Chapter 568: Test Run

"Hey, I need to speak to you." Eiro said in a blunt tone, walking up to the head warrior from Baram, the one that was in charge of everything here at the moment until Baram's king arrived in a few days.

"...Lord Daemonherz. Of course." He replied with a slight frown, clearly busy at the moment. Not that Eiro cared, "No need for that, just call me Eiro. Anyway, you know how I brought my kids along? Well, we've been keeping some secrets about them. They want to reveal it here, as a bit of a test-run. Because here, people will be less likely to freak out and stuff. And if they don't feel comfortable, we can still hide it when we go back home."

"...And how does that relate to us? If they want to do that, they can go ahead." The warrior said with a deep sigh, and Eiro looked at him with a light smile, "You'll understand later. But for now, I just want you to make a promise to me. Promise to me that no matter what you find out about them, nobody will try to rip them away from me. That nobody is going to try to use them as tools."

Confused what Eiro was talking about, the warrior slowly stood up and walked over toward him, "While I can't speak for what others will do, I can assure you that we won't attempt anything in the name of Baram. After all, they are your children, and citizens of Skyhart."

Eiro looked at the warrior and let out a relieved sigh, since he was completely genuine in his answer, "Then come on with me, I'm sure you'll want to see this. And I also want you there to make sure none of your subordinates try anything."

"I truly don't know what sort of secret you may be speaking about, but... if you wish, I will follow." The warrior said, quickly following the Demon outside the hut they were in. Eiro guided him toward where the others were currently, the central gathering area. There were a few people there anyway, and since Eiro called a few more people over, it was a bit more crowded than normal. If they were truly going to try and test how things would go when they revealed this information in Skyhart, then they had to have the guts to show their abilities off.

And when they got there, the Demon quickly stepped in front of everyone, "Hello there, and thank you for coming! I've called you here as a favor for my kids, as they would like to show something to you all. It's a secret we've been keeping from, well, basically everyone. But now, they feel comfortable sharing this secret, and so, we thought this was the best place to do so. It's really not related to you all, so sorry if this bores you." Eiro explained quickly, pulling the attention of everyone onto the group even more. And then... he just sat down on a nearby chair, so that the kids could do this on their own. It was about their secrets, after all, and they were the ones that truly had to deal with this situation. So it made sense that they were the ones to take charge of this test-run.

"Well, alright then, I guess I'll go ahead and explain it, then! So, first of all, nice to meet y'all, although most of you probably just don't give a damn. But well, to be blunt about it, the four of us have unique skills!" Arc exclaimed in a clear and blunt manner, "We were born with them, and they're kinda shitty when it comes down to it, but they can also be kinda neat, and all that stuff. Either way, as our dad already said, we'll be using you as guinea pigs to test out what it'd be like to reveal this information to people we don't particularly trust! Or know, anyway!"

Immediately, the group that was completely disinterested at first became quite rowdy. Usually when someone said they had a unique skill, it was quite hard to believe, but... they knew what their father was capable of. As they turned their heads, they could just see the Demon sitting there, casually waving at them, before attention turned back toward the four kids.

"So, since I'm the oldest, and since my abilities are frankly the most boring, I'll be going first. Oh, and I'm needed for Clem, so, yeah." Arc pointed out, "First of all, this is something I can't really show off, but I have the 'Negative Emotion Resistance' skill. Meaning, that I can't feel sadness, fear, or anger. Or well, I can, but it's harder to hit the threshold. It's a weird one, anyway, but I'm feelin' good all the time, so I don't really mind." Immediately with that announcement, things became even more rowdy. That was certainly a skill that they've never heard of before, but... the fact that something like this existed in this young man was quite tough.

While it might seem nice to not feel those emotions at first, there were of course quite bitter consequences connected to the situation, something that nearly everyone was immediately aware of. But they didn't have much time to think about it, since just a moment later, Clementine stuck a dagger into Arc's shoulder.

"Ah, calm down, calm down, this is just to show off my second unique skill... 'Pain Resistance'. Basically, I don't feel pain. So this? Doesn't really hurt." Arc pointed out, standing there casually without even having flinched despite the fact that the dagger went quite deep.

"Clementine, did you really have to go that deep..?" Sammy asked with a wry smile, and the young woman next to her smiled wrily, "I'm sorry, I'm just... kinda hungry, you know?"

"So, while I'm the youngest of us four, I'll be going next, since we don't want Arc to bleed out. My name is Clementine, and I'm a healer! And related to that, I have my unique skill." Clementine said, trying to stay cheerful although she was being distracted by the gashing wound on Arc's shoulder. She pulled the dagger out and pulled up her sleeve, before slowly running her hand over Arc's wound.

Eiro could feel Clementine's body go numb for a moment as a wave of pain rushed through her. The wound on Arc's shoulder disappeared, and instead appeared on Clementine's, in the exact same spot. Satisfied now that her hunger was sated a good amount, "My unique skill is 'Damage Eater'! I can heal basically every injury, but I have to take it on myself instead. And well... I get hungry for injuries sometimes." Clementine said, voicing the last part of it somewhat awkwardly, while the listeners went crazy over an ability like that.

Sure, Arc's abilities were interesting as well, but an ability that let you heal basically every wound there was? That was amazing, that was an incredible asset to have!

Baram's head warrior turned and looked at Eiro, now realizing exactly why he had asked him not to bother the kids when they were done showing their secrets off. It seemed like the other champions were all trying to jump up to get the chance to speak to Clementine, but they were quickly stopped. Not by the pressure that Eiro was giving off like aspected, but rather by a whole other force.

"None of you really want to move even an inch, do you? You're just here to listen, and do nothing beyond that." Sammy stepped in front of Clementine, the power of her voice reverberating through the air. Immediately, everyone stopped moving as if completely frozen. Sammy scoffed slightly as she crosser her arms, "This is my unique skill. 'Liar's Truth'. Anything I say becomes the truth, basically. So if I say... You all want to kneel to us... then that's not a lie." She said with a smirk, watching everyone here immediately drop to their knees. The only ones that weren't affected were Eiro and his group, since Sammy wasn't referring to them in regards to this 'Lie'.

The Demon chuckled slightly, watching as everyone was struggling to break out of her voice's control. Some of them were doing better than others, the transmigrators particularly so, but for the most part, nobody could do anything against Sammy's lies, even if they were just told casually. She didn't even use her class ability, or strain herself particularly much.

"Erm... Sammy, can you let them move again? I need them so that I can show off my skills..." Rudy explained, and Sammy smiled at her younger brother, "Of course, don't worry~! Everyone here had the ability to move freely in the first place." Sammy said, using that phrase to set everyone free from her control. Even more than before, the crowd became excited. Sammy had manipulated everyone here with ease. In war, an ability like this could instantly turn the tide.

"I need someone to help me out with this one... Anyone that wants to can try to attack me. And go all-out, please." Rudy explained, and everyone was quite confused about what this kid was saying. Sure, he had a large build, but that didn't mean that he had the ability to withstand an attack so easily.

The first to understand roughly what was going on was Biril, who locked eyes with Eiro. The Demon quickly nodded his head, and the beastman warrior quickly walked up to Rudy, holding his weapon tightly in his hands, "I apologize, should I truly injure you."

"Ah, don't worry about that. It's quite impossible." Rudy chuckled slightly, dismissing Biril's worry immediately. He was confused, but the swordsman quickly swung his blade at Rudy. He thought that Rudy had some sort of barrier-based ability, but to his shock, the blade truly connected with Rudy's skin. Of course, Biril tried to stop the movement of his blade, but that was unnecessary. It had continued traveling, but only because the impact pushed Rudy slightly away. Overall, the impact of the sword didn't seem to even draw blood. And then, the notification appeared in front of Biril.

"Zero..." He muttered, slowly turning around toward the crowd, "I did zero damage?"

The moment that Biril said this, everyone stared at the young man. Everyone here immediately knew what that meant. Usually, a 'zero damage' notification was impossible. Notifications about damage only appeared when at minimum one damage point was dealt. So the fact that it said 'zero damage' meant that the attack had the possibility to deal damage, but simply didn't. Everyone, beside the transmigrators, was an experienced warrior. And with that single sentence, they realized that Rudy's ability was the greatest of them all.

Immediately, everyone stood up to try and see it with their own eyes, taking turns to attack the young man. Once everyone had enough, truly believing that it was impossible to damage Rudy, they were all incredibly excited.

"You have an amazing future! Someone that can't take any damage? Doesn't that mean that you could single-handedly take down any opponent?!" One of them exclaimed, but Rudy simply scratched his cheek. He took the dagger Clementine was still holding away from her, and quickly walked up to Arc, who he knew he wouldn't bother with this, "You know how even Clementine, a healer with that build was able to stab the dagger all the way through?" Rudy asked, as he pulled his arm back. Clementine had done it by simply carefully pushing the dagger in, but Rudy was going to stab Arc's arm with all the force he could muster.

But the moment that the tip hit Arc's arm... nothing happened. It was simply stopped, and didn't even scratch him.

"That ability before was 'Perfect Defense'... My other unique skill is called 'Impossible Attack'... I don't take damage, but I can't deal it either."

The excitement of the group immediately disappeared, turning into confusion instead. How was this fair? Didn't that just make the kid absolutely...