Path to Transcendence

Chapter 533: Chimera

Julius turned to stare at the chimera, which was roaring at the sky, and smiled.

The moment he saw the creature, he knew he wanted to fight it. His blood sang with excitement, and he only held back because of how people were around. Also, his number one priority had been to keep his friends safe.

However, now those issues have been solved. He could have some fun.

He charged his body with so much mana, kinetic energy, and aura that it felt like it was breaking apart. And it felt absolutely exhilarating.

He used one quick [Void Step] to appear right in front of the creature’s face, slamming the monster with a [Void Strike] along with all of the kinetic energy he had managed to siphon from its last attack.

The flesh of the chimera’s face was really tough. It was no wonder that Isaac and Eren had some trouble. However, with all of the power he put into his blow, the monster’s face now sported a large crater in it. Unfortunately, since it was so large, there was only so much damage he could do.

The injury was relatively small compared to its massive size. But that didn’t deter Julius; he was already charging another attack while he watched the flesh of the beast regenerate at a visible pace.

He attempted to use some of his ruinous aura to stop whatever skill it was using, but he was unable to. He might have slowed it slightly, but the creature had an enormously powerful willpower.

It didn’t have any finesse or real level of control, but with its unusual soul, it must have inherited an absurdly strong will or something similar.

He had already created armor around his body. Azure colored mana flowed from his chest to his hands. Beautiful wings sprouted from his back, flaring dangerously with flames. He could feel his red eyes shining brightly with each movement of his aura.

His crown, pulsing slowly atop his head, seemed to breathe with life.

It was funny. For the first time since he got the item, he didn’t feel it fighting against him. If anything, the crown seemed like it was just as excited as he was.

“Ah, so you are a battle maniac too, huh?” He asked the crown quietly.

All he got in return was an emphatic flare of blue flames from it.

Then, with a wild, wild grin, he disappeared in a flash of blue light. He hadn’t teleported; he used sheer kinetic energy to propel himself forward, using his own speed to cycle even more kinetic energy from his movements.

He slammed into the creature’s face once more. This time around, he used [Void Strike] alongside his ruinous flames. Now that it was motivated, the crown was much easier to use.

He was able to feed fire mana into it with an ease he had never experienced. The mana that came out of it was just as easy to control. He fed it into his fists and armor, letting the destructive force vibrate under his willpower.

The strike was powerful. Really powerful. The fifty-foot monster was knocked off balance for the first time and cried out in pain as it fell to the ground. Its six legs thrashed around as it tried to get back to its feet.

Julius was forced to blast himself upward into the sky when it tried to smack him with its tail. He had learned from watching Isaac fighting earlier that while the chimera wasn’t that swift, considering its size, its tail was another story.

The ridiculously long limb moved with shocking speed. He was just barely fast enough to ignore it. He flew high up, ready to strike once again.

However, he stopped himself when he sensed a glowing white missile slam into the downed creature. Isaac must have stayed inside along with Julius and used his body like a missile, slamming into the creature’s exposed belly.

The force of the blow was immense and exploded a small chunk of flesh from the chimera. However, it was clear that Isaac didn’t have anything that prevented the monster’s healing factor. Unlike the wounds that Julius had just inflicted, the scars of the belly were almost already healed in a matter of seconds.

The chimera let out a roar, and Julius widened his eyes in astonishment when an invisible blast smacked him right in the face. He had no idea what kind of attack this was. It might have been some kind of telekinesis attack, but he was sure.

Thankfully, he absorbed most of the force. Still, it forced him back and required him to take some time to stabilize his flight.

Isaac, on the other hand, was tossed a hundred feet across the field. Julius watched as the large teen got back to his feet once again, holding back a sigh. It would appear that, for as powerful and fast as Isaac was, fighting strategy wasn’t exactly his strong suit.

It wasn’t even like Julius himself was particularly skilled in this aspect, but Isaac had been doing the same thing over and over for the past several minutes. Not changing a single thing. He just kept on running in, got a good hit on the monster, and then got blasted into the ground. It was only because of his pretty good healing skill that the man wasn’t dead yet.

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Even then, Julius could see the teenʼs healing slowing. The white light was a little dimmer, and several minor wounds weren’t healed. Julius suspected that part of the issue was that the monster wasn’t using plain mana attacks to hurt Isaac, which meant there wasn’t enough mana to absorb to heal.

Yet, Isaac continued to run headfirst into the beast without any regard. Julius had his fair share of headbutting into walls until he succeeded, but that was when he was holding back or when he knew he had some advantage he could use.

Isaac seemed a little... special.

Julius didn’t know why, but it irritated him more than it should have.

Still, Isaac was at least doing something, so he ignored the guy and dashed back to the chimera. This time around, the chimera had targeted him as a threat, and the difference was dramatic.

The spikes on its back glowed red once again, but it wasn’t like the previous attacks. Instead of a single strong attack, he found himself assaulted by hundreds of small beams of light. They were extremely fast and unbelievably nimble.

He used his wings to help him dodge the attacks. The wind tore his face as he used kinetic energy to flash across the sky. His flight abilities were so much better than they had been several months ago, but they still weren’t the best. It was expected as well.

Humans weren’t supposed to fly after all. Thankfully, he had a lot of kinetic energy to play with, so even though he wasn’t the most graceful, he was quick.

Unfortunately, it was like the chimera had locked onto his mana signature. Every single attack tracked him with worrying precision. He created several barriers around him, using them to block the few attacks that he wasn’t able to dodge.

Since they weren’t as powerful, they didn’t manage to pierce or crack his barriers easily, as the breath attack had been. However, they were strong enough that he was able to absorb a fair amount of kinetic energy from them. He started deliberately getting hit by these attacks.

While he did this, he also tried to see how they were constructed. As Isaac had experienced already, they weren’t just simple blasts of mana. There was something else that made them a little dangerous.

It was almost like the creature had used a similar technique to Julius. It nearly felt like some of the monster’s aura was woven into the attacks. The only issue was that the creature’s manipulation of aura and mana would contradict this statement.

At this point, the creature was ignoring Isaac. It would occasionally smash the guy into the ground, but almost the entirety of the monster’s attention was on Julius. It showed.

He was getting drowned in attacks, and while the chimera wasn’t very skilled in pure mana control, it was still constantly making minor adjustments to its attacks.

It must have realized that these attacks didn’t threaten Julius, so it reduced the number of attacks. There were still a lot, but now they were a lot more powerful, and he wasn’t able to take them straight on as confidently.

He used his barriers to deflect most of the impact and absorbed as much kinetic energy as he could. He would use this kinetic energy to fuel his flight, but his body was slowly accumulating damage from the relentless assault.

He laughed at the hilarity of the situation and would have enjoyed this fight more, but unfortunately, there was a stupid battle maniac constantly interrupting his tempo. Whenever there was an opening he wanted to take advantage of, Isaac was already heading straight for it.

It would have been impressive that the guy could read the flow of the battle that well and, without hesitation, throw himself into the fray. Sadly, the guy wasn’t causing much damage or making much of an impact.

At this point, he was just in Julius’s way. That was why he ultimately made a decision.

He sensed Isaac about to head in to make another move, but before the teen could dash in, Julius teleported in front of Isaac, extending his arm.

He creased his brow in annoyance when he saw Isaac lash out at him. It was all instinct, though, so Julius tried not to get too upset. However, that proved what Julius had been thinking this entire time. Isaac had no plan; he was just reacting and moving on pure instinct.

Isaac was fast, but Julius was just as fast. He was able to duck underneath the man’s fist and slap it away with some of his accumulated kinetic energy.

“Can you knock it off?” he said irritably, crossing his arms.

Isaac finally seemed to realize that Julius was there and smiled. “Oh! Hey, Julius. I see you wanted to test yourself against this strong monster, too.”

“Yeah, but you are making a real mess out of things,” he said with a glare.

Isaac shrugged uncaringly. “I am trying to figure out how itʼs able to prevent me from absorbing its mana.”

Julius pinched his nose. “Are you serious? You haven’t figured that out yet?”

Isaac looked confused. “No,” he said without any shame or embarrassment. “Have you?”

“Yeah, it uses some application of mixing mana and aura, which is probably preventing your skill from working,” he explained briefly, using some of his barriers to block some of the incoming attacks.

“Oh. I didn’t even know that was possible,” Isaac said, his eyes shimmering brightly with realization.

“Well, can you stop taking my openings? I can’t make a move because you keep rushing in, and I am more likely to hit you than the monster,” Julius said to him, using his armored fist to smack aside a mighty blow from the chimera.

Isaac rubbed his head. “Oh, sorry about that. I have been told that I make for a terrible teammate.”

“Yeah, so until you find a way to hurt the monster, please just let me handle it, okay?” Julius asked as politely as possible.

Isaac frowned at him. “I’m pretty close to finding the creature’s cores, so no.”

“Cores?” Julius asked interestedly.

Isaac nodded. “Yeah, I have found out that the monster has several—”

Isaac’s words were cut off midsentence when a large blast of red light smashed into them. Julius protected himself well, but Isaac was sent flying away again.

Julius sighed and teleported over to the hole Isaac was already crawling out of.

“You were saying?” Julius asked while he watched Isaac heal very slowly.

Isaac dusted himself off; his clothes were almost entirely gone at this point. “It has several cores. I keep damaging them, but it can heal them as well, so it has been an annoying problem.”

Julius tilted his head curiously and mentally apologized to Isaac. It would appear that the man had some kind of plan after all. He wasn’t just pointlessly wailing on the beast. His opinion of Isaac was raised a bit.

“Where are the cores?”

Isaac shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve been guessing.”

Julius pinched his nose and immediately revised his opinion of him. This guy was an idiot. He should have kept Riven here with him. At least he would have been more useful.