Path to Transcendence

Chapter 545: Lilyʼs Improvements

Lily POV

Perhaps taunting one of the scariest Tier 3s she had ever met wasn’t the best idea. However, she couldn’t help herself. She wanted to test herself and see how far she had come. Marcus had been helping her improve her physical abilities, and she was proud of what she had accomplished.

What used to be one of her weakest skills was quickly becoming one of her favorites. She could see what Julius meant about enjoying smashing his fists into something. It was oddly satisfying and therapeutic.

Not only that, but she also realized that she had a real talent for fighting. Her psychic abilities enabled her to read her opponent with immaculate precision. In fact, she had recently gotten a skill that helped her with this.

It was called [Neural Combat Stream], and it was a superior epic skill. It allowed her to keep up with opponents who had more experience than she did by simply reading their movements and intentions. Even Marcus wasn’t completely safe from her.

He was forced to use his Domain to limit the effects of her skill. That was how powerful it was.

Not only that, but the skill also allowed her to react extremely quickly. The moment she knew what her opponent was going to do, the skill helped her manipulate her telekinesis, moving her body almost instinctively.

At times, it almost felt like she was controlling her body remotely, as if she were a golem or something. However, she hadn’t been able to test this skill against anyone other than Marcus and some monsters.

Therefore, who better to test it on than Julius? If someone were going to find a weakness and exploit it, Julius would be that person. Or she might shock him; that would be a fantastic result as well.

She walked over to the center of a field on the other side of the room as Marcus, Cain, and Freya all stood on the sidelines. She tried not to let the absolutely demolished training hall distract her too much. It had become a daily occurrence with how hard Cain and Julius went at it.

She knew that some of House Zenith’s staff and people weren’t thrilled about this. The mages who repaired the training hall were always worn out at the end of the day.

But there wasn’t much they could do when a Tier 6 was the one destroying the House’s property. Plus, Cain had already given House Zenith a lot of money in advance, knowing that he would likely destroy their equipment and enchantments.

She stepped over a Julius-sized hole and glanced at Cain darkly. She knew that Julius was fine with getting brutally slaughtered by Cain, but she and their friends didn’t like it. She held back a sigh. There was only so much she could do to stop him. She had quickly learned that lesson.

“Ready?” Julius asked her calmly, a little too calmly for her liking. She wouldn’t say he was arrogant, but his confidence was a little annoying sometimes. He was always so unruffled, no matter the circumstances.

She narrowed her eyes at him and nodded. “Ready.”

He didn’t make a move, clearly waiting for her to go on the offensive. However, she was more than fine with this. Her body was surrounded by psychic energy, and she used her telekinesis to enforce her limbs. She had gained a couple of skills that helped with this process.

It was an extraordinary feeling to see the difference between her now and last year.

She launched herself forward. She used a little too much power, but she was able to ensure her body wasn’t injured with some delicate manipulations of her mana. She used most of her focus on reading Julius.

She didn’t know how her skill would work on him. He had always been one of the few people she had a hard time reading. Even when he was in Tier 1, he was an anomaly. Perhaps that was what drew her to him in the first place.

He had only become harder to read as time went on. She doubted that she would be able to sense his emotions as easily as she did without him consciously allowing her to. He seemed to enjoy sharing his feelings with her.

His favorite thing was to share his emotions with her when he was hungry and wanted someone to eat with. Once she felt his hunger and his craving for good food, she couldn’t help herself. She fell for it each time.

However, now he was like a steel wall. Nothing could get through, and he had completely shut her out. Luckily for her, [Neural Combat Stream] didn’t work that way. The skill had a way of weaseling through normal mental defenses, allowing her to take a little peek.

Of course, it only applied to combat and was nothing like her usual probes. But it was still a considerable advantage. So with bated breath, she reached out and connected her skill to Julius.

She saw him frown and try to swat her attempt away. However, she snuck through and attached her mind to his. That fraction of a moment was more than enough. She was already in front of him and swung her fist at his face.

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He moved his arm to deflect her, but he fell for the feint. While he was slightly off balance, she was already slamming her fist toward his chest. Unfortunately, she was a hair too slow, and he corrected himself, leaning far enough that her fist only hit his shoulder.

She tried to capitalize on this and went on the attack, blitzing out every attack she could think of. Every type of combination that Marcus had drilled into her for the past few months. And she felt like she was doing well. She read his movements fairly well.

He didn’t push back that hard against her, but most of his focus was spent on tearing apart her skill. She knew Julius so well that she understood that he wouldn’t let her keep this connection open. Therefore, when he finally ripped her skill away from his mind, she wasn’t surprised or anything.

The bit of ruinous aura that came through was a bit harsh, but she knew he was holding it back. She had seen firsthand how destructive his aura could be.

She was prepared for this, though, and moved on to her next step. When he finally took a step forward to attack her, she utilized her usual psychic abilities and created a metaphysical sledgehammer and bashed it into her friend’s head.

She wouldn’t typically use such a strong attack against one of her friends, but she was confident that Julius could handle it. By the looks of the training hall around them, he had already experienced much worse.

Of course, it wasn’t that easy. His willpower and mind defenses were still just as strong as usual, but her attack was strong enough to disrupt him and make him lose enough focus so that she was able to reconnect [Neural Combat Stream].

She saw him roll his eyes at her and let out a strangled laugh.

“Seriously?” He asked, taking a few steps back.

She shrugged. “What?” She asked, wearing the most innocent look on her face as possible.

“What is that skill? You haven’t mentioned it to me before,” he said with an accusatory finger point.

“I wanted to surprise you. You know, like all the times you have done the same thing to me,” she said pointedly.

He dramatically dropped his finger and deflated. “Fair point.”

She smiled to herself.

“But I guess that means I can take this more seriously, right?” Julius suddenly said with an excited grin on his face.

She subconsciously backed away when she saw this look on his face. She knew what that expression meant and what would follow. She wouldn’t lie, it scared her a little bit.

She was barely able to track him as he blasted toward her in a burst of speed. She realized with shock that he wasn’t bothering to disrupt her skill. In fact, he was welcoming it and using it against her.

While she was deciphering his intent, he was already in her face. His fist was too close, and she tried to smack it to the side, but it barely knocked it off course. However, to her displeasure, it didn’t hurt.

He was still taking it easy on her. She hated that he was doing that. It felt like he was still treating her like a fragile girl.

He didn’t treat Aubrey like this. He was more than fine with punching her in the face. Where was the equality?

However, she didn’t really get too much time to complain. She was too busy as she desperately tried to figure out a way to deal with his superior speed and strength.

She didn’t quite realize how fast he was until she saw it in person.

She had seen some of his fights inside the secret realm; he had beaten some imposing opponents. Riven Briarwood was one of them. However, seeing his speed up close was totally different.

How was he Tier 3? It wasn’t fair. As perfectly demonstrated by the onslaught she was experiencing.

She knew what he was going to do. In fact, he made a point to emphasize his emotions. He even sent her artificial feelings of hunger and images of cake. He was such a prat.

He was trying to distract her, and it was working. One, because he was intensifying his thoughts as much as he could. Secondly, because she was a little hungry already and could use some cake.

Still, she was forced to lower the intensity of the skill as she was pushed back into a corner.

She was getting tired quickly. He was wearing her down at a pace that nobody had done to her so far. She actually appreciated it sometimes; even though Marcus pushed her skills as hard as he could, he didn’t make her work as hard physically. He was still a little protective.

But Julius was really going at her. While he wasn’t hurting her, he knew precisely where to challenge her and where he needed to press. It was as if he were inside her mind, not the other way around.

She was forced to listen to these thoughts as well. He was literally telling her beforehand what he was going to do, and she couldn’t stop it. He was so annoying.

Still, she felt her skill gain another level because of his “help”. So she couldn’t help but laugh.

She was getting sloppier and sloppier as time went on. Her reaction speed was delayed, and she was forced to use more of her tricks. Her psychic skills were still one of her most powerful abilities, and she leveraged them as best as she could.

She sent a concentrated blast of mind magic at him. She didn’t really take too much effort to pull back, either; that was how tired she was. However, she didn’t have much reason to worry. He winced slightly at her powerful psychic strike, but his willpower was as strong as ever.

Correction, it was stronger than ever. She felt like she had headbutted someone wearing a mithril helmet, and some of the feedback had her reeling back as well.

Seeing this, she didn’t see much reason to hold back anymore. It wasn’t like she could afford to. Not when fighting him, at least. So with a bit of hesitation, she released some of the chains she had placed on her abilities.

They were safety locks that had been put in place when she was younger to prevent her from hurting others around her. However, she slowly unlocked some of these chains and let her abilities run free.

Then, with a gasping breath, she slammed the full weight of her mind at him, simultaneously throwing her body at him with telekinesis.

She wasnʼt even worried about him handling it or not. He was powerful enough to take care of himself, and to be honest, she was too focused on winning at the moment to care all that much.