Chapter 199: The Crystal Realm Training Trip
Arthur and crew had already taken an official leave of absence from the academy so they could go for their training trip without any problems whatsoever.
The destination chosen was a planet named Sele, in a star system northwest of the Parmis star system. Even with the use of light speed and spatial gates, it still took them three days before they arrived on this planet.
Although the planet could support life, it was currently uninhabited and as such, was perfect for the two sub-cosmic beings to ’go wild’ on.
As soon as the spacecraft touched down on Sele and the doors opened up, Arthur jumped out excitedly like a kid arriving on the beach for the first time.
The three girls, Layla, Nicole, and Esna followed suit before Edward who was busy fiddling with his phone while walking slowly.
Hades then alighted from the craft alongside Aurora who took a great distance from him the moment they stepped out.
’She still hates me, huh?’
Hades sighed as he thought about his and Aurora’s first meeting. Thinking that it couldn’t be helped considering the situation at the time, he surveyed the area before giving the order for the spacecraft to go back into space.
**BANG!
"What the fuck?!"
There was a sudden gunshot, followed by Arthur screaming out, Hades turned only to see Layla blowing the nuzzle of her gun before placing it back in its holster.
"That was a warning shot."
She glared at Arthur as she spoke, making Hades wonder just what on Sele Arthur could have possibly done to warrant getting shot.
"Hmm..."
He noticed someone warp into the area and turned towards their direction. The person flinched upon feeling his gaze and rose their hands up in surrender showing they were not hostile.
While Hades was contemplating on whether he should deal with the person without letting Arthur and the rest notice, the person suddenly ran up to Layla and spoke.
"Miss Layla, N-nice to see you."
He stuttered because of Aurora’s glare this time but tried to act like he didn’t notice. Suddenly hearing her name being called, Layla turned around and was met with the figure of an average-looking human boy, one who seemed to be the same age as her.
"You, you’re that one from Albelion..."
Seeing that Layla recognized the intruder, Hades and Aurora lowered their guards slightly. Layla on the other hand was racking her brain trying to remember his name.
Arthur’s exclamation saved her the stress.
"Phil!"
The boy was none other than Phil, the one who competed with Arthur in the Noil-sponsored hoverboard race track when he last went over to Cattleya’s territory, Albelion.
He was also secretly Arthur’s subordinate and was one of the sub-leaders of the mercenary force under Lewis’ command.
In other words, he was not a human boy of similar age as Layla originally thought, he was a demigod realm existence over a thousand years old, hence the reason for Hades and Aurora’s vigilance against him.
"Yo."
"Whatsup."
Arthur and Phil fist-bumped as they greeted each other. Phil also offered his greetings to the others present before turning back to Arthur.
"Thought you said you were gonna come over in 5 weeks?"
"Well, here I am."
"Ha, even if you come over now, we still aren’t done setting the spell points. We just extracted the core this morning."
"I know, I just took the chance to come over and check it out."
The duo conversed about the law crystal core that was recently extracted from an uninhabited planet in the Parmis star system southwest of Sele’s star system.
"Tell Lewis to bring it over in about two hours okay?"
"No problem."
After giving him instructions, Phil gave Arthur a light bow, before teleporting out of the area, surprising Layla and the others.
"Don’t let his childish appearance fool you, he’s lived more than 50 of our combined lifetimes."
Arthur spoke immediately after Phil left, once again causing looks of surprise to appear on their faces. He ignored all these and walked up to Hades who was scanning the area to make sure it was completely safe.
"So, when are gonna start?"
"Soon."
◇ ◇ ◇
And soon they did, not long after, Aurora carried Layla, Esna, Nicole, and Edward to the other hemisphere of Sele for their own session, leaving Hades and Arthur behind.
To give Arthur the hope of winning, Hades sealed off most of his strength and reduced himself to the level of an inferior stage legendary.
"You can deal with this right?"
"Yes, I can."
Hades nodded upon hearing Arthur’s reply and took a stance with his hands behind his back. Arthur similarly took a side stance with his right arm drawn back and his left arm stretched out forward.
The two stared at each other in silence, all that could be heard was the sound of the wind and the leaves it carried with it.
As the wind died down, a single leaf slowly descended until it touched the ground, right in between the two of them. And then-
**BAMMM!!!!!
**SHATTER!!!
There was a loud sound as the two dashed towards each other faster than the eye could see, crossing the distance almost instantly.
Hades’ leg shot out the same moment Arthur punched forward.
Fist and leg collided mid-air. The shockwaves released from the Collison shattered the earth underneath them.
**BAM! BAMM!! BAAMMM!!!
The two didn’t stop at just that and continued sending out a flurry of attacks. Fist and leg collided each time releasing shockwaves that spread out thousands of meters from their position.
"Lightning Punch."
Seven strikes with the speed of a lightning bolt moved towards Hades’ body. Yet before they could reach, his kicks thwarted each and every one of them. He even had the leeway to send in counterattacks.
"Don’t get too focused on my legs, my hands still exist."
The moment Hades said that, he pulled his left hand from behind his back and sent a punch to the side of Arthur’s head. Arthur hurriedly rose his two hands to block, but Hades also sent out a kick with his right leg at the same time.
Attempting to cancel his blocking motion in favour of stopping the kick would result in him being unable to block either attack so he let his hands block the punch and threw out his leg to clash with Hades’.
**BAM! BAAMM!!
The force with which his leg collided with Hades’ made his bones tremble, to make matters worse, the poor earth underneath them could not take it anymore and crumbled, causing Arthur to temporarily lose his footing.
"You should have expected this you know. In such a situation, try your best to correct your broken balance immediately."
Hades made this remark as he jumped backwards into the air, however, he remained floating in the air instead of falling back to the ground.
Arthur hurriedly spread out his wings and dashed towards Hades, however, the grin he saw on Hades’ face caused him to forcefully cancel his movements.
He created an aura barrier to both forcefully stop himself and protect him from whatever surprise Hades had in store for him.
It was a good idea if Hades target was the front of his body.
Hades spun around mid-air and delivered a flying kick to the aura barrier, shattering it instantly. Arthur sent out a punch towards Hades but he simply dodged it and blitzed towards Arthur’s defenceless back.
He then grabbed one of Arthur’s wings and spoke.
"You are a sub-cosmic being, even if you do not know flying magic or have not reached the transcendent realm you should be able to fly like I am."
**BOOOMM!!!
With that, he flung Arthur with enough force to send him flying faster than sound, the moment Arthur began losing speed and regaining his bearings, Hades appeared in front of him and grabbed his wing once again before flinging him into the ground.
**BOOM!! BOOMMMMM!!!
Arthur slammed into the ground multiple times before crashing at the base of a random mountain.
"Cover your body with cosmic energy and reduce the effects of the planet’s gravity on you, you’d naturally float up into the air like that.
As a being with wings, you are skilled in flying already, just do the same without your wings."
Although Arthur was disoriented, Hades’ voice still resounded clearly in his ears. His body began feeling hot as it started absorbing ambient cosmic energy to heal, faster than his natural regeneration could kick in.
In less than a minute, his broken bones were healed considerably, and then his natural regeneration kicked in, and finished the job.
Standing up from amidst the debris, he saw Hades standing a few meters away from him.
"I’d keep doing that until you can fly without your wings."
Arthur only shook his head and sighed, before taking a stance once more. He narrowed his eyes at Hades and spoke.
"Let’s take this from the top."
