Path to Transcendence

There were only a few people he had been hoping to avoid during the initial rounds. Isaac Draven was probably at the top of his list. It wasn’t even about the strength of the crazy guy, either; that was a whole other issue.
It had more to do with the insane nature of his personality. He had heard rumors, but he had seen firsthand how absurd Isaac was. It was hard to watch sometimes, almost like watching a bipolar child with obscene strength go about things.
He wasn’t a bad guy by any means. Erik was sure of that. However, it still felt like walking next to a ticking time bomb.
Of course, there were also people like Eren and Riven, but they were other kinds of threats. Predictable threats. Erik had no delusions about winning against either of them, but at least he knew how it would end.
With Isaac, he didn’t know if he was going to become the guy’s friend or if the massive teen was going to rip him into two pieces.
This same fear extended to Julius Snow—the mysterious teen who had appeared out of nowhere.
Erik didn’t even know if that was the young black haired teen’s real name. Erik’s family had done their research and had found very little under that name. There was some information about him, but that was from the past year. That was it. Nothing from before, only some sparse information that could or could not be true.
Even the Sentinel Guild, the guild he planned on joining after he graduated, didn't find anything. With all of their resources and contacts, nothing showed up about Julius Snow except for what his family already gathered.
But Erik and most of the other competitors who made it had already seen Julius in action. They knew that he was a monster. That fight with Riven had made that very clear. Everyone who wasn’t busy fighting for their lives watched as Julius overwhelmed their generation's top talent with little issue.
Erik had no idea what would happen if he were to fight someone like that. And thanks to his immaculate luck, he was fortunate enough to be paired with him.
May the gods have mercy on him.
Even with all his skills activated and his [Bulwark Body] at full strength, he still lacked confidence. Regardless, it wasn’t like he had any other choice. He was forced to fight until the end.
It would look really bad if he gave up before he even tried. He might have been kicked out of his new guild if they saw him forfeit.
The Sentinels Guild wasn’t just any guild. They were one of the preeminent guilds on the continent. They were one of the few guilds whose influence stretched across all countries without too many issues.
There was a reason for this. The Sentinels Guild didn’t focus on politics or get involved in any other issues. They cared about one thing.
Protecting their charge.
Anyone could hire them. They were expensive, but they excelled at their job. There were very few organizations on the continent that could compare to them when it came to keeping their clients safe.
The guild didn’t focus only on individuals or the rich, either. They were sometimes contracted or hired by cities or countries to protect certain regions.
The guild wasn’t a mercenary group, though. That was an important distinction.
They wouldn’t take missions that included any conflict with other people. The Sentinel Guild was primarily a monster-hunting organization. That was their true purpose, and the reason Erik had been so drawn to their offer to join them.
It was an extreme honor, one he hadn’t expected. They were notoriously picky about who they let into their guild, and apparently, Erik made the cut. His family had been so proud of him.
Yet, despite this accomplishment, he knew the likelihood of winning today was very low.
However, that didn’t mean he couldn’t try his heart out anyway. If he was going to lose, he was going to lose swinging till the very end.
With that being said, he was a little annoyed that his swings weren’t hitting. He swung at Julius, missing yet again. He didn’t care about losing, but he wanted to hit the damn guy at least. That would make him feel better.
Ever since their first blow was exchanged, it would appear that his opponent was smartly avoiding a direct clash of fists. Erik’s weight seemed his most significant advantage, one he planned to make use of.
However, it was actually hard to land a hit on him. Nothing Erik seemed to do worked. It didn’t help that he wasn’t specialized in hunting his enemies down. His entire build was focused on being a sturdy frontliner who could soak up and deliver enormous amounts of damage. Speed was definitely not his strongest suit.
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He wasn’t slow by any means, but compared to the young boy running circles around him, he felt like he was moving through sand. He shook his head in frustration. It was at times like this that he wished he had tried to gain some long-range options or at least something that would remedy his weakness.
This oversight was really hurting him at the moment.
It didn’t matter what tricks Erik tried; he even got some chances, but with his opponent’s mastery over kinetic energy as well as his powerful body, it was hard to take advantage of these small openings.
The kinetic energy was probably the most annoying thing to deal with at the moment. Each time Erik got close, he felt something sucking all of his momentum from him. There was a field around the young teen’s body. Each of Erik’s blows was automatically weakened the second he got within inches of the boy. What made it even worse was the fact that Julius wasn’t scared of getting in close either. He would purposefully get in close, if only to brush his hand against Erik, absorbing even more of his momentum. However, Erik noticed that his opponent wasn’t striking at any openings.
Perhaps, they felt like it was a trap, but to be honest, it didn’t feel that way. It felt like Julius was toying with him, and Erik didn’t like it. He wasn’t some weak Tier 3; he was a bona fide elite who had made it to the final stage of the Luminous Tournament.
Erik had just about with his current strategy. He wasn’t going to lose like this, and so he let his passionate emotions influence him just a little bit. Metal flowed over his arms and into his favorite weapon.
A massive six-foot-long hammer appeared in his hands, and before his young opponent could comprehend what was going on, he swung the huge weapon, grunting at the effort required from him.
It was by far his slowest attack yet, but he had a different idea in mind. Not to mention the power behind this blow was several times stronger than before. He used his taunting skill, but it was rebuffed by whatever focus skill his opponent had. He didn’t think it mattered either way.
He had a brief clash of wills with Julius and immediately withdrew with a cold sweat on his back. He already had an idea about the boy’s abilities, but that single interaction with his willpower convinced him completely. This boy was terrifying.
He had never come across such a horrifyingly strong will at Tier 3. Perhaps not even at Tier 4. There was something about it that screamed at his instincts and forced him to disengage before he could get hurt.
It was no wonder he had somehow managed to beat that chimera and Riven.
Luckily, taunting wasn’t the only way to force Julius to attack him. He closed his eyes as he concentrated; his Concept of Magnetism was a new but powerful tool. He received it with the help of his reward from the final trial. Unfortunately, it had only been a week since the second stage ended, and he wasn’t able to get used to it during that time.
Still, he was more than happy to try it out. It took some time, and he felt his soul strain from the unfamiliar pressure levied against it. But to his excitement, it clicked into place. The intensity of the situation helped him focus with more clarity than usual.
Using his massive hammer as a focal point, he unleashed his Concept, feeling it activate and pull everything to it. This included his opponent.
He had activated it at a perfect time as well because the boy was just getting close, so he could absorb some of Erik’s kinetic energy with that annoying field around him. However, he was too close, and the magnetism of Erik’s hammer pulled him off balance.
This was all he needed. Utilizing the magnetic effect of the hammer, he smashed his hammer toward Julius, feeling a faint hint of pride when he made contact.
He could feel his hammer impacting the field around the boy’s body. It attempted to absorb the force, but there was too much for it to handle. The field was ripped apart, and his hammer slammed against Julius with a satisfying thump.
The extreme weight behind the blow also helped sustain the momentum, and Erik could feel a rigid barrier protecting the boy’s skin. However, even this wasn’t enough, and he cracked the barrier, sending the boy flying twenty feet across the arena.
The optimistic part of him hoped the attack had been enough. However, the realistic part told him that he was silly for thinking that might happen.
He was glad he listened to that part of him because it was less of a shock when he saw his opponent jump up like nothing was wrong. Sure, there was a trickle of blood coming from his mouth, but other than that, he looked fine.
As a matter of fact, he looked more than fine. He looked excited and looked at Erik with a starving expression on his face, as if he hadn’t eaten for days.
Erik immediately felt something off and instinctively used his hammer to block. Thankfully, he did because in the blink of an eye, Julius had dashed in front of Erik and slammed a fist at his face. His hammer intercepted this; the magnetism helped, but it could only help so much when he was suddenly assaulted in all directions.
The boy had clearly been holding back for Erik’s sake because his speed increased once more, and what was a difficult task became a downright impossible one. He could barely react in time. It took all of his skill and focus to predict where the attacks would come from.
Not only that, but it looked like Julius’s passive strategy was gone.
He was no longer holding back, and soon a fist glowing with kinetic energy snuck through his defenses. The fist smashed into his gut, and he groaned in pain, looking up at Julius with astonishment.
He knew he was slower. He knew his skill with mana was worse. He knew that his senses weren’t as precise. He also knew he might be physically weaker overall, as crazy as that sounded. He accepted these facts, though he knew what he was up against. With that said, he had been confident that his defenses were more than enough to survive long enough to make Julius work for it.
He was wrong. The force behind the blow was insanely strong, and there was nothing Erik could do to stop the force from rippling throughout his entire body. His skill handled most of the damage automatically, but if he wasn’t nervous enough as is, that last attack was more than enough to make him pause. It was a little too strong.
He was too slow to block or avoid the next swarm of attacks. He felt his body bashed with several more attacks, and his head snapped back from a kick to the chin. He blocked some of them, but there were just too many.
He was a sitting duck out there and could only stand there as he was brutalized from every direction.
In his mind, he was cursing the world for pairing him with this monster. He even started to wish that he had been paired against Isaac instead.