Demon's Virtue

"Why are you grinning like that? It's creepy..." Jess complained, looking at James as he was sitting there, drinking water from a waterskin after his fight, "Because it was a lot of fun, honestly." He pointed out, and Jess rolled her eyes in response, "I'm glad you had fun. Meanwhile, I'm going to have to fight the guy that Eiro called 'extremely dangerous'."

"Don't worry about it, you'll be fine. And even if... At the end of the day, this isn't a real battle. Usually you could use so many more tools than you can now, so even if you were to lose now, which I don't think you will, this doesn't really show how powerful you are in a group." James pointed out, "Honestly, this seems like a very inefective method to choose people to accompany the hero..."

"Of course, they're just trying to get people with raw ability to teach the hero. The hero has the special ability to learn basically anything they set their mind to. What they're planning on doing is to have the hero learn the abilities of the strongest individuals in each country." Eiro explained as he entered the space, and James looked at Eiro with a wry smile, "Seriously? Why did you never mention that before?"

"Huh? Well, I thought it was rather obvious, so I never felt the need to. But that's not really important. Jess, is everything prepared for the tactic I suggested?" The Demon asked, looking at the mage next to him, and she quickly nodded her head, "Yeah, I think so at least... But are you sure it's going to work?"

"I think so, at least, yes." Eiro replied, "But I can't be too sure. He didn't show the true range of his powers just yet. During your fight, just look to me, I'm going to analyse what happens after your scouting, and then I'll signal you what final tactic to go with."

Jess immediately nodded her head, hearing that she was currently being announced in the arena, "Alright, got it. I'll be right back, I guess..." Jess muttered, as she walked into the open arena as James and Eiro made their way back to the royal viewing area.

Eiro took a deep breath and looked into his mind, creating a sensory homunculus that he was mixing together in every possible way that he could. Even his ability to sense magic, which had increased after his evolution to a point where it rivaled the magic sight of spirits, was added into the mix.

And on top of that, Eiro focused all of those senses onto the two individuals in the arena. Jess, and the man that she was about to fight. He could see, smell, and hear every single motion of their bodies, every single twitch of a muscle. Every single change in the flow of their mana, even. Eiro could sense it all. And then, he mixed this ability with his ability to enter this sort of slowed-down realm in his mind, so that he could live minutes, or maybe hours, in a single second.

He needed to find out everything there was to know about this man, simply due to his abilities, and his apparent origin.

Jess immediately threw certain magic spells at her opponent, and the man in front of her unsheathed his weapon. Once again, it was a blunt sword, quite similar to the one that Krog had destroyed. As if he didn't want to use a sharp edge for some reason. With a single swing of his sword. The moment that the blade hit the orb of rock, the mass of Jess' spell slowed down a certain amount, but in a jarring, unnatural way. It wasn't immediate upon contact, but it seemed to take a few instants until this unnatural slowing-down proceeded. And then immediately afterward, the rock practically moved out of the way of the blade.

The blade didn't push it to the side, but it was as if something else forced it away, simple into any direction that wasn't toward the metal of the sword.

And with that, Eiro had already analysed him enough. The Demon clapped his hands together for a moment, and then raised his hand, making a symbol as Jess glanced over toward Eiro, understanding what she had to do. Jess slowly dropped her arms and let her staff hang loosely by her side, as she slowly started to approach the man.

He didn't understand what was happening, but the man still swung his blunt blade at Jess. And the moment that the nearly round edge touched her skin, and it stopped, as if Jess' body was a thick metal statue.

Clearly not sure what was happening, the man pulled his sword away, while Jess' heart was beating harder and louder than ever before. Eiro smiled lightly, glad that it worked.

"Wait, what just happened?" Solomon asked, and Eiro slowly turned toward him, "That man's power is 'Negation'. Rather, a 'Field of Negation', that he has centered around his blade in a specific way. When his blade hit the rock before, it negated the impact for just a moment before he actually slashed through it. Now, when this man attacks someone, what he seems to negate is once more the impact. But, my guess is that he needs to know the exact force of said impact. I taught Jess a spell that lets her move into any direction at incredible speed. And so, she used that spell to decrease the impact more than that man wanted, causing the blade to just stop completely, since all of the leftover impact was negated. It seems quite a complex manner, but that's the rough gist of it." Eiro explained, trying to make it make as much sense as possible.

"But why would he do that? If he 'negates' that, then won't that really weaken his abilities?" Krog asked, and Eiro nodded his head, "Yeah, and that seems to be the point. He's trying to make his attacks have less of an impact. He's trying to fine-tune everything so that he only uses as much force as he needs to."

"Wait, are you sayin'..?" Krog muttered, and Eiro immediately nodded his head, "Yeah, he's much, much stronger than this... and it doesn't seem like he is capable of controlling his physical prowess, and instead uses this special ability."

"So you're saying that... his ability wasn't even what we had to worry about..?"

"That's what I'm saying, yes."

"...Do you think Jess can..?" Krog asked, and Eiro slowly shook his head. It didn't take long for his guess to be confirmed either. A few minutes later, the fight was over, and Jess had lost, unable to continue her fight since she was unable to move anymore.

She was healed, and Eiro sat there, even more angry than before. They would now enter a one-hour break before the finals.

---

Eiro stood in the arena, his opponent in front of him. Before the fight, they had a quick chance to talk to each other.

"I will just make a suggestion. If you want even the slightest chance at victory... Go all out. Stop negating your own attacks." Eiro warned the man in front of him, "Because I'm not holding back against the likes of you anymore."

"The likes of me? What, a commoner?" The man asked with a scoff, not minding the fact that Eiro somehow managed to see through his ability, as the Demon let out a deep sigh, "I used to be a commoner not too long ago. Obviously I'm not talking about that. With 'the likes of you' I mean someone that straight up infuriates me."

"And why do I infuriate you?"

"Because you did something you shouldn't have, to both my friends. This is something that I haven't told them about yet, because I knew you wouldn't be able to use that ability. I saw the timer in your eyes. What I mean is someone that not only pretends to be weaker by negating their own abilities instead of just controlling yourself, which leads me to believe that you were simply given your immense power the moment you were brought over to this world, but also someone that would go so far as to 'reverse' the very personality of my friend." Eiro said with a growl, "Negation and Reversal, those are your two abilities, aren't they? You can not only negate energies and concepts, but also reverse them completely. The latter seems to be something a lot more powerful, however."

The man in front of Eiro, hearing this Demon's words, seemed shocked and confused, "You saw it in my eyes?"

"I did. And do you want to know what else I could see, just looking at you?" Eiro asked as he whispered a sentence that only the man in front of him could hear, "I know you were reborn into this world. Although in a different way to others that I know of... you weren't 'reborn' in the body of an infant, but rather your own original body. As if you were simply summoned here."

The man opened his eyes wide, "What gave it away?"

"Seriously? You have no idea? How are you more surprised about how I found out about this than the fact I know that world even exists? Or that I know your abilities, and can see your status through your eyes?" Eiro asked, pointing at the man's shoes, "If you're going to pretend to be from this world, at least wear something that's made of materials that actually exist here."