CHAPTER 138: OTHERWORLDLY

It’s all in the words used during the vow. It was why, despite the consequences of breaking Vows, many Vampires still accept as long as they feel the other party has not covered all their bases. So long as there are loopholes to exploit.

"You tricked me!" Kerwin snarled.

Caius rolled his eyes.

"My goodness, stop whining..." he said and struck out a fist, striking Kerwin in the face.

The council members had all seen the punch fly out and, had he retained his actual magical and physical capabilities. Kerwin would have seen it as well and avoided it easily. Alas, now at the Third Circle just like Caius, he could be blindsided.

*Bam!*

*Bang!*

Kerwin slammed his back into the wall behind him, letting out a groan of pain as he bowed over. His head snapped up a second later to glare at Caius whose fist was still raised but wasn’t looking at him.

Caius was looking at Arlette as he raised her hand and planted a gentle kiss on the back of it.

"How sure are you of winning?" Arlette asked and glanced at Kerwin before looking back at him.

She felt she knew better than anyone else how lacking he was with his magic. The fact that Kerwin was now restructuring the Third Circle might not make this a possibly easy win as one might be inclined to think.

"Do you not trust me?" Caius asked with a raised brow.

"It’s not about trust," Arlette said.

"It’ll be fine," Caius said and released her hand. Now that he had thrown the first blow, the duel had begun and she had to step aside.

Arlette opened her mouth and then bit her lower lip as she walked away, standing a few feet away from the large U-shaped desk. She felt the eyes of the Vampire Coven Council follow her as she moved. Now that she was no longer in contact with Caius’s body, they could conceive the thoughts of attacking her again but the vow that had been made bound them not to touch her. At least until after the duel was over.

Kerwin seethed that Caius had dared to have a conversation after striking at him and he thrust a hand forward to cast a spell but, try as he might, his brain could not comprehend the spell circle of the spell he wished to cast.

~Hellsong Dash~

A second after he released Arlette’s hand, a spell circle appeared around Caius’s ankles before fire blazed from his feet and boosted him forward so he could vault over the desk. He got about four feet in the air and came down at Kerwin from above.

Momentarily giving up on his attempts at casting an attacking spell, Kerwin sidestepped so Caius’s fist missed. The fist would have struck the wall but Caius stopped just in time like he had expected the evasion and spun around to smack the Coven Head with a vicious backhand.

So soon after a dodge, Kerwin couldn’t make another. He tried to cast a movement spell and once again found that he couldn’t. He soon realized the reason.

Every spell that came to mind, spells he had cast for centuries both as human and as Vampire, were well past the Third Circle. They were far beyond the quality of Mana his body was currently allowed so his spell cast failed. Any attempts to force the cast and he’d damage himself from within instead.

While he was facing this conundrum, Caius’s back fist struck his face.

*BAM!*

The sound was loud. The impact was just as powerful as Kerwin went spinning and when he stopped moving, he saw a spell circle in front of the hand Caius thrust out at his face.

~Fireball ~

A ball of flame blasted out.

Looking almost panicked, Kerwin finally brought a spell to mind and the moment he confirmed it was something he could cast, he thrust his hand out and erected a shield.

Caius barely even saw the element of the spell before his fireball was already breaking through it. The speed of the fireball was reduced though and Kerwin used the time his barely effective spell circle had bought him, to lean to the side and avoid the flames.

But then, right as the fire blazed past the side of his face, Caius’s leg was swinging at him. A bright red spell circle was around Caius’s ankle as fire blazed from his feet.

He had cast ~Hellsong Dash~ just to grant his leg a boost in speed and power.

*BAM!*

It was the most impactful strike yet as Kerwin’s head was turned hard to the side and spittle mixed with his blood spewed from his mouth. He was knocked for his feet and soared so far that he flew over the surface of the U-shaped desk and landed in the large space between it.

The Council members all winced and some even twitched like they were on the verge of moving and acting to assist their creator. But bound by the vow, they could do nothing but watch.

While in the air, Kerwin realized his fall would get him on his back, causing him to lose the duel in probably the most pathetic way possible so he adjusted himself so he landed on one knee instead.

He stayed as he was. Taking a breather that dangerously left him open to Caius’s attack but he needed to think. And he was so incredibly annoyed that he found that difficult.

You see, with every Circle gained, the mind of a Mage/Mage-Knight becomes more refined. Better reflexes. Better instincts. And getting restricted to the Third Circle had robbed Kerwin of all that refinement he had spent centuries getting used to. Causing a lag in his thinking faculties and leading to his sluggishness and how much he was getting smacked around.

It turned out that getting restricted to the Third Circle had done even more damage than he had expected and he had expected quite a bit of bullshit.

But he knew he had to snap out of it.

Restricted or not, he had centuries upon centuries of experience. His reflexes and instincts might not be as they once were, but he should still have the upper hand here.

Still though, how long had it been since he was at the Third Circle? It was so long ago that the memory of all he had done and all the spells of that time were foggy.

Mages have impeccable memory. Vampires, even more so. But it’s hard to recollect all that when you’ve always been about looking ahead.

All his life, Kerwin had been about looking forward. Every circle he broke through, he was ready to leave far behind. The third Circle was after all, a long way from his ultimate goal of the Twelfth Circle. A goal he had yet to achieve in centuries of Vampiric immortality.

But we digress.

For a moment, Kerwin’s ears heard nothing but the rushing of blood in his own head. He completely shut himself off from anything that could distract him. And that included an attack coming at him from above by Caius who had used ~Hellsong Dash~ to get high up in the air again.

’Alright then,’ Kerwin told himself.

He finally had it. He disliked having to dip back into that time of his life but it came back to him as naturally as anything. He finally adjusted to his current Magical and Physical levels.

He raised his head and a spell circle appeared. A circular shield made of water absorbed Caius’s attack and rather than burst into nothing, it changed shape. Becoming a tendril that wrapped around Caius’s arm to pull him close so Kerwin could deliver a clothesline to his jaw.

*Bam!*

The attack knocked Caius back, causing him to wince in pain, but he was ready and used the force to turn his fall into a somersault, landing on his feet. The tendril of water was no longer holding his arm so Caius struck two quick-fire punches at Kerwin’s chest.

Kerwin tried to deflect both blows but found himself unable to.

Against Caius who was calling his muscles to action with the Von-Helsing Regimen, Kerwin could hardly compete.

*Bam!* *Bam!*

Those failed deflections made Kerwin realize distance was his ally so he accepted the very painful strikes. Sliding many feet back but maintaining his standing so he could do what he was actually best at; Cast spells.

But just then, he saw Caius cast seals and a spell circle appeared. It was clearly a Third Circle spell but the energy oozing from it was strange.

It didn’t particularly feel extra powerful.

It just felt Otherworldly.