Chapter 40

(3'rd POV)

"Eh... You against me? I uh.." Arthur stuttered between his words, knowing full well he didn't have any chances of winning the fight.

He didn't know how, but even using Static Void wouldn't help much against Ashborn. Ash was able to keep him in sight even when time stopped, but that was before. Right now Ashborn might have found out a way to stop Arthur. Art just had a gut feeling.

"You all are going to fight against me." Said Ashborn looking at people who were still on their two.

Most of them were either lying from exhaustion, some of them just being knocked out. Anyway, all members of the Student Council and Disciplinary Committee were in good condition.

"Isn't this too much?" Awkwardly asked Arthur.

"All of you against me, it's better that one on one is it not?" Questioned Ashborn, of course Arthur couldn't retort what Ashborn just stated.

"We don't have chances to escape right?" Arthur looked back at his group, seeing them only shaking their heads in denial, he accepted his fate and took a stance. If he wanted to somehow come out with little rewards, he needed to put up a good fight.

Others did the same and took a stance, but didn't dare to attack.

"Well this is awkward." Said Arthur nobody moved an inch, even Ashborn was just standing, looking at them.

"Move your asses!" Arthur shouted at his class, still not moving his eyes from Ashborn.

"So for you, it's awkward to fight against one opponent? principles or just fear?" Ashborn asked, only receiving silence as a response.

"You shall know enemies don't always play fair and square. I might just attack you right now." Ashborn declared and lazily dashed towards Arthur.

'He's slow?' Arthur questioned himself but was answered immediately when Ashborn accelerated after a few steps.

"Arthur watch out!" Claire shouted at Arthur just when Ashborn was about to hit Arthur.

'He changed pace so quickly!' Noted Arthur and swung his sword at his opponent.

Ashborn saw small twitches in Arthur's muscles and before Arthur could even fully swing his sword, Ash moved away. the attack couldn't even reach him. Arthur wasn't shaken from this and augmenting his legs with mana, he jumped at Ashborn preparing another slash. Ashborn following Arthur's actions also jumped towards him.

Art slashed the sword again, surprisingly his brother followed the direction of swing. Arthur could clearly see in slow motion, Ashborn followed the attack's direction avoiding tip hitting him. This created a great opening for Ashborn since Arthur couldn't swing his sword again with the same speed and power.

Of course, he took this opportunity and kicked Arthur's wrist making his weapon fall out from his grip. Fortunately, Art immediately jumped back from the place.

"I have to admit, even in close combat, I have zero chances. I need your help guys." Said Arthur picking up his sword.

"We had to begin from this." Grinned Theodore and took a stance with fists clenched.

Both the Disciplinary Committee and Student's Council lined up next to Arthur... making them easy targets for Ashborn. Maybe if he informed them about him being the type of mage who doesn't care about classification, MAYBE then they wouldn't do this...

"You are making yourself an easy target for conjurers. Keep a distance of at least 15 meters." Instructed Ashborn, it was important to keep distance in a pandemic. (You should also wear a face mask)

"This was done with a purpose." Arthur replied, smiling.

"And what purpose?"

"To raise up our morale." Answered Arthur.

For Arthur's class, it was truly a cool moment, Arthur realized this seeing all the grins that spread on everyone's face. So even if by a little this totally raised their morale. The only mistake is that this wasn't a real war, this was just training.

"You again lost time in some unnecessary actions. What if that morale of yours will fall down again?" Asked Ashborn, puzzling expressions could be seen on everyone except Arthur.

"Come forth." Shadows behind Ash expanded, forming silhouettes of monsters.

Nobody was expecting this. So-called 'moral' of their fell down into an abyss of nothingness, when silhouettes finished forming. 25 five black ants with purple eyes, one of them having a humanoid body structure. Arthur himself was shocked.

'Is this illusion? Maybe he used a water element and created an illusion from mist?' All questions alike completely filled Arthur's mind. Other's were no exception, all of them wondered what kind of magic S-Class adventurer used.

"If you think that, this is an illusion. You are wrong." Ashborn stated them, knowing their current thought process.

"They are solid enough to cut any mana-beast." Ash put his hand on a certain humanoid ant's shoulder.

"Your command? my liege." Humanoid ant spoke, almost demanding Ashborn for command.

'It can talk?!' Everyone yelled in their minds.

"Beru, they are still frozen... You should fight them, without hurting much." Commanded Ashborn.

"KEKK! My liege asked me to fight you without hurting you. Then I shall break your spirit first!" Screeched Beru loudly for everyone to hear, everyone felt chills run down their spines when other ants also screeched mimicking Beru.

Even Arthur got worried, was his brother planning to kill them? or in the worst case to feed them to ants?

"Don't let your guard down!" Moving away from his place, Beru quickly made his way to Arthur's open back.

'Sh*t! Too fast!' Cursed Arthur in his mind, he couldn't even follow Beru's movement with sight. If Beru was to attack now, he could kill Art without any resistance.

Instead, Beru just remained there, waiting for Arthur's next action. Arthur, without wasting any time, tried to slash with his blue sword at Beru, aiming for the neck. Beru predicted Arthur's action and caught a sword with claws.

"Quick reaction, as expected from Liege's family."

Arthur took quick action after seeing how tightly Beru grabbed his sword. letting go of it, he augmented his leg with mana and kicked the ant's torso. Beru didn't even flinch, he ignored the attack and took all the damage.

'?!' Arthur got alerted that his attack augmented with tons of mana didn't leave any visible damage to Beru.

'It can talk and is intelligent, his armor is not penetrable by our attacks. Just who the hell is this guy?!' Arthur gulped in fear, thoughts about fighting such an opponent overwhelmed him.

"Arthur!" Tessia, worried about Arthur, ran up to him in a protective stance.

"There are other beasts... Don't fight the ants in groups! Everyone shall take one individually, Disperse them." Arthur commanded it was best to fight ants individually than in groups.

Arthur from his experience in dungeons knew how dangerous ants can actually be. In large groups they can literally eat other beasts doesn't matter what rank they have and now those ants are twice or even thrice bigger than he saw previously. All of them had wings, so they could fly. In addition to that, there was also Beru. Arthur had zero ideas what Beru's true strength was, but from previous actions, he saw that the humanoid ant was no joke.

"Arthur- I mean teacher, can you hold off that humanoid beast?" Curtis asked about Beru, Arthur shook his head in denial.

"I'm not sure, but I can try fighting it to win time for you." Answered Arthur.

Suddenly Arthur again felt something behind him. When looked back, he saw Ashborn's fist close to his face, it stopped before it reached him.

"Never let down your guard. You forgot I'm also fighting." Arthur heard Ashborn saying before retracting his fist.

"Arthur, you are too concentrated on swordsmanship. Without a sword you are still too weak, so right now try to fight without it."

"No way, without it I don't have any chances to level up." Complained Arthur, he only worked on his swordsmanship during adventuring, so he knew fist-to-fist fight is placing him at a big disadvantage.

"Do you want to lose 5 levels and get weaker?" Questioned Ashborn.

"You asked for it." Arthur augmented his whole body, quickly sending a punch towards Ashborn.

Without much effort Ashborn blocked the attack, catching Arthur's fist into his own. Art of course tried to get his fist out of Ashborn's grip, but couldn't. He then realized the situation, aimed a kick at Ashborn's knee, who leaned towards the attack with his knee directed at the incoming attack.

Arthur managed to kick his brother's knee, unfortunately, he hurt himself more than Ash.

"Eugh." Arthur received a blow to his stomach from Ashborn.

Arthur choked out his own saliva, all the air in his lung also came out from the impact. Arthur fell down on his knees, while Ashborn was still holding his hand.

"Already incapable of continuing fighting?" Ashborn looked down on Arthur with apathetic eyes.

"A-Are you... fucking killing me?!" Barely managing to make his words come out from his mouth Arthur choked out.

"I won't let you die. I'm just training you or you might say I'm preparing you." Responded Ashborn, still with the same apathetic eyes.

"As I said, you are concentrating too much on swordsmanship. Look without a sword you are nothing. without you, your own comrades are nothing. Should you just lay there pathetically and watch your comrades die? Why are you still holding back when you already received this much attention? Arthur... Use all the force you've got, surpass your limits, at least somehow make way for your comrades to escape in one piece or save yourself." Advised Ashborn, it was more of a reminder to Arthur.

Arthur wasn't simple, Ashborn knew that full well. He might not take every piece of advice to heart, but this might give him the necessary push to get strong.

"Attack me again, this time with everything you've got." Stated Ashborn letting go of Arthur's hand and taking a stance. seriousness was emitting from his expression.

'Everything I've got huh?' Arthur stood up, finally inhaling air in his lungs. He also took a stance, his previous misty eyes now could clearly see Ashborn.

[Static Void]

Using his dragon will, Arthur, unknown to him, manipulated an element Aether. He entered the first phase of his will, the color of the world changed for him and everything froze. This was a last resort card for Arthur, he can't always use this technique. like the previous time, he will fall unconscious after every usage, no matter how much he trains it.

But freezing time for everything around him was a great power, the only drawbacks are usage limits and it also can't work on anyone who is proficient using Aether. Already exhausted Arthur wouldn't be able to maintain this state for a long time.

Ashborn meanwhile could see everything. The source of Aether itself was in him, of course, this technique wouldn't work on him. He could easily dispel the technique, of course right now he didn't do this because he was observing Arthur. Unlike previous times where Ashborn simply didn't care about technique...

'He kept this as a trump card, fortunately, I saw this now.'

Just like Ashborn, many could break out from this. Or even dispel it before it could be even cast, just good usage of Aether or large amounts of mana could wreck this dimension apart. Arthur, who doesn't even know about the existence of Aether, can't even hinder this.

Arthur slowly walked to his brother. Stumbling on almost every step, he approached Ashborn again to fall down on his knees.

'At the beginning of the battle, this can be used as the vital attack, if you later manage to get away from the place. But as the trump card in hard situations when you are exhausted, this isn't suitable.' Noted Ashborn.

Arthur, who already spent quite a lot of mana and stamina, can't even walk properly after using Static Void.

"That's enough. You don't even have the strength to punch me, you seriously intended to injure me somehow?" Ashborn decided to break out from Static Void's influence, this time Arthur wasn't even surprised.

"Don't dispel it yet, or you will fall unconscious immediately. You shall listen to me for now. This is a strong technique no doubt, but again you can't use it. Do you know why? Because this isn't your power." Arthur already knew this, Sylvia's will wasn't his power.

"I already know this... " Mumbled Arthur.

"Better for you then. set this as a goal, achieve power enough to not require this beast will as a trump card."

"How?" Asked Arthur.

"I already gave you an opportunity for this, so make the first step to your goal by achieving level 100. Now I have to attend important matters, so I'm going..."

'My king, that Alacryan Scythe you spared, requests to meet with you.' Cylrit informed Ashborn with thought communication.

_________________________________________________________________________

Hewwo, I'm going to spice up things a little now, you know war is coming soon.

Anyways...

Webnovel: https://www.webnovel.com/book/tbate-%7C-destroyed-beginning_21385481106342305

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Discord: https://discord.gg/qUAr7vqEsR

Cyaa.