CHAPTER 250: INSANE TO EVEN THINK ABOUT

"That’s cheating," Caius pointed out.

"How so?" Cynthia asked calmly.

"The rule was involved me getting close to you. You came to me. It doesn’t count," Caius insisted.

Cynthia laughed,

"No, Caius," she said,

"The rule was for you to remain Ten Meters away from me or I get to cast spells beyond the Third Circle. Whichever manner that distance is reduced doesn’t matter so long as it is. Which is why I cautioned that if you ever want to win this, you better stay the hell away from me."

"What even is the point to all this if you can twist the rules to suit yourself," Caius asked, now back on his feet.

"Maybe there isn’t any point. As I said, this may be our last time together and we might as well use it academically," Cynthia answered with a shrug.

"How is this any Academic?" Caius retorted.

"Caius, you hurt me. Were you not paying attention? I’ve been yammering on about it since the first Combat Magic Class;

Distance is vital to a Combat Mage. You must always strive to be at the optimal distance from your opponent."

"But you’re not doing that by getting closer to me," Caius said.

"Well, I’m stronger than you," Cynthia said, "I can afford to be cocky and careless. You need to worry about how much danger this closeness poses to you.

I will cast no more spells to restrict or take control of your body. However, I may now come at you as hard as I please.

Prepare yourself now."

Not even giving Caius the time to make those preparations, Cynthia raised a hand and again, without any obvious seal forming or even any actual cast time, a spell circle appeared. Caius tagged the energy coming off it to be at the Fourth Circle and with a flick of her wrist, Cynthia commanded the spell circle to conjure a lightning Bolt that went striking at Caius where he stood.

He thrust his hand forward just in time with his best defense already prepared.

~Galleon’s Gate~

The purple spell circle appeared and then came the Dark Magic defensive spell whose maw opened to accept the bolt of lightning. But of course, being at the Third Circle, the best it could do was mitigate the potential damage.

Where the lightning bolt would have simply vanished into the spell’s demonic-looking maw had it been a Third Circle spell, it reacted violently with ~Galleon’s Gate~ and caused its entire frame to crackle with electricity before it imploded with enough force to catch Caius mid-run and send him flying.

The fact that the lightning bolt hadn’t just torn right through the ~Galleon’s Gate~ spell with its energy barely reduced and had instead imploded with the defensive spell either spoke to how strong a spell ~Galleon’s Gate~ was or showed Cynthia was still taking it easy on him.

Caius decided it was a bit of both.

He had just hit the ground after the implosive energy force hit when he heard the crackle of electricity and learned the spell circle Cynthia had cast was still capable of unleashing more bolts.

This time, Caius cast a movement spell, and not just any movement spell but his best and most unstable;

~Hellsong Stomp~

It was faster than a Third Circle spell and just shy of the Fourth so if anything could give him the boost he wanted, it was that. He stomped his foot on the ground and let the directionless and strong boost send him away from the Bolts. Well, not really away from the bolts and more away from Cynthia.

With three stomps, he had reestablished the proper Ten Meters of distance between himself and Cynthia.

Or so he thought.

Cynthia took note of his movements and the moment Caius was about to get out of her ’reach’, she cast a powerful movement spell to catch up with him. So by the time Caius believed he was again safe and things could return to a battle of Third Circle spells, Cynthia was smiling at him.

She had a hand thrust forward and a light blue spell circle was pressed against her fingertips.

"What—?" Caius started to say, incredulous at her chasing him down when he heard a rush of water and looked up to see water had been conjured above his head. The water took the form of a pillar and in a second, it dropped.

Caius just managed to scramble out from being directly under the pillar when it hit the ground with a powerful *BANG!* like it was made of concrete. Caius was sure it would have cracked the ground if it had not been reinforced.

The pillar of water burst almost immediately after impact, resulting in a powerful wave that slammed into Caius enough to bruise him while also washing him away.

Of course, Cynthia didn’t let him get away enough to force her back to Third Circle spells. She followed and when she had secured their closeness once again, she waved her hand gently and was lifted a few feet in the air by a cyclone of wind so her feet were not touching the wet floor which she sent a streak of lightning into.

The lightning hit the water and it became electrified, electrocuting Calus was who was not only doused in water but was also lying on the wet ground.

"Ahh—nghhhhhh!!!" Caius began with a yell that turned into a groan as his entire body was wracked with the electrical current that sapped him of almost all physical energy and had him still in pain even after the electrocution was over.

The streak Cynthia had tossed barely qualified as a Second Circle spell. It wasn’t even really a spell. More like a parlor trick she could do as the talented Kragsten that she was.

If Caius had been struck with the lightning streak itself he would have probably shrugged it off but, combine it with a wet surface and it becomes a real problem.

It circles back to something that had been a point of notice at the start of this duel; Elemental Combinations.

Water and Lightning are another two that worked together as well as Wind and Fire but combining them to create a single spell is insanely difficult and ill-advised.

In the Kragsten family—a family who are known for their affinities with Water, Wind, and Lightning—combining the Elements for singular spells is only to be practiced by one who has an affinity with Storm Magic because it is believed that they have tamed the ’chaos’ already. Which is another way of saying that a Storm Mage has already broken past the norm and can further break the rules that prevent spell combinations as they see fit.

Cynthia, unlike Delia didn’t have an affinity with Storm Magic so a move like what she just performed was her own way of creating Elemental combinations; By casting two separate spells and letting them react outside of her body/mind.

When the electrification was over, Cynthia was just about to conjure another lightning streak to keep on the offensive and exhaust Caius as was her goal.

Caius, in pain as he was with a few vestiges of electrical current still coursing through him, kicked off the ground with a blast of fire from ~Hellsong Dash~ which dried up some of the water in his wake as he tried to get as far away from wet ground as he could.

Cynthia, was still stationary in the air with the wind spell that helped her remain afloat. She made to cast a spell and Caius interrupted her attempt with a quick spell cast in the midst of dashing away with ~Hellsong Dash~

It was why he had cast that instead of ~Hellsong Stomp~ because with ~Hellsong Dash~, he had total control of his body and could turn around and do what he just did mid-run;

~Erratic Fireball!~

He had it squarely aimed at Cynthia and she stopped the attacking spell she was in the midst of casting and cast a defensive one instead.

A Fifth Circle Water shield that appeared like a wide screen before her.

Cynthia expected its water to easily douse the flames of the ~Erratic Fireball~ with ease and, in a sense, that was what happened.

The column of fire from the fireball was kept away and could not break past but its heat, got through. Cynthia felt it against her skin through the thin gown she had on and her eyes went wide in awe of just how much utility the spell’s instability was capable of.

The heat of a fucking Third Circle Fire-Wind spell that had been cast in what looked to have been mid-desperation, had gotten through her Fifth Circle Water shield spell.

It was insane to even think about.