Samado POV

(WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING:

-  Violence

-  Cursing)

I knew that this would happen. I knew that Fred would unleash his demon mark by accident someday, but I didn’t expect it to happen that soon and definitely didn’t expect him to control it so well. It’s completely insane! I know that he’s very strong, clearly more than he thinks he is. I didn’t want to tell him about the mark, especially after I looked for it in my books and realized his mark… is special. It doesn’t match any description or drawing. Usually, a demon's mark is on their arms or legs. Well, his mark was on his neck. It was covering the right side of it. But what’s most surprising is that the pattern of his mark doesn’t match with any of those that already exist. I don’t want to believe it, but I can’t help but remember a prophecy I found in one of the books. It mentioned a few demons having a unique and special mark similar to Fred’s, they were called… the royal family. If it’s true, he might be the son of the demon king. The demon king is the most terrifying and the strongest of all the demons that exist. What’s good for us is that we are safe, he can’t attack us. The demon king stays in his natural environment, “The Planet of Demons”, as we, the humans, call it. The real name of this dimension is written in demon language and with the little knowledge I have about demons, it’s impossible for me to translate it. Even if I can translate the rest, I never understood the name of this planet. It’s not written in the ordinary alphabet. It might be an ancestral demon language. In the books that I'm reading, it says that a demon’s memory is transmitted from parents to children… So Fred might understand this antique language. I should tell him about his demon mark, that he is part of the demon’s royal family, that he might be the son of the demon king, etc… The problem is that I'm afraid that if I tell him the truth, he might want to be like the other demons and start killing and eating humans. When the demons eat humans, they become stronger and all their senses develop more and more… If it happens, I will have to stop him, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it. Of course I’d be sad to have to kill my student, but my real problem is that he might get stronger than me… Shit… It’s a hard decision to make, I’ll have to train more during the next weeks if I don’t want him to reach my level. But before deciding if I should tell him or not… I need to try to defeat him and his mark! 

We were looking at each other and both immediately rushed toward the other. I wanted to hit him first, so I pulled out my sword and tried to slash his arm, but a sort of forcefield appeared and blocked my attack. I was taken by surprise, and flew really far away. He then rushed towards me with an incredible speed. He tried to punch me, but I dodged at the last second. Instead of backing off, I also rushed at Fred and was able to hit him, or so did I think. The same forcefield blocked me, and I was again pushed far from him. I was analyzing the situation. A forcefield made by his mark… every attack or defense has a weak point. I… think I have an idea… I just hope it’s going to work. I took a long breath and I ran directly to him. I think that Fred didn’t see it coming, since he was visibly surprised that I got up so quickly. In less than a second, I was right in front of him. Instead of directly hitting him, I slashed him, but my sword didn’t touch his skin. I was just testing the range of this forcefield, and I was right to think that it wasn’t directly on his skin, because even if I didn’t touch him, his defense activated. I instantly surrounded him with sword illusions, but instead of being scared, Fred just punched me in the stomach. OOCH! That one was really painful! I painfully went flying, but at least, I got some crucial infos about his “perfect defense”. 

“Sensei!” He said to me, “Just give up! You’ll never be as strong as me!  Actually, I’m starting to love this mark!”

“AHAHAHAHAHAHA!” I laughed.

“Sensei, don’t tell me it’s over…”

“Yeah, it’s going to be over really soon! For you.”

“What do you…”

I didn’t let him finish his sentence. For the 5th time, I rushed towards him. He was clearly more concentrated because as soon as I started going in his direction, he turned his head towards me. He turned into a totally different person. I could see the urge to kill in his eyes. I was scared, I knew his body wouldn’t be strong enough to handle his full power. His power is incredibly strong, one of the strongest that I’ve seen in my entire life, if not the strongest. This couldn’t just be my imagination, the demons have better body capacities. They are stronger, faster, etc. The demons have been created to destroy everything and everyone they encounter, they are clearly not made for the human world. Fred might even be the only demon in this universe right now... Suddenly, I stopped talking to myself and immediately saw Fred’s foot at less than three centimeters from my face. I did not have the time to dodge so he hit me. This kick felt at least twenty times stronger than his usual ones. I felt very dizzy and my head was aching sooo bad. I had trouble getting up. All my body was hurting. This kick was clearly not just a simple kick. It might be because of this mark…

“Get up, I know this isn’t enough to finish you.” He said.

Even though my body was terribly hurting, I laughed. My god, I shouldn’t be laughing, this kid is really pissing me off. 

“You’re right. A simple kick isn’t enough. But now, let’s see how resistant you are.” I said

“Ok, it's your turn now.” Fred said.

He was so arrogant. That's the type of attitude that I wanted him to have. A real fighter and swordsman don’t show mercy for their enemies. He simply stopped moving and looked deeply in my brown eyes. 

“Punch me, it’s your turn.” He said.

“No, I don't want to punch you like that, I want us to have a loyal fight.” I said.

“Ohhh, I see. I can punch you as hard as I want then...”

He ran towards me slowly. He didn’t seem to know what he was doing. He then tried to punch me slowly. I dodged it with ease and automatically struck him with my sword. Of course, his forcefield activated, but in a second, I concentrated all my strength in my fist and punched him extremely hard. He flew away and fell more than 40 meters further. I was shocked that his forcefield didn’t activate. Did I break it with my punch? No, it’s impossible, or that's what I thought. I then heard a weird noise behind me. I turned around and I saw Fred standing, his body covered in blood. Even worse, I was able to see his flesh and his organs inside a hole my fist created in his torso. He was looking at me as if he was completely dead, but still conscious. 

“Nice punch.” He said.

How… I couldn’t even imagine someone remaining conscious after this punch. But there he was, standing in front of me, telling me my punch was “nice”, when he was close to death. 

“How are you still conscious?!” I said, in shock.

“You think that a punch like that is enough to knock me out?” Fred said.

“Well, this punch was extremely hard to take…” I said. “Just look at yourself!”

“Yeah, nice try!” He added.

He was stronger than I thought. Nobody would be able to take this punch, not even the rank A fighters, which is the elite rank... This kid is really the child of the prophecy. He might be useful for a lot of things. After this fight, if I'm still alive, I will tell him the truth. At least, a part of it. But, to my surprise, as he was getting up, half dead, getting ready to fight again, his mark suddenly stopped its progression and vanished. FUCK, FUCK! Without it… He’s going to die!