To Recognize One's Faults

A splitting headache was the first thing to greet Cyrus as he reached up to his face and checked his pockets and belt, making sure that nothing was stolen from him.

Feeling that everything was in its proper place he thought, "At least they have the tact to not move my stuff."

Stretching and fully opening his eyes he was greeted by the sight of multiple other students all around him on cots like he was just on, all out cold.

"The other students I presume," thought Cyrus as he activated his demonic power within to chase away the mental strain that was causing the headache.

He examined the faces of the students for a moment, looking for a familiar face, and soon spotted Minerva still out cold. It looked as if she were to wake up at any moment from her slight eye movements and twitching fingers, but that was not what he was interested in at the moment.

Instead he leaned his back against the wall and recollected the fight that he had just lost, going through each and every detail.

"What an impossible person, truly worth the top spot of the Academy. It is clear he somehow has access to the abilities that come with being an Inquisitor and that he mixed it to great effect with his magical prowess, allowing him to do things that I cannot even begin to understand how they were done. Funnily enough, he is a tough wall to climb but one I will do so gladly. While he already had devised a complete method of fighting, mine has only just begun to form…"

Pondering about how to advance his combat capabilities Cyrus stood there doing just so for quite awhile up until someone finally broke him free of his concentration.

"Hey look who's awake, here, this is the reward they gave out for your victories although it has already been deposited on their end." said Imran, who had just turned up out of the blue.

Catching what was thrown to him, Cyrus received a small scroll and opened it to reveal its contents.

"200 Fidem from Caliban and fifty per fight won, making for a total of 300 Fidem earned just from one day of combat…it seems this is the main method of earning the currency after all, combat."

Turning the useless notation to dust in his hand, Cyrus stood up and checked his things once more just in case. Ignoring Imran for a moment he walked over the still yet to be roused Minerva and pretended to be tapping her check, while he was actually secretly prodding her with a bit of his soul tunneling technique.

The shock of being threatened with soul intrusion woke her up right then and there as her eyes shot open and her hand automatically went for her sabre.

Looking at the startled Minerva with amusement he flicked her forehead a few times and said, "Settle down there, you are in the temporary resting area for those who lost during their duels."

Realization dawned on Minerva as the fog of unconsciousness cleared from her mind and her memories came flooding back. "I…lost?" muttered Minerva in shock.

Poking her cheek, a feeling he learned was actually somewhat pleasant, Cyrus replied, "Yeah, you lost. Quite miserably too as you had the win completely secured, but at the last second you let your guard down which spelled the end for you."

Not even bothering to stop Cyrus from messing with her face, or perhaps she had not yet noticed somehow, Minerva scrunched her brows while recalling the last few moments of the duel.

"How did he take me out? His last attack missed and he was completely encased in ice, what could he have possibly done to defeat me?" wondered Minerva aloud.

Clicking his tongue Cyrus explained, "Those arrows did not miss, they acted just as they were meant to. He had already displayed his ability in accurately changing the path that his arrows took by altering the trajectory mid flight, but his last attack took that a step further and they completely changed directions after they hit the trees. Like they bounced off of it, but still maintained enough force and accuracy to defeat you."

Minerva's eyes widened upon hearing that, no doubt wondering how an arrow could possibly do that.

"We have only seen a small portion of the world, I do not doubt that there are many stranger things than an arrow that can bounce off of things. I am sure you would agree with me in a heartbeat if you saw my fight with Primus Luxman."

"You fought rank 1? You defeated everyone else on your way up…"

Not being humble at all Cyrus boasted, "Of course I defeated them all. After your loss I was set to fight Gellert who I defeated quite easily, even getting some revenge for you towards the end. Next I fought Caliban who was a bit more tricky, but when I revealed a bit of my true strength I was able to win the day through the element of surprise. Then I finally fought Luxman…that impossibility of a human being. Maybe if I had another week or two to work on my Mors domain research I would have been able to win, but he is just too overpowering for me right now" explained Cyrus. Inwardly, however, he thought, "but I bet I would have been able to do it if I was not limited to just physical means of combat, alas, until I am 100% sure of the origins of my soul techniques I should not use them."

Finally swatting away Cyrus' hand that had still been up to no good, Minerva stood up with some difficulty and began to walk past Imran and towards the exit.

"Where are you going?" asked Cyrus.

A curt response was all that was heard, "To train more. Such an embarrassing defeat…unacceptable."

Following after her Cyrus shook his head while thinking, "That is very like her to do such a thing but then again, I also have the same exact idea in mind."

Passing the completely neglected Imran, Cyrus clasped him on the shoulder and said in passing, "Perhaps you should join one of us in training? My lab is always looking for some research subjects."

Of course this ominous offer was not going to be accepted by Imran who vehemently refused, "No thanks man. Such a scary sounding offer is one I will refuse without hesitation. I saw the pile of bones in the corner of your lab before, who knows if I would end up as an addition to that pile or not. Besides, I have a lot on my plate to handle. You two can deal with all that combat stuff, I have more delicate things to attend to."

With that he too left, half running half walking, following after Minerva as they still had to stay together incase someone wished to take the chance to try their luck.

---

Shutting out the sounds of a frenzied Minerva sparring with a partner she bought with Fidem and even paid extra for express delivery, Cyrus closed the door to his lab and locked it tight.

Ares was still in the corner of the room, his 'eyes' moving around in circles which was what Cyrus interpreted to be some kind of greeting.

"Well Ares, allow me to join you for a quick conversation" said Cyrus as he activated his soul tunneling technique, diving into the soul world of his servant and making his way to meet him face to face…well soul to soul.

Arriving at the same central location as always, Cyrus conjured a seat for himself and looked across at Ares who was swaying back and forth lazily on a mobile bed made from his soul leashes.

"Ey sir mage, been awhile…I think? What have you on your mind that made you take a trip to my humble abode?" asked Ares with a wave of his hand.

"To discuss the assessment that just occurred of course, and how we were miserably defeated."

Scratching his head in embarrassment Ares responded meekly, "Well that was a rough one indeed. That guy was a freak, huh? Not to mention how weird it was to be here one second then also be in that…whatever that place was…all of a sudden. How'd ya do it?"

"I did not do it with my own power, but with the ability of that device. Whatever it is called, it is some kind of lost technology of a previous era. I remember seeing it when I met with Mundus, the table that we were sat behind…. But that is not important. What is truly important is that we would have still had a chance to somehow pull through or maybe I could have won the fight after the wall had been destroyed to take you down…but someone went against my order to conserve their strength. The results were as you could see, a swift loss."

Cyrus stared down his servant, awaiting a satisfactory response.