CONNECT: Rise Of The Undead King

In the blink of an eye, two weeks passed as if they never came, and before anybody realized, they were already in the third week of the month, with just a week left for the month to end. All the remaining students in the weekly martial arts duel had been training so hard for their opponents.

Nothing much interesting really happened during the past week, apart from the fact that Eric had forfeited his match against Uche and automatically promoted Uche to the next round of the duel—the semi-final. Uche was really surprised by this because he hadn't said anything about the duel to Eric. He didn't ask him to forfeit. If anything, Uche had been looking forward to facing him, to measure himself in a fair duel against the boy who once thought he could intimidate him. But Eric had gone ahead to give up, without a word.

It was disappointing.

But it kinda made sense. The boy was just too scared of him now, too scared to even peep a quick glance at his eyes when they were together—he always had his head down.

Uche had done a number of things to him that night, things Eric probably couldn't forget no matter how much time passed. Since then, the arrogant boy had become something else entirely. A shadow of his former self. The way he carried himself now—silent, withdrawn, afraid—it was almost pitiful.

Almost.

To Uche, it was incredible how quickly things could change, how fast a person could fall apart once fear took root in their heart.

Eric had gotten into a fight with Elion and the others a day after the first duel, and somehow, they had separated. Now, Elion controlled the group while Eric was all on his own.

All on his own, with Uche.

They didn't talk much—in fact, they didn't talk at all—but they were always together. The boy stuck to Uche all day as if he were his bodyguard, and this got the whole school talking about how Eric had been hanging out with the school trash.

This talk even frustrated Elion more, and he swore to kill Uche, but Eric never allowed him to get close to him. At times, even Uche was confused by the way Eric protected him. It was weird, but it didn't really matter.

For the past few days, Uche had been doing his best to learn blood skills. The blood manipulation class was the only thing that kept his mind occupied—it was one of the most difficult classes in the school.

All the students always gathered there right after their martial arts class. The training room for blood manipulation was nothing like the others. It was dimly lit, with faint red light leaking from veins of runes carved into the walls. There were different sections in the training room—a section for practicing ranged attacks, which was full of countless training dolls, a section for practicing martial arts with blood skills, and a calm section for learning to control and cultivate the blood within their body, how to make use of it as blood skills.

Only after learning how to do this could one use the ranged section and the martial arts and blood skills section. But for the past week, Uche had been stuck in the cultivation section.

Some new students even met and left him there, and this got Uche more frustrated.

"What the hell does he mean?"

Uche muttered as he recalled what the instructor said on his first day there.

Master Idran, the instructor, was a tall, thin man with eyes like coals buried in ash. His voice carried no warmth, only a distant calm that made everyone around him cautious.

"Blood is life,"

that's what he said.

"And life is stubborn. If you cannot command your own, you have no business trying to command another's."

That line stuck with Uche from the first day.

But no matter how many times he repeated the exercises, he couldn't get it right.

Every session began the same: the students sat cross-legged on the floor, focusing on their heartbeat, then trying to draw a fraction of that pulse into their palms. When done correctly, a faint red shimmer would appear—proof that they had connected their will to their blood.

Uche tried again and again. He tried until his fingers trembled and his chest burned. But nothing ever happened—no shimmer, no warmth, no sign of control. It was almost as if nothing was there for him to connect with.

He could feel his heartbeat pounding in his chest like thunder, blood flowing through his veins, but the power just wouldn't obey him.

Even new students that were brought in a day before were already showing progress. Some could form small spheres of red light that pulsed in rhythm with their veins. A few advanced ones could move droplets across the floor without touching them. But Uche? He couldn't even make his blood respond.

Master Idran's eyes often passed over him with quiet disapproval.

"You're forcing it,"

he said once, his voice low but cutting.

"Blood obeys strength, but it listens to calm. You're trying to control what you don't understand."

Uche didn't reply. He just clenched his fists tighter and tried again.

But the harder he tried, the worse it got.

By the end of the second week, he had nearly passed out from exhaustion. His palms were cold, his breathing heavy, and still there was nothing to show for it.

'Should I just give up on learning blood skills?'

Uche wondered. But remembering how Eric had injured him with his blood bullet the other night, he couldn't give up.

Eric was among the few students that made use of the section to combine martial arts and blood skills. He was even among the top students in the blood manipulation class and had qualified for the semi-final of the blood manipulation weekly duel.

'Should I just ask Eric to teach me?'

'Hell no.'

He knew it was a bad idea. Not only would his pride not allow him to ask the boy, but since he couldn't learn it from the instructor himself, then who was Eric?

Maybe the problem was just him.

And speaking of instructors, something clicked in Uche's head.

"Mira."

He muttered. He hadn't gotten to communicate with the princess since she sent him the studies, but he had been using the studies to improve himself. The martial arts videos had helped him a lot; he had even used the blood manipulation studies, but none of them still worked.

But that didn't mean he couldn't explain the situation to Mira and find the best solution for himself.

"Right."

Uche muttered as he quickly rushed to his room and fished out the wristwatch.

Mira had responded to his last message, which was just him trying to know how she was doing. And seeing that she replied meant she would certainly reply to this too. He just hoped she could find a solution to it.

---

Their last match in the weekly duel had made a dramatic turn to the semi-finals. Not only had two new students qualified for the semi-final stage, but the stakes were relatively high too.

Both Anna and Uche, two newly evolved pure-blooded vampires, had made it to the semi-final of the weekly martial arts duel. Granted, Anna had qualified for the first two rounds without putting up a fight at all, and Uche had also got lucky in the last match with Eric forfeiting, but it was really surprising.

During the last duel, Anna had defeated one of the strongest students in the martial arts class. The boy came third in the last month's duel, and somehow, he got defeated miserably by Anna—and this left everyone cautious of her.

Everyone had been training so hard.

Uche came to realize that the weekly martial arts duel wasn't just for the academy to know the top students or to give them special quests, but it was also an opportunity for the students to push themselves to their extreme limits, putting more effort into what they could do.

And right now, every one of the remaining students was training so hard after seeing what Mira could do.

There were a total of five students in the semi-final now, and all five had been training too hard, including Marcus, who didn't always give a fuck. But due to the fact that he'd be fighting Anna in the semi-final, he actually gave a fuck.

There would be a special fight between Elion, Uche, and one other boy. The first person to lose would be disqualified from the right to fight in the semi-finals, and the remaining two would join Anna and Marcus.

But the person would still be among the top five students who'd be on the special quests.

The stakes were relatively high.

But with everything going on with Uche in learning any blood skills, he never neglected any opportunity to train himself in martial arts.

He's determined to go on this special mission they all talk about, more importantly he wanted to kick Elion's ass.