Path to Transcendence

Chapter 335: Irene Graves

Irene POV

“Good luck!”

“You got this!”

“No pressure!” Brienne called out.

All of her friends wished her the best and cheered her on as she left for her match. However, she found that she almost snapped at Brienne before she could stop herself. It wasn’t exactly Brienne’s fault that she was annoyed. Her friends simply didn’t know how much pressure there was on her.

While most students would be ecstatic to reach the top eight or even the top sixteen, she couldn’t use those same standards for her own accomplishments and goals.

Because at the end of the day, she was fully aware that the top sixteen wasn’t enough for her family. They expected her to win. Or at the very least, get into the top four.

A tall ask considering that Derek Zenith, Liam Abrams, and Edgar Crow were all participating as well. However, now that Liam and Edgar were out, her parents really expected her to get into the top four. During her discussion with them last night, they had not subtly hinted at their wishes.

They practically demanded it from her in their usually sickening sweet way, always saying the right words to appear like the supportive parents they wanted to portray, but there was always that unspoken part of it. A threatening edge to their words.

She also couldn’t help but understand why they felt that way. Her older cousin, Faris, had reached the top four when she had attended Goldencrest. She even went on to place fairly well at the Tier 3 Tournament in the Capital—something Faris’s parents loved to brag about to her own parents.

The social dynamic and noble politics of House Grave were a weird one. At the moment, there was no real clear successor. Patriarch Toulen didn’t have any children of his own, which is why he announced to the House that he would be choosing someone from one of the branch families. Since her’s was considered part of the main branch, that meant she was included.

Although the Patriarch hadn’t stated any requirements for what he was looking for, people were certain of one thing. You needed appropriate levels of skill and strength, which was why her parents were so damn serious about her winning.

However, they didn’t seem to understand that she would be facing the person who had just beaten Liam in a more convincing fashion than she had ever seen throughout the four years she had attended Goldencrest. Even last year, when he had lost to a strong older student, it had been a gritty fight.

Yet, Julius somehow made it look simple. He took away Liam’s advantages and forced him to fight up close. Something she didn’t think anyone other than Derek would be able to do.

That made her nervous. When Lily had told her that Julius was participating, she hadn’t taken her all that seriously. None of her friends had either. A first-year commoner participating amongst some of the most talented noble children? That was not something that happened.

So imagine her surprise when he slowly worked his way through the ranks and got into the top sixteen. Irene had personally seen the fight between him and Darren. That one fight had made it clear to her that Julius was a threat, and he belonged in the top sixteen. She had fought against Darren before, and she had almost lost.

His ability to soak up damage and skill as a warrior was top tier. His berserk skill made it even tougher to deal with him. Still, Julius smashed him like he was a newborn Tier 3. Absolutely crushed him.

Then she saw him handle Liam with the same level of skill and power. She hated to admit it, but she was not confident that she could beat him. Her skillset revolved around being a mage and handling other mages.

However, she was able to discern from his fights that his body enhancement skill primarily relied on aura control. Not something she could disrupt or take control of. She might be able to influence his constructs, but considering that Liam had not been able to, she shouldn’t have any expectations that she could either. Plus, there was the fact that Julius didn’t seem to want to use them at all. He only used them when he was forced to.

She wasn’t just going to keel over and give up, though, so using the time she had before her match, she concentrated on finding a way she could use to win.

***

She anxiously twirled her hair as she walked down the tunnel. She had thought of some ideas that could work, but nothing absolute. Spectating a fight and being in a fight were two different things. Just because she saw his fights didn’t mean she knew what to expect. It was something that she would only know once she experienced it for herself.

She took a deep breath and drowned out the crowd’s screams. She looked across the field and spotted her opponent casually strolling toward the center of the stadium. It kind of irked her how unbothered he seemed by the entire thing. Either he had a heart of steel or a powerful focus skill that allowed him to keep such composure, maybe even both.

The official did the usual introductions and she decided to use this time to examine him one last time before the start of their match. Young and unassuming, those were the first thoughts that popped up in her mind when she looked at him.

He wasn’t the tallest, and he was actually quite shorter than many of the remaining participants. But underneath that youthful face was someone who enjoyed fighting. It had become apparent during the Darren fight, and was a very unique talent on its own.

She did her best to try and sense his mana, but his control of it was tight. His aura control was equally as tight. He wasn’t giving her hints for her to use.

When the match started, neither of them made the first move. They just slowly uncircled one another for a few moments. He still had that annoying, calm smirk on his face, but she used this extra time to prepare her own skills.

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Then suddenly he disappeared from her vision, it was only thanks to her barriers that she managed to block his strike. His fist smashed into it and she grunted as her defenses were tested.

It didn’t matter how many compounding layers her barrier had; the impact reverberated throughout the air in a shockwave, but thankfully, it held up.

He was so fast. She hadn’t realized how fast Julius was from far away. The speed was instantaneous, and it wasn’t like it was some kind of special skill. From what she could see, it was just the normal [Flash Step] skill that many people got.

His startling speed came from using that much mana, and she could immediately see how much finesse he had over it. She let loose a condensed beam of fire mana while squeezing the barrier of mana around Julius. If she could pin him down, she might have a chance.

Her barriers weren’t enough, and he was able to avoid the beam of fire with a sidestep. Then, before he could charge back in, she sent a wider beam at him. It wasn’t as powerful as her compressed ones, but it had the advantage of being harder to dodge.

But it didn’t seem that Julius had any intention of dodging. Instead of evading, he stepped forward and created a layer of fire mana over his own body and used his movement skill to close the distance.

The beam of fire washed over him and she could feel her other skill start to work its way in. Her fire was special. It wasn’t just pure heat, but it burned through a person’s stamina and mana. The effect wasn’t as strong as it would be once it evolved, but it was usually enough to distract her opponents. Just the burning sensation alone could be debilitating.

However, it didn’t seem to work on Julius. The fire and the secondary effect were ineffective because whatever protection he had, it prevented them from seeping into his body. He got close once again and she sent a thick beam of fire at him, forcing him to turn his body slightly.

This gave her enough time to activate her own movement skill and she was able to avoid the fist that was crashing toward her face. An explosion ripped through the same position she had been at. She had left a little surprise for him.

She felt a little bit of hope when she saw her attack hit him. It showed that there was still a chance. Capitalizing on the opportunity, she blasted another beam at the middle of the explosion. She wasn’t able to see, but she could still sense the mana inside the cloud of dust.

A loud hum resounded through the field as her beam hit something. When the dust cleared, she was able to see that Julius had created some kind of blue barrier in front of him. She was still pumping mana into her attack, forcing the boy to continue holding his barrier.

However, she frowned when she saw him grinning at her. Then, just as she was about to shove even more mana into her attack, she sensed something above the boy’s shoulders. A pair of spikes the size of an arm appeared.

How the boy managed to create them when he was enforcing his barrier with so much power was beyond her. His focus skill must have allowed him to switch his attention between the two complicated tasks.

The blue mana constructs glowed dangerously and although she wasn’t able to sense that much mana from them, she knew better than to think that.

These were the same ones that managed to break through Liam’s defenses and before he could throw them at her, she did her best to try and take control of them. She threw her willpower at the constructs and commanded them to implode.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t what happened. Her willpower felt like a river flowing around a stone, and the constructs pierced the air as they traveled toward her head. She had to release control of her attack to focus on defending. Unlike this terrifying boy, she wasn’t able to control two widely varying mana techniques while being attacked by such dangerous constructs. She had to make sure she protected herself.

Just because she was able to handle the first round of spikes didn’t mean she was out of the woods just yet. She had to maintain her barrier as another half dozen spikes flew toward her. She dodged half of them, but the rest of them slammed against it with stunning force.

Her barrier took all of her concentration to hold up against the spikes, and she eventually managed to slip in a bit of her willpower into the spikes. It was just enough that she could send her own fire mana into them, forcing them to explode before they could crash against her barrier, saving her some precious mana and mental stamina.

However, she was confused when the boy suddenly stopped when she pulled this off. She noticed that he had an amused and curious expression on his face. Seeing this was her chance, she threw out everything she could.

Once again, the boy didn’t make an attempt to dodge the attack and simply placed a barrier of his own in front of him. However, she expected this and sent a scorching hot wave of fire at him. The barrier didn’t fully encapsulate him, and the flames washed over his skin.

She finally smiled a little bit. These flames were the same ones she had used to completely disintegrate monsters into ash. Not something someone could take head-on.

So when she saw the boy stand there with a flickering layer of blue light over his skin, she couldn’t help but curse to herself. Then, before she could do anything, she felt the boy wriggle his own willpower into the beam of fire she was still shooting at him.

The gall of this first year. He was using her own technique against her. Who did he think he was?

However, it was clear that he had never used it because it looked sloppy compared to hers. Furthermore, all of her mana attacks had pre-prepared defenses that helped with keeping a level of control, even when someone tried to disrupt her attacks, like he was doing.

With that being said, there was such a heavy willpower that it still took her by surprise and she groaned as she had to fight off him from gaining control. Who needed precision or a deft hand when you had pure brute strength?

Then, before she could throw his attempt to the side, another salvo of spikes whistled through the air. She tried to disrupt them again, but to her immense surprise, the tiny gap she had exploited earlier was already gone.

This tiny monster in human form had already figured it out and fixed it. How many things was he focusing on during this fight? It was unbelievable. She was forced to protect herself once again since the spikes were still on the way.

This time, she was alarmed when the spikes didn’t detonate on her barrier. No, they almost slowed down at the last moment and hovered in front of her barrier. Before she could wonder what his plan was, they started to spin in a circular motion like one would see from a drill that earth mages would use to excavate holes into the ground.

Her barrier was not prepared to handle something like this and it quickly found itself getting shredded through. She used her movement skill once again before they could drill into her, but was alarmed when she noticed he had disappeared from her sight again.

She looked around desperately and cursed again when she spotted the incoming fist too late. His knuckles pummeled into her sternum, and she felt every ounce of air rush out of her. She had no doubt that if she didn’t have the protection of the bracelet, several ribs would have been shattered.

She tumbled through the air until she smashed into the barrier surrounding the field. She got to her feet but was welcomed by half a dozen constructs flying at her face. She managed to hastily throw up a barrier of her own, but it was too late, and she wasn’t able to enforce it enough.

It stopped three of them, but the other ones smashed into her with brutal force. The enchantments thankfully activated and saved her life. The flickering light of the enchantments petered out as they dissipated the damage. But she couldn’t help but throw her head back in irritation.

She had lost. And she had lost convincingly.