Some of the blood had remained stuck to the uncle's chains, pulling them towards my father; in response, he let those chains go, allowing them to crash against the walls of the arena.
"That was pathetic; can you really not land one single attack? You used to win every spar, brother." My uncle shouted as he removed the jacket covering his body and rolled up the white sleeves of his shirt.
"How long would you last against the uncle? An hour?" I naively asked my cousins.
"As if! I'd die within a couple of minutes; Dad not only has the power but also the experience to back it up. Your dad's way of attacking would've gotten me on the third strike; it's incredibly hard and stressful to deal with attacks like those, so it's surprising Dad can deal with them this easily." Ilay explained.
The twins seemed bored out of their minds, while Leo was enthusiastically taking notes, noting how each power worked.
His obsession with demons is scaring me; what the hell does he find so interesting about them? They're just scary monsters with supernatural powers.
Not only that, but it was well known that they preyed on human emotions such as fear, rage, sadness, or happiness and went out of their way to ensure the human they're facing felt such emotions. Even morphing their bodies to try to evoke such emotions in their victims.
From the corner of the arena, my father emerged, covered in an armor made out of his blood; standing beside him were three identical clones. Since the armor didn't let any part be visible, it was difficult to pinpoint which one contained my father.
They all charged forward, brandishing large swords and running in different directions to confuse the uncle. He shook his head disappointed, grabbed the chains, and swung them around himself, making a full spin.
The chains broke all of the clones and sent my father flying back against the wall.
"Look at yourself! This is what I meant when I said that she would ruin—
"Kiriam! Stop! Not in front of my son." Before the uncle could finish his stance, my father interrupted him, emerging from the wall; his hair had turned white and his eyes had split; now he had two pupils placed on opposite sides of the eye.
"Fine!"
As the two rushed towards each other, my father disappeared; he somehow teleported himself above the arena along with all of his blood gathered around his right arm.
My father shot down all his blood in a singular compressed projectile, while the uncle defended himself by removing the pipe on the second mouth and exhaling with it, releasing enough smoke to cover the entire arena. The smoke solidified, blocking the projectile.
I decided to peek a little into Leo's notebook to see what was happening; he immediately guessed that the sudden teleporting ability had something to do with his sudden change. He then immediately scrolled back and was ready to fill the page regarding his father's pipe ability.
So far he knew that it was an ability that got stronger the longer he used the pipe and the power gets unleashed when he exhales, a description saying "Sudden tattoos?" and "New limbs?"
When the smoke cleared, my father was pinned against the ground with the uncle pressing his foot against his back while pulling his arms upward.
"Will I also be able to use demonic artifacts like you guys?" I asked them as I watched my father making his arms explode to free himself.
Seeing such powerful abilities reminded me of the card artifact Elena had. I remembered the little game we played, and suddenly I felt envious of her. I too wished to have a powerful ability to use by my side.
"You've got to ask your mother for that; Dad is always ready to give you something; he even has reserved a bunch of demons just for you, but I doubt the aunt will ever allow you to get them." Elvis answered as he picked his nose, nonchalant as always.
He was right; after this incident, the likelihood of me ever getting a demonic artifact had drastically decreased. We fled from our home and transferred to the upper cities; moreover, she despised the uncle. She would've rather died than get a favor from him.
When I turned around, I noticed something I didn't before: Ilay's hair was shining. His braided hair was shining more than usual and was gathered all in a long ponytail, unlike usual.
"Why is his hair like that?" I asked the other.
"He's got a crush to visit; he's been obsessing over every little thing; he showered twice just this morning; the little—" Before Elvis could finish his sentence he was kicked off the stands by Ilay.
"Oh, come on! If you don't want other people to talk about it, don't be so obvious about it; even Lucy noticed it!" He complained as he got back up.
"Ilay, you should reconsider the date idea, as I've told you earlier, that girl is no good; she was passed—" Michael suddenly chimed in. He tried to whisper this to Ilay's ears, but I ended up listening to it anyway.
"Will you stop! If you keep talking like that about other people, you'll end up as bitter and resentful as Dad." Ilay seemed to be a little more nervous than usual.
"But she's been with over—" Elvis tried to say something about the girl Ilay was interested in but was immediately cut off by his older brother.
I stood there puzzled by what was happening; I could hardly understand what they were talking about.
Isn't dating kind of like… a good thing? Isn't it? Love is beautiful; at least that's what I saw in many movies.
"Is that really all you see in her? Her previous partners? Not her character? Her personality? Didn't you say you didn't want to turn out like him?" Ilay suddenly shouted, agitated.
"Leave him alone, she got him wrapped around her fingers. Give it a month or two, and he'll return crying to us that she cheated on him. Look how defensive he got; it's just a matter of time." Michael said while pulling Elvis away,"
Why are those two so against him dating a girl?
Ilay seemed on the verge of raising his fist against Elvis; he stopped because he noticed both me and Leo staring at him. He left bitterly while Elvis flipped him off.
"That guy, can you believe it?" Elvis commented as he sat back down, crossing his legs.
"What was so wrong about it?" I asked them.
"That's too early for you; I'm sure one day you'll understand the situation. In about a week we'll finally reach our destination. Are you excited to meet new kids? Don't get too comfortable with them; they're all spoiled and insufferable. And don't forget about us; family is always the most important thing." He quickly changed the topic as he exchanged strange looks with his twin.
You guys really cannot go one day without repeating that motto, huh? You're just like the uncle.
Then, as I pondered on that motto, I began to think there was something missing from our family.
If family is the most important thing, where's the rest of it? Where are our grandfathers? What about my mother's family, your mother's or even my father's?
I stayed silent and simply watched as my father was getting toyed around by the uncle; eventually, the match finished when both of them got too tired to continue.
By then Leo had finished writing a detailed description of all the abilities they had shown so far; his eyes and brain were far sharper than those of his twin half-brothers. But that's probably just his obsession taking over him.
The twins were yawning out of boredom and had asked for some snacks, and when the match was finished, the stands were littered with popcorn and plastic wraps.
The maids didn't look all too pleased seeing the mess we were making, but none voiced their complaints; they just glared at us. It was surprising how my cousins could even manage to ignore those glares or not feel uncomfortable by them.
"Ignore them; you shouldn't bother with them. They should be glad they're even allowed to be here and enjoy all of these luxuries." Michel said to me as he energetically began patting my head. Forcing me to turn around, away from their gaze.
Then the maids escorted us out while my father and uncle stayed to discuss something in private. A butler was assigned to watch over us; he escorted us back to Uncle's house.
Leo guided me to his room, and there he showed me his collection of demon statues; some were horrifying, some weren't as scary but definitely looked threatening with bulging muscles or simply sheer size on their part.
"Luca, Luca! I got a new fighting game! Want to try it together with me?" He asked me with his eyes shining brighter than a star, staring a hole in the back of my head as I tried looking away.
I always lost to him, and I didn't feel like getting angry over anything.
"Young master, you promised your father that today you would finally start doing your homework." The butler intervened, saving me.
When I turned around, I saw that he was wearing a white veil to cover his face and white gloves to cover his skin and was emitting a chilling energy from his body.
"But… How could I? We have a guest here, right? We have a lot of time left before dinner; I can always start later." He was desperately trying to come up with an excuse, but the butler wasn't budging.
"But… we have a guest here." Leo repeated.
The butler then walked towards Leo's library, took a couple of books, and dropped them in front of us; they were all containing math exercises. With a touch of his hand he was able to duplicate the book, placing the second copy in front of me.
Wait, don't tell me.
"Me too?" I asked.
The butler nodded.
"But I'm a guest!" I too began repeating.