•••

"This is so boring, FUUUUUCCCKKK!!!" Delia throws her head back and yells at the sky.

Aurelius, who was squatting nearby, feeding a nut to what looked like a chipmunk with distinct cyan blue tints in his fur, looked up at her with intrigue.

"It is?" Caius asked with a slight smile, "You haven't mentioned it in the past five seconds…"

Delia glares at him.

"You know, when I agreed to come along and join your team…"

"You didn't have a choice, lacking friends as you do," Caius chimed in quietly still with a smile.

"… I thought it'd be fun," Delia completed.

"And I told you to have patience," Caius said and his smile slipped slightly, "You'll be glad you've kept your strength."

"What for?" Delia asked, throwing her hands up, "Everyone else is already gaining duel points."

"Would you really find satisfaction in dueling our classmates?" Caius asked.

Delia opened her mouth but then shut it. As bored as she was now, she did feel it wouldn't be all that much better if she were to fight against other First Years. As it turned out, the two in the class she was most confident she'd enjoy battling were right here with her, on her team.

'Thank you for that,' she thought at Caius, throwing him another glare.

He just shook his head and looked over at Aurelius as the blue-tinted, furred chipmunk leaped off his hands and hopped away.

"Where next?" Caius asked.

Aurelius stood up and furrowed his brow.

They had been to about six habitats so far. Aurelius, as their guide and surprisingly (to Delia) very attuned with Forest navigation had ensured they only ever arrived at the domed habitats of docile beasts. The kinds that required gentle handling and no combat acumen at all.

To put this into perspective, the most confrontational set of beasts they had stumbled upon so far were Wind-Puffing Rabbits and it was because the fluffy things had a penchant for blasting them with wind. Besides that, it had been smooth sailing. So long as they were gentle in their Beast handling.

Which naturally meant Delia struggled the most. She was already not the soft and cuddly kind, but her agitation for more excitement made her short of patience.

Still, their team had never spent too long with the Beasts. And they always earned the near maximum amounts of points they could before moving on.

Funny thing was, as well as they were doing, Caius had a feeling their team was being overlooked because of the lack of excitement. Even by their Professor, Lea Gilligan. He was fine with that though. The point here was not to put on a show.

"Well?" Delia asked after Aurelius said and did nothing but furrow his brow for a couple of minutes.

"Give him time," Caius said and touched Delia's elbow gently.

Another minute passed and Aurelius pivoted, directing his attention in a direction and walking on.

"This way," he said absentmindedly.

"Let's go," Caius said and urged Delia to follow along.

"Ugh," Delia groaned, not appeased with more promise of more docile beasts but she moved.

Caius focused on Aurelius.

He could tell it was close.

After about ten minutes of brisk walking, during which Aurelius had steered them away from running into other First years and other Beast Habitats, they arrived at a netted Dome.

There was nothing in there besides what looked like a freshly dug hole.

"Something's wrong," Aurelius said then.

Delia looked confused,

"What?" She asked.

"I-I'm not sure," Aurelius said.

"What do you mean 'you're not sure'?" Delia asked, "You led us here!"

"Something's coming," Aurelius said.

Delia looked to the side at Caius and he had a sword in his hand and looked to the side at her, his expression halfway between serious and teasing.

"You wanted action?" He said, "Well, here it is."

They heard the sound then. It was like shrieking, occasionally mixed with clacking sounds that Delia was not sure she understood. Still, her heart beat a bit faster as excitement coursed through her, hard.

And then she was confused.

"Shouldn't we be inside the Dome?" She asked.

"It's better we're here," Caius said.

'Though it likely won't matter,' he added in his mind.

And then something broke through the freshly dug hole with a loud *bang* and rose high up to nine feet, causing all three First-Years to raise their head so they could see its head.

It looked like a centipede. Only, of course, a thousand times larger. The clacking sound came from pincers that came out of the corners of what appeared to be its mouth. But there was something more. A strange Aura surrounded its gigantic form. An aura that was not quite caused by Mana. At least not normal mana.

"Three Star Beast, Clacking Centipede," Aurelius said.

Yes, as ridiculous as it might seem, that gigantic centipede was indeed just a Three-Star Beast. At least normally. It pushes the barrier a bit but its hide and even its shell are susceptible to Third Circle magic and strength. It wasn't like the Bullcrock even if it looked to be bigger than that Beast.

It wasn't size or even ferociousness that determined the Danger Stars of Beasts awarded by the Adventurer's Guild, but rather the strength and magic required to fell it.

This was probably put here to act like a daunting challenge still well in hand for any of the First-Years. But things are not so simple in this case.

"Something feels off from that thing," Aurelius said in trepidation.

And then the Clacking Centipede pulled its head back and struck forward, slamming its pincers against the netted dome. Ordinarily, the dome should repel the Beast as it's meant to contain them but it secretes a strange energy through its pincers and they infect the dome, burning it away and creating space for it to crawl out.

"How did it do that?!" Delia asked with wide eyes, "This can't be part of the Test!"

As much of a combat nut as she was, she had the good sense to realize when something was against the norm, and this—a Beast breaking through the containment region—was certainly against the norm.

"We have to get the hell out of here?" She said.

'Hell,' Caius thought with a wry smile, 'Interesting choice of words.'

"I can't," Aurelius said like he was rooted to the spot.

And he was.

His very being was telling him to stand his ground and face the beast.

"I'm with you," Caius said, his sword held at his side.

Delia looked at him like he was nuts and Caius, feeling her gaze on him, looked to the side at her and smiled but it wasn't teasing. It didn't even have all that much jest in it. It was a gentle call to action.

Delia looked at him a while longer and then shook her head.

'I'm pathetic,' she thought, 'I wanted combat, it's here, and I want to fucking run? Hell No!'

Had they had the time, Delia might have wondered where the feeling of fear even came from. Never had she turned away from a challenge. Hell, she fought the Bullcrock even though her punches were useless against it.

There was no way she would normally try to run from this without at least trying. It was out of character but now was not the time to dwell on that.

So she held her hand out and summoned the Warhammer Caius had gifted her a couple of weeks ago and held it at the ready.

The centipede had been stalking them. It dropped its head and the strange aura that had been emanating from its form became more visible as a hellish sort of red. It also formed three horns on the centipede's head.

The base of each horn was as thick as each of Caius's arms and considering how muscular he had gotten since he became a True Vampire, that was saying something.

The centipede charged now, its eyes entirely on Aurelius who had his hands ready with a defensive spell ready to cast.

"Attack it!" Caius yelled out.

For some reason, Aurelius didn't think. He just listened, changing his spell cast from defensive to attacking.

At the same time, a purple spell circle appeared between Aurelius and the Centipede. Aurelius saw the circles within the spell circle and knew immediately that it was a Fourth Circle spell even without being smacked in the face by the energy coming off it.

The energy was aimed mostly at the Centipede though as the spell circle summoned what looked like part of the hull of a ship. Interlaid with the wooden-looking structure was a smoky thing that looked like the maw of a demon, complete with fangs.

The demonic maw was open wide intent to devour and as the centipede slammed into it with a *Bang*, its attack intercepted, chains rattled, and struck out to wrap around the Beast's head, holding it right where it was until every impact and might behind its attack was sucked up into the ever-hungry gullet behind the demonic maw.

The spell was Caius's Fourth Circle upgrade of Arlette's ~Galleon's Gate~ spell with chains added for extra security.

Aurelius realized Caius had told him to attack because he(Caius) already had defense covered. Aurelius was already on the move, rising in the air on his ~Freya's Footsteps~ spell so he could cast his large attacking spell from above and hopefully obliterate the enemy in a single move.

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