Path to Transcendence

Julius was honestly surprised by how easily they allowed him to bombard them with attacks. He didn't know what they were thinking, but only one of them created a barrier to stop his attacks.

Maybe they thought that since the constructs that resembled shotgun shells were quite small, they didn't need to worry about them. Or perhaps it was that he was the only person attacking.

Still, it was a mistake that cost them dearly. Chaos was rampaging across the field, but he didn't let this deter him.
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He checked behind him to see if the rest of the others were ready. By this time most of the people had gotten all of their armor and equipment ready.

He had wanted to wait until later to show his strength but that would have put the other people in the group at too much risk. These Conclave people had been watching them for the past few nights and must have decided that tonight was the best chance to attack.

Instead of agreeing like he wanted to do, he reeled himself back and made his way back toward the group. He didn't want to get in the way of their own attacks. That would just mean he would be getting assaulted by both sides.

It would also save him some mana. That initial bombardment had used a hefty chunk of mana. Furthermore, he had feeling that the Tier 4s within this group had just marked him as a target.

He used [Flash Step] to arrive next to Stephanie who was looking at him with stunned eyes, but also a hint of fear.

"So I guess House Easten did send someone with some skill, huh?" He heard Rolus say from beside him.

He chuckled at the remark. "It's not my fault if you made the wrong assumption."

"I know, I know. That's my bad, I underestimated you," the man said with an amused shake of his head. "So what else did Easten say to you?"

"They said that you could take a couple of them on your own. Which leaves one or two for me to distract until you can take care of them as well," Julius told him the plan while watching warily at the man's massive sword which was exuding an extremely bloodthirsty aura.

The man's response was interrupted by a salvo of the enemy's own long-range attacks. Luckily, their mages had already prepared and were able to block most of them with barriers of their own.

The attackers kept up the assault and led to both sides throwing out blasts of mana or other attacks while the other defended. While the enemy had a large amount of people, it was already clear that their mages were more skilled.

While that was happening the enemy warriors had crossed the distance and started to clash with the rest of the caravan.

The sound of metal clanging against metal filled the night sky. Then the first Tier 4 arrived in front of them in a burst of speed. The person immediately engaged Rolus, to which the man with the large sword responded the same way without showing any surprise.

The two clashed in an explosion plume of dirt and dust, trading many blows in an instant.

Neither cared about anybody else, their focus solely on each other.

At least that was how it was for a moment. It wasn't until a flash of light pierced the air toward Rolus that the man had to shift his attention.

In a display of unbelievable skill, the man parried the axe of his opponent and twirled his huge sword behind his back, just in time to block the bolt of mana.

There are the two Tier 4s, he thought to himself while observing the battlefield.

He was a bit confused by this situation and it wasn't until he sensed another group of people flanking them that he understood what they were planning.

"Assassins behind us, they might be targeting our supporters," he warned everyone.

Adrian, Rolus's second gave a startled look toward him but reacted quickly. The man deployed a mist of ice toward where Julius pointed. The ice wasn't that powerful, but that wasn't its purpose. The ice covered the invisible enemies quickly and revealed their locations to the others who weren't prepared for them.

Julius on the other hand, darted forward to these assassins in a burst of speed, his [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin] rushing through him, making his speed increase even further. He knew how bad it could be if they managed to do what they wanted.

He smashed a fist full of his Force Concept into the face of the first assassin he engaged. The opponent didn't realize how fast Julius was and had his head explode as a result.

He then pivoted and backspun into an elbow that crushed the next assassin's chest, sending the person flying off into the distance. Julius sensed that they were still alive but didn't go after him and went after the next one.

He was met with a masked woman with a pair of shortswords and they were already slashing toward his face with murderous intent.

Fast, he noted as he calmly sidestepped the flurry of strikes.

When he spotted the woman finally overextended by a hair, he punished her. He sent a blast of kinetic energy at her back, which further exaggerated her overextension, and followed it up with a brutal knee to her face.

Unfortunately, that wasn't a finishing blow as the woman managed to get her hands up in time to take the brunt of the knee. Still, he felt something crack underneath his knee and kept up the aggression.

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He didn't allow her to back up and used a small pulse of kinetic energy to restrict her before throwing a blistering fast punch at her sternum. Her willpower resisted slightly, but unsurprisingly it wasn't a match for his, and was swiftly overwhelmed.

However, to his immense interest, his fist passed right through the woman's body, and was almost caught with an upward slash to his chest due to being caught off guard.

He barely managed to parry it with his other arm and was once again beset by another flurry of attacks.

She must have some sort of intangibility skill, he realized quickly.

It was quite an annoying skill, but also thankfully quite rare. However, it would seem that this Tier 3 woman was capable of using it when needed.

"That's a very cool skill you have," he said to the woman admiringly.

Unsurprisingly, he didn't get a response, but he could have sworn he felt her mouth twitch upward with [Spatial Perception]. But couldn't think too deeply about it as she once more blitzed toward him.

He couldn't help but grin as he continued to fight the woman. Her speed was definitely at the pinnacle of Tier 3 as was her skill. If he were to put her against Aubrey, he could confidently say that Aubrey would lose almost every time. When it came to skill and sheer amount of Concepts, this unknown woman had her beat.

He would dare say that Edgar would have a hard time as well. Especially considering that the large fourth year relied almost completely on physical attacks.

He would have too, if he hadn't made some improvements of his own. But he did and it bore its fruit.

So with a smile, he calmly handled the woman's aggression. He could have ended it immediately, but even though they were currently being attacked, he wanted to experience her intangibility skill. He didn't know the next time he would have such an opportunity again.

As his fist once more passed through her body, he concentrated on the way her mana shifted. She had some sort of shadow or darkness affinity, that much was clear to him, but he also noticed that she needed to use a lot of attention to pull it off.

Surprise was the only reason why he had connected with that first knee to the face. However, he was beginning to understand the skill a little bit more.

As a matter of fact, he believed he would be able to get around it pretty easily. The skill seemed almost entirely focused on evading all physical attacks. But luckily for him, he didn't have just physical attacks.

He had some attacks that used his aura and soul, which he would daresay might be even more dangerous now.

So with a quick thought, he took hold of his aura which had been laying quietly in his soul for the time being, and manipulated it with shocking ease. His new epic aura skill was showing its worth and he was able to immediately surround the woman with his aura.

Once he managed that, he let his aura go rampant. It was funny, there was no need to control it to attack. His newly evolved aura's nature was to cause ruin and destruction. He merely needed to point it in the right direction.

The woman which was breathing slightly ruggedly tried to shrug off his aura but found herself totally incapable of doing so. Her eyes widened as his aura started to take hers apart piece by piece.

He didn't even need to hit her, all he needed was just suffocate her with his aura.

He watched as her mouth behind the mask widen and let out an ear-piercing screech. When he got a closer feel to her aura, he was able to see the devastation his aura was causing. When she finally collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain, he stepped forward and calmly prepared a fist full of kinetic energy.

But before he could finish her off, he had to use [Flash Step] to avoid the dagger that almost penetrated his skull.

He immediately used [Sage of Savagery] to heighten his senses and focus.

That attack was way too powerful to be from anyone less than Tier 4. It was only thanks to his [Spatial Perception] and new body enhancement skill that he was even able to dodge it.

Without either of them, he would most likely have a dagger sticking out of his forehead. While it probably wouldn't kill him, it definitely wouldn't be a pleasant experience.

Additionally, who knew what kind of effect that dagger had? These were assassins he was talking about. He wouldn't be surprised if it was covered in some kind of deadly poison that could hampen his healing skill.

Okay, that was a lie. He would actually be surprised if it was able to do that, but the fact remained. He didn't know what kind of tricks the person who threw it had up their sleeves.

Tier 4s were scary after all.

So he unwillingly ignored the still prone figure on the ground and focused on the new attacker who was already on top of him.

It was a man wielding two shortswords, not unlike the woman he had just faced. Also, like her, the man had a black face mask that covered most of his features. The only thing he could tell was that the man was below average height and had a slighter build than most men.

But Julius didn't let this fool him. The man was fast, much faster than the woman had been.

Julius had to use [Flash Step] once more as the man send out two very swift slashes. The edges of the blades were shrouded in some kind of black aura.

He didn't know what it was, but it was a safe bet to think that getting hit by these daggers would hurt. The man sent a short burst of mana at him as he retreated, to which Julius created a barrier to slap aside the attack.

Once he retreated a good distance neither of them made a move. They both took the time to examine each other properly.

However, it would appear that the man was willing to speak.

"Who are you?" The man asked with a tilt of his head as if he couldn't quite understand what he was seeing in front of him.

"Who are you?" Julius shot back.

The man shook his head at him and looked toward the still-twitching woman on the ground. "That is one nasty aura skill you have there. Nobody told me someone like you would be here."

"Who told you we would be here at all?"

The unknown Tier 4 shrugged. "It doesn't really matter all that much."

"It matters to me," he said softly.

"Even if I did know, it's not like I could tell you. I'm under strict orders you know," the man said with a grin.

"But you can tell me what organization you belong to right?"

The man tilted his head and gave him an assessing look. "I think you already know the answer to that question," he said with another smirk.

Julius gave an acknowledging nod. "Yeah. I think I do. I am actually more curious about which noble families are working with you guys."

"Who says we are working with any noble families?"

Julius scoffed and turned his eyes toward the rest of the battlefield. There were already many dead people scattered about the dark plains. From both sides. He did notice that Stephanie and her team were still alive and well at least.

Rolus on the other hand was still fighting the other two Tier 4s. The man was quite something. He moved his massive sword like it was a feather and even though the other Tier 4s were quite impressive in their own right, he could already tell that scarred man outclassed both of them.

Julius would merely need to stall for time but another part of him wanted to put this man into the dirt before Rolus had a chance to come over.

After all, he never liked assassins.