"man I can't wait," the raven thought as he dices baked." wait for what" at the words entering his ear sam almost jumped the little world he had entered whipping around fist first. barling leaning out of the way of the blow Natale rubbed his nose while thinking 'well this is happening again... at least he didn't use his teeth'.

"so what are you making?" he asked as the hostility left his son's body.

"dices" was the curt answer.

"the heats to high'-sam c.o.c.ked his head-'the clay will crack if you don't turn down the heat" sam did just that Natale made a living crafting objects sam had no reason to not listen to him. the next hour was spent with the older male instructing the younger one how to correctly speed bake clay using runes.

after cooling the dice down sam tapped into his mana core and pulled a large amount of energy much more than needed for a rune. taking that energy he bathed the dice in it, making them with his mana signature, for most marking an object with there mana signature was just a way to tell other this was mine but sam knew thanks to his time living with witchs that there was so much more you could do with them. one was to never lose the marked item another as being able to summon said item.

when the mark was done forming sam set the dice down while he prepared the paint he brought. painting the base light grey sam painted each symbol on the supernatural die the color that his mind's eye a.s.sociated the power with. for the other, he used dark red on the edges before filling them in with an appropriate color.

when sam was done with dice waiting from them to dry his father asked if he could touch them up, add a bit of flair, sam just c.o.c.ked his head in questioning." the design is kind of plain for you, would you like me to enhance it" sam thought over it for less then a second before responding "yes!"

Natale smiled as he swiped a rune into existence, the rune transformed into a small twister of wind thaT engulfed the dice for two moments. the dispersed twister left behind to perfect dry dice grabbing the paintbrush his son was using before getting to work, while his father was painting sam tried to use the rune his father just used. said father mentally laughed at that trait of his son while pretending not to notice just as his son pretended to notice that he had noticed.

nearly an hour later they heard the doorbell ring and soon after carol answered it before, "sam it's for you" she called out from downstairs. it didn't take long for Sam to arrive at the front door to see some man in a suit standing in the doorway, 'he's from the seven blades warfare league' the raven realized upon seeing the badge on his leftb breast pocket.

"Samuel vegal?" he asked

"yes that's me, you're from the seven blades warfare league correct" sam replied putting on his best non-threatening smile. the man put on a matching smile of his own.' this man is interesting!'

"you're joining the SBWFL, honestly I'm surprised you didn't do so sooner" in response to her tone sam pulled a childish move and stuck out his tongue, his mother just rolled her eyes. turning to the referee she asked if he would like anything to drink." just water I don't think I will be here long." while his mother headed to the kitchen sam lead the way to the kitchen table.

he pulled out several digital doc.u.ments explaining them before handing them over to sam," the first doc.u.ment is a copy of the SBWFL rules and regulation most are focused the rule of battle", sam skimmed the doc.u.ment for now taking the next one" this is for your insurance" that one was put to the side because the teenager lacked any form of insurance, "this is a release waver so you can't sue us" sam wondered how often that happened or someone tried," this form is for you to fill out on equipment you mean to use in your fights" sam got to work on that, "this last one is the current top ten fighters of the warfare league."

'now that was interesting', sam thought as he looked at the pictures only for his heart to start beating like wild seeing the face of the number five, "so this is what's become of you Defi," his smile became elated with a slightly feral edge,' i can't wait for the day we clas.h.!.+'

the referee was in shock here sam words he knew the Defi, he was the most reclusive(read: shy) of the top ten whos past was blank, there was no record of the boy before he joined the league five years back and yes he meant boy as defi recently turned 14 the May." you know him" he asked after he gained his composure.

"yes we met in the past I can tell from the picture he's changed much from the child I knew then...but we can talk after we finish up our business." the referee nodded and pulled a ring from his pocket "please grab your weaponry and any gear you fight with!" sam nodded knowing it was time for him to test out his fighting ability.

upstairs in his room sam wrapped the ribbon around his left arm and grabbed serval of his knives and daggers plus both the leather, wool, and silver beads bracelets. he decided not to grabbed the obsidian ring and small box mostly because his father sitting in the room and he wanted to keep a few tricks up his sleeves. returning downstairs the referee held out the ring to sam, who could already guess its purpose. the moment he touched it he felt tugging sensation at his center of gravity as the world blurred.

when everything was righted sam took a moment to catch his breath with his knees on the ground,' i forget how teleportation disagrees with me' letting out a long breath sam straightened his back taking in his new environment, a forest a dead one. there wasn't a single sing of life no animals wild or sentient, not even the trees were alive there was no wind the soil was a lifeless grey it reminded sam o- 'can't let that train of thought continue nows not the time for a flashback. so where the referee?' sam considered upping his senses but decided that was more likely to do him harm in this environment.

"well if that options out I should try my other senses," the raven mumbled to himself as he started to move towards a tree. climbing said tree sam consider which core he should use any one of them could help in this situation," demons out it can only sense those I can tempt, witch I lack the supplies, ghost looks for the soul, l.u.s.t searches for... well l.u.s.t, and the mana core can sense other forms of mana...in this dead forest any of the last three would work quite well, but which one this is why I need those dice."

leaping from branch sam tried to figure out the tracking method to use all while he looked for any physical signs of human presence. it was after fifty trees or so that sam decided on mana sense. stoping on a branch strong enough to support him sam's inner mana reached out to the mana of his surroundings.

the picture the mana painted in his mind showed sam just how truly dead this forest was,' look for human ignore the death that surrounds me' commanded himself. it wasn't near him but sam found of a trace of human presence shooting off in that direction unwrapped a length of the ribbon lets see his response.

he found the referee standing with his arms crossed behind his back, unhesitating sam pulled out a two-inch cresset dagger as he lept at the shoulders for one of his arms. the referee raised his head to look at sam while his arms whipped into action bladed mace appearing in the right.

just before they could colloid sam pulled on the ribbon wrapped a tree branch stopping midair sam just for the mace to brush by him before gravity did its job. flicking his wrist the ribbon released the brach, not a second after he touched the ground sam jump back a rune half-formed.

kicking off the ground the referee chased after sam twirling his mace above his head. when he got in range sam had already compted the rune, tossing the knife in the air crush the rune in his right-hand sam ran it over ribbon lighting it ablaze.

ducking under the mace swing barely sam grabbed his falling dagger using it to block the second swing, the two struggled for a bit until the referee jumped to avoid the burning ribbon sam whipped at his face. the distance between the two grew as the raven continued to use the ribbon as a whip, thankfully there's no gra.s.s or it would have caught and I would be fighting in a forest fire...huh that would have been a first for me...neat'

as the referee dance around the ribbon he a.n.a.lyzed sam's movements,' this boy is more than the rest of his age group...he not growing impatient he's willing to wait for me to make the first move just to snare me in a trap. let's see your trap boy." leaping off to the side he charged at sam fast and low mace scarping the ground.

'almost' sam thought as he leaned back to avoid the raising mace, kicking the referee stomach he knocked the older male backflipping the dagger into a backhand grip sam relentaly attacked.

'where the trap", the referee thought as he dodged the slashes,' almost' sam slashed up. 'where is it,' he tilted tot he left,' just there' sam thought while stabbing at the man's biceps.' here it comes' he realized pouncing away, sam smirked at the futile movements.

"you can't run from," his hair bleed white as he called on the power of the ghost inside of him, the little warmth was drained from the air as the forest came to life, in a manner of speaking, the trees reached out for the referee with the braches and rook as white shades in the shape of animals came from between them racing towards the man jaws maws and beaks wide open ectoplasmic drool falling from them.

'it's men a while since I saw such a large number of rabid beasts ', rabid beast these creatures are a small percent of the animal population that have gained power but has become much more ferocious inturn. bigger problems in certain places in the world, sam have visited one or two, the real problem of them was the animal population ranged in the billion made them somewhere in the thousands are far as the public was aware.

observing the savage creature sam took note that most of them didn't have a clear death-wound or form of power. but neither the less sam watched as the referee attempted to fend off the creatures with his apparently blessed weapon. but not blessed enough seeing as it only temporarily dispersed the shades he hit.

"as much fun as it is to watch him struggle I should end this so I can deal with my battle and blood l.u.s.t...thats an idea," taking a deep breath sam uncorked the mental bottle his blood l.u.s.t was contained. the area's temperature dropped even further.

the moment sam's blood l.u.s.t him the referee felt like a semi-truck had hit him again causing his to chock and falter in his swing, allowing for what look rabbit with shark teeth chomped on his ankle. smas.h.i.+ng the fully beast he tried to resist the chill entering his heart, what the h.e.l.l!' spinning to the side he slammed his mace into the face of a wolf a sec before he elbowed the nose of a deer. 'lets see what else this kid has up his sleeve,' channeling his mana into his mace the head popped leaving a barely visible energy chain connecting the two pieces.

now wielding a frail the referee charged his way through the h.o.a.rd towards sam, who made no move except focusing his blood l.u.s.t on him. stumbling the referee was still able to block the tree root aiming for his throat. smas.h.i.+ng the root he resumed his charge. sam still didn't move, watching as the man tried to fend off the roots and branches of the tree he was leaning on.

'too close', sam thought before his white hair flared and the referee was slammed int the ground by an invisible force," so how much more do you need to see?" sam asked as the shades pounced.