The duel was never with the threat of death. If for nothing, Caius had the Hellsingers on standby. He also had Alexia—confused as she might be right now—as his chaperone. No, he was sure Duncan was not insane enough to be planning to kill him.

The Duel was an attempt to knock him down a peg.

Caius still had the right to refuse. No matter the authority Duncan was representing, Caius was still a Noble and Duncan was not the Emperor. He couldn’t just order Caius to be arrested or executed because he didn’t agree to a Duel.

The worst that could come of Caius saying no, was to create a precedent that Caius—and by extension, the Von Helsing Family—didn’t respect Imperial authority.

But Caius saw no reason to refuse. This was the first time in almost a while that he could test his skills against someone who couldn’t hurt him. He sparred a lot in the Leopold Coven but the Vampires were always at his mercy even if he didn’t enact that authority over them right then.

But this— this was a chance to see how he would fare in an actual combat situation.

Duncan looked around and his lips twitched before he looked resigned.

"Very well," he said in agreement, raising his hand so the applause finally stopped.

In a minute, a wide space was created at the very center of the Hall where Caius and Duncan stood opposite one another.

"My Lady, should we be letting this happen?" Olivia asked with concern.

"Eh, he agreed," Alexia said with her arms folded beneath her breasts, "Let him fight."

She sounded nonchalant but her senses were trained on Caius. She had her entire mind working as fast as her Level of Magical Advancement could allow, ready to spring into action the moment it was needed.

Alexia looked over at Lyanna and frowned at the Leopold lady’s confident smile. As though she saw absolutely no reason to be worried or sullen even after her call for applause practically made this duel inevitable.

"This is such a mismatch, Caius Von Helsing," Duncan said,

"I’ve graduated from Lochxen. With honors. You know what that means?"

"That you showed exemplary speed of advancement?" Caius answered lightly.

"Precisely," Duncan said proudly, "In the years since, I have advanced to the Fifth Circle."

"Impressive," Caius said, "But cease the bragging till you’re at least at the Sixth Circle."

"Haha," Duncan laughed, "You jest. Still, I’ll make it easy for you— I’ll limit my magic to the Third Circle. Keep this from being a complete blowout."

"It’s your ass, then," Caius said with a shrug, "I’ll just be kicking it."

Caius drew a two-handed sword from his Storage ring. It had replaced the one he broke weeks ago. The long blade glinted sharply.

"A weapon?" Duncan said as he eyed the sword, "At least in this, you appear a Von Helsing."

Right after that, Duncan clapped his hands and then pulled them apart, causing a spell circle to materialize, conjuring a column of fire that twisted its way toward Caius.

Caius’s eyes were narrowed in focus as he sidestepped the attack. He wasn’t surprised or worried to see it twist and come at him even then, because he already had a spell circle prepared.

~Neptune’s Gate~

The spell circle flashed for a second before conjuring water that took the form of Victorian Gates that blocked the twisting flame column. ~Neptune’s Gate~ was a spell created by Caius with variations in the Third and Fourth Circle thus far. That was the Third Circle variation.

~Windy Path~

Swinging his sword with the dexterity of one waving a wand, Caius performed the motion required to cast yet another spell of his creation, creating a tunnel of wind. The wind grabbed him on all sides and shot him forward, boosting his speed so much so that he vanished from Duncan’s sight.

Even though practically all those in the crowd had fast enough reaction speeds to catch every step Caius made, there were still oohs and ahhs in appreciation at it.

But Duncan couldn’t have the same sentiment. He was far too focused on the coming attack he couldn’t quite see. He had formed seals already and in a split second, a platform of earth rose from a spell circle he conjured on the ground just in time to block Caius’s attack.

While Duncan hadn’t seen it, his senses had detected it. Fortunately for him, even though he did restrain himself to Third Circle spells, his senses remained at their true level.

*BAM!*

The platform slammed into Caius but he twisted his body, striking his leg out, a spell already cast.

~Titan’s Surge~

A Third Circle Earth Magic spell he had created. An attacking spell that encased his feet in a spell circle, increasing its density to an earthen equivalent for a powerful kick that shattered the earthen platform.

As pieces of rock went flying about, soon turning into nothing, Caius was dashing toward Duncan again. The Prince glided away by his magic, forming seals that summoned spell circle after spell circle, unleashing barrages of fire attacks, all of which, Caius was smacking aside with relative ease. With not even their heat seeming to singe his skin.

And then...

~Windy Path~

... he conjured another boosting wind tunnel, surging forward once again.

"Ngh!" Duncan groaned as he brought his forearms together, conjuring pillars of fire that slammed against one another. He timed it so the pillars would slam into Caius between them.

’Smart,’ Caius admitted because the only reason Duncan’s plan didn’t work was that he stopped short and changed his path.

That caused him to arrive at his target two seconds later but the blaze of the fire pillars slamming against each other was so distracting that before Duncan realized Caius was not between them, a kick was already swinging at his head.

"What—?" He started but didn’t get to finish.

*BAM!*

He went flying, hitting the ground with a thud and rolling a few times before coming to a stop.

"Fuck—!" Duncan started what was likely a long string of swearing but he had to stop because Caius was coming at him from above, his leg blazing with the fire of an ~Hellsong Stomp~.

With his eyes wide, Duncan rolled away, his hands already forming a spell as Caius’s leg hit the ground with a *Bang!*.

Duncan was almost done with his spell casting when a purple spell circle flashed at the spot where Caius’s leg had hit the ground.

~Devil’s Snare~

Black tentacles conjured from the darkness of Dark Magic, went sprawling at Duncan. This time, it was clear to him that that was not the magic of a Third Circle Mage. One of the tentacles wrapped around his hands, stopping him from completing his spell casting. The others wrapped and bound his feet, making him wobble.

Before Duncan could manage to gain some kind of balance, Caius had already arrived in front of him, leaping so he could strike his knee into the Prince’s jaw.

*BAM!*

The strike lifted Duncan a few inches off the ground and right as he was landing, Caius was already aiming a kick at his midsection. One even more powerful than the knee strike.

Duncan’s eyes widened.

"Alright," he groaned as Mana came pouring from his body. Well past the Third circle, well past the Fourth, and comfortable in the Fifth.

"That’s ENOUGH!"

Along with his yell, Duncan infused the tentacles with his Mana, and broke them, summoning spell circles seemingly out of sheer force of will. Rocky formations wrapped around Caius’s legs and lifted him off the ground where more rocky formations charged out of more spell circles and struck him all over in a barrage that blocked from view and landed all at once with an earsplitting *BANG!!!*