Path to Transcendence

Chapter 464: Fight Me

Finally, it was Julius’s turn.

So far, Christina, Derek, and Edgar had all made it. He believed that Liam and Irene had made it as well, but he hadn’t been paying as much attention to their match. He had left early to go congratulate Derek and Edgar.

Aubrey still had until later today for her match, so they wouldn’t know until then. The only person who hadn’t made it past the first stage from their friend group was Cyrus. Julius didn’t think it was a big deal and had suspected it would happen. Although the younger twin had made quite a stinker about people stealing his kills, Julius and most of them understood that wasn’t the main reason.

The truth was that he wasn’t good enough. Compared to Christina, he fell short on both skill and effort. Throughout the entire week, he had known Cyrus, Julius rarely saw the boy going the extra mile. He was at training because he had to, not because he wanted to.

It was because of that same attitude that he hadn’t been prepared for the chaotic environment, and his lack of composure under pressure was evident. He wasn’t able to properly evaluate which monsters he needed to take out or what to do in specific situations.

So although the rest of them had made it through, the night at House Zenith was relatively subdued.

“You better not embarrass me,” Cain suddenly said, interrupting his thoughts.

“Is it bad that I want to get eliminated now?” Julius asked and smirked at Freya, who responded with a hidden smirk of her own.

“You better not. I will personally beat you up in front of the entire capital if you do,” Cain threatened. If Julius didn’t know better, he would think that Cain was being serious.

He laughed, but when he saw that Cain wasn’t laughing alongside him and was staring at Julius with impassive eyes, he halted his amusement. He had a feeling that Cain was actually serious about that.

“Don’t lose because you were fooling around,” Cain said when Julius quieted down.

“But didn’t you say that it was a bad idea for me to go all out?” Julius pointed out.

“I said to keep some of your secrets hidden. Not to fuck around. If you can’t hold back a little and still move on, then you are in dire need of some retraining,” Cain stated.

“I think he gets the point, dear,” Freya said in a warning tone to her husband and turned to Julius. “Have you decided how you are going to fight?”

Julius nodded. “Yeah, I think I am going to go with the mage route. With how the tournament is set up, I think it will be for the best if I just hunt the normal monsters.” He saw Christina fight and believed he could do something similar.

“No kinetic?” Cain asked in disappointment.

“I want to get better control over it before I show it off,” Julius explained, having already thought of an excuse for Cain. The truth was, he didn’t want to move all that much. He thought it would be a less tiresome match if he weren’t blasting himself across the field like a maniac. That was what Edgar had done yesterday, and Julius wasn’t very interested in following his friend’s lead.

“Fair, with how it is now, you might just embarrass me,” Cain muttered quietly, but loud enough for him to hear.

Julius ignored it, though, and waved them goodbye as he walked down the tunnel to where the rest of the participants were gathering.

As he walked past the previous group, he spotted someone he had seen the day before. It was the tank top guy. If he recalled, Derek had said his name was Isaac or something. Julius had to admit, he was impressed by what he saw from the other guy.

He was one of the few who had taken down the boss monster completely alone. The only other people who had done something similar were four participants from the previous nine matches, including the most recent one. Each one of them was a person Julius had heard about from the various spectators and other competitors.

One of them was the personal disciple of a man known as the Sage of Falling Swords. It was a little bit of a pretentious name in Julius’s opinion, but probably quite an accurate one since he personally saw the disciple create dozens of enormous swords in the sky before piercing the boss monster with them.

The other one was that Casey Vale girl. To everyone’s shock, she had simply walked up to the boss monster and the thing had dropped dead at her feet. It was by far the fastest someone had earned a hundred points. He had no idea how she did it, but he was going to be extra careful about her, especially since he was sixty percent sure that she had tried to probe his aura earlier.

There was also a disciple of a powerful Tier 6 archmage. His name was Riven Briarwood and he had bombarded the entire field with his magic. If not for the protective bracelets and the point system, Julius would have suspected that almost everyone on the field would have died or been seriously injured, not just the boss monster.

The final person was someone who had caught Julius’s attention. It wasn’t even because he was more powerful than the other people who took down the boss monster; it was because he had a name that Julius was very familiar with. Garrett Greyson.

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He hadn’t known this, but apparently Wesley Greyson had a talented son of his own. Julius immediately disliked him. It didn’t matter if he tore apart the boss monster with impressive skill. He simply didn’t like him, and he suspected that if Garrett Greyson ever found out about Julius, he would likely have similar feelings.

Now there was Isaac. The tank top-wearing guy had blitzed toward the boss monster without hesitation and went all out from the very start, unlike many of the other strong competitors who wanted to hide their strength.

Shockwave after shockwave rippled throughout the arena as Isaac slammed his meaty fists into the monster. It was like he didn’t even care about protecting himself; it was pure offense. The guy merely relied on his body’s ridiculous toughness to tank each attack. Julius was a bit in awe at how sturdy the other boy was. No matter how hard the boss monster hit him, he shrugged it off.

Julius wasn’t ashamed to admit that Isaac’s body was much tougher than his own. Although he had his healing skill, he wasn’t too envious. He had his own ways of dealing with damage.

He was curious how he managed to accomplish such a feat. It was a body he would expect to see on a powerful Tier 4, not a Tier 3.

Despite his simplistic way of fighting, Julius was almost sure that Isaac would make it into the final stage. Sometimes, simplicity was the best way. As shown when Isaac laid out the boss monster and walked off the field in less than a couple of minutes.

It certainly helped that the force of Isaac’s blows was enough to dissuade any others from interfering; this way, he had been able to isolate himself in a one-on-one against the boss monster.

Julius wasn’t the only person who was staring at the musclehead. Almost half of the competitors and the surrounding people were staring at the man wearing the tank top. Though to be honest, it wasn’t that surprising. What was more unexpected was the fact that the tank top survived in the first place. That thing had to be some kind of rare treasure or soul-bound item for it not to have even a scratch after the fight.

As Julius was making his way past Isaac, the other guy suddenly stopped right in front of him.

Isaac rudely leaned down and stared at Julius. “What’s your name?” His gruff voice echoed throughout the room.

Julius glanced at the big man for a second before gently walking by him, pretending like he didn’t see him. Of course, it wasn’t that easy, and he felt his shoulder get grabbed quite harshly.

“Can I help you?” Julius asked calmly, not bothering to look back.

“I asked you what your name was,” Isaac said to him.

“Is that the reason why you felt the need to put your hands on me?” Julius finally stared at the large fellow.

“Yes,” Isaac answered bluntly.

Julius could at least respect the honesty and shrugged. “Julius,” he answered.

It was only then that Isaac released his shoulder, and Julius took that as an invitation to continue his way. However, that wasn’t the case.

“Fight me,” Isaac grumbled behind him.

“No, thank you,” Julius instantly replied.

“Fight me,” Isaac insisted.

“I’m good,” Julius said, picking up the pace of his walk, trying to get away from this obvious battle maniac.

“Fight me,” Isaac repeated. At this point, Julius was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with this guy’s head. If he had suffered some head trauma from fighting that boss monster.

“Ask someone else,” Julius said, dodging another shoulder grab from behind. At this point, he was practically running away from Isaac.

“But they are too weak. I just want some fun,” he heard Isaac muttering in a depressed tone.

This tugged on some of his heartstrings, and he turned back to look at a sad-looking Isaac. He took in the large fellow who had just taken down a massive monster with his bare hands less than an hour ago. Only now that guy looked closer to a kicked puppy than a terrifying force of nature.

He sighed defeatedly. “Okay, I will think about it. We can talk about this at a later date. Is that acceptable for you?”

Isaac suddenly perked up and nodded fiercely, looking immensely pleased by Julius’s words.

As for Julius, he could only give a pained smile. “Perfect, now I have a place to be at the moment, if you don’t mind.”

Isaac nodded once more and moved out of the way. “I look forward to seeing your fight. I promise I will try to find you after your match.”

”Thereʼs no need, you must be a busy person after all,” Julius smiled painfully.

”Nope, I got nothing else to do. So I will be waiting,” the man said with a glowing smile.

Julius flinched at his enthusiasm and nodded along, but in his head, he was already making preparations to escape Isaac.

***

Isaac POV

Isaac sat down and deflated into the comfortable seat with a happy grumble. The fight was a little anticlimactic, but at least he got something of value at the very end.

“You look happy,” his aunt, Yelena, commented beside him. “I thought you would have been disappointed that you weren’t able to get a satisfying fight.”

“It’s okay. I think I found someone who is even better,” Isaac stated proudly.

“What do you mean?”

He briefly explained the other competitor he had run across just minutes ago to her. Out of all the other people in the tournament, this Julius person was one of the few who tickled Isaac’s instincts. Other than the Sage of Falling Swords disciple and the Vale girl, the black haired youth was the only person Isaac felt was truly dangerous.

He said as much to her aunt. She had been his primary teacher since he was young, so she understood what he meant by that.

“Oh, really?” Her voice took on an inquisitive tone.

Isaac always had good instincts and an exceptional talent that allowed him to evaluate threats and opportunities; it was something he had inherited from his family. His aunt had that same talent.

“Which one is it?” She asked him.

He quickly pointed out Julius to her. He had been keeping an eye on him since he walked onto the field. Isaac didn’t know what kind of fighter he was, but he was desperate to see with his own eyes.

“I see,” his aunt said simply and looked at the boy. While she didn’t outwardly look that intrigued, he had known her long enough to know that she was enticed by what she saw. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be leaning forward with her elbows on her knees.

Isaac was glad to see that he wasn’t the only person who was captivated by this unknown boy.