The truth behind the eye patch.

Henry led them to a dressing room, where they both he and Raphael changed into a suitable fighting robe. There were varieties of clothes to choose and they were from different varieties of combat Henry learnt.

"Let's get changed, then we'll head to the weaponry before going to the arena." Henry said and Raphael nodded in agreement. They both went into the changing cubicle.

After some minutes, Henry got out dressed in a karate white robe with a red rope tying the robe together and Raphael came out in a track suit.

"I guess we both have different tastes" Raphael said to Henry.

"I guess so, I'm more comfortable in this, it gives me enough space to move the way I want to." Henry replied

"Wow..." Riley's remark made the two turn to face her as she caught their attention. Riley then suddenly jumped at Henry hugging and rubbing his cheeks.

"My little brother is sooooo...cute!" She saids with sparkles in her eye. (The other eye was covered with an eye patch...ehem.)

"Hehe..." Henry who was caught off guard could do nothing but let out a weird laugh.

'Tsk, she's so good at acting. I will have to be more careful around her, after all we will not always remain in friendly terms." Raphael thought as he looked at Riley who was still caressing Henry, no one would ever suspect that she had just poisoned him.

What Raphael did not know is that it was a genuine reaction, Henry was looking very good and his charm was almost irresistible, that it caught Riley.

"Let's get going shall we? We don't have all day."

"Oh...look who's jealous. You're jealous that you aren't half as good looking as Henry is right?" Riley teased

"Shut up. I have my own charms, ugly someone like you wouldn't get that." Yes, Raphael was very handsome almost on par with Henry, but Henry just had this charm that will make anyone rate him above Raphael.

"So nice of you to admit that you're ugly." Riley said

"I never said that." Raphael argued

"But you just called me ugly, your identical TWIN sister. That's like calling your reflection ugly." Riley pointed out

"Touche... but shut up already." Raphael grunt in frustration and started walking to the arena.

Henry and Riley let out a soft chuckle as they followed behind.

'Just one one look and you'll think that this is a happy family with the best of relationships. No one will be able to tell that this is a gathering of rivals ...no, enemies. And keeping each other close is what enemies do best.'

When people asked why the siblings are against each other, they answered that it was because they had a rule: The strongest among the Darkling's children will take over their father's role and every company in his possession and that was the horn blown for the battle to commence.

"So sis... I've been meaning to ask...why do you where an eye patch, do you have an injury there?" Henry asked

"No, nothing's wrong with me dear, I wear it for some personal reasons." Riley replies.

"Oh, sorry I didn't mean to pry." Henry apologizes

"It's nothing, as a matter of fact I'm going to tell you, because you are cute, it's not a secret anyway." Henry looked at her appreciatively.

"So the reason I wear this eye patch is to cover my golden left eye," she said as she opened it and showed it to Henry.

"It... it's beautiful...so why?" Henry whispered but Riley heard him.

"Oh sweetheart, all that glitters are not gold. As you have seen, I and you big brother here have the same eyes, we are half vampire and half witch." She said while demonstrating.

"Woah... seriously that's way too OP (overpowered)" Henry said with glittering eyes, he was like a kid that you were telling the story of a super awesome hero.

'Forget it, these two are drama queen and king. He didn't react at all when I told him that, but he's acting like he didn't know. They are a perfect match against each other.' Raphael thought half annoyed.

"Hehe, it would have been, but unfortunately we can't harness both powers to it's highest potential, but we can only reach a certain level in each class, the level which is compatible with our body. If we finally reach that level, we'll meet a bottleneck and any attempt to go past our limit will have serious consequences. It's futile. You see how half assed it is now?" She asked Henry.

"I see the flaw...but I don't think it's half assed. If you both are fluent in the use of both the witch's and vampire's magic, you'll be almost unstoppable." Henry said.

"Yes, that's right but it's easier said than done, but in order for us not to reach that limit we have to train our body and make sure we surpass our limits.

'This idiot. What does she think she's doing blurting out our weakness like that?' Raphael barked inwardly.

"I see now, but that still doesn't explain why you decided to patch the left eye."

"Well, that's because I don't like it. It's the eyes I inherited from mom, she's a golden race witch and I don't like witches, why? Because they are dumb, weak and so-not-cool, I have decided on focusing on the vampire's class powers instead." Riley said.

" I may not have seen them but I was taught that golden race witches are witches with golden eyes and are one of the strongest class of witches. I also read that a mid ranked golden race witch could destroy a whole city with a swing of their wand..." Henry wasn't done when Riley cut him in.

"You see? Wand! That's the problem, it's so dumb. Imagine fighting and swinging a stick around, plus the slow casting. They are literally depending on a stick, if it gets kicked out of their hand they are done for." Riley pointed out.

" Well, that's too literal don't you think? Besides most high ranking witches don't use wands and their spell casting is fast." Henry said.

"That's the worst and most boring part, you'd have to wait until you are a high ranking witch to not use a wand. Your whole life will be depending on a stick until you are high ranked." Riley complained.

"But I have never heard of a witch losing their wand in a fight."

"There has been more cases than one, they are just rarely spoken of, either the witch who looses the wand never lives to tell the tale, or if they survive they would hide it, to cover up their shame. If you don't believe me, I'll invite you to watch, whenever I'm having a battle with a witch." She said with an evil smirk

'The chills.'

"Oh...well, that's new."

"That aside, I see you're learning a lot about the outside world, keep up the good work bro." She said tapping on his back.

"Thanks... I guess " Henry wasn't sure of what to say

"We are here." Raphael said as he found his way to the open space arena, it was very wide.

"Aaaah," Raphael says as he breathes in deeply. "The sweet scent of a battlefield. This arena is your home little brother, come and show me what you've got." He said with a grin on his face.

"Sure. I will." Henry smirked