Path to Transcendence

Chapter 552: Edgarʼs Match

Julius watched with bated breath as Edgar ran across the field. His large friend had been matched up against a young woman who happened to be a skilled mage. To be honest, it was a bad matchup for his friend.

Edgar specialized in close combat, and for as long as Julius knew him, had problems dealing with mages or long-range attacks. Edgar had been trying his best to deal with this weakness, but there was only so much he could do.

There was a reason why most people joined a team. Not everyone could be skilled in all areas, so they needed teammates to cover their weaknesses. Julius was a bit of an anomaly in this sense. He had a varied kit of abilities that allowed him to stand on equal footing with any opponent. While he wasn’t the most skilled in each area compared to geniuses such as Riven or Isaac, he had so many options at his disposal.

Still, Edgar had worked hard to limit the advantage mages had over him. He wasn’t as vulnerable as he used to be, and it showed. The fact that he was able to withstand this mage’s attacks was proof of his hard work. A year ago, Edgar wouldn’t have had a chance against his opponent.

Julius leaned forward, elbows placed on his knees. He didn’t blink as he watched Edgar either sidestep or bash his fists against the flood of attacks.

His opponent was clearly trying to wear Edgar down. She was hovering high in the air, standing on a platform of mana, shooting simple bolts of mana down at Edgar. While she didn’t have a flying skill, this height advantage was annoying for Edgar, who was limited in long-range attacks.

Edgar did shoot several blasts of concentrated fire and earth magic at her, but several powerful barriers protected her. Edgar had certainly improved his long-range attacks, but against a mage of this caliber, they weren’t enough to punch through.

However, just as Edgar wasn’t able to hit her, she wasn’t able to hit him, or at least hit him for any meaningful damage.

Edgar’s body glowed a deep red as his enhancement skill protected him against these attacks. These mana bolts were strong, definitely an advanced version of what Julius usually saw from mages, but against Edgar’s defenses, they weren’t able to do much.

At first glance, it looked like the mage had the upper hand. However, Julius was able to tell that the mage was using a lot more mana than Edgar was. While Edgar was expending stamina running around, she was forced to use her mana pool. Julius knew that Edgar’s skills and body enhancement skills were very mana efficient relative to their output.

It was why Edgar always drew Aubrey into battles of attrition. So when he saw the fight going in this direction, he couldn’t help but smile to himself. He saw that Aubrey had the same smile on her face as she watched Edgar.

A couple of minutes later, after the most recent salvo of mana bolts cleared up, Julius spotted the mage looking a little weary. She hadn’t just been trying to rain down projectiles on Edgar, but she had also been trying to contain his movements.

She tried to trap him in barriers, but Edgar was either too fast or too strong, and broke out of them whenever she managed to catch him. She had also tried to lock him down with some kind of skill that used thick ropes of mana. They had twisted around Edgar’s limbs and did their best to restrain him. However, Edgar burned them until they vanished into particles of mana.

Julius smiled when he saw that she didn’t go for this again. He knew from fighting Edgar that the skill his friend used to burn these bindings consumed a relatively large amount of mana and stamina. He made it a point during their spars to force Edgar to use this skill as often as possible.

However, she must not have recognized this, and instead of continuing to use these ropes of mana, she kept on using her barriers to trap him or limit the angles he could dodge her mana bolts.

Or maybe she did recognize this and chose not to pursue it. The ropes did seem like they contained a lot of mana, so perhaps she was more worried about running out of her own mana.

The fight had been going on for a while at this point. The crowd wasn’t the most enthused about the slow, drawn-out battle, but Julius had placed all of his attention on the fight.

He sat up, and his eyes sparkled when he finally spotted an opening that Edgar could take. He wanted to shout at Edgar, but knowing that Edgar wouldn’t be able to hear him prevented him from doing so.

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Thankfully, Edgar must have seen this opening as well, because for the first time during the fight, he flared brightly with fire and earth mana.

Julius grinned, and Aubrey cheered beside him, yelling at her friend to finish it.

Sure, Edgar was talented in fire and earth mana. But Julius had quickly learned that the fourth year had an even better talent.

Edgar was a genius at understanding opportunities and capitalizing on them. It was why he was such a monster in close combat. Edgar had such an instinctual understanding of these things, and it was on full display.

The mage, who had been slowing down, finally let her foot off the gas, and this was when Edgar made his move. Julius felt a surge of mana from Edgar, and the mage must have sensed it as well because she reacted as quickly as she could.

But considering she was a mage, her reactions were a second too late. Edgar was already blasting his way up to the mage’s platform, through the dust and debris.

He was moving so fast that he was already halfway to her by the time she finally realized what was going on. A wave of mana crashed on Edgar, as if trying to keep him at bay. However, it wasn’t enough.

Edgar powered through it, and despite the barriers still around his opponent, he shattered them with brute force. He had finally used one of his trump cards, [Volcanic Disaster].

Burning hot magma exploded from Edgar’s body, tearing through the barrier and collapsing onto the mage with no routes to escape. The power behind this skill was many times larger than what Julius had ever experienced from Edgar.

He saw the panic on the mageʼs face, and she tried to escape, using some kind of movement skill. Still, Edgar must have added a disruptive effect to this powerful attack. Whatever skill the mage was attempting to use faltered for a brief second.

For the first time during this fight, Edgar had broken through, and he made sure it counted. His fist crashed into his opponent’s stomach. She folded inward from the massive blow.

Another wave of mana rushed out of her as she desperately tried to gain space. There was no form of elegance or subtlety. It was a pure blast of mana with no concerns of efficiency. With that being said, it worked, and more importantly, it was devastating.

However, Edgar still didn’t allow her to get away from him. He had been patiently waiting for this moment the entire fight and wasn’t going to let her reset. He didn’t bother to dodge or even block the powerful blast of mana. He took the attack straight to his face, letting his body receive the damage and worry about the consequences later.

Large gashes appeared all over his body as his defenses were overwhelmed. But he stayed close, letting the magma from his skill collapse on her once again. She was so worried about this magma and deployed every barrier she could. However, this meant that she failed to notice that Edgar was already right in front of her face until it was too late.

Julius winced when she took a brutal uppercut to the chin. Her eyes went blank, and Edgar didn’t show any mercy. He hammered her again with a deafening elbow to the face. He then grabbed her by the neck and, with a tightening of his muscles, threw her toward the ground, following right behind her.

A huge hole was created from the impact of her slamming against the stone surface. She moaned from the pain and wasn’t able to recover before Edgar was right on top of her. He was already wrapping his legs around her and tying her up like a pretzel, making sure she didn’t have an ounce of leverage to move around.

Her staff was ripped from her hands, and Edgar slammed the crown of his head into her nose repeatedly.

To her credit, she was still fighting back, desperately trying to claw herself away. But her lack of physical strength was making it impossible. She was utterly helpless as Edgar’s overwhelming strength pinned her down.

Large bolts of mana crashed into Edgar. She clearly didn’t care about hurting herself at this moment, but Edgar also didn’t care. He soaked up the damage and pummeled her with everything he had.

Pulses of white and red light flashed from this hole in the ground. Julius was forced to use his perception skill to see what was going on.

All of the mana Edgar had been conserving was being used as constant blasts of fire flooded from his body. Destroying any attack and defense the mage tried to put up. His magma was the worst part.

[Volcanic Disaster] was showing why it was Edgar’s trump card. The skill obliterated the mage’s defenses, and despite the wicked blows she was taking from Edgar’s punches and headbutts, it was the magma that finally did her in.

Her last barrier around her skin was punctured, and that was the end of it. She screamed as the scorching magma touched her bare skin, burning a hole in her flesh.

The attacks from her end slowed to a snailʼs pace until there were only flashes of red light in the destroyed center of the arena. He heard the crowd murmur worriedly when the screams continued for over ten seconds.

However, it finally came to an end when a white light surrounded the mage’s body, and she was transported away, rescued by the life-saving enchantments.

Edgar, on the other hand, was gasping on his knees when the dust settled. Julius could sense the strain his friend was feeling. His body was covered in wounds, and the red aura around him flickered, barely active at this point.

However, there was a smile on Edgar’s face. It might have been harder than expected, but Julius’s friend was able to come out on top. And at the end of the day, that was sometimes all that mattered.

Julius stood up, clapping, all the while trying not to get knocked over by Aubrey and Lily’s excited squeals as they jumped on him and Derek as they cheered for Edgar.