Path to Transcendence

Chapter 601: Offering a Deal to a Bandit

Julius winced as he watched the axe warrior retreat in fear. He had to stop himself from apologizing to the terrified Tier 4 in front of him. In his excitement, he might have been a bit hasty and scared the enemy too much. He wanted to test things, but it was hard to do that when his opponents ran away from him.

The life reinforcement wasn’t extremely effective, but his body was already quite strong, and any enhancements would only exaggerate it. He looked over at where the archer had been and used some of his aura to pull the man’s axe back to him and handed it over with a cheerful grin.

“Here, take it.”

For some reason, the man didn’t accept his offer. Julius looked at the axe and noticed that it was still covered in the archer’s fluids. “Sorry, my bad,” he said apologetically and wiped down the blood with his aura, reaching the axe out again.

Instead of taking it, the burly man started to run away. Julius frowned and used a quick [Void Step] to appear in front of the man and practically threw the axe at him. “Here, just fucking take it and swing it at me. I want to try some stuff, and you seem like the perfect person to do that.”

The warrior’s aura pulsed with even more fear and anxiety as he stared at Julius. His hands shook as he finally took the axe from Julius’s hands.

“Who are you?”

Julius smiled brightly. “Just a normal guy trying to get used to his advancement. If you would be so kind as to swing that axe at me with all of your might, I would be forever grateful.”

“I don’t want to fight you,” the man said, his eyes quivering with fear.

“How about we make a deal? How does that sound?”

“A deal?” There was a little bit of hope in the man’s expression.

He nodded excitedly. “Yeah, if you help me out with what I need well enough, then I won’t kill you for trying to kill and steal from these lovely innocent people,” Julius offered.

He could see that the man wasn’t going to believe him very easily. But Julius wanted to convince the man. From what he had seen, the man was quite strong, and his skills would probably make for a very good test for what he wanted.

“Look, I just want you to swing that axe at me several times, okay? I am willing to—” He paused and glanced over at where a Tier 4 had knocked one of the guards down and was about to deliver a killing or crippling blow. He quickly snatched the axe back from the axe warrior, teleported over, and smashed the stolen axe into the banditʼs skull.

The surprise attack, on top of using such a large weapon, meant the man didn’t stand a chance. His head was crushed like a watermelon, and the guard who was on his ass in front of him was doused in blood.

Julius gave the man a good-natured grin and teleported back to the axe warrior, handing back the weapon, blood still dripping on its edge.

“So what do you say? We gotta deal?”

The warrior mumbled what sounded like a yes and took the axe once more, hugging it to his chest like a safety blanket.

“Okay, so I just want you to give me like a fifty percent swing at my chest.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. I want to see if something works.”

The man looked suspicious, as if he had an ulterior motive or was up to some kind of trick. But after a few moments, he nodded and prepared a swing.

Julius wasnʼt concerned. He wanted to see the difference in how [Spirit Fortification] affected his constructs and his body. The skill primarily worked off his aura and his aura control. But now that he was in Tier 4, his aura was stronger. Did that mean [Spirit Fortification] was stronger as well?

He created a thin sheet of mana over his chest, reinforcing it with his aura. It didn’t feel that much different, but he wanted to see for himself.

He gave the signal that he was ready, and the axe warrior swung the blade at his chest. The thin sheet of mana looked fragile, but it was quite strong. The axe slammed into the barrier, and while cracks appeared along its surface, the damage was minimal.

“Okay, go full power,” Julius said with a furrow of his brow and repaired the sheet of mana, making sure it was in the exact same condition as before.

The axe warrior seemed a little excited about the request. He tried to hide it from Julius, but his eagerness shone through. He probably thought he had a chance to kill Julius. Little did he know that it would take a lot to kill Julius now. Especially after the body evolution and his advancement.

With all of the mana that the man could bring forth, the axe slammed into the thin sheet of mana, and it shattered after a brief moment of strain. Julius felt the axe bite into his chest, digging deep into his ribcage and puncturing his lungs. He saw the hopeful look on the axe warriorʼs face as he dug the axe deeper, letting off an explosion while the axe was still lodged inside him.

His organs were damaged, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

The warrior must have suddenly regained some confidence, seeing Julius inflicted with such a gruesome injury. Julius sensed a surge of pride and arrogance erupt from the man’s aura.

“Haha! Fucking cocky little shit,” the man laughed at his injured body, giving his body a kick as he lay there.

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Apparently, his fear of Julius was already gone. It was a shame too. Julius really had been about to let the man live if he helped him out. Too bad he couldn’t just be a good helper and ruin it.

Julius watched as the man brought the axe back up for another swing and let out a sigh when he used his new skill, [Field of the Shattered Will].

The new superior epic skill was strong. Very strong.

It encapsulated everything he had done with his kinetic energy during this past year. It combined aspects of his most used techniques into a single skill. One of these aspects was the immobilization technique he learned early on.

The kinetic energy in the field collapsed onto the warrior, preventing the man from moving, and his axe froze mid-slash. His wounds were already healing rapidly, despite not using [Phoenix Renewal]. It was quite insane to see his passive regeneration in action.

On the other hand, he hummed amusedly when he spotted the fear return to the bandit’s face, and he had the perfect opportunity to test the Shattered Will part of the skill.

When he had used the immobilization technique before, it required him to fight and beat down the enemy’s willpower. It was very much the same with his new skill, only now he got a small boost from it.

His willpower, which was already quite powerful, was further augmented by the skill. That didn’t even include his new Seed of Authority. Phoenix’s Ruin was a powerful authority, and when infused with his will, it became a force of absolute destruction.

The Tier 4 wasn’t even able to cry out before Julius shattered the man’s will ruthlessly. He didn’t stop there either. He continued to collapse the kinetic energy inward, suffusing the entire field with as much as possible.

This was another experiment of his, and since the axe warrior hadn’t gone along with their agreed-upon plan, he could help Julius with another test.

This test was about how much kinetic energy Julius could jam into his field at once. He didn’t even know if there was a limit at all.

He shrugged. He was about to find out.

His body pulsed slowly and rhythmically as more and more kinetic energy was added to the field. The amount of kinetic energy he generated was a lot more than he used to be able to. All of this energy was shoved into the field.

As this happened, small localized explosions occurred inside his field. Much like when he first received [Kinetic Energy Refinement], his kinetic energy had undergone a transformation. He could already tell it was more potent, making it harder to control.

It required a good chunk of his concentration to handle it all. On the bright side, it was very effective. These explosions began to take out chunks of the man’s armor and skin. The metal chestplate took the brunt of the damage, but he could tell that the man was experiencing internal injuries on top of this.

Eventually, he reached what felt like his limit. He was no longer able to condense his kinetic energy any further. But he had a few tricks up his sleeve, and using his [Spirit Fortification] skill as a medium, he began to channel his aura as well.

This turned out to be a mistake. He immediately felt the field become unstable. He did his best to control it, but the ruinous aspect of his aura and authority was a lot to handle.

He could do nothing as the field detonated like a massive hand grenade. All of the accumulated kinetic energy exploded outwards, tore through the surrounding area, and created a ten-foot crater.

He was a little too close and got caught up in the blast. He could feel his already injured body experience even more punishment, but still tried to absorb as much energy as he could.

As for the axe warrior… well… All that was left was a pile of flesh with a broken chestplate on top of it. Shockingly, the axe managed to survive. Sure, it had seen better days, but Julius was surprised that there were only a few large scrapes on its surface. The leather grip could use a replacement, but that was easy for him to do.

There were no cracks or anything running along its surface, and with an interested nod to himself, he tossed the axe up and down. The balance was nice; it was heavy, but with his new strength, it was quite easy to hold.

Perhaps he would pick up some axe lessons if possible. He kind of enjoyed the way the weapon felt in his hands. In a way, it felt like it suited his fighting style. More than the sword, at least. He still liked the staff, but sometimes he wanted something with an actual edge.

He looked over and saw that the guards were still trying to stave off the attackers. They had accumulated some injuries, but none of them had died yet.

He played with the axe for a little bit, but noticed that Maya and Shin were standing right next to him. Their faces were white in shock. They were staring at his bloodied torso and gruesome injuries.

They weren’t astonished at the wounds themselves. No, it would appear they were surprised at how quickly he was healing his injuries. They were a bit deeper, so he used his healing skill to stitch his flesh back together. He nodded to himself; he was very pleased by the speed of his healing.

“Are you guys okay?” He asked them.

They nodded, faces still pale with shock. He shrugged and let them come to terms with whatever was going on in their minds and twirled his new axe, heading for the other Tier 4s attacking the caravan.

Julius’s curiosities had been somewhat settled, and so he decided to finally step in. He inspected the bandits and noticed that their leader called for a retreat of some kind. They must have seen Julius kill the other three Tier 4s and decided to call it quits.

Unfortunately for them, it was too late for that. Julius teleported to the person he had sensed a lot of support magic coming from. His new axe was already falling down like a meteor.

Several strong shields appeared over the mage’s head, and the axe slammed into them with an earshattering force. The shields were quite strong and blocked his strike.

Julius didn’t let up, though, and within a few seconds, he had already delivered three powerful blows. Each one was more vicious than the other until the barrier shattered and the mage was split in half.

When they saw this, the bandits all gave up on trying to help one another and made a break for it. Too bad for them, Julius had already expanded his field the moment he teleported in their midst. The field wasn’t that large, only about ten feet wide, but it was enough for his purposes.

He crushed the people who were stuck inside and disrupted the othersʼ attempts to escape with his mana and willpower. Someone tried to use a teleportation skill, but Julius stalled them long enough that he was able to cross the distance and decapitate them with the axe.

He spun in a circle and knocked aside the giant boulder threatening to crush him. A blast of kinetic energy knocked the earth magic user backwards and teleported in front of them. All it took was a few brutal swings, and the man was cut in half.

He was about to chase down the rest of the bandits, but the guards were already on top of that. They were stabbing the escaping bandits in the back and cutting off their feet. Julius watched all of this with a quiet nod to himself.

Then he looked over at Shin and Maya, the two disciples of the Burning Sun Sect, who were staring at him with odd expressions on their faces. He saw a little bit of fear and wariness from Shin. He felt that was normal. But then he saw a weird look of excitement and hope on Maya’s face when she watched him clean the blood off the axe.

He couldnʼt help but feel a little nervous when she started to make her way towards him. However, instead of opening that can of worms, he decided to ignore her entirely and quickly walked in the opposite direction.