Path to Transcendence

Julius was still headed toward the arena just in case he could still make his match, or if there was some reason why his opponent was also late.

Unfortunately, it seemed that he could do nothing and was met by Lily, Aubrey, and Edgar.

"We were waiting for you for a long time!" Aubrey exclaimed. "But imagine our surprise when you didn't even show up!"

He held his hands up and tried to placate her. "I got tied up with something important. A rift had another issue and time just got away," he explained.

That seemed to calm her down quite swiftly. "Another rift incident?" Aubrey asked worriedly.

"What do you mean? Did something bad happen again?" Lily asked anxiously.

He sighed and spent the next minute explaining to them what had happened. Thankfully, this seemed to distract them from the fact that he had forgotten his match.

"Doesn't this seem kinda suspicious?" Aubrey said with a tilt of her head.

"I agree. What are the odds of something like this happening during the tournament? Everyone knows that this is the busiest time of the year and when the staff are already overworked," Edgar added.

"Who do you think would do something like this, though? And what could possibly be their reasons for doing so?" Lily asked

"The Conclave," Julius couldn't help but mutter to himself.

"What was that, Julius?" Edgar asked.

He shook his head. "Nothing, just talking to myself," he replied.

Edgar gave him a funny look but didn't press him any further.

"Anyhow, we should still have time to go see Kyle's match. If we head over now, we might get there before it begins," Lily said with a smile.

The four of them headed off to the other arena to go and support Kyle, and for the moment, the fact that he missed his own match was forgotten.

***

Today was the last match of the prelims until everyone got paired. At the moment, he sat at three wins and one loss. The loss, which was completely his fault, as Aubrey loved to point out.

However, he had a feeling that today's fight was going to be a bit different than his other matches. His opponent this time around wasn't like the other people he had fought.

It was a fourth-year girl and right away he was able to tell that she was stronger than the other people he had fought as of yet just by looking at her aura. Her name was Bethany and according to Lily, she was definitely toward the top of the fourth years.

This meant that Julius found himself in Arena 1 for the first time. This also meant that he would be fighting in front of a lot of people. Previously, he had been fighting in front of a couple of dozen people at most.

However, Arena 1 was where most of the more interesting fights occurred. It was designated to people that the school believed were more 'attractive' to watch, which obviously caused it to be more packed than any other arena.

When he walked onto the field, he was kind of surprised by the small anxious jitters he was feeling. There were so many eyes looking at the field. Almost every seat in the arena was taken and he could hear the loud roars from the crowd as they cheered on the other fights that were going on around him. The booming cries and collective groans when someone got hit particularly hard echoed throughout the entire arena.

For the first time since the prelims began, it finally started to feel like a serious tournament.

The moment the two of them walked onto the field, he was able to sense that many of the crowd's focus turned to watch their match. While he knew that most of their eyes were on the pretty girl in front of him, he still felt a little nervous, but he had to admit that he felt a spark of excitement as well.

He saw the Bethany girl staring at him with an intense gaze from across the field. For some reason, unlike the other students he had faced, she didn't seem to be looking down on him just because he was a first-year student.

He didn't know if that was because she had heard about his other fights or if that was just the type of person she was, but it was nice to see that she was considering him an actual opponent.

The official walked out onto the field between the two of them.

"This is an official match between fourth-year Bethany Jacobs and first-year Julius Snow," he announced, though Julius doubted that many people were able to hear the man over the noise of the crowd.

However, he was soon proven wrong when suddenly a large portion of the arena went silent for a brief moment. After the stark silence, he watched as many of the spectators turned to each other and started muttering amongst themselves.

He could hear the crowd saying things like 'first-year' and 'it's a shame'. He didn't blame them for their reaction. His participation in the tournament was still not common knowledge, and it seemed that many of the people were shocked to hear the revelation.

Although he had more pressing issues in front of him at the moment. So he put these thoughts into the back of his mind and focused on the match. The official then looked at the two of them with a meaningful glare, ignoring the crowd's mutters.

"You both know the rules, so I expect a clean and fair fight. If one of you breaks one of these rules, you will forfeit the match and be punished accordingly. Understood?"

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Julius nodded at the man, and Bethany did the same from her side of the field, but he noticed that her eyes never strayed from him for a single second.

***

Bethany POV

When the official signaled the start of the match, Bethany didn't waste any time and sent a salvo of mana spears straight toward the young boy in front of her.

She knew better than to underestimate the first year.

While most people would think that someone was stupid for advancing to Tier 3 so young, she didn't share the same opinion. She had seen one of the earlier matches by accident and was immediately able to tell that he wasn't just some impatient boy who wanted to tout his Tier 3 status to his peers.

He was a genuine fighter who displayed a level of skill and poise that she didn't see even among her fellow fourth years. Too bad that his past opponents hadn't realized the same thing and they were punished for their arrogance.

Julius was also supposedly really good friends with Derek and Edgar—at least, that was what her friends told her. But this made her wonder what kind of help they gave the boy to prepare him for the tournament.

She shook her head and focused on the fight in front of her. It didn't matter what they taught him, she only knew one thing for certain, she wasn't going to be getting her first loss from a boy three years her junior.

So with a roar of mana, she drowned his position with mana spears, not letting the boy get the chance to breathe. All the while, she started to weave a powerful barrier of mana around her just in case. She knew that the boy was a close combat fighter, but who knew what kind of tricks he was hiding.

She heard the crowd gasp in surprise at her vicious opening, but she ignored them. They probably thought she was going overboard against a first-year. But they hadn't seen the boy's previous fights where he dismantled other Tier 3s without much effort.

She observed as Julius danced between the explosions of mana and used some sort of movement skill to avoid the more dangerous attacks with grace. However, she grinned to herself because the boy was already showing much more speed than he had during his previous match, which she had watched.

I knew he was holding back during that fight, she confirmed to herself.

And so while the crowd was surprised to see the boy avoid the swarm of spears that would have taken out some of the other Tier 3s in the tournament, she was already sending out another cluster of spears.

However, these ones were different from the last ones. They weren't meant to just explode, but they had something secret packed inside of them. These spears were loaded with her [Resonating Mana] skill to destabilize the boy's mana in his body.

So when he tried to avoid the spears like he had the last time, she smiled when he was surprised by her little trick and his movement skill was interrupted when the spear got closer.

Still, she was impressed with how quickly he recovered. He wiped out her technique and regained control of his mana almost immediately. Too bad, it was already too late.

He was bombarded with several spears and was blasted backwards in a cloud of smoke.

She heard the crowd roar as they thought the fight was over. However, she knew better than to believe that. At the last moment, she had felt some kind of resistance, and on top of that, Julius's protection enchantments hadn't activated yet. Which meant he had withstood the attack.

So without any hesitation, she sent several more spears ripping through the air at the cloud of smoke.

The crowd muttered confusedly at her actions, but stopped when they spotted Julius standing there in the middle of the field, relatively unharmed. He looked a bit battered and dusty, but he was definitely okay with continuing to fight.

She sent out more spears, trying to disrupt his mana once again, but this time she frowned when her mana wasn't able to destabilize his. Somehow, her attempts at interrupting his mana were completely shrugged off to the side. It was almost as if her skill wasn't able to find a single opening to affect his mana.

His willpower must be extraordinary, she realized with a surprised expression.

He used her surprise to close the distance, and before she knew it, he was already in front of her, swinging his fist at her head.

If she didn't know better, she would say that he had gotten even faster than a minute ago. His strike slammed against her barrier and she widened her eyes as her barrier barely withstood the punch.

Before he could strike again, she blasted mana outward and used the force to launch her up toward the sky. She wasn't able to fly, but she was able to use mana to let her float for short periods.

This was perfect when she was fighting against close combat fighters, like she was at the moment.

For several brief moments, the two of them just stared at each other. The boy had this silly grin on his face as he stared up at her. He shook his head as if in disbelief that she was basically hiding up in the air.

She didn't exactly like this strategy as it felt a little cheap, but it was a genuine strategy against people like Julius and one she was planning to use against some of the stronger close combat fighters like Edgar.

Despite her guilt, it didn't stop her from creating several spears of mana and then raining them down toward the boy.

He frantically dodged them and ran around in circles. The other benefit of being higher up in the air was the fact that he was an easier target for her. Forcing him to dodge from unusual angles.

After he avoided her attacks, she gave him an apologetic shrug and spoke out to him.

"There is no shame in admitting defeat. Trust me, I can do this all day."

She watched as the boy threw his head back and giggled with mirth.

And before she could ask what he found so funny, she was blasted backward as her barrier blocked a powerful construct of mana.

She looked down at the boy with astonished eyes. He had created a single fire construct and launched it at her with incredible speed.

She had no idea that he could do something like that. While a lot of specialized warriors had ways to fight at a distance, she didn't think the boy had such skills since he was too young to focus on multiple aspects of combat.

Clearly, she was wrong because she quickly found her barrier getting slammed by a spike of mana one at a time. The power of these constructs wasn't weak either, they were more powerful than a newly advanced Tier 3 should be capable of and she could even sense a Concept infused into them.

Realizing that she was sitting duck floating up in the air, she made a decision to drop back down to the ground.

And before she could regain her balance she found herself being charged at. Julius had closed the distance once more and this time he smashed an overcharged fist into her barrier, actually cracking it this time around.

She desperately blasted out another burst of mana to get some distance, but she was surprised once again when he didn't get knocked back like last time. Instead, he barely budged and released another brutal strike, that further cracked her barrier and quickly followed it up with one last kick that shattered it completely.

Despite her frantic efforts to destabilize his mana and his body enhancement skill, she found that her efforts were in vain. She realized much too late that his body skill didn't revolve just around mana, but it was a skill based around aura. This meant that her skill was practically useless against it, even if she was able to overcome his willpower.

So, although she struggled with all her might, she couldn't help but curse as the boy finally broke through her defenses and slammed a crushing blow against her chest, activating her enchantments and signaling the end of the match.