Extra And MC-Chapter 99 - 95 - Advancement

"How long has it been since we last sparred Flynn?" Aiden calmly asked his brother with an excited smile.

"I don’t know… almost a year now? Maybe even longer than that with the addition of a few months" Flynn replied, his fingers placed on his chin while thinking to himself.

"Have to say though, you haven’t won against me even once if I recall correctly" Aiden said with a thoughtful expression that was very much fake, to say the least.

Flynn’s eyes twitched in annoyance at this as he spoke in response.

"Oh oh! Is that so?! Well, let’s see how today turns out then. That face of yours, I’ll be landing a punch on it!"

"Ha! You can try bro. You can try" Aiden taunted in response to Flynn’s comment and immediately got into a brawler stance.

"So we’re starting with combat arts then?" Flynn rhetorically asked with a similarly excited smile mirroring Aiden’s and almost immediately, the youth dashed forward at an immense speed towards the latter while declaring.

"Fine by me!"

-Bam!

Flynn’s roundhouse kick connected with Aiden’s guarded arm in an instant, signifying the start of their spar.

Darius who was watching their spar, wondered why compared to most cadets, Aiden and Flynn started off with combat arts instead of their weapon, weapon art or [Series] like most other cadets would but without reading too much into it, continued overlooking over their spar diligently.

That question however, was being answered by Ivar who along with Adrian, Bryan, Caroline and other cadets, were yet to find free platforms to use.

Despite the fact that Ophelis Hall was gigantically wide to say the least, it still could not completely accommodate the mass number of the first year cadets in one fell swoop and as a result, they had to be separated into four batches.

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It was also why the time allocated to the sparring session was far more than the usual thirty minutes per class, and instead, two hours were allocated for it.

"You see those two, that’s how their spars have always been. They’re always spar without depending on their mana core levels" Ivar began while slightly pointing.

"Apparently, they once told me that they much prefer sparring with each other purely based on their skills as opposed to using their mana core rankings" he continued, seemingly answering the questions that were written all over Adrian, Bryan and Caroline’s faces.

"They will eventually pull out their weapons though but I’m pretty sure they won’t use either of their [Series]" the orange-haired youth added.

"Oh. That’s pretty interesting" Adrian spoke in response to Ivar’s words, after which he then asked.

"What about weapon arts?"

"Occasionally" Ivar answered.

"That being said, I’ve never seen them being so excited like that before. Were they going easy on us during our spars?" Adrian asked again.

"No. I seriously doubt that. They just tend to get more fired up when their sparring with each other" Ivar answered, his arms folded and placed across his chest.

"So a very strong rivalry then?" Caroline rhetorically questioned with a thoughtful expression to which Bryan replied.

"Yeah, that actually fits the bill" he said, while also simultaneously gesturing with a finger of his as he spoke again.

"They’re about to pull out their weapons now though…"

And just as Bryan had said, Aiden and Flynn who were still bursting with so much energy even after continuously sparring with each other for the past five minutes using their combat arts alone, distanced themselves from each other with a long jump in an instant.

"You’re not getting tired, are you Flynn?" Aiden mockingly said to his brother with a playful tone.

"You’re one to talk Aiden. Every time we spar, I get closer to landing a solid punch on that annoying face of yours!" Flynn countered while gesturing with a smug smile to a slightly reddish graze on Aiden’s cheek.

"Tch!" Aiden muttered, seemingly slightly annoyed by the fact that his brother’s words were very true but without wasting a moment, the youth pulled out his greatsword from his spatial ring while speaking.

"Well, that was a lucky graze" he replied with a small smile.

"You keep telling yourself that!" Flynn scoffed in response, mirroring the exact same thing the youth had told him at their very first spar three years ago.

Following this, Flynn also summoned his katana from his spatial bracelet while taking a quick deep breath.

This time though, before he could even get the chance to dash towards Aiden, the black-haired youth had already disappeared and reappeared directly in front of him within the fraction of a second, his greatsword charging with a powerful downwards slash!

-Thrack!!

The powerful attack of the greatsword collided with the reinforced granite pavement of the ground, sending tiny cracks and a mini tremor through it as Flynn narrowly dodged it with a well-placed side-step.

Darius couldn’t help but slightly arch his eyebrows in surprise at the things that had just happened.

First was how Flynn, despite being of lower core rank than Aiden was still able to effectively react in time to his greatsword attack.

Second was how the reinforced granite flooring of the ground, despite being touted for its ridiculously insane toughness, could not withstand a purely physical attack from Aiden’s greatsword.

’Now I understand how they were able to make it to the last floor, especially when you factor in the fact that they still have two of my mana cuffs on each of their beings…’ the stoic instructor thought to himself.

Being the creator of the mana cuffs and also the same person who had inscribed [Conditional Contracts] with his [Rune Series] on all of them, Darius would know whenever a cadet took off the cuff or even tried to take it off.

This was why he was, without a doubt, really impressed by how the two youths were performing despite the limitations they had on them.

-Clang!

-Clang!

-Clang! Clang! Clang!

What had originally begun as a combat brawl between the two brothers and had now transitioned into a full-fledged sword fight, kept heating up as the time went on.

Their fight which had been gradually drawing attention from a few instructors here and there, along with a few cadets on the sidelines who were waiting for their turn for sparring to come around, were now quite invested in the fight between the two youths.

If Aiden’s greatsword attacks were powerful and brutal, threatening to tear apart the very air, especially with those pressurized bursts of winds that continuously emanated whenever he swung his weapon, then Flynn’s attacks were nimble, precise and deadly, focused on parrying, deflecting and displacing the strength of his brother’s attacks along with his skillfully polished and experienced acrobatic movements.

By now though, they had drawn a fair amount of the cadets and individuals in the hall towards their sparring platform.

"Wow!" Cordelia had gently exclaimed to herself while watching the two youths.

She had just declared victory for Lucas a few seconds ago between he and Amelia’s spar and was now waiting for the next pair of cadets to take the platform again as the both of them left, all while viewing the spar between the two brothers.

-Swoosh… Pang!!!

Flynn after dashing towards Aiden and attacking with a powerful thrust of his katana, found himself flung backwards into the air.

Aiden’s staunch defense which was done by blocking Flynn’s attack with the body of his greatsword at the last moment, redirected all of the force Flynn was coming with, back to him and sending the silvery-green haired youth a few meters backwards into the air.

Unbothered by this, Flynn landed with a graceful backflip while skidding backwards, an exhilarated grin, along with sweat dripping from both he and Aiden’s face as they kept staring at each other.

A palpable wave of excited tension hung in the air between both of them and this same tension, translated over to the cadets who were watching them with tingling sensations.

And yet, Aiden and Flynn were still completely full of energy, not a single hint of tiredness present on their faces.

The two of them could not quite place it and neither could they understand just why, but at this very moment for them, despite not seemingly having even practiced it before, they genuinely felt like they could pull it off.

The second forms of their weapon arts!

Exhaling a deep breath of turbid air while taking a slightly lowered stance with his head and knees slightly bent, Flynn began to feel the mana in the air rushing towards him.

Aiden on the other hand, took a deep breath of air instead, exhaled it out and then, took on an imposingly proud yet confident knight’s stance of his own, the mana around him continuously being pulled in.

This time, Ivar had a confused look on his face and Adrian was sure to comment on it after noticing.

"What’s wrong?" he curiously asked.

"Nothing actually… It’s just… I’ve never seen them take those stances before…" he replied as his voice trailed off, a slightly confused expression still adorning his face.

"Wait?! Doesn’t that mea-"

Before Adrian was able to complete his sentence, Flynn dashed towards his brother at a ridiculous speed, his katana simultaneously changing into a formless pale blue hue that continuously flowed like water and then, in the blink of an eye, they watched Flynn completely disappear along with it.

As he did, the youth uttered;

"{Moonveil Art – Second Form…"

Aiden on the other hand, couldn’t help but keep a confident smile on his being even after watching his brother completely seemingly disappear from existence with only a trace of pale blue hue left.

’When Dad had told me the second form of our family’s weapon art was the easiest, I’d genuinely really wondered how true those words were…’ Aiden inwardly began.

’I guess he said that because he figured that it would come naturally to me. He was totally right too. It truly is the easiest…’ he thought to himself while closing his eyes slowly.

Opening it immediately after, Aiden watched the world around him slow down to an almost complete halt and even Flynn who had seemingly disappeared before, appeared in a fractionalized state, almost as if his body was slowly disintegrating and reintegrating at the same time.

But no. It wasn’t that the world was moving slower to Aiden. It was actually the other way around.

The youth was moving far faster than normality permitted and at a speed inconceivable to the naked eye, Aiden slashed downwards, reassuming his knight’s stance immediately after while also uttering;

"{Berserker Art – Second Form…"

And then, as if the flow of time returned to its normalcy, the two weapon arts clashed as Flynn immediately reappeared behind his brother while Aiden was still in his knight’s stance.

"Wha- What just happened?" a few of the cadets viewing their battle questioned but for the instructors present in Ophelis hall who were exceedingly powerful in their own right, especially Darius and Cordelia, had genuinely impressed expressions on their faces.

Even Ivar, Adrian, Bryan and Caroline along with Beatrice and Ivelia who had finished their spar just a minute ago before Flynn and Aiden attacked each other, watched with bated breaths, several other cadets in the same state as they were.

And then, as if to give all of them an answer to what they had been waiting for, Flynn and Aiden’s weapons completely shattered like a brittle glass, along with the impenetrable barrier surrounding their platform as they finally completed their statements, their backs turned to each other and exhilarated smiles adorning their faces.

"…Twilight Waltz}"

"…Counterstance}"

A small wave of silence passed between both brothers and the same could be said for all the cadets who were viewing their match along with some instructors, a few gasps of disbelief travelling through the air.

"A draw huh..." Aiden had been the first to break the silence as he turned around to face his brother.

"Yeah. My very first" Flynn responded, similarly turning around at the same time to face Aiden as he commented with a victorious grin, his arms folded across his chest.

"Anytime soon now and I’ll be mopping the floor with you Aiden"

"Hahaha! Oh yeah?! Godspeed Flynn!" Aiden laughed while replying with a sarcastic remark, simultaneously also gesturing with spread arms.

"Honestly. I’m going to sock you a punch one of these days" Flynn sighed while proceeding to leave the platform.

Following this, Aiden followed suit while retorting as he left the platform too, both of them giving Darius a polite nod to which he responded with a nod too, all while motioning for the engineering workers who were presently on standby to fix the broken barrier that should not even have broken in the first place, an aftereffect of the destructive power of two youth’s weapon art.

As they moved away from the platform, they watched Ivar and Adrian give them a thumbs up, genuinely impressed smiles and amazed looks on their faces along with the other youths around them.

However, even as they did this, a singular thought was now circulating in each and every one of their respective minds.

’I need to master the second form of my weapon art too!’ they all inwardly commented, a competitive spirit set alit and burning brightly in all of their hearts.