brother's retry (the beginning after the end)

blade smithing

The lances descended to the ground each still ready to strike at a moment's notice. "Hey, uh, would you believe me if I said I came from a different dimension?" Ashton called out as he deactivated both of his beast wills.

"Do you take us for fools?" Barion barked out as he readied his spear, lightning began to crackle around him as a tug pulled against Ashton.

Raising his eyebrow he shifted from the four elements to just water, fire, lightning, and ice. "Alright then, could you not try to crucify me to the wall?" he rolled his eyes at Bairon before stepping back from a wind blade.

Turning he glared back from where the blade came from only to see a gathering of wind mana in a strange array around Aya. squinting he sent a rock pillar slamming through her.

Bairon and Olfred's eyes widened slightly due to the speed at which the pillar was erected. "I see. Interesting way of using sound magic, mind if I try it out?" Ashton called out as he closed his eyes.

After a second he vanished and four of him appeared scattered around the area. "Wow" "wow" "wow" "wow" the four called then looking shocked "whoa" "whoa" "whoa" "whoa" the voice echoed through the clones.

The four smiled slightly as they each focused on a target. "Alright, let's see how far I can push this before my mana runs out." The myriad of voices all called for a spell, the same spell but another spell nonetheless, before charging off for their chosen opponent.

Arthur stared off at the exchange staring out with slight worry and slight confusion. 'Could he have been telling the truth about being from another dimension?' he wondered to himself.

"Arthur!" a younger version of Ashton's voice called as the alternate version of Ashton ran toward him.

"Aaron! Are you ok? Did you get injured at all?" Arthur asked the boy in a slight panic. He shook his head and sighed as he turned, seeing Jen in her human form quickly trailing behind him.

"No, I'm fine. That guy didn't hurt me, but who the hell is this guy? he looks like us?!" He shouted as he turned looking at the four battles that seemed to be going well for the lances.

"I- don't know... he said something about a different dimension. That's about the only thing to make sense since he stood toe to toe with Ash." Arthur turned and motioned for Sylvie to join them.

With a small flash of light she turned into a child "h-he, he uses the same stuff as big brother, and you two uncle, Jen." Sylvie had a slightly worried expression as she watched the battles turn more destructive. Rubble few through the air. Wind attacks and ice shields protected the students and staff there.

"Yeah, he's dangerous. He said his name was Ashton, close to ash." Jen looked around and grit her teeth as she turned back "is he the version of ash in his world?"

"No, he's most likely the version of me. He seemed unsure of who Ash was. And he called me 'me' when referring to me... That was a shit show of a sentence." Aaron grunted, kanshou and bakuya in his hands both seemed flimsy compared to what he was faced with.

"Hey, can you take me to meet with the Dark Lykaios?" Ashton called out to them before they all jerked back and readied a stance. "Oh, come on!" he shouted in a whispered tone "please I'm starting the run low on mana this sound magic is incredibly draining." he grunted as the group noticed the sweat beading down his face.

ASHTON LEYWIN POV:

I knew that I was gonna drop soon even though I'd only used the spell for half a minute. I had to convince them I wasn't an actual threat, less I get my head lobbed off by Barion or possibly Varay.