"What are you boys doing?
"Ahh!
"Gah!"
Both Dion and I shrieked.
That reaction made me lose control of the airship, sending the airship diving downwards at immense speeds, and hurtled Dion and I forward towards the control panel.
"Fuck!" I winced as I crashed against the base of the panel.
But even still, I instantly regained composure, and held up to the controls trying to pull us back up, but even I already knew it was too late. The ground was rapidly approaching, way too fast at that, and while we might be fine, there was no saving this airship.
’Ah, there goes my 110,000 gold knotts pocket ship.’ Or so I thought.
A meter from the ground, and just as I had braced myself, the airship suddenly stilled, and ceased falling, before it gently lowered to the ground.
Gods, I almost had a heart attack. Money doesn’t grow on trees you know. But could aetherials even get a heart attack? I mean apart from maybe headache derived from exhaustion, or the effects gotten from aether exhaustion, aetherials don’t really get ill, or sick, talk less of chronic diseases or illnesses like heart attack.
The more one ascends, the more they shed the shadows cast by mortality, hence why the novel was called; Shadows Of Ascension.
Anyway, I could ponder about all these later, but now, I had to give this bastard a piece of my mind.
"Are you fucking crazy?" I turned to the moustached man who was gazing at us with a faint smile.
At this moment, either my mind was muddled and I didn’t care if he was a Beta ranked aetherial, or I was just that angry that I overlooked it. Maybe even both.
"Hahaha, that’s no way to talk to your instructor." He simply laughed it off.
"Instructor my ass!" I yelled. "We could have have died right now because of you."
"Oh please, you couldn’t have died from that, a few broken bones at most." He scoffed. "Besides, I did save your airship from crashing."
"The same airship whose crash you almost caused." I retorted. Just then,
"Damn! Almost died a virgin." Dion got up from the ground in a seemingly dazed state.
I blinked.
’Wait a minute, didn’t this guy say he’s even had threesomes before?’
I soon shook my head and returned to the matters at hand.
I wasn’t scared of instructor Black. Okay that was a lie, I was shivering inside, but outwards, I showed a righteously furious expression. But we weren’t in class, and I didn’t do anything like damaging the institue’s property, so he couldn’t deduct my points or anything.
Plus, all the institue’s instructors and staffs had to sign an aether contract stating that they couldn’t harm any student out of malicious intent, unless attacked first, and even then, they could only restrain.
As I turned back to instructor Black, his aura suddenly changed. His smile vanished, and the aura around him rose with palpable tension, almost paralyzing me where I stood.
"Who said you could bring an airship on campus?" His voice sounded as if it was echoing from everywhere at once.
Even under the immense pressure I was under, I gritted my teeth.
"Who said I couldn’t?" I retorted. It was true, in the institue’s rule book, there wasn’t a rule that explicitly stated that one couldn’t bring an airship on campus.
We held each other’s gaze for a bit, and just when I thought the pressure would push me on my knees, it suddenly lifted.
"Hahahahaha." he burst out laughing. At this moment I was beginning to question if he was sane. One moment he was casual, the next he was serious, and now, he was laughing like a maniac.
"Oh boy, exploiting the loopholes I see." He grinned darkly. "Your father was also like this. We used to be classmates you see, rivals even."
I frowned. You used to be classmates? So what? What does that have to do with me?
"Like hell I care." I muttered. "Why are you even still here?" I asked.
Surely the reason he came here was because he saw the airship, but now that I had given him an answer, he should be on his way shouldn’t he? But no he had other plans.
"It’s because of you in particular." he pointed at me.
"Me?" I asked perplexed.
"You see, I’m quite curious about your ability." He said.
I scowled.
"What about my ability?"
"Let’s just say, it piqued my interest." he replied. "And besides, what type of instructor would I be if I don’t help my struggling students?" he added.
"Help us? I asked confused.
"I’ll teach you how to actually fly this airship."
I blinked.
I did not just hear wrong did I? Instructor Black? Help us with learning how to fly an airship?
I quickly looked back at Dion who also looked shocked at the prospect, and seemed to echo my own thoughts.
It was as if his eyes were telling me; ’Surely it isn’t out of the goodness of his heart.’
’No shit.’ I blinked back.
"What are you two blinking at each other for?" Instructor Black interrupted us.
"Uh... nothing!" we chorused.
"What’s the catch?" I asked. "I don’t believe you’re doing this out of the goodness of your heart."
He grinned darkly.
"You’re damn right." Aha I knew it. "But you don’t have to concern yourself about why I’ll do it." he added.
I looked back to Dion again, who slightly nudge his head as if to say; "Let’s give it a try, what could possibly go wrong?"
I hated it when he raised red flags, but I turned back to instructor Black.
"We’ll be at your care." I smiled. "Even though you almost killed us a few minutes ago." I added.
Time passed before we knew it, instructor Black was surprisingly a good teacher when he wasn’t being his sadistic self.
With him here, I was able to try anything I wanted. And even the times I had almost crashed two to three times, the ship would suddenly cease all movement.
Dion though, was surprisingly good, even better than I was at flying the thing. I still couldn’t get past not sending the airship going forward at immense speeds at once. Though, to my amazement, I learned the ship had an autopilot like feature.
----------------
**Training hall 6**
While Damon was trying to learn how to actually fly an airship, his reflections were busy trying to create a channeling method that could work in tandem with the Dark lotus method.
Aether during channeling usually goes to waste and disperse, so only until an aetherial recovers enough aether, could they continue channeling. Which is why they don’t channel nonstop.
The method Damon was trying to create in theory, was to have the reflections inject their aether back into the main body as he channeled, thereby giving him more channeling time, and stronger aether density. In this way, he’d be able to channel faster, and rank up faster.
But there lies the problem, injecting pure aether into another’s body was like flushing someone with cancer cells. The reaction would be abnormal.
But where Damon had it easy was that the aether was his in the first place, and his reflections were him. So while it could be dangerous, there was a chance of success.
For two weeks now, he’d been trying to create it, but to no avail.
As one reflection was sitting behind another with his hand on the other’s back, the one in front suddenly exploded into motes of light.
"Sigh, another failure." Damon sighed.
Soon another reflection appeared and took it’s place. The one who sighed had been made with a lot of aether after all, so he could afford to do this ten to twelve times before fading away.
---------------
At dorm room 4 in the Hydra building.
A black haired girl was sitting on a massive bed. She looked like she came straight out of a painting. And one would be more keen to believe she was a carefully crafted porcelain doll.
Suddenly, the girl opened her eyes, revealing striking grey irises.
"You are not welcome here." She simply spoke.
The air shimmered, and from a hidden veil stepped out tall black haired man, his striking grey eyes mirroring the girl’s.
"What do you want?" The girl asked flatly.
"Oh dear Rose." the man smiled. "Why do you have to be so cold towards your dear loving older brother."
"I don’t have the time to entertain your shenanigans. How’d you even get here?" Rose asked.
"The campuses aren’t in different dimensions sister." Emmett grinned rolling his eyes. "They’re just so very very far away from each other, but nothing I can’t cross."
"Still, like I said, you aren’t welcome here."
"Fine." he drawled. "Since you’re not excited to see me, I think I’ll go bother my little brother instead." he said as his figure started shimmering.
"Wait!" Rose called.
"What? he smirked. "Don’t tell me you’re jealous now because I’m going to go play with our brother instead."
"Don’t ever come to my room again." She warned.
"Hahahahahahaha." Emmett burst out in laughter as his body shimmered away.
***********
Thanks for the support. I really appreciate it.