Path to Transcendence

Chapter 155: Unknown Assailant

Julius was all pumped up. While each wolf wasn’t that much of a challenging opponent on their own, the sheer number of them gave that adrenaline rush that he had been craving for a while.

They were also much more intelligent than he had been expecting. The way they worked together as a pack was admirable and would have forced many other people into dire straights.

In fact, now that he could look back on it, the strength of each wolf was stronger than each troll. The only memorable thing about the trolls was their insane regeneration. Everything else was below average for a Tier 3 monster.

The speed of the wolves completely outclassed the trolls, it wasn’t even funny. If he had to deal with these wolves when he was Tier 1, he would have been ripped apart before he could even react.

Furthermore, the strength of each wolf was shockingly high, the force he felt from their jaws was crazy strong. Then when added to the skill they used to empower their attacks, it made the trolls seem like toddlers who swung their club in comparison.

Though, to be fair, those toddlers were pseudo-immortal self-regenerating monsters, so they were still scary.

However, he was thanking his lucky stars that trolls had been his opponent in that rift and not something like those wolves.

He made sure to look over the notifications he got during the fight.

[Kinetic Augmentation lvl 18 -> lvl 19]

[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 4 -> lvl 5]

[Sage of Savagery lvl 2 -> lvl 3]

[Barrier of Severance lvl 12 -> lvl 13]

He was a bit surprised at how many level-ups he got, but he wasn’t going to complain. Though it was nice to see that [Kinetic Augmentation] was at that final step of level 20. However, he also knew that the final level was the hardest one to get.

Although he was a little bit concerned at the sting of pain he felt in his soul.

“You need a break?” Julius heard suddenly from behind.

He turned around to look at Declan who still looking at him like he was some unknown creature found in the woods. “What’s up?” He asked Declan.

“Do you need to take some time to relax?” The older man repeated.

Julius shook his head. “Nope, I’m good. Probably used more mana at the end than I needed to, but I still have plenty.”

While he still had more than enough mana to spare, he did realize that he had gone overboard with that last attack. He had been trying to be better about wasting mana and being more efficient, but sometimes it was just so much fun to let loose and not care about expenditure.

He heard Declan sigh and say something to himself under his breath but continued to walk behind Julius, following him deeper into the rift.

They didn’t spot another group of monsters for a while and so Julius took that time to ask Declan a question he had thought about earlier.

“Hey Declan, can I ask you something?” He asked over his shoulder.

“Of course. What’s the question?”

“Can you fly?” Julius asked curiously. But he felt Declan stop walking for a moment as he heard the question.

“Can I fly?” The man asked amused.

“Yeah, I was wondering if that was something you could start to learn at Tier 4,” Julius commented.

“Technically, yes. But I wouldn’t call it real flying. It’s closer to levitating or floating than flying,” Declan told him.

“What do you mean?” Julius asked.

“It would probably be easier to show you,” Declan said from behind him. Julius turned around and stopped walking to look at Declan.

He saw the man wrap himself in a blanket of aura and a mixture of something else, that Julius assumed was his Authority. It was powerful, he could feel the pressure coming off of Declan from where he was standing.

Then slowly Declan’s feet lifted off the ground and glided over to Julius.

“You see what I mean?” Declan asked him.

“Yeah, I can definitely see why you consider it levitating and not flying. Is that how high you can go?”

“No, I can go as high as I want but it takes way too much time to get to that point. In a fight, it is pretty useless, so I don’t find myself using it all that often,” the older man explained.

“It’s still pretty cool though,” Julius added.

Declan chuckled. “Yeah, that’s what my daughter said. She loves it when I float around with her.”

Julius smiled at that imagery. Gabriela was a sweetheart and he could totally see her loving it.

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“Do you think I would be able to fly?” He asked after a brief moment.

Declan scratched his head and took a moment to think.

“Probably,” he admitted after a bit.

“Really!? You think so?” Julius asked excitedly.

He hadn’t really thought about it all that often, but learning to fly sounded like it would be amazing. Not for combat applications either just for sheer enjoyment.

Declan smirked at him. “You already have the acceleration down with your kinetic affinity, that’s something that I am lacking. So that just leaves you with being able to sustain the flight.”

Julius was about to say something in response but was rudely interrupted when a very small object entered his perception at an extremely fast speed. It was almost like it was a bullet fired from a rifle.

It was only because he was completely aware of his surroundings that was able to avoid the attack in time. The small bullet-like object missed him as he turned his body to the side.

The bullet struck the ground with a soft puff of dirt. It didn’t explode like his spikes did, but there was something surrounding it. It was something very similar to his [Barrier of Severace] skill, something that allowed the object to pierce deeper than it should have been able to.

The problem was that he didn’t know where it came from, which was alarming for him. He almost never not knew where an attack came from.

However, that meant that the attack likely came from a distance outside of his skill’s influence. He looked at the direction that the attack came from again. Unfortunately, even when he strained his eyes and his aura senses, he wasn’t able to spot anything.

He immediately became much more serious. He activated all of his skills as the orb that was sitting over his shoulders melted down and formed his set of armor.

He started to logically think things through. The main hint he had going for him was that he knew the trajectory of the object. From that, he was able to be confident in the fact that it was most likely some sort of flying-type monster. That or a monster that was several dozen feet tall.

There was nothing in that general area except for the sky.

Then another strike came at him from behind. Fortunately, this time he was ready for it and he was able to avoid it with plenty of space to spare.

Still, he didn’t know where it came from. His eyes were able to see where it came from. For the first time in a long time, he was completely blind to his enemyʼs attack.

It was a frustrating experience for him. That was one of his major advantages when it came to fighting, he was always aware of the dangers to himself. Not being able to detect the long-range attack made him feel uneasy.

However, he continued on his way deeper into the rift where the tall grass was replaced with shorter grass but also more varied terrain. There were a couple of streams of water and more foliage littered across the landscape. It was like a greener and more lush version of a plain.

Interestingly enough, no other attacks came after the first two attempts, but he still maintained his wariness. He had a feeling that whatever was out there was just looking for a chance to attack him again.

He turned to look at Declan to ask what the monster was but he stopped himself. Declan was here to watch and ensure nothing bad happened to him. Julius told himself that he wouldn’t go to Declan for help, he would prove that he could handle anything this rift could throw at him.

Even if it’s something that Julius literally couldn’t see.

However, he didn’t miss the amused grin on Declan’s face. It was as if the man was glad that something was stumping Julius.

He made sure to give Declan a small dirty look before concentrating back on his task.

Eventually, Julius ran across another pack of monsters. These monsters were some sort of version of a jackal. They were all smaller than the wolves he fought before and there weren’t as many of them.

But something stood out about them. The jackel-like monsters had a sickly aura surrounding them. They had ink-black fur that looked like it would smell putrid. They also had dark green eyes that stared at Julius even across the field of grass, with matching glowing green ichor dripping down their jaws.

How much do you want to bet that they are venomous? Julius rhetorically asked himself.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait for long in order to see his answer. The jackals soon gave out a high-pitched squeal and rushed toward Julius.

He had already created dozens of smaller violet spikes and had them lazily hovering over his shoulder. The moment they started to run at him, he sent all of them with a quick mental release.

The tiny spikes of condensed mana screamed as they tore through the air.

Julius watched as the jackals created a thin plate of sickly green mana in front of them. The barrier of green mana tried to eat through the spikes he created, but his epic skill was clearly stronger and withstood the effects of their skill.

Unfortunately, it still allowed the jackals enough time to dodge the majority of the spikes and they allowed them to pass by them with a quick dash of mana-empowered legs.

However, Julius was smiling. He had done something else to these spikes than usual. He repurposed the kinetic energy he normally stuffed into them for a different reason.

The moment the spikes missed the jackals, he used every bit of control he had to slow down the flights of the constructs. Then he used the payload of kinetic energy inside of the spikes to blast the spikes backward at the jackals.

Normally, he would have to let the spikes fly past and then take some time to redirect them for another pass, but instead, he just killed the momentum and used the kinetic energy stored to send the spikes screaming back almost immediately.

And it worked wonderfully. The jackals never saw the spikes coming. The barriers they had activated in front of them didn’t protect them from attacks from behind. An attack that they weren’t expecting. The spikes that were covered in sharpened mana tore through the pack of monsters.

They didn’t explode like they normally did, but having several finger-sized spikes drilling through your body was damaging enough. Julius was about to attack again when he had to sidestep and avoid the whistling bullet fly by his head.

Motherfucker! He cursed his unknown assailant, mentally shaking his fist at it.

He looked toward the direction of the attack with annoyance but quickly remembered his other foes. He turned back to the jackals and sent out the additional constructs he made soaring to the downed jackals, nailing them into the ground like pincussions.

Only two of them were able to defend themselves with another shield, but Julius diverted several more spikes to hit them from the side where their shields weren’t protecting them.

They let out yelps of pain as they were staked into the ground. But their yelps were quickly drowned out by the sounds of explosions of these new spikes. He didn’t put too much into them, he used just enough to kill them.

Putrid black blood and green ichor exploded from them. He was glad that he didn’t let these monsters any closer. He could practically smell their odor from where he was standing.

Still, he put on a brave face and surged forward. Their bodies were quite a mess, but at least some of their cores survived, unlike the other wolves.

The smell was indeed putrid. He learned that whatever they were made up of didn’t smell very nice when mixed with fire.

As he was digging out the cores he felt another attack enter his perception but this time he didn’t dodge or avoid it. No, he had enough of this annoying little shit. He simply allowed it to hit him right in the chest.