Path to Transcendence

Chapter 738: More Testing

Marcus POV

He had known that Julius was different. Even more so than before. He understood that on an instinctual level. He didn’t need to see Julius in action or fight in order to know this. His years of experience warned him of Julius's strength and the danger he now posed despite being only a Tier 4.

But seeing him in action when he sparred against Lily certainly reaffirmed his instincts. Especially once Julius started to use more of his skills. Don’t get him wrong, Lily was definitely strong in her own right. He was very proud of the progress she had made during the past year. Her advancement made her even more dangerous. Her bloodline was finally showing its true potential, and her connection to her psychic abilities had gotten even more terrifying.

With her close combat weakness no longer an issue, she had become a true demon to fight against. Even with just her physical abilities, she was on par with some of the best of her generation. She only needed something with a little more explosive impact to round out her abilities.

However, that wasn’t even accounting for her mind-related skills. He’d seen her decimate entire packs of monsters without moving a finger. She had flayed and destroyed their minds so thoroughly that she hadn’t been forced to fight them up close.

However, Julius was still on another level. His new skill was especially ferocious. Marcus had no idea what kind of skill Julius had acquired, but the might of it was nothing short of astonishing. That sort of power didn’t belong to someone still in Tier 4. Then again, it was almost certainly a legendary skill.

Even considering that, it was impressive that the young man could handle that much strain the skill undoubtedly required. Marcus had several legendary skills of his own, so he knew better than most how strict the requirements to use legendary skills were.

He watched silently as Lily struggled to keep up with Julius. The improvements to his physical body were clear, but the speed he displayed was just as impressive. Julius didn’t even use movement skills, but he still moved in flashes.

Each step detonated a charged blast which disoriented Lily. She was even forced to use small applications of her more dangerous mind skills, but Julius’s mind had always been a fortress. It was something that Marcus and Lily always admired. Unless she really threw her power into her attacks, he would continue to smack them aside without much issue.

Marcus was worried that he would need to call it himself, but his worry was unfounded. Both Lily and Julius realized when they had started to push too far. They stopped what they were doing and deactivated all of their skills.

Lily dropped to the ground, exhausted. Sweat was dripping down her face and soaking into her training clothes. Julius wasn’t as tired, but he showed some signs of exertion. He was a little sweaty and short of breath.

Marcus already had a potion ready to give to Lily so she could recover faster. Normally he wouldn’t allow this, but she had a lot to do this week and needed her stamina. However, he didn’t need to worry. Julius had already walked over to her, and Marcus felt a large amount of mana swirling beneath Julius’s palm in the shape of a glowing sigil.

It was extremely complex, even to the young teen’s standards. The complicated sigil of mana was gently placed on Lily’s skin, and she accepted it without so much as a word or question. She trusted Julius implicitly.

Then to Marcus’s shock, there was a soft, almost imperceptible echo of mana radiating out of the mark. It was almost entirely made up of life mana, and before his eyes, it was like the fatigue washed off Lily like dirt in the rain.

He chuckled internally. It seemed that strength wasn’t the only thing that Julius had acquired during his time away.

Lily didn’t seem as surprised. She took it in stride, as if completely expecting something like this from Julius. Which, to be fair, was far-fetched. The young man was quite the unique case. Marcus doubted there were many, if any, Tier 4s who were stronger or had a more complete foundation than Julius.

There was a reason why not a single person in either House Violet or House Zenith argued against their scions' friendship with Julius. His potential was too great to possibly ostracize because of prejudice.

He was admiring Julius from afar, but then noticed Julius was staring straight back at him with an all too familiar look. He’d seen that look before and knew what it meant.

But then again, Marcus wasn’t against it either.

He didn’t say a word and shrugged off his jacket, leaving just his plain white shirt and pants, before walking toward the center of the training circle. Julius smiled wider when he saw this and quickly went over as well.

Lily frowned when she saw what was going on, but she didn’t try to stop it.

Marcus hid a smile of his own. He couldn’t lie to himself. He was curious about the full extent of Julius’s abilities. Just how far had Julius come? Was it enough to fight a Tier 5?

He knew that Julius could already handle most Tier 4s while he was at Tier 3, but fighting up from Tier 4 to Tier 5 was a different chasm to cross altogether.

But looking at the young man, Marcus couldn’t help but suspect that Julius had actually managed to cross it already.

“You don’t need to hold back,” Marcus said with a shallow nod.

Julius laughed. “Trust me, I wasn’t planning to. I still don’t think I can beat you yet,” he admitted freely.

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“But I can give you a proper fight now,” were the unsaid words from Julius. He might not have said them directly, but his eyes told Marcus this more clearly than words could communicate.

“Well then what are you waiting for?” Marcus asked with a slight grin.

Julius grinned in response, and that was Marcus’s only warning. The boy had already vanished from his place and reappeared with an explosive boom, fist looming in front of his nose. Marcus had been able to track him, albeit with more difficulty than he desired, and met him with his own fist.

The clash detonated a shockwave that blasted throughout the chamber, slamming into the barrier protecting the circle. Julius had already moved, though; he slipped closer to Marcus, something not many people would try to do against him. Not if they knew of Marcus’s reputation. Yet Julius still did so.

He was always a little too fearless when it came to fighting.

Marcus let out a small smirk and let his psychic arm manifest, reaching out to grab Julius by the arm. He managed to wrap his hand around his wrist, holding onto it tightly, but Marcus felt a sudden surge of mana. To his shock, the entire arm exploded into a mess of fire and bone. The combustion was so powerful that his manifested arm was barely able to withstand the impact.

He was thrown back a couple feet, caught off guard by this sudden maneuver, and Julius punished him for it. He front kicked Marcus right in the knee, knocking him down to one leg, and then followed it up with a swift but savage blow to the chest.

And good lord was it heavy. It felt like getting hit by a building, and Marcus felt his ribs creak from the blow. He flew back and rolled on the ground, slightly out of breath from the unexpected attack.

Julius didn’t move to attack him again; rather, he was waiting for Marcus to get up while his missing arm was quickly wrapped with flames and replaced with a brand new one as if nothing happened.

Marcus couldn’t help but laugh lightly; he couldn’t believe that Julius was the one who was restraining himself. But then again, it wasn’t like he was holding back either. That display of healing proved as much; Julius wouldn’t fight that way unless he was going all out.

Marcus also couldn’t help but feel his heart racing slightly. He knew that Julius was dangerous, but his blood was pumping in his veins, and his breathing became a little sharper as his focus narrowed. If anything was clear, it was that he needed to take Julius more seriously than he had initially believed.

He cracked his head to the side and loosened his shoulders. Then he began to flood his body with mana and wrap it in his psychic energy. Lily had developed a similar skill to his own, but Marcus was more experienced and had taken it much further than Lily had.

The air shook with each breath he took as the mana threatened to escape his body.

Then with one last grin, he attacked Julius. He appeared at Julius’s side with a shockwave; his movement was so fast that it displaced the space around them. He slammed his arm into the boy’s shoulder, and to his amazement, Julius reacted extremely quickly and decisively. Realizing that it was futile to dodge it, a field of kinetic energy emerged from Julius’s skin, and he leaned into the blow. Julius siphoned as much kinetic energy from the attack as possible; it was to such an extent that Marcus’s force behind the blow had been more than halved. Julius was still sent flying backward, but he was heavy. It was like hitting an adamantine training doll.

Marcus followed right behind the sliding Julius and started to box him into a corner. Marcus was going to use his superior physique to pressure Julius and prevent him from going on the attack. He wasn’t worried about hurting the boy either. Marcus knew just how difficult the boy was to kill. Julius could probably lose his heart and still be fine.

So he started to really lay into Julius. Blows backed with loads of mana and surrounded by dense orbs of his concentrated domain. Marcus already knew that Julius had a technique that would protect him from a domain's influence, so he prioritized strengthening his own body instead.

Each strike was like a sledgehammer, moving at incredible speeds. Yet, Julius was keeping up. He was extremely quick, able to react to strikes no Tier 4 should be able to react to. It was insane, but it was also thrilling to experience firsthand. Marcus had never been able to spar with anyone in Tier 4 while going this hard.

Not to mention someone he didn’t have to worry about hurting too badly. This meant he could fight to his heart's content, and so he did.

He avoided a sweeping leg from Julius and stepped forward, crashing his hand into Julius’s forearm that came up to block him. Despite hitting directly, he couldn’t feel any damage to Julius’s bones. There might be a small bruise, but that was all. And to someone with his healing, that might as well have been a kiss on the cheek.

Marcus was so focused on swarming Julius that he almost failed to recognize the trap that Julius had set for him. A large hammer the size of his head formed in Julius’s hands, and Marcus wasn’t expecting the sudden change in reach. He was barely able to throw his palm up in time and let the hammer crash into his hand. The collision was deafening; he could feel its force reverberating deep within his bones.

He was forced to reinforce his body with even more of his domain, using part of it to break down the construct. However, the construct was really quite special. It was harder and more stable than any construct had any right to be. It felt like an actual physical weapon, not a bunch of bundled-up mana.

He managed to throw Julius away and, while he was at it, sent a concentrated blast of telekinesis. Julius somehow sensed the blast of invisible energy and teleported away from it, reappearing right behind Marcus, swinging that hammer once more.

This time Marcus was more prepared and avoided the construct, managing to jam a sharpened spike of psychic energy into it. Or rather, he attempted to do this. The construct was too hard for even this to penetrate, which was even more shocking. This same spike had penetrated the armor of a Tier 5 Fiery Drake without issue. It was only when he forcibly shoved it with an extra boost of telekinesis that it was able to dig in.

Once he did that, he was able to force his domain inside and corrode the construct from the interior.

While Julius wasn’t some prodigy with a hammer, he had supernatural senses and uncanny instincts. Add that to his shocking strength and speed, and the danger was too large to ignore.

Julius’s willpower was still running throughout the construct, and it was a pain to subdue, but he finally managed after great effort. That was why he needed to inject his domain directly. As much as he hated to admit it, Marcus honestly didn’t know if he would be able to break down the construct or overwhelm Julius’s will in time without it.

The loss of his weapon didn’t seem to affect Julius; rather, he adjusted immediately. Marcus felt an incredible amount of fire mana and aura flood out of Julius’s body. It was so much that he practically turned into a fireball; Marcus stepped back, more curious than anything else.

However, just as he was examining this new development, all this powerful energy broke free of its containment. As if the shell holding Julius’s body enforcement skill had broken, everything went into chaos.

The boy’s body tore itself apart and exploded into several pieces.

He heard Lily shout in alarm, and Marcus dropped his arms, running toward the now disfigured body of Julius.

Thankfully, it seemed like he was already healing, and Marcus let out a sigh of relief. Healing skill or not, seeing Julius get blown into pieces from his own skill wasn’t pleasant to experience.