Hmm, Let's try this then." Ended Vlad saying to himself, slowly he started to split the ball in two, which went as he initially planned. Later not long, the blood state gave in, turning back to its liquid form and after getting back into his body when touching his skin.

"Ahh, what's happening now? Can't I split condensed forms? Damn, let's try again, only that I want to test how I activate my powers. If the blood can enter back from my skin, it could also exit the same. It is not like I'm a masochist who cuts himself all the time just to activate my powers. I'll look stupid when fighting, and especially it will be a waste of time." thought out Vlad while also testing his new idea.

With his white arm extended forward and the palm of his hands pointing to his face, he tried to move his blood out from his skin with the help of the capillaries, concentrating really hard.

The response was slow, and one could even say that his blood didn't want to move out from his skin. However, it was not something that Vlad had mastery over it. Fortunately for him, he managed to see blood coming out from his hand without him needing to cut his hands.

Yet, compared to when he initially cut his hand or the manner he used the ability while being in the dark form, the amount of blood gathered now was simply laughable. In his hand, he only managed to collect enough to make a small ball the size of a ping pong ball.

When seeing that all his concentration and efforts only generated that low amount of blood probably would demotivate many. Yet, Vlad's first initial response was to persist and maybe gather more blood around the forming, small ball. In some seconds, more blood gathered, forming another decent-sized ball comparable to the first try. Wanting to see if he could continue adding blood to the ball, he found out that his body stopped supplying him blood. In short, it didn't listen to his thoughts.

"Well, for the first try after that fight, this is decent. What I'm supposed to test with this ball now? Right, let's test how far I can manipulate this ball and later see the firepower."

Looking at the blood ball in the liquid form, he started to think of different shapes, to turn the blood into. First, he did a little eagle with a lowered head facing Vlad, and later he did other animals like wolves, dogs, and horses. He even did a small version of Aerius and later showing it to the gryphon watching the show.

"As I thought when I received that subconscious feeling when eating the devil fruit. I can truly control my blood freely, for now poorly, but no one is born learned. With more information about blood and constant training, I might get able to gather more blood and move it freely. As for the ability to control others blood, I clearly tested on Aerius but there was no response from his blood, as if it didn't recognize me as his ruler."

"You did what on me?! How could you do this to me?" said Aerius while puffing in anger at the revelation of what Vlad tried to do to him.

"Ehh, come on little guy. I tried a bit to see if there's any response with you. Now, now, after feeding you so much food, being my little guinea pig to test my abilities is normal." chuckled Vlad while manipulating his blood when he heard Aerius reacting so offended.

As soon Vlad said that Aerius calmed for the high-horses and only said. "Fine, I'll let you do you things as long you don't harm me and continue feeding me with plenty of food."

"We got a deal there little guy." laughed Vlad a bit evilly while making Aerius regret his choice.

After this small incident, he spent the following time that it took for the other boys to wake up and begin their working day with different blood manipulating training. He was busy testing his powers of manipulating his blood while seated on the ground and with a fascinated expression, like how a kid would become when giving him a new toy to play around with.

Finally, Vlad stopped when hearing Inorra's annoying voice, followed by Kipset and Robert. He was at that time playing with a small crimson thorn that looked to be solidified.

Inorra was the first to ask Kipset with a yawning face. "Morning Kip, where's Vlad at this hour?"

Kipset, without yawning but with some sleepy eyes, said, "Most likely he's training those wierd powers of his that we saw last night in his fight with gramps."

"The blood ones or the dark ones?" continued Inorra bothering Kipset with questions.

"How would I know? Just ask him when he comes back."

"That's right, why bother myself with guessing." said Inorra as if he had a revelation.

Vlad was still in the process of ending his training. He lifted the solidification attribute of [Blood Manipulation]. He found in this training that his basic ability of [Blood Manipulation] stood as the backbone of his devil powers.

After cancelling his devil power ability, he let Aerius jumped on Vlad's shoulder like an agile cat. Then he walked back to the shack as if nothing happened in the morning.

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[author]

A/N: Some interaction with the Devil Fruit powers. Hope you like it.