Chapter 31 - 29 - Memories

Chapter 31: Chapter 29 - Memories

Aiden dashed like a speeding bullet towards Frank with a devastating downward slash of his greatsword.

However, the butler who had anticipated this, lightly sidestepped and easily evaded it but Aiden immediately changed the trajectory of his greatsword skillfully into a diagonal slash, the movement connecting seamlessly with his very first swing.

Frank upon realizing he couldn't escape the sudden change in the direction of the greatsword, parried the heavy weapon with his bare palms and smacked it with immense force into the ground, causing Aiden to lose control of his weapon for a second.

-Twang!!

His greatsword was now etched into the grassy field, digging up a sizable portion of grass and dirt and causing it to slightly spray about but despite this, Aiden's grip on his greatsword was staunch and he immediately tried to pull it out from the ground after losing control for that one second.

As Aiden tried to do so, he noticed a slight distortion in the air around him, albeit slightly late, and immediately ducked while watching as Frank's powerful kick passed over his head, nicking a few strands of his hair in the process. n).Ovelb1n

-Whish!!!

'That was friggin' close!!! Any later and I'd have been sent flying through the air like a ragdoll!' Aiden inwardly exclaimed to himself, a few beads of sweat immediately forming on his face in response to the dangerous situation he had just narrowly escaped.

'This... shouldn't... be possible...' Frank thought to himself as he watched Aiden narrowly evade the brutal force of his kick as it whistled through the air with mana sense.

As Frank did this, he noticed from his peripheral vision that Flynn had been cautiously circling around him since the spar began, calmly analyzing and looking for the right time to dash in to join the fight.

Swiftly, after his foot landed on the ground from the overhead kick that had harmlessly passed above Aiden's head, Frank instantaneously followed up with a powerful hook punch that was aimed towards Aiden's gut.

Aiden, who by now had already removed his etched greatsword from the grassy field and also felt the immense weight of the punch that was coming due to another slight distortion in the air, immediately responded by using the greatsword's body to block the oncoming punch from Frank.

-Pang!!

Frank's fist connected with the body of the greatsword and sent Aiden skidding backwards from the immense force with which the weight of the butler's punch was carrying.

Aiden himself felt the powerful tremors run through his entire being from Frank's devastating punch but still tightly gripped onto his weapon as he stopped skidding and came to a halt.

Flynn who had been waiting for the perfect moment to strike had immediately lunged towards Frank from behind when he threw that powerful punch at Aiden and capitalized on attacking Frank before he could react to his presence.

But even with that, Flynn knew that Frank would still effortlessly react in time to his presence as he attacked with a horizontal sideways slash of his katana.

Frank who had turned around at a rapid speed from the moment he had noticed Flynn was dashing towards him with mana sense, instantly back-stepped lightly, causing Flynn's attack to miss.

But Flynn, as if expecting this, immediately took one more step forward and smoothly transitioned his attack into a perfect and powerful forward thrust by channeling all of the strength from his body into his arm which was wielding the Katana. All of this happened within seconds.

'Impressive' Frank thought to himself as he watched Flynn's attack immediately extend towards him even after dodging the first one.

Their two months of constantly repeating the same motions over and over again had definitely paid off. Linking one attack to the next without a break in posture was one of the main essence of swordsmanship and both Aiden and Flynn had reached that level with immense dedication and hardwork.

He really couldn't help but be impressed by this.

-Twing!!

Frank immediately held the tip of Flynn's katana with his bare hands as it lunged towards him, stopping the immense force it was carrying along with it while solidifying and pressing his fingers on it in another attempt to shatter it to pieces.

Without even giving him the time to do so, Aiden appeared at the butler's right side and swung his greatsword in a sideways horizontal slash with a powerful force but Frank stood unmoving, as if waiting for the attack to reach him.

-Twang!!

The greatsword which was carrying immense force with it when Aiden attacked, instantly came to a halt as Frank gripped the edge of Aiden's greatsword with his bare hands.

The butler then released the full extent of his pressure and bloodlust that he had been perfectly regulating throughout their spar, causing both brothers to buckle underneath the sudden increase in the weight of their surroundings and the terrifying feeling of dread which sent continuous shivers down their spine.

Frank immediately capitalized on this and spun around with a twirl, raising both teenagers off the ground by grabbing onto the blades of their weapon with sheer strength even as they tightly gripped onto it and in one swift motion, threw Aiden first with the momentum he had gained from his spin and then threw Flynn immediately after.

Aiden and Flynn watched as they were thrown effortlessly through the air and upon realizing they were headed straight for one of the nearby trees, both of them quickly spread their mana across their body to mitigate some of the pain from the oncoming impact.

-Thrack!!!

The tree trunk exploded into smithereens as both brother's crashed into it, the rest of it being only it's upper part which was now rolling through the air, it's leaves scattering and spreading around as it did and the stump which was still rooted to its spot on the ground.

"Not again!" Aiden commented with a pained wince as both he and Flynn collided with the ground after realizing that they had destroyed yet another tree this month due to their training.

Although they had used mana to mitigate most of the pain they should have felt from forcefully crashing into the tree, Aiden had also taken the brunt of Flynn crashing into him so he was feeling a bit more pain.

"We better roll away!" Flynn immediately spoke as he watched the upper part of the tree which was originally in the air, falling back towards the ground and directly aiming for their heads.

Both of them quickly rolled away as the remaining part of the tree came crashing down to the ground.

-Twump!

"We really need to find a way to counter that darn bloodlust" Aiden commented after rolling away safely, his voice laced with a tinge of annoyance.

"We can still manage under the increased pressure but that bloodlust is insanely terrifying..." Flynn remarked in response to his brother's comment, a bit of frustration present in his own voice.

Both brothers then looked upwards as they lay on the grassy field to see Frank smiling down at them gently, his previously cold expression when he was sparring with them completely gone.

"That will be all for today. We shall continue tomorrow young masters" he said with a slight bow, after which he then turned around gracefully and began to head into the mansion.

"Thank you master!" Flynn and Aiden replied respectfully in unison even as they lay sprawled on the ground.

Frank just sighed at the remarks of the two young masters as he continued walking. He had told them not to address him like that but they wouldn't listen no matter how much he tried.

'I should inform the duke and the duchess about this though... I can't believe they can use mana sense that well despite being of lower core ranks' Frank mused to himself as he walked away.

He then glanced over to his index finger and noticed that slightly, ever so slightly, Aiden's last greatsword attack had grazed it, nicking a tiny bit of flesh.

Frank however just kept walking on, slightly amused at the realization that a B-ranker's attack had actually injured him, although the injury was almost close to non-existent.

Aiden and Flynn still lay down on the ground, their eyes watching the sun as it began to lose its brightness and gradually changing into an orange color, painting the sky in slight shade of orange and also indicating that it was early evening.

Flynn turned his head around to look at the remaining parts of the tree that was left from their collision.

"Well that takes me back..." he muttered to himself.

"What takes you back?" Aiden who had overheard his mutter asked.

"Hmmm... well you remember how the queen diva of our school had asked you out when we were in our last year of high school?"

"Katie West?" Aiden immediately replied with a questioning tone, after which he then asked again.

"How exactly does Katie West take you bac-... Oh... I see where you're going with this" Aiden who had seemingly understood why Flynn had brought up a girl from their past lives, said with an understanding tone.

Flynn chuckled at this after which he then spoke.

"The girl you saved from a falling tree. She confessed not even a week after you did that. It's nice that you remember her name"

"Well I'd be a scumbag if I didn't remember her or any other girl who had confessed their feelings to me. It takes a lot of courage to tell someone your feelings even when they know they're going to get rejected. The least I could've done after rejecting them was to remember their names" Aiden replied after which he then continued.

"That being said, I still really do not understand why I was asked out by so many girls in high school... I mean, when you compare me to the most handsome or the richest people in our school, I probably wouldn't even reach top 1000"

"Although, if I were to have been born with this perfect looking face of mine now, I'd be the most handsome human being to have ever existed in our previous world" Aiden declared proudly.

Flynn just shook his head at his brother's shamelessness while rising up from his laying position and shifting into a sitting one, both of his hands interlocked and his arms placed on his knees.

"First off, you're starting to become more and more shameless" Flynn began.

"Secondly, girls liked you a lot and were attracted to you because you acted very maturely for your age. I guess you were a stark contrast to most guys your age who were just trying to have fun and enjoying their lives, doing all the things guys their age should be doing" Flynn replied to Aiden's previous comment.

"So that was the reason why... I never knew..." Aiden responded, his back rising from the grassy fields while also shifting into a lotus sitting position and propping his head by placing it on his right hand which was curled into a fist.

They both gazed at the vast grassy field before them which had so many patches of the bare ground, devoid of any form of greenery or shrub and a few destroyed trees here and there with only the stump remaining intact, an aftereffect of their continued training for the past three months.

A brief but comfortable silence passed between both brothers before Aiden spoke again.

"Come to think of it... You had Jeff Davis expelled, didn't you?"

"He was asking for it and you know it" Flynn replied casually.

"But still, you sure didn't hold back huh. You kept mocking him and pushing his buttons till he punched you. Then you got it on camera and discreetly leaked it to a social media site" Aiden started.

"The backlash was so much from people complaining about rich people and their horrible manners that the school who had originally been turning a blind eye to all his previous antics finally took action. Punching a disabled person was something the internet would never forgive them for if they had let him go scot free" Aiden concluded.

"In my defense, he called you a son of a bitch, my mother a whore and my dad a wuss, all because Katie West kept bugging you even though he had been doing all he could to get her to date him. Why he took out most of his anger out on me though is something I will never understand..." Flynn began.

"Considering he had severe anger issues, I just needed to screw him over by acting on his weaknesses" Flynn continued.

"Also, he just had to be a real piece of shit by uttering those words. Asides from making our life at school very unbearable for quite a long while, he disrespected you, disrespected our dead mother TWICE, and talked shit about our dead father. I think what I did was very much justified" Flynn concluded, a victorious grin on his face.

"You really are a sadist huh... can't say I don't agree though. He really did deserve it" Aiden replied in agreement to Flynn's words.

-Whoosh...

The gentle, cool evening air blew past both brothers, carrying a refreshing feeling along with it.

"You know, I'm kinda glad that our previous lives were real. It may have been a very harsh world for both of us, harsh might even be an understatement but... it makes me appreciate this one a whole lot more" Flynn remarked with a smile on his lips.

"Yeah, and that's why, we're going to get stronger. Strong enough to protect this one" Aiden replied, a similar smile on his face as they both watched the sun gradually begin to descend beneath the horizon, painting the sky in a beautiful shade of crimson and orange hue.