Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Pacify the Beast.

That had been the goal of the exercise.

That had always been the goal of every exercise in Study of Magical Beasts class but it was easier to follow when you're facing a creature you have no chance at beating with brute force anyway.

When you face something you can't kill deliberately or accidentally, you become very open to alternatives. That was the point of the exercise. It was the point of Lea putting the class against a Four Stat Beast;

To teach that the conventional approach is not always the best/only approach.

She had picked the Bullcroc particularly for a reason too. It was a nasty thing to face. Far better to face it at the Fourth Circle and with substantial backup than to face it with a squad of Third Circle students only weeks into their first year.

And the means to 'pacify' it were not so simple.

As a Four-Star Beast, the Bullcroc is very sturdy. Inside and outside. Yes, the inside lacks the scales of the outside but as proven by how the combined spell attack of the entire class had failed against the Beast's underside—which was 'fleshy' by the way—lacking scales does not make a Beast susceptible to attack.

Its insides would shrug off any Third Circle attack as well as its fleshy underside had.

The scales of the Bullcroc were not for defense against Third Circle Mages and their spells. They were meant for protection against Beasts of its fellow Four-Star Threat level as well as Fourth Circle Mages. Even against Fifth Circle Mages who would definitely break through the scales but they would have likely served up enough protection to allow the Beast to scurry off and live to fight another day.

In a hierarchical world such as this, a being is equally at the top of a food chain and essentially at the bottom of another. Simultaneously the most dangerous and the weakest. It all depends on the opponent. So every Beast/being, no matter how powerful must have survival instincts.

But we digress.

The point is, even if the Bullcroc sheds its scales, the class may still not have a chance at winning. That was the barrier between circles. That was the barrier between Threat Levels.

As such, sound isn't just so easily a gotcha for the Bullcroc.

Just yelling isn't going to cut it for irritating it which you shouldn't even want to do anyway. Just singing won't pacify it either.

You need a specific sort of singing.

There is magic in sound and only one who can harness that magic in sound can pacify a Bullcroc and sing the sort of melodies required to impact specific synapses in its brain and shut down all motor functions in its body.

Only Eloise could accomplish that task.

And the only reason Lea Gilligan even considered the Bullcroc—such a heavily defensive beast—for this exercise, was because Eloise was attending the class.

Her magic was their one way to pacify the Beast.

And that was what pissed Eloise off.

She realized the entire exercise had been set up with her at the center. With her as the key, and she hated that. She hated being the point of anything that had to do with combat or dangerous situations such as this. It only served to remind her all the more that she didn't want to be at Lochxen.

She hated it all more when Professor Gilligan was looking at her with such expectations— expectations that she had not quite met.

She had questions.

Why her?

Why choose her to be placed at the center of a setup?

The realization that she was not going to get that answer until the exercise was over only pissed Eloise off more until she let out her frustration…

"Fuck!"

… In a sonic-ripple-releasing high-pitched tone that caused the Bullcroc to shiver.

It whipped its head around and whipped its tail so fast that it smacked Delia in the chest right as she was in the middle of a spell cast, sending her flying to slam her back into a tree.

The Bullcrock waddled toward where Caius and Eloise were. And then it leaped, arriving at where they were even faster.

"Eloise, start singing," Caius said as he uncorked the vial in his hand.

He understood her outburst. He knew she had things she'd like to work through. But he also understood that she could tell that it would have to wait.

He was right.

Eloise's brows were furrowed but the fact that she would be doing something she loved helped satisfy some of the annoyance she was feeling.

But before she could even begin, the Beast was already upon them.

But then Aurelius was there.

There was a streak of light and he had put himself between the Bullcroc's snout and its target. He had a hand thrust forward and his best defensive spell, ~Mandala~, received the attack.

~Mandala~ held far better than ~Galleon's Gate~ had. The force behind the Bullcroc's attack caused Aurelius to take a few steps back, still standing on the foothold of ~Freya's Footsteps~ but ~Mandala~ wasn't broken yet.

And then a crack appeared to show its defensive integrity was getting compromised.

Aurelius's brows were furrowed and there was a serious glint in his blue eyes as he formed seals with his free hand and then cast a spell circle that created three larger spell circles that all fired lances of light like pillars.

The lances struck the Bullcroc's scales, unable to break through or put a scratch on it as had always been the case thus far, but this time, they caused the Beast to move.

As useless in attacking-pierce force as the lances were against a Four Star threat, they struck with enough pushing force to make the Bullcroc slide a couple of feet back.

Aurelius didn't follow. ~Mandala~ had reached its limit anyway so he canceled the spell before slamming his hands together.

"~Eich Notchue Lomea Zarrr~" He chanted in a droning voice.

He didn't form seals. They weren't needed. For this spell he had cast, he needed to speak the language that accompanied the Arcane Symbols in their Ancientness to do it.

A spell circle appeared high in the sky then and was so bright, it was as though an afternoon sun had managed to break past the cover the trees should have cast. And then the spell became a figure. It was the bust of an expressionless but quite endowed female whose hands were clasped as though in prayer.

~Freya's Benevolence~

"He got that already, huh?" Caius said to himself as he gazed at the spell above.

The ~Freya's Benevolence~ spell was yet another one of the many spells that Aurelius had created in his past life as the Goddess of Divine Light's right-hand man. It was—just like ~Mandala~—a spell that would always surpass whatever level Magical Might Aurelius was and was far from its true potential and glory.

The figure of the woman burst and light rays rained down, enveloping the Bullcroc in an outline of light before it was lifted off the ground.

One foot…

Two feet…

Four feet…

Six feet…

Ten feet…

When it settled at twelve feet in the air, the entire class watched as the Beast began to revolve. As it did, it let out cries of pain that caused every student to wince and even shook their hearts.

From what anyone could observe, the Beast's scales were not damaged. They were not scorched, melted, or pierced. And yet, it cried.

That was because the pain wasn't physical.

'Benevolence' in the name of the spell was somewhat ironic because its effect was a pain that can best be described as spiritual. Basically, the light of the Goddess of Divine Light cut past all physical defenses and aimed right at something deeper. Something that some might even call its soul.

The torture lasted a minute and then, when the light enveloping it was gone, the Beast came crashing down, landing on its head with a *Bang* and enough impact to cause the ground to tremble.