So someone gave me a review that said I needed to flesh out my chapters more, and to also not start a chapter like a scene transition because it is hard to follow, now I didn't write out a manuscript on paper but I'm going to attempt making this chapter taking these into account.
Also sorry for taking so long to upload these days, writers block is a bitch and trying to take the review into account didn't help.
Now to the chapter.
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"Haha! so even as a child she trained in strong magic regions." I say with a smile as my raven was slowly moving closer and closer.
'She always hated the class discrimination of nobles and was even openly against their arrogance towards commoners even speaking against unfair laws aimed towards them, so she did her own thing, traveling to strong medic regions and trained hard until she became the beast of a woman she was in the anime.' I muse as I get within earshot of her, taking in her younger self.
Though young I could see she had the wild predator eyes that screamed "you are my prey now." As well as relatively short hair, kept wild and untamed.
"I wonder if I should talk to her?" I ask myself as I got closer and closer and when I was 50 meters(164 feet) away I make up my mind.
"What's the worst that could happen." I tell myself before taking a deep breath before looking at her back, "Heeeeeey!! Are you heading to the strong magic region too?!"
The young Merleona turns to my voice, I see her looking at my person, as if sizing me up, but I wasn't sure if she was thinking I was a threat or not.
'Oh right, small talk.' "I thought I was the only one crazy enough to train in a strong magic region!" I tell her as I pat a spot next to me, "hop on!
'Oooh crap, she probably thinks I'm creepy!' I think inside my head as a full minute passes before she moves closer and takes a seat next to me and puts her broom in a magic bag.
'Oh thank God! Gods? Eh whatever, I should probably say something.'
"So what brings you to the ultime volcano trail?" I ask her as the passing forest trees became more and more sparse and the faint smell of sulfur was now in the air, we were getting closer to our destination.
"I needed a place to train and clear my head, what about you?" she asks as we pass over a merchant caravan, the driver using wind magic to move the vehicle.
"I'm heading there to hone my fire magic better." I tell her as she looks at me with an unbelieving gaze, all I could do was chuckle as we feel the mana get more and more dense.
"Well I may not look like it but I have a…special constitution that allows me to use more than one magic element." I tell her and we sit in silence for a few minutes before she spoke.
"Uh-huh…well I'm Merleona Vermillion, what's your name?" She asks as we began our descent at the foot of a mountain.
"My name is Alucard Tepes."
"Alucard huh, I'll remember that. So do you know what the strong magic regions are like?" She asks as I de-summon my bloodbourne raven.
"Not at all, but I can tell even at the foot of the mountain that the mana is dense." I tell her honestly, considering I haven't figured out how to use mana skin, "but I bought enough supplies for two weeks."
"Are you kidding me?! If you don't know then why come here?!" Merleona shouts, throwing a fire covered punch at my head, making me fly through the air before hitting the ground hard.
"OOOOOW!!" I yell as I stand back up and see her body covered in fiery mana, and I could slowly see a phantom lion appear behind her, "that hurt! You know you could explain things to me instead of going punch happy!!" I tell her as I message the spot she hit.
"That's because you don't even realize that the moment you even take a step onto the trail you're body will combust from the ambient mana's super charged heat!" She shouts, "you know what fuck it!!! im teaching you how to use mana skin!" She declares as she points to the mana surrounding her.
"This is mana skin, concentrate all your mana around you like a second skin and you can climb the trail easily, got it!" She says with an impatient tone as she begins walking up the mountain trail leading to the ultime volcano trail.
"Seriously I came here to clear my head, yet I ended up with another headache!" I hear her say even when she was a hundred meters away, "okay, maybe I deserved that punch, but I'll learn as I go." I mutter to myself as I begin running after her, while I practice spreading my mana over my body.
"Hold on!" I shout after her as she reached the top of one of the cliffs faces, " do I just spread my mana and condense it all over my body?!" I ask her as I move closer to Merleona.
"That's kind of the idea!" She shouts back as I get within 10 meters of where she is, my breathing slow but steady as I grab foothold after foothold, and while climbing I could see my mana condensing around my arm.
"I did it!" I shout with a smile as I finally reach Merleona, as she smirked with approval, "not bad for a first time, but now we need to test something before we say you mastered it." She says with a feral smile as her fist ignites as she throws a punch at my gut.
"Calidous Brachium!!"
I felt the full impact of her punch, as her mana covered fist smashed through my own mana skin the moment I felt pain, and I fly back and crater myself into the cliff side, "oww… I'm definitely going to feel that tomorrow." I remark as I see her holding out a hand, "you lost concentration the moment you felt pain, and in a life or death situation, the moment you lose concentration will be what gets you killed." She tells me as I dust myself off.
"I'll take that into consideration." I tell her as she laughs, "you really can take a punch, most people are out for the count when I punch them." She tells me as we begin our ascent.
"Well my body is a lot stronger than it looks." I say as I remember the stupid high pain tolerance both alucards had, with hellsing alucard getting blown to pieces with holy bayonets by father Anderson.
"Good…then I'll take my time breaking you down." She tells me as I feel a shiver down my spine before I turn to look at her as we climb, "don't you mean build me up?" I ask her as I see her smirk, "you have to be broken down in order to be built up." She simply answers as the rock face of the mountain was getting warmer.
"Oh…goody." I reply as we silently climb for an hour, just concentrating on uur climbing, our mana skins around us. "So Merleona, do you have any family?" I ask her and she gives an expression that's a mix of irritation and happy.
"I have a twin sister, she is honestly more feminine than I am, but at the same time I can't help but worry about her future since she…can't really fight." She tells me as I listen, "I also got an older brother, he's a bit strict but he's a good person at heart, he runs the crimson lions magic knight squad. So he has to be strong in order to protect all of us." She she finishes before turning to me, "what about you? You must be a noble considering your name."
"Actually im a fallen noble, you see when I was born my mother died soon after, so I'm the last of the Tepes family…but i wasn't exactly alone, from what Toriel has told me, before she passed she transferred her contract to me, so I could have a mother figure in my life, so she and haru are kind of like family to me." I tell her, happy that the backstory I made for myself so I could blend in.
(Okay so explanation time! Alucard discussed with haru and toriel about a backstory to help them blend in, and this was what they agreed on-thelostswordsman)
"Oh…I-I'm sorry for bringing that up." She tells me with a sad look which felt a little uncharacteristic for someone as gung-ho as her.
"Don't be, all we can do is remember and honor our family…we're here." I tell her as we make it up the final cliff side and make it to the foot of our destination.
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Well folks I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and sorry it took so long ive been dealing with an extreme case of writers block as I tried to take my latest review into account.
But besides that I want to ask a few questions.
Should I have Merleona(and maybe mimosa) join the black bulls with Alucard, Asta and Noelle? I mean I understand wanting to have her be with the crimson lions but I figure I should do something new.
And should I have father Anderson (abridged or canon, your choice) reincarnate into black clover and he meets alucard at the magic Knights exam,if yes I'll have him enter the black bulls just so he can fight alucard.
Anyways im grateful to everyone who has read my works and I will see you next time, peace😁✌️