Practicing in the IMP Headquarters, Cody was slowly improving with using his dual axes in the dummies in the room. Cody also was improving his gun skills with the revolver.

Loona looked on as she was watching her adopted little brother slowly get better with handling weapons. Hell, maybe if Cody had the bloodlust, he would be one of IMP's greatest employees.

Vortex himself was happy to see how Cody was slowly handling himself with his weapons. His arms were crossed and he was smiling to see the kid slowly improve as much as Loona was happy. Of course, Loona was worried that the kid might hurt himself by accident by accidentally slicing one of his fingers off with an ax blade. "Go get 'em, kiddo!" Blitzo encouraged. "Make those dummies suffer so badly! Worse than the lake of fire!"

"Cody's doing well, sir." Moxxie said. "Not as good as us but still good."

"What do you expect, honey? He's still a kid." Millie said.

"Do you think he'll cut his fingers off?" Asked Loona.

"No, he'll be fine." Said Blitzo. "It's not like it's a baby swinging those axes."

"I know that as much as the next guy, dipshit." Loona rolled her eyes. "He wouldn't talk if he was a baby."

Millie's cellphone rang and answered it. "I gotta take this, guys." While swinging at more scary dummies, he wondered if Tommy would be proud of him for trying to be a fighter. After all, Tommy was a soldier.

And he wondered if his parents would be proud of him for trying to learn how to defend for himself from a mugging or any kind of dire situation similar to that.

He was caught by surprise when he heard Millie squeal with joy like a teenage fan girl over a boy band. "What? What is it?" He exclaimed after accidentally throwing one of his axes in the air. Luckily it didn't hurt anyone and landed on the floor with a loud "clang!" Sound.

"Sorry if I scared ya, sweetie." said Millie. "But my mommy and daddy are hosting a race at their farm."

"A horse race?"

"Close. A pig race." Millie pointed. "We choose a pig to ride on and the winner gets a trophy."

"Cool." Cody remarked. "Where's the Wrath ring?"

"Just one floor down from us." Said Blitzo.

"You guys gotta come with us to see the race."

"Is it a long drive?" Asked Cody

"Not far." Said Moxxie. "And we also take elevators to the rings."

"elevators?" Cody looked confused

"I know I know it's weird." Said Vortex, "but Hell works in mysterious ways."

Cody realized the hellhound was right. "That makes perfect sense.

"Wait is it ok for Cody to go down there?"

"Relax, Loona." Said Millie. "You can come like you came last time.

"Ah, right." Cody said.

"The event will last for one whole day." said Moxxie, looking at the text.

The kid had a thought. "What about school? I don't wanna catch up on more school work as homework."

"The book, remember?" Loona gently patted the grimwoire. "With this, anything is possible."

"Oh yeah. Why do I keep forgetting that."

"But what if your parents don't like Cody?" Asked Moxxie. "They hate me enough as it is, but what about Cody?"

"Come on, sweetie." Millie doubted. "They've dealt with kids before. Me included."

"True." Moxxie recalled

"Besides, Sallie Mae will be there. She'll be dying to see him again."

Cody smiled, and he would like to see Millie's sister again. "Sure, I can go there with you guys." Cody said. "But wait, I have school tomorrow."

"Don't worry, I'll pick you up after school tomorrow." Lola. Smiled. "But you might want to stay close to me just in case."

"Even if I have two axes now?" Cody smirked

"Yeah but I doubt they would even be allowed at school."

"Oh. Right. Forgot about that."

The Next Day

Loona was waiting in her human form and Cody was always happy to see her again. But this time, she was wearing something different. She had short black pants and black tank top and a red sleeveless jacket looking torn around the shoulders.

"nice outfit, Loona." Cody complimented

"Thanks. The usual spot?"

"Uh-huh." They both walked into the forest so no one can see the portal to Hell. The Wrath ring looked a little different than the Pride Ring. The sky was orange instead of the red color on the uppermost layer oh Hell.

The area was a large farm that looked a little something like the old west.

"Here we are." Said Loona. "A barren farm in the Wrath ring."

"This looks... out of the ordinary." Cody said.

He heard a childish squeal and felt himself being hugged. "Cody, sweetie. It's so good to see you again." He recognized that transgender voice. It was Sallie Mae. She put him down. "Sorry honey, I couldn't help myself."

"How strong are you?" Cody smiled.

"Strong enough to lift a large pig off to dinner." Sallies Mae smiled. Two more imps came out, a male with a mustache and muscular arms and a female that looks almost like Millie, but with greying hair. Next to her was Millie herself

"So, this is the human half-pint you told us about, sugar." Said the male.

"Yep. Mom and dad, meet Cody, my human friend, and Cody; meet my parents."

Cody reached one hand out for a handshake. "I'm Joe." Said the father, who shook Cody in a rough manner.

"And I'm Lin." The mother added.

"I'm Cody." Said the kid, gently tending his roughly shaken hand.

"ever seen a Wrath pig race before, kiddo?" Asked Joe.

"Nope,"

"Well it will be fun." said Lin.

"Hello Joe, Lin. It's been a while," said Moxxie, coming up to them. The parents of Millie didn't look very happy to see him, in fact, they hated him a little.

"Moxxie." They both said in a very flat voice.

"Cody's a one of a kind kid." Moxxie complimented him

"Well, you're not wrong there, elf boy." Joe admitted. "He has a better life than you do."

"Hey! You leave Moxxie alone!" Cody tried defending him. The others looked surprised to see his outburst. "I know he's not physically strong like Millie, but he is a good guy! At least show some kind of love for him!"

"Cody, don't!" Millie said

"Millie is very lucky to have him as a husband! So it is her life!"

Joe and Lin looked surprised and the father looked like he was about to explode at him. Young Cody had a look on his face that made him realized he made a bad move.

"What did I just do?" asked Cody in his brain. Loona was right there in case Joe would go ballistic on the child.

"Well, for a small kid your age, you have backbone." Said Joe with a smirk. "Got skunk, little man." Though it was funny he said that, because he and Lynn were only one foot taller than the boy. "Something I wouldn't mind seeing so much from you, my boy." He looked at Moxxie. "Still, at least you have some sort of spine in ya."

"Yeah, I mean, we can appreciate that." Lin added.

"I'm sorry for snapping like that." Cody said, even though he is relieved to see that her parents didn't lash out at him.

Joe chuckled. "Nah, I like people with spunk." He chuckled as he patted the kid's back in a rough way. It almost felt like a hard smack. Wouldn't be surprising if it left him a slap mark. "I like you, Cody."

"And Millie was right, you are one of the cutest human boys to ever exist." Lin added

"Thank you."

"So where will this pig race take place?" Blitzo asked

"In a field not far from here," Joe explained. "There will be two laps to run in the fields and the winner will receive a trophy and fifty grand."

"Fifty thousand dollars?" Asked Blitzo, sounding surprised.

"Yep. And the best part is in cash,"

Meanwhile, Cody was looking at some of the livestock in the farm area and one of the pens had spiny sheep with spikes on their backs like a porcupine. They were like a combination of sheep and wingless dragons a little bit. A couple of them had a set of spiral horns like an argali of some kind.

Nit only that, but a couple of them had three or four eyes instead of just two. They were a little bigger than an ordinary ram, and one of them caught sight of Cody, and curiously walked up to him. This beast had a foul breath but sniffed Cody, then bleated. What a peculiar sheep this was.

It's bleat was something that sounded like a low grunt and a sheep bleat combined. He continued sniffing Cody some more.