The elevator's theme song was annoyingly catchy; before I knew it, I found myself humming its tune. Everyone else, on the other hand, stayed surprisingly mute, which made me stand out even more.
"Uncle, in the meantime can I stay at your house?"
"Why do you ask that?"
"I just…"
"I bet it's that girl, right?" Leo said with his usual energetic voice.
"Yes..." I hesitantly confirmed.
He didn't answer immediately.
"We'll see what we can do." He replied as he petted my head.
When we reached the fifth floor, Ilay and the others got out of the elevator, so I instinctively followed.
"Hey, what were your thoughts of my—" I wanted to ask something of my uncle but realized he wasn't beside us anymore; the elevator was already gone.
"Where has the uncle gone?" I then asked the others.
"Oh, Father? I don't know; he is probably busy with something," Ilay answered.
Surprisingly, the maid with cat ears was also missing.
Huh, she was accompanying us up until a few moments ago. How did she disappear so fast?
I looked around, but no matter where I looked, I couldn't find a single trace of her.
A small researcher hurriedly joined us shortly after; he approached Ilay and whispered something to him. He was short, had messy hair, and had a pair of square glasses.
He looked pretty beat up and had large bags under his eyes; he was walking hunched forward with a dirty and oversized lab coat.
Ilay calmly dismissed him as he guided us to a secluded room.
A large, mostly white room.
Within it, stashed on the side in large boxes, was a large collection of demonic artifacts. At the center of that room was a man with dark skin dressed in gray sweatpants and a white shirt.
Who's that guy?
I was about to ask the others, but when I saw the researcher still pestering Ilay, I got curious and tried to listen to their conversation.
"Young master, this is a serious matter; if that demonic artifact is not returned within—" The small researcher had finally had enough of the constant dismissal coming from Ilay.
"I told you it's fine, that one specific dagger no longer exists. We'll discuss it later when the instructor is not here… it's not something that can be shared just yet. Rest assured, Father already knows of this, so you won't get in trouble," he reassured the researcher as he removed his large sweater.
Underneath his baggy clothes, Ilay was hiding a variety of artifacts.
Wow, I didn't think you walked all the time with those—
Seizing the opportunity to catch the figure off guard as he was curently smoking a cigarette, he charged at the figure standing in the middle of the room.
Ilay was able to successfully land one blow before the man could react.
Ilay was able to land another punch to the face before the other man fully recovered from the surprise attack, kicking Ilay away.
The man took out a demonic artifact in the shape of a support cane out of his pocket, one made seemingly out of a simple and robust tree branch without any sort of fancy decoration.
Huh? How did he fit such a long cane inside his pocket? Are his pants also artifacts? Or is that cane something that can adjust its length? I wonder if I can do the same.
Ilay took out a gun and then tried to shoot at the man.
One tap with that cane summoned large vines all around the user, which he used to shield himself from Ilay's attack.
We, in the meantime, sat on the sidelines watching the match unfold.
"So you too have to train like this." I commented to Leo as he was deciding which weapon to take.
"Yep, Father is the one who suggested you do the same; you should pick up something to use. If you go barehanded, you're going to be beaten like a dog." Michael warned me as he picked a few dice from the pile.
Fuck, does that mean I'll have to spar like that every day?
"Before you panic, usually we spar once a week." He clarified.
As I turned back to see the fight, I saw Ilay had successfully cut down the distance and was now fighting using mostly bare hands; his gloves would release strange pulses whenever they made contact with his opponent.
Despite his best efforts, no attack landed on his opponent as he always managed to weave out of the way.
After a couple of exchanges, the trainer used a palm technique to push Ilay away to try and recover his breath.
Ilay would not give the sparring partner even a second to breathe. He sprang forward with incredible speed, trying to land a sidekick to the solar plexus, but he was blocked by the vines. From then on, the two kept exchanging attacks at an even faster rate than before.
Unlike before, the trainer was no longer easily weaving away from Ilay's attack; he was now blocking and parrying his punches and kicks while constantly landing back counters one after the other, mostly aiming at his sides.
Even when the face was wide open, the trainer would go out of his way to only attack his sides in one way or another.
"Why isn't he using his powers?" I asked the others.
"Isn't it simple? It's because he hasn't mastered them yet; he is not used to fighting just yet, so using those powers will only make him lose faster." Michael answered as he sat besides me to spectate the fight.
For his demonic artifacts, he had grabbed a crossbow, a mirror, a necklace, and a strange metallic sphere.
"If he becomes desperate enough, he might try to unleash his ace up his sleeve, but if he misses, then the match is over." He added.
"What do those artifacts do?" I asked him while pointing at the necklace he was holding in his hands.
"Oh, these? Well, it's a long story, but to keep it short, the crossbow makes everything it shoots disappear, not as in erased, but as invisible. The ball can double whenever it bounces; it's a bit random, but it does its job, and the necklace, that's in case everything goes wrong." He said with an arrogant smile.
"It doesn't multiply infinitely; once the original stops moving, all the other clones vanish as well." Leo added while rummaging through the list of objects.
"What about the mirror?" I asked.
"It's a tool for losers like him." Leo answered before he could even have a chance at opening his mouth.
"Hey!" Michael protested.
"If my choices are so bad, what are yours?" He turned around to check, but Leo had yet to pick up something from the stash.
Yeah, but what does it do?
"I have my tricks up my sleeve." He said with a smug grin on his face.
The sound of Ilay crashing against the wall interrupted the conversation and signaled the end of the fight; Ilay had lost.
"Next!" The instructor yelled.
Leo quickly went in to drag Ilay out as Michael stepped in as his next opponent.
"Wish me luck!" He yelled as he rushed towards the center of the room.
He then raised the metallic sphere and shot it with the crossbow before tossing the crossbow aside.
"What? Is he crazy?" I exclaimed.
He too decided to try and fight the instructor with his bare hands, but unlike Ilay, he didn't bring any demonic artifact specialized for close combat.
"That idiot, he is gambling on the chance the sphere attacks the instructor." Leo explained what was happening.
I could hear the metallic sphere bouncing all over the room; some even bounced next to me.
That crazy fucker, doesn't he realize he could hit us?
He had better results than Ilay, managing to slowly make the sparring partner take a couple of steps backwards under an unending barrage of fists, which ended, but eventually he fell because of his own sphere bouncing all over the room.
One of them landed on the back of his leg with extreme power, making him fall on his knee. This allowed the instructor to quickly subdue him in a chokehold before catching the invisible ball with his bare hands, making all the duplicates disappear.
Serves you right.
Next up was Leo. He happily hopped forward with a large grin on his face and waited till a few servants brought in the sniper rifle I made.
"There's no way…" I said as I got up.
He then ejected the magazine containing the rounds and grabbed one that those same butlers brought with them.
The instructor sighed at the sight.
"A larger weapon with an edgy design doesn't—"
Before he could finish his sentence, Leo took his shot; the instructor once again summoned the vines and managed to deflect the bullet.
But then the bullet bounced from the wall to the ceiling and from the ceiling back towards the instructor. He was able to once again deflect it, but the same thing happened once more; after a couple of bounces, the projectile once again tried to land on his body.
"What the—"
"He combined different artifacts; the bouncing bullets are a separate thing, but when shot by the sniper, they inherit the ability to home in on the target." Elvis explained to me.
"There's no way that should work," I replied.
"But there you have it."
Leo then shot the second, third, and fourth bullets in rapid succession and then, when the instructor began charging ahead, shot the fifth towards the ground below, forcing him to move to the side as the bullet pierced through the vines.
It was a match hard to watch, as the instructor was forced to stay on the defensive, under a constant barrage of projectiles, leaving no room to breathe.
The instructor stood still for a dozen or more seconds, constantly slowing down his movements until he managed to deflect every bullet at the same time, giving him a window to advance.
But as soon as he took his first step, Leo shot his sixth bullet.