Path to Transcendence

Chapter 749: Human Torch

Kaito and Marcus were brutalizing the others with no remorse. The Clan Yoshu Elder had held his own in the beginning, but once he was no longer able to keep Marcus at a distance, he was overwhelmed by the one-armed man’s strength and relentless aggression.

He was barely holding on, hiding behind a powerful barrier as Marcus slowly broke it down. It wasn’t going to last much longer either; Julius could tell that an incredible amount of mana was being wasted with each second the barrier stayed intact. It was only a matter of time before Marcus got his hands on the older man.

Haruto fared a little bit better. Kaito’s uncle wasn’t weak by any means, and despite not having the advantage of a weapon convergence, he went toe to toe with Kaito for quite a while. Though that wasn’t going to last forever, Kaito was slowly whittling down the man, and before long Haruto was slammed in the face with the butt of Kaito’s spear.

Julius heard the sound of bone cracking, and Haruto’s eyes shook violently.

Kaito didn’t give a monologue or waste time with words. He pressed forward, activating his very scary spear technique. A massive explosion of mana erupted from his spear and was poised to stab Haruto.

However, just as Kaito was about to strike, a thick beam of mana came out of nowhere. Kaito was forced to redirect his thrust towards the sudden sneak attack. The two devastating blows canceled each other out.

More attackers?How do they have so many? Julius asked himself with a sharp frown.

A figure wielding two swords came whirling out of the dust. Clad in blacked-out armor, it made it hard to track his movements in the dark night. Kaito must have barely seen him because he was unprepared for the two blades slicing at his throat.

He was able to avoid the blow by mere inches and was quickly put on the back foot. This also gave Haruto the space he needed to recover, and he attacked alongside the new dual-blade wielder.

The mage who shot the beam of mana went to help the elder who Marcus had almost gotten to. Piercing lances of mana came out of nowhere. Julius wasn’t able to track where the mage was. He only felt pulses of mana from where the attacks appeared. He didn’t think Marcus was able to sense where the mage was either.

He was forced to go on the defensive. That being said, Julius doubted Marcus was in any real danger. If there was one thing Julius knew, it was that Marcus was a juggernaut.

Still, Julius was just thinking about going out to help them when he felt a flicker of spatial energy just on the edge of the enchantments around the camp. He stood up straighter when a shadowed figure approached the line of protection. They removed what looked like a blood-red dagger and, after a few moments of careful observation, stabbed the dagger into the ground.

A flash of red light flared out of the dagger, and then a web of red light crawled all along the enchantments and the barrier protecting the barrier. It kept on spreading until the light turned the entire barrier red. Once that happened, it was like all of the enchantments collapsed and fell away into motes of mana.

Kaito snapped his head toward the carriage. A brief look of panic appeared on his face when he saw this. However, he wasn’t able to go help because two people were attacking him.

Julius looked over and saw that Lora was clenching her clothes so tightly they almost ripped. He then turned his head to watch the man slowly approaching. They had a black robe obscuring their appearance, and they shrouded their mana and aura so well that he wasn’t able to pick up anything. He was forced to rely on his eyes and his spatial senses to track them.

The figure walked up to the door of the carriage, examining it closely. He stopped when he got to the door. He continued to stare and subtly probe the carriage with his mana. Even that was barely detectable to Julius.

Once the figure was satisfied with whatever they were looking for, they lifted the same dagger that had broken through the camp’s defenses and were about to stab it into the carriage.

However, Julius wasn’t about to let them do that. With mana and kinetic energy surging through his frame, he swung open the door and launched the compressed spike of mana he’d carefully created the second he saw the person about to break through the enchantments.

His new skill [Primordial Armaments] was really quite special. He was able to instantly create a construct that would have normally taken him several times as long and twice as much mana without an issue.

The figure clearly wasn’t expecting this and narrowly managed to lift their forearms up to protect their face. But the spike had been infused with Julius’s Authority and his many concepts. Not to mention, it was created with a legendary skill, which meant it didn't really matter if you were prepared or not.

They were sent flying back a dozen feet, landing on their side. Julius immediately exited the door and slammed it shut behind him. He wasn’t going to be able to protect Lora from inside the carriage, but he also couldn’t risk the figure breaking the carriage’s defenses as they had with the camp’s other protections.

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The second he stepped out of the carriage, he found himself under an immediate assault. The red blade tore toward his head. Rather than avoiding the dagger, he stepped underneath the blade and pressed forward.

A knee came flying at his stomach, but he was already prepared for that. He created a thick plate of mana around his stomach with [Primordial Armaments]. That, along with his newly improved body, meant he barely felt a thing. Not even the insidious mana that tried to sink into his skin affected him.

He sent a strong pulse of aura to tear it apart and then grabbed the figure by the leg, wrapping his arm tightly around it and detonating a kinetic charge from his feet. He dragged the robed figure with him and slammed the person’s back into a large boulder several dozen feet away from the carriage.

He made sure to use every ounce of his heavier body weight, trying his best to crush his opponent. Now that Julius was closer, he noticed his opponent was a male and was a little frailer than he would have expected of a Tier 5. But that didn’t mean the man didn’t have any strength of his own. After all, he was still a Tier 5.

The blade came striking down on his back, but Julius had already created another thick plate of mana that protected him. Unfortunately for him, the dagger must have been quite special because he felt the blade’s tip unravel his mana.

Recalling how easily the blade had managed to shatter the enchantments, Julius realized that this blade was probably really good at disrupting and destroying mana-based creations.

[Calm Before Ruin] gave him the time needed to make a split decision and quickly switched things up. He let [Field of the Shattered Will] envelop his skin, and instead of deflecting the blade, he absorbed all of the momentum of the blade.

It wasn’t enough to stop it completely, but his opponent didn’t have good leverage, and Julius’s [Lord of the Dying Sun] skill had made his skin so much more durable. The red dagger glanced off his skin, and Julius quickly repositioned his arms so that he was able to keep hold of the figure with his legs and right arm.

With his left arm, he swung it around the man’s right shoulder, ensuring he wasn’t able to stab Julius again in the back. His opponent wasn’t going to make things easy for him, though. They flailed wildly and sent unformed blasts of mana straight into Julius’s body.

They even leaned in to take a savage bite out of Julius’s neck. The teeth were covered in the same insidious mana that was no doubt some kind of poison.

Julius’s skin protected him for the most part; only a little bit of blood leaked out of the wound, and the poison was quickly neutralized. Before the rogue could attack him again, Julius quickly wrapped his entire body as well as his opponent with chains made of mana.

Not even the domain that formed around them was enough to break Julius’s hold. His anti-domain technique was already fully active. His newly empowered soul only made the technique more effective. It brutally disrupted any of his opponent's attempts at taking over his mana.

He grinned as he continued to layer on more chains as well as other constructs. He tied them so closely together they were inseparable.

He essentially created a human cage with [Primordial Armaments]. This both drew Julius closer to the enemy and restricted his movements so as not to let the man gain any leverage. Whenever the man tried to gain a foothold, Julius quickly blasted kinetic energy into the man’s body, interrupting his attempts.

There was another reason why he was wrapping his enemy into the world’s most inescapable knot.

What kind of rogue didn’t have a teleportation skill?

And if there was one thing Julius knew about spatial skills, it was that direct contact created several very complicated restrictions on a teleportation skill.

You either needed to overwhelm one’s willpower or you needed sufficient skill to break through a person’s natural defenses.

And Julius would pit his willpower and natural defenses against anyone.

Just as expected, the robed man tried to break free with his teleportation skill, but Julius’s willpower was so overwhelming that they couldn’t even make a dent in it. They also found out the hard way that Julius had his own Space Concept, and by the feeling of it, Julius’s was a fair bit better than his opponent’s.

He let out a maniacal grin as he tangled both of the bodies together. He wrapped the figure up tight and unleashed his aura directly into the Tier 5. His ruinous aura was truly a ruthless beast. His crown appeared over his head, and for the first time in a while, it was let loose without restraint.

Julius could barely hold back its delight and enthusiasm. In fact, it was kind of contagious, and his grin got wider as he allowed it to take more control over his aura.

An absolute tsunami of ruinous flames erupted from his body and his crown. The poor Tier 5 tied to him was blasted with the full force of it, and unlike Julius, he wasn’t immune to the damage. He flailed around desperately, trying to get out, but Julius kept a tight hold on him.

The man’s defenses were quite sturdy for a rogue. He had several layers around his body as well as a weird skill that absorbed damage, but it wasn’t a perfect skill. There was a limit to how much damage he could withstand. He could also feel the defensive skill used a lot of mana.

In fact, the skill was already fluctuating wildly as more and more flames washed over his form. The liberal blasts of kinetic energy and headbutts jammed packed with [Void Strike] helped a lot as well.

His opponent was likely not as strong as other Tier 5s when it came to brute strength, but he was still a Tier 5. Yet Julius overpowered the man with his body alone. [Lord of the Dying Sun] really was an awesome skill.

It worked really well, using all of his skills and techniques, too. Even his anti-domain technique seemed to work even better than normal with his triple-evolved soul. He still wanted to wring that stupid dwarf's neck, but the soul evolution was showing its immense worth.

Julius set those thoughts aside for the time being and kept squeezing. The man’s knife kept on trying to stab him, but with Julius constantly rebuffing his attempts, there wasn’t anything he could do. He wasn’t able to move his limbs far enough away to generate the necessary momentum or force to stab Julius.

Truth be told, he wasn’t able to do much other than scream, and that was perfectly fine with Julius.