The instructor vanished before the bullet could hit; he reappeared behind Leonhart.
Leo tried to summon his flames from his other demonic artifact but was pinned to the ground before those flames had the chance to properly explode.
Despite that, the bullets didn't stop; incapacitating the user wasn't the answer to stopping them.
The instructor used one of his demonic artifacts or powers to turn his body into metal, and even then, he couldn't come out unscathed.
The bullets all left large dents in the metallic figure, leaving some really nasty bruises on the user; it was a miracle he didn't break any bones.
Leo had still lost, but out of all of his brothers, he was the one that dealt the most amount of damage.
Next up was Elvis.
Unlike the others, he tried to rely on his own demonic powers.
Making use of his own demon-like transformation to quickly boost his power and speed.
He lost a couple of fingers in his left hand, which turned completely purple; strange marks appeared all over his body.
He rushed forward, closing in on the sparring partner within the blink of an eye; he was much faster than both Michael and Ilay.
Yet he was sent flaying away by an invisible force.
That same invisible force then began to press his body to the ground. This time it was so dense it became somewhat visible, as the space above him was seemingly distorting.
"Why did he go so hard against him compared to everyone else?" I asked Leo.
"Because that's how dangerous his power is; give it an inch, and it'll devour your mind." He replied.
"I give up!" he yelled after.
"Man, you can be really ruthless at times." He commented as he undid the trasformation.
"I'm sorry if that offended you, young master," the instructor apologized.
"No offense taken," he reassured him.
Despite having lost in a humiliating way, he didn't seem at all fazed; he was smiling and seemingly happy with his result.
"Your turn now." He said after as he began to slowly nudge me off my seat.
"No, really, there's no need to; I too have my own lessons back at home." I tried to protest, but my pleas were ignored.
"Oh, and don't use your gun; you could potentially permanently cripple him, or he might freak out and try and kill you…" Leo warned me.
"Huh?"
Can you repeat that again? Why would he freak out? It's just a harmless weapon, after all.
"Good luck!"
I thought the instructor would rush at me, but surprisingly, he remained idle, staring at me with his golden glowing eyes.
Were his eyes glowing like that before? I think that might be a demonic power.
I feel like this is not the first time I've seen those kinds of eyes; it must be a pretty common relic.
Fuck, I haven't picked anything. I don't know how to fight with just hand-to-hand combat. What the hell am I even supposed to do here?
I immediately triggered the transformation into the hybrid form.
"Holy hell, what the hell did you do to end up in this situation?" The demon complained as he was awestruck by our enemy.
"What to do?" The angel asked me.
"I don't know…" I answered as I took off for the ceiling; I hugged one of the top corners of the room and then began shooting beams of light at the enemy.
"Are you sure?" The angel asked me.
Last time you used a weapon against Ilay, he used it against me; this one beat him effortlessly.
Seeing as I couldn't even land a single hit on him, I decided to ultimately give up on that strategy. I was consuming more energy than him, and in a battle of attrition, I was on the losing end.
"Do you have a plan?"
Absolutely not.
I said as I landed back on the ground. The instructor remained as expressionless as he was moments prior, slowly scanning my every movement.
I leaped forward; I wanted to tackle him to the wall. I didn't plan much further than that; I couldn't see myself succeeding.
As soon as I saw the instructor's front leg rise, I averted my eyes and braced myself for the coming impact, but when I opened them back again, I was on the ground; both my arms were pinned behind my back.
Well… at least I tried.
As soon as I undid the transformation, the instructor let go of me and even helped me get back on my feet.
"Don't close your eyes next time… that's the bare minimum you need to succeed in any fight." He told me before sending me back to my bench.
The others kept taking turns fighting that monster of a man for hours without end until everyone was simply too exhausted to keep on fighting.
I did try a few new things in that time; I tried hitting him with the wings the second time he pinned me down and landed a lucky strike on his eyes.
He didn't react kindly to that and dislocated my shoulder as punishment.
Ilay tried to rely less and less on his demonic artifact and kept trying to beat the instructor in a contest of pure martial arts.
Michael managed to overwhelm the instructor, forcing him to use his demonic powers, as he couldn't beat him in a martial contest.
Elvis never got close to beating him; no matter how many times he got close, he never landed a single hit.
Leo, instead, kept trying to win using a strange yet creative combination of demonic artifacts.
Afterwards, we spent a few more hours receiving personalized lessons from the instructor and some other people that joined in to help us, which meant I was stuck learning how to slide forward and backward for most of the time.
By the end of the session I was exhausted, barely awake, resting in a corner, curled up so that no one would end up bothering me, and while I didn't exactly feel much, there was an uncomfortable sense of warmth invading the soles of my feet.
I don't want any of this anymore…
"Luca…" Leo's exhausted voice called for me like a tiny yelp.
"Wasn't our training over?" I refused to open my eyes no matter what.
"Yes, it's over," he reassured me as he tried to pat my back.
"What do you want?" I asked him.
"Isn't it time we test out your ability?" He whispered in my ears.
Ah, right… that's why I came here.
I tried to get back up, but my legs were too wobbly to properly stand, so I had to lean on the exhausted Leo to stand upright.
The uncle had returned; along with him were a couple of researchers, one of them being the guy that kept pestering Ilay about something.
Ilay was also there explaining something to them; judging by the look on their faces, they were not amused. One of them was on the verge of pulling his hair while the other was angrily shaking his head.
Even the uncle didn't seem all too pleased about it as he was covering his face with his hand.
"So this is the one that absorbed it?" They asked while pointing at us the moment we walked up to them.
"Yes," Ilay answered.
"And you say he can forge demonic weapons?" The smaller guy with the square glasses asked him.
"Not necessarily forge...but close enough," he clarified.
"Who are these people?" I asked Leo, as the others were too busy chatting amongst themselves about stuff I wasn't all too interested in listening to.
"The small one should be… I don't know…" He answered with a confused look.
"I think he is in charge of managing the warehouse, and the old one… he should be…"
"I think he could be someone that analyzes and rates demonic artifacts," he then added.
Oh, wow, so this is…
"It would be best if the boy could directly show us the full extent of his capabilities." The older researcher interrupted the others.
"Ah, sure, just give me a moment." I said as I triggered the transformation.
They seemed a bit taken aback by the transformation as they both took a step away from me.
"Fancy seeing you again." The demon said in a teasing voice as he appeared floating upside down in front of me.
"What should I make first? "I asked them.
"Huh?" This question left them all stunned.
"What can you make?" the younger researcher asked curiously.
"Let's start with something simple. Can you replicate these?" The older one handed me a bunch of dice.
"What's their ability?" I asked him.
"Can't you tell?" He seemed a bit grumpy, but he quickly calmed himself down the moment he saw my uncle's glare.
"It's a gambling item; if you roll the max number, you get stronger and faster, that's all." He explained after clearing his throat.