"Two?" Sero ungracefully dug himself out of the sand.

"Yeah, the Jury axe and Revenge." Enzo made no effort to help him up.

"Well, I got Revenge, but I don't think I caught the Jury axe."

Enzo sighed, and conjured the golden weapon again. Sero's body buzzed as he copied the skill.

Up close, the axe was much more intimidating, the lengthy handle solid gold and wrapped in black leather. The blade had a curved edge, a half-crescent that was noticeably sharp. The back of the axe was thick and flattened, like a hammer.

"Revenge is a good skill since you return all the damage you've taken with one attack. I have another skill called Retribution that I'll show you if you do-"

Sero raised his arms and conjured the Jury axe. As soon as he grabbed the handle, he fell forward with the axe. It was immensely heavy, and the blade of the axe hit the ground with a boom and submerged itself completely.

"Holy- What the fuck is up with this?" Sero squeaked as he let go of the handle, causing the axe to dissipate.

The Demonic Judge snickered. "The Jury requires absurd strength to even lift, but it gets lighter with every sin you atone for." He swung his axe casually with one hand, causing gusts of wind. "The more sins you collect and don't atone for, the heavier it becomes. It's also a great weapon against those who have countless sins."

Sero stared at him. "So, you've atoned for a lot of them?"

"Nope," Enzo let his axe dissolve into golden sand. "I've only atoned for a few. I just wield it with my strength."

A slight nervousness trickled through Sero as he realized what a monster the man in front of him was. It was almost unbelievable when he recalled Enzo stating that Gregor was even stronger than him.

"You done taking a break?" The Demonic Judge cracked his neck. "We're gonna keep going until you can't move again."

"I... yessir." Sero pushed his feelings aside. Though it was a shame he couldn't wield Jury yet, Revenge was a nice addition to his arsenal, considering how often he was getting beaten on.

"Yesterday, you were slowly able to develop a feel for fighting, trusting your instincts as you saw different strategies. Today, keep honing that sense while you play to your strengths." Enzo lazily clenched his fists. "I showed you Revenge so you can deal some damage back to me, provided you can hit me with it."

Sero nodded, conjuring his blade and covering it with green mana. His body buzzed with power as he activated his Iron Skin, energy and mana efficiency, and enhanced his body with magic.

----------------------------------------

Time became meaningless as Sero slowly locked in, trading attacks with Enzo in an endless loop. Granted, Sero was receiving more damage than Enzo, but he pressed on, methodically gathering damage and sending it back with a punch or slash whenever he found an opening. His Perfect Analysis was now second nature to him, giving him Enzo's predicted attack patterns and optimal counterattacks.

The Demonic Judge seemed impressed at Sero's rapid adaption, at one point covering his hands in a dark red flame that Sero copied as Hellfire. The Hellfire was a Demon-exclusive skill, corrupting neutrally-charged mana into a negatively-charged fire that burned forever.

As Sero covered his retreat with a flurry of explosive mana knives, he quickly charged up a mana nuke in his left hand. Enzo stomped his foot, creating a ring of Hellfire around himself that devoured the knives, denying their explosion. He quickly pushed off with his other foot, leaped straight at Sero.

Anticipating a punch, Sero quickly swung his sword downwards, trying to catch the Demonic Judge. Enzo inhumanly shifted his weight to the side, lining himself up with Sero's left hand. A screeching blast of green mana shot forth, catching Enzo directly. The nuke exploded violently, but Enzo pushed forward through the green smoke, his Hellfire-clad hand already cocked back.

Sero dodged the punch, but the force of the impact threw him off balance. Enzo followed up with a powerful kick that sent him flying back. The ground rushed up to meet him, but Sero twisted his body mid-air, using his momentum to propel himself sideways. He landed gracefully on the ground, rolling to absorb the impact.

Scrambling to his feet, Sero halted when he was face-to-face with Enzo's Hellfire fist.

"Not bad." The Demonic Judge remarked, a rare hint of approval on his face. He dispersed the Hellfire, briefly looking down at his clothes. The only signs of damage was on his suit jacket, which was ripped in several spots. Sero, on the other hand, had multiple cuts and bruises, not to mention his shirt was completely shredded.

Sero grinned through his fatigue. "I'm getting closer."

"No, you're not." Enzo shook his head.

"When will you stop hurting my feelings?" Sero pouted as he got up and brushed himself off.

"No, I meant you're already there." Enzo's brows furrowed as he slipped his hands into his pockets. "I'm actually amazed. I'm not sure if it's because of your Scholar abilities, but you've managed to keep up with me blow for blow. Your battle sense has become incredibly sharp, and you've assimilated that with your Perfect Analysis."

"Really?" Sero felt a twinge of pride at Enzo's praise. It was the first time since they met that the Demonic Judge sounded genuine.

"Don't get ahead of yourself," The Demonic Judge scowled. "You definitely still have a long way until I feel like you're ready for the tournament."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Fair enough," Sero conjured his sword as he faced Enzo. "Let's go again?"

"Uh-uh," Enzo held out a hand. "It's already been six hours. I'm off the clock now."

"Huh?"

"I train you for six hours a day, no more, no less. Old man doesn't even pay me, so I'm not gonna bother putting in extra effort." Enzo's eyes flashed red as he brought them both to the real world.

The sun was setting as a few mercenaries were standing around the center of the union, mostly unbothered that a half-naked Sero had suddenly appeared.

"Wait, but I thought we were gonna continue until I couldn't move anymore."

"Yeah, and you've exceeded my expectations." Enzo sighed. "I was gonna push you to your limits to force some change or something, but you've been unconsciously pushing your limits further and further. Do you realize I've gotten up to using a quarter of my power now?"

"What, really?" Sero blinked in surprise. He hadn't noticed that Enzo's strength had steadily increased during their training.

"I guess that's partly my fault," The Demonic Judge admitted with a grimace. "I've been matching my strength in proportion to your growth, so I can understand if it seemed like you hadn't been making any progress."

"No, that's... that's fine." Sero found it difficult to believe, but Enzo didn't seem like the type to lie. Plus, even though Sero wanted to train more, he had to respect the Demonic Judge’s bare minimum attitude. It’s what he would’ve done in his situation.

"Where's your liaison?"

"Huh?" Sero quickly glanced around the union, but Amaya wasn't anywhere. He opened his Shadow Shift and reached in, pulling out his phone.

"Mnosnter ouatbe on tae way to bou. B-rank. Wukk we kate pickign you up. Ted6 me if yiu find snurger rede." Sero squinted his eyes at her incoherent texts.

"Guess I'll be staying here for a bit." Sero sighed and began to head to the lounge area.

"Or, do you wanna eat?"

Sero paused and turned around slowly. "Pardon?"

"I said, wanna grab something to eat? I'm not gonna ask again." Enzo pushed past Sero. "If you're down, let's go. My treat."

----------------------------------------

The both of them sat at a nearby Korean barbecue restaurant. Enzo had given Sero a spare white button-up dress shirt to replace his shredded rags, which looked strange paired with his athletic shorts.

The Demonic Judge had ordered their meat for them as well as two beers, to which Sero was reluctant to drink, preferring his water instead.

"You don’t drink or something?" Enzo raised an eyebrow as he sipped his beverage.

"I can, it just reminds me of some bad memories." Sero glanced down at the table grill.

Enzo grunted, but didn’t press further. Sero could feel the atmosphere grow awkward.

"Uh, thanks for the meal," Sero broke the silence.

"Don’t take this the wrong way. I’m only doing this cause you’ve been growing ridiculously fast. In just two days, your battle sense has developed and you can keep up with me for hours. It’s important to take breaks in between rigorous training."

"Oh," Sero wasn’t sure how to respond. "I appreciate it."

"He acts tough, but he's actually a softie," The woman next to Enzo suddenly spoke.

"Shut up." The Demonic Judge scowled. "I'm rewarding him because he impressed me."

"Wait," Sero leaned back in his chair, his hands outstretched in confusion. "Who are you, and where did you come from?"

"Oh," Enzo blinked and noticed Sero’s expression. "Kit, this is Sero. Sero, Kit." He didn’t seem shocked at her sudden appearance.

"Finally nice to meet Enzo's student," The woman named Kit smiled at Sero, her voice low and sultry. "Kit Felina, how do you do?"

Sero blinked, surprised by her confident and outgoing nature. "I-I'm doing good. Thank you." Her eyes were a striking contrast of colors, one blue and the other green. He had never seen anyone with such heterochromatic eyes before. Her shoulder-length, curly brown hair framed her fair-skinned face perfectly, and she had a certain air about her that made her stand out in the crowd. Sero couldn't help but feel both intimidated and attracted in her presence. "You're stunning."

"Champion?!" Sero felt Aphiel pop in and immediately severed their connection.

Kit laughed, a soothing hymn to Sero's ears. "Thanks. I'm guessing you like women like me?" She asked, clearly unbothered by Sero's straightforwardness.

"I- Well, I like women in general. Cute, pretty, beautiful, sexy, I like them all." Sero immediately felt himself growing more comfortable around Kit.

Kit laughed again. "Oh? I like how honest you are." She leaned over the table closer to Sero. "I like all women, too." She winked playfully.

Enzo cleared his throat. "Kit, are you going to be joining us?"

"Hmm?" She sat back and glanced at Enzo. "Well, I'm here, aren't I?"

"Goddamn it," The Demonic Judge sighed. "I wished you'd have given me a heads-up before you popped in."

"Wait, pause," Sero waved his hands around frantically. "Let's take a step back. I didn't even see you come in." He stared at Kit.

"Oh, right." Kit flashed a lopsided smile. "It's one of my skills."

Sero began to salivate. "What... what skill?" He wiped his mouth.

"Hey, Enzo, you were right. He does have a weakness for skills," The brunette lightly hit Enzo's arm a few times before turning back to Sero. "Well, to start off, my class is called Paradox."

"Paradox?"

"Yep," Kit grinned. "I'm basically a walking demonstration of paradoxes. The skill I used to get here was Cat Paradox. Do you know what it's a reference to?"

Sero thought for a moment. "Is it... Schrodinger's Cat?" He asked, recalling the textbook he had read a few days before.

"He's smart!" Kit purred and clapped her hands happily. "You're right. I used it to basically will myself here. It's more or less a really good teleportation skill."

"Can... Can you show me?"

"Nope!" Kit smiled. "I'll show you one if you reach S-rank."

"O-oh." Sero was crestfallen, but it helped that Kit was refreshingly warm and cute.

"Sero," Enzo interrupted. "Kit's skills are extremely dangerous. Even more risky than if you were to use my Hellfire."

"Oh, I'm sure he can handle it," Kit slapped Enzo's arm again. "I've dated plenty of men and women who withstood my Cat Paradox on them."

"It's different if you use it, but Sero doesn't have your passives that would mitigate the risks." The Demonic Judge growled.

"Aw, you're sweet, looking out for your student. Don't worry, I won't show him until he's ready for it."

"He’s not my student–"

Their conversation halted when their waiter came over with plates of meat. Sero and Kit licked their lips hungrily as Enzo reached for the tongs.

"This is a one-time thing," He glared at the both of them. "We will not make this a recurring hangout."