Path to Transcendence

Chapter 338: Battling Aubrey

When the semifinals rolled around, he already knew he would face Aubrey. The brackets had been set for a while, and with Edgar losing to her and him beating Liam, their meeting had already been predestined.

Aubrey hadn’t stopped talking smack to him since last night. He dealt with it, though, because he knew it was her way of coping. They both knew Julius might have been one of the worst matchups for Aubrey in the entire school.

His perception skill made her most potent ability less effective. It had been this way ever since they met, and although she had made some vast improvements to her skill, it remained the same.

It was too bad as well, because out of all of his friends, she might have been the most competitive one with him. She hated to lose, doubly so when it came to him. Edgar didn’t mind all that much.

The large fourth-year was much more appreciative about figuring out his weak points and improving on them. Aubrey however, didn’t like losing to someone several years her junior. He didn’t blame her for feeling this way either. He probably wouldn’t like it if he was in the same position.

***

Walking out to the field, he spotted her right away. When they met eyes, he knew immediately that she was serious. She didn’t have that teasing grin on her face and was already maintaining control of her aura to the best of her abilities.

Their spars had taught her that any opening in her aura would allow him to use his kinetic restriction technique on her. Even though she already knew that he wouldn’t be using that technique during this match, it would appear she was controlling it regardless.

He, on the other hand, threw her a bright smile. One that he noticed, she tried very hard not to return. But he could tell that she was just as excited as he was. If there was one thing he had learned about Aubrey, it was that she loved fighting as much as anyone else. And that passion had seemed to grow more fervent ever since he disappeared.

The crowd was already electric. Derek had already fought his match earlier, beating out a very strong fourth year who had tested the Zenith Scion more than anyone else had to this point. But it wasn’t enough, and Derek had come out on top.

However, that only made the crowd more excited to watch the final match of the Tier 3 Tournament. Their roars were deafening, even through the barrier that contained most of the noise.

Explosions of colorful mana dotted the sky and he could see children swinging bright colored flags in excitement. It was quite the sight to see and he enjoyed it for the moment as the official introduced them to the crowd.

“This is the official semifinals match between fourth-year Aubrey Crysalia and first-year Julius Snow,” the official said. His voice got drowned out by the crowd, as they were surprisingly loud when Julius was introduced.

The fact that he was a first-year student gained him a lot of popularity amongst the spectators.

However, much of his attention was on Aubrey, whom he could feel was already beginning to flex her skills in preparation. Her mana control was so much sharper, and he could feel the deep, profoundness of it as well, displaying the improvements she had made with her Concepts.

When the official initiated the match, he wasn’t surprised to see that Aubrey went on the offensive right away. It was in her nature and sitting back wasn’t her style. Furthermore, she knew that if she just stood back and let Julius have free rein, her disadvantage would only grow.

She created a bunch of clones around her and used them to send over a dozen beams of condensed mana at him from all angles. She wasn’t bothering to try to trick him with her clones. She had never been able to deceive him and understood that it would just be a waste of mana on her part.

However, her recent improvements with her clones made her a larger offensive threat than she was months ago. She didn’t have to rely on deception and trickery. She could use pure quantity to try to pressure him.

Unfortunately for her, he was also well acquainted with her attacks and knew that her beams weren’t capable of bending through the air. The relatively straight nature of the mana beams meant that he was able to calculate the trajectory with decent accuracy.

He used a few slight activations of [Flash Step] to avoid the more dangerous beams and sidestepped the rest.

He attempted to close the distance, but each time he would get remotely close, Aubrey would exchange places with one of her clones. It was very annoying if he was being honest and without his aura technique, he wasn’t able to disrupt her skill like he usually tried to.

However, to her credit, he had been having a harder time of doing that as of late. She had learned how to protect herself from the worst of his aura and prevent him from disrupting her skill. He did try to use his more recent technique, which he had picked up from Irene, but Aubrey’s skill and clones weren’t like normal constructs.

They were more akin to projections of the girl’s aura and soul than anything else. This is why it is hard to differentiate between them without using [Spatial Perception].

It was annoying, but he already knew what he had to do. Much like how Edgar had fought her, he needed to waste some of her mana and stamina. Otherwise, she could just avoid him for a long time, especially with her being as cautious as she currently was.

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Even if he used his constructs and bombarded her, he would be the one who ended up using more mana. Her physical defenses from her crystal affinity made sure that she wouldn’t fall to a couple of stray spikes either. She had proven in the past that she could tank several of them easily.

So, despite having a larger pool, he would likely deplete his before she depletes hers, which was why he dashed toward the nearest clones and used his bare fists to smash them apart.

Aubrey attempted to control her clones to dodge, but they weren’t as fast as her. Using as little mana as possible, he slammed his fists into the clones. He was able to feel the cracking of the crystal-hardened bodies from the force of his strikes.

She could have reinforced them with mana, but she likely knew that it would just be a waste since he wasn’t using that much mana.

He continued to dodge the beams of condensed mana with the barest amount of movement, sometimes even taking a glancing blow on the shoulder. However, he ensured he was covered by a skin-thin barrier of his own, protecting him from receiving any bad damage.

While he evaded her attacks, he focused on attacking the clones. One by one, each clone would be smashed under his fists.

However, she must have realized that he was slowly getting the upper hand and had to do something. That was why he wasn’t shocked to sense her charging the clones nearest to him with mana.

He didn’t know if she believed he wouldn’t sense it, but he was able to recognize the same technique she used against Edgar. To be fair, this time it was much more discreet but also less powerful.

Which was why he decided to smash them anyway. He wanted her to continue to try this attack, since it would waste her mana faster. So while bracing himself, he kicked a clone in the chest, detonating the compressed mana and aura right in his face.

He put up a barrier to protect himself and did his best to absorb as much kinetic energy from the attack as possible. The explosion staggered him a little bit, but he remained okay, much to Aubreyʼs concern.

He had a feeling that she expected the attack to do more damage than it actually did. She knew that he couldn’t use his healing skill and that any damage she did would be reflected in his bracelet’s enchantments.

He continued to hit each clone. It didn’t matter if they were charged to explode; he hit them all the same. The only issue he had to deal with was making sure she couldnʼt swarm him while he was staggered. Which was why he made sure to blast himself away with kinetic energy, utilizing the force of the explosion to help before the beams of mana could hit him.

He tried his best not to laugh at his current situation. He bet that from the crowdʼs perspective, he must have looked like he had no idea where she was and was just swinging randomly at each clone, thinking it was her.

He doubted many of the spectators would believe him if he told them that this was all according to his plan.

But he couldn’t think too much about their opinions and went on to smash through Aubrey’s clones one by one like a bull rampaging through a china shop. He did note that each clone he destroyed felt oddly satisfying to crush with his hands. It was like popping a bunch of bubble wrap.

It was a couple of minutes after this that he finally noted Aubrey falter just a hair. Her continued use of creating new clones and controlling them was not easy. Which meant that there was almost always a point when she lost focus and he had been patiently waiting for that moment.

So before she could fix her mistake, he created ten spikes over his shoulder. He created them with his simplified channels and before she could fully grasp what he was doing, sent some of them hurdling at the real her.

However, she had extensive experience with his spikes and was able to switch out with one of the clones she placed far away. Despite her efforts, Julius predicted this and had sent more of his spikes to the location he predicted she would go to.

Unfortunately, she had made some nice improvements when it came to how fast she could reactivate her transfer skill and was able to avoid them once again. But what she had failed to sense was that he had been carefully forcing her to create clones in specific areas on the field.

She had a pension to teleport to the safest clone when dealing with his constructs, which is why he grinned when he sensed her transferring to a clone he was already dashing toward. Not only that, but he had created another salvo while she was evading his spikes and attacked the remaining clones.

Leaving no more clones for her to escape. It took concentration to create the clones and control them. It also took a lot of attention to transport between them, which meant that if she was too focused on one, she couldn’t do the other.

He saw her grit her teeth as she belatedly realized this and could do nothing when he appeared right in her face and smashed a fist into her chest. He didn’t even jam as much kinetic energy as he could into his fist. He had other plans.

The plan included delivering a payload of his aura and willpower directly into her, hoping that it would prevent her from creating any more clones and escaping him. He was thankfully half correct. She was still able to create them, but she was unable to establish a connection to transfer away.

With that being said, they could still shoot him in the back with beams of mana. And so while he was harassing her with his fists, he was subjected to a barrage of strong blasts of mana. She didn’t have to worry about taking damage from her own attacks. Her affinity ensured her safety.

But he didn’t care either. He tanked them and continued to strike out. He was swift and, more importantly, he was relentless. He never let her a chance to breathe, and while she was much better at close combat than before, he was better.

He made sure that with each hit, he injected a little more of his aura and willpower, not allowing her to run away. Something he could tell really grated on her nerves. Fortunately for her, he couldn’t quite break through her defenses.

Her skin was like diamonds and he had to keep hammering away. But the entire time, he grinned at her. He knew that he had her right where he wanted to go, and that she knew that as well.

She put up a valiant fight, but without the ability to escape with her clones, she was eventually unable to keep up, and his persistent fists managed to crack her crystal defenses. She desperately detonated a lot of her remaining mana, but he was able to sense it in time, and before he could be blasted away, he wrapped his arms around her.

He took damage, as was reflected in the restricted movement from the enchantments, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. He pinned her to the ground and slammed elbow after elbow into her face, finally shattering her annoyingly strong defenses.

It was only then that he managed to hammer one last fist into her face that activated the safeguard enchantments, signaling the end of the match. Letting him sit up with a sigh, a little tired from the exertion, but there was still a smirk on his face.

Because at the end of the day, he was just glad that she wouldn’t be able to mock him for losing to her. That would have been miserable, and he knew that she would lord it over him for the rest of his life.