As soon as the coin hit the ground, Caecus vanished.
Having assimilated twenty percent of his soul essence into his legs, and five into his arms, he was next to Adrian in less than a moment.
'I cannot afford to even spare a little of my soul essence, I'll use Every. Single. Drop.'
The boy in front of him immediately responded by assimilating sixty percent of his soul essence, and deflecting his blow.
Adrian's eyes widened.
The past weeks Caecus hadn't been slacking off.
When he learned of stacking assimilation in the fight with Nyx he had been training it tirelessly.
This was where his increased soul essence control due to being blind came in handy, what normally was an extremely rarely occurring phenomenon, was something Caecus could do with fifty percent certainty now.
He had been training assimilation stacking tirelessly.
Caecus followed with another strike, and another, not stopping.
With difficulty, Adrian dodged and parried a few hits, one of them grazing his cheek and leaving a red line in the process.
The second year retorted with a horizontal swing, which Caecus dodged by squatting down, and following with an upwards cut.
Adrian leaned back, and the tip of Caecus' dagger cut through the air a hairsbreadth away from his nose.
Since Caecus' assimilation was fading, he augmented five percent of his soul essence. This was risky, after all if he failed with stacking, he'd only be left with the assimilation of those five percent, instead of the previous twenty five, putting him at a significant disadvantage.
The blind boy succeeded with a multitude of strikes, jostling the taller boy back further.
Then he assimilated.
It was a success.
Now augmented with thirty percent of his soul essence he moved even faster than before.
Adrian whisked backwards in an attempt to distance himself, but it was futile, as Caecus' stamina feigned being inexhaustible.
Now nothing more than a blur of steel and flesh, Caecus barrage almost resembled a mist.
'Change of strategy.'
Adrian felt the force between the individual strikes, which made his joints ache before decreasing.
Instead, the speed picked up even more.
Adrian assimilated thirty percent, now way weaker.
Using this chance, Caecus put distance between them.
And sat down.
The second year stared at him with an expression of incredulousness.
Caecus on the other hand used that chance to catch his breath, and stretch his finger.
Then Adrian's eyes widened.
'How can he be so stupid.'
Adrian dashed forwards, in an attempt to attack Caecus but when he did, Caecus touched the ground with his palm, and… augmented it?
At that moment, the dirt everywhere seemed to vibrate, casting a blindscreen of dust.
When he stabbed where Caecus was before, the blind boy was nowhere to be seen.
Caecus could still use his senses as before though.
From the outside the Headmaster saw what was happening, and with a wave of his hand, the people watching could see the battle once again.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang, Clang!
Caecus was attacking from all directions, to Adrian it almost seemed like he was formless. Like a wavefunction that was everywhere, and collapsed when he attacked.
Adrian needed to counterattack the moment Caecus struck him.
Gritting his teeth, he gripped the hilt of his longsword tightly, and got into a stance, closing his eyes in the process.
'I could just wait until his assimilation wears off, but this is too much fun!'
Caecus, in humor of the situation, threw a stone at the second year, who immediately deflected it and counterattacked, only to meet air.
"Pfft."
Accidentally Caecus let out a chuckle, which seemed to irritate Adrian.
The blind boy could swear he heard Adrian's teeth ache from the pressure in his jaw.
'It's time to end this.'
Caecus failed to stack the next assimilation, but that didn't matter as he assimilated forty percent of his soul essence, way past the threshold of what Adrian could do.
Even barely visible to most of the viewers, a flash now, Caecus attacked.
Now it truly seemed as if he was a fog.
Caecus kept running in circles around Adrian, who only saw a silhouette spreading out, seemingly everywhere around him, that was obscured by the fog wall of dirt.
The blind boy's steps threw up more dirt in the process, and made the surroundings even harder to see.
So, he attacked.
And just as he was certain the cold steel metal touched Adrian's neck, he disappeared.
The dust cleared.
Caecus stood alone, as the only one in the arena.
"Wonderful! A truly wonderful fight, that marks the first win for the first years!" The headmaster shouted while letting out something that almost resembled a giggle.
Everyone was silent for a second, but then Caecus echolocation picked up how one person– Titus stood up from his seat and started clapping.
The students around him followed, and not after long everyone around him started clapping.
Caecus' mind which was entirely focused on the battle before only just now seemed to comprehend, that the entire time every first and second year was watching him.
Instead of rejoicing at the attention like any other, he felt his face grow hot, and heart beating so hard that he felt like it'd shoot right through his chest. Caecus' breath started accelerating, and he felt a hot dizziness creep up.
In an instant he found himself back at his seat, Titus' visage attaining detail.
"You did it! You did! Caecus, yes!"
The huge boy's arms were embracing Caecus' smaller frame.
But when he noticed that the blind boy didn't have a smile on his face, and was trembling, Titus froze up.
"What's wrong, Caecus?"
"I–" Caecus got interrupted by his own heavy breathing.
"Take deep breaths, come on!" Titus helped the smaller boy settle into his seat, and was petting his shoulder gently. "Inhale exhale, follow my breathing rhythm."
Half a minute later, Caecus had finally calmed down enough to speak.
"Now tell me what's wrong? You won!"
"It's just… too many people watching and my sist–!" he clutched his own mouth, eyebrows raised. "Just forget that part, but I'm not accustomed to being watched by that many people, and it just got too much…"
Titus' gaze softened. "I understand what you mean, don't fret. You didn't tell me that you had a sister though–"
"I told you to forget it!" Agitation seeped into Caecus' voice, and he smacked Titus' shoulder.
"..."
He stared at Caecus in bewilderment. This was unlike any behavior he had seen from him before.
"The next match will start now! Ohoh… Zenith against Zenith as it seems…"
The duo's attention immediately diverted to the arena.
"Aurelia Caelum, versus Leo Aeternus!"
A shudder ran through Caecus.
Aurelia appeared on the stage, with a boy, who was around her height standing in front of her.
The expression on her face seemed to reflect one of worry, but when she apprehended that she was translocated into the midst of the arena, it changed into one of extreme aloofness, not revealing a hint of emotion.
Titus on the other hand squinted his eyes, looked at Aurelia, looked at Caecus, back again at Aurelia, and then again at Caecus. His eyes widened in shock, mouth hanging open.
"Caecus, it just so happens that you two look very similar, and even have the same birthmark right?"
Caecus felt a throbbing coldness germinate in his heart.
Titus sat there agape.
"The Zenith is your twin sister…"
A wave of nausea swam over the blind boy.
"..."
"..."
He felt his hands balling up into fists.
"...L-later." was the only thing he managed to get out.
A sword appeared in Aurelia's hand, a bastard sword to be exact. The opponent had a common longsword.
While Leo gathered up his soul essence, Caecus didn't feel Aurelia allocate any of hers.
The coin flipped once again.