Chapter Three: Sparring Won't Hurt Anyone Right?

"So, I heard from the kids that you saved them from some cultists... Why would a demon like you save them?" 

Asura's face twisted after hearing that word used again to describe him. He replied,

"Look here, ya old fart. You may be scary, but you and your children keep using that racist term. You all throw that shitty term around like it's nothin. I am an ogre say it with me ya old fart. An O-gre." 

The old man's face twisted at the foul language used. 

"Alright, I'll stop calling you a demon if you stop using that foul language." 

Asura laid back in the chair nodding, satisfied with such a deal, and replied, 

"Alright, alright, you got yourself a deal there old man."

"Now that we have settled that issue, we can return to my question. Why did you save them?" 

"I don't know. I don't eat humans. Especially children. I am a fighter. I fight stuff. Can't fight a little kid ya know? I mean, it's pretty one-sided. Like beating up a puppy." 

"Four kids were missing. You brought back three. What happened to the fourth?" 

Asura's face turned grim, and he broke eye contact with the old man. He scratched the back of his head and looked at the old man nervously. 

"I ain't no liar, so... They used him to summon me." 

The old man kept an unfaltering gaze. The fiery golden eyes staring directly at Asura burned brighter by the second. Asura felt like they were burning a hole in him, causing him to grow more anxious as time passed. His voice sounded calm, but Asura could tell it was hiding a building rage that might explode forth at any moment. 

"And what did you do?" 

"I killed them... fuc- uh... the idiots that summoned me. I snapped their necks. I don't like messing with children. They ain't rotten yet ya know. I, uh, wanted to save them, so I brought them here. Look, I'm sorry for their friend, but I didn't ask them to summon me. Now I'm here, and well, I don't know what to do. Never been summoned before. New experience, I can add this to my resume... If I knew what those were." 

"You have never been summoned from a monster realm before?" 

"Nope."

"How did you enter the cathedral?"

"I walked in."

The old man became perplexed by this answer. This monster claimed to be an ogre, but those haven't been seen in several years. They were almost extinct. Yet one allegedly was before him? A passive one, to a certain degree, so far at that. The old man has heard stories of ogres, each one more gruesome than the last. Bloodthirsty, uncontrollable forces of chaos hell-bent on devouring everything living. Asura's story was a little hard to believe.

"... So, you're fine with killing humans but not eating them?" 

"Yup. Wait... You might take that the wrong way...." 

"Got a problem with killing other monsters?" 

Asura scratched his head, wondering where this was going, 

"Nope cause most of em are d..." 

Sighing, the old man looked away out the window next to him. 

"Well, from now on, you are under my supervision. You do not leave this place without my permission. You're going to stay here and fight monsters for me, understand?" 

Asura furrowed his eyebrows, confused,

"Alright, what? What do you mean I gotta stay here?" 

Asura's eyes locked with the old man's gaze. The fire burned in his eyes again, except now Asura felt like the old man was staring into his soul. The air in the room became thick, making breathing harder and harder. Asura's lungs began to burn as the air increased in temperature. He felt like he was boiling from the inside.

Falling to the ground, he struggled to fight against the crushing force that was building up around him. Like an anvil's weight pressing down on him against the floor. The old man's mana poured throughout the room, filling every corner. He struggled to push himself upward off the ground but raised himself high enough to meet the old man's eyes. The old man stopped expelling his mana for just a moment and gave Asura a choice, 

"I can kill you at any moment. You are a monster, I simply cannot let you go out by yourself, who knows what you'll do? Instead, I'll offer a deal. You stay here, and I'll ensure you don't get in trouble with the other cathedrals. You saw how everyone reacted to you. You also said you are a fighter; you love to fight. Why not fight monsters? All you have to do is fight cultists and monsters for me. I'll give you the freedom to move around after you prove yourself. Otherwise, I'll just kill you right here." 

Coughing and gasping for air, Asura held his throat and sat up. With a raspy voice, he replied. 

"You make a compelling argument, old man. I think I'd rather live." 

"Good choice. Thanks for saving the kids." 

Asura gave one final smile before he passed out due to the stress put upon his body by the mana. 

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Waking up from his deep slumber, Asura jolted upward, anxiously, looking around him. He expected to be chained and tortured, but neither of those happened. Instead, he found himself on a soft bed. He tried to get up but struggled as he couldn't help but fall backward as pain shot through his body. His muscles were stiff and aching, causing him to groan and shift uncomfortably. 

"I think sitting is good..."

Studying the room, Asura found that the room was quite big, with several rows of beds accompanied by medical equipment next to each area sectioned off by curtains. It resembled a hospital to Asura, but he had only ever seen those on television. "Humans are interesting," Asura thought, watching liquid drip in a bag nearby. Too busy looking around the room, Asura was oblivious to the person lingering out of sight. The person spoke, breaking the silence, 

"Finally awake, sleepy head?" 

Asura's heart stopped as he jumped back, grabbing onto the bed with all four arms. His head spun in the direction of the voice; it was Mel. 

"Holy shit... Where'd you come from?" 

"I have been sitting here the whole time. Also, I recommend you stop cursing or the old man is going to kill you... Wait that might be a good thing. Carry on." 

Asura threw his hands forward as if he were trying to shoo her comment away. 

"Ehhhh whatever, how'd I get here?" 

Mel rolled her eyes as if she were dealing with a toddler. 

"Me and Ash lugged your fat butt over here because you passed out in the old man's office. I don't understand why we haven't just killed you yet, but clearly, you have some sort of use if the old man is keeping you around. But personally, I don't care, I would rather kill you." 

Mel stood up and leaned closer while pulling her pistol out of her holster. Asura could feel the cold iron pressed up to his temple as she pushed her gun up against his head. 

"I don't know why my bullets didn't kill you last time, but if you hurt anyone or do anything shady, I'll blow a hole into that demon head of yours." 

Asura's irritation grew once again, becoming agitated by her constant use of the word demon to describe him. After crossing his upper two arms, he pointed with his lower two, accusing Mel.

"Still racist I see. Alright, alright, I get it. Quit nagging me, mom." 

Trying to stand up, Asura let out a groan as the pain shot through his body again. Finally lifting himself to his feet, Asura watched as Mel began walking out of the room. Stopping at the door, she made one final comment.

"Oh, the old man wants you to come to the training room, by the way. Also, put some new clothes on. There's some on the table next to you." 

Asura looked down at his clothes, noticing the ragged mess they were left in. Bullet holes and slashes reduced his clothes to a few pieces of cloth. "I look homeless," Asura thought as he played with the dangling, barely attached strips of cloth. Asura grumbled, 

"I kind of liked that hoodie assholes." 

Turning to the table, Asura found a blue T-shirt and black cargo pants. Asura sighed, disappointed by the lack of sweatpants. Grabbing the clothes, he tried to get dressed and fought with his shirt again. Struggling with the shirt, Asura had to rip holes to accommodate his two lower arms.

"Why can't you guys be inclusive?"

Asura could not help but realize that the builders of this place loved using gold to decorate the interior. The door had a golden frame with engravings all over it. The room was also decorated with golden accents and decorations. Even the trim was made from expensive material. Asura found it baffling that they still used candles to light the place, though. "Did they spend their entire budget on gold and could not afford electricity?"

Written on the cathedral walls were scriptures and carvings of the stories of how God created the world. Even Asura had heard those tales in his realm, but he didn't have time to list them off. Asura walked towards the door Mel left through. However, he immediately stopped as he realized he had no idea where the training room was. Scratching his head, he pondered this situation, mumbling to himself,

"Wait, how am I supposed to know where the hell the training room is?" 

After walking around the maze of hallways for thirty minutes, opening every single door in the cathedral, he finally stumbled into the training room. It was a massive room about half the size of a football field. As he walked into the expansive room, the patter of his feet slightly echoed, alerting everyone to his presence.

He looked around, noticing weapons lining the right-side wall while the rest of the room was empty. The old man stood in the middle, instructing Mel and Ash as they sparred with each other. He appeared to be talking but Asura could not hear him due to the distance between them. However, he did notice the old man waving at him.

"Over here, stand next to Mel and Ash." 

The blonde-haired boy named Ash shot an angry glare at Asura but quickly whipped his head back to face the old man. Mel could not help but roll her eyes after watching this childish behavior before asking,

"What took you so long?" 

"How the fu-" 

The old man's face twisted a little, causing Asura to stop before he finished. Scurrying away, Asura hid behind Ash in fear of being beaten again. However, Ash did not help as he tried to shake the ogre off by pushing him away. He came to regret this decision quickly as Asura kicked his ankle to get revenge like a toddler not getting his way. Yelping from the pain, Ash clutched his ankle while hopping around on one leg. Asura wished to torment Ash more, but the old man's glare prevented him from continuing any further. 

"I mean, how am I supposed to know where exactly the training room is, moron? I don't live here. You're the idiot who left a monster roaming around the place anyway. How do you know I won't run away or kill anyone here?" 

Before Mel could say anything, the old man responded, 

"Don't worry, we will always have eyes on you. An engraving on your chest lets us know what you are doing and where you are. It will also cause you great pain if you try to harm a civilian." 

Pulling up his T-shirt, Asura noticed a new tattoo consisting of flowers that created a circle with their intertwined stems on his chest. Within the circle, a large runic marking he couldn't recognize was present.

"What the? WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME?"

He felt at his chest as if he were violated. The old man shrugged, 

"Like you said, you are a monster, and we have no clue what you can do. It is not permanent like a tattoo, but rather like a sticker we placed that you can't remove. For now, it will remain with you, but if you help us, there is a chance I might remove it. Or I could just kill you if you would like. But you said you enjoy fighting, so I am going to give you the chance to fight. Help us out, and I'll help you out." 

Stroking his beard, the old man walked towards the side of the room where the weapons were lined up. He exclaimed as he walked away with his back turned,

"We will be testing out your capabilities today. You will fight Ash first and then Mel. This room will regenerate and repair itself in case of any damage caused to it, so do not worry about holding back. There are also runes engraved on each pillar, infused with a holy mana focused on healing. These will heal any wounds and remove exhaustion within them, so don't worry about hurting them either. You will still feel pain, so be careful. The fight ends when you remove the other's ability to fight or you give up. Ash, are you ready?" 

Asura threw his hands up in shock and glared at the old man with an eyebrow raised. 

"Is this how you treat your patients? I just woke up. Also, will I get healed?" 

The old man replied, 

"You are fine. I checked on your body when you were in the infirmary. No wounds were found anywhere on your body." 

The old man motioned with his arms around the room, answering, 

"Rooms like these in Cathedrals are enchanted and designed to be made for fighting. A sort of training hall. When built, they are installed with metal rods. Those rods have holy runes carved into them and then are enchanted by Arch Knights. It takes a lot of holy mana; however, once complete, a field is established around the room."

The old man studied Asura's posture.

"Anything inside will be healed of any serious injuries. Unless the cause is a natural death, which then the field will do nothing about. With all that in mind, I see nothing wrong with you fighting unless you are afraid of dying. Which, if you don't fight, it might result in your death anyway." 

Ash chuckled, displaying an evil smile on his face. He seemed confident and eager to fight him. Asura didn't understand where his confidence came from, though, because last time it did not go well for him. If they did fight, Asura would do everything in his power to keep him from winning. That smug face irritated Asura. He wished to squash whatever pride Ash had left like a bug.

Pulling out his sword, Ash prepared himself for the spar while Mel walked away, only a little interested in this ordeal. She pulled out some gum chewing on it while finding her place next to the old man on the sideline.

"This'll be fun." 

Ash asked, 

"What, you scared, shorty?" 

"Oi, who you calling shorty? Just cause I ain't no freak show does not mean I am short. I'm average height. I have never been afraid of a fight, either. I've fu-... killed more monsters than you probably have your whole career." 

"It's like a chihuahua barking constantly. Small but feisty." 

This enraged Asura. He slammed his fists into each other, making a thunderous noise as if two solid rocks were slammed against each other. 

"Imma have fun beating the crap out of you, soy boy." 

Before the fight commenced, Ash quickly slid two fingers across his onyx sword, chanting an incantation, 

"The Lord strengthens those who follow the light. Through Hephestine, the dullest blades become sharp." 

His black steel blade began to radiate an aura created by the holy mana swirling within it. Although Asura was impressed by the sight, he would never admit it to the likes of Ash. It pissed him off. Ash could do such a cool thing, and Asura couldn't. Suddenly, the sword ignited as he held it with both hands. Bursting into existence, a golden flame engulfed the sword's body down to the hilt. Pointing the now flaming sword tip in Asura's direction, Ash taunted the ogre.

"What was he going to do with that? Did the soy boy think that adding flames would help him in the fight? Does he believe heating a blade makes it easier to cut through? Hahahaha. I've dipped my body in flames that devoured many before me. Some holy mana isn't going to be the thing that strikes me down. Ever been breathed on by the flames of a dragon? Now that shit burns..." Asura thought as he waited for the battle to start.

The old man gave Mel a thumbs up, signaling her to start the fight. Mel let out a quick sigh before she pulled out one of her pistols and aimed it up to the ceiling above. Ever since this ogre showed up, the amount of work she had started piling up. If there was one thing Mel hated, it was working...

Staring at the competitors, she couldn't help but pray for Ash's victory. If the ogre dies, then everything returns to normal. "Please, Ash, just kill him." She thought as she pulled the trigger. With a single shot sent upward, Mel signaled the beginning of the fight.