Demon Lord's Reincarnation

Admirably and funnily enough, June who wanted some extra "desserts" was the one who quickly pulled out her laptop and checked everyone else's GPS location—which was on their chest rigs. I had a thought that they might've taken them off to further add to my worries but it seemed like they didn't and everyone else was still wearing them.

"You…" Kaley trailed as she looked at me helplessly.

"Ah—"

Seeing her expression, I slowly pushed down the lid of June's laptop though it was somewhat enough for me to see their general location—which was a bit away from the City of Manila and borders between the Cities of Pasay and Makati.

Unfortunately, I haven't heard much about these two cities in general but if I were in charge, I'd have everyone else occupy Pasay City first before Makati City because it was also by the coast. But in regards to old news, Pasig City—which was the city after Mandaluyong City, which was the city between Iskoh's and Makati City—had one other reliable person trying to keep a community together.

'Mayor Vitto…'

However, that was a story for another time and I'd rather focus on something— no, I wasn't even allowed to focus on my newly created team, and it's just making my head itch and my stress levels a tad higher than usual.

Quinn cut in, "If you're that worried about 'em, we can just shadow from behind and see what's up. What the fuck can the Mayor do?"

I shook my head, "Nah, it's okay— I just relapsed from knowing I could check their locations through their tags."

"Eh. Sure. If you fucks aren't doing anything, I'mma go sleep. Don't disturb me even if you're trying to knock me up. I'll do it to ya tomorrow—I just fucking need some sleep right about now."

"True, I don't care of you guys do it again, I'm too tired…"

"Me too…"

As Rachel and Jennifer followed after Quinn, the rest of us were still lounging by our folding chairs and tables—with this rechargeable lamp—and even though no one was saying anything for the most part, we were still sitting in comfortable silence.

And even without any fans or AC running, the breeze was enough to keep us cool—though it didn't take long before Ilana brought up a topic.

At first, the look on her face made me think that she was about to finally spill the stuff we stole from the Eisenhower, but it was actually from my short bout with Joe. To this day, I haven't seen her make use of her knives and it was just making me think that she was more of a collector than an actual fighter.

"What do you wanna know?"

"That Joe kid kept shouting how? Why?"

June added, "Y-Yeah! He looked so upset but in awe at the same time! Why?"

I chuckled, "Hmm~ I could tell you right now but why don't I let Kaley and Tatiana explain? See if they could put our special training to use."

"Us?/What special training?" Kaley and Tatiana said at the same time.

"This—" I said as I quickly turned my killing intent on and off, "This special training."

At that exact moment, I couldn't help but smile seeing Kaley and Tatiana unfazed though Ilana and June definitely needed a lot of work. However, I forgot that Quinn, Jennifer, and Rachel were still in the vicinity and it was obvious who peeked out the flaps and shouted her head off:

"HEY! I SAID— NO KILLING INTENT PAST MIDNIGHT! I GOTTA FUCKING SLEEP, YOU FUCK!" Stay updated via empire

I lied through my teeth, "That wasn't me, it was Kaley."

"HAH?! YOU— EVEN KALEY'S SHOCKED! ONE MORE OF THAT AND I'LL RIDE YOU TILL YOU DROP! GOT IT?!"

"Don't tempt me with a good time—"

"FUCK YOU! I-If I wasn't so sleepy…"

"Fine, fine~ I apologize, go back to sleep~"

"Ugh… These comforters do shit… We should sleep on a real mattress soon…"

With that said, since the ones who were still awake decided to wait for everyone else to come back, we moved to the farther end of our tent so I could have an impromptu teaching class with June and Ilana.

"Where did we left off— Right, Kaley, Tatiana: just tell them what you know."

Tatiana started first since Kaley was still trying to figure out what she wanted to say:

"Hmm~ It's like an advanced form of doing feints and misdirection to land a hit."

I nodded, "Care to elaborate?"

"Uhh~ No? You'd do it later, anyway~"

"Pfft— I guess I always do, huh? Kaley? You don't need to elaborate too, I just wanna know what you saw from earlier."

Kaley took a short breath, "O-Okay, if we're talking about the thing you kept doing to throw everyone else off, I'd say the same thing Tatiana did but you incorporated that intent thing to go another step above the usual tricks to overload your opponent's brain. I-Is that okay?"

"Yeah, thanks," then I looked at the two, "Fuck— I should've asked you two first but how do their answers differ from yours?"Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Ilana and June looked at each other before Ilana answered:

"I do understand that you're good—no, crazy at doing fakes, but I couldn't see much if I'm just watching from the sidelines," then she turned to June, "How about you?"

June shook her head, "A-Ah— I'm really just curious… I-I don't even know the first thing about fighting close-up… Sorry…"

I waved her off, "We're slowly building you up, no need to apologize, but yeah… what you all said sounds about 50-60% of what I actually did—though honestly, there are so many different ways you can do it and I'm not even sure how to put all of them into tiers or levels. However, we can talk about it as much as we'd like or I can just show it to you straight-up."

Ilana immediately answered, "That's what I'm actually going for."

At that point, I made her stand in front of me—and just to get the ball rolling, I raised my right palm before staring right at her eyes:

"So, what do you think I'm going with this— and before you answer, what's the most obvious one?"

"A right slap?"

I nodded, "That's right but I could easily kick your shins, use my other hand, a headbutt—"

"Wait, wait, wait— you're still talking?"

"I… I am. Why do you ask?"

She rolled her eyes, "Show me."

"Do— Like, right now—"

"Yes— OW! WHAT THE FUCK?! YOU SLAPPED ME?!" Ilana exclaimed while holding her right cheek.

"You said—"

"CAN'T YOU GO SLOW?!"

"Shhh~ Keep it down— Hah! You think you'd actually hit me— HAH! Nope! Still not hitting me, not a chance."

"F-Fuck you! It hurts, you know?! My cheek… My… M-My right… c-cheek… What the fuck— How?!"

I chuckled, "Now you're talking like Joe. Good!"

"Do it again!"

"I'm not falling for that shit—"

"I mean— Do it again, but slower, you fuck! And why can't I fucking hit you?! I'm— Trying— So— Fucking— Hard!"

"Now you're trying to learn two things at once. Well, those two things kind of overlap—fuck it— Watch closely, okay? I'm going as slow as I can~"

"Okay!"

At that moment, I repeated the same motion by lifting my right hand up, winding it back, and making it travel a path towards her left cheek—and I can't fucking make this up—and right as I used a different angle for my left hand to make contact with her right cheek that was red from the earlier slap, her eyes were still fucking glued to my right hand which was halfway there.

*slap*

"What—"

And right as my left hand made contact with her right cheek, it looked like Ilana started BSOD'ing several times like I was a street magician performing a close-up trick, which was kind of the same thing.

"Want me to do it again?"

"Hold up, I'm thinking… Can you do it without using your right hand?"

"What do you mean? It's part of the trick and it's another technique altogether—"

"Just do it, okay?"

So yeah, this time around, Ilana kept a close watch on my left hand as it made its way to her right cheek, and as it made contact, she looked down on the ground again to process everything that had happened. However, she asked me to show the same thing again and again—until she had a rough understanding of it—and funnily enough, she politely asked me if she could do it to me instead.

"Umm… If you can, sure?"

"Can I go fast?"

"Pfft— Sure."

"Don't laugh at me! I'm trying here!"

"Go on, go on—"

All of a sudden, Ilana performed a rough copy of my movements earlier but right as her left shoulder moved a smidge, I caught her speeding hand about to slap my face.

"Wha— HOW?!"

"You're doing something wrong, want me to show you again?"

"I've seen it enough times, just tell me now!"

"In short: you suck."

"HAH?!"