Scarlet

“Well, to start things off again, blood lycans are both incredibly prideful, and very protective of their pack,” Tar says, going back into his lecture as I back up along with the others to let the Class II Guardians handle the rest of the demons in the Fracture. “Meaning that unless your blood lycan parent is an outcast, exiled from their clan, they would protect you no matter what instead of harm you. And blood lycans generally don’t exile their clan members unless they really did something terrible. Like betray the entire demon race or harm their own pack in an extreme way, or some other reprehensible crime.”

Oh? That’s kind of surprising. They are demons, so I just kind of assumed… oh, right. I should stop doing that.

“Yeah, you should,” Tar says before continuing, “anyways. Remember this though. Even if you are the daughter of a clan member who wasn’t exiled – which I find unlikely, since a clan member is not likely to have had a child with a human considering the bad blood between humans and demons – then your status in their pack will matter a lot as well. Assuming your parent is a lower member of their pack, you would be at the bottom of the hierarchy. So even if they’d protect you and care about you from outside matters…”

They would probably treat me like a servant of some sort themselves?

“Correct,” Tar says as I glance towards the others to find them all chatting amongst themselves while we walk back in the direction we’ve been pushing for a while. “While we’re on the subject of blood lycans, I might as well explain the most commonly known racial traits they have, since you might be getting them yourself one day.”

I grimace at the hint towards me becoming less and less human.

“Blood lycans have several commonly known racial traits, such as their extremely powerful regeneration that is locked based on achievements, their incredibly sensitive ears both to sound and touch, and their blood tails,” Tar starts, making me frown slightly at the mention of a blood tail. “The regeneration and ears I’ve already talked about before, but a blood lycan’s blood tail is something rather unique. Blood lycans have the inherent skill to turn their blood into a type of blood metal for a rather steep price of mana. And only when the blood is outside of their body and still close enough for them to reach it with their senses. But for those born as pure blooded blood lycans – which does not include you – they are actually born with a very limited version of it in the form of a tail.”

I can’t help but tense up at the thought of getting a tail. Because my ears are already bad enough. What would a tail be like? Not to mention the hell of having to adjust my clothes to a tail…

The memory of Julian’s tail ruining his pants flashes through my mind before I quickly clear it out.

“Unless you unlock an advanced skill for it, I doubt you’ll ever be getting a tail,” Tar says, making me sigh in relief. “It’s not a biological part of them after all, nor is their tail a skill. More like a natural magical weapon made out of metallicized blood with the appearance and feeling of a tail. Well, until they shapeshift it.”

That’s kind of scary.

“Yeah, but from what I’ve heard from my brother who is contracted to a blood lycan, their tails are otherwise quite fluffy when not shapeshifted,” my eyebrow twitches at that. “And they can dispel them whenever they want. In fact, most of the time they don’t show their tail in public as it’s seen as a faux pas.”

I raise a brow at that.

Showing their tail is against the social norm for blood lycans? That’s… odd.

“Yeah,” Tar says, only to add, “well, except in combat of course. It’s more that if they have their tail out, they mean to do battle. So it’s taken as a threat by most people. Or they’re being playful, if you get my meaning.”

Oh. Yeah, let’s move on from that topic.

Tar chuckles as he notices a very faint blush creeping up my neck before continuing, “I do believe you’ll get their ability to turn your blood into metal at the very least, even if it’s only a lower rarity version of the skill. And you’ll likely get their full beast transformation skill, considering how you’ve already gotten a minor version of it with partial shift. And that beast transformation will have a tail, so you know. You just won’t have one in your – as the blood lycans like to call it – lycan form, which is just your usual form.”

Oh, now that’s some good news.

Knowing that I won’t have to deal with a tail in my huma- err, lycan form is very nice, and the idea of being able to turn my blood into that blood metal… that’s rather enticing.

“It will make for a nice way to get yourself reliable weapons should you need them, especially since the metallicized blood is stronger than any metal on Earth,” Tar voices his agreement in my mind as I continue walking with the team. “Although…”

Tar just trails off after that, making me frown.

Although what?

“On the off chance that you are born from a higher ranking member of the blood lycan’s pack,” Tar begins, sounding slightly hesitant to finish, only to quickly say it all at once, “then they’ll probably end up capturing you, forcing you to join the pack, and trying to force you into leveling up quickly to get rid of your human genes.”

I stop walking altogether.

Oh.

That… would be a problem.

“Yeah,” Tar says, sounding rather awkward. And I don’t start walking again until the others notice me having stopped and begin to glance at me. “Your best bet is to avoid Class V Fractures at all costs. Because you will be found out if you run into a blood lycan.”

I nod my head as I quickly catch up with the others again.

Although at least there are rarely any Class V Fractures. After all, the world would be overrun with demons by now if there were more of those.

Come to think of it, why are demons stronger than humans anyways?

“The answer to that is rather simple, honestly,” Tar says, making me raise a brow. “Tartarus is a much harsher world in general, with more mana in it than Earth, and no capacity for electronic technology due to a magical barrier set in place long ago by the now long dead humans there. So, the demons had to adapt.”

Huh. That makes sense.

“That and we fae found the demons long before we found you through the Fractures,” he adds almost as an afterthought.

Hold up. You found us through the Fractures?