Chapter 353: Deuce
Dark Nova shot backward through the air before abruptly forcing his flight to a stop.
The sudden halt sent a powerful gust rushing outward, blowing dust and loose debris away from the point where he had arrested his momentum.
"...That speed." Dark Nova muttered, staring sternly at Arthur.
It was a speed technique inherited from Sir Tristan, one of the Knights of the Round Table. That alone made Arthur one of Ethan’s fastest summons, second only to Nina, if not her equal.
Arthur remained standing between the Hero and his Summoner. And without taking his eyes off Dark Nova, he spoke. "Please accept my apologies, Summoner."
Ethan let out a sigh. "You know... if you actually used your true ability, and that sword of yours, this would’ve been over by now."
"Heh..." Arthur scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile. "Perhaps."
Then expression then gradually became serious. "But... there’s something else. I can sense divinity coming from that man."
"It would seem a god has found favor with him. That is most likely why he broke the Dragon Binding Chains so easily, and why his punches remind me of Sir Agravain’s."
Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly. He immediately understood what Arthur was implying.
Dark Nova was one of the Blessed.
"But..." Arthur continued. "I can also tell he’s exercising restraint, deliberately holding himself back so as not to become guilty of the very thing he’s accusing you of."
Their conversation became shortlived when Dark Nova shot forward once again, closing the distance with overwhelming speed.
Arthur reacted immediately, accelerating to meet him halfway.
The two collided head-on, and a rapid exchange of fists unfolded between them.
Arthur flowed through the barrage with remarkable ease, slipping past most of Dark Nova’s strikes while answering with punches of his own.
But despite the precision behind each blow, they struck as blunt impacts, only knocking Dark Nova’s head or parts of his body slightly off-center before he immediately recovered.
Arthur stepped in once more, driving another punch toward him. This time, Dark Nova caught it.
Arthur’s eyes widened. Without hesitation, he threw his other fist toward Dark Nova’s face.
That arm was caught as well.
Dark Nova tightened his grip on both wrists before lifting himself slightly into the air through his own flight.
Then he drove his forehead straight into Arthur’s, the headbutt sending him hurtling into the earth with enough force to carve out yet another massive crater.
Arthur groaned in pain from the headache that rang through his skull.
Ethan let out a sigh. He had gotten tired from watching this.
"Alright... I’ll do this myself." He turned toward Hayley. "Give me a second, love."
Hayley smiled, nodded, and released his hand, letting Ethan walk forward.
Dark Nova had already raised his fist, intending to strike Arthur once more.
But the King’s body dissolved into countless purple specks of mana, leaving off a last smile as he exited the battlefield.
"Hm..." Dark Nova muttered, slowly ascending a little higher as he looked down toward the approaching Ethan.
Mr. Stark casually flicked a finger downward, and an overwhelming gravitational force crashed onto Dark Nova, slamming him out of the sky and into the ground.
The earth shattered from the impact.
"Who are you to look at me from that height?" Ethan said in a cold voice, his draconic eyes glowing with irritation as he looked down upon the Hero.
It was as though his pride as a dragon simply refused to permit anyone to stand above him.
Dark Nova gritted his teeth, struggling to force himself back onto his feet beneath the crushing pressure.
But each time the hero forced a foot back up, an even greater wave of gravity slammed down over him again, buckling his knee before he could fully rise.
Even without amplification, the Aspect of Dominion at Level Two possessed power comparable to a Tier Eight spell.
However, there was also another problem.
It felt as though there was no end to the Hero’s strength. He continued fighting against the pressure relentlessly, and now even Ethan could feel the strain running through the arm he had stretched out to maintain the hold.
Then, with a sudden burst of reddish aura, Dark Nova roared out
His eyes glowed a crimson light as streaks of red lightning erupted across his body, instantly breaking the gravitational hold. The force of it exploded outward into a violent shockwave as the Hero shot into the skies at terrifying speed.
A ring of dust expanded outward, sweeping past Ethan, whose eyes had widened at the sight of the red lightning, before the dust continued racing farther across the landscape.
"You’d better be gone before I get back!" Dark Nova’s voice thundered down.
Then, he flew straight through the clouds, disappearing into the skies as abruptly as he had abandoned the fight.
The cloud of dust that had been thrown into the air suddenly collapsed back to the ground, crushed almost instantly beneath the lingering pull of Ethan’s gravity before it could continue spreading.
Ethan lowered his hand, watching Dark Nova disappear into the distance with a trace of annoyance in his eyes.
Far above, Dark Nova flew through the skies with the same scowl still etched on his face.
"Tch." He clicked his tongue in frustration, almost hating that he had made the call to abandon the fight.
Continuing any further would have forced him to draw upon even more of his power, and that would only have turned the battle into something way more destructive than the damage he had come here to prevent.
Additionally, Arthur may have also influenced that decision.
The summoned king had shown no genuine hostility toward him from the very beginning, and despite everything, had remained consistent in claiming that his Summoner had, in fact, been preparing to leave before Dark Nova had intervened.
-
At this time, Ethan had already walked back to Hayley, who greeted him with an encouraging smile.
"Don’t worry," she said. "You’ll get the bastard next time."
Ethan let out a laugh. "Yeah, let’s go."
