DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro looked at Krog as he stepped out of the arena, having to be supported by some healers. With a flick of his wrist, Eiro quickly helped heal him as much as much as possible.

"E-Eiro, I... I'm sorry..." Krog muttered, looking down at the ground, but Eiro simply let out a deep sigh, "What are you apologizing for? It's not your fault in the slightest."

"Yeah, but your plan was... to have the four of us be at the peak, right..? Now that won't happen... just because of me..."

Eiro rolled his eyes as he stepped up to Krog. He stood in front of this man that towered above him, and proceeded to hit his stomach. It clearly had an immense amount of power, so much so that a shockwave seemed to continue even beyond Krog's back. However, the warrior just stood there, having taken that attack easily, despite the clear shock of the two people still trying to support him.

"What was that for?" Krog asked annoyed, and Eiro smiled at him, "Nothing. Come on, the others are waiting."

Krog rolled his eyes annoyed as he placed his arms behind his neck, and walked toward the stairs with a loud groan, "But seriously, that guy was super strong. I wonder if I could beat him if I tried again."

"I'm sure you will." Eiro said with a smile, as he slowly turned toward the two healers, "Oh, and you guys... I'm sure you can keep what just happened here a secret, huh?"

---

"What? He has a-" Solomon asked, shocked as he heard what Eiro had just explained, when suddenly someone else came rushing into the room.

"Dad! That guy, he's not from here! He's-" Arc exclaimed, his face so pale as if he had just seen a ghost, and Eiro let out a slightly annoyed sigh.

"I know. He's a quite special case. But... I wasn't aware of that yet, Arc, thanks for telling me. I guess that supports my theory though." Eiro pointed out, "He really does seem to have a unique skill."

Arc looked back at Eiro with a deep glare, "A unique skill? What kind?"

Eiro turned toward his son and locked eyes with him for a few moments, before shaking his head, "You're not meeting him, Arc."

"But-"

"No. You're not." Eiro interrupted Arc immediately, "That guy is incredibly dangerous. Depending on the extent of his power... even I might have trouble dealing with him, considering the type of ability it seems to be."

---

Eiro stepped into the arena once more. Jess had won her quarter-final fight easily, so in the semi-finals she would have to fight that man. Eiro tried to inform her about what he thought his ability to be as much as possible, but soon, it had gotten to the point where it was Eiro and James' turned to fight. And he didn't want to be rude toward him, so he concentrated his attention toward his friend instead.

The crowd cheered as James and Eiro stood in the arena, as the two friends looked at each other. And soon, the bell was rung, signaling the start of the fight. The second that this was the case, Eiro swung his arm to the side, and caused an explosion of force right in front of James. However, despite Eiro not weakening the attack just because James was the one he was fighting, he stood there unbothered by what had happened.

Or rather, that's what it looked like, since the cloud of dust that had formed around James made it hard to see what just happened.

James used an ability given to him by the special class that he had finally achieved. His physical ability and his stats had risen so much, on top of the amount of classes that he had cycled through before this, so that he was given a special class. He was the first out of the three to get to this stage.

His class was the 'Assassin hiding in the Light'. A special class that only Light Elves can reach, due to its nature. This special class allowed James multiple new things. First of all, his speed had been considerably increased, and his agility and dexterity stat growth was incredible in this class. But that wasn't all that this class allowed him. By exchanging his stealth-based abilities after attaining this class, he became an assassin that stood in the forefront. A being that was supposed to hide was now wide in the open.

And of course, that meant that he had to receive abilities that let him live in the world of light. And this is where the nature of light elves came in. A light elf. A special sort of hybrid race. Elves were a folk that had achieved something that others hadn't. They didn't have clans, they had entirely different races. And that gave their hybrid offspring certain qualities as well.

The high elves, a race blessed by magic, and the dark elves, a race rejected by magic. Their offspring created light elves. A race both blessed and hated by magic at the same time. Until now, James had never been able to so much as push out the tiniest ounce of mana out of his body, but now, that was different. His body had started being capable of using magic for a specific sort of magic, only possible due to the special nature of a light elf's mana.

James was able to solidify his raw mana, forming it into weapons that seemed as if they were made out of pure, solid light. Right now, he was using it to simply coat his daggers, since it was easier and quicker to use this way, and he didn't have the chance to experiment with this new ability too much, but there was one quality that he certainly was trying to make use of now.

Mana rejected other mana. That was why a mage could not suddenly control something influenced or created through another's mana. And this being the case, James was able to use this ability to create solid barriers that protected against magic nearly perfectly. And with the way that he was using it now, coated onto his weapons, he could cut through another's magic in a quite surreal way.

So what James had just done was cut through the blast of force created by Eiro's magic. This was the sort of fight that the two agreed upon.

If Eiro went all-out against James, James would never be able to win against him. That was an undeniable fact. So, Eiro was only allowed to use magic in his fight against James. If Eiro ever used non-magical means of attacking or defending, it was his loss.

Of course, at the end of the day, this loss just mean that James would quickly give up so that Eiro could proceed anyway, but the two of them would know that James was the one that had truly won this fight between them.

Just that there was one part that still made this fight incredibly tought for James. He jumped to the side, holding his ribs in pain as he looked to the side, seeing a thin bar of rock that Eiro pushed out of the ground during the explosion.

"Well, shit..." James groaned with a broad grin on his face, "Guess I really have to be more careful, huh?"

Quickly, James rushed forward toward Eiro, while the demon was throwing all sorts of magic at him. But James was able to react to everything rather quickly. He either cut through the projectiles that Eiro had shot at him, or he dodged the other magical attacks that he wouldn't be able to cut through too easily. But as the fight went on, and James actually got rather close to Eiro, the Demon noticed that something had changed. James had done something to his skin, something that he hadn't seen from him before. He imitated Eiro to an extent, and fused this new ability into his skin.

Like this, raw magic wouldn't be able to hurt him as easily anymore. Of course, the heat of magical flames could still scorch him, and the momentum of a rock thrown at him with magic would still hurt and rip his skin. That was something that James could not defend against, so this was certainly no omnipotent ability.

However, it didn't have to be. It was incredibly powerful. James was an incredible fighter, just from his raw skill. Since Eiro made him a new arm that he was able to move as if it was his real arm, James became able to display his true capabilities again. And now that he had the ability to defend against, and even to an extent use magic? That really changed things for James. Eiro was glad that he had grown this powerful.

If James had turned out to be someone that Eiro had been able to knock out in an instant, just like all the others that he fought in this tournament... Eiro would have been nothing but disappointed. He wouldn't have been able to call James a true friend. But now he can. With a smile on his face, as James got even closer than before, Eiro shot forward a compressed ball of magic. It was basically just raw mana that he had compressed an incredible amount. It was unable to do a lot of damage, but it had quite some force.

It shot at James. It moved incredibly slowly, but somehow he wasn't able to dodge it. Instead, James tried to cut through it with his dagger. It cut half an inch into the orb, and then the solid mana simply shattered into pieces, overwhelmed by this raw amount of mana.

It pushed through James' normal blade, and hit the center of his chest, pushing James back to the other side of the arena in an instant.

But instead of being pushed into the wall and falling unconscious there, James had been able to catch himself, and kept standing there.

"I'm not done yet." He practically roared, but Eiro couldn't help himself but chuckle. He walked up to James, and extended his hand forward. And then, Eiro flicked James' forehead with his finger, before the light elf simply fell over backward.

"Hah... hahah... Alright, I give up." James laughed, with an incredibly broad grin on his face. As the fight was announced as over, and as Eiro was named the first of the two people that would fight in the finale, and the crowd cheered after watching this incredible battle, James looked into the bright sky, happy about beating Eiro in a fight for the first time in eight years.

After all, even a simple flick of the finger that did just a single point of damage counted as a non-magical attack.