Path to Transcendence

Chapter 432: Do You Think You Can Keep Up?

Julius quickly found himself getting swarmed by four bears at the same time. It was safe to say that these massive beasts took up his entire attention. He had already made a tiny mistake that was swiftly punished by getting his entire arm ripped off in a single swing.

These four bears were on top of the two bears he had already killed, thanks to some liberal uses of [Void Strike]. However, even when he used his void skills, the bears were still very sturdy. Their sheer size made things a little more difficult. They didn’t go down easily, and he had to be extra careful about each of their blows.

Although the bears were faster than something of their size should be, he was faster than they were. This gave him an immense advantage. One that he utilized to the best of his ability.

He was forced to backstep as a beam of ice magic lanced towards his head and then ducked underneath the swipe from another bear. It was only when he felt the bear, who had shot the beam of ice magic at him, preparing another one, that he made his move.

He had already tested the bearsʼ various abilities. One area that he found weak was the bearsʼ mana detection. They had good instincts, power, and endurance, but they lacked perception. He used this against them, which is why he had placed a spike out in the distance.

It didn’t require a lot of mana to create, not even with the small film of [Void Strike] around it, but it required patience. He needed to wait until the bear was vulnerable, such as stopping in place to shoot a beam of ice.

As the ice magic was being charged, Julius quickly detonated the kinetic energy payload inside the spike. Then, in a streak of blue light, Julius watched as the spike tore straight through the bear’s open mouth. Blood poured out of its mouth like a waterfall, and it let out a sharp yelp of pain.

This gave Julius the perfect opportunity to send another attack at the bear. This time, he blasted a pure bolt of mana with only [Void Strike] aiding it. It was more of a test than anything else, but he wanted to see how effective it was.

To his disappointment, it didn’t go that well. The mana, despite being highly compressed and powerful, didn’t seem to channel [Void Strike] that well. The attack barely scuffed the bear’s pelt.

Demonstrating just how strong the natural defenses of the bear were, and a reminder that without [Void Strike] to aid his effort, taking down as many bears as he had in a short time would have been impossible.

Julius shook his head in amusement and understood that he needed to take care of the injured bear before it recovered. Thus, he dashed toward it, sliding underneath one of its brethren and slamming the bottom of his heel into the bear’s already injured mouth.

He popped up to his feet, and before the other bears could surround him, he shoved his hand in the mangled mouth of the Frost Bear. Of course, his hand was covered with aura-woven mana; he didn’t want to accidentally lose a hand. But before the bear realized what he was doing, he used a very large amount of kinetic energy to rip the upper half of the bear’s face right off, using the already broken jaw as leverage.

He quickly jumped off and let the heavy body of the beast thud into the ground before taking a look around him. Almost half of the bears focused their attention on him, while the other half dozen attacked the others. Three of them were attacking Jakob’s team, and the rest of them were attacking the villagers.

The villagers were having a tougher time, but they were smart and made sure to keep their distance. Whenever a bear got close, they didn’t bother fighting it and instead ran away. They weren’t the most elite fighters, but they listened to Emil’s words of advice and stayed alive, being as big a pain in the ass as they could be.

There were only a few people amongst the villagers whom Julius noticed were quite good. The woman with the battleaxe was one of them, as well as another woman and several men. The other woman was a barrier mage and a big reason why there hadn’t been many bad injuries from their side.

Her barriers were extremely hard and very tricky to deal with. If you broke one, the shards of the barrier would dig into the skin of the enemies nearby. It was also a good thing that, on top of these bandits not being very good fighters themselves, they were also cowards at heart. So they were hesitant to push further when they got hurt.

He did see a bandit sneak up on a villager and quickly sent a spike toward the bandit. The enemy didn’t even realize anything until the spike had pierced his chest with a wet squelch. Julius didn’t even need to use [Void Strike]. That was how poor the man’s defenses were.

As he was doing this, he had to turn around and parry the strike of a bear who had gotten too close to him. He used this force to dash forward and slam his fist into the knee of another bear. He heard something crack beneath his knuckles, and the bear roared out in pain.

Julius was forced to use a [Void Step] to avoid getting crushed by the foot of the bear, but teleported above the bear in the back. None of the three could sense Juliusʼs location and looked all around to see where he had gone. When they finally realized, it was already too late.

Julius used his leg like an axe, splitting a tree, and smashed down onto the bear’s head. [Void Strike] was wrapped around his leg in a thin layer, and he really concentrated on feeling how the skill worked.

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He had to use [Absolute Spatial Perception] to the max so that he could examine the intricacies of the skill. He had learned that deciphering the inner workings of a skill allowed him to make more improvements and raise the level with more ease.

It probably wasn’t the best time to be analysing it, but he was very curious and couldn’t help but try.

What he noticed right away was how the skill utilized the functions of his various Concepts. He could see the influence his Concept of Force had on it. Resonating Burst thrived at delivering attacks through hard and sturdy materials, penetrating deep into his enemy’s flesh, and [Void Strike] had similar effects.

It also had the sharpness of Pure Severance, as it was able to cut through anything in its path, including the tissue beneath the surface, thanks to his Force Concept. His Space Concept was obviously included as well.

The dangerous and brutal distortions of space that only came from the chaotic version ignored the bear’s natural protections. He also felt his Concept of Will holding everything together. While the Concept wasn’t directly a part of the skill, it was the glue that held everything together. It was what enabled him to keep the skill together and why it didn’t collapse each time he used it.

It was absolutely beautiful to examine, and unfortunately for the bear, it didn’t have the necessary tools to defend itself from Julius or this new skill. The bear could only brace itself as [Void Strike] pummeled into its head and wreaked havoc.

He did end up taking a pretty good hit from one of the other bears since he was distracted, but it was well worth it in his opinion. He was sent flying through the air with a nice chunk of his shoulder missing. He used some kinetic energy to stabilize his flight and used that excess energy to send a pulse at some random bandits who were harassing some of the Tier 4s from the village.

He was a little surprised at how easily he killed them. He had only siphoned a little over half of the force from the bear, but somehow that had been enough to kill the Tier 3s. They must have been weaker than normal Tier 3s.

He was about to run back into the fight when he almost had his head taken off out of nowhere. The beam had scorched the air and crashed into the wall; the energy from the blast of mana turned the stone into molten lava.

He had only ducked out of pure instinct and looked back at where the attack had come from. Emil and the Tier 5 were still fighting, but Julius realized what that large burst of mana had come from.

The enemy Tier 5 had activated some kind of special effect of his armor and was suddenly much stronger than before. He had gotten off the bear and was attacking Emil alongside it. This wasn’t good for Emil, who was already fighting against two opponents, which was why the enemy leader had been able to shoot a blast of mana at Julius’s direction.

As much as he wanted to finish his fight with the two remaining bears, he realized that Emil needed some assistance. If they lost Emil, then everyone was dead. Julius had already found out that while he could fight Tier 4s, he wasn’t even close to the same level as Tier 5s.

So without bothering to conserve his mana anymore, he started to pump his body with [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin]. There was no reason to keep limiting himself to only kinetic energy, not when he was about to fight a Tier 5.

Although, to be fair, his usage of kinetic energy had dramatically improved to the point that it had surpassed normal mana enhancement and was on relatively equal terms with his aura enhancement.

However, those two didn’t have the same advantage in that kinetic energy was much more efficient and less draining to use. Kinetic energy was primarily intended for body enhancement, which is why it became a highly sought-after affinity among warriors.

The Tier 5 immediately sensed the change in his aura and swiveled his attention from the struggling Emil, sending another blast of mana at Julius. It was only thanks to Emil’s effort and presence that the man’s domain didn’t overwhelm Julius. If that weren’t the case, Julius would have found this attack much more threatening.

Still, he was forced to use a [Void Step] to avoid the beam of mana, and he was almost too slow even with that. He teleported right behind the Tier 5 and stifled the grin that wanted to come to his face when he noticed the Tier 5 unable to sense his movement right away.

The armored leader was still able to react, but the time gap allowed Julius to land a powerful blow on the back of the manʼs neck. Julius felt like he had just punched a steel wall, and his hand shattered into pieces.

He didn’t blink twice at this, though. His focus skill negated most of the pain, and it was fortunate too because he almost got cut in half from a retaliatory sword swing the Tier 5 had brought out now that he wasnʼt fighting on the bearʼs back. If he had flinched for even a second from the pain, he might have been done then and there.

He leaned back just in time and lashed out with one more strike. He hit the exact same spot on the armor and tried to push as much of his ruinous aura into the armor. While [Void Strike] was somewhat effective, it didn’t have the same impact against a Tier 5 as it did against those Tier 4s.

After the second strike, he didn’t take any more chances and used a [Void Step] to avoid the bear that had rushed up behind him. He appeared next to Emil, taking short but deep breaths.

His body was teetering on the edge, and he was forced to use his healing skill to support himself. It wasn’t as bad as it used to be, but without [Phoenix Renewal], he would have been out of commission after the two strikes. A Tier 3’s body wasn’t supposed to handle that much power.

He glanced over at Emil with a slight grin. “Sorry for interfering, but it seemed like you could use some help.”

He saw the village chief look over at him with a gaze that was both confused and impressed. It was clear that he had some questions, but instead, he nodded back at Julius.

“Ay, I appreciate the support,” he said gratefully. “Do you think you can keep up?”

At first, Julius was surprised that the man wasn’t telling him to stay back, but he quickly nodded. “Of course, but I think I should be telling you that,” Julius said teasingly.

Emil scoffed, and Julius felt an enormous flood of mana come from the man. “Let’s see how long you keep that attitude,” he said to Julius before disappearing in a flash of light, already attacking the opposing Tier 5 with his large warhammer.

Julius grumbled a retort but blasted himself forward, following right behind the chief.