Soul magic is one of the most esoteric, rare, and hard to learn styles of magic there are. Some classes, including the beastmaster class, have ties to soul magic in the form of exclusive skills which connect them to their familiars and strengthen their bond. But soul magic goes beyond that. With only the condition of a willingly-given soul, they can use it to enhance themselves permanently, impart power onto others, and give life to inanimate objects. These are just a few of the known uses for soul magic, making the Demons of Solomon both a massive threat and a valuable resource. With thousands of years and an incredible amount of souls at their disposal, the power of Zelgarad's Rift is enough to threaten the entire world.

~ An excerpt from 'Soul Magic for Dummies'

Alda let them into the Royal Palace's private training rooms. Reserved only for Welton's elite, it was host to a multitude of advanced technologies which seemed quite advanced for a medieval kingdom. Spanning over five hundred square meters, the area was well-designed and even had benches for people to rest or watch. The corners of the training room had pillars made of fine, white marble that showed signs of damage from previous visits. Chips along the side and large gashes, which Chester assumed were caused by errant attacks from Alda herself.

Chester played with a dummy composed of wood, watching as it came towards him in a lifelike manner. Although its speed was faster than an average human's, it felt extremely slow to the curly-haired human. Fashioning his Attainium into spiked knuckle dusters, he let loose a vicious overhand that damaged its skull on impact.

Flying back a few feet, he could see the splintered wood repairing itself almost immediately. The illusionist whistled, admiring the outstanding quality of the dummies.

"Stop." When he repeated the dwarvish word, the item immediately halted its movement and froze in place. "This is real neat. They should have something like this in Elway."

"Ready to lose? You can warm up first if you want." Damien replied, standing at the opposite end and cracking his neck. Wearing the full set of Juggernaut armor, with his sword and shield strapped to his back, the boy oozed confidence. The illusionist was similarly equipped, and let the massive deposit of Attainium he had to reveal itself, fully exposed in its form as a massive chained flail. "I won't even use my shield."

"You're getting a bit cocky there, my friend. Let's see if I can fix that for you. Here," Chester took out an empty beer bottle from his pack. The same one he had drank with Elric long ago, which he forgot to take out. "I'll throw it up high. Once it hits the floor, we start."

Without any resistance from the vampire noble, the man tosses it upward. Damien deflected a Mana Blast with his sword and watched the man's stupid grin disappear.

"Did you really think I'd fall for that?"

Chester didn't respond. He muttered something under his breath and saw the boy's expression change as he went under the influence of his Hypnotic Pattern spell. Extending the length of his flail and sacrificing the size of the spiked end, he shot forward and aimed for the boy's legs. The boy raised his sword and met the chain in mid-air, grabbing at the iridescent metal and pulling the illusionist further forward.

"Darkness Infusion. Mana Infusion." The boy said, rearing his fist which clutched the Attainium. He had intended to pull the man towards him and unleash an incredibly powerful punch, but things didn't go as planned.

Damien winced as the chain turned into extremely sharp spikes and stabbed at his hands, forcing him to let go. The illusionist knew there was little chance of him being able to wrench the sword from the boy's grip and shifted his weapon into a long blade. They clashed once more, and Chester put the entirety of his weight down on the sword and tried to kick at the vampire's face. In the last two weeks, Damien had surpassed the man in close combat, both in power and skill thanks to his unrelenting drive to become stronger. His efforts bore fruit, as he effortlessly dodged the man's haphazard kick and responded by sweeping his other leg.

Getting kicked by a foot encased in metal armor would've hurt Chester if it weren't for the fact he was wearing a tactical suit as well. The power behind the leg sweep made him grunt, and the curly-haired illusionist rolled off just in time before a Darkfire spell blasted the ground below.

"Darkness!"

Enveloped in shadows, the vampire boy shelled up and used his other senses to detect the illusionist. Hearing his footsteps from the right, he let loose a blind attack, slashing away with his sword as he tried to escape the spell's radius. Damien could see that the sound was merely an illusion and used the reflection from his blade to see the illusionist ready to pounce at him.

"Predictable!" Damien roared, turning around and slashing away at the man's midsection with the intent of delivering enough blunt force to disrupt his attack. Unfortunately, the figure was an illusion, leaving the boy baffled as Chester's face faded away. "Shit, whe-"

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A sudden impact on the back of his head left Damien reeling, and metal arms snaked around the side of his neck and put an incredible amount of pressure along his arteries. Chester had used Invisibility atop Minor Illusion and created double decoys. Despite his superior strength, it was hard to remove Chester's arms when he had better positioning. Feeling his consciousness fade, the boy reluctantly admitted he had been too cocky and didn't take the illusionist seriously.

"Shadow Servant..."

Maxwell spawned to life and immediately began mauling the man's face. Chester screamed as he was attacked and let go, allowing Damien to roll off on the side and regain his bearings. Unclasping the shield from his back, he could see the man had managed to injure the shadowy canine to the point he dispelled. It let out a small whine, melting into the shadows and awaiting his master's command once the skill cooldown was over. The vampire didn't use Shadow Servant because he didn't think he needed to but quickly realized that the man had not been as idle as he thought.

"You. Fucking. Bastard. That's not-" Chester got up from where he was while the vampire watched, now sporting a deep gash along the side of his face. "I'm beating your ass, you cheating little shit."

"All's fair in love and war, right?" Damien said. He shrugged it off and smiled apologetically, putting the shield in his off-hand in front of him, and the mithril sword in his right. The boy didn't know why he was acting like this. Perhaps he held some sort of repressed grudge against the man since they first met. Seeing the blood on his hands and the illusionist's face aroused his thirst for combat and he smiled. "You're strong, I take back what I said. I'll use my shield."

Chester was fuming, but internally he was assessing his chances without the boy holding back. He didn't want the battle to turn lethal, despite his strong urge to make the bloodthirsty vampire submit to him. He acted first and left the thinking for later, knowing that the longer the battle went on, the more likely it would end in his defeat. Activating Mana Infusion, he began his counterattack.

'The name of the game is SPEED!'

"Shadowbolt."

Black lightning arced through the air and the man dodged it with ease. Chester realized that if he wanted to win, he'd need something that can take advantage of his speed while being able to punch through the boy's tough armor. With that in mind, he hid his Attainium from the vampire's view as he transformed it into a hammer and swung. Damien parried with ease, but couldn't capitalize on the gap Chester's attack left as he had to block a dagger strike aimed at the gaps in his armor. The man had split his Attainium into two pieces and used the dagger and hammer in tandem. It took incredible precision to complete that move on a moving target, but Chester's dynamic vision had improved exponentially ever since he received the perk, Greater Agility.

In a momentary stalemate with both of their arms occupied, the younger vampire took the chance to taunt the man who struggled against his greater strength.

"Come on, show me what you've-UGH!" Damien's words, which he echoed from the man in their previous spar, were interrupted by a vicious headbutt. The vampire's nose crumpled inward without a helmet protecting his face as Chester's cranium made contact with softer tissue.

He stumbled backward, closing his eyes for a brief moment and opening them once more to see that Chester wasn't finished with his attack. He spun around, using his momentum and greater speed to try and break the boy's leg with the weighted hammer. A loud clanging noise occurred, and Damien winced at the sheer force which made his entire body shudder. The improvements on his armor had prevented his leg from turning inward, and a hasty swipe of his sword forced Chester to retreat.

"You're lucky I didn't aim for the head. I could've lopped it off with this." Chester said, swinging it over his shoulder and wiping away at his still bleeding face. His regeneration was working overtime, but he knew that if he wanted to minimize the scar they'd have to make a quick stop at the church for some healing. Damien still had a smile present on his face, a picture-perfect expression of ecstasy as blood ran down his face.

"More! I know that's not all you have."

The boy relished in the thrill of battle. It was different from the spars he had with Jensen and the other soldiers. Chester was unorthodox, creative, dirty, and wild. His fighting style was tinged with a beast-like instinct that remained from his days in the forest. It was perfectly fitting for the thieving criminal, and an experience that prepared the younger boy more for real fights than any light sparring could do.

Darkness surrounded the man's position and he dived out of the spell a moment later. Keeping his senses sharp, the boy knew that the likelihood of a false attack was likely. He could hear footsteps approaching his right flank, and raised his shield before lashing out at the source of the noise.

"Wrong."

Chester swung his hammer in an underhand motion, revealing that the figure in front of Damien wasn't an illusion. His weapon made direct contact with the boy's groin. Even though the armor prevented serious injuries, it didn't completely block out the pain. Considering that he was sent upward while wearing heavy armor, Damien still took a significant amount of damage. That was the first time the boy lost his smile, and he gritted his teeth and lashed out, unwilling to lose again.

"Shadow SMITE!"

An outpour of darkness erupted from the mithril sword, going in a diagonal direction as it tried to cut through Chester's armor. Unable to dodge the point-blank attack, he gritted his teeth and put his hands up to protect himself. The solid blackness was corporeal, draining the man of his energy and blasting him backward with an absurd amount of force. He knew that would've been a dangerous attack without armor, and thanked Elric in his mind for giving it to him.

'Even Alda's punch didn't send me that far...He's gotten fuckin' strong.'

Chester got up, panting as a good chunk of his energy and mana was drained. He had lost a third of his health during the spar and looked at his forearm which bled heavily during his attempt to block. He figured that the armguards Jerry Sharpax was constructing would've come in handy in the situation. On the other hand, Damien had snapped out of his stupor and clutched his genitals, considering the idea of adding some more protection to that area of his suit.

"We...should stop before things get out of hand. You got healing potions?"

Dropping their weapons, the two went to their respective bags and began looking for anything to relieve their pain. Damien took a small swig of Chester's knowing that he didn't suffer much in terms of damage and could heal much faster without any scarring thanks to his vampire physiology. The illusionist took some of the potions and smeared them along his face, mumbling about having to go to the healer so he doesn't 'harm his money-maker.'

After a minute of silence, Chester spoke out with a sense of smugness in his voice.

"So...that's another victory in my scorecard?"

"What?! That was clearly mine, or at least as a tie!"

"You're delusional! Don't gaslight me, you cheating little shit! Besides, you cheated!"

The two ended up bickering once more, opening up another round of verbal (and physical) sparring as they left the training grounds. Chester privately regretted going so far, knowing he'd have to expend more energy once in the underground sewers where there was more work to do.