Chapter 7: Sparring

Samuel's new arm was completely different from his original one. For starters, the arm was mostly charcoal-black in color, with streaks of red and orange as though it were molten magma. There were multiple red-hot spikes sticking out from his biceps and near his shoulder. His elbow had an extension that consisted of a charcoal plate with spikes curving slightly towards his shoulder. It looked like Samuel was wearing a forearm guard made of obsidian. Instead of regular fingers, his hand had five double-jointed fingers that each had sharp claws protruding from the tips. He tried flexing his fingers and they curled in normally.

"HOLY SHIT! That's so cool!" Angela burst out of the enclosure screaming. As a flame user herself, she was very appreciative of fire-element Aspects. The giddy look on her face proved it.

Samuel stood there, examining his devil arm. The black arm contrasted greatly with his tan-yellow skin but somehow it felt and looked natural. He moved his arm, getting a feel for the weight and flexibility.

"Can you also use fire?" Since the arm materialized from the flames, Angela was curious whether Samuel could also use the fire or if it was just a visual effect.

Samuel pointed his index finger upwards and circulated his mana. A tiny black flame burst into existence, floating slightly above his finger. Even though the flame was small in size, it radiated an immense heat. He had to move his arm further away because the heat was so intense.

Manipulating the flame was simple. He looked towards the wall and lobbed the flame at it. The hellfire moved towards it like a tennis ball before exploding on impact, spattering black ash across the white wall. The explosion wasn't extremely powerful but if it hit a normal human being, they'd certainly have a limb or two blown off.

After launching the fireball, he took a simple fighting stance towards the training dummy. Left jab, left jab, right hook. His devil arm was a considerably heavier than his human arm but it also allowed more force output. The right hook smashed into the face of the training dummy, which moved several centimeters. The training dummy was designed for Awakened and made with materials that could disperse kinetic force. The fact that he moved the dummy several centimeters was a testament to the power of his devil arm.

He checked his status.

[Status]

[Name: Samuel Mo]

[Title: None]

[Aspect: The Infernal Guide (Incomplete)]

[Race: Human]

[Mana Cultivation: Level 1]

[Stats:]

[Strength: 11 (21)]

[Vitality: 11 (16)]

[Agility: 11 (16)]

[Intelligence: 15]

[Willpower: 16]

Seeing the parenthesized numbers, he knew those were the stats of his devil arm. The three physical-related stats were much higher with his strength being nearly doubled.

"Angela, will you spar with me?" Samuel was eager to test his combat prowess against someone like Angela who was a second level Awakened. His current stats were almost comparable hers even though he was only first level.

"Are you sure? I don't want to hurt you too badly." Angela's eyebrow raised. She was definitely up for it but was worried that Samuel would be easily outmatched. After all, she was a second level Awakened while he had just started cultivating.

"Don't worry about it. And don't go easy on me either."

Angela came to the center of the room while Samuel moved the training dummy to the corner. She had grabbed two sets of sparring armor from the enclosure and threw him one. He slipped it over his torso with a bit of struggle due to the spikes on his arm. After that, they both took positions across from each other a few meters away.

"Alright, but don't come crying to me when you lose." Angela's hands ignited while Samuel took his martial fighting stance.

As a soldier, Samuel had professional training in close quarters combat. He also knew basic boxing techniques, which he could utilize in combination with his powerful right arm for some devastating attacks.

The two of them eyed each other before Angela decided to take the initial move. Samuel knew that he wouldn't outspeed her, so he chose to wait for her attack.

She rushed forward, pushing her palm out towards him. Although his devil arm was massively enhanced, the rest of his body was extremely slow compared to Angela. He barely managed to react to the palm, striking sideways in an attempt to push her arm away. Feeling the hit connect, he wasn't able to celebrate before her other palm slammed into his chest.

Angela knew that the black arm was probably enhanced in some way and took advantage of that. Using her superior agility, she faked a strike to his face hoping to force his black arm away from his body. Then she struck properly with her other palm, landing a good hit on him. Samuel was definitely a little overconfident, which put him off guard when she dashed towards him full speed.

Luckily for him, he was wearing the sparring armor, which helped take the brunt of the blow. Even still, the chest strike pushed him back several steps before he regained his balance. The air was knocked out of his lungs and he took a few hurried breaths while putting his guard back up.

'Seems I overestimated myself.' Samuel calmed down, his breathing becoming steady again. He mostly needed to get used to his body, so that he could move it around at the same level of control as before.

'Here she comes again.'

Angela continued to rain down attacks on him. At first, he was still getting one-sidedly beaten up but he gradually began to get some hits in. Unfortunately, it still wasn't looking good for him. After a few minutes of sparring, Samuel was already at his limit. The continuous hits on his body drained his energy and there were several burn marks on the sparring armor. In comparison, Angela had only taken a few hits and seemed to still be in good shape. The silver lining was that Samuel had quickly gotten used to moving his body around properly again, becoming relatively comfortable with the new arm.

"Hey, I told you you'd get hurt." Angela grinned while keeping her distance. "You want to continue?"

"No, I think that's enough." Samuel noticed it earlier but his devil arm was continuously draining his mana. Although it was a small amount, it wasn't a sum that he could afford. With his current mana capacity, he could probably only keep his devil arm for around twenty minutes. But whenever he blocked with his devil arm, the mana drain jumped slightly. For now, he wanted to keep some mana to test out some other transformations.

"Okay, that's chill with me. You got some good hits on me though. That right hook knocked the wind out of me." Angela took her sparring armor off. "I'm gonna get a snack, do you want anything?"

"Uh, sure. Just get me whatever you're having."

Angela nodded and tossed her sparring armor next to the enclosure before exiting the training room.

Samuel was left to himself and he sat down in the center of the room to rest. There was one specific thing he wanted to try. One of the circulation patterns for his Devil Transformation was focused along his skin.

After resting for a minute, he stood up again. He took a deep breath and circulated his mana according to the pattern. There was a tingling sensation that spread across his skin. The feeling grew stronger, turning into itchiness and along the path of the itch something interesting occurred. Black armor began to grow from his skin, encasing his body in the same material as his devil arm. It began from his chest and quickly covered his entire body except for his head. His left arm became nearly identical to his right arm, growing spikes and a forearm guard. The spikes on his body weren't sticking out straight like a porcupine but rather curved upwards, growing along his skin.

Finally, a black helmet grew over his head covering everything and connecting to the top of his torso armor. The eyes were flame-red, glowing with menace. Two curved horns extended outwards from the top of his head, the tips rounding out at a sharp point.

At this point, his entire body was covered with black armor. Unfortunately, the spikes had pierced through his clothes as well as the sparring armor, ruining them. It was a strange sight to behold, a black devil wearing a tank-top and gym shorts.

Samuel felt good. Even though the armor was practically melded to his skin, it felt natural. There seemed to be a magical effect imbued in the armor as well. His body felt stronger and faster. He jumped a few times and dashed around a bit. His body was definitely stronger. It seemed that some of the benefits of the armor was enhanced stats. With this, he felt that maybe he could actually fight back against Angela.

[Status]

[Name: Samuel Mo]

[Title: None]

[Aspect: The Infernal Guide (Incomplete)]

[Race: Human]

[Mana Cultivation: Level 1]

[Stats:]

[Strength: 11 (21)]

[Vitality: 11 (16)]

[Agility: 11 (16)]

[Intelligence: 15]

[Willpower: 16]

Although the stats were the same as previously, he could tell that it was applied to his entire body now. This was a huge difference as now his body could keep up with the enhanced power of his right arm.

The entire formation of the armor took just about a minute, which was too long in a battle. He mentally noted that he should practice forming his armor in the future. It would be best if he could get it formed within just a few seconds.

Just then, Angela returned. Seeing Samuel's current form, she nearly jumped from fright.

"Who the fu— Oh, it's just you." Angela seemed as though she was about to fight someone so Samuel released his helmet so that his face was visible again.

"Angela, let's fight again!" Samuel was eager to get payback for the beating he just took. He didn't even want to rest or eat the banana that Angela brought.

"What?? You think just by putting on some cosplay skinsuit you'll be able to beat me now?" Despite her words, she put the sparring armor on. She smirked. "Since you look so fancy and seem so confident, let me show you something I've been practicing."

Just like before, her hands ignited with flames but this time, she kicked off her shoes as well. Her feet also blazed to life and slight burn marks immediately scorched the floor mats.

"Bring it on!" Just as they dashed towards each other, an announcement was made on the loudspeakers.

* Attention! Attention! Code-G! Code-G! *

"Code G? What's that?" Samuel stopped attacking, as did Angela. He asked her with some confusion while he deactivated his armor form as well as his devil arm.

Angela had a look of shock on her face.

"Code G means a Gate has appeared. That's never happened in the history of Stoneburg."