In what seemed to be a wide space behind a luxurious but unkempt mansion, two young teenagers could be seen staring at themselves while standing meters away from each other on the green grassy plains.
They were both in battle stances as they seemed to be waiting for the other to make the first move.
After what seemed to be a few seconds, Flynn ran towards Aiden with an incredible speed while jumping just a few inches in front of him to land a roundhouse kick.
"You're going to need to be faster than that Flynn"
Aiden said, his left arm raised to block Flynn's kick while using his right hand which was free to grab onto Flynn's leg as he spun around rapidly, using his own momentum to fling Flynn back with a powerful force.
"Tch" Flynn muttered to himself.
He then watched Aiden dash towards him without skipping a beat as he himself landed on the ground from the air, skidding a few meters backwards.
On reaching Flynn, Aiden threw a right hook, to which Flynn deftly dodged by lightly back-stepping a bit but was unaware that Aiden followed up with an immediate left hook.
Realizing that he couldn't block the second punch, Flynn put up his guard and felt the weight of Aiden's punch landing squarely at the right side of his arm.
-Bam!
The impact of the punch sent him staggering sideways to the left, causing him to curse under his breath.
"Shit that was painful!"
However, Flynn knew that this spar was far from over as he immediately sensed that Aiden wasn't going to just stop here, and just as he thought, he saw Aiden dashing towards him again at breakneck speed, but this time he was prepared.
"That was a lucky hit Aiden" Flynn said as he watched Aiden appear directly in front of him.
"You keep telling yourself that" Aiden smiled and said while positioning himself to land another powerful kick to Flynn's right side again.
As Flynn watched the kick coming with incredible force, he immediately ducked, which caught Aiden off guard and he took this chance to deliver a sweeping kick, causing Aiden to lose balance and fall to the ground.
Flynn considered this an opportunity because he knew that he was a bit faster than Aiden in speed.
He immediately moved towards him while hoping to deliver a punch while he was down but Aiden had immediately thought of a way to counter it as he tumbled backwards and used his hands to push himself off the ground while simultaneously landing a kick to Flynn's jaw as he got up.
"Didn't expect that, did you?" Aiden laughed and said as he took his battle stance again.
Flynn stared back at him while also smiling, excitement in his eyes as he thought of how his brother got the better of him even though he felt he was at an advantage some seconds ago.
'I thought I'd be able to close the gap a bit by using acrobatics in combination with Kamui's combat art as my element of surprise but that was a bust' Flynn mused to himself while thinking of what he wanted to do next.
"I will land a punch on you, if at least once" Flynn replied as he also got back into his battle stance.
Both of them could've decided to use their awakened magic in this battle but considering how they hadn't used mana at all, it was obvious to the onlookers that they were purely training their combat art.
From a wide windowed panel in the mansion which was facing the open field Aiden and Flynn were sparring on, three people could be seen watching the spar that was happening below with different expressions.
Leopold seemed proud that his sons were finally training together, Anna had the look of joy and excitement in her eyes as she had desperately wished for this day to come while Butler Frank just seemed genuinely surprised at this turn of events.
He'd noticed recently that the two young masters had been acting quite close but this was something he had never anticipated considering how they usually interacted before.
"Frank" Leopold said, snapping Butler Frank out of his thoughts.
"Yes sire?" he said as he responded to the Duke's call.
"Originally I was planning to have you teach and train only Aiden when the time came while teaching Flynn later but at this rate, I might have you training both of them at the same time".
"If that is what you will sire"
"It is. We will still have to wait for about a year or two before we give them their weapon arts though. Their foundations need to be well solidified before we give it to them. That is the way of the Belmont Family" Leopold concluded as he shifted his concentration back to the open field his two sons were sparring on.
The Duke was a high-tier S-ranker that was tasked with working for The Tower.
Now although this world presently lacked any danger or threat from the demons, there were still fissures from which monsters usually poured out of if they were not regulated and frequently cleared by rankers.
Along with the threat from monsters were dark, dangerous and mysterious forces gaining influence in the shadows, the most prominent of them being Obelisk.
No one knew what exactly their goal was or why they even came to be but they'd always been around as far back as when the The Tower was created.
The amount of carnage and destruction they'd caused over the years were innumerable and it seemed like they had no intentions of stopping as their vices seemingly continued to increase over the years.
Their forces were just as powerful as those from the tower and as a result, The Tower needed as many powerful rankers as possible.
"It seems like they're about to round up their spar" Anna said excitedly as she watched her two sons from the window.
'I haven't seen her this excited in quite a long time' Leopold thought as he watched his wife pressing her hands against the mirror like a little kid, excitement evident in her eyes.
-Skiiidddd!
Aiden skidded backwards on the wet grass as Flynn landed a solid kick to his abdomen, thereby pushing him backwards.
Normally this would've been hard to achieve as although Flynn had speed, his power was quite lacking but some few seconds ago, Aiden had dashed forward hoping to end their spar with a punch to Flynn's gut, but the latter had deflected it with a palm strike while using the opportunity to land a kick to his gut instead, effectively using his own momentum and speed against him.
Both brothers were panting and they looked quite tired, especially Flynn, but the excitement and adrenaline they were getting was undeniable because even though they were quite tired, excitement was obvious from the smiles on their faces.
"You finally landed a solid hit" Aiden said as he watched Flynn panting heavily.
"I still haven't landed a punch on that annoyingly handsome face of yours" Flynn replied.
"Are you kidding me? Bro, take a look in the mirror!" Aiden retorted.
"Yeah yeah. Anyway, let's get this over with" Flynn said as he took his battle stance again.
"As you wish, Your Majesty" Aiden replied sarcastically while also taking his battle stance.
A vein popped up on Flynn's head but he took a deep breath, immediately realizing that Aiden was trying to rile him up.
'That won't work on me' he thought to himself as he watched Aiden smiling at him.
-Woosh!
A strong breeze blew past the two brothers as they sized each other up, sweats dripping from their faces as they did so.
Suddenly, Aiden dashed forward while positioning himself to land an uppercut to which Flynn immediately back flipped to dodge while kicking Aiden in his jaw but Aiden was relentless as he immediately followed up with a jumping roundhouse kick to Flynn's head, a move Flynn blocked but still sent painful tremors through his arms.
Flynn staggered sideways as Aiden moved towards him without giving him a chance to recover and proceeded to land a punch on him again, but Flynn recovered in time to deflect Aiden's punch while simultaneously holding his arm and elbowing him in his gut.
'He's rapidly improving' Aiden thought as he staggered back and smiled at Flynn.
'At first he struggled to land a single hit but now he's effectively getting a few hits in'.
Flynn then ran towards Aiden, ready to perform the Kamui art's neck scissors takedown as he jumped up and placed his two legs around Aiden's neck while turning and spinning his body to tumble Aiden to the ground but he then noticed that he couldn't continue the move as Aiden had used his sheer strength to hold his legs in place with his hands.
Before he could think of a way to escape Aiden's grasp, the latter raised him up and slammed him to the ground.
-Kah!
Flynn let out a pained cry as his back hit the ground with immense force. Although the grass on the field had lessoned the impact, it still felt quite painful. He then felt the weight of Aiden on him as he opened his eyes to watch his devil of a brother smiling at him like what he did was absolutely normal.
"It's my win" Aiden said as he pointed his fist a few inches away from Flynn.
"Get off of me you devil!"