Chapter 200: Learning to Fly
"Let’s take this from the top."
Arthur’s words evoked a smile on Hades’ face. He removed his hands from behind his back as he stared at Arthur, waiting for him to pounce.
A silver haze appeared around Arthur’s body as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, upon opening them again, he charged towards Hades at the fastest speed he could muster.
**BAMMM!!!!
He punched out with his fist at full strength, however, Hades caught his punch in his palm. The ground around them caved in due to the small shockwave from the collision as the duo stared into each other’s eyes.
Hades pushed Arthur’s fist back slightly and Arthur took advantage of that force to back way a bit. Multicoloured strands of energy then began wrapping around his arm and legs as a smile bloomed on Hades’ face.
"Good, good! You’re catching on well. It seems you haven’t been slacking these past few months."
Arthur on the other hand was trying to use the cosmic energy around him to reduce the force pulling him downwards, towards the planet’s core.
Slowly and steadily, his body began floating upwards as Hades followed suit with a proud smile on his face.
His attitude kept increasing until he was a few hundred meters in the air, he looked at the ground beneath him and chuckled slightly before turning to Hades.
Hades nodded and spoke, his happiness for Arthur evident in his tone.
"You did good.
Your devil wings grant you great energy conduction and manipulation abilities, however, you must learn to possess that skill without using your wings, it’s not everywhere you can reveal your wings, and neither is it everywhere that your opponent would ignore such an easy-to-target body part."
As soon as he said that, he placed his hands at his back and dashed towards Arthur, when he got close, he spun around and delivered a spin kick towards Arthur’s head.
Unlike before, Arthur only used one hand to block as he pulled the other back in preparation for a punch.
The silver haze around his body, condensed on his fist as he punched Hades’ chest as fast as he could.
However, Hades reacted fast enough and dropped his leg before raising his hands to catch Arthur’s fist. From there, the two began to exchange blows. Each time, aiming for a vital point that would take the other down for the count.
Hades punched with an aura-filled fist, towards Arthur’s chest. Arthur caught Hades’ fist with his both hands and pulled him closer however before he could execute his plans, Hades’ head-butted him harder than he could have ever imagined.
**BAM!
Arthur felt disoriented temporarily as the force sent him flying towards the ground. Giving chase Hades was about to send in another punch when Arthur’s eyes snapped open and he tilted his body to avoid it.
He then grabbed Hades’ fist and turned around before pulling Hades over his shoulder and swinging him towards the ground.
However, to his surprise, right before Hades hit the ground, his momentum instantly became zero and he sprang back up like he just landed on an invisible trampoline.
"What the?!"
It was too sudden that Arthur barely had any time to react, his first instinct was to utilize time magic and accelerate his movements to dodge but;
"Did you think I’d let you?"
Hades’ voice rang out as he felt his body stiffen, right before the punch hit his face, he could see cosmic energy wrapping around his body, cosmic energy that definitely was not manipulated by him.
**BAM!
**BOOMM!!
Hades’ punch sent him flying through the sound barrier once more, up into the air. The bones in his nose alongside a few of his front teeth were broken to pieces.
He coughed out silver blood and shattered teeth but before he could even begin to heal, Hades appeared at his back and slammed him towards the ground once more.
The force behind the slam and the speed of his fall was too much for him who had only begun to learn how to fly without wings to regain his balance in the air.
He clenched his remaining teeth and spread out his wings in hopes of reducing his momentum, thankfully the slam didn’t send him through the sound barrier once more.
**BOOOMM!!!!
He crashed onto the ground and broke more than just a few bones. Even the body of a superior stage grandmaster would be damaged severely if they fell from a few hundred meters in the air at a speed close to that of sound.
In fact, the average superior stage grandmaster would probably be dead. If Hades had slammed a vital point like his head, that would have been the end.
’I feel like I cracked my spine.’
[You actually did. More than just a crack.]
Celestia responded to Arthur’s thoughts as he tried to summon the strength to move his broken body to no avail.
He cranked his head up and spoke to Hades who was floating above him.
"I don’t think an inferior stage Epic could take me out this easily though."
Hearing his words, Hades rose an eyebrow in surprise before scanning himself. He then chuckled lightly after realizing that he may have loosened the hold on his strength and used more power than an inferior stage Epic could ever hope to have.
**Whistle~~~
Seeing Hades look away and whistle suspiciously, Arthur confirmed his suspicions.
"Seriously Dad!"
As he spoke, the wounds on his face were healing fast and his bones were slowly coming back together. He then utilized time magic and accelerated the healing process.
During this time, Hades was looking at his at the silver blood on his fist with a curious look.
’Is this his blood? It changed colours?’
Nevertheless, he did not say a thing about it but simply waited for Arthur to heal. In about 5 minutes, Arthur was good as new but the magic consumed was quite much.
"Time magic has high consumption, especially if it is cast with aid from the law of time’s power. Use it sparingly."
Arthur did not even reply to Hades, he abruptly charged at his father, much to Hades’ surprise, and delivered a whip-like kick to his torso.
*SWOOSH *BOOM
Hades was sent flying into the mountain behind him, landing with enough force to cause about half of it to crumble.
Arthur did not relent and charged towards him with his fist pulled back. There was a flash of dark light from within the debris and Hades’ figure charged out towards Arthur.
Not wanting him to get close, Arthur punched out creating shockwaves from the air pressure of his fists and sending them flying towards Hades.
"Hmm..."
Hades calmly countered the shockwaves with his fists, dodging when necessary and retaliating with shockwaves of his own when he deemed fit to.
While the duo were having this ranged battle, Arthur began channelling his anti-divinity subtly, hoping that Hades would not realize, however;
"Huh?"
The moment Hades showed a reaction, Arthur created a foothold with cosmic energy behind him and kicked off the foothold, dashing towards Hades and instantly sending a punch to the Latter’s gut.
**BAM!!
Hades was sent flying again, however, he easily regained his balance and turned to Arthur while flying upwards with a smile on his face.
"Good. Keep that up."
Arthur flew up in front of him and stared at him with narrowed eyes. Seeing this Hades tilted his head to the side and asked.
"What’s wrong? You seem dissatisfied."
"A little."
"You don’t care that you were able to harm an actual god?"
Hades rubbed his hand around his stomach through his torn shirt and turned his palm to Arthur, showing him the golden blood that was seeping out of his Torso.
"That anti-divinity of yours is quite damaging even if I’m not using any divinity. Probably damages anything godly I suppose."
As soon as he spoke, his injury closed up and his clothes returned to normal.
"I really wonder if I’d be able to fight calmly the first time I face a hostile god in the future. Not just a random member of the god race but a full god, one with an authority."
Hades nodded in affirmation upon hearing Arthur’s words, a few moments later he replied.
"That is true, a hostile god won’t be as patient as I currently am, and neither would they be as unintimidating. I don’t think your mother or her brother have shown you before, have they?
How a deity looks like when they are actually serious.
When we are done, I would show you. You need to remember that feeling and get used to it, that way you would be less affected by how intimidating your opponents are in the future.
That other girl, Esna was it? She should be here too when I do so.
Ah, before I forget, I should teach you how to use your faux true voice now too, another perk of being sub-cosmic."
Arthur nodded as summoned Celestia and stared at Hades. Seeing this, Hades only chuckled before replying.
"Oh, we’re switching to weapons now? Cool."
He flicked his finger and one of his trusted twin swords appeared in his right hand.
"This boy is an ego weapon, just like that sword of yours."
Arthur was shocked, as he had never actually stated that Cattleya was an ego weapon before. Seeing his expression Hades chuckled and spoke.
"Those who are strong enough can sense the thought transmission channel between you and your weapon, they can also interfere with it too-
-Just like this. It’s up to you to become able to hide that channel, that way they won’t be able to listen in, I’d teach you.]
Suddenly hearing Hades’ words but with Celestia’s voice, Arthur could not help but feel a chill down his spine, same with Celestia...if she had a spine.
