The Start Of The First Practical Assessments (4)

Flipping through his pockets he grabbed three different bottles between his fingers, each marked with a different color and seal.

"Wealth is a form of weapon too," thought Cyrus as he cut a piece of fabric from his clothing and tied it on one end of the bottle with a black cap, "but I suppose in here all of this is not actually being used. No worries then."

His sense that was spread out detected several waves of thin Aero magic speeding through his mist which prompted him to break into a run.

The spell was fast but weak, but guessing what its true purpose was Cyrus abruptly changed his position twice over just in the nick of time as two fireballs broke through his concealment and turned the ground where he was just standing into charcoal.

"What a versatile mage, able to use both of his domains to such an effect so early on."

Quickly finishing his preparations, Cyrus first threw one empty bottle followed by one with a red cap. The first was crushed into pieces by an Aero spell and the second ended up dodged but still had some effect for it exploded when it crashed onto the ground.

Meanwhile a third bottle was already in the air when the explosion went off, being fully concealed by the explosion so Gellert could only watch as the string that was attached to it was pulled and the contents of the bottle spilled out…a thick liquid death essence that frothed forth.

Immediately Cyrus used his enhanced sense to bring it under his control and turn the small bit of pure liquid essence into a dense mist.

From below it no doubt looked like the dark maws of some kind of terrifying beast opening wide to swallow whatever lay below it, which in this case was Gellert.

"Cheap tricks…" muttered Gellert, dropping his bow and putting both of his hands together.

With a fiery shout of passion the air above him was turned into flames, burning away all the ghastly mist that threatened to slowly and painfully kill him.

It was a contest of who had more concentration, but while one side was simply manipulating already existing essence the other was having to pull them in from the surroundings and make them thick enough to be used.

The two sides clashed, one fiery hot and the other deathly cold but the chill of death was not enough to render the flames of Gellert inert.

Slowly but surely the essence above was eaten away, at no small cost to Gellert, but he had survived the ordeal.

Bending down to pick up his bow quickly in order to counterattack, he froze in place and chuckled to himself.

"I suppose this is why you are above me by so much, I did not even believe it to be possible to continue advancing during our confrontation" said Gellert, now back to his calm and collected self.

The shadows behind him trembled as he spoke, revealing Cyrus with a drawn blade pointed at Gellert's back.

Inwardly Cyrus thought, "Not everyone is two in one"

While outwardly he said,

"The world is full of mysteries indeed…now, I would let you surrender but it seems you are due for some pain" said Cyrus, slowly piercing Gellert through the back and piercing his heart in one go.

He then brought his hand to the back of his neck and twisted it as hard as he could, bringing him down to his knee to complete the job.

The last thing he saw was the falling body of Gellert as everything returned to darkness, then eventually the familiar real world returned to him.

Across from him was an unconscious Gellert, his face full of sweat which even stained his clothes.

"Looks like he enjoyed the present."

All that was left for Cyrus was to wait for his next opponent to come, which he was informed would be coming over from the second amphitheater in due time.

Having nothing to do he went back and sat next to Imran who he realized he had somewhat neglected for awhile now.

"Hey, what happened with your fights?" asked Cyrus.

Imran was drinking from a flash of wine when the question was asked, causing him to cough some of it up slightly as it went down the wrong end.

"What do you mean what happened with my fights? Were you not watching my courageous battle, winning three victories in a row before tactfully surrendering?"

Cyrus simply tried his best to grin innocently, which looked more like some kind of taunting smirk, and said, "Ah, well I was preoccupied with not caring. So far the battles at the top were somewhat lackluster, with only Gellert being somewhat interesting but all I did was slightly improve upon an already existing technique I had to win. The battles of the lower ranks, I can only imagine how lame they were."

Imran scratched the back of his head sheepishly and replied honestly, "Well yeah they were nothing like what I just watched from your fight just now. Of the three fights I won none of them could cast a spell during combat, so all I did was run at them and beat them with my glaive. The last guy I surrendered to was nearly twenty ranks higher than me, just a few below Minerva in fact. Since I figured it would be difficult to win if not impossible, I decided to bow out so I could not have the pleasure of being unconscious."

Watching the entrance of the amphitheater Cyrus responded, "You know your limits, that is a respectable decision. Alas, as an ally of mine your weakness does insult me so even if your usefulness is not on the battlefield. I think I should have a discussion with Minerva about a special training session hosted by the two of us…"

Imran shook his head from side to side in vehement opposition, "I object! If I am all sore and tired from training how could I make those connections that will allow me to gather a bunch of people for you during our days off? Or what about that group of people who we will rally to our own cause, huh? Yeah, I have leverage."

"Correct you do…but that last thing you mention, I will be devoting my own time to train those who decide to come aboard right? As the organizer, I am sure their moral will be boosted by quite a bit if you suffer alongside them."

His fate sealed, Imran regretted ever responding to Cyrus and looked down with a glum face.

Enjoying the reaction Cyrus chuckled sadistically while still watching the entrance, finally graced with the silhouettes of his future opponents.

The first he saw was the fourth ranked Caliban, striding in with a neutral face and long strides. Followed by a man that Cyrus had never seen before, but recognized immediately upon seeing the golden pin of the numeral ' I ', along with the title "Primus."

It was none other than the first ranked student of the entire student body, Primus Luxman Custodio.

Quickly calculating the results of the battles done with the top five in the other testing location Cyrus thought, "Sephtis lost to Luxman and then Cornelius lost to Caliban. Next I will be fighting Caliban and then finally Luxman."

True to his guesses he was called out in the next batch of fighters to go up against Caliban and so he soon found himself once more on the fictional battlefield facing his opponent.

The two did not start to immediately fight or even cast a spell in preparation, instead they both sat down and looked at one another.

As if challenging the other to speak first, Cyrus finally decided to break the short silence with a yawn.

"All right quit gazing at me so intensely, we both know what the other is thinking. If we are to fight then there is no doubt all that we are hiding is going to go to waste, so how will the other make it worth to actually engage in this battle-" began Cyrus.

"To wager Fidem" finished Caliban.

"Exactly. So, name a number and I will match."

Somewhat surprised at the show of wealth, before remembering the amount of Fidem he also had which was definitely the same if not larger than Cyrus', Caliban calculated a decent amount and replied with.

"200, two directives worth."

"Good, I accept. Just enough to pay off the costs of two of my assistants for the month."

With that the two men stood up once more, stretching and preparing for what was about to be an intense battle of skill, wit, and cunning.

Each of them drew their weapon of choice, one side revealed several leather straps full of various projectiles, while the other drew his sword with one hand and a fan of knives in the other.

Tensing their muscles and starting to cast a spell each, they let loose the first attack of the battle in the form of one flying knife each…that perfectly collided in mid air and clattered to the ground.