Plink!
Leo vanished, and reappeared right before Aurelia, who held her sword with a relaxed expression.
But then, nothing transpired.
The Aeternus boy continued to run forward, but somehow remained in place.
'What?'
Caecus could feel Aurelia finally using her soul essence, but she immediately utilized it for her manifestation ability, causing him to apprehend her soul density with her Aura color.
"Gold." Titus mumbled beside him.
'So that's gold huh…'
Aurelia's soul essence felt ridiculous, so pure and rich, it felt like even a few percent of it were as full as the entire reserves of some people here.
Although, that was the truth.
Silence.
Aurelia hadn't moved an inch, and Leo still couldn't land a single hit. It seemed like he was running in place, moving forward, but not actually changing spots.
Leo stopped, and shot a cold glare at Aurelia, now releasing his own soul essence.
'Rank four.'
He was a rank four, with clearly more soul essence than Aurelia, who was just a rank three.
Still… Aurelia's soul essence overpowered Leo's.
'This is the unfairness of soul density.'
Caecus felt soul essence moving through the air in lightning formed shapes.
'His concept must have something to do with electricity or storms.'
Just as the bolt was about to hit Aurelia, she disappeared.
Caecus next sensed her right behind Leo.
'How?!'
She tapped against his back with her finger, and in response the Aeternus boy whirled around, and tried to hit her with his sword.
Futile.
Her hand was gripping Leo's, which was holding the sword.
Caecus' fingers tightened against his seat.
"Since the disparity in the strength of our concepts is apparent, I'll put a handicap on myself for this battle. I will refrain from using my concept, and will only use assimilation and augmentation."
She leaned forward, faces now impossibly close for a battle.
Her long hair, which was tied back into a ponytail, swayed.
Aurelia's grip around Leo's hand tightened.
He let out a grimace.
"Do you accept?"
Biting his lip, blood drawing, Leo stared at the ground in contempt, and then nodded.
"I accept."
The next moment, Aurelia vanished and reappeared at the other end of the arena.
Caecus felt her augment her sword, and rest of her body.
Leo used his lightning ability to infuse the metal of his sword with electricity.
The next moment the both of them dashed forward, clearing all of the arena in a split-second.
When their blades clashed, the surrounding air was blown away so hard that it resembled a shockwave.
Caecus was pushed against the back of his seat.
At unimaginable speeds, they hacked, slashed, parried, deflected, and dodged.
The blind boy was certain. He was only able to follow this fight because of his increased comprehension speed.
People like Titus, or Nyx, surely wouldn't have been able to comprehend what was happening down there.
'So beautiful.'
Aurelia was fighting in a manner that seemed almost exquisite, her fighting style resembling more of a dance.
Leo was constantly assimilating parts of his soul essence, while Aurelia hadn't assimilated once.
But now she did.
Caecus felt her assimilate fifteen percent of her soul essence into her legs, and five percent into the rest of her body.
The next time both of their blades connected, one moment Leo stood face to face with Aurelia, the next moment he was in a crater that had formed around the wall.
She was toying with him.
Leo, who had assimilated around his body before, wasn't particularly harmed from that blow, but oh irritated he was.
Aurelia looked up.
"The next blow is gonna defeat him, make sure to teleport him away headmaster."
She dropped her sword to the ground.
With a twisted grimace of anger, he didn't let himself recover, and attacked a second time.
In a wide arc, his sword drew a crescent line around the spot where Aurelia's head previously was.
She was already beneath him, and punched.
Her fist drew closer and hit… empty air.
The empty air was being pushed away though, and the ground started to dig up solely from the force of her strike.
Chiron, who normally had a content expression on his face, now frowned.
"Winner… Aurelia Caelum."
She was back at her seat.
"..."
Nobody around them managed to make a sound.
Caecus, whose attention towards the fight was now broken, now noticed he had balled his fists up so hard, that his nails dug up blood.
…
More fights followed, until it was finally Nyx's turn.
When the fight began, she didn't let her opponent breathe for even a single millisecond.
Clang!
Her sword crashed into his, and multiple slashes followed for every hit he parried.
Caecus felt the second year use his concept, a myriad of strings made out of soul essence bursting out from the tips of his fingers.
They twisted, turned, and proceeded to attack Nyx from all sides.
She responded by using her own concept, and the strings simply… passed through her.
Before the second year knew it she burst right through his attack, and defeated him.
Julius had already lost his fight, which made Caecus, Elijah, Nyx and Aurelia the only two first years who had defeated a second year.
The first in ages.
An inescapable sense of inferiority overcame Caecus, causing him to ball up his fists again. When he felt them sting, he stopped midway and solely frowned.
'I have to reach the manifestation stage.'