Chapter 70: A familiar move

Chapter 70: A familiar move~Hellsong Dash~ was the Third Circle spell Caius had learned from his father two days ago. While it looked like it simply granted explosive propulsion, the reality was that it kept it stable just as well. The focus of the spell was on the ankles but Caius could feel its warmth spread all over his body. His brain was carried along so well that he didn’t seem to just be charging ahead with no possibility for direction. When he got to the other side of the platform of icy spikes he just broke through, it began to melt behind him but Caius couldn’t care less as he went charging at Baler, leaving behind a faint trail of red. The class cheered. Baler recoiled but recovered to form different seals and create another spell circle that he thrust forward, unleashing a lance of ice. The tip was massive and getting struck with it could probably knock one’s head off their shoulders as Caius was sure Baler was hoping would happen to him. Fortunately, as fast as the lance toss was, he was still faster and managed to dodge it, keeping his trajectory. Or so he thought. The moment the lance missed, Baler clenched one of his hands into a fist and pulled back. Snowflakes appeared along the lance’s stem and he gained control of it, pulling it out of its current path and turning it around so it went flying at Caius, somehow moving even faster now and catching up to Caius before he could reach his target. Caius’ eyes widened but rather than sidestep and dodge the lance again, he spun and wrapped a hand around it. The chill was body-numbing and went so deep inside his body it started to impact his body functions but ~Hellsong Dash~ was still active. Its warmth allowed him to shake off the chill and retain his clarity so he could toss the lance at Baler’s just as fast as it had traveled to strike him. Baler’s eyes were serious but unbothered by their attack. He had a seal formed and unleashed it in a massive icy blue spell circle that received the lance and absorbed it to repurpose it as multiple spikes that he sent flying. "Burn through this, asshole!" Baler said through gritted teeth as his barrage went swarming at Caius. Caius’ fist was clenched and he looked ready to strike forward and unleash a fireball but he could just tell it wasn’t going to be enough. He would need multiple fireballs to counter so many spikes. To dodge it, he would also need to kick his running speed up another notch despite already having cast ~Hellsong Dash~ Fortunately, he had just the thing. ~Galleon’s Gate~ He thrust his hand forward and a dark purple spell circle appeared in front of it, twisting and changing until it became a gigantic gate. The gate had an inlaid structure like the thick hull of what must have once been a massive ship. But overlaid over that structure was a smoky thing that looked frankly demonic. It had horns jutting out of its head and its mouth was open to reveal horrible fangs. Its eyes were a dark purple that glowed against the black smoke backdrop. Every spike that struck the Gate was swallowed into its maw, never to be seen again. Even worse, the visage of the gate was so horrid that it caused Baler to flinch and freeze in horror. Even after the Gate vanished, Baler didn’t recover or react. Not until after Caius continued his forward dash and drew his hand back in a clear intention to throw out a punch. "You—!" Baler said as he finally recovered and quickly made to cast a defensive spell but it was too late. *BAM!* ... Caius’ fight with Baler was only one of the three pairs of battles that were taking place simultaneously. When Baler launched his first attack against Caius to start this all off, Delia had smiled to herself at how someone else was being proactive about beating Caius and after allowing herself to be amused by that for a few seconds, she looked at Aurelius. Her opponent by default. "Well, so should we start?" Aurelius asked with a nervous laugh and a hand behind his head. Delia rolled her eyes. "Gods..." she said with a groan right before her instincts alerted her and she instantly charged herself with a lightning movement spell to dash away just in time to avoid multiple arrows composed of light that had been fired at her. She looked up in surprise, not that he attacked (she had expected that since that was what this was all about, after all), but by how fast he attacked. She had looked away for barely a second and he now had his arms in a pose of someone drawing a bow with a spell circle touching the tip of his outstretched finger. This was also the point where some of the spectating students took their eyes off what was happening anywhere else in the arena to pay attention to this pair. Aurelius’ transition from casual to attacking stance had been a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. The nervousness was gone from his face. There was a playful twinkle in his blue eyes as he shrugged at the look on Delia’s face. "Let’s not tarry." Delia smiled and nodded. "Alright!" She didn’t just stand to her feet. Wind propelled her upright and even levitated her about two feet off the ground as she spread her arms and created a massive spell circle that appeared behind her back. It was an electric blue color and gave her a beautiful and imposing backdrop. Delia’s thick black hair flowed with the wind still keeping her levitated and lightning seemed to sparkle within her grey eyes. It must have been a harbinger of things to come because she thrust her hands forward and unleashed multiple streaks of lightning at Aurelius right as he was about to fire more light arrows at her. With his body shrouded in light, Aurelius sidestepped the first round of lightning and then stamped his feet against the ground to cast a second spell. The spell circle was golden-brown and only appeared for a second before it transformed into an earthen shield just in time to intercept the second round of lightning. The shield shattered on impact but it had given Aurelius the time to get out of the attack’s range so he could fire even more arrows. Delia waved a hand and a wall of Wind crackling with lightning appeared. She didn’t even look to have needed a spell circle to do it. The wind was supplied by what was keeping her levitating and the lightning was supplied by the lightning spell circle behind her back that had shot out a few rounds of lightning streaks already. What Delia had done was essentially create a spell on the spot for her defense. Cynthia sighed at the sight. She felt proud but this was especially the reason she hated Delia’s stubborn intent to be a Mage-Knight. In this generation and the one that came before, no one had shown such incredible aptitude for Storm Magic as she did and she was going to let all that waste... After her wall of Wind and Lightning blocked the arrows of light, Delia transformed them into a gale that she sent spinning at Aurelius. The gale surrounded Aurelius faster than he could move with his Light Element movement speed and in a second, he was blocked from view as the lightning within the gale became more violent and struck at him from all sides. But then a bright light burst out from the center of the gale and split it in two, revealing him looking perfectly fine. Delia hadn’t expected that to be enough so she already had a spell ready. However, before she could cast it, a rope formed of light swung out and wrapped around her wrists, stopping her from forming any seals and pulling her closer just in range to have a pillar of earth dropped on her head. The pillar fell but Delia was smiling. The rope around her wrist stopped her from leaping back but it didn’t stop her from getting even closer to its caster. And so, with lightning imbuing her speed—and in a familiar move—she was in front of Aurelius before he could blink and swung a kick at the side of his head.