Chapter 73: I don’t need your help

Chapter 73: I don’t need your help... Delia’s eyes widened at the Hammer coming down at her and then she glanced at the ’spider-legs’ holding her to the ground and realized they were doing more than pinning her down. The legs were going to suffer the most from the force of the hammer and what she’d suffer would only knock her out. Probably. Even as intent on winning as he was, Aurelius wasn’t going for a completely lethal strike. That said, Delia didn’t just lie there and wait for the attack to hit. Her hands were free enough to form seals that created a spell circle. Wind, water, and lightning surged out in perfect unison and perfect chaos to the combined might of a storm. The water packed the punch that pushed against the spider legs. The lightning packed the explosive force, and together, they broke the legs so the wind could lift Delia away just as the Earthen hammer finally hit. *BANG!* The hammer destroyed what was left of the ’spider-leg’ spell and Aurelius let out a sigh that his tactic hadn’t worked. Even then though he still smiled and Delia mirrored that smile as she was back on her feet, hunched over slightly in the pose of someone ready to pounce. A storm brewed around her and she looked ready to burst out her most powerful spell yet. But then, she heard the sound of a leg making hard contact with someone’s stomach followed by the buzzer sound of someone flying over the boundary of the Outer Ring. She looked over and she saw Caius with his leg raised still in the pose of delivering a kick and she saw Baler fly a few more feet before he hit the ground hard and started to rock side to side in pain. "What?" Delia let out. The Caius she knocked out last week could not have done that. Or maybe he could have and just didn’t? But why? ’To let me win?’ Delia asked herself and then shook her head, ’Hell, no! I beat him fair and square. This— This is new." She wasn’t the only one paying attention. Aurelius paused his spell casting to gape at his teammate getting disqualified. As the class’s cheers continued at the first disqualification of the exercise so far, Caius turned around and saw Delia staring at him so he raised a hand and gave her a thumbs-up. Delia’s expression was just turning into a frown when she was alerted by the light of Aurelius Spell Circle taking shape as he prepared to cast a spell. She shook off any feelings or expressions that were going to distract her and was already using her will to cause the storm brewing around her to surge, ready to meet the oncoming attack. Aurelius let it loose but before it could hit and before Delia or anyone else in class could properly see what it had been, a black gate appeared and its demonic maw swallowed it up. Delia’s eyes opened in surprise and she looked to the culprit. Caius still had a hand out and a purple spell circle was still active. It vanished along with the Gate a second later. "Oh, so I’ll have to face you both then," Aurelius said and shrugged, "Alright." "Sorry," Caius said with a mildly apologetic smile. "It’s fine," Aurelius assured him as two golden Spell Circles appeared above his palms, "All the better, I think." The cockiness would have pissed Caius off more if he didn’t know Aurelius truly had the skill to warrant such a statement. As it was, the corner of his right eye just twitched a bit. "I don’t need your help," Delia all but snarled at Caius before she gestured behind her toward the inner ring, "Go help your Girlfriend instead." Caius looked taken aback. Not at being told his help was unneeded (he had expected to hear that) but rather at the extra vile in Delia’s voice as she said the word ’Girlfriend’. Caius smiled but did look over at Kaya who was battling Doran Langston. "She’ll be fine," he said confidently, "You need me more than she does." "No, I don’t," Delia insisted through gritted teeth and, as though to prove her point, the storm around her surged and struck up at Aurelius who was still standing on his footholds of light. Aurelius thrust one of the golden spell circles he had cast forward and it transformed into the circle inlaid with squares that was his ~Mandala~ spell. "I knew it," Caius thought as ~Mandala~ successfully held off against Delia’s spell. If Aurelius was using that already then he had already decided to go all out. More all-out than he had so far and likely more than Delia could handle. Sure enough, barely moved an inch by the attacks that hit his defensive spell, Aurelius was already thrusting his other hand forward and firing a beam of pure light down at Delia. She congealed a shield of wind and lightning for herself, using it to force the beam to the side only to then realize, the beam was only one of many. The others landed soon enough and bombarded her defense until they broke through and came directly at her face. Empowered by the storm around her, Delia managed to move to the side just in time to avoid the beam but when it hit the ground, it didn’t scorch the concrete but rather left behind a golden glow. The glow spread until it had formed into a web of light that fired strings also composed of light that wrapped around Delia’s body to hold her tight. Delia strained against the hold and called for the storm around her to surge to her aid but then she realized the strings were doing more than holding her. They were separating her from her spell. Sundering her connection to the storm until it fizzled out. "The ~Spinner’s Nest~..." Caius mumbled in recognition of the spell. That was a nasty one. It was yet another spell created by Aurelius’ past life in his service of the Goddess of Light. It didn’t have as much potential as ~Mandala~ but it was very strong still and easily outclassed a normal Third Circle Light magic spell. "You—fucker..." Delia struggled to say because the strings were now wrapping around her chest and neck. Aurelius turned his wrist as he kept the spell up while he canceled ~Mandala~ so he could cast a different spell that he directed at the ground by Delia’s feet. A golden spell circle appeared and conjured a large pillar that floated just high enough to be aimed at Delia’s side. It pulled back ready to slam forward in a hit that would surely have sent Delia flying out of the Outer Ring. But then Caius was there. Boosted by ~Hellsong Dash~, he placed a hand on Delia’s chest, his hand touching her breasts just so slightly (not entirely on purpose) as he pushed her away to take her place at that spot at the same time that he thrust his other hand forward forward and cast ~Galleon’s Gate~ to intercept the pillar. Why did he push Delia away when he could have just cast the spell? Well, there was a possibility that the defensive spell wouldn’t hold and he felt he had a better chance of not getting knocked out of the ring than the girl who was currently tied up in strings of light. Fortunately, despite the pillar’s insistent pushing, ~Galleon’s Gate~ held on and swallowed at least half of it until they both vanished as one. Annoyed that Caius had had to step in to help, Delia let a chaotic storm ripple out from inside her to create a destructive spell circle that superimposed itself over that of the spell holding her in strings. There was a violent reaction and then... *BOOM!* Out of the cloud of wind crackling with lightning that followed the explosion, Delia stumbled out. As immune to Elemental chaos as she was, the explosion had taken a toll on her. Even then, her grey eyes were wild with an intent for violence that she directed at Aurelius floating above. She didn’t even mind that Caius was now standing by her side, ready to offer the help she really didn’t want to take. She just wanted that blond, blue-eyed Ass to come down from his footholds of light.