Chapter Five (Part 5): Don't Hold Back.

About 15 minutes ago, when Pastor Orobas said that they gotta recharge his mana the rough way, I swore in no way did I expect us to stop our pace in front of the 'Sparring Room' after that.

"Ladies-- Ahem, lady and gentleman, what are we doing here...?" I mumbled that question as I was staring blankly at the gray metal door, wondering if the word 'Sparring' in the Hunters' sense was the same as mine or not. What I meant was... even Nagisa's 'Emergency ration' didn't look like an emergency ration, to be fair.

"Recharging my mana, I suppose?"

"I see..." But how?

"Mr. Orobas is a high demon, Mr. Ozwald. High demons' mana or Aethereal energy can be generated by absorbing human's life energy or divine energy. Since we can't risk having someone sacrifice half of their life energy in one go for Mr. Orobas' fast charging and dying, we need to recharge him by battling with him using our divine power which generates divine energy instead."

At that moment, I found myself blinking rapidly at Nagisa's explanation. It felt just like listening to Physics, my small brain which had never been capable of understanding Science did have a good time deciphering it, pardon my sarcasm. Then I simply concluded that 'By fighting with high demons such as Pastor Orobas, you're also giving them more energy in the process.' How convenient.

"So you two are gonna fight... Nice." Just don't drag me into the ring with ya'll, and I'm all good.

By the way... Did the whole absorbing energy thing mean you can't possibly deplete high demons' mana in a fight? Supposing that you weren't just sparring with a high demon, but engaged in a battle for life and death against one? Wouldn't they recharge their energy while also draining yours in every second past? When I tried giving it a thorough thought, I realized that such an ability is indeed frightening.

"I-Is that the passive ability that many different classes of demons have, or it's just high demons' special thing, may I ask?" And how many high demons were there? If there were like hundreds of them, I swore I'm gonna faint...

"Well, if other lesser demons could do that, we wouldn't be the high ones anymore, would we? Rest assured, Your Highness~ And there are not many of us either~" As if Pastor Orobas could read my mind, he answered both my vocalized question and the suppressed one, putting me at ease, but at the same time, getting me goosebumps.

Seriously, when it was not Howie doing it, this mind-reading thing truly felt creepy... I guessed this was how demons tempt man in the old days.

"Mr. Orobas, as a matter of fact, because there are not many of your kin, that's why your presences are dangerous. The less, the more powerful."

"Hehe~ Is that so~"

Even his "Hehe~" sounded threatening at this point...

Somehow, I got a sense of relief when his voice shifted back to its low-pitched counterpart, and then he asked "Anyway, are we done with our newbies' lessons of the day yet? Let's not waste the Angel's precious time any longer, shall we?"

That, I absolutely agreed.

Meanwhile, Nagisa's face showed no reaction to such a question, she just walked past us and then placed her hand on the door, activating its holographic control panel, letting its AI scan her handprint in the process.

[S-ranked Hunter, Nagisa, welcome to the Sparring room. There are currently 2 VIP rooms available for--]

In the middle of the AI's toneless speech, Nagisa literally brushed it off by smacking its screen away with her hand, then she turned to me, and gestured me to walk ahead into that room, leaving me flabbergasted by her sudden violence.

W-What in the...?

"Well, well, isn't our Nagisa getting fired up for the battle~ It's just a sparring match though~"

"A battle, no matter on any occasion, is still a battle, Mr. Orobas."

It took me a good 2 - 3 seconds to finally recover from that state of shock. Then I started to take a look inside the sparring room. Despite being called a room, this one, again, should be called a hall, as it had a ceiling so high, the height of the room couldn't be lower than 3 stories, and its 4 ends were so far apart from each other, the area couldn't possibly be smaller than many universities' athletic fields. And the walls and the floor and even the ceiling, they were all covered in black and white with a checkered pattern, however, every single tile was so large that surely you wouldn't get the slightest bit of dizziness looking at them.

What a grand piece of interior architecture. I could only gape. Who the heck thought it was a good idea to call this room 'Sparring Room', this thing was a freaking Hall of Combat?

"Mr. Ozwald, please back away for a distance of 6 tiles." Oh--

While I was still gaping, it was then that Nagisa suddenly blocked my way with her hand... holding a black and teal Paralyzer gun.

"For your information, this is an order, not a warning. For a newbie Hunter, standing in the area of battling right now poses a great risk of getting critically injured."

"U-Understood, ma'am?"

Oh, so the battle was getting started? That was quick. Guess I had no reason to oppose her order.

Lemme move my ass out of here real fast!

The next thing I knew, I was far from being 6 tiles apart from the two of them, more like 60 feet.

"Your Highness, can you even see my gorgeous face standing that far???"

"Yes, I could! No worries, Pastor!"

Not gonna lie, but my ass did blatantly lie to his face, I couldn't see shite.

Then, taking up the space on the opposite side of Pastor Orobas, Nagisa entered the ring. "Thank you for taking my caution, Mr. Ozwald. Then the battle shall begin." said the lady who was cocking her gun with the coldest and most poised stance possible.

"As always, I must demand you that you shall not hold back, Mr. Orobas."

"Right~ I never held back anyway~ Don't worry~"

Seriously, if I were his opponent, despite not knowing anything about his power, I would sh*t my pants, shivering to my bones, hearing him say that, and he was saying it with a giggle.

Nagisa, on the other hand, stood perfectly still, of course, she wouldn't flinch, but such an anchored and unmoving stance was indeed surprising, it felt as if she was calculating at which spot she should place her foot next, or else she would refuse to move.

"Bestow upon me your power, Kuraokami (Serpent God of Rain and Winter)." then she called on her deity with the calmest tone of voice, totally polar opposite from Leo's call last night. Waves of water began taking shape out of nothingness, embracing her body, and some took the shape of a great snake coiling around her torso.

"Ryuujin (Dragon God of the Sea)." as she uttered the name, suddenly one ball of light appeared on her right hand, and in the blink of an eye, it began taking the form of a Japanese Tachi sword as long as 2 feet and a half. The aqua serpent on her torso, as soon as it saw the sword, it then decided to move from its owner's body to her weapon and began coiling around its blade super fast as if it was so excited to meet the sword.

At first, I got dumbfounded witnessing such a scene, as I thought that Hunters could only have one divine weapon that is unique to themselves, but this lady apparently got two, one melee in her right hand, one ranged on the left, all at her disposal???

During the seconds I was gawking at the serpent lady in bewilderment, it was also then that she decided to make the first move, slender figure suddenly disappeared from my line of sight, and in just one blink, she reappeared out of nowhere beside Pastor Orobas, and was already piercing her sword toward the demon priest, without the slightest bit of hesitation in her movement.

D-Did she just teleport herself or it was just her sprint being too fast, my eyes couldn't catch it???

"Oops? Careful~" Anyhow, despite Nagisa being so godly swift, it was almost beyond my imagination, the demon just sidestepped himself out of the way of the sword, effortlessly, evading such a fierce attack, while his finger was also reaching out to touch the waves, absorbing her divine energy into his body at the same time.

"Don't hold back, Mr. Orobas!"

To my bafflement, I did hear Nagisa shouting at her opponent at that particular moment, it was so unexpected and shocking, I almost thought I was hearing things.

So this stoic lady could be loud, just like ordinary humans???

"Who said I was holding back! I'm still recharging my mana, aren't I~" The moment Pastor Orobas finished his words, he then snapped his fingers, and out of nothingness appeared multiple tiny balls of void energy which immediately began forming themselves into a wall, blocking Nagisa from making another move toward the demon, and of course, they seemed to absorb her waves into their cores super fast, it almost felt like they were mini black holes.

Umm... Despite using the word 'Almost', judging from their pitch-black cores and orange-ish event horizons, weren't they really black holes though?

Goodness gracious, surely this cutie demon was overpowered even by his own kin's standards?!

As soon as the demon priest started to regain his mana, the fight immediately seemed to get tough. That was when Nagisa decided to switch weapons, aiming her Paralyzer directly at the void wall of mini black holes, and pulled the trigger. One single blue energy shot went straight toward the obstacle, and then *BOOM* it spread itself into an energy net, colliding with every single black hole ball in front of it, causing the whole wall and itself to disintegrate in the process.

But. Not without an explosion though.

Lucky me, I had already got my ass out this far, because its impact was no joke, my body was staggering and my rear end almost kissed the floor. All of a sudden, everything in the battling area got concealed behind a curtain of smoke so thick, it looked exactly like a gray wall made out of concrete.

"Nagisa?! Pastor Orobas?!" Such a situation caused my heart to sink, if I remembered correctly you two came with the intent of sparring, why the heck did things suddenly turn into a battlefield?!

"Has your mana pool been fully filled yet, Mr. Orobas?!"

"Not yet, sweet pea!!!"

Nevertheless, the two didn't seem to care shite about their surroundings, I heard the many sounds of sword slashing through the air, Pastor Orobas casting more void balls, and several gunshots, both automatic and semi-automatic. At this point, I was not even sure if it was just the two of them fighting their asses off or a war had just broken out.

During the final moment of the battle, when Pastor Orobas finally went all out and cast a big ass black hole in the middle of a freaking sparring room a.k.a. TRAINING ROOM, I must express my utter condolence to those beautiful tiles which soon got devoured into the devil's stomach and never to be seen again. But for some reason, Nagisa, the mortal goddess, still was able to stand on her feet, facing the wrath that warped space-time itself, her body seemed to be shielded by some form of an aqua barrier that also started getting devoured.

Hence, she put another foot forward, and another, and another, until she started running toward the overpowered demon and his monster of a black hole, while swinging her sword one more time, and then aimed her final attack at that ball of madness like a badass that she was.

"With utmost respect, I hope this would fill you fully, Mr. Orobas!!!"

Having watched this goddess and demon manifest their might before my mere mortal eyes, there was only one single thought that inevitably came up in my mind...

'How the Hell am I going to survive being a Hunter, if this was just how you spar in your free time, people?'