Path to Transcendence

He had been anticipating this fight for the past several days. Truth be told, he hadn’t really wanted to attend this tournament. For a person like him, it wasn’t that worth it. The only real thing he would get out of it was the prestige and notoriety. But that wasn’t something he had to worry about either.
His master’s name was already following Riven around, tied around his feet like an anchor. There was nowhere he could go without someone knowing his master or his master’s deeds. Valis was a great master and teacher, but his past caused problems for Riven. Everyone assumed he would be like Valis, but that was far from the truth.
Of course, the unique treasures he might gain would be worth it, but that wasn't an absolute certainty. Just because he was strong didn’t mean he would get the opportunity to find something special. That relied on pure luck, and if that was the case, then he would have preferred to go out in the wilderness to test his luck there.
Master Valis didn’t think that was the best decision. He wanted Riven to spend more time with people his age, not just training and fighting monsters. Something about balancing out his path if he ever wanted to advance past Tier 5. Riven was half convinced it was bullshit, just something his master said to force Riven to go along with it.
But then he found Julius. Someone he could actually test his skills against. He might even gain a few skill levels out of it.
He was glad to see that Julius lived up to the anticipation. Riven was forced to block the insanely sturdy spikes of mana. These constructs were another reason why he wanted to fight Julius again. They were very different from any other constructs he had come across.
It almost felt like it was a combination of aura and mana, but much more powerful. The fusion of mana and aura wasn’t something that Riven was unaware of. He had been trying to accomplish it for the past year or so, but without any luck.
Yet, this black haired boy had managed to do something that he hadn’t. Not only that, but it was more powerful than what Riven had been going after. A technique stronger than the sum of its parts.
If that were the only thing he had to worry about, then Riven would have still won the fight. But for some reason, his opponent was insane and must have dedicated an insane amount of time to every kind of ability in existence.
Deadly in close combat, the perception of a Scorchwind Sentinel, mana control not far away from Riven’s, aura control surpassing most Tier 3 beastkins, and a willpower that belonged to a Tier 4.
Who in the nine hells does something like that? Who is able to train for that long? He knew better than anyone what kind of advantages talent gets you. But he couldn’t sense a single affinity higher than mere ‘high’.
Plus, nobody was that talented. Talent was a simple head start on other people, but pure talent would never surpass the experience of a trained veteran.
It still took work.
However, it was as if this other boy had trained without sleeping. There is no other way he had the time to train so many skills and techniques, especially considering how young he was. He was younger than Riven, which was crazy.
Riven would have found it more believable if Julius were some kind of ancient immortal who found a way to resurrect themselves. And he would have believed it, if not for the small mistakes he sensed within his opponent’s mana control. They were very minor and so small that nobody would be able to tell. But for someone like Riven or an old resurrected monster, it would be very apparent.
He kept on trying new things. He had established that Julius didn’t have any kind of mana resistance skill. His initial belief that it was some kind of natural fire resistance proved correct. But that still didn’t explain how he managed to survive without a scratch, especially without a perfect fire affinity like the one he had.
His bafflement grew with each moment he fought Julius. He had thought that only people like Eren or Isaac could challenge him. Maybe even that Casey girl, but she was weird. With her soul magic, it was hard to say how strong she really was. Plus, with his protections in place, soul magic would be much less effective on him.
He stared at where Julius was dodging his mana bolts and sending back his own spikes into the sky. Somehow, the boy had been able to track where Riven was despite his excellent stealth skill combined with illusion magic.
As he blocked these spikes, his gaze was stuck on the misshapen lump of metal on the other boy’s head. For some reason, he felt a weird sense of uneasiness whenever he stared at it.
Julius hadn’t been wearing that ugly thing the last time Riven saw him. He wondered if it was something he had grabbed as a treasure.
As he was thinking what to do, he frowned when the last of his barriers shattered like glass under the onslaught of these powerful spikes. However, just as he was about to teleport away, he widened his eyes when he felt Julius’s aura smash against him, disrupting his teleport skill.
He was forced to react as quickly as he could, pushing as much mana into his robes as possible. Then he waved his staff in front of himself, doing his best to absorb as much damage as possible.
However, he knew it was still going to hurt and gritted his teeth as one of those aura-enhanced spikes slammed into his torso. The protection of his robes ensured that he wasn’t speared through the chest, but it still hurt like hell. It felt like someone had dropped a mountain right on his ribcage. He felt several of his bones break and started to bleed internally.
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He quickly ripped apart the aura that had disrupted his skill. He flinched in pain when the aura bit back at him. He had no idea what kind of aura Julius had, but it was a nasty one. You rarely saw an aura so focused on pure destruction. Auras like those were often cultivated in extreme environments. Places that were heavily influenced by death and desolation.
That posed the question of how he managed to get such an aura at his age. It certainly wasn’t normal.
It wasn’t like he could focus on that right now. He tucked those worries away and activated some of the talismans he created. The surge of life mana felt refreshing, and he grunted when he felt his ribs snap back into place.
These talismans were amazing. They were relatively easy to make, only taking several minutes to create one. They also worked very fast, an essential detail in a fight. The main downside was the stress it put on his body.
Despite his many talents and affinities, life mana was not one of them. This meant he could only use so many before they slowly stopped working. Instead of healing him, they actually start to cause cancerous mutations. That wasn’t something he wanted to deal with. So he had to be conservative with them.
He was in the middle of healing when his danger-sensing skill pinged him aggressively, and he was barely in time, blasting himself with some wind magic, throwing his body away. The spike tore through the barrier he had created and nicked his shoulder. Thankfully, the talisman still had some juice and was already healing the wound.
However, before he could be attacked again, he quickly teleported away, attempting to gain some distance. He managed to deflect the aura strike that was trying to interrupt his spatial skill, but it still caused him to miss his intended location.
He started to prepare a runic circle now that he had gained some space. His skills aided the process, and the runes glowed in the middle of the sky around them.
At least that was what he wanted to do. Before he even got the chance, he was absolutely swarmed by two dozen projectiles. It took everything in his power to avoid the spikes; he was hurting his own body with how quickly he was using wind magic, and was forced to use another talisman to heal himself.
He tried to infuse his body with as much mana as he could, trying to enforce its durability, but there was only so much he could do. He wasn’t a warrior, and his master had planned to help him fix this particular weakness after he had advanced to Tier 4. Apparently, he would be able to consume a bunch more natural treasures at Tier 4 and then strengthen his body.
It wouldn’t be as good as a typical warrior, but with how he had prepared his body for the past few years, the differences would be pretty small. Small enough that he wouldn’t have to deal with this exact same issue.
More importantly, Riven had no idea how Julius was finding him so quickly. With his stealth skill, it should have given him some time to breathe, even if he had found a way to get by it. However, from what Riven could tell, it was like his opponent already knew exactly where he would appear.
It felt just like when he would spar with his master. It was as if…
, he realized with a sigh of disbelief.
How someone managed to get something like that in Tier 3 was beyond him. It was also impressive that he could use it at such a high level; most Tier 3s wouldn’t be able to process the information. At least not without years of practice to get used to it.
With all that being said, there must be a weakness of some kind if he indeed had a spatial sense skill.
The only problem was that he didn’t have enough room to even breathe with all of the attacks coming his way. His focus skill helped him remain calm, but the pressure was ridiculous—spike after spike rained down on him.
The explosions bombarding him were stronger than many of the attacks he had experienced from Tier 4 monsters. It was incredible. Riven had to get Julius to show him how he managed to create constructs this powerful.
It was just another incentive to win now.
Still, that was easier said than done. It was hard to win when he wasn’t even able to weave together an offensive spell or two. He was too busy creating barrier after barrier or flinging himself around the sky with wind magic. Everything he did was under the pressure of the crazy boy’s aura. It was hammering into him with relentless force; it was all he could do to make sure that he could still use his teleportation skill when needed.
He was waiting for Julius’s mana to run out, but based on the sheer flood of spikes coming his way, Riven already suspected that the other boy had a shit ton of mana to spare.
He had to do something to flip the momentum, and so he decided to use one of his trump cards.
He grimaced when he teleported himself away as far as possible. Then, before the spikes could track his position once more, he channeled a lot of mana through his body. He could feel it breaking down under the extreme flow; it wasn’t meant to withstand such power.
However, he ignored it and activated two more healing talismans as well as a simple revigorating healing spell he had learned after much trouble.
This was all to help him prepare.
He took hold of all of this mana and all of his Concepts. The power was intense, and he was barely able to wrangle them together. It was like trying to juggle ten different-sized swords at the same time. One mistake and he would lose a limb.
He kept it relatively simple, using his water magic as the primary focus, then slowly incorporating his wind and earth magic into the fold. A field of surging water, wind, and earth magic crashed into existence.
It was like all the power of a hurricane had been condensed into an area of a hundred feet. The power he held at his fingertips was enthralling, and he felt his heart start to race with exhilaration.
The pressure from the mana and Concepts was so powerful that he noticed several nearby monsters and people slumped to the ground on their knees. His aura and willpower helped stabilize everything. But it was barely enough, and he could already feel his hold over the technique start to flag.
His body was also breaking down from the mana being channeled through it. However, on the bright side, the spikes were no longer able to break through. The field he had created was enough to rip them apart before they could do any damage to him or, at the very least, blow them off course.
However, to his surprise, Julius wasn’t backing away from this enormous concentration of mana and sheer power. Instead, he was already dashing in with a grin on his face.
Riven couldn’t help but respond with the same grin and, with a grunt of effort, sent this field at his rushing opponent. If Julius survived this, then Riven didn’t know what to do.