The demon girl wasn't lying when she called it "training hell."
Damon felt like he had soreness on top of soreness. His whole body hurt worse than the day he woke up in the hospital after the explosion.
Aiwass was trying to teach Damon how to fight, and it was going nowhere, while Jude was just laying there as "moral support."
"You're never going to survive like this!" the demon girl yelled again and again, cracking every blind spot Damon left open with his clumsy F-rank moves.
The closest Damon had ever been to fighting was over food in the orphanage cafeteria.
"Can we take a break?" Jude asked, without looking up from his handheld console.
"Seriously?" Damon complained, but it was a mistake. The second he got distracted, Aiwass snapped a clean punch into his face.
"Hey!"
"You think in a real fight you'll have time to talk to your friend? Focus!" she scolded.
"I don't think I can do this!" Damon shouted, panting.
"What do you mean you can't? Do you want to die?"
"What if I do?! What if I'm already tired of this act?!"
"Oh, hohoho," Jude laughed, shifting in his chair like he was watching a soap opera.
Suddenly Aiwass's expression changed. She dropped her guard and grabbed her head, wobbling.
"Then… then I…" Aiwass said, like she was having a sudden mental breakdown.
"Uh… wait!" Damon lowered his arms, worried.
But the moment Damon stepped in to help, Aiwass's "weakness" vanished. She used the distance and hooked him into a hold, slamming him to the floor with a dull thud.
THUD!
"Don't fall for cheap tricks!" she declared, looking down at him.
Damon lay there staring at the ceiling. Still aching, he asked the question that had been eating at him.
"How did Zero treat you? Was he like that with you too, like he was with everyone else?"
Aiwass stiffened.
"Umph! I told you a thousand times I'm not answering that!"
"Sounds like a yes… damn. That's sad," Damon muttered, rubbing his arm. "It's a shame you're not—"
Damon tried to put the demon girl in a hold.
He got completely humiliated by the size difference.
Aiwass didn't even flinch. Damon looked like a little kid trying to tackle a tree.
"Bro, don't even try," Jude said from the other side, still not looking up. "You look like a koala trying to choke a lamppost. It's painful."
Damon let go of her and flopped on his back, gasping.
"I quit!" he yelled at the ceiling. "I can't! I'm F-rank. My muscles are just decoration. If I walk into that physical test, they're gonna snap me in half in round one."
"You're right," Aiwass admitted flatly. "Your strength is pathetic. Your speed is a joke. And your stamina is… well, nonexistent."
"Thanks for the support!" Damon shot back.
"But…" Aiwass smiled. "Zero didn't win just because he was strong. Before the fight even started, his opponents had already surrendered."
Aiwass crouched and tapped Damon's forehead.
"You don't need to hit hard, Damon. You need them to believe you can erase them with a thought." She grinned. "We're changing the training. You won't fight with strength. You'll fight with fear."
Damon blinked.
"Fear? Me? Have you seen my face? I look like I say sorry when people step on me."
"That's why I'm here," Aiwass said. "I'll be your amplifier. You bring the face. I bring the killing intent. Bathroom. Now."
"Bathroom?" Jude raised an eyebrow. "You two getting weird again?"
"Shut up, Rat!" Damon and Aiwass yelled at the same time.
Half an hour later, Damon was in front of the bathroom mirror with a toothbrush in his mouth and mint foam on his chin.
"This is stupid," Damon mumbled, mouth full.
"Do it," Aiwass ordered, sitting on the edge of the tub. "Look in the mirror and try to be intimidating. Imagine you're a Death God."
Damon made his best mean face at the glass.
Aiwass burst out laughing.
"You look like a constipated hamster."
"It's the best I've got!"
"Good. Now relax. Don't do anything. Just look into my eyes through the mirror."
Damon obeyed. He looked at the demon girl's reflection behind him.
Then he felt it.
A freezing cold at the back of his neck.
Not physical.
Spiritual.
Aiwass didn't move, but her presence expanded. An invisible shadow, heavy and suffocating, wrapped around Damon. It was like gravity had turned up ten times.
"Now…" Aiwass's voice whispered inside his head. "Channel it. Don't block it. Let it pass through you and push it into the mirror."
Damon felt her dark energy flow up his spine. It made him sick, but it also felt insanely powerful.
He turned back to the mirror.
For a second, his eyes flashed a deep violet. His posture, even relaxed, screamed danger.
The air around the mirror trembled.
CRACK!
The bathroom mirror split from corner to corner, like it couldn't handle the pressure of the aura.
Damon spat toothpaste everywhere from the shock.
"HOLY SHIT!!"
From the living room, there was a dull thump and the sound of something breaking.
"OW!" Jude yelled. "What the hell was that?!"
Damon stared at the broken mirror, then at his own hands. They were still shaking, but this time it wasn't fear.
It was adrenaline.
Aiwass smiled, satisfied.
"That, my dear fraud, is 'Killing Intent.' With this, you don't need to touch anyone. They'll kneel before you even take your hands out of your pockets."
Damon wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked at his fractured reflection.
"Good," Damon said, and a crooked smile showed up on his face. "If I can't be the hero… I'll be the nightmare."
[NEW PASSIVE SKILL ACQUIRED: AURA LENDER (Rank ?)]
[TIME UNTIL EXAM: 24 HOURS]