A while later, Mr. Marcus came to Caecus, who just rested and waited for the shock from the last fight to go away.
All of his soul essence had returned to full reserves during the time he rested, and due to the healing, he didn't really have anything physically impeding him. It was just the confusion of the stabbing that left him a little damaged psychologically.
'I need to watch out more from now on… but why would Magnus try to cripple me? I mean, I already won, it wouldn't change anything. And he was already acting weird when we met.'
'Things aren't adding up.'
"We watched your fight, and decided that your combat proficiency is a little too high for here. You just got ranked 815 due to your physical weakness, which gets masked by your soul control and density anyway," Mr. Marcus explained when he arrived.
"Really? Which rank should I fight next?"
"Since it's a bit unfair to put you in a new building immediately, you'll be fighting Rank 501 next. If you win, you'll be allowed to duel people below Rank 500."
"Oh… okay."
'I mean, it does make sense. I was tenth and second place for the other two exams, so being placed at Rank 815 is only due to my physical rank.'
The instructor led him into a new room, and inside, there was a boy waiting for him.
He was way taller than Caecus, standing at around one hundred ninety-two centimeters.
'What am I supposed to do, this guy weighs at least one hundred kilos, and he's lean!'
He shook Caecus' hand and introduced himself.
"Hello, I am Luno Noctis. I'll be your opponent for this duel."
"Caecus Caelum, I hope this'll be a good fight… haha." The blind boy was as awkward as ever.
"Alright, I'll leave the room for now. I'll be watching this fight in case anything happens again though, just so you're reassured, 815," Mr. Marcus said, closing the door to the duel room.
Luno looked confused and stared at the door.
"What did he mean by that?"
"Ah… haha, some things happened during my last duel, don't worry about it."
Suddenly, the Noctis member looked at him far more warily.
After a little time, both their weapons were raised, and Caecus grabbed his daggers.
'Why is everyone here a sword fighter?!'
And just like his opponent before, Luno grabbed a broadsword.
They both got into fighting positions, and Luno started circulating his soul essence.
'A quarter of my soul density. Probably got a high ranking due to his physical exam score,' Caecus noted in his mind.
The countdown started, and Caecus decided not to hold back as much as he did before.
'Fifteen percent should be my max.'
When the fight started, the tall boy immediately dashed forward and began pressuring Caecus.
'They all have the same strategy. Just because I'm not as physically capable, they start pressuring me…'
With ease, Caecus dodged his strikes.
'He's way more grounded and faster than Magnus, but he uses less soul essence, which makes him around the same level. It seems like Magnus really had it out for me for some reason.'
Using his opponent's height to his advantage, Caecus infused soul essence into his body and augmented his daggers.
He dashed forward as well, dodging a horizontal slash from his opponent, whose eyes widened when he saw Caecus' soul density.
'Why are they all reacting the same?!'
Using his knee to try and hit Caecus' head, with ten percent of his soul essence assimilated into that strike, Luno tried moving backward and putting distance between them.
'He's panicking after seeing my soul density.'
Amelia had taught Caecus one thing.
"You will be physically inferior to any of your foes due to your height and lack of training. So we'll be learning one thing. Redirecting strikes."
The essence of Caecus' combat style right now was using his small size and speed to turn the force of his opponents' strikes against them, just like how he did with Magnus.
Using the momentum from the knee, Caecus grabbed it, dropping both of his daggers to the ground, and let himself be pushed into the air, reinforcing the point where the strike connected to take no damage.
Then he spun forward in the air, his grip still on Luno's knee, and used the force that propelled him upward to deliver a vertical heel kick to Luno's scalp.
Barely managing to deflect, Luno blocked with his forearms, assimilating ten percent of his soul essence in the process.
That prevented his arms from getting hurt, but force wasn't something superficial.
The impact reverberated through his entire body and pushed him back slightly.
Caecus used that chance to grab his daggers again.
'He probably realized that close-quarters combat is where he's at a disadvantage.'
The mobility of Luno's sword was extremely limited, especially if Caecus didn't leave him any room to swing.
Regaining his composure, Luno slowly approached Caecus.
'I need to end this quickly. He's adapting to my fighting style.'
Caecus ran forward, right into Luno's sword, but that was a mistake.
Luno assimilated ten percent of his soul essence again, and his sword became a blur.
The slash came down diagonally from the top right to the bottom left.
By a hair's breadth, Caecus dodged by rolling his shoulder, but Luno didn't stop his slashes and continuously walked backward, not letting him come any closer.
Being forced to deflect the next few slashes, Caecus had to use his soul essence to its fullest.
'Time to get serious.'
Caecus assimilated seven percent of his soul essence into his legs and moved forward.
In a blur, he was right at Luno's side, and his dagger cut through his opponent's side.
Caecus won.
'Well, that was easier than expected. Wait, is Luno alright?'
The blind boy walked over to Luno and sensed that the taller boy had infused his side with soul essence, so the cut was only superficial.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Congratulations on your win," Luno said, then walked away to the resting area while gritting his teeth.
'Seems like he wasn't too happy about that loss. And the poor guy used a lot of soul essence too…'
Walking toward the door, Caecus checked for any injuries, but fortunately didn't find any.
Mr. Marcus was already waiting for him when he left.
"Good performance. Your next fight will be against Rank 449."
"449?! That's a jump."
"Not really, I think that should be your skill level right now. I won't do any jumps after this anymore. You'll have to fight your way up. It would just be a little unfair for the people below Rank 500 to have fought you."
"Yeah, makes sense…"
"Your next fight will be in ten minutes. Recover until then."
Caecus took a toilet break and drank some water again before walking toward Room 449.
He opened the door and entered.
A girl stood there, and her bracelet showed that she was from the Noctis corpus.
"Hello-" she froze when she saw Caecus.
Then her face turned into a smirk.
'She's arrogant because of my height.'
The girl wasn't even that tall, around one hundred seventy-five centimeters.
The two of them shook hands and introduced themselves.
"I'm Caecus Caelum, I hope this'll be a good fight."
"Luna Noctis."
'She has the female version of Luno's name. Maybe they are closely related?'
"Do you have a brother?"
Luna's eyes widened, but she quickly regained her composure.
"Yes, I do have a brother. Did you fight him?"
Caecus nodded.
"I guess you'll have to avenge him now… haha."
The girl in front of him didn't respond.
Their weapons appeared, and Caecus grabbed his daggers.
'I need to end it fast.'
Again, his opponent grabbed a sword.
'Goddamn, what's so good about a sword? I really don't get it…'
Her grip was different from her brother's, though.
Luna held her sword lowered and gripped it with both hands.
'Hmmm, why would she leave her guard open?'
The fight started, but unlike her brother, she didn't immediately dash forward.
'She's smart. She didn't underestimate me after I told her her brother lost.'
Both of them circled around the duel room, but his opponent didn't attack.
'Haaa… guess I have to attack first.'
Caecus assimilated five percent of his soul essence into his legs and dashed forward.
His opponent assimilated twenty percent of her soul essence.
Suddenly, his senses tingled violently, and at an almost unreactable speed, her sword came crashing down.
Luckily, Caecus had comprehension speed on par with a rank four.
In an X shape, he crossed both daggers to block the blow.
Clang!
When the slash connected, his wrists screamed in pain.
'What the fuck! Why is she so strong!'
Amelia had told him that his best options were parries and dodges, never blocks.
Now he knew why.
Unlike what he expected, she assimilated twenty percent of her soul essence again without withdrawing her blade.
A massive pressure came from above, and if Caecus hadn't reinforced his legs, he would have been flattened.
Gritting his teeth, he resisted the overwhelming force.
'Seems like she's really mad about me defeating her brother.'
His muscles screamed as Caecus decided to release more power, assimilating ten percent of his soul essence into his arms and shoulders while maintaining the enhancement in his legs.
It felt like a heavy burden lifted from him, and due to his higher soul density, his ten percent equaled her forty.
Luna got pushed backward, but Caecus used that moment to follow up with his attacks.
She barely blocked his strikes, and Caecus felt the assimilation in his legs fade.
Fortunately for him, the assimilation in her arms was weaker than his, making it extremely difficult for her to defend.
His opponent kept trying to create distance, but he didn't allow it and continued his relentless barrage.
Finally, he got close enough and slashed toward her side.
Thanks to his echolocation, Caecus perfectly predicted her movements.
She assimilated forty percent of her soul essence into her forearm and blocked.
Caecus had already expected that.
It was a feint.
Using the momentum from his strike, he ducked down and swept her legs while pivoting on his palm.
Luna lost her balance and fell backward.
The fifteen-year-old boy was already prepared.
He drove his knee into the back of her head as she fell.
Thud.
She lost consciousness instantly.
Caecus won.
'Haaa… why is everyone so wasteful with their soul essence? I used fifteen percent in this fight alone. That forearm block really screwed her over. I mean, forty percent?!'
The medical team arrived, and Caecus took a short break.
Not even ten minutes later, he was already called for the next fight.
It was an Aeternus boy, around the same level as Luna.
The fight began after introductions, but ended far quicker than the previous ones.
The reason was simple.
He was smart and only used ten percent of his soul essence.
That still resulted in an easy win for Caecus.
Caecus fought many more opponents, but when he reached Rank 300, he noticed something different.
His opponent was from Caelum.
The name Lux.
His soul density was about a quarter of Caecus', but his weapon was different.
A katana.
'Did he watch too much anime or something? Cornball.'
When the fight began, Caecus immediately dashed forward, but noticed something.
'This… I can barely sense the katana's movements! Why is it so thin!'
Struggling to dodge, Caecus tried different approaches, but nothing worked.
Assimilating fifty percent of his soul essence into his limbs, Caecus moved so fast it looked like teleportation.
One moment he stood in front of Lux, the next he was beside him.
Another strike nearly hit him.
He ducked and attempted to cut Lux's legs.
At the last moment, Lux stepped back, creating distance again.
'It's like he knows all my moves perfectly!'
Caecus did something he knew he would regret.
He released both the reverse assimilation on his ears and his skin.
Soul essence rushed back into his core.
'I'm back at a full soul core.'
Suddenly, his perception sharpened drastically.
He dashed forward again, and this time, he could follow the katana.
But the moment their blades met, he flinched.
'Gah! It hurts bad!'
His pain receptors were no longer suppressed.
Now able to read Lux's movements, Caecus gained the upper hand.
Then suddenly, he felt Lux gathering all of his remaining soul essence.
'What is he doing?! He'll enter soul drain!'
Then Lux assimilated everything.
'FUCK! I can't sense his soul anymore because he has no soul essence left!'
Woosh!
The katana struck at blinding speed, aiming directly for his soul core.
'Again?! Why are all the guys from my corpus trying to cripple me!'
He barely predicted the trajectory and instantly assimilated eighty percent of his soul essence into the targeted area.
The blade pierced an inch into his stomach and stopped.
'GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!'
'IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS!'
The pain was beyond anything he had ever experienced.
Lux collapsed unconscious and fell onto him.
Squish.
The blade pushed deeper by another centimeter as the reinforcement weakened.
Pinned between the ground and Lux's heavy body, the katana wouldn't move.
Caecus vomited.
The pain felt worse than being burned alive.
Normally, he would have passed out from sensory overload, but the adrenaline kept him conscious.
If he tried to move, the blade would sink deeper.
He was completely stuck.
The minutes it took for the medical team to arrive felt like hours.
The adrenaline slowly faded.
The pain intensified.
Just before the medical team arrived, Caecus finally lost consciousness.