During the next day's first block not much happened but there was one very quick and very important explanation from Ethan.
"During a fight, you must fight premonition, this will be demonstrated in Mr. Griffith's class so pay attention! During a fight between a demon squad and an angel squad, there is an interesting mechanic we must deal with.
"You see, a dealer has a sword and a grim has a gun, now let me ask you this? Who wins in this fight the vast majority of the time?"
Ethan asked the class but purposely picked an ex-human to answer him. They answered honestly, "The grim?"
"Nope! You'd think that they'd win because of their guns but it's not true. Like I said earlier there is something called premonition. This is a phenomenon that occurs when certain classes fight certain classes. For example, dealers and grims. Dealer's counter grims and so they gain a premonition whenever they fight. This allows the dealer to make the appropriate adjustments to win the fight. Think of it like this, anytime you fight someone you counter, you can see slightly into the future with almost complete accuracy!
"If you want to know, dealers counter grims, grims counter soul mages, and soul mages counter dealers. This creates a loop of countering, think of it like a high-stakes game of rock, paper, scissors. Then, in this loop, specialists throw everything out the window because they don't counter anyone, but also can't be countered! This is basically the equivalent to the kid who cheats in rock, paper, scissors by pulling some dumb trick!" Ethan said the last part with a strange hate as if a rather annoying memory had resurfaced.
Later on, they were in Mr. Griffith's class seeing exactly what he meant. Ethan had even followed them to the field to help Mr. Griffith.
Mr. Griffith spoke loudly to everyone, "Alright, everyone listen up! I'm a dealer and Ethan here is a grim. Now watch closely."
Ethan pulled a handgun from thin air and Mr. Griffith pulled a sword from thin air as well. Ethan then rapidly fired shots randomly at Mr. Griffith but by the time he pulled the trigger, Mr. Griffith's blade was already in the spot to deflect or block the bullets.
"This is what we mea-" Mr. Griffith backstepped suddenly and a bullet whizzed by his face a split second later, landing somewhere in the forest, "mean. This is what we mean by premonition." Mr. Griffith glared at Ethan who only shrugged while fixing his glasses.
After multiple more demonstrations, using Oliva who was a mage and Ethan, Mr. Griffith managed to showcase the way battles would flow. The goal of a fight between squads in to get into a position to counter your opponent, but not get countered yourself.
"It's also important to defend your teammates who can get countered, a single mistake will make your entire squad crumble. Thus, making a fight between squads a battle of perfection." Mr. Griffith explained.
After all the examples the classes ended, and they went to their third class. Most students ignored what the teacher said as they were excited to start their fourth class. To these students, the class ended rather quickly, and they went back out to the dirt field.
Standing in the field was four adults.
Augusto Griffith, an ancient demon who was of the dealer class. He specialized in brute force combat, rather than having complex techniques he hits hard and fast. The enemies who have fought him say they barely have time to defend themselves due to how in-your-face his style is.
Ethan Burns, a rather young demon who was of the grim class. He primarily uses explosives for large scale demolition and artillery barrages. When fighting in close-combat situations, he uses a semi-automatic handgun with a fifteen-round magazine. His handgun style is decisive, aiming shots to maim joints, then moving to execute his foe when they can't stop him.
Olivia Wolfe, a new teacher assistant who graduated top of her class and has experience in sabotage. She is of the soul mage class. She has masterful control of the most common element, fire, and she generally summons a large fire serpent to attack her enemies. She summons additional fire serpents to bind her enemies or to divide their attention.
Finally, John Doe, an enigmatic man who skyrocketed through the ranks at the Abyss. Excluding Blood Hunters and the Kings themselves, he is generally considered the strongest demon. He is of the specialist class. John can morph his soul realm to create a thick armor on his skin, creating nigh impenetrable scales. When in this state he can use lightning to practically teleport, he can also send out the lightning to attack. When he isn't in his morphed state, he is much weaker.
As the students filed onto the field, they were told to go to their respective class. The classes themselves would all take place on the field at the same time so they could learn what their squad mates will do.
Luke followed Leo in walking over to John. But the unexpected happened causing everyone's eyes to go wide.
BAP!
Leo hit John on his head, despite John being taller than him, knocking the cigarette he was smoking onto the dirt. Leo promptly snuffed it out with his shoe, glaring at John the entire time.
All of the students expected Leo to receive a pummeling, but their eyes went even wider when John spoke.
He coughed slightly and mumbled, "Sorry." He then rubbed the back of his neck with an embarrassed smile.
"…" The insects and birds were the only creatures making noise, everyone else was dead silent.
Eventually this silence was broken by Luke, "Mind explaining that… or?" He trailed off slightly.
John's face grew even redder as he mumbled while staring at his feet, "I promised him I'd stop smoking…"
Again, silence.
Leo looked disappointed at what just happened, but he just shook his head and stood near John. Quickly the rest of the students found their teachers and the actual classes started.
John scratched his head looking at both Leo and Luke, he debated if he should explain to Luke their relationship.
Leo took it into his own hands and explained it to Luke.
"He's my guardian, so hopefully that clears things up." He said with an awkward chuckle.
Luke slowly nodded without saying anything, staring the entire time, confused by it but he stopped thinking about it quickly.
"Alright, I suppose we should start this shit up!" John said with an excited voice, hoping to bury the embarrassing event from before.
"Alright, Luke, right?" John asked and Luke nodded, "My ex-wife was a blood angel! So, I know a lot about this stuff! All that channeling bullshit the other people have to do, you don't! Just bleed, simple as that!"
"Excuse me?" Luke asked.
"Okay, maybe you have to channel a bit, but still!"
"No, no, not that. Bleed?"
"Yeah, well, they're not called blood angels becau- actually, let me not say that joke. Yeah, that'd be inappropriate… But yeah, you guys can control your blood. It's generally unique to each blood angel, but also requires very little experimentation! Basically, cut your hand and let the blood flow freely!"
"…" Luke was silent, but he looked a bit uncomfortable.
"I don't… I don't like blood."
The John and Leo both did a double take.
"Oooh, yeah, that'll do it…" John had a face that screamed yikes. "Okay, well, unless you want to get murdered in the line of duty, you should probably try to get over that as quickly as possible..."
There was a brief pause before John said, "Here, have a knife!" and nonchalantly tossed a knife towards Luke without even looking.
"Alright, LlllMathias!" John almost slipped up, so he put up an obviously fake smile while he glanced towards Luke. Luckily, Luke had been preoccupied with the notion that he was almost stabbed, and even though he wasn't stabbed, he still had to stab himself.
Leo touched his forehead and mumbled, "Dude…"
John cleared his throat slightly and said, "Mathias, uh, for me, what worked was I just went into my soul realm and yoinked that shit! Then brought it out, blah, blah, blah, you get the point!"
Some of the students nearby who managed to hear this doubted if John had ever taught a thing in his life.
"Good Blight above, he's as dumb as a pile of bricks." Grey mumbled inside of Leo's head.
Leo thought back, "He's just bad at explaining things."
"If you say so… Anyway, I know I've messed with you a bit, but seriously, be careful when you bring your powers out. Young master, I don't need you ending up crippled." Grey was being sincere in saying this, although Leo didn't notice that Grey said it in a pleading tone.
"Noted."
"FUCK IT!" Luke screamed as he slashed his hand with the knife, prompting him to bleed everywhere.
All the students who didn't know what he was doing slightly freaked out while John gave a cheerful thumbs up.
"O-oh, that feels kinda good." Contrary to Luke's previous expression, he seemed quite blissful now.
"Oh yeah, forgot to mention, you get pleasure from bleeding now. Boy, that would've probably helped, right?!" John said nudging Luke with his elbow with a grin, "Eh? Ehhh? Yeah, I bet it probably would have!" John chuckled.
He then turned to Leo and said, "Alright Mathias, now head into your soul realm, do some shit, hit things an imaginary hammer, I dunno, and manifest your soul."
"Awful. Just awful." Grey muttered.
Leo did what John said and entered his soul. When he did so he was met with the same darkness as before, as well as the black sea under his feet. He also saw Grey lazily floating in the strange liquid not that far away.
The fox waved him over, and Leo complied. He found that he was strangely unaffected by the liquid at his feet as it didn't hinder his steps in any way.
Arriving before Grey, he stood up from the liquid and pointed down.
"Most other people have a small floating orb which houses their pools of mana. They can only take out so much at a time, and much train themselves to be able to draw out more.
"Let's think of it like this, a normal demon is in the middle of the desert. It hasn't rained in forever, but there is a small oasis. They can draw this water and use it, but they must make sure they don't use all of it before it rains again, whenever that may be.
"You, on the other hand, don't need to do that. For better or for worse, you're the equivalent of someone stuck in the middle of an ocean as a thunderstorm is raging on."
"I see…" Leo replied after hearing the fox's explanation. He thought for a moment before bending over and picking up some of the liquid.
Grey just watched him without explaining anything.
Then Leo yelped, "What was that?!"
"What was what?" Grey replied in a casual tone.
"Something just moved past my leg! Are you not the only one in here?!"
"Uhh… No."
"How many of you people are in here then?!"
"You honestly, probably don't want to know the answer to that."
"Uh, yeah, I actually would!"
"Hmmm… At least two."
"…No shit." Leo said in a defeated voice after a moment of silence and the fox just shrugged.
Looking at the liquid again, Leo just decided to drink it.
"There's more to it than that Leonardo. You need to draw it out into the real world. The Kings and all the Princes share the same power. You can use any of the classes for yourself, without restrictions beside the amount of your mana pools. I'll give you a hint, the easiest of the classes to summon forth is that of the dealer. Try summoning a contract, being a dealer will also fit in with the plan you and John devised with subclasses. I wouldn't be explaining this to you, but John is such a bad teacher that I'm afraid you'll never learn at this point."
"…Alright." It was at this moment Leo just decided to give up and trust the fox.
He thought deeply about making a contract, creating the rules in his head. It was a simple contract, if signed Leo wouldn't be restricted, but the signee would have to have to do five pushups.
Then he swallowed the liquid again. But nothing happened. Grey continued to stare at Leo in silence.
Leo thought for a moment before mumbling, "That might work."
He reached back towards the liquid and lifted some up.
He imagined the liquid was a solid while compressing it in his hands. At first nothing happened but then it started molding itself into a tangible form. Leo's brow slightly raised.
He continued with this process until it was flattened like paper, then he cut off the unneeded excess. This left him with a black solid that was shaped like paper. Leo thought about the contract again and thought about it appearing on the black paper.
Without too much effort, it slightly started appearing. He continued the process until the words were clearly visible. Then he stared at the paper unsure of what to do next.
Eventually, he did what his gut told him and chucked it into his mouth.
"D-did you just… eat it?" Grey said completely baffled.
Leo shrugged.
"…" Grey was silent debating whether not to explain it to Leo, but he decided not to.
Leo, assuming it didn't work, lifted some more of the liquid and started molding it. At a much faster pace he had the contract completed and he stared at it once more.
Then, he got an idea, holding onto the contract, he left his soul realm imagining he was carrying it with him. It wasn't a complex idea, but he thought it had a chance.
As his consciousness returned to the real world, he immediately felt something was off. The hand that was holding the contract, his left hand, he couldn't feel it.
No.
No that's not right.
It burned. It burned so much it felt like he had placed it in a volcano.
He screamed out in a world where he couldn't hear anything. Everything around him was muffled. The only thing he could recognize was the pain in his hand, which was spreading.
As the pain reached his arm, Leo was on the ground, clutching the dirt as he screamed out. As he screamed and screamed, he felt someone embrace him, tearing him away from the pain. Soon, the pain faded, and Leo was left with nothing but the embrace and his thoughts.
As Grey dragged Leo back to his soul realm to hide him from his pain, they had a complex expression. As the two sat in the strange liquid, Grey just held Leo tightly.
Grey kept reminding himself over and over, "If he doesn't face hardships, he won't get stronger. He needs things like this. He needs this. He needs it…"
Grey's face went from complex to plain bitter as he repeated those words. His grip softened slightly, and he let Leo rest in his lap.