Chapter 170 - Richochet!
It was quite an understatement to say that Hal's words dug up old wounds and they were far from being memories Gregory wanted to remember.
However, looking closely at his situation and how much thought Hal had put into trapping him and making it so his only means of escape was a fight to the death, he had to admit,
Yes, it truly was fitting.
He was far from being overconfident.
From what he had heard of San and Hal's battle (which was not that much) while Hal had been able to hold out against the much stronger man, it was only due to his implementation of Runes.
Then again, the little he had heard had been fed to him by Burt who had 'gone out to source for information', and could all have been lies to make him lower his guard.
All the same, Gregory knew, he needed to be careful of Hal's prowess as a Rune Master so as not to fall victim to the same strategy of using multiple Binding minding Runes to hold him in place, that Melinda had once used against him.
Gregory stretched his right hand and summoned his purple Broadsword Cosmic Armament. He was laser-focused and no longer interested in engaging Hal in any talk.
The Dome they were in, being transparent, the battle between the two would have the audience of Burt and Castor right on the outside and Melinda and Rita looking upon it from the valley.
The ladies could see it all clearly, of course, thanks to their incredible eyesight.
Hal summoned his straight and serrated edged Cosmic Armament and with the appearance of the Royal blue sword came the complete unleashing of Hal's Early-stage Cosmic Armament Realm Cultivation.
And just like that...
... It began.
...
Horst Manor
Amelia had finally returned home and she had not returned alone. She came along with Marla who Hal agreed some time away from him would do some good.
Much to Marla's annoyance.
She could still remember when he had said it:
"Can I come too?" She had asked him.
"No, you can't. Melinda and Rita will take care of it. There's no need for you to be part" Hal had replied.
She pouted with dissatisfaction,
"But I won't be in any danger. Melinda and Rita will take care of me" she had insisted.
Hal turned to her and said with a light smile,
"While that might be true, I see no reason why you should be there. Amelia is returning to Horst Manor today so why don't you go with her? Build up your newfound friendship"
Amelia had looked surprised when he mentioned her name, it would seem as though she had no idea she would be returning home on that day.
When she opened her mouth to speak, she ended up closing it again.
Hal was right and much as she would have loved to stay at the mansion, going back home seemed the right thing to do.
And so here they were, in the relaxation hut at Horst Manor, entertaining themselves with a game of chess while Hal finally took care of his father.
They were both quite annoyed at being left out, but the strategic game was still quite interesting and engaging to them.
"So... Have you spoken to your father?" Marla asked tentatively.
She had been there when Amelia had attempted to speak to Ford but was told he was quite busy.
Since then, Amelia had gone to try and speak to him again and each time was turned away. Her mother, Emily, was also deep in cultivation retreat.
"You know I haven't" Amelia said with a sigh as she made a bold move with her Knight.
Marla sighed as well. She had to admit that she was starting to believe Ford was avoiding Amelia and while she could not really understand why Ford would do so, there was still the possibility that he really was busy.
She decided to table the discussion for now as Amelia's bold move paid off and she captured one of Marla's rooks.
Looking at the pieces on the board, Marla was obviously losing but she did not mind. She was only starting to learn the strategic pastime.
Marla cast a furtive glance at Amelia,
"So, I heard you want Hal to..." She started to say but stopped when Amelia suddenly glanced up at her.
"Yea I do" Amelia said with a smile "Do you find that strange?'
"Yes, undoubtedly. But that hardly means anything to me because I find it nice" Marla said with a smile.
Amelia chuckled and then stared off into the distance,
"I wonder how it's going" she said with a deep sigh that made her seem as though she were worrying.
Marla on the other hand was not overly concerned,
"Oh, he'll be fine" she said.
"You sound very confident of that" Amelia said.
"Of course I am. Hal can do anything" She said with a grin.
...
Meanwhile...
*Bang!*
Hal and Gregory were separated by the force of the collision of their attacks.
From the get-go, Gregory unleashed what could be argued to be his strongest attack; Third grade Skill: Raptor strike.
It was an attack whose effects Hal was able to negate successfully with his Beetle shell skill and retaliate with a Cosmic attack which Gregory in turn had been able to cancel out with ease.
While it might have looked as though they were at a stalemate, Gregory actually had the upper hand.
But all that changed when Hal moved in close and engaged in close combat.
Since the fight with San, Hal knew for certain, what he should look out for when fighting those of the older generations, which was their pool of experience.
However, this time around, Hal had no interest in putting himself on the back foot.
While he had no intention of relying too much on his Bloodline, that did not in any way mean he was not going to use some of his Bloodline abilities to tweak things in his favor.
And he would have been a fool if he planned to do anything otherwise because if there was something Gregory had shown by using a Third-grade skill from the very start, it was that he was going after Hal's life.
Which was understandable since this was a Deathmatch.
Or at least, it was a Deathmatch for Gregory.
Hal had no intentions of killing the Payne Patriarch.
Injuring him terribly was very much on the table just as beating him to an inch of death, but he felt it would be a little redundant to simply kill him.
From how Gregory had reacted to Rad's death as well as how much speaking of it still hurt him (despite how much he sometimes strived to hide it), Hal knew Gregory was always going through Emotional turmoils.
Anyway,
The moment they crossed blades, Gregory tried to not only use the complete might of his Cultivation base to strike Hal down but also made use of the disparity in the weight of their weapons.
While Cosmic Armaments were constructs of cosmic energy, that did not mean they all weighed the same or had the same characteristics.
On the contrary, it was because of how different they could be that all Cultivating experts choose to form Armaments that suited them.
Gregory bore down on Hal and was succeeding in pushing the younger man down when Hal's eyes went from blue to complete nightmarish Black (Sclera and all) while releasing small bursts of fog.
Looking into those eyes alone caused Gregory to shiver unconsciously but he refused to back down and only strove to apply more pressure.
Alas,
Hal's body began to emit dark fogs as well and with their appearance, his physique was boosted so much that he was able to stand his ground in the face of Gregory's Peak stage Cosmic Armament Realm strength.
Once he was no longer being forced back, Hal lifted one of his legs off the ground...
*Bam!*
...and kicked Gregory in the stomach to send the Payne Patriarch smacking into the Done boundary.
The Dome tried to force him forward and it would have succeeded because of the repulsing force that acted on Gregory's body upon contact but the older man resisted the force... and the decision had caused his internal organs to fall into disarray.
He held back a Blood sput because the only reason he had resisted the repulsing force was because he knew that once he was down on the ground, Hal would have the opportunity to seize the upper hand.
Which could have disastrous life-losing consequences during a fight to the death.
Even so, Hal still slashed at him with his Sword from a distance and used it as a medium to send a Cosmic attack to his prone form.
Easily he dodged the full brunt of the attack by moving away just in time but he had forgotten to account for the repulse factor of the Array Dome which apparently had the same effect on Cosmic attacks.
*Bang!*
Was the sound the cosmic attack made with Gregory's body as it struck him in the back from the ricochet.
Gregory groaned as he put great effort into staying upright. He could not help but thank his lucky stars that the Cosmic Attack's effects had been lessened from its contact with the Dome,
Because if that attack had been fully charged and hit in at such point-blank range, standing upright to defend himself would be but a pipe-dream.
Hal could tell what Gregory was thinking and it only made him chuckle to himself,
"Oh Greggy, you haven't seen anything yet"
He said and slashed his sword again to send another Cosmic attack directly at Gregory who quickly surrounded himself with cosmic Energy before he realized Hal was not targeting him, but the Dome instead!
The attack hit the Dome and by the time Gregory realized the ploy, the attack already ricocheted and was too late to avoid.
*BANG!!!*