Path to Transcendence

Chapter 756: Why Are You Running?

Julius didn’t get completely vaporized. But all of his skin was turned to ash. The only things that survived the blast were his bones and some of his organs. Fortunately for him, this wasn’t that bad an outcome. His goal was accomplished, and he gave the loyalists an opening they desperately needed.

Could he have done something similar without resorting to this extreme measure? Perhaps. But this was a lot more fun. Not only that, but in those few brief moments when he allowed himself to lose control of his skill, he learned more about it than days of focused meditation.

He teleported himself straight up into the sky to heal himself. He didn’t want anybody to see the level of his healing, and he didn't think anyone saw his face either. He was moving too fast, and his features were obscured by a hood.

Though that hood was no longer there. It had been the first thing to vaporize.

He looked down while the close combat fighter finally got a chance to participate in the fight. They slammed into the disorganized group without mercy. The only reason why the traitors weren’t immediately overrun was that the elder quickly stepped in to support them. Julius didn’t get the sense that she was very powerful, but a Tier 5 was still typically stronger than a Tier 4.

He was an exception, and seeing that Kaito was already predisposed at the moment, it was up to him to help reduce casualties to a minimum.

He let his injuries heal, and once he put another cloak over his body, he fell from the sky. He quickly formed several constructs around him. He wanted to test out [Primordial Armaments], and this was the perfect opportunity to do so.

A dense web of mana spiraled into six spikes. His constructs made with the new skill were a brilliant white, their edges gently pulsing with blue. More importantly, they crackled with barely restrained power. His Authority mixed so easily into them that he was a bit unprepared for the level of strength coming from them. It was like the skill would only work if one used Authority.

He quickly located the old woman down below, and after packing a field of kinetic energy around the spikes, he sent them blistering down. They moved like they had physical weight; the air was displaced, and it was like six falling stars raining down from the heavens.

A couple of people seemed to notice the spikes coming down from the sky, and the elder was one of them. Her head snapped up, and Julius could see the brief look of panic on the woman’s face. She was forced to stop what she was doing and threw her hands up at the incoming spikes. A multi-layer green barrier bloomed into existence overhead.

Julius watched as his spikes crashed into the barrier and detonated. The barrier was actually quite strong. It was definitely one of the more impressive barriers he’d come across. However, his construct skill was a superior legendary skill, and it wasn’t to be underestimated. The barrier held up, but just barely.

However, Julius had already prepared another six spikes and sent them tearing down. He formed his aura into a sharp lance and packed his mana around it. When the aura-infused spike rammed into the barrier, it was too much. The barrier couldn’t hold up and crumbled. The spikes that made it through collapsed on top of the Tier 5 elder. The older woman shouted in alarm and managed to throw up some last-minute protections.

Julius frowned when he saw this. He had been hoping it would have been enough, but alas, he should have expected more from a Tier 5. Just because she wasn’t like Kaito or Marcus didn’t mean she was a pushover.

He increased his speed and continued falling. His body was already packed with kinetic energy and mana. [Lord of the Dying Sun] was reinforcing his body so much that he was having a hard time keeping himself from gaining too much speed.

He landed directly in front of the female elder and redistributed the force outwards so that his bones didn’t shatter into a million pieces. The crater he caused threw several nearby people across the estate. One of them was killed outright.

He didn’t let the older woman time to prepare, though. He was already going on the offensive; a dagger made of mana was in hand, and a step later he was in the woman’s face, dagger stabbing toward her face.

She reacted quite well and activated a teleportation skill. Julius tried to disrupt her mana, but she was too quick and managed to elude him. However, he sensed the ripple of spatial energy where she appeared and quickly used a [Void Step] to follow.

A bunch of smaller green snake constructs flowed out of her skin and started to attack him, but he released a small burst of mana with [Lord of the Dying Sun]. It wasn’t like before, but the shockwave was still quite powerful, and the smaller snakes were knocked to the side.

This gave him enough space to move in again. It would appear that the woman’s teleportation skill had a slight cooldown, and she was forced to throw up a hasty barrier to protect herself. The dagger failed to break it, but he had already expected that and twisted around, reforging the dagger with more mana so that it resembled a sledgehammer rather than a dagger.

The barrier was reinforced with even more mana, and it was around this time that the teleportation skill’s cooldown was up, but Julius was too fast. The hammer brutally crashed into the barrier with every ounce of strength Julius could muster. With his body so heavy now, it was quite considerable.

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The barrier shattered like glass, and the hammer slammed into the elder’s chest. The old woman was sent flying; her staff was ripped from her hands and flew off somewhere.

This also had the benefit of disrupting her focus enough that her teleportation skill fell apart. He quickly tethered himself to her, and before she could hit the ground again, he was already swinging the sledgehammer once again. This time it was her back that was the target, and he felt something break under the force of the blow.

She cried out in pain and barely managed to activate several skills to stop Julius from hitting her again. The snakes that had been knocked away were suddenly wrapping themselves around his limbs and stabbing into his body with their razor-sharp fangs. He was interested when he felt the snakes releasing some kind of substance into his body.

He had no idea what it exactly was, but he could tell it was some kind of poison. Unfortunately for her, poison didn't work on him. Not only was his body very resilient to it, but his healing skill dissolved it before he could really get a chance to examine it.

He quickly teleported through the snake's grasp and appeared at her back. This time she was in time to activate her teleportation skill and avoided the blow going straight for her head. He would have tried to grab her, but there was another barrier around her body. When he fought the rogue he’d fought a few days ago, he’d been able to make direct contact with them. With the barrier in the way, he wouldn’t be able to disrupt it so easily.

He found her quickly again. Her teleportation skill was fast, but the distance clearly had some limits. More snakes came after him when he appeared above her. This time, they looked different. They had a glimmer to them that made them look like jade statues rather than living constructs.

He quickly found out the differences between them. For one, they felt much sturdier. His shin hurt a little bit when he tried to kick one away.

He could also tell that something dangerous was running through them. The only bright side of this was the amount of mana being used. He could feel that these new snakes required a lot of mana to use.

In fact, he saw the woman uncork a mana potion and down it while he was distracted. He couldn’t do anything about it, but she didn’t get the time to drink what looked like a healing potion. He was already dashing back in and avoided the snakes with grace and a shit ton of kinetic energy.

He did get hit by a couple of snakes. One smacked him hard enough that he felt one of his bones groan from the impact. It demonstrated to him that these snakes were pretty dangerous. However, when one of them managed to bite him on the leg, he became a little more concerned. The poison that was injected into his body was very different from the previous poison.

This one seemed to attack his aura and soul. It required a lot more effort on his part to neutralize it, but fortunately for him, his body was so used to soul attacks that it didn’t require a lot of help to fight against this poison.

Unfortunately, when he broke through the wall of snakes, she teleported again. It would seem that she wasn’t about to give him another chance to fight her up close. However, he was fine with that. He didn’t even bother to chase after her and instead started a lot of mana together.

If she wanted a ranged fight, he would give her one. He started to weave spikes of mana. This time, he really concentrated on it. He didn’t create half a dozen this time around. No, he began to create dozens of them. The air shook from the amount of mana that was being released from the two of them.

While he did this, many green snakes, both big and small, appeared around her. The jade-like snakes seemed to be a one-off thing, and so he didn’t spot any more. Which was pretty lucky for him.

However, several powerful barriers formed around her, and these ones seemed to have been changed ever so slightly. It was likely that she had adapted her barriers to better withstand his attacks. They seemed softer and better at absorbing force than the previous ones.

He stared at her and watched as she prepared. His soul and mind were strained to their limits as he layered in more and more mana. His mana pool was quite large, and he made the most of it.

He activated [Void Strike] and began to infuse the skill into his spikes. It was unbelievably difficult, and if he still had his epic version of his construct skill, he wouldn’t have tried this.

But that wasn't the case anymore. He now had a really cool new skill and wanted to test out the limit of what it could handle.

Before long, he had over a few dozen spikes hovering over him. The purple void energy crackled inside these constructs. Each of them was barely able to contain the energy he shoved inside them.

The elder, who was honing her own barriers and constructs, suddenly stopped and looked over at him in terror. Or rather, she looked at the menacing spikes over his shoulders with terror. He didn’t blame her either. There was a lot of mana inside them, and that wasn’t even talking about the heavy pressure each one was releasing.

In fact, she was so scared that he felt her activate her teleportation skill. It wasn’t to reposition either. This time it was different. This time she was using it to run away. He was so baffled when he saw her do this that he almost didn’t react.

You’re a Tier 5. You’re not supposed to be the one running away, he thought to himself with a gaping mouth.

However, he quickly narrowed his eyes and sent the spikes chasing after her, where he felt the spatial ripple off in the distance. To his embarrassment, several of the spikes fell apart and exploded mid-flight. He was glad that he was wearing a hood because his face glowed slightly red.

Then again, the spikes that actually stayed together were truly a force of nature. They screamed as they rained down on the retreating female elder.

In hindsight, creating several dozen spikes had been overkill. A dozen would have been enough.

The woman’s barriers couldn't withstand the first several spikes. The barriers were obliterated before they could even block a fraction of the spikes. Julius winced as the rest of the spikes came crashing down with brutal force.

The explosion was so large that it illuminated the entire estate, and the shockwave blasted anyone within a hundred feet off their feet. The crater that was left behind resembled the same crater he had created out in the wilderness outside of Goldmere.

He looked over at the crater and turned around, feeling the sudden gaze on his back. Kaito was very far away, but Julius got the distinct feeling of the man's irritated expression as he paused in the middle of his own fight.

Julius winced and apologized quietly, recalling that this was technically still Kaito’s home.