JB growled as he watched Nayoung back up, giving Hyuk and Hyorin space to fight Youngjae. JB had heard everything having used his powers to make the wind carry their voices up to him. He knew that Hyuk had a plan, but as for what that plan was…….he had nothing. This made him very uneasy and he didn’t like feeling uneasy. Especially when his former master was involved.

The deal did sound simple, but he knew it wasn’t. Hyuk’s powers weren’t any good in a fight as far as JB knew. As for Hyorin…….she wasn’t ready to fight Youngjae. She’s been training for it with Yugyeom’s help, but the training hadn’t been turning out results yet since they’d only just started a week and a half ago. They all knew that Youngjae’s weakness was the two seconds he went solid between stints of incorporealness, but the tricks were draining him of all power so that he had to become solid to restore his power level and getting the timing right so that you could land a punch within those two seconds of recharge time. That was what Hyorin was trying to train for.

It wasn’t working out too well for her, proving that she wasn’t ready to fight Youngjae yet.

“Hyuk,” Hyorin whispered, knowing she wasn’t ready for this fight, “I’m not ready to fight Youngjae.”

“Don’t worry,” Hyuk assured her, “I have a plan.”

Hyorin took in the determined look on his face and nodded. Like JB, she had no idea what Hyuk was going to do, but she had faith that he would pull off whatever it was perfectly.

“Let’s get started,” Youngjae said, moving a little bit closer, “come at me whenever you’re ready.”

“Alright,” Hyuk nodded.

From the sky, JB watched as Hyorin and Youngjae suddenly drop, Hyuk catching Hyorin before she could actually hit the ground. The wind demons looked around madly, trying to figure out what had happened. finding nothing that would explain his brother and Hyorin passing out, he returned his attention to the fight.

Hyuk calmly put Hyorin on the ground, brushing some of her hair out of her face in a way that was downright loving.

Opps, his beast laughed awkwardly, that was……not supposed to happen. Our bad?

Out bad, Hyuk nodded in agreement, Rina said I wasn’t good enough at controlling this power to be able to use it in a fight. Guess I should have listened.

Just hit Youngjae and we can get his contract, the beast shrugged, that should make the others a little easier to deal with when we try to explain why she’s knocked out.

Hyuk did as had been suggested. He walked over to Youngjae’s unconscious form and punched him in the gut.

“There,” he called to Nayoung who looked shocked beyond words, “I landed a hit on him, now give me his contract.”

“How on earth--?” the half demon growled, glaring hatefully at him, “you son of a—.”

“Give me the contract,” Hyuk ordered, making his way back over to Hyorin after picking up Youngjae and throwing him over his shoulder, “now.”

“Never!” Nayoung yelled, “I refuse! You cheated! You shouldn’t have been able to beat him, your power is useless and your master didn’t do anything.”

“I didn’t cheat,” Hyuk scoffed, “you just underestimated me. Now, the contract.”

“NEVER!” Nayoung screamed before throwing the bottle with the contract as hard as she could into the river.

Hyuk’s heart froze for a moment. If the contract hit the water, it would be lost with the current. They would never find it and Youngjae would never be free.

“Nope,” JB said, his wind catching the bottle just before it hit the water and carrying it over to him, “that’s not happening.”

“JB,” Hyuk sighed, “thank goodness.”

“You,” Nayoung hissed, “you--.”

“Yeah, yeah,” JB sighed, “me. Get out of here, Nayoung. No one wants you here.”

“I’ll get you back for this, you worthless dream demon,” Nayoung hissed at Hyuk, “just you wait. I’m going to make you cry, beg on your knees for my forgiveness.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Hyuk growled.

Nayoung huffed before walking into the water and vanishing into the current.

“Alright,” JB said, taking Youngjae from Hyuk so that the other could carry Hyorin, “I’ll bite. How did you do it?”

“My training with Rina,” Hyuk explained, “it…..improved my powers a little? Actually, I’ve always had the ability to put people to sleep like I did with Hyorin and Youngjae, I just……didn’t know I could do it. I didn’t know, so I never tried it.”

“Why would you never try?” JB rolled his eyes, “I know I’d have tried.”

“I just didn’t,” Hyuk shrugged, failing to mention that this little power upgrade had only become available after he’d started communicating with his beast.

Rina explained that having good relationships between the demon and the demonic beast unlocked more of the beast’s power. She wasn’t too sure of things herself, but from what she understood from her own demons this was a catch of sorts the came with the whole ‘beast taking up residence in a host’ ritual. A certain amount of power was sealed away unless the beast trusted the demon enough to make its presence known. From there, the full power of the beast could be unlocked, making the demon a whole lot stronger.

Hyuk could kind of understand why this was the way it was. It was like a safety measure in case the demon became evil. In all his years alive, Hyuk had come across a lot of evil demons who were powerful enough without the boost he and his brothers had recently gotten. If even one of those evil demons ever unlocked their full power…….Hyuk wasn’t sure anything could stop them.

But that doesn’t apply to you, his beast laughed, you’re a good guy, not a bad one. And there’s not a beast I know who would let one of those evil demons you’ve met in the past unlock their full power, so don’t worry about that.

Yeah, Hyuk nodded with a smile, now let’s get Hyorin home. I want the scolding N hyung is gonna give us over with as soon as possible.

A/N: I’ll be honest, the whole ‘some of the power is sealed as a safety measure in case the demon becomes evil’ thing wasn’t something I originally planned. But then I started writing this and……the idea popped into my head. It made sence, so I went with it. And since I know you’re all wondering about what kind of upgrades the rest of VIXX have gotten……..you’ll have to wait to find out. Probably gonna be in the next couple of chapters, so don’t worry you aren’t gonna have to wait long.