Chapter 22: The Magic of Sound
Professor Kragsten glanced at the clock...
[0:15]
... And then she turned around and saw Aurelius’ arm. The one that had crossed into the inner ring in time to end the drill. And then she swiveled and looked at Caius again as he bowed over, grabbed his knees, and breathed in and out a little hard.
In a second, Cynthia understood what happened.
Caius had been the vanguard to engage her. Both boys had known she was more than capable of battling them at the same time, even if they separated and came at her from different angles. So instead, Aurelius had a spell that made him so fast that it also erased his presence for a few seconds. The erasure was enough to protect him from Cynthia’s senses, but she would have caught on still had she not lost her vision because of Caius’ spell.
Had it been a real fight, Cynthia was sure she would still have been able to react. The presence erasure wouldn’t have helped Aurelius land a hit on her. The moment he attacked or showed an intent to attack, he’d be ’visible’ to her senses again. But that was if it had been a real fight.
In a drill of ’Base defense’ such as this, it was an effective strategy. It was an approach Cynthia had not expected and as her beautiful storm grey eyes alternated between looking at Caius and Aurelius, she was amazed at how well they worked together. It had to have been the first time they were working together, yet the natural difference in approaches she had been expecting to get in the way of their cooperation didn’t actually show up.
"Interesting," she mumbled before addressing the class while shoving her amazed speculating thoughts deep down,
"A round of applause for these two fine gentlemen!"
The class erupted into cheer but it looked like they had been close to it already.
"That was... something," Aurelius said now standing in front of Caius.