Chapter 72: Did he?

Chapter 72: Did he?... When his punch lifted Baler off his feet, Caius was in awe. He hadn’t even thought he had hit that hard. He had been so charged up that he didn’t notice how much of the muscles in his arms unleashed the latent strength within them. Subconsciously, he’d put the lessons he learned over the weekend training with his father into action, and the result was blood spewing from Baler’s mouth. "Ack!" Baler said and felt his feet lose contact with the ground. He saw the surprised look on Caius’ face turn into a look of delight as he drew back his fist to punch him a second time. "No!" Baler said but it was muffled slightly by his busted jaw. His icy-blue eyes were wide but through this attack, he had managed to keep his fingers in the seal position they had been in before Caius landed the blow and hurried to complete his spell casting. He thrust his hand forward and a spell circle appeared to conjure a wall of ice. Caius smirked. He had expected that and was ready. ~Fireball~ The spell circle appeared against his knuckles and turned into a ball of fire just in time to make contact with the wall and shatter it. "Hngh!" Baler groaned not only in pain at his jaw but also in a brief moment of worry that his defense was so easily broken through. Fortunately, he had learned from his earlier mistakes. Already, he had seen Caius was capable of breaking through icy walls and platforms so, while this was worrying, this was not all that shocking and he had a plan. He controlled his spell circle and made multiple walls of ice appear revealing that the defensive spell he cast had been a bit of a misdirect. It was not the usual one he and even his sister Aylin had cast so far, especially during the Study of Magical Beast Class last week. Unlike the other one which was a simple one-and-done defense meant to create an ice wall to act as a shield, this spell was still ongoing and required multiple intricate seals that were aimed at creating an actual structure. Up in the spectating seats, Aylin smirked. "Ballsy to use that," she said. "What is it?" One of her gal pals asked, seated by her side. "That, Marianne, is the Khione Prism. Or at least, the rudimentary start of it. The most a Third Circle Mage can attempt. This version of it is very simple really. It’s the real thing that’s bothersome. But of course, even for a simple spell, you can always trust my brother to mess it up." "That’s messing it up?" The girl called Marianne asked, staring down into the Arena with her eyes wide at the intricate spell casting and grand creation happening there. Aylin scoffed. "Trust me," she said in a haughty voice, "It is." Ice walls appeared all around Caius and pulled closer to trap him from all sides, linking together to give him no room for escape. There was even now a roof above his head. It felt like he was trapped in a Box. He shattered four walls with fireballs and punches but when they shattered, they became snowflakes that just floated in the air while new walls took their place. The snowflakes also reformed but were now behind their replacements, further reinforcing the Icy Box. "I see," Caius mumbled. He felt he should have realized this when he struck the first ice wall with fire and, instead of melting, it had shattered. He had been so intent on following up and punching Baler in the face again that he hadn’t even noticed that the flecks of shattered ice had become snowflakes and hadn’t melted into Mana. "That’s right," Baler said, his voice distorted by his facial injuries, "Stay in there!" This spell was very taxing on Baler’s Mana reserves. More taxing than even the platforms of ice he had tried to use to get Caius out of the outer ring earlier. It was also why he believed it would hold until he could complete his task of getting Caius disqualified. He was moving the box now and trying to get it to the edge. Caius spread his arms and touched the walls on either side of him, ignoring the chill to feel the number of icy walls stacked on top of each other and meant to keep him trapped. He needed that latent potential that he had managed to tap into when he punched Baler. He felt the muscles in his arms and he couldn’t detect them all but he detected enough to smile to himself. "Balance..." he said in a low voice and flexed his arms. And then he bent low and jumped. ~Hellsong Dash~! The spell circle appeared, filled him with warmth, and granted him the boost to strike at the roof of the box as hard as he possibly could. Why the roof? Well, it was where the box’s structure was weakest. *Crack!* A long fissure appeared across the ice and spread into longer, larger cracks as Caius landed on the ground again. This time, when he jumped, he cast ~Fireball~ with both his hands and struck the roof, breaking through layers of Ice and creating an opening. Baler gritted his teeth in annoyance and was already attempting to replace the destroyed walls. The snowflakes were still there and could reform but then he faltered as he found his Mana had run far too low to keep the other sides of the box upright and solid while also reforming the destroyed roof. His hand shook and the spell circle faded in and out as he struggled to keep a grip. The thing was though, even if Baler had the Mana to reform the roof, Caius had planned for that. ~Hellsong Dash~ A chime sounded as fire burst from his feet and sent him way past the shattered roof where he did a flip so his feet were slightly inclined toward the ceiling just so he could boost himself back down. Baler looked up and saw the shadow cast by Caius coming down at him with a fist drawn. He canceled his spell circle and the box melted away just as he managed to create a slab of ice to slide just a few inches away and avoid the fist. But the moment Caius hit the ground on one knee, he boosted himself forward, still with ~Hellsong Dash~, and just in time, he spun around, and struck his leg into Baler’s midsection before he could even think to try to get away a second time. "ACK!" Baler let out in his loudest cry of pain yet. Maybe it was due to the boost by ~Hellsong Dash~, maybe it was because the latent potential of some of his leg muscles kicked in. Maybe it was both. Anyhow, Caius’ kick sent Baler flying. He went farther than twenty feet, clearing the boundary of the Outer Ring and offshooting it by a couple more feet. And when he hit the ground, disqualified and sapped of energy. With his breath knocked out of him, he groaned which sounded even worse due to his wounded jaw as he rolled from side to side, gripping his stomach in pain. The class cheered. Yelling loudest of all, complete with woos and whistles that sounded so musical, was Eloise Nightingale. Despite her disinterest in combat, she always seemed to be a fan of violence all the same. Caius wondered if that made Baler feel even worse and he almost pitied him which he somehow felt made him an even worse person that if he threw his head back and let out a mocking laugh. The second loudest of the cheers was Aylin Khione’s. "I told you," she said to her friend, Marianne in a voice that carried to the point where Caius heard it and was sure Baler did as well, "I told you he messed up the spell." ’Did he?’ Caius asked himself as he raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist. The spell he faced had been pretty good. Despite the weak roof that Caius exploited, Baler had shown himself to be very capable and if that was despite being doomed to never actually practice Ice Magic to its fullest potential, it was commendable. Caius found himself wondering what Aylin was capable of. Her display last week in the Study of Magical Beasts Class had shown she definitely had a better grasp of Ice Magic than her brother. ’Oh well,’ Caius eventually said with a sigh and a shrug. It didn’t really matter how strong or weak either sibling was at Ice Magic. What mattered was that he had gotten better. Stronger. In that, he took comfort.