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-Within the Sealing Cube-

Belron was within five feet of Aurelius. It had its arms spread, its claws glinting with malice and its mouth open wide to show off teeth that now appeared to be taking on fang-like appearances while its black tongue wagged out of its mouth in excitement.

It was just getting within reach to draw its claws through Aurelius when tendrils made of shadow wrapped around its limbs and stalled its approach.

"What in the Hells…?" Belron asked and flexed against the shadow tendrils. It was able to move another foot despite them, but then it stalled again.

This time, Belron didn't try to pull against the tendrils. It instead directed its swirling black eyes down at the source of the attack.

Caius spat and a vial hit the ground, its contents downed.

"Get back here, you son of a bitch," he said in a hoarse voice.

Caius's mouth was dyed in the red of his blood. Despite the Vampiric Mending Potion he had drunk, the pain in his chest had only dulled a tiny bit. His sternum remained shattered and every action was causing pain to shoot through his body almost making him beg for death.

But Caius gritted his teeth against the pain. It may have helped that he had mentally prepared for this situation in the weeks leading up to the Mid-Semester Tests, since he knew the Protective Vests would be useless against attacks made with Demonic Energy. After all, the Vests hadn't helped in the original story.

Still, it was more pain than Caius had ever felt in both his lives. Whatever he had been prepared for, this was way worse. And it was from a single attack!

What hope did he have for survival if he suffered more?

The thing was though, the pain, while terrible and very debilitating, fed a part of him he had been trying his hardest to hold back for so long.

He could feel it bubbling to the surface already. And he was far too stressed to put any real bit of energy into resisting it.

Belron flexed against the Shadow Tendrils again and Caius reached for the very recess of the power he had acquired from the Umbral Fox, going beyond what he should have been able to acquire.

This was what was allowing him to keep Belron in place. But on the other hand, the increased level of exertion and draw from the Umbral Fox's power also meant the energy was getting used up faster.

Drinking two vials of the Potion should have granted Caius thirty minutes of power-up. Alas, as things were, he'd be lucky if he had ten.

In desperation, he retrieved three more vials from his Storage ring and downed them all. They were the last of the Umbral Fox's Trait Acquisition Potions he had refined.

The Five themselves had been a testament to just how accomplished Caius had become in Blood Alchemy. But, of course, he hadn't been satisfied with the results and such a meagre resource. Alas, there was little he could do. He had limited blood to work with and was burning through ingredients so fast that he could just feel how much it was causing the 'Ophiuchus' to lament whenever they did accounting.

In any case, while Caius would have preferred to have more, the truth was that he had actually still thought the five would be enough. Belron's arrival instead of Tyron had ruined that expectation.

Caius let the power he received from those three vials flow through him but he didn't bother with a calm and uniform circulation. He just fed all that energy into using the shadow tendrils to pull Belron away from Aurelius.

If they wanted to survive this encounter, Aurelius was the key. And giving him time to gather Divine Energy was paramount.

The tactic of getting the ability to harness Divine Energy beaten out of Aurelius was not at all wise as Caius feared Belron wouldn't need more than a couple of attacks to kill an 'ordinary' Aurelius.

The proof was his shattered sternum from an attack he had suffered despite not really being Belron's target.

"Nghhhh… ARRRGGGHHHHH….!!!"

A groan of pain mixed with a cry of effort left Caius's mouth and throat as he was able to pull Belron even more. Increasing the distance between the Fiend and Aurelius to Ten Feet.

Belron dropped his surprised amusement now and raged against the pull, closing the distance with Aurelius by five feet in an instant.

And that was when Caius let it out.

He felt the nature that had been suppressed since he was turned bubbled to the surface and he didn't fight it.

His eyes turned Vampire Red. His fangs appeared and so did his claws. It was nothing really different from Caius's usual shift. The difference was in how Caius felt— In how he saw the world.

His vision was tinged with red and the only thing in his head was a desire and focus for violence. He became very aware of his thirst which had been made worse by his injury.

Caius felt his true might become available to him now that he was shifted. Even more, he felt his innate ferocity push him beyond that.

The downside being the continuous and overwhelming urge to forget everything that would govern a normal, rational mind and instead succumb to his most basal, Vampiric instincts.

Caius had never quite gotten the hang of controlling this Ferocity. Then again, he had only had one day of training at it. The weekends since that one day, his father had focused more on Martial techniques that could be used in front of people. And his Vampirism didn't favor into any of those.

After all, he was never supposed to shift before an audience. However, considering how hard Delia was staring at him right now and the fact that there were recording crystals taking in the scene from above, that ship might have sailed.

But of course, Caius couldn't be bothered.

His mind was stripped to such a basal level, he didn't have the luxury of worry or fear.

It emboldened him and also put him at risk. It made him reckless and foolish. Hence why his father had talked quite a bit about the importance of learning to control this impulse.

Well, too late for that now.

Still, while Caius hadn't learned to control his Vampiric Ferocity, he was still able to shut off all distractions. To ignore everything else his heightened senses were aware of and focus on one emotion;

Rage.

He gave that rage a singular focus; Belron.

Caius called to action every muscle he had trained himself to be aware of with the Von Helsing Regimen which caused veins to pop out across his arms and his legs even if they were all covered by his uniform.

Their effect was felt though.

Belron was pulled down the five feet it had gained and try as the Fiend did to resist the pull, it got pulled within five feet of the ground.

"Fine," Belron spat out, "You have my attention!"

The Fiend brought its hands together to create a strange seal that summoned what looked like a spell circle but was filled with Demonic scripts that unleashed pulses of Demonic energy, all aimed directly at Caius.

The Demonic energy took on the properties of fire as it touched Caius's body, burning through the protection of the Vest he had on to start burning said vest as well as the rest of Caius's clothes.

"Ack!" Caius let out in pain.

But with every Demonic pulse and the pain it brought with it, Caius's rage rose. The rage fed his Ferocity which in turn fed his strength that had now hiked well past the Fourth Circle.

If Caius was capable of rational thought, he would have wondered where this reservoir of extra strength was coming from. As he was right now though, he didn't question the strength. Just continued to pile it onto the strength of the Umbral Fox's trait to keep reeling Belron in.

Belron's Demonic spell circle glowed brighter and unleashed even stronger pulses. Pulses aimed not just at Caius but also at the shadow whose tendrils were wrapped around him. Alas, the more the Fiend tried, the more it found that unraveling the magic within the shadow didn't come so easily.

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