Path to Transcendence

Julius and Lyra both climbed down into the ravine. There was a small pathway that led into it, but he noticed some distinct markings on the wall. She did as well, taking the time to inspect them as they walked past.
To his interest, these markings flared not long after they went past. If he didn’t know any better, these markings were some kind of alarm system. He became even more convinced when he suddenly felt multiple bodies start to move toward their position.
Julius had already created several mana constructs around his hands, their brilliant blue shining in the dim lighting of the ravine. Lyra clenched her hands tightly as she, too, must have noticed the approach of the enemies. However, lying just beneath her nervous exterior was a hint of excitement.
Julius smiled at her reaction, and before he could explain anything to her, he took off with a burst of kinetic energy. He needed some practice, and this might be the perfect chance.
He had seen how these unique goblins fought and didn’t let them dictate the pace. He wanted to fight them on his terms, so before they could greet him, he greeted them instead.
Just as they were rounding the corner, they were met with a wild Julius in their faces. Their shock delayed their reaction for a brief moment, but their incredible speed saved them from being entirely run over.
The first goblin managed to slash its ugly-looking shortsword at Julius. Its comrades quickly followed suit.
Julius didn’t care; he didn’t even bother to dodge the sword. He used a burst of kinetic energy to knock the sword to the side. The blade passed inches away from his face, and he stepped forward. The smaller monster attempted to react with its speed, but Julius was faster. His fist was already slamming into the throat of these cruel little creatures.
He let all of the force of his blow penetrate deeply into the goblin and watched as the back of the monster’s neck exploded open. Green blood went everywhere, spraying the other goblins with gore.
Their previously smirking faces were nowhere to be seen, and they were scrabbling backwards as Julius continued to force his way to them. He ducked underneath a hastily thrown dagger and was somewhat intrigued by the disruptive pulse of mana he felt come from a few of these goblins.
He wondered if this was why the other humans had a hard time fighting these little monsters. This pulse seemed to focus on disrupting his enforcement skill, and it was pretty potent. If not for his stronger willpower and dominant control of his mana, he might have been caught off guard.
However, that wasn’t the case. His willpower held firm, and he shrugged off this pulse of mana. Then he used another burst of kinetic energy to close the distance. He used a little too much, and he could feel the ground explode beneath his feet. He went too fast, and the only way to stop himself was to grab the nearest thing. That happened to be another goblin.
He snatched the monster by its throat, and before it could realize what was happening, he squeezed with another pulse of kinetic energy, blowing open its throat. He tore his arm back, ripping the monster’s head from its shoulders without hesitation.
He then grabbed the body of the monster and used it as a shield to block the attacks of the retaliating goblins. Multiple swords and spears stabbed into the dead body, and Julius turned around, sensing the flanking goblin. He had seen what happened to the spearman and knew these monsters’ little tricks.
It had a stealth skill, but it didn’t match up to Seraphyne’s. Not even close. It might as well have a glowing neon sign above its head in comparison.
He snatched the goblin by its wrist and, with a twist of his body, swung it downward with all of his might. He felt some of his muscles tear from the intense influx of kinetic energy, but his skill healed it immediately, already used to his fighting style.
The goblin’s forearm was pulled apart by the torque he generated, and instead of slamming the goblin downward, it went flying off into the nearby wall. Still, the force was so great that it left nothing more than a smear on the rocky surface.
he reminded himself. He could already hear Cain’s voice in his head. The man would have punished Julius for his lack of control.
Julius was just excited to let off some steam and accidentally went a little too hard.
He did want to test some things, though. He glanced down at his construct-covered fists; they were still just as hard as usual, but he didn’t feel like he was getting much use out of them. They were more for parrying sword strikes without damaging his hands.
He recalled Cassandra’s advice and came up with an idea.
“Give me one second, I want to try something,” he said to the goblins, crowding around him. They were very wary of him since they saw him slaughter three of their brethren with ease. None of them made a move to attack him, which was perfect for the time being.
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He noticed that Lyra had already caught up to him and was taking in all the damage around them. The goblins, cretins they were, seemed to think that she was an easier target and must have come to the conclusion that they would rather fight her than him.
Several of them had already dashed to attack her. Her eyes went wide, and she had no other choice but to defend herself. Julius was impressed by how fast she moved. He knew that she likely focused on speed and agility, but her speed was on par with, if not faster than, these goblins.
She either evaded or parried the attacks with a decent level of skill. Once he was confident that she wouldn’t be overrun right away, he looked back at the goblins who were still staring at him warily. They were barking at one another, gesturing toward him almost like they were arguing over who should go in first.
It was funny to him, and while they were busy doing that, he began to make adjustments to his constructs. The rigid method that he used to create his constructs was something he was working on.
He placed a lot of his focus on breaking down the structure of his constructs, then, with another part of his mind, he held the loose fire mana together. What resulted was a soft, flickering blue flame surrounding his fists. It was surprisingly hard to keep it all together.
Unlike his constructs that felt like they snapped into place, these flames required his attention at all times. However, these flames were also much hotter than his normal constructs. Heat was just a byproduct of his typical constructs. His plan for the flames was to use the heat as the primary offensive weapon.
He let his Phoenix Concept flow through him. His Concept had previously been a Fire Concept before it evolved into a Phoenix Concept, and he leveraged that bit of it. He encouraged the flames to breathe, to keep on building and getting hotter.
The soft flickering gradually turned into a denser and more vibrant blue. He could feel the heat from his hands burning the air around him. He didn’t stop there and kept on feeding them more mana and more of his Concepts.
The goblins must have realized that he was preparing something, because they suddenly all decided to attack him. He was tempted to freeze them in place with his kinetic energy, but that felt like cheating. He wanted to test how well these flames worked and didn’t want to rely too heavily on his kinetic energy.
He stepped back from the swarm of attacks. Leaning backwards, letting the blades pass by his nose. The monsters attacked him with a frenzied intensity, but he kept his calm and kept dodging them.
While he was avoiding them, he kept on working on his flames. They were hot, but they weren’t what he was looking for. He made some adjustments, and when a goblin got too close, he gave it a little smack, tossing it to the side.
He examined the effects his flame had and was somewhat pleased to see that it worked. The hot flames had scorched the goblin’s skin, and the monster screamed out in pain.
However, it wasn’t what he was looking for. Right now, the flames were simply hot, but he wanted more. He wanted something that would add a different aspect to them.
So without hesitation, he utilized [Spirit Fortification] and began to weave aura into these flames. This was a hard thing to accomplish; he hadn’t done something quite like this before. But he managed to mash his mana and aura together. It wasn’t as pretty as his constructs, but it worked for the time being.
The unfortunate consequence of this was that the flames became increasingly potent. His natural fire resistance was only able to help him so much, and he felt the fire begin to hurt him more than the goblins.
His hands started to scorch as his skin blistered from the intense heat. His aura was also not doing him any favors. The ruinous aspect of his aura was doing its best to destroy everything in its path. This included his own body at the moment.
He quickly used some generous pulses of healing to prevent his hand from disintegrating, but that was all he was able to do. The flames were doing so much damage to his hands that his overpowered healing skill wasn’t able to keep up.
However, he wanted to see them in action first. So he endured, and when the next goblin got within striking distance, he made his move. His head moved to the side as the blade stabbed at him, and he took a step forward, grabbing the arm of the goblin.
The scent of burning flesh immediately hit his nose, and the goblin cried out in pain as its arm was burned black. The blue flames were ridiculously hot, and despite the goblin’s attempts at disrupting them with whatever skill it had, the flames kept on going.
Julius let go and kicked the goblin in its chest. He swayed out of the way of the relentless swarm of attacks and parried the occasional unavoidable strike. His eyes kept focused on the goblin he had set on fire. The flames were still going, and it was almost like his aura fed on the goblin’s attempt to get rid of it.
His ruinous aura was using its destruction as fuel for it to grow. It wasn’t an expected outcome, but it was a welcome one nonetheless.
Next, he tried to take control of this fire remotely, much like how he did with his constructs. He was disappointed when he found himself unable to do so. He basically had almost no control over these flames. It was like they were completely wild and free. Still, these flames were so powerful that the goblin’s entire forearm turned to ash within the span of several seconds.
Julius was forced to dissipate his own flames for the time being. As much as he wanted to continue using these flames, the fact remained that he was hurting himself more than he was hurting the enemy.
It was clear that he needed a better way to handle these flames. However, he was also very excited about the possibilities that these flames showed. Their destructive ability, enhanced by his aura, was utterly terrifying. If it was enough to hurt him, he couldn’t imagine what kind of damage he could do to his opponents.
He let his blistered hands heal and began to think of ways to improve them. As he did this, he worked on more delicate techniques involving his kinetic energy. His movements were still a bit sloppy, as evidenced by his recent dash, which had used too much kinetic energy.
He leaned out of the way of another spear and snatched it out of the goblin’s hands. Then, without a sharp burst of kinetic energy, he spun around and speared the creature in the chest with its own weapon. He gave it a brutal front kick for good measure, breaking several of its ribs.
Then he turned back to look at his fists with a loving smile and lost himself as he imagined all of the different ways he could utilize these flames. It was going to be a fun day.