Chapter 20: Light with Dark

Chapter 20: Light with DarkFive minutes after her educational duel with her sister and her short rant after, Professor Kragsten announced to the eager and interested class, "Now for a Cooperative drill. I’ll need two students to help me demonstrate. Any volunteers?" Hands shot up immediately. There wasn’t much information on what the volunteers would be doing but almost the entire class wanted to participate. "Kaya, you too?" Eloise asked being one of the few not raising their hand. Kaya shrugged with a little smile on her face, "It sounds like fun." She looked very controlled, but Caius could tell she was quite excited at the thought of it. After all, her duel with him yesterday was not an isolated incident; it was a taste of her combative desires that were not hidden all that deep. Professor Kragsten’s eyes roamed them all, and she smiled at the eagerness on most faces, but Caius knew she had already made her choices and was not really asking for volunteers. Sure enough, "Hmm, I like the excitement but I think I’ll like the volunteers to possess some very obvious differences. Fundamental or Aesthetic. How about Light with Dark?" When she said that, the class knew immediately what she was referring to. Kaya dropped her hand first and looked to the side at Caius who looked like he had expected this. "Aurelius Du Aristide and Caius Von Helsing, join me please," Professor Kragsten said in a more direct call. Aurelius looked surprised but he stood up. Caius was already on his feet and led the way down into the Arena while Aurelius followed closely with the eyes of the entire Class on them both. When the two stood in the Arena about six feet away from Professor Kragsten, she looked between them and nodded. She had been present at Orientation when both Caius and Aurelius were tested and revealed to possess Darkness in totality and Light in totality respectively. "Nice. Light and Dark. There can’t be any more staunchly obvious opposites," The Professor said out loud. Caius recalled that in the original story, this was the moment Caius mentioned that he did not yet know any Dark Magic spells but Professor Kragsten had just announced that it didn’t matter. She claimed there were just certain instincts that came with the Unique elements that usually resulted in differing and usually conflicting personalities which was exactly what was needed in this drill. Professor Kragsten continued. "This is a Cooperative drill. You will both need to overcome your lack of familiarity and any differing ideas and ideals so you can work together to accomplish a task." Caius and Aurelius shared a look before they looked back at the Professor to ask in unison, "What task?" Professor Kragsten smiled and clapped her hands. The Combat Magic classroom reacted to her clap as two rings appeared on the ground. There was a smaller ring about 20 feet in diameter and it was at the center of a larger ring that stretched up to 60 feet in diameter. "As I said earlier, Distance is essential in a traditional Mage duel but as with all things, there are nuances. There is an optimal distance to be maintained and as far as I’m concerned, it’s within 20 meters," Professor Kragsten said while gesturing at the inner ring and then she gestured at the large outer ring as she continued, "Anything beyond 60 meters and you’ve lost ’sight’ of your opponent and your battle. And so, your task is to get within the optimal distance for a Mage duel. i.e Join me inside this inner ring. And my task will be to keep you out of it. Only one of you needs to make it inside the ring and throughout the drill, neither of you can step out of the large ring. If either of you does, you both lose. You will have five minutes to accomplish your task." With another clap, a large clock appeared on the wall set to five minutes and ready to count down. "As with the previous demonstration, I will keep to Third Circle spells. Are you ready?" Aurelius’ brows furrowed and then he turned to Caius, "What do you think?" He asked. Caius paused and then he remembered this was how Aurelius had always been. Hardly egotistic, and usually ready to cooperate. When this drill played out in the original story, it was Caius who was the ’douche’ and lacked the desire to cooperate. They lost the drill in the original story and that was the only time they cooperated for many Chapters after. ’How do I play this?’ Caius asked himself and then he shrugged and lied through his teeth, "This is as new to me as it is to you." "Oh," Aurelius said, "Of course it is. Sorry I asked." "It’s fine," Caius assured him, "But it might be alright though." "How so?" Aurelius asked him. "I think we only have to touch the inner ring with any part of our bodies. We don’t actually have to stand in it with her. That could make it easier to win." Of course, he didn’t just ’think’ it. He knew it. They might have lost in the original story but the ’Two ring drill’ still was a staple in Combat Magic class duels so Caius knew the rules. "Oh," Aurelius let out and brightened up like that little information was all he needed to change his outlook on the whole thing. He smiled and slammed a fist into his palm, "Alright then. Let’s do this." S~eaʀᴄh the novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Professor Kragsten grinned at the show of readiness and her stormy grey eyes suddenly looked even more intense than normal as she raised a hand, "Alright then. Let’s begin!" With that, the clock began its countdown. [5:00] [4:59] Aurelius charged into a run before Caius could caution him to stop. When Professor Kragsten brought down her raised hand and thrust it forward to cast a spell circle, it crackled with electricity for a second before a massive serpent was conjured from it. The serpent wrapped its body around the circumference of the inner ring, acting like a barrier and because its entire form was made with interlocking networks of lightning, Aurelius could still see the Professor’s face behind it. Her grin was ever present as she controlled the lightning serpent to unhinge its jaw and let out a powerful beam composed of multiple lightning streaks. With his blue eyes wide, Aurelius raised his forearm in front of his face and a golden-brown spell circle appeared before it transformed into individual rock pieces that came together to form a thick earthen shield just in time to face the blast of the lightning streaks. The earthen shield shattered almost on first contact and sent him flying very close to the edge of the large ring. The class ’oohed’ and ’ahhed’ at the show. Especially at how Aurelius managed to keep himself from crossing the edge by a last-minute adjustment of his body’s balance. The serpent turned its unhinged jaw at Caius who had already cast Wispy feet to summon two wind spell circles so he was fast enough to leap to the side and allow the lightning blast to fire off at the spot he had been a second ago. He had expected this spell. After all, Professor Kragsten had used it in the original story. As such, he knew avoiding the serpent’s lightning attacks long-term was impossible. Already, it was turning its head to blast him again and Wispy feet was not going to be enough. But like many things, the spell had a weakness; ’The Lightning Serpent spell is good for both offense and defense but its cast is concentrated at a core which is located where a serpent’s reverse scale would be.’ [To Kill A Demon Lord...] had described the spell like that and Caius’ eyes searched for that spot as he stopped trying to dodge with Wispy feet and cast a different spell. The spell circle appeared on his palm and he struck it out at the beam of lightning streaks just before it made contact. Circle of Lightning! Lightning sparked to life out of Caius’ spell circle. His plan had just been to fight lightning blast with lightning blast but his spell obeyed him even better than he had expected and in a move of mastery that surprised him, his circular lightning blast wrapped around the beam of lightning strikes, becoming one with it and disrupting the normal flow of Mana within it causing an implosion. *BOOOMMMM!!!* There was a spark of blue light that looked like flames and it created an explosive cloud. The cloud stirred up the dirt in the arena, becoming thicker and obstructing the view of everyone in the class from what was within. The Combat Magic Classroom went silent... ... And then Caius leaped out of the explosive dust cloud, having used the force of the blast to get at least Fourteen-Fifteen feet into the air as the class erupted into cheer.