The Hybrid Prince

Chapter 23

We walked into the training room which was much bigger than the one at school. This one looked like an obstacle course that would test all of our skills. With the recent addition of Migeki and Rigeki to our team, we expanded the room with a new installment of light and dark based obstacles. It looked like something out of a futuristic video game.

"Whoa... This... Is very nice. I love the additions that were made during my absence." I said as I marveled at the new installments.

"We didn't know the full potential of the new recruits so we went on and made the toughest obstacles that we could think of, based on the knowledge of their powers." Reikon explained.

After a small walk through on each of the obstacles, we went ahead and started our training. Each obstacle proved to be a challenge for everyone, including Yukai, Takira and myself. Since Yukai had no knowledge of my powers, he went to basic training with Takira and had Rojin as their training instructor. I was a bit jealous of them because I was curious about how Rojin managed to use his firearms.

"Naku, pay attention. If you keep spacing out like that, you'll be signaled out as an easy target." Kiru warned.

"Sorry." I said when I got back to reality by Kiru.

The new obstacles were the toughest ones that I had to face. It looked like a dark pathway with an arrow of light on the floor that signaled the direction in which to go. There were target dummies with two bases. One base was made of light and the other was of shadows. Once I went through the shadow maze, I saw that there was a maze with the same sequence as the one before. The only difference was that the bases were different. The shadows had switched with the lights and it looked like if I had turned on the color inverted setting on my phone.

"What's wrong?" Migeki asked.

"I feel like if I was being blinded with a flashlight in the middle of the night." I complained.

"You'll get used to it. I should know, I lived with my brother all my life." Rigeki reassured.

I laughed at how Migeki and Rigeki could get along without any difficulty, considering how they have powers that cancel each other out.

"Hey Naku! Would you like to spar?" Rojin asked.

"If it helps me concentrate and keep a clear mind, then yes." I answered with a slight shrug.

Since I knew what type of combat skills Rojin uses, I equipped myself with the toughest armor that I had. It was a bulletproof armor that was made out of sharkskin and had a unique design to fit my style while, at the same time, offering me the free mobility that I needed to dodge the attacks.

"This feels really light. I'm surprised that it's not slowing me down, knowing how heavy the sharkskin is." I said.

"It really defines your muscles too." Takira says without making eye contact with me.

"Let's start with the basic double side shots followed by a triple shot from my starting position." Rojin warned.

Just like a choreographed dance, Rojin and I were moving around the entire spar circle. Rojin managed to find a time to use his signature moves, and when those times occurred, I would use my sharkskin armor to cast a shield against the bullets faster than the speed of sound. With the bullets deflected, I struck with my shield. Even though the shield was created by magic energy, it acted like crystal. I shattered the shield and used the floating shards of magic to strike at Rojin before he could reload his gun.

"Pretty cleaver... But can you dodge these?" Rojin asked as he dropped his handguns and pulled out his machine guns.

"That doesn't seem fair." Takira argued.

"That just looks straight up insane." Yukai praised.

I laughed at Rojin's determination to get me to back out, but we all knew that I don't do that very easily. I plugged in my headphones and started listening to the most high-paced, nerve wrecking dubstep that I had on my phone. The way that the song blended with the shot rate of the guns was really surprising. Each bullet was shot at the same time as the new note that was being played.

"Honestly, I don't know how we're going to lose when we have... That as our leader." Riuyo wondered.

"Let's not forget that he'll not just be leader of our small  team, but ruler of this entire domain." Shibaki added.

I was busy with the sparing session that I let go of my humanity. When the bullets stopped coming at me, I stood there with a dead expression. I was letting the music control my movements and that's when everything got scary for the others. Right when the beat dropped, I flicked my wrists and castes a spell for every note. The speed of my attacks were as equivalent as those of Rojin's guns.

"This is inhuman. He's not human. That's just straight up demonic." Yukai said in shock.

After the song ended, I had returned back to my normal self. My emotions were back and I just started at Rojin to see his next move. He was all out of breath and bullets, so he just walked towards me, patted my head, smiled at how much I had improved in such little time and walked away.

"You're ready for this fight. There is no point in the teacher to teach the student if the student has already taught the teacher." He said and he went to a corner and sat down on the bench.

"Does that mean that I-..." I said before being cut off by his brother Satori.

"You actually surpassed him. That is almost impossible to do." He said in shock.

"I didn't mean to. Was that wrong?" I asked in confusion.

"Not at all. It just means that we'd be honored to fight alongside someone like you." Rojin answered from his corner.

I felt a sudden rush of energy just as I finished the training for the day. It felt like if something was gonna go wrong. Someone wasn't gonna leave the battlefield unscathed.