Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

~Hellsong Stomp~ was created by Caius using two pre-existing spells; ~Hellsong Dash~ and ~Wispy Feet~.

Spell creation is very restrictive to one's level of Magical enlightenment. I.e you can't ordinarily create a fourth Circle spell while being at the Third Circle but Caius needed something more than the Third Circle. Maybe not quite the Fourth—since he wouldn't have the quality of Mana to cast that—but something possibly in-between.

And then he considered that, if he couldn't outright create that due to the limitations of spell creation, maybe he could create it by combining two already existing spells.

Now, ordinarily, this is not a new idea in this world. Spell combinations can create something even better than each spell that has been combined but they are usually achieved by a Mage who has advanced in Circle and wishes to elevate their now possibly obsolete spells up to their level of enlightenment.

Anyway, Caius began his attempts.

It took him three tries.

Well, actually, he got it on his first try.

Being Wind and Fire Element spells as well as being already completed spells, both ~Wispy Feet~ and ~Hellsong Dash~ came together quite well, showing incredible compatibility.

The reason Caius tried again and again was because the result was barely better than ~Hellsong Dash~ and he felt he could do better.

Two more tries and he succeeded.

He now had a spell that granted a better speed boost than ~Hellsong Dash~ but was also very unstable since it was trying to go beyond the very well-structured ladder of Magic Circles. Caius believed he could do even better but he didn't have the time so this would have to do.

Meanwhile, standing off to the side, Arlette had gotten a bit more comfortable as the duel went on. She even smiled when she deduced that the Dart-shooting spell Caius cast had been created by him.

But the moment, Kerwin revealed the device and used it to unleash magical energy well beyond what she was capable of, and certainly not something Caius could contest with, she moved. But then stopped herself.

Standing aside as the duel went on, she had been bringing every part of the terms that had been agreed upon to mind and wondering if she could interfere without voiding the Vow. At first, it seemed possible since, unlike the Council Members, she hadn't been specifically mentioned to stay out of the Duel.

But then, the fact that it had been agreed on to be a Fair duel threw a wrench in that loophole. Suppressing Kerwin to the Third Circle might still be considered fair, but turning a one-on-one duel into a Two-on-one likely would not.

Just then, Kerwin pointed the device and the Magical energy struck out. Moving so fast that it had already hit the target before Arlette was done with her contemplation. Her eyes widened, not in fear, but in awe because she had seen what Caius did right before Kerwin perfected his aim.

Caius stomped his feet against the ground so the two spell circles of ~Hellsong Stomp~ could send him dashing hard to the side much faster than Kerwin's eyes could follow. By the time the Coven Leader had taken aim, he was already gone.

As Caius was moved by the spell, the environment blurred completely in his sight. It felt like the spell was ferrying him somewhere rather than him being boosted. And without control, he slammed into the edge of the desk so hard that he was sure he'd cracked a few ribs.

*Bam!*

"Ngh!" He groaned as he went over the surface of the desk and hit the ground hard.

This was the result of the ~Hellsong Stomp~ spell's instability; When he cast it, Caius was robbed of control that one should have when using a movement spell to be able to properly maneuver about their environment.

All Caius could do was pick a direction and let the spell send him moving in that direction.

Unstable as the spell was though, it did as Caius had hoped it would; It moved him faster than Kerwin's eyes and Third Circle senses could follow.

Kerwin was sure the Magical energy from the device had struck Caius. When it blasted the section of the desk right in front of him to bits, he even thought, for a moment, that the chunks contained pieces of Caius's destroyed body.

And then he heard Caius groan and rise from the ground.

Confused, Kerwin pointed the Device once again and let the Magical energy charge out.

Again, Caius picked a direction and stomped his feet against the ground so his unstable movement spell could send him in that direction and out of the path of the powerful wave of Magical energy as it blasted yet another section of the U-shaped desk to pieces.

Caius felt himself land on the thighs of someone. When his environment came back into focus, he looked up the face of the one who had caught him. It was the female Vampire he had told to keep quiet earlier.

She looked surprised. And then she looked pissed. And then she looked surprised again. She really wanted to heave him off of her body but she didn't. It wasn't even his Noble Aura that stopped her. It was his face. There was something so disarming about his face. She hadn't really paid it all that much attention until now.

Kerwin pointed the device again and Caius knew it was time to go.

He flashed the Vampire woman a smile and then touched his feet to the ground for the necessary 'stomp' to activate the movement spell and send him moving again, right as the wave of powerful magical energy came flying at where he had been a second ago.

The Vampire Coven Councilwoman's eyes widened. She hurried to cast her strongest defensive spell. The Magical energy broke through it and she was slammed in the stomach and struck so hard into the wall behind her that she cracked it before sliding to the ground, still alive but looking comatose.

"NO!" Kerwin yelled, already looking away from what he had done so he could find Caius again and point the device at him for a Third try.

Caius' escape path now involved running through the seated Council members and so, every instance of him avoiding the blast of Magical energy got them targeted instead. Unlike the female Vampire who had gotten too enamored by Caius's face and got caught off guard, the other Council members managed to dodge the Magical blast.

If Caius could do it, so could they.

"STOP MOVING!!!" Kerwin yelled in frustration but his yell hardly made a difference. It certainly didn't convince Caius to stand in place and get blasted to bits.

And it certainly didn't stop the Device from finally running out of Magical energy.

With his head spinning at his directionless dashes that had inflicted him with an intense case of nausea he was trying very hard to keep down, Caius managed a smile as the stream of Magical energy output from the device finally sputtered to a finish.

This was it.

He had waited for this.

Caius finally stood in place, stopped his cast of ~Hellsong Stomp~, and transitioned into a different spell cast. Into the cast of the first spell he ever created and truly, his trump card for this fight.

~Black Hand~

Kerwin's forehead broke out into cold sweats. For one, that otherworldly energy from earlier was back and bearing down on him.

For another, out of the gigantic spell circle that was now above his head, darkness billowed out in smoke and then took the form of a massive hand carrying an intensely tyrannical energy that locked him down and forced him to remain in place so it could descend upon him.

Caius could have cast this at any moment. But he had held himself back knowing there was still a powerful card that Kerwin Leopold could play to turn things in his favor.

As he watched the Black hand descend, Kerwin realized as well. It felt so foolish in hindsight to have spent that precious Tenth Circle Magical energy on getting rid of magical darts and chasing Caius down.

But then again, how could he have known Caius was capable of outrunning his senses and thus render a continuous stream of Magical energy, useless?

How could he have known Caius still had this Black Hand card to play?

Kerwin gritted his teeth. He had been played. From the start, he was the underdog.

Leader of a massive coven, with an actual strength of the Tenth Circle and he had been turned into an underdog because of a bunch of bullshit this young, strange bastard had planned ahead of time.

'FUCK!'

Kerwin refused to give up. The parasitic effect of the Darts had robbed him of much of his Mana but he still had some left. He put all that into a defensive spell that created a water canopy above his head right before the Black hand finally hit him with all its tyrannical, knee-buckling might.