Chapter 37 - 35 - Spell & Dagger

Chapter 37: Chapter 35 - Spell & Dagger

Butler Frank was floating into the air slowly.

Even as this was happening, the butler had a calm yet slightly amused expression on his face as he also watched Flynn, who was hurtling into the air towards him, his Katana poised and raised above his head to strike him.

Frank slightly smiled at this sight while remembering what had happened a month ago.

It was just like any other day and he had arrived at the field at 7:30am prompt to begin his training sessions with his two young masters.

That day, as a sort of way to catch both brothers off-guard, he completely released the full extent of his bloodlust towards both of them without holding back a single bit the moment their spar began.

However, what he had gotten in return had really, really surprised him.

Instead of buckling underneath his bloodlust, both teenagers had stared at him with a cold expression mirroring the one he usually had.

Frank had immediately realized what was happening. He understood perfectly well the only way bloodlust could be countered, and that was through releasing a bloodlust of equal intensity.

The butler then immediately stopped releasing his own bloodlust while staring at his young masters.

He felt just how dangerous their bloodlust was and at first, he had wondered how they had overcome the black void that so many people got stuck on for months and sometimes even years on end.

Yet, despite this, Frank had come to understand one thing.

Aiden and Flynn must've overcome their deepest and darkest emotion. That was the only way bloodlust could be used.

He however had wrongly assumed that they drew their bloodlust from the hateful emotions they must've felt towards so many young nobles around them back when both of them had awakened and their core ranks were made known to almost everyone in the nobles' social circle. n()O)-v/-e-(l/.B.)1/.n

To the butler, those entire periods were the darkest moments of both of their lives and even the Duke and Duchess would believe the exact same thing.

Due to their control over the use of bloodlust, Frank had then told both brothers that he had no need to use bloodlust on them anymore since they could now also use it.

That same day, he had also told them to not only attack him with their swordsmanship but also begin to use their awakened magic in their spars.

Their spar that day had been quite the experience for both brothers as they had been able to let loose a bit even though they had known that they would still be of no match to Frank.

They had kept relentlessly attacking, assaulting and bombarding him with all of their spells along with their nearly perfected basic swordsmanship, and as a result, their spars which usually lasted for a period of usually an hour, ended up crossing a two-hour span.

Frank who had also only been using his palms from the day he had started sparring with the young masters, had been forced to pull out one of his daggers to counter some of their attacks.

He however had not used even a single spell and that indicated that he was still holding back a lot.

Aiden and Flynn had also realized this and had been coming up with so many new plans centered around using their spells to give them and advantage.

They very much knew that they still could not win against Frank but they completely disregarded all thoughts of this and kept finding new ways to at least corner him even if they couldn't win.

Today had been no different either as both of them had kept attacking Frank relentlessly.

First they had continuously and tenaciously attacked the butler in perfect synchronization with their weapons, their weapons continuously getting parried and blocked by the one dagger in Frank's hand.

If Aiden attacked from the right, Flynn would simultaneously attack from the left.

If the butler blocked or evaded one of their strikes, another attack would immediately make its way towards him without even giving him a single break or breathing space.

This continued act of relentlessly attacking while still covering for each other's blind spots even as Aiden and Flynn were attacking Frank detailed just how immensely in sync both brother's attacks were, leaving not even a single opening in each of their powerful strikes and a testament to the perfect teamwork they had acquired over the past seven months of continuous training.

Their spar today had been going on for quite a long while, passing over the three-hour mark and the sounds of their weapons had kept clashing, causing sparks to fly around and creating a cacophony of metallic sounds incessantly ringing and echoing throughout the entirety of the field.

Frank had wondered while parrying two of Aiden and Flynn's attack in quick successions, why despite the fact that they had been using their spells consistently over the past one month in every single one of their spars with him, it seemed like they had not even a single plan of using it today.

Yet, as if to remind him once again that both of them were always coming with new plans every single day to take him down, Aiden instead of attacking with his greatsword, gave a feint and in an instant, spinned on his foot with a skillful twirl and launched a palm strike towards Frank's abdomen.

As Frank had tried to deflect Aiden's oncoming palm strike with his free hand, Flynn had immediately attacked with a powerful thrust aimed towards his free hand, while knowing fully well that he had just deflected a previous attack from Aiden's greatsword with his dagger just before the feint.

This split second deflection had rendered Frank's daggers unable to respond in time to Aiden's palm strike and that was why he had chosen to use his other free hand.

Flynn however had capitalized on this and immediately launched a powerful thrust towards Frank's free hand to ensure that he would focus on him rather than Aiden.

His plan had been successful as the butler swiftly moved his hands at a blur, holding the blade of Flynn's katana and immediately snapping it in half like a twig.

However, Flynn had been unperturbed by this sudden development because their initial plan to make Aiden's palm come in contact with Frank's body had come to fruition.

Frank watched had watched as Aiden's palm strike connected with his torso but to his surprise, the palm strike did not carry any sort of force.

Aiden however had a slight smile spread across his face as he inwardly chanted immediately.

'[Gravity Series: Zero]'

The butler who had wondered what his young masters were up to, had felt a coating of mana immediately surrounding him and start to move him up from the ground of the field.

As he slowly moved up into the air, he had watched as Flynn ran back a few meters and immediately began to run towards Aiden while summoning another Katana from his spatial bracelet.

Aiden who had seemingly known what to do, took a lowered stance and placed his greatsword behind him in a sideways motion, the body of the greatsword facing the sky.

The moment Flynn had reached his brother, he instantly jumped and landed on his greatsword and Aiden who had been expecting this, hurled his brother into the air and towards Frank with sheer strength in a split second by twisting his body in a circular, rotational motion.

Flynn who was hurled into the air by Aiden, hurtled towards Frank like a bullet while taking the stance of the first form of the {Moonveil Art} mid-air.

That was how Frank had found himself floating in the air and in this slightly amusing situation.

'But...'

The moment Frank thought of those words to himself, he immediately created a compressed ball of wind that was spinning and churning at ridiculous speeds in his hands. It even seemed to be pulling in the surrounding air.

Flynn and Aiden who had thought they had the upper hand against Frank, had immediately realized once again that their master was someone who had seriously been holding back against them.

More than that though, they were immensely surprised that Frank had deemed it necessary to use a spell to escape the situation they had put him in, along with the other fact that they had been itching to know for the longest time now.

'What type of magic does Butler Frank use?'

Aiden who had seemingly noticed what spell Frank was using along with Flynn, muttered to himself under his breath as he watched the circular ball of wind twist and churn violently.

"[Wind Series: Whorl Sphere]!"

Frank then hurled the spell towards Aiden who as a result, immediately released his spell on the butler after spinning his greatsword and etching it into the ground in one swift motion as he inwardly chanted another spell, his fists moving at a blur in quick succession to release the spells.

'[Gravity Series: Gravity Blast]!

-Fwoosh! Fwoosh!

-Thwoom!

Aiden upon releasing two afterimages of a punch with his spell, watched as both of them collided with the [Whorl Sphere], instantly canceling each other out and releasing a burst of air into the atmosphere like a wave.

Frank who had begun to fall down back to the ground, watched as Flynn passed just over his head and literally by an inch due to his sudden descent.

The butler however quickly grabbed onto his leg as he narrowly passed above him and immediately flung him downwards with a powerful force.

Flynn who watched himself plummet down into the ground at an immense speed, twisted his body unnaturally at mid-air and regained control as he landed on the ground unstably while skidding backwards a few meters.

Frank also landed on the ground almost immediately after Flynn with a small thud and immediately spoke with a smile as he returned his dagger into his spatial ring.

"We shall continue your training tomorrow morning young masters"

"Yes master!"

The butler upon hearing this just shook his head in resignation.

He then gave a curt and polite bow, after which he then began heading into the mansion.

"Well, at least we didn't have our asses handed to us today" Flynn said tiredly as he slumped backwards onto the field, his back laying on the ground and his eyes facing the evening sky.

"Yeah" Aiden also replied tiredly while moving over and sitting down on the ground beside his brother.

"Haaa... I guess that plan was a bust. Back to the drawing board I guess..." Flynn sighed and said.

"It really was a bust. That being said..." Aiden replied after which he then immediately followed up with something he found odd while they had been sparring with Frank.

"I noticed something when you were in the air and were about to attack master with your weapon art..."

"Hmmm? What was that?" Flynn asked curiously.

"Using mana sense, I noticed that your colors overlapped..." Aiden began.

"Of course I could still see master's color but yours was mostly overlapping and covering his. That was also why I really didn't notice what he was up to until I saw the spell immediately take form on his hands" Aiden concluded.

"Well that's a weird but inconsequential flaw... And here I thought mana sense was almost completely buste-" Flynn said and was about to conclude before his eyes suddenly widened.

"We can use this to our advantage Aiden!" he said excitedly while rising up from the field and looking at his brother.

Aiden however just kept staring at his brother with a squint while wondering what he was up to but Flynn who was having another plan come together in his mind immediately asked.

"How long till you can use [Grav Boost]?"

"Probably in the next few months. Why do you ask?" Aiden questioned.

"Because that bro, is the key to my plan!" Flynn responded while placing his hand on his brother's shoulder with a smug grin across his face.