I don't like the look in its eyes, he's calculating too much. He's got an increase in intelligence, I'm sure of it.
"Will there be more power like this?"
So that's what he's thinking about.
"There will be more power like this. I will grant you all the darkness energy of strong pray we battle, but in return I want your full cooperation."
The rat phases through the blood restrains. That is kind of dangerous, it looked like the parts that touched the blood restrains actually went ethereal for a short moment, but only those places. My head tells me that I should create distance, but my pride won't let me. I look at him as if everything is within my control.
He looks back and he lies himself on the ground.
"This one will serve master well."
I'm secretly relieved, as I'm not sure how I'll take him on yet. This phasing through is different than the teleportation the crows do.
"Good, I will give you a name first. Your name will be Black Eyes, Black will be your clans name, although you are the first Black now. My name is Red Wings. You'll be my first sergeant, my first vessel that'll follow me into battle."
I can't relax though, as I still need to gain a kind of soul powers I need to find a way to seal him in a way to make sure he won't kill me.
"Rise Black Eyes, I want to know your combat powers. So, lets hunt and familiarize yourself with your new powers and show me what you can do. Don't worry, nothing can kill you in this area while I'm watching."
"Yes master Red."
And so our first hunt started. It took a while for him to get a proper grip on his powers, but with my protection everything went well without any hiccup.
His battle style is a great match with mine as I'm a control type, my job is to control the flow of the battle and deal proper damage at the crucial moment. Black Eyes is a harassing agility type, his damage is rather low, but he's really fast. He also has the ability to phase through attacks, but this is limited, he can't make his entire body ethereal at the same time and the control over those parts isn't perfect so he wastes some volume that can turn ethereal.
This did comfort me though, he can never break through my blood cloud. But still, he can create openings for me to take while staying reasonably safe with his ability. And so we went to the lizardman territory.
I absorbed the drop of blood essence, I didn't feel a big change apart from the efficiency of magic handling. This is of great help for my style of battle though.
We traveled for 5 days, Black Eyes was fast in battle, and reasonably fast while traveling, but he was still slower than I am now. I'd have reached my destination in 2 to 3 days depending on the distractions, but traveling together is rather nice. Even while our conversations are mostly nonexistent, that's the drawback about telepathy, I have to constantly focus on using it and that tires me out mentally. So, until I found a solution for that small talk will be out of the question.
In these 5 days we've come up with a plan to handle the lizardman. Black Eyes came from that area and learned that the lizardman only serve the dragon on the surface, the current leader has been trying many ways to gain power greater than the dragon. But this was a big secret, so after learning this he fled to the crows' territory.
And so I decided to use this against them and willingly let them give that power to me, although I can't say it like that though.
When we arrived at their territory I hid myself in a blood fairy doll and the access blood I can wield floated around me, I made them have a star shape to look stylish though. Our plan depends on how strong they think I am, so looking cool is important.
Black eyes shrouded himself in black smoke, this makes him look mysterious and ominous.
Within an hour a small group of lizardman arrived at our destination. The lizardman are truly weird looking, it's like someone took huge 3 meter long horned lizards, grabbed their shoulders and pulled their shoulders above their hips while their heads kept pointing forward. Now they are around 1,60 meter tall and if you're looking from the side they are S shaped. But with short arms and legs, and a horn on its head. Their color is the same eerie white as the dragon I saw.
I can't think of any biological advantage with this form, their arms are short and the hands don't look that useful. The legs are short too, so they probably aren't that fast.
And this is the time where our play starts.
"Greetings oh envoys of the dragon. I, the great Red Wings, and my servant Black Eyes seek an audience with your clan leader."
My words are respectful yet arrogant, the traits that I think a Dragon likes.
"Greetings Red Wings, my name is Batlo and I am the second in command. Our leader sensed 2 souls over here that he couldn't recognize, so he did send me to welcome you here. If you follow me we will arrive at our base within an hour."
He probably was send to investigate rather than to welcome us, but as we didn't give of any malicious intent he decided we could see the leader.
We traveled for quite some time, Batlo talked quite a lot to us. Mostly about all the wonderful things they had in their territory, but they truly had a lot. He talked about a hot spring, a spooky forest, and a cave infested with creatures but they haven't found the end yet.
This sounds like a dungeon, I get excited.
"Batlo, where is this cave you speak of?"
"It is just outside of our base, we use it to train ourselves. This makes it really important for our clan. If the leader permits it you can enter after your visit with him."
"I'll be honored if I may enter."
I really want to explore it, it sounds like a dungeon. It's definitely a place where I can grow stronger.
As he keeps talking about useless things I feel like his telepathy is different from mine, but I can't put my finger on what the difference truly is. I'll probably find out what it is when my plan works, or after I've killed them all of it didn't.
Like that we arrive at their base, it's a huge cliff side with many caves. Datlo takes us to the biggest cave on the lowest floor and we enter. There is practically nothing inside, a low stool and a desk. On the stool there is another lizardman, if his horns weren't bigger he wouldn't have looked any different from the others. But he must be the clan leader, he has 3 drops of blood essence flowing through his bloodstream. Judging on this he's the strongest I've met so far.