"Luca! Help me!" Leo desperately pleaded with me as he was getting dragged away.
In the meantime, the other researchers pretended not to see what was happening.
"There's no need to worry about this fool, Lucy; I won't be too harsh on him." My uncle reassured me.
Well… It's not like I can do much in this situation anyway…
"Really? You promise?" Leonhart's face suddenly lit up with hope.
"I don't know; it depends on how you behave," he answered him as he kept dragging him away.
"What's this you're wearing? Didn't I tell you to stop trying to steal Lucy's items?" He yelled at him as he began pinching his cheek and stretching it.
"Ah, no, Uncle, these are the set of items he requested. Since he was back, I used this moment to hand them over to him. "I said as I quickly rushed over to them to explain the situation to them to defuse the situation.
"Oh, I think I remember hearing of this… So that's what this was…" The uncle seemed to have accepted my explanation and seemed more reasonable.
Unfortunately, that moment of peace lasted only a few seconds.
"Why were you bothering your cousin for a sparring match when he's so busy?" He asked him, letting go of him.
Phew, the worst is over… for now.
"Sorry, I let the excitement get the better of me." He quickly apologized, bowing his head down the moment his feet hit the ground.
He kept bowing down towards me repeatedly until his father's glare softened.
"I wanted to see and test their performance; that's why I bothered Luca," he admitted, shouting.
Calm down; there's no need to shout anymore.
"I'm also curious to see their performance, but that will happen another time; I need you for something else right now." He announced as he quickly turned around, taking Leonhart by the hand.
Leo was quick to plant his feet on the ground to avoid getting dragged away.
"What now?" The uncle complained.
"How about a bet?" Leo proposed.
"Do you think you're in position to make requests?" My uncle asked him as he tried to pull him with more strength than before; the moment he saw the floor getting damaged, he stopped pulling him.
I could tell he wasn't at all enjoying the situation; the veins on his neck were starting to swell, and he was starting to grit his teeth.
He looks terrifying now. What happened? Does stress really age you that badly? The wrinkles on his forehead are massive.
"Come on! I just returned from a difficult job; I deserve to slack off for a day or two," Leo pleaded.
"You think we really have the time to afford such a luxury?" His tone was incredibly serious.
He was aggressively scratching the top of his head as he talked.
"Yes?" Leo answered.
The uncle frowned upon hearing that answer.
"You're wrong," he coldly replied.
"A couple of days isn't asking much." He simply kept pleading.
The uncle had already started to walk away, and now Leo was once again trying to stop him.
"It is," he corrected him.
"Right, right, every hour idling around is money being burned, but it's not like we're in a position where we need to be extra careful, so how about it, just for today?" He tried to renegotiate the terms.
His confident smile still hadn't faded.
"Are you waiting to move until we're in a situation of crysis?" The uncle spoke solemnly, slamming his fist on the ground, making the black echo through the long corridor.
"Come on, don't be so rigid; you know that's not what I meant," Leo pleaded once more.
Suddenly he relaxed; he warmed up and simply gave Leo a playful smack by flicking his finger at him.
"I was playing with you, so how do you want to make this bet?" He asked as he began to stretch his arms.
The cracks his bones were making sounded visceral; I had never heard something that loud when stretching before.
"I'll face you using all my artifacts, and you will use none. If you can still defeat me, I'll do whatever you're asking for, but if I win… I get to keep all the artifacts I picked up today and get a day of rest." He proposed.
"Aren't those conditions a bit too unfair for me?" He playfully protested as he made a mess of Leo's hair.
"They're not unreasonable…" Leo stood firm with his decision.
I continued to follow the two of them as they entered the training area, where the rest of the bodyguards were currently sparring against one another using the many weapons they picked up from the magazine.
You idiots! I told you to go to the testing room, not …
The atmosphere completely changed when the uncle stepped in; all the smiles, chuckles, and playful banter disappeared the moment they realized who had just entered the area.
They quickly picked up their stuff and stood by the door without needing to be ordered to as Leo and his father headed towards the center of the area.
The two of them silently took their position, and with no warm-ups, they were already ready to fight.
"Are you ready?" the uncle asked Leo, smiling from ear to ear.
Leo didn't answer; he simply activated all of his artifacts at once.
From my perspective, it looked as if his body exploded, releasing a large amount of demonic energy that quickly caught fire and formed a floating crown hovering above his head.
The flames constantly being expelled then began to naturally flow towards the suit and coat Leo was wearing, which seemingly amplified their intensity. The flames being expelled from both the crown and the suit were making a sound that reminded me of a jet engine.
So far nothing looks too much out of the ordinary.
The two then rushed towards one another, Leo using his flames to propel himself forward; the uncle instead simply used the strength within his leg to dash forward, leaving a crater behind.
They both threw a fist at each other and both managed to land their attacks, yet Leo was sent flying back, crashing with his back against the wall.
Ouch! That must've hurt.
He was quick to get back up but was still clearly a bit dizzy as he seemed to have trouble standing upright.
The match was painful to see; it was extremely one-sided. While the suit seemed to provide decent protection, it still couldn't make up for the difference in speed between the two of them. With each clash, this became more and more obvious.
At first the uncle limited himself to just sending him flying back, but over time he stopped doing that and began grabbing him and slamming him against the ground or trying to get him in a chokehold whenever they got too close.
Leo, on the other hand, tried doing his best, using the crown to attack from a distance while constantly running away from the uncle.
It's absurd just how powerful the uncle is… I don't think even my father can come anywhere close to that level of pure strength alone.
Eventually the uncle managed to finally get a proper grasp of Leonhart's right arm, but just as he tightened his grip, the suit exploded with scorching flames, sending a shockwave powerful enough to start denting the reinforced walls.
What was that? Did it break? Did the uncle really break the artifact? Wait, if it explodes on Leo, it could get dangerous. I need to…
I realized the heat was increasing thanks to my sweat. The moment I took a step forward, I realized I was completely drenched in sweat.
Then I saw it, the uncle standing away from Leo, holding his right hand, clearly injured while Leo was perfectly fine; his suit was still intact.
To be able to take such a violent beating and come out with his bones still intact… We can say the artifact is a proper success.
Leo tried to overwhelm the uncle with many powerful waves of fire, but they all got blown away by the uncle's hands.
Every palm strike, punch, or kick the uncle threw at him unleashed a shockwave that extinguished the flames or pushed them right back to Leo.
Then the uncle ended the spar, summoning his trusted chains and spinning them over his head before striking Leo from the other side of the arena, knocking him out in a single blow.
His clothes had completely burned away, and he had nasty burn marks spread all over his body; the heat had clearly reached a level he simply couldn't ignore anymore.
Wow… That combo with the ring and the crown is nasty…
Even his eyes had completely melted away.
"I'll take him back home, home. Sorry for interrupting you. Have a nice day." The uncle said to us as he dragged Leo's unconscious body back home.