Damon drew in a breath, steadying his thoughts. His voice came out quieter than expected
".… Thank you, Mother… I" he muttered, eyes shifting sideways. "Was just… doing what I had to."
Her brow arched in quiet amusement. "And still ended up here."
"I meant to do that." He coughed lightly. "I… was testing limits."
"Why am I in the infirmary, anyway?" he asked, tugging slightly at the blanket. "I was fine."
"You weren't. Not on the outside." She pulled a chair closer and sat down beside him. "About ten minutes ago, you started bleeding internally. Bone fractures suddenly appeared and energy instability."
He winced. "... Oh."
'So Gerald was right?, that thing could have killed me!'
"We brought you back immediately. Ethan healed most of it, and you did the rest."
Curiously looking towards Ethan, he saw him subtle nod with a smile plaster on his face.
Damon shyly looked away, flustered. "Thanks."
His mother folded her hands in her lap. "You were inside for about four hours."
He blinked. "Wait, what? That's it?"
She rose and rested her hand on his head for a moment. It was brief, but Damon sensed a flow of spiritual energy wash over him as the discomfort in his body faded.
"You should be able to move your body now" Finishing her sentence mother turned and walked towards the exit
Damon looked back to the others as he rose from the bed. Cassie's arms were still folded, but her eyes flicked toward him again. Vincent had moved to the far side of the room, pretending to examine a cabinet. Fin had crept a little closer now, lingering near the edge of the bed. His eyes fixed to Damon face.
'Four hours huh'
It didn't feel like it.
Gurg… Gurg…
Suddenly, his stomach rumbled as he hadn't eaten yet… He wasn't able to enjoy breakfast due to Vincent's pranks, but It was delicious. He couldn't help but swallow his saliva after recalling it.
Remembering what Vincent had done made him infuriated, although he's probably only had good intentions, it was still a very cruel way of helping. He could only blame his luck on how things turned out.
****
It was June eighteenth and six days and passed since the trials ended. Over the days, Damon had several training sessions with Vincent, Henry and Josh in hopes of raising his technique level.
The whole training facility was around the size of a football fields.
On the top right of the training ground was a shooting range that was split into five different distances which ranged from 50m all the way to 300m.
On the bottom right of the training ground, Automatons were positioned for sparing. They were made of Aeon, an extremely hard metal that could even withstand the impact of a Grade I Specter and Artificial intelligence able to effectively predict strikes.
At the top left, there was a large gym fully equipped with top-of-the-line equipment. The Section he currently stood was the middle and bottom left area of the training facility left empty as a free space for practicing moves or footsteps.
Staring at his scarlet katana, Damon sighed. The leather grip comfortably sat in hands.
"... It's frustrating."
He thought that with enough time and practice, He'd see some improvement, but in the two weeks that he started practicing, the only result he received was failure.
"Still nothing..."
"Seems like you've still haven't figured out how to properly use your technique."
Damon continued to stare at his blade and ignored the voice that reached him from the behind.
He closed his eyes and focused all his attention on the blade.
Spiritual energy flushed from his core to his fingers. Gripping the hilt of blade tightly, a rather vivid image of the bloody Shapeshifter took form in his mind. Slowly his energy began radiating heat as his blade was engulfed in flames.
Sweat trickled down his nose.
Stopping at the tip.
'Its working….. Just a little more….'
'It's… not…hot enough yet the flames had become white last time…..'
Drip...
Something wet trickled down from his nose.
Using his sleeve he wiped it. Only for it to be stained in red.
That's when Damon realized.
"So this is my limit for now"
Dissipating the flames, he heard the voice rang out again.
"You're overworking yourself."
Finally looking back he stared at Vincent, sitting on a bench nearby
"You're not going to improve by just forcing progress, you've been training nonstop, why not take a break?, didn't you say you had some research to do" Pausing for a moment, Vincent's mouth curved in a smirk as continued." You didn't forget did you?"
"Do I look like an idiot, there's no way I'd forget" Damon snarled.
'Ah! I forget about that'
He initially intended to do research on Tomoe's identity and the basics of Specter ranks. In the end they each received a copy of a book called the Fundamentals of Spectology, but he enjoyed training too much to read it. He had forgotten, but he'd rather die than let Vincent be right.
Despite his confident response, Vincent's eyes seemed say he didn't believe him. Shrugging his shoulder he rose from his seat.
"At least get some rest, your mind needs it more than your body, and I'd rather have you in peak condition once your first mission is assigned."
Storing his sword away, Damon quickly walked out of the free area with Vincent.
Curiously looking around he spotted Fin, Henry and Josh training with automatons.
Fin wielded a Rapier with grace, His strikes quick and precise. If Damon were to estimate Fin's strength at the moment, he doubted he would be able to remain completely unscathed if they fought.
But he would certainly win.
Henry on the other hand was much more of a challenge, he used curved daggers and had Spiritual energy closely comparable to Damon's. His strives were aggressive, extremely fast and agile and with his speed matching Fin's. Able cut a person twenty times in a matter of seconds.
SHING, SHING
With each strike he left several shallow slashes on the automaton.
The sound of a sharp crack echoed.
Josh raised his hand and gathered shimmering strands of energy into his fingertips. With a sharp exhale, he swung in a wide arc.
Seven thin lines of energy burst out, spinning in a radial slash. The strikes hit squarely across the automaton's upper body
ting! Ting!
… Not even a dent. Only shallow scratches, like someone had dragged a fork over reinforced plating.
"Eh?" Josh blinked.
The automaton responded instantly with a sweeping kick. Josh barely managed to duck, rolling to the side and hopping back up into a wide-legged karate stance.
"Right. When palms don't work... fists!"
He charged, yelling, "OSU!"
A firm low kick, then a rising punch to the automaton's midsection. It stumbled slightly.
Josh jumped back, shaking his hand from the impact. "Ow ow ow okay, okay, maybe not fists yet."
Still, he grinned.
Watching, arms crossed, Damon spoke with furrowed brows "He's too reckless."
Vincent beside him offered, "But he's adapting unlike a certain someone. Each attempt's more fluid than his last."
"… Barely." Damon muttered quietly.
Frustrated by failed attempts using his technique, Josh began training to become a hand to hand specialist. He had begun studying a martial art style called Kyokushin karate. The style consisted of palm strikes, kicks and blocks created by warriors of Nippon and seemed rather suited for an Air head like him.