The twelfth month came much faster to Castus and Shi than they anticipated. Castus had barely finished work on a way to conceal a quarter of his new arsenal when Fulsin came down that stairwell. Since the incident with Valex, Fulsin had only come down one other time, Shi evolution. The books on magic and reading materials Castus and Shi requested were delivered by a maid that would never enter the area, only leave if by the foot of the stairs knock on the door and leave.
Fulsin looked over Shi and Castus upon entering, a look of surprise seeing Shi. "Your development speed would make most noble parents very jealous Shi."
Shi only nodded at Fulsin. When Shi hit level twenty again Fulsin came down and assisted in her evolution, because she was going through the first evolution again there were potential complications that could arise Fulsin had explained. Shi had been a false human before the evolution. A rare race that occasionally came from mimics that hunted a large amount of humanoid prey. They distinguished themselves from mimics by being able to perfectly copy humanoid creatures to become indistinguishable. After going through the second evolution again though it seemed to have refined this idea. Shi was now a Elder False Human. It improved the speed at which she could shapeshift her appendages, their hardiness and allowed her more freedom to shapeshift, fixing the issue from the umbral that had prevented her from taking on whatever appearance she wanted. Though it came with the downside of Shi no longer able to take on the appearance of any non-humanoid creatures.
Shi had managed to get to level 36 from their time in the arena, putting her above those around their age and with the dual evolution she had become far stronger than most at the level. She was far and away the better fighter between Castus and her.
Fulsin took a once over, noticing the growth in their height. Turning to Castus Fulsin's eyes narrowed.
"I see your growth has been much slower. While I anticipated this, I figured you would have at least reached your first evolution." Fulsin said with clear concern and disappointment.
Castus only shrugged looking to Shi.
Shi piped up. "Sir Fulsin, Castus has been very hard at work, he just don't earn as much experience as I do. He also did a lot of work building things which took up a lot of his time." Shi tried to defend Castus.
"I know Shi, I know. I was just hoping you could have at least reached the first evolution. Though I'm sure you will reach it within the first year at the academy with your sisters. Please keep me informed of what comes from it. While I was good friends with your father, he never revealed much to me about himself, and my curiosity is burning to know why." Fulsin comforted them both.
Castus nodded to Fulsin. "I'll be sure to update you when I get there."
Fulsin smiled after finishing his inspection. "Now lets really get a taste of how much you both have improved. Shi, you first, then Castus. I want you to attack me with all that you have." Fulsin stepped into the center of the arena after waving his hand, the barrier remained down and he awaited Shi.
Shi nervously looked to Castus and Castus nodded at her. Shi took to the center of the arena and faced Fulsin. "Ready?" Shi asked.
"Ready." Fulsin flatly replied and stood with his hands behind his back.
Shi lowered her stance. Her legs taking on a different curvature from a humans, looking more deer like and elongated. Her right arm swelled up and a large, bladed appendage appeared. Without warning she lunged forward with immense speed. Fulsin merely watched as the blade approached him.
When it was within inches of his throat the blade was halted by a thin, nearly transparent barrier. Fulsin reached his hand up and was about to push it away, when Shi pulled it back and swung over head with her other arm, which was now much larger and resembled a mallet. Just as Castus had learned his style from her, Shi had picked up a few things from Castus, mainly, when blades can't penetrate, mass and size can crush.
The hammer arm came down with vigor and power. Shaking the ground they stood on. Fulsin remained calm though and the barrier held. He had a small smirk this time though. He moved quickly to push the hammer arm off and repelled Shi from close combat with a swipe of his hand. Shi was pushed back twenty feet and she returned to a more human form.
Fulsin looked at her crouched form and remarked. "Good attack power, but is that all you can do?"
Shi smiled and the mana around her swirled to her will. Dust and earth lifted and surrounded her like a veil. Large rocks caressed her form as she became harder to see. Emerging from the cloud of sand was a golem like creature that rushed at Fulsin. His eyes narrowed and darted around before striking forward with a palm.
The golem struggled for a second then cracked and fell. Fulsin looked surprised for a second then moved to the side and a long lance passed by his face.
"That's more like it Shi. Good deception." Fulsin remarked.
Shi didn't respond as she pressed the attack. Another golem of earth and stone formed behind Fulsin's back and struck down. Fulsin, easily repelled and was making distance between Shi and him with his far superior speed.
Shi rushed forward, her body morphing as she moved to enhance her movements. Fulsin saw the quickly approaching Shi and raised a right hand up. Pushing his hand down a sigil formed in front of him in a light blue. The temperature of the room plummeted, and large shards of ice fell towards Shi. Shi reacted accordingly, adjusting her movements to be in the thinnest area of the ice. Just before impact she raised one arm, a red sigil forming.
There was a bright flash, and a shroud of ice fog permeated the area. Fulsin looked in the fog, no seeing movement he swiped his hand sideways, and a rush of wind cleared the fog, but Shi was nowhere to be seen. From behind Fulsin, a nearly flat Shi sprung from the floor in ambush, the lance crashed into the barrier around Fulsin.
Fulsin raised his arms up. "Thats enough. That was quite the good performance Shi. Your use of magic to close gaps so you can use your strength is impressive." Fulsin complimented. "Though, I would like to see you use more variations as you learn more."
He turned to Castus as a now panting Shi passed him. "Good luck Castus." Shi encouraged.
"Thanks Shi, good fight out there!" Castus responded. The two of them had fallen into a routine with the arena when switching places.
Castus stepped into the arena and Fulsin faced him the same as Shi. "Are you ready Castus?" Fulsin asked, to which Castus only nodded his head.
For seconds both stood opposite of each other, not making a move. Fulsin was playing passive to gauge the two of them and Castus was working up a plan to impress Fulsin. As much as he loathed the idea that Fulsin was using his sister's as a bargaining chip, he was still a powerful noble, and a good potential ally. Impressing him would only be a good thing moving forward.
Castus took the first move. From behind his back he formed and loaded his now enchanted pistol. The round shot true, and smashed into Fulsin's barrier. The sudden and explosive attack surprising him. Castus had learned in the arena that sometimes winning a fight doesn't mean landing the heaviest attack, but the surprising one. While Fulsin was impervious to the pistol's bullet, the implication that Castus at level 19 could launch an attack with such speed and accuracy spoke volumes of potential.
Castus fully expecting the result of the shot quickly formed another bullet and fired. Fulsin seeing this chose to approach Castus. Castus fired, but instead of another bullet, a blinding flash was all that left the muzzle. Fulsin, flinched at the light, taking a step back and entering a guarded position. The flash Shi had utilized earlier was actually Castus' idea that Shi had learned how to use with magic. With Fulsin in a defensive posture, Castus reloaded again. Once again with a different bullet.
Castus fired and Fulsin ignored it. It struck the barrier but fought against it for longer than the first. Fulsin halted in his tracks, taking a look at the spot it had hit. He quickly took a more serious expression and dashed forward at Castus. The bullet Castus had just fired was a new lineup of enchanted bullets that he had put simple enchantments on to increase the lethality or add additional functions to them. That one had a piercing enchantment on it. It allowed weapons to penetrate far easier. While the mana supplied into the enchantment was small, the effect coupled with the speed of the bullet allowed it to at damage most things Castus had fought in the arena thus far. The enchantment also allowed Castus to supply more mana to increase the piercing capabilities.
Seeing Fulsin switch over to full attack, Castus dispersed the gun and pushed his left arm forward. On his forearm a tower shield formed. Unlike the crude defensive measures Castus had used in the past, this one was built with sturdy metals, alloyed together to give the best impact and slashing defenses he could muster. He also meticulously added in a number of enchantments to it. The shield is where Castus was able to pour most of his enchanting time during that dedicated month. The number of enchantments he had been able to squeeze into the shield had astounded even himself.
Fulsin was now three paces from Castus. The shield materialized, putting Castus down to 60% of his mana. While summoning it was costly. Castus fully believed it was worth it. Fulsin raised an open palm and struck forward at Castus. Castus charged the shield with mana and spikes revealed themselves from the bottom of the shield and dug into the ground, reinforcing Castus resistance to being blown back.
'Come on Fulsin, really come at me.' Castus thought to himself as the palm struck the shield. A loud groaning of metal erupted from the arena as Fulsin continued to apply pressure to the shield and try to break through it. At first it was easily bearable to Castus, but Fulsin seemed insulted that his attack had been stopped in such a brutish way. The force continued to increase and Castus realized Fulsin was fully preparing to blow him away through the shield. The realization came late though and Castus realized he was in a predicament. His original plan was to force Fulsin into one of two paths, a drawn-out firing contest or a close quarters quick fight. In the close quarters fight Castus planned to block Fulsin's first attack and on the rebound strike, but Fulsin looked to finish the close combat with his first attack.
The metal creaked again and started to warp from the pressure. The spikes holding Castus in place started to yield. Castus racked his arsenal trying to come up with what he could use to get himself out of this predicament. He finally rested on one of his untested experiments. While Castus had made many things for himself, he wasn't able to test all of them for himself during his time. This was something he had never used and only built once. Even Choceny had never seen him actually use it. It was a gamble, but Castus was sure it was his best bet.