Arpious of the Planes
Chapter 123 Sparring Match (Hades POV)

That's one massive sword. Does he wield that thing? It's as big as his entire body.

"My name is Liam but you can call me Mr. L. I was a soldier in the past war and I have a lot of experience with a sword. If you have any questions during our training sessions don't be afraid, and just come up and ask me.

Now! Let's have everyone say their name and what type of sword you want to master, starting with you," The teacher says, clearly pointing at me.

"My name is Hades and I want to master the longsword," I replied.

"Great! Great! I've fought many longsword users in the past but I've only lost to one. It was also the quickest and most threatening defeat I have ever received. Does anybody want to guess who it is?" Mr. L asks the class.

One fire harpy raises his hand slowly which Mr. L immediately calls on.

"Is it the Noble Sword Elf? The Platinum ranked adventurer?" The fire harpy asks, eyes sparkling.

"Incorrect. I'm pretty sure I know who you're talking about, I've beaten her in the past but I'm pretty sure she can best me now HAHA! Does anybody want to take another guess?"

It seems like the class was invested since everybody started to converse… even though I already knew the answer.

I don't know who these adventurers are, but it's my mom, I mean who else would be able to overpower this guy.

Just thinking of her swinging her longsword at me sends chills down my spine. I'm pretty sure she's even been trying to incorporate the [Necromancy] skill into her longsword. Like how is that even supposed to work!? Why would you ever need to do that!?

It didn't take long for another student to raise their hand. Mr. L saw how confident he was in his answer so he smiled and called on him.

"Is it one of the queens? I heard that one of the queens is a master with the longsword. My dad told me all about how whenever he went to train in his usual spot, there would be one of the queens always there, wanting to train," An amazonian says.

"Correct! That is why she is one of the queens! She wasn't talented in much, but she always came to the same arena: the now-famous Queens Arena. She would train every day, non-stop, and it eventually paid off. Do you see her now? She's insanely powerful?!" The teacher says in excitement.

Everybody nods their heads in agreement. It also got some of the student's blood to pump as some started to fiddle with their fingers, itching for a fight or sparring match.

"Alright! You introduce yourself and the weapon you want to master!" Mr. L says, pointing at a fire harpy.

It took about half our class time for everybody to introduce ourselves and our weapon of choice. It wasn't because there were so many students, but because Mr. L kept going off on many tangents whenever somebody mentioned a new type of sword.

"Alright, we still have some time left in class. If you see the black box over there light up, that's when you have to move to your next class… Everybody step to the side, I'll pick the opponents for now since I want you to show off your skills," Mr. L says.

We follow his directions and clear an area down the middle of the dirt arena. He then drew a pretty big circle with his sword in the dirt, creating our sparring ring which we couldn't leave. If we did leave, then we would be disqualified and our opponent would get the win.

"How about our first contestants be the ones I first called on. I'm pretty sure your name is Hades and yours is Magma. Both of you, please enter the ring," Mr. L says, which we quickly complied after grabbing our wooden weapon of choice from the weapon rack.

"Now, take your stances," Mr. L says, placing his arm between us.

Magma on the other side of our teacher's arm had a smug and arrogant face. I don't why but I didn't like it, it was as if he was looking at me like I was a stepping stone.

"Ready… set… GO!" Mr. L says, lifting his arm and taking a few steps back.

Should I embarrass him? I want to kill him but that would be bad. Mom said to never play around with your food but I think she can make one exception to this.

I did the technique that Mom taught me, extinguish your emotions like you're putting out a fire. First I extinguished anger, then joy, then disgust, then sadness, then fear.

My eyes grew colder by the second, creating an invisible pressure that sent chills down Magma's spine. He was naive and just brushed it off, thinking it was just the wind as he dashed forward, a normal sword in hand.

He's pretty good. Legs bent and eyes ready to receive any attack. If it was the previous naive me, I would've struggled against this guy, but… now he's slow. So extremely slow. Is he jogging towards me?

Magma swings his sword at my gut but I take a slight step back, putting me just out of range of his swing.

He clicked his tongue before lunging forward and trying to pierce me with his wooden sword. It had a lot of momentum behind it so I would instantly lose my breath if that hits me…

I could kill him right now. No. I could've killed him so many times already.

My eyes glow slightly before taking a step to the side, causing him to lunge forward and stumble to the ground. I could tell he was enraged from being embarrassed like this in front of his class…

Yes. Struggle more. Show me how angry you can get before losing yourself. Will the embarrassment or shame crush you first. This is the first time I've had such a wonderful plaything… he thinks he can beat me!? Not in a million years… Is this the proper time to use that phrase? Mom taught me it, plus what the hell is "million" and what the hell is "years?"

As I try to figure out the meaning of the words, Magma struggles by lashing out with a barrage of swings that would've hit any normal person by now. I can say he is good with the sword but he is just slightly above average.

I can tell how Mom is famous for her swordsmanship. If this is the baseline then she is a great being that looks down on mortals.

I'm grateful now that I had a strict mom since I probably wouldn't be the best in class without her demon training. But I won't get too cocky now, this guy might pull out a special move or another kid in my class might be as strong as me.

Magmas' flurry of attacks eventually bored me so I ended the match by stepping inward with my foot and tripping him. He fell face-first into the ground as I stood over him, staring at how pathetic he was.

"Damn bastard," Magma mumbles through gritted teeth.

"Hades wins flawlessly!" Mr. L shouts with the entire class looking at me in awe.

Everybody cheered for my victory besides one guy… the guy below me.

As I went to walk off the ring, Magma lost his cool from anger and embarrassment. He wanted to prove that he wasn't terrible with the sword… this just made me look down on him more.

Fucking ant. Know your place and keep your pride.

Magma charged at me with his sword but before I could reach my hand towards his throat, Mr. L stopped both of us.

"Boy, the match is over. Plus Hades, if you were going to neutralize him, then don't try and kill him. I could sense immense bloodlust from you so don't try and give me an excuse… But since I'm a nice teacher and you didn't touch him, I'll let you off the hook," Mr. L says, changing his expression quickly.

"Thank you, sir," I replied, bowing apologetically.

Both my bedridden mom and maids taught me this bow, so my form is perfect.

Damn, I lost my cool. Guess I haven't mastered extinguishing my emotions…

"Now, Magma since it's the first day of school, I'll let you off the hook as well, but if this happens again, you're going to the headmaster's office," Mr. L says sternly.

"Tch… Yes sir," Magma says, clearly emitting killing intent towards me.

Thankfully, I'm wearing a baggy sweatshirt, so my external spine is hidden. Plus I don't have an extra pair of clothes so do I just go back home and get one, or is the school giving us clothes?

As Magma walks back to his friends, they ignore him and run towards me with the entire class following them, wanting to be my friend. Of course, I accepted all their "friend requests" so I was already the most popular kid in class.

I gave Magma a glance who was seething in anger but kept himself from lashing out again.

"Teach me how to move like that,"

"Do you want to go to lunch together?"

"Let's hang out sometime,"

I was bombarded by multiple requests and I accepted most of them but before I could get to the rest of the class, the teacher split us up and called over some students to have a sparring match.