Julius was surprised. The skill didn’t feel bad or anything of the like, but it did feel different. He could sense that some of the life mana was taking a detour of a sort. It wasn’t like it was taking longer to heal or making it more inefficient, if anything this change was making the skill better overall. However, he could feel the mana going through a cycle within his core before distributing it through his body.
His immediate assumption was that Drasil was doing something to his skill. The cute little life spirit was still lying quietly in his core, sleeping or doing whatever spirits do. But Julius suspected the little glutton was doing something or had something to do with how [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] was behaving. Perhaps, there was some effect of advancing with Drasil in his core or maybe it was just the byproduct of getting to Tier 2, but he couldn't tell for sure.
Julius concentrated on using the skill again and focused on how it was different. He took his time, gradually introducing more mana into the skill, little wisps of fire mana were also joining it as well. Funnily enough, the fire mana wasn’t getting siphoned off, it was only his life mana, which further led him to believe that it was mainly due to Drasil.
After observing the skill and how it was interacting with his body, he was becoming more convinced that Drasil was doing something. Julius didn’t know exactly what he was doing, but all he was able to find out was that the skill seemed… more sparkly?
He didn’t know exactly how to explain it, but describing it as sparkly was the most accurate way he could do it.
He actually got a notification for his actions as well.
[Psuedo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 13 -> lvl 14]
He also missed some notifications he must have gotten during his fight with Aubrey, so he checked out those as well.
[Kinetic Augmentation lvl 14 -> lvl 15]
[Empowerment of Will lvl 9 -> lvl 10]
He wasn’t quite sure what was happening, but it was certainly not hurting him at the moment. For now, he would just let it be and keep an eye on it.
Edgar had been watching him from the side, confused as to why Julius wasn’t moving. The large fourth-year felt that he was doing something with his healing skill, but he didn’t know what was going on. He was about to say something to Julius or ask if he was okay when he saw Julius stop whatever he was doing and put his attention back on Edgar.
Julius felt fresh, actually more fresh than he had ever felt from the skill before. [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] had always been such an amazing skill, but the change somehow made it even better. He didn’t feel like it had gotten that much stronger, but there was a distinctive sensation of invigorating vitality that wasn’t there before.
He smiled at Edgar who was looking at him concerned, assuring him that he was alright. Then motioned Edgar to activate the barrier and start the fight.
They didn’t have a countdown, but they were both keenly aware that the fight had already started once the barrier went up.
Neither of them made any moves in the first several moments, both were just gauging one another from a distance. Julius watched Edgar pace around him like a predator tracked its prey. There was still a small smile on the large man’s face and Julius had to admit that it was a little intimidating.
Facing off against Gabriel was different. Gabriel was a grown man with a family, the guy in front of him was just a student, albeit an older and much larger student, but he was still technically a “kid”. So it was slightly unnerving to see such a young person with such a massive stature.
Julius could feel Edgar internally running fire mana through his body and using earth mana to protect it from the outside. Julius had previously thought about doing the same thing with his own fire mana. He believed that if he could use both kinetic and fire mana to enhance his body it would be a good thing to learn and something that would increase his fighting power.
He experimented with it and even talked about it with Edgar from time to time. If anyone knew about enhancing their body with fire mana it would be Edgar. After discussing it with Edgar, Julius decided against it. First off, there was only so much mana one’s body could hold, that was the main problem. Secondly, not all mana types work well together when mixed in a single body, or enchantment. Luckily, kinetic and fire, go pretty well together, but that didn’t solve the first problem.
Julius’s issue was that if he wanted to include fire mana in his body, he would need to use less kinetic energy to balance it out. There was also the case of him already having a dedicated kinetic energy body enhancement skill, so fire mana would be less powerful.
However, even if he didn’t have [Kinetic Augementation] or had a fire enhancement skill on par with it, Julius would have still chosen kinetic energy as his body enhancement energy.
The biggest reason why he liked kinetic energy was its cost-effectiveness. He had so many ways to repurpose other sources of kinetic energy, or to reuse his own, that it didn’t make sense from a cost-benefit point of view. He would much rather use his fire mana for his big flashy explosions or constructs.
Still, when he saw the sheer power emanating from Edgar’s fire enhancement skill, he was having second thoughts. Julius could feel the heat from here and could feel the explosive strength hidden below the skin. Edgar’s fire was different than Julius’s. It wasn’t “hotter” per se, but it held something that made it much more potent than his own. He would have to ask about that later.
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Eventually, Julius was the one who made the first move. He quickly created a dozen orbs of heavy and compacted mana. He didn’t bother with spikes, much like Aubrey he had a feeling that Edgar’s defenses were going to be very hard to break through.
Therefore, he wanted to see if blunt trauma had a better effect on him. Kind of like how fighters in the Medieval Ages used maces and hammers to damage their opponents who were wearing plate armor.
Another unexpected benefit of using orbs was that they were easier to form. He didn’t have to worry about honing the tip or the edge to make it razor sharp, all he needed to worry about was squeezing the mana together.
Once the orbs were all set, he used [Empowerment of Will] to further strengthen the constructs. In a matter of the blink of an eye, he was surrounded by small orbs that more closely resembled steel ball bearings.
Edgar, the entire time just patiently waited for Julius to finish his preparations. Whether it was from feeling confident that anything Julius did he could handle it or from the mere fact that he wanted to have a more interesting fight, Julius didn’t know.
With a surge of kinetic energy, he shot the balls of mana right toward Edgar. The orbs whistled in the air as they flew at him.
Edgar didn’t move or make any attempt at evading the attack. A dozen of the orbs smashed right into his chest. Edgar released a small grunt of pain, but other than that, he was fine. He didn’t even get knocked back a foot.
Julius expected the sheer force of the impact to at least make him stagger back, but Edgar had used some sort of skill that planted his body in place, making him practically immovable.
Okay, if you’re not going to dodge, then let’s see how you handle this.
Julius controlled the orbs and brought them back to him, while also forming a dozen more orbs and sending them to surround Edgar. Julius had them hover around Edgar, just outside of his reach. Then he created half a dozen compressed spikes made of fire and kinetic energy and launched them at Edgar. Half of them went for his face and the other half went toward his feet.
At the same time, Julius had been charging as much kinetic energy into his orbs, before sending them crashing into Edgar from all sides. It was much more kinetic energy than the last salvo.
Julius felt Edgar activate a skill this time. He could tell that the skill was honing onto his orbs, trying to sneak his own mana and aura into them. However, Julius could see Edgar’s surprise when he wasn’t able to break down the constructs in time. Julius felt [Empowerment of Will] and the sheer amount of compressed mana layers from [Pure Compression] as well as [Mana Layering] fighting against Edgar’s attempt to enter the construct. Edgar must have realized that he would not be in time if he continued his attempt and instead detonated a mass of fire mana right next to the orbs, trying to destroy them.
That didn’t do much though, they all survived the explosion, they were knocked off course a little bit, but with a mental flex, Julius was able to correct their flight path and they continued on their way shooting at Edgar.
Edgar was taken aback by his ineffective skill, but he still didn’t move from his place, trusting his earth affinity and defensive skills to protect him from the worst of it. The first thing to land were the explosive spikes, blowing up in his face and legs. Much to Julius’s surprise, Edgar actually flinched way more than he was expecting, taking a step back to regain his balance. However, then the orbs of mana smashed into him from all sides. Whether he was hit in the chest, the back, the legs, or his arms, nothing was safe.
Edgar might have thought the attacks a few moments ago were as strong as Julius could make them, but he must have miscalculated how much more kinetic energy Julius could put into them with a little more time and effort.
They hit him like a sledgehammer. Edgar’s body was contorting from the heavy blows, eventually knocking him right off of his feet and onto his face. Julius wasn’t going to lie, it felt very satisfying doing that to him.
It wasn’t like it was out of malice or anything, but he wanted Edgar to take him more seriously. Julius wanted to show Edgar that he was a real threat to him and he was proud to say that he succeeded.
Edgar was no longer looking at him the same way. He was taking it much more seriously. Julius could see the change in his expression immediately. His smile was still there, but Edgar’s eyes were now honed in on every single movement that Julius made. They were deadly calm, analyzing each step, each twitch, and each breath Julius took.
Julius grabbed ahold of the orbs of mana that had maintained their structural integrity and brought them back to himself. There were only about half that were still in good enough shape, the other ones had cracked down the middle and he decisively broke them down and recycled their mana, saving it for other uses. He could have repaired them, but that would have taken more time than just creating new ones.
When Julius was about to launch another attack, he saw Edgar prepare, a surge of mana ripping through his body. Before the orbs of mana had moved, Edgar was already dashing right in.
Julius laughed to himself. It doesn’t seem like he is just going to sit back and let me smash him apart, a pity.
Edgar was fast, much faster than Aubrey and much faster than Julius. Aubrey didn’t focus on speed as much as Edgar because she had [Mirage Phantom] and [Stealth Prism]. That wasn’t to say she didn’t have a body enhancement skill, but hers was more focused on working with her other skills and her elusiveness.
Edgar on the other hand, was a much more simple fighter. He focused on raw speed, no tricks or deceptions needed. So although Edgar wasn’t teleporting around as Aubrey had been, Julius actually had a much more difficult time tracking his position than he did with Aubrey.
He wasn’t as quick as Gabriel with his [Instantaneous Step], but to Julius’s senses, it was pretty darn close. Massive bursts of heat and fire were emitted from Edgar as he closed the distance. Julius was caught on the back foot when Edgar was already in his face, too close for him to use the orbs to attack the big guy.
Julius was only able to see a fat fist aiming right at his ribcage and used the recycled mana to create several layers of thick mana around his chest. He also made sure to siphon off as much kinetic energy from Edgar as he could, not that it would make that much of a difference with how fast he was.
Julius smiled and did everything he could to avoid the strike, but he was just too slow, even with his advancement to Tier 2. He still took a glancing hit to the shoulder that sent him careening a dozen feet across the room.
Julius met Edgar’s eyes from the floor, seeing the challenge within them. He didn’t back down from a challenge and got to his feet again, waving his hand at Edgar, as if he was telling him “Well, come on then”. Edgar nodded at him with an excited grin and came crashing toward Julius once more.