Demon's Virtue
chapter-526-30041322

Eiro opened his eyes again, and looked at the training field in front of him. The soldiers and guards were finally gathering there, although they, for the most part, had no idea why they were actually there. And so, Eiro quickly jumped off of the ledge that he was sitting on and quickly moved over toward where they all were.

The moment that he approached them, the chief guard saluted to him, "Welcome, Lord Daemonherz."

"Don't. Just call me Eiro, you're a noble as well." The Demon pointed out immediately, and then looked at all the people gathered here, "So this is everyone that had learned different styles of combat before they learned the Skyhart style?"

"Indeed. As you asked, I called as many of them as I could over today." The chief guard explained, and Eiro quickly crossed his arms as he started to speak to the people in front of him.

"Good. Then I will explain what will happen now. I want all of you to display your combat masteries to me. Whatever the style is, I want you to show it to me. Of course, if necessary, I will be providing you with a proper partner to spar with." Eiro told them, but everyone was rather confused. Even the chief guard didn't know exactly why Eiro was doing this.

"Erm... excuse me, but my style is a family style... I don't think I should freely display it like this..." One of the guards explained, and Eiro slowly let out a deep sigh, "Of course, that is understandable. If you don't wish to show off your style, I will not force you. I am simply curious about different styles of combat. You see, I wish to be as prepared for the tournament as I possibly can." Eiro told them. Obviously, that was just a lie. He was confident that he would be able to win the tournament at this point, without question, in fact. There was no way any random person in this country would be able to beat him anymore.

Rather, Eiro's reason for doing this is simply something else. He wants to test out one of his new abilities that he received upon becoming 'The World'. And that is the 'Ability Absorption' ability. At first, it sounded like Eiro was capable of copying or stealing the actual system-given abilities that others had, but that didn't seem to be the case. Rather, it could be called 'Technique Absorption', and it would be more accurate. Of course, there seemed to be other reasons why it was called 'Ability Absorption' that Eiro hadn't figured out yet.

Basically, what this ability let him do is absorb the physical techniques of other people and ingrain them in his own body. It was similar in nature to what 'The Death' could do, to an extent. 'The Death' changed its body perfectly in response to the abilities that others showed them to be the perfect counter for that ability. Meanwhile, Eiro could now change his body to copy the techniques that others showed him nearly perfectly.

Of course, when he tried this on James on Krog, his physique didn't change. The structure of his muscles changed so that he could use their techniques perfectly, but he didn't get any sort of bulking muscles like Krog had. His body would adjust properly so that he could use these exact techniques with his own current build. It was slightly uncomfortable, but after all the pain that Eiro went through during his evolution, that was nothing.

So now, Eiro wanted to see as many different techniques as he could. Since his body changed so that he could make use of all of them at the same time, he would receive an incredible amount of control over his body for even the slightest, minuscule motions. Well, not that it was really needed anymore in the first place. All of his joints could move a surreal amount beyond what normally could happen. The main thing stopping him now was his flesh, otherwise he could probably move all of his limbs around in complete circles. Even so, having the ability to properly use many different techniques like that would definitely by useful.

Some of the soldiers and guards went on their way after Eiro told them it was alright, but a large large portion luckily still stayed, and Eiro was quite grateful for that.

"Alright. Then I guess, could all of you just get to practicing along some dummies? That might be the easiest way for me to see which styles I should pay more attention to." The Demon explained, and as if following Eiro's command, they all did as he told. There were plenty of people using swords, but some used spears, axes, and even daggers.

Somehow, seeing all of these people doing this stuff reminded Eiro that he should probably completely finish up the training program of the puppet now... It was impossible for it to really beat Eiro anymore at this point, but he still felt like he should kind of finish that part of his life up. After all, Jura went through quite some trouble to create the puppet for him.

For now, as Eiro was watching all of these people, he could feel the changes in his musculature happen bit by bit. They were mostly displaying basic techniques right now, so there really wasn't much to change on Eiro's body for now.

However, as the day continued, that changed. Eiro had the soldiers display more advanced aspects of their combat styles, and throughout some parts of the day, Eiro could really feel his muscles shift around like someone grabbed them and forcefully changed their configuration somehow.

A few hours later, the soldiers were exhausted, too exhausted to continue on, so Eiro figured it was fine to end this all for the day. But before they left, one of the guards had another question for Eiro, "Excuse me, but... could we see some of your own style..? I think all of us are quite curious..."

Eiro thought about it for a moment and quickly shrugged, "Sure, I don't mind." He said, and quickly turned his head toward the chief guard, "Would you want to help me demonstrate part of my style?"

"Ah, of course!" The chief guard replied, as if he was excited about this opportunity himself. With a smile on his face, Eiro pulled one of his daggers out of his treasury, and tightly held it in his hand. He stepped into the space that the soldiers were creating for him and the chief guard, and quickly rolled up his sleeves.

"My style follows some rather simple principles, but it requires a high control over your own body, and the ability to read your opponent's motion and momentum." He explained, as the chief guard readied his sword as he stood in front of Eiro rather nervously. The Demon took some steps toward him so that he was in range for the chief guard's attack, and then told him, "Move as if you were going to actually swing at me. Let's demonstrate this properly."

The chief quickly nodded his head, and slowly moved his sword as if he was slashing at the Demon. They were both moving rather slow, but still at a speed where they could properly spar. It was just so that the others could follow along more easily.

Eiro moved his dagger toward the sword and pressed it down with the flat side, and then simply jumped up for a moment to dodge the attack. Kicking off of the blade to try and destroy the chief guard's balance, Eiro grabbed the guard's shoulder and pulled himself forward, further disturbing his opponent's balance. As he moved past the guard, he twisted his body around and quickly moved the dagger toward the guard's throat, of course stopping before he actually hit him, which immediately brought this first demonstration to an end.

"As you can see, since I am currently armed with just a single dagger, if I were to try and block an incoming attack from such a heavy weapon, that would be insanity. My dagger would shatter if I wasn't careful. Rather, my style is based around dodging and diverting my opponent's movement, like I did just now." Eiro explained, and then turned back toward the guard, "Want to try again?" He asked, and the guard immediately nodded his head.

And just like that, this training session turned away from Eiro trying to further absorb the techniques of other people, and instead became Eiro demonstrating the basis of his own techniques to the soldiers and guards, something that they seemed to greatly appreciate.

At some point, though, Eiro noticed something that was slightly bothersome. Or rather, someone that was incredibly bothersome. The 'Bloodstone Sorceress' Evelyn was currently entering the royal castle. The preparations for the tournament, and the huge festival that came with it, had begun a while ago, so there was a lot more foot-traffic in and out of the royal castle as numerous nobles came to the capital to bring their own personal candidates to this place. And one of them was that bothersome woman, that was clearly still thinking that she could somehow beat Eiro in the tournament. Or at least, she seemed to have become a bit stronger than before, since her mana increased a considerable amount.

Somehow, Eiro was even more excited to obliterate her now. With a smile on his face, Eiro continued on showing off some of his techniques, and an hour or so later, he was ready to move on, and play around with another one of his abilities while figuring out what exactly this woman was here for.