Aurelius's spell circle spawned.

A third circle spell.

As much as the energy from the Beast unsettled him, Aurelius remained convinced of the knowledge he had of the Clacking Centipede and the fact that it was a Three-Star beast on the danger scale. A Third circle spell, the very strongest of that level in his arsenal, should do the trick.

Or so Aurelius thought.

As the light from his spell circle flashed and sent dazzling rays in all directions, it unleashed a powerful attack that descended swiftly, like an imposing beam. It struck the beast and what should have easily cut through its exoskeleton exterior was shrugged off by the Aura around the beast.

The aura was making more of an appearance now. It didn't just form the horns on the Beast's head, it also formed a layer around its body to defend against Aurelius' spell and further incoming ones.

Aurelius's blue eyes went wide as the uneasy feeling that had gripped him since he instinctively led his team here, grew even more unsettling.

And then the Beast raised its head and roared, shooting a beam of its own. A beam of that Hellish Aura.

Aurelius took that seriously, thrusting his hand forward to cast his best defensive spell.

Following the enlightenment he gained thanks to Caius's help, ~Mandala~ had gotten even stronger as Aurelius had received yet another piece of power from that strange source he never truly fully understood.

And sure enough, ~Mandala~ resisted the beam. It resisted so well that there was hardly any force to push Aurelius farther back than a single step where another foothold of ~Freya's Footsteps~ awaited.

As its beam was resisted, the beast let out a mighty roar. Its pincers were apart as though to give more room for its disgusting mouth to spew out spittle.

The roar was loud but its effect was more than sound. Caius felt something within him react. Something within his blood; His Divine Seed.

Whatever energy had been imbued into the Centipede was rousing the sliver of divinity within him to respond. But not to respond and fight but rather to respond and flee. This—the energy in that beast—was well past the station of Caius's Divine energy.

He looked over at Delia and she doubled over.

She had felt it too.

She finally had an answer for why she had uncharacteristically thought about running earlier even though she normally would face the challenge head-on; The piece of divinity within the Arcane Circle Caius had granted her was reacting to the energy that corrupted this beast.

She still didn't know what the energy was, but she could feel that it was a nemesis of the little bit of Divine Energy she had cultivated within herself in the past week or so.

"You know, I never asked," Caius said with a slight smile, "How well did 'it' work out for you?"

'It' of course referred to the Arcane Circle and its ability to improve the speed of enlightenment by up to ten times.

Delia managed a smile of her own. Shaking off that fear.

"Splendidly," she answered, her battle-eager face looked so beautiful as her bronze skin glimmered ever so slightly in the bit of sunlight that got past the shade of trees above.

"Good," Caius said, "Use it. Use it all."

With that, Delia tightened her grip on her Warhammer and a spell circle appeared behind her back. It was a stormy grey and crackled with lightning. It was also a Fourth Circle Augmentation spell.

Delia Kragsten's magical prowess had advanced.

Imbued with the might granted to her by the spell circle behind her to boost her speed and ferocity, she moved, vanishing from sight due to her incredible speed.

The Beast had fired another beam at Aurelius who resisted with ~Mandala~ that still hadn't been broken through but was starting to cause him strain.

And then, the Centipede became aware of something. It shut off the beam and swiveled its head sideways only for Delia to appear on the other side, already swinging her Warhammer to strike it in the head.

*BANG!*

The sound of impact was intense.

Delia's strike was imbued with the might of a storm, and there was the loud sound of a crackling of lightning as electricity charged into the layer of hellish aura around the Beast, breaking past and making sure the attack connected. As Aurelius's attack hadn't.

*SKREEEEEE!!!*

Shrieking in pain, the Beast's head was knocked aside but before it hit the ground. It was clacking its pincers together and twisting its body in an almost serpentine manner of fluidity. Whatever attack it planned to make though, it never got to make as Delia stayed in the air and swung the Warhammer a second time for a strike even more impactful than the first.

*BANG!*

At the same time, a Fourth Circle spell circle appeared above the Centipede's head. It was the deep purple of Dark magic, and it unleashed a wave of overwhelming might that demanded submission. All of that energy was directed at the Centipede but Delia was still struck by an otherworldliness to the spell. As was Aurelius who had now canceled his ~Mandala~ spell but remained on his footholds of light.

Following the overwhelming feeling that had borne down on the Clacking Centipede, smoke billowed out of the spell circle above and it took the shape of a clawed hand that reached down and wrapped around the Centipede's head to better keep its grip as it struck it to the ground, so hard that the ground shook ever so slightly.

~Dark Grip~

As he controlled the spell circle he had conjured which had spawned the larger one that unleashed the smoky hand, Caius brought the name of the spell to mind. ~Dark Grip~ was the next evolution of his Third Circle ~Black Hand~ spell. The upgrade kept all the aspects of what came before but now possessed the added capability to grip as well as packed a substantially greater punch.

The said 'punch' had stripped a good section of the Beast's Aura which meant it was more susceptible to attacks.

Aurelius acted first and cast a spell circle. This time he opted for a Fourth Circle spell that spawned into appearance with a more subtle glow than the third circle attacking spell he had cast earlier. But the energy that came off it however, identified the spell as the powerhouse that it was.

~Seraphim Blade~

A sword blade with no handle or hilt, composed entirely of light was sent out by an energetic throw of Aurelius's hand and the blade went flying at the Beast.

It connected. Without the protection of the Hellish Aura, there was no real obstruction and the blade dug so deep that it exited the other end and stabbed into the ground beneath the Centipede.

It shrieked. And clacked its pincers together in agitation.

Caius groaned. He let his sword drop from his hand so it stabbed into the soft grassy ground just so he could use both his hands to control the spell circle that made sure the Beast didn't break free of the hold of the smoky hand of ~Dark Grip~.

"Delia, now!" he called to the Storm Mage who watched the Centipede's tail trash all about as it tried to break free and tear out the blade that had cut through its insides. One section of its insides anyway.

Delia said nothing. She just acted, raising her weapon to bring it down, fast as lightning into the Beast and finish the job.

Alas, before her attack could hit, and despite the incredible speed that backed it, the Beast trashed even harder, shrieked even louder. Clacked its pincers even harder together. The horns of hellish Aura on its head swelled and the Aura on parts of its body that the landing force of ~Dark Grip~ hadn't stripped away, bubbled until the Beast's body was completely coated again.

"Ah!" Caius cried. For some reason, the Aura took hold of his connection with the smoky hand to send him a feedback. A painful feedback.

It caused Caius's connection to slip and the Dark hand of his spell dissipated. The centipede slammed its head against the ground then and in the fraction of a fraction of a second, it had dug itself a hole and crawled to get off the surface.

*THUD!*

The large head Warhammer's head hit the ground, creating a small crater as Delia scrunched up her face.

"It got away," she said.

Instantly, Caius grabbed his sword out of the ground and he let his instincts and danger-assessment ability as a True Vampire take over, spinning around to swing his sword just in time to strike against a pair of pincers that had just been about to bite terrible life-taking holes in him.

'Affinity with Earth,' Caius noted about the Beast with a frown.

He didn't need to remember Lea's teachings to know how to access a Beast's element affinity after seeing said beast burrow in/out of the ground two times already.

As his sword held the Beast's pincers at bay, Caius called his muscles to action, trying to avoid getting pushed back. But then he looked into the black eyes of the Beast and down at its mouth and knew what was coming.

Even though it might cost him, Caius took a few fingers off his sword handle and created seals. He infused Mana into the seals just in time to defend against the beam that was fired out of its mouth.

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