Julius needed a little bit of time, so he slung half a dozen spikes of mana at the incoming swordsman. His opponent demonstrated impressive speed, closing the distance in mere seconds.

  The spikes that Julius sent at his opponent were either dodged or parried aside by their sword, and they continued dashing forward. He didn’t bother to hide his teleportation skill. His opponent should already know that he had one.

  However, instead of using it to get closer or to attack his opponent, he teleported backward. He still needed some more time to prepare. His kinetic skills were all slowly weaving together into his makeshift technique.

  [Kinetic Shell] finally formed around his body, the blue swirling light sparkled as it thrummed with energy. It was only then that he used his teleportation skill to close the distance. His fist was already closing in on the swordsman's face.

  However, his opponent reacted with astonishing swiftness; their sword was already flicking upward to slice his wrist with an expressionless look in their eyes. Julius frowned when he was forced to back off and parry the sword to the side with his gauntlets. Sparks of blue mana flaked off from the surface of his constructs.

  He could feel the sword dig into his gauntlets deeper than he would have expected. Then, before Julius could think about it any more, his opponent swung their sword down in an attempt to slice his forearm.

  Julius pulled back and let the sword pass him by before closing the distance. His [Kinetic Shell] helped absorb a lot of the force of the blow, but whatever concepts the swordsman had at his disposal helped limit how effective it was. These concepts literally cut through the shell with little resistance.

  It wasn’t that surprising, since the skill was still only a rare-ranked skill. He had this same issue during his last fight with Liam. The skill was good, but when facing off against some of the best talents in the Empire, it wouldn’t cut it. The skills it was going up against were probably epic skills. The fact that it was still somewhat effective demonstrated that it was a good skill for its rank.

  He just needed to catch up with the rest of his skills. Luckily for Julius, he had something else to help him now.

  [Graveforce Impact]. His new shiny skill.

  He was being literal in that sense. The skill shone purple with each movement he made with it.

  He expanded his shell outward, making it as large as possible while maintaining its potency. When he detected a sword strike coming at him, he activated [Graveforce Impact], using [Kinetic Shell] as a medium.

  A strong blast of kinetic energy ripped out from his shell and knocked the sword off course and his opponent off balance. Julius didn’t capitalize and let the man regain his footing. He had already sensed some kind of skill prepared to hit him if he had tried to attack.

  Plus, he wanted some more time to practice his new technique. It was still sloppy by his standards.

  With that being said, [Kinetic Shell] made his kinetic attacks much more fluid and extremely quick. This also seemed to apply to his new skill. It worked way better than he could have hoped.

  In the past, he had been forced to use his kinetic skills to either absorb or dissipate force. There were some pretty obvious drawbacks to that strategy. For one thing, there was a limit on how much force he could handle at once.

  Another was dealing with opposing concepts like his opponents' concepts at the moment. However, why did he have to bother with absorbing the force? Why could he just counteract his opponent’s attacks with attacks of his own?

  Thus, his new kinetic technique was born.

  He would intercept each attack that entered his shell with kinetic blasts of his own. And with a dedicated offensive skill like [Graveforce Impact], his idea actually became feasible.

  Of course, this new technique relied on many factors. One of the biggest factors was the need for exceptional perception and reaction speed. Thankfully, he had [Absolute Spatial Perception] to aid him with this. He was able to sense attacks from every direction and use his [Kinetic Shell] in combination with [Graveforce Impact] to intercept them.

  He was quite proud of himself.

  He dodged to the side and set off another blast of kinetic energy, intercepting another sword strike, but was forced to lean slightly to the side when it was about to clip him on the hip. His opponent was really skilled with a sword. That much was clear. They were already adapting to Julius’s technique.

  Julius also realized something else. He needed some reach, and so he created a stick of mana when he got some space.

  His opponent paused for a moment, tilting his head as he examined the stick.

  “Is that just a regular stick of mana?” The other teen asked with confusion. All signs that he had just been trying to remove Julius’s head with his sword were gone. The dead expression was replaced with one of befuddlement.

  “Yeah, it’s just a stick,” Julius confirmed.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Why?”

  “I need some reach,” Julius answered honestly.

  “Hmm. Okay,” the guy said with a nod.

  “Yeah, so now we are talking. Do you mind if I ask you a—”

  Julius was cut off because the guy suddenly dashed forward and thrust his sword at his face. He stepped back and used a blast of kinetic energy to knock the blade away, but his opponent used some kind of attack as well.

  A wave of sharpness aspected mana ripped out of his opponent’s sword and clashed with his kinetic energy. Julius won out in the end, but, unfortunately for him, this gave the teen time to waste, and his sword was already closing in on Julius.

  With no other choice, he gripped his stick/staff in both hands, parrying the sword. The lessons at Goldencrest came back to him, and he flowed into the motions. He flicked his stick upwards, nudging the sword to go right over his head. Then turned his body to the side when the sword almost bisected him. He shot a blast of kinetic energy at the guy.

  Being so close to his [Kinetic Shell] meant there wasn’t enough time for his opponent to dodge, and they were knocked several feet backward.

  Julius stared at the swordsman intensely. While trying not to rely on his superior speed or strength too much, he quickly began to realize just how good this guy was with a sword. It was hard to compare when Julius was using his gauntlets, but now that he was using his stick, it became clear that he was outskilled.

  His opponent left no openings for a counter and punished every opening and opportunity presented. He was ruthless and decisive. Julius was impressed. It was no wonder he had gotten this far.

  Julius continued to play defense. Not just because he wanted to train his skills, but also because he was forced to. The guy was relentless. There were no openings he could find. At least not without using some of his other skills. And he didn’t really want to do that since he was enjoying himself.

  Furthermore, he didn’t think that would have made too much of a difference. Everything Julius threw at him was dealt with a steady calmness and poise that he didn’t see in other Tier 3s he had faced so far.

  At the beginning of the fight, he hadn’t been holding high hopes, but as the fight progressed, it became clear that this opponent was not simply good, but he was really good. He didn’t have any flashy skills, overpowered concepts, overwhelming physical might, or a shit ton of mana. He just had pure skill.

  Julius didn’t see any weaknesses in his fighting style. And he couldn’t lie, out of all the people he had fought so far, even compared to Riven. Julius might have been the most impressed with this Lance guy.

  Julius, seeing that he was being met blow for blow, started to introduce more elements to the fight. Truth be told, he just wanted to test this guy that nobody seemed to be talking about.

  He sent a couple of missiles of ruinous flames at the guy, just to see how he would react.

  The guy didn’t even blink. He sidestepped the first one and cut through the second one. The explosion that Julius charged in it didn’t even go off. The entire construct just collapsed.

  There was no doubt in his mind that this swordsman had some kind of perception skill that allowed him to process information at an accelerated speed and a skill that allowed his body to react.

  Additionally, the fact that he was able to deal with his spikes that easily demonstrated more to Julius than the spectators would understand. His constructs weren’t easy to rip apart. Not at all.

  He backed up as the swordsman pressed him once again.

  He didn’t like it, but he had to admit defeat and rely more on his superior physique to keep up. Julius continued to fight defensively, and only when he felt comfortable with his new technique did he begin to use it more offensively.

  When he slapped aside another strike, he stepped forward, molding his shell into a sharpened point at the same time, like it was a wedge being driven through a wall. His opponent reacted instantly, using some kind of sword skill to soften his attack and counter with a thrust to Julius’s head.

  Julius didn’t bother to blast the attack with kinetic energy, but instead let it through. He leaned forward and used the tip of his crown to block the thrust. This clearly wasn’t what the swordsman had been expecting, but seeing the opening, he committed after a brief second of hesitation.

  The sword crashed into the azure barrier Julius placed in front of his skull. The tip of the sword pierced the barrier, but this was what Julius had been hoping for. The sword made a dull thudding sound when it hit the harder plate of mana he created. Before his opponent could pull back, he had already interlaced his mana into thick wires and threw the sword off to the side.

  The swordsman was already abandoning his sword, but it still wasn’t in time because Julius had already slammed his hardened stick into their torso. He heard them wheeze as he knocked the wind out of them, but before he could finish it off, he felt the sword, which was on the ground, vanish from his senses.

  That was the only reason he wasn’t surprised when the sword reappeared in the hands of his opponent and almost speared him through the eye. A quick discharge of kinetic energy bumped it to the side, and he hammered the guy again with his stick, sending him flying backward.

  Julius didn’t let him recover, and before his opponent could right himself, he was already there, swarming him. Large blasts of kinetic energy ripped into the other guy, and despite their best efforts, his opponent was slowly accumulating injuries.

  He was just about to land a particularly devastating blow to their face when he threw everything he had into a barrier protecting his back. Even then, it was a little too late. An absolutely massive wave of sharpness-aspected mana mixed with something else shredded his barrier, and he felt his back explode with pain.

  He used this pain to fuel his next attack. He pumped a shit ton of kinetic energy into his body and crushed his left fist into the ribcage of the swordman. They coughed up a lot of blood, but Julius didn’t care.

  His back was still stinging with pain, and he stepped in for another attack. He completely ignored the sword that cut into his chest, using just enough kinetic energy to blunt the force, but not enough that it interfered with his own attack.

  His opponent went to parry his stick, but Julius forwent the stick and let it get knocked out of his hands. Lance was shocked by this, and Julius made them pay. He transformed his gauntlet into a sharpened spike.

  Some kind of skill tried to interfere with this, but he overwhelmed it with his aura, demonstrating no restraint or mercy. He felt the skill crumble, and before the swordsman could do anything, his arm had already pierced their protection and punched through their throat.

  Julius stood there breathing hard as blood dripped down his arm. He only staggered back when a white light exploded and removed Lance’s body from the field.

  He didn't even acknowledge the crowd; he just stood there as the blood from his heavily wounded back dripped onto the arena floor. However, he couldn’t help but laugh with joy at the thrilling fight he had just experienced.

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