Cayden saw the calm expression in Arianna’s face and he frowned, after having attended classes with her for one year he already had a profile of her in his mind, unlike what one might believe, the tower-like guy from the werebear race wasn’t a musclehead.
That’s why he got the family to support him, unlike his peers who only worried about strength, Cayden knew that information and strategy was also important.
So, he has been feigning to be a muscle head for about one year waiting for the moment when something worth of blowing up his cover appears.
And now with the exploration at the doorstep it was do or die, but then just when he believed to have understood his classmates perfectly, Arianna which used to occupy the third rank in the class without showing any sings of wanting to fight for higher ranks, suddenly challenged the second ranked in private and by the words of it, she won.
Unlike first years, second years weren’t given that “period grace” for the ranks to remain the same, so as soon as the year started, they could challenge each other, the only difference was that after challenging one person regardless of the result the same two couldn’t fight with each other for the next month.
The reason of it was that from the second year and above the academy proportioned a certain benefit which varied depending on the rank of the student, the opportunity came once a month so only after that the same two students could fight again.
Cayden inwardly shook his head, now there was no use in thinking about it, the referees gave the green light and their match started, since personal belongings weren’t allowed for the match none of them had a spell stored beforehand.
Arianna remembered the first lesson Aura taught her, “In a fight of between two people with similar strength, the one moves first will have the advantage”.
A white ring in her right index finger glowed before a halberd appeared in her hand, of course Cayden didn’t take too long to react, a similar ring in his left hand also glowed and his weapon was drawn out, a large club with a spiked metal head.
“Booom!”, his body instinctively reacted as he put the club in front of his chest, the beak of Arianna’s halberd clashed against the club creating currents of air due to the impact, but that wasn’t all, the crowd suddenly went crazy by what was happening.
“N-No way she actually pushed that bear guy one step backwards!”.
That’s right, Arianna’s comparatively smaller body which seemed to focus more in agility, actually produced enough strength to push back the tower-like Cayden one step backwards, making everyone think their eyes were deceiving them.
Why do you ask, the reason is quite simple, Cayden Arkuoda is a… five star ranked knight, and a mage which can overpower a knight even if the latter isn’t using battle aura, it’s not as common as Daimon makes it look like.
Needless to say, but Cayden was having trouble to believe what was happening right now.
“Her element isn’t even focused in strength!!”, he shouted in his heart before a wave of dark brown battle aura exploded around his body.
“Haaaa!!!”, Cayden shouted, he took a step back and then swept his club smashing it against the position where Arianna was standing.
“Booom!”, the platform was reinforced to not immediately fall apart from anything below the lord realms, but even then, the club managed to break some small pieces of it while also raising a large curtain of dust.
Since having his vision blocked with an enemy which surpasses him in agility is dangerous, Cayden swept his club again creating a strong current of wind which dispersed the dust, revealing Arianna’s perfectly tidied appearance, not even her clothes had the slightest scratch.
All the spectators including the Arch ranks and even most of the half emperors were confused about what was happening, the only exceptions were the field marshal which was seated in the skybox reserved for the army, Aura who was the one that trained Arianna and the proud owner of an eye spell, and lastly a black-haired youth in the skybox of the first year’s elite class.
“This day has been full of surprises”, thought Daimon, the spectators weren’t allowed to use mana sense on the participant since that could distract them causing an accidental lose, that’s why the watchtower screens were specially prepared and had such a strong impact, cause now everyone could enjoy a more detailed “show”.
But with his infinity eyes he could see and more or less understand what was Arianna doing, the reason as to why boosting spells have an external phenomenon is because the body of living beings is naturally weak on the inside.
So, what mages do is clad themselves in their respective elements, for example Daimon and Aisha who use the star ranked spell “lightning light armor”, to cover their bodies in lightnings to increase their speed and add elemental damage to their attacks.
Knights are a bit different; battle aura uses a different set of mana circuits which allows it to circulate not only in them but even impregnate their skins with it, creating a “virtual armor” which protects them from attacks which had physical repercussions.
If a mage tries to receive a fireball with his body covered in mana, the elemental damage will be negated, but the impact on the other hand will still affect it.
Knights on the other hand are the other way around, their hardened exteriors will dissipate the impact, but the elemental damage will still affect them, so both use different type of equipment, mages protect themselves against physical damage and knights do it against elemental damage, that’s why they are both the weakness of each other.
But what Daimon was seeing right now was boosting spell which worked differently, he couldn’t help but steal a gaze at Aura.
“I could sue you for imitating my core synchrony you know?”, he said through the mental connection.
Aura inwardly giggled before answering.
“I would call it “inspiration” instead of imitation though, the source of the power isn’t the same, she is just mimicking a couple of the effects”.
Core synchrony isn’t an “Irregular skill” for nothing, the reinforce of the insides is only done naturally as the mage or knight advances, but Daimon managed to do it “artificially”, every time he activated core synchrony his body forcefully became the one of a higher ranked mage.
Of course, that power wasn’t his, but the progress he made while using it stayed with him, Aura made him train in in core synchrony state which had an effect in his normal state, all that tension he forced his body to endure was what helped him to lit up his life spark.
In a mere five years he reached the five-star knight realm, something that normally takes about fifteen years, you can imagine the amount of tension his body has gone through.
And now, apparently Aura recreated a similar effect combining two different things which had something in common, Aura knows more about the strengths and weaknesses of the different races than anyone from a battle aspect at least.
A werewolf’s most outstanding trait isn’t the claws, as the Jolbaris outclass them in that aspect, but in terms of vitality they stand at the top of all the beast races rivaling with the vampires which are known for their obsession with immortality.
Since Aura met Daimon, she knew they would not stay in the wonder myriad stellar chart for too long, and as the matriarch she had the duty to help the clan survive even after she leaves, so she created a new spell based not in what she has learned from Daimon and her own experience.
After that she just needed someone to teach it to, all the candidates were given instructions to prepare them in case they were selected, without knowing about it, courtesy of Erin of course.
Then a week ago Aura finally decided who was going to be the one that will learn it first, Arianna left a very good impression, after she tried to take the blame from Daimon’s actions, which combined with her affinity which was what discarded most of the candidates gave her the win.
Just like Daimon, Aisha and Aura if it wasn’t for her variant element, Arianna had lighting affinity, a surprisingly high vitality and she wasn’t a knight, a rarity among werewolves, she perfectly fitted to learn Aura’s original boosting spell
Ariana saw Cayden trying to hide his panic and she smirked, but inwardly she swore.
“Damn, master Aura is really a sadist, my muscles are killing me”, she yelled in her heart as she thought, “Bio Booster ten percent!”.
In Daimon’s the currents of electricity that were running through Arianna’s arms and legs increased, then not only inside, even her skin was clad in lightning, she stamped her left foot on the ground making it crack before she pounced towards Cayden.
“Boooooom!!!”, Arianna’s body was suddenly shot like a bullet, by the moment Cayden reacted, the only thing he could do was use the metal head of the club to block.
“Crash!!!”, when the beck of the halberd clashed against the club the sound of metals colliding made the lower ranked spectators go deaf for a couple of seconds, before both weapons exploded due to the impact.
Then a figure flew backwards for about two hundred meters, leaving behind two traces on the platform as it broke the surface of it.
“WOAHHH!!!”, the crowd went crazy, while Arianna was standing still in the same spot where the fight started, Cayden only managed to stop about five meters before falling from the platform, there was blood coming from his shoes as if he used even his toes to reduce the impact.
Daimon was frowning, as someone who has gone through the hellish training schedules created by Aura, he was sure that she has been paying some attention to Ariana for at least a couple of years, probably sending her some advices through her father the supreme elder of the Argent family whose expression was worth seeing right now.
From the corner of his eyes Daimon saw the tall bulky man which was shirtless with the exception of a chest plate that covered the area where the lungs and heart are positioned, suddenly stood up from his seat and thunderously laughed.
“HAHAHA, show them the strength of the Argent family!!!”.
Ulises Argent was truly happy, before Daimon appeared, the younger generation of both the Revy and Argent families was considered to be below the Jolbaris one, but now his daughter was showing them that besides the young master there were other outstanding people.
