Chapter 6: Magic and marital arts

{HELLO READERS. I HABE DECIDED TO WRITE IN THIRD PERSON, HOWEVER, I WILL OCCASIONALLY SWITCH TO THE FIRST PERSON IF I FEEL IT WOULD WORK IN THAT INSTANCE. THANK YOU FOR READING.}

A few hours later Cain asked Adam "why didn't you use magic to capture me when you found me?" looking over at Cain Adam said "only a few people can use magic, those born with a mana core can absorb the ambient mana and store it. To use magic a person will create a magic circle and charge it with mana until the spell fires."

hearing this Cain looked through his body and found that the mana that would flow into him would enter what he assumed was his mana core that he formed back when he lived at the lab. "looking back at Adam Cain said "I have two questions, what about those that can't use mana?" hearing this Adam looked back at Cain and said

"those who aren't born with a mana core use a method called 'cultivation' to convert mana to 'qi' once they do this they store it in their abdomen to use in 'martial arts' which is what they use instead of spells." getting this answer Cain decided to research cultivation so he could adapt his body to it.

"my second question is, why can beasts use magic without a magic circle?"

"ah, that. Beasts, monsters, and the like have magic spells in their inheritance from their ancestors. Through this inheritance, a beast can cast a spell through instinct like how they can breathe or move their arm without being taught how to, people can too this with enough training though, some lucky ones even can use a bloodline they took from a beast."

Cain committed 'inheritance' and 'bloodline for research. But before that, Cai. Took out his bone knife and a piece of wood and began carving something. "seeing Cain take out a knife Adam prepared to fight the boy but after he took out the piece of wood he realized he wasn't going to fight.

"what are you doing?" without looking up Cain said, "I'm carving the crow I hunted." "why are you doing that?" stopping to look up Cain said, "I do this to respect the things that have given me a good hunt." while saying this he pulled out several wood carvings, one of which Adam could see had the wings that Cain had used to hunt the crow.

Looking through the carvings he noticed two things, firstly as he looked through them he noticed that the way they were carved changed as they went on. Going from a rough and vague silhouette to ones that he could even point out the species of.

Secondly, he saw one carving that was carved differently from the rest, Looking at it closer it looked like a small fox. It seemed like it had been carved by someone new and was just following a guide but it definitely wasn't carved by the boy sitting in front of him.

Turning back to look at Cain he picked up the fox carving and asked, "where did you get this?"

(Cain pov)

Looking back up from my work I saw the soldier, or Adam as he called himself, holding something. Looking closer I realized it was the gift Alice had given me. Immediately everything faded away and all I saw was my target "Put. That. Down. NOW." trying but almost failing to control my anger I told the man to put my treasure down as I didn't wish to fight his because I was in the middle of wondering my latest pray, which had gifted me with its body and mind.

Seeing that he heading put it down yet, I slowly shifted my body to what I called my combat form. something I had made, along with a few other things, when I was researching the changes in my body when I was living in the forest. Slowly my horns grew longer and thicker and my body followed soon after as I grew taller and my muscles began to grow and spread around my body to accommodate my new weight.

Soon after my heart began to speed up so more oxygen could reach my body as my veins grew and shifted to fit my size, while this was happening my lungs increased in size to pull in more oxygen to give my blood while my claws came out. Lastly, I began to activate my mana core, which was fused with my heart when I first changed, so my mana could flow along with my blood, one of the things I had learned to do whine in the forest, as it would increase my fiscal ability by about three-fold.

While this seemed like it took a long time it only took about five seconds to complete. "I will not ask again, human. Put. It Down. NOW!"

(Adam pov)

After asking the child in front of me about the wooden fox he looked toward me and then at the fox. For a painfully long moment, he just looked at me with his lifeless eyes, and then his 'feeling' changed. his eyes changed from the bright golden color that he got from the crow and the verdant green they were and starting from the pupils they went fully black. It was like I was starting straight into a void, a void that threatened to end all life around it.

After this, a bloodlust that I have never felt before began to spread around him and start to suffocate me. After what felt like an eternity he slowly spoke "Put. That. Down. NOW" hearing his voice, which was like the roar of hundreds of monsters, I froze. But soon after I realized I shouldn't have.

Slowly he began to change. but this change wasn't like what he had done to hunt the crow, no. This was more predatory. When he had killed the crow leader I was wondering why they hadn't attacked, but now I knew, they couldn't attack. They knew if they attacked they would die so they didn't attack to survive.

Slowly, even slower than when it first talked, it said "I will not ask again, human. Put. It Down. NOW!" and if by divine order my hand refused to keep a hold of the wooden fox and I dropped it. And it was at this moment I knew. I wasn't looking at a boy or even a human. I was staring into the eyes of a demon.

(third person)

When Adam dropped that fox carving, as if it had all been an illusion everything went back to normal and Caim was back to carving the crow. The only thing showing the previous events had happened was that Cain was using a new piece of wood, as the last one was turned to scraps by his outbreak, the fox carving now sitting next to him and the carvings now back in the bag and lastly the shivering mess of a person sitting in front of him while he continued his work on the carving.

A while ago the pilot had set the helicopter to autopilot and began to sleep, but he was now in the same, if not worse, state as the soldier even though he wasn't the target of Cain's anger.