Chapter 75: Working on it

Chapter 75: Working on it"Woooo!" Kaya said, raising both arms. At the same time, the class stood up and clapped at what they saw as a very entertaining show. Caius glanced back at Kaya and smiled lightly at her excitement before he looked at Delia for a complete contrast in reaction. Delia just stood in place, glaring at Aurelius. Maybe he had left because he felt he couldn’t win a three-on-one fight, so technically, this was still a win. But it was a win that left a bad taste in her mouth. As though she had felt Caius looking at her, Delia turned her head to the side to look at him and for a moment, she was going to be indignant and say ’What?!’ in a very antagonistic tone. But the smile on his face had her biting back her words. Just a few minutes ago, he told her she was going to need his help and it turned out she did. If the two of them couldn’t defeat Aurelius, what chance did she ever have to beat him on her own? She looked away from Caius and down at her feet with her arms by her side. She clenched both her fists while biting her lower lip hard as her body began to shake and she looked close to sniffling. And then she let out a sigh and her body relaxed. She raised her head and glared hard at Aurelius who just smiled back. "Next time," Delia said in a clear voice that Aurelius heard and he tipped an invisible hat at her. Delia turned to Caius then. "You weren’t a completely abysmal partner," she said. Caius rolled his eyes. "Gee, thanks," he said sarcastically. Delia smiled. "It was a compliment." "Barely," Caius answered and then patted her on the arm gently as he added, "But we did make a pretty good team." Delia glanced at the hand just before Caius dropped it and then a smile started to creep up on her face but she resisted it, cleared her throat, and gestured with her head at where Aurelius stood, now observing an in-pain Baler Khione. "You don’t seem all that upset that we couldn’t beat him even together," she said. Caius shrugged. "It hurts your ego less when you already know what to expect." "How much of a chance did we have? If the fight continued?" Delia asked. "25-30 percent chance we’d win, I think," Caius said. "He’s that good?" Delia asked, not even acknowledging that she was taking Caius’s statistical analysis as fact. She truly just felt that he knew what he was talking about. "He’s... something," Caius said. Aurelius’ edge was due to his past life as essentially a Divine being. He still had enough of that Divinity in him and was currently cultivating even more. At the same Circle, he was almost unbeatable. Almost. The difficulty of defeating Aurelius put into perspective just how much of a genius the original Caius was. With time that the original saved not being a horndog, he gained such a deep insight into the Arcane Codex that he came up with insane combinations of the symbols within. He even came up with an interpretation of his own that increased the speed of his enlightenment—and thus Magical Improvement—by threefold. It was that impressive. Caius, now being a True Vampire, could not use the Arcane Codex to improve his strength, magically or physically, but he needed to gain almost as much insight into the Codex’s symbols. The ones that were used to make up spell circles. Only by uncovering secrets within could he have a chance, not only against Aurelius, but against the forces to come. As it stood, the only thing he had over the original character was his physical strength because he had embraced Vampirism and not rejected it. Fortunately, this fight was not what made Caius realize he needed to do better and, even before today, he had already begun working on it. In fact, he actually found it easier to do. Because the Arcane Codex could no longer frustrate his mind (which is how it helps Mages achieve Enlightenment), Caius could read through it better. This was one of the advantages of being a True Vampire; You become so removed from what makes people ’normal’ and become ’abnormal’. Reading through the Arcane Codex without it feeling like it’s splitting your head in two makes it easier to pick out the symbols you need and your Mana still resonates with the symbols the same. It’s like getting a shortcut to power and still getting to keep the essence of what you had to leave behind. Already, Caius had composed a Grimoire where he recorded the various symbols and matched them at will. He still lacked a combining factor to complete a spell and was currently working on reverse engineering the already-made spells he knew to find out what it was that he was missing. But he was making progress. "Well, I’ll beat him," Delia said and stamped a fist into her palm, pulling Caius out of his thoughts and reminding him he was still in class. "Right," he said with a smile. "Think I can’t do it?" Delia asked as she turned to him. "I’m sure you can," he said without a hint of sarcasm or doubt in his eyes. Delia knew that because she checked. She leaned close like she was searching for falsehood and then she realized she was staring into his eyes. The purple was drawing in her grey so she quickly cleared her throat and looked away. "Don’t think I forgot about you," she said, "I’ll get that rematch." She actually sounded excited about it. Seeing the way Caius moved and seeing him fight more like a Mage-Knight made the potential of facing him become less about him proving himself to her but more about seeing just how much he had progressed. Caius was about to say something when someone tackled him from behind. Kaya’s breasts pressed into his back as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her face against his neck. "We won!" She said, jubilantly. "Haha," Caius laughed. Her jubilation was contagious. He couldn’t help but join in. But then, Delia scoffed with her arms now crossed. "Some win," she said, still salty that Aurelius basically gifted them the win. And maybe just slightly not as appreciative of Kaya’s public show of affection. There were ’oohhs’ among the spectating class and more than a few jealous looks directed at the pair of Caius and Kaya. The most prominent was the one that had the back of Caius’ neck tingling with a recognizable chill. "Well done. For a first attempt at Synergy, you did relatively well," Cynthia Kragsten said and Caius saw her using water magic to lift Doran off the ground and onto a stretcher that floated about three feet above the ground. It made Caius smile a bit in amusement that she hadn’t attended to Doran until the entire exercise was over. She just let him roll side to side in pain as she continued to watch and chaperone the rest of the fight. On that note, Caius wondered what Cynthia considered to be ’lethal damage’. A lot of spells he and the others had tossed around should have qualified but she said and did nothing. Even now, with Doran’s face as bloody as it was, she didn’t caution Caius for using ’excessive force’. Like she could hear his thoughts, Cynthia said gently, "I was confident I’d be able to step in before either of you really tried to do each other in. However, what would be the benefit of stepping in at every move and attack? With every wound you suffer, with every slip-up, you learn and you do better. That is Combat Magic; A practice perfected through many failures. With that being said, I found Aurelius and Kaya to be the standouts of this exercise. Doran comes in third. All three maintained their distances and did not allow themselves to be baited into close combat battles like brainless Mage-Knights. They deserve to be commended. You should all learn from them." As she said that, her eyes were especially on Caius before she shook her head ever so slightly in disappointment.