Lucius gasped before hopping away from Dario and raising his hands. The expression on his opponent's face was that of pure, unadulterated rage. The Ferrian was way past the point of reasoning, but still, he tried to deescalate the situation. "What's this about, Dario? Why are you—"

"You bloody well know why!" Dario shouted huskily before gritting his teeth with a seething glare. "Think you can get back at me by hitting on my girl? How about I just hit you?!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, I'm afraid," Lucius replied, straight-faced. He even threw in a little head tilt too just to make it more believable, but to no avail.

"That's what they all say," Dario said as he took a stance as well before looking at Lucius head to toe, looking quite amused. "Will you look at that. A few weeks in the academy and you think you can bang with me already? Heh, not that you running away would make any difference, what with your shitty Corpus and all. Run or fight, I'm still gonna kick your scrawny dog-ass!"

Although what Dario said about running was true, Lucius didn't let himself be taken by emotions. He already knew there was no way he could outrun Dario and that there was no point in even trying. He would rather conserve his energy and try to find another way to end the fight without being hurt badly.

The other students started to surround them, and some even began cheering. Fights outside of the Dueling Rites that are conducted under the strict supervision of regulators are pretty rare since the punishment if caught was enough to discourage most reasonable students from starting them. Dario wasn't one of them, unfortunately.

A crowd. Could be useful.

Of course, not everybody in the crowd was enthusiastic about Dario bullying yet another student. Lucius looked around. Some looked at him with pity and at his opponent with disgust, and immediately, he knew he could use this brief emphatic connection to his advantage.

Not wasting any of his precious time, Lucius threw a glance towards one of the more sympathetic-looking students—a doe-eyed Ferrian girl with a small frown on her face—and mouthed off subtly, "Help. Get a Master. Please."

Much to his satisfaction, the girl quickly nodded back at him before slipping away and scurrying off into the hallway.

Good. Now all that's left is stalling this—

The crowd roared as Lucius dodged yet another blow that would've most definitely knocked him off his feet, but this time, he didn't manage to get away completely unscathed. Though he managed to sway his body and redirect some of the force, the punch still clipped him on his left shoulder—knocking him several steps back and onto the cold, hard floor.

Lucius got up as soon as he was put down, but still, he felt the damage that glancing blow had done. A part of his left shoulder was numb and was starting to ache.

Vita

97% (↓3)

Curses. Just how high is this one's Corpus?

Lucius grimaced. If a simple, telegraphed punch he barely avoided did that much damage then he could only shudder in thinking just how much he could've taken if it actually connected. He needed to be more careful and wary of Dario's movements from now on—a significantly hard task made harder by the students barking around him and distracting him.

"Stop holding your shoulder like a little bitch and put those hands up. I'm not done with you yet," Dario said, grinning deviously as heard the crowd cheer for more.

Still unshaken by Dario's taunts, Lucius simply looked at his opponent before shaking off the numbness in his shoulder and putting his hands back up. The most important thing here was his defense, and as much as he'd like to think he knew enough about fighting, seeing as he'd been taught well by Elrond alongside all the additional training he'd done after reading countless books about hand-to-hand combat, he wasn't exactly confident that it would be enough.

What Lucius knew for a fact though, was that the only way he'd come out of the fight with the least amount of injuries as possible would be to trust in his training. To hit and not get hit, as Outworlder pugilists used to say, though fortunately, he didn't necessarily have to 'hit' in order to win this particular fight.

Dario's smirk deepened as he cracked his knuckles, then his neck. "That's more like it. Boy, I'm gonna hurt you so bad you're never gonna want to see my face again."

Tch. I don't want to see you now.

Lucius held himself back from that out loud. Aggravating the opponent so that they'd be easy to read was indeed a piece of good advice when it comes to brawls, but it didn't apply this time. After all, the power gap between him and Dario was just too significant for him to be able to capitalize, even if he actually does manage to provoke him.

Not just that, but he also heard that Dario, the dumb, violent brute, was exactly the kind of person to beat someone half to death in anger. He'd rather have a less-angry opponent that was stronger than him thrice over toying with him than a relentless mad man trying to kill him with every blow.

With a growl, Dario barrelled towards Lucius once again, pushing on a commendable assault much to the crowd's amazement. The Ferrian's form was crisp, almost mechanical in its practiced fluency, and his strikes were fast. Almost too fast, as yet again, Lucius caught another blow from his opponent—a swift left straight that, despite blocking it with a cross arm guard in his abdomen at the very last second—sent him skittering across the floor, parting the crowd on his way.

Not willing to be caught dead as an easy target on the ground, Lucius coughed as he stood up as quickly as he could, truly reeling in from the blow this time. He gritted his teeth as he fought through the pain and put his hands up weakly, wincing as he felt his stomach tighten. The pain was even worse than when Tissette accidentally threw an aberrant straight at him.

Just from the look of almost-manic anticipation on Dario's face and his body language, Lucius knew he wouldn't be allowed the time he needed to recover, but he had something prepared for that. Dario laughed along with the crowd as he charged at him once again—this time seemingly intent on finishing him and the blatantly one-sided fight once and for all, but he always knew being underestimated would pay off.

"«Illuminate»!" Lucius shouted after casting his only spell to its fullest extent, bringing about a flash of bright, white light that blinded everyone around him. Dario, being the closest to the spell whilst also running towards him, stumbled uncontrollably past him as he took one step to the side before crashing onto the students nearby.

"My eyes! You son of a bitch, my eyes!" Dario howled—his voice towering over all of the other students whose groans and complaints were also all over the place. Not that Lucius minded them, though. Normally he would've thought otherwise about using the spell with people around, but none of them even bothered to help him so why should he?

His instincts told him to hurry and leave while Dario was still preoccupied with regaining his senses, but he knew he couldn't just run away since he knew he wouldn't get that far anyway. Furthermore, moving away from the spot where the girl he sent for help had last seen him would've been unwise. Instead, he stayed, waiting for Dario to get up with a blank look on his face.

It didn't take too long for Dario to recover. He pushed the others away and stood up with a snarl before staring at Lucius—his eyes narrowed into sharp slits as he muttered, "That's it! Enough tricks. This time, I'm coming at you for real."

"I can prolong this battle however much I want. Most likely until a Master arrives and stops this nonsense," Lucius replied, trying to sound as neutral as he could as he raised his hands disarmingly to the side. "Now, I do not know why you're this angry, but I can assure you I didn't even know who she was when I took on her requests. And even if I did, do you truly think I'd go that far just to antagonize someone like you who's obviously way above my level?"

A fleeting look of smugness on Dario's face passed, followed by a small grin. The Ferrian seemed quite pleased with what he'd just admitted, but only for a moment. He sighed inwardly as Dario frowned and took a fighting stance once again, his anger and annoyance unhindered by mere words.

"I don't care if you knew what you were getting into or not. That girl is mine, you hear me? Mine!"

The battle resumed with Dario charging once again and taking the offensive, forcing Lucius on the backfoot. He also had no choice but to expend his Aether Points to cast «Illuminate» after each and every exchange. Unfortunately for Lucius, it didn't take too long for Dario to learn that he only needed to predict the timing of the spellcasting and cover his eyes right before Illuminate was cast. The spell was getting less and less effective with every passing exchange, until finally...

"Got you!"

"C-Curses," Lucius whispered under his breath after taking a nasty, unprotected blow to the stomach. His knees buckled, and in an instant, he was on the ground, wheezing. His vision blurred as an indescribable amount of pain flooded his senses. This was bad. He'd already used a lot of his aether points on his spells and he didn't know how long he could keep it up.

"What's going on here?"

Salvation had arrived, but not in the form Zheng Jin thought it would be, as what he saw after turning around wasn't a Master he'd originally expected. From beyond the crowd that parted was a familiar face belonging to a girl so pretty and charismatic that the sight of her would turn heads in every place she was in.

Someone who Lucius desired absolutely no part of.

"M-Maritess? What are you doing here?" Dario asked, visibly confused by the girl's arrival.

"I knew you were still doing this!" Maritess said with a disgusted frown. "Didn't I tell you to just leave me alone, you creep?"

Dario grunted. "A creep, am I? Don't forget that you were promised to me. Our families—"

"Aren't here, you simple, brainless fool," Maritess said as she finally locked eyes with Lucius. Her eyes lingered at him for a few moments—looking a tad apologetic for some reason—before starting back at Dario, her eyes boring daggers straight through him. "Now leave my cleaning boy alone before I make you myself."

Lucius, for the most part, was thankful for Maritess's intervention, although he immediately found it strange that she would be somewhere near, and conveniently so, almost at the exact same time as Dario's outburst. Something wasn't right, and he could tell simply from the look she gave him.

Dario looked between Lucius and Maritess. "You and him—"

"Jump to whatever conclusion you want. I don't care," Maritess shot back as she put a hand on her hips and brushed her hair over her shoulders with her other hand before pointing to the side with her thumb. "Now, get out of here and make sure you never do this kind of thing again, or so heavens help me I will make sure that you'll get sent back outside like I should've gone years ago. Got it?"

Lucius almost swore as he heard that. The girl didn't even bother clearing the whole situation up, which would undoubtedly put not only a target on his back, put a strain on his plans for Dario in the future. This was when he knew that something was indeed amiss.

Dario, though unwilling, listened to Maritess and backed away slowly along with the rest of the crowd—eyeing both Maritess and Lucius as he left. "This isn't over."

Lucius gritted his teeth, and in some way, he agreed with Dario. It wasn't over. Not by a long shot.

"Are you alright?"

Finally, as soon as he and Maritess were finally left alone, Lucius stood up by himself despite the girl walking over and trying to help him.

He then stared at her squarely in the eye, and with a straight face, said, "If there's one thing that people should hate the most, it's being used by others. Don't you agree, Lady Maritess?"