He was quickly attended by healers. The wound on his back hadn't healed since he had stalled his healing skill from activating. It was one of the few things he had kept hidden and would like to keep it that way. He might have been forced to use his teleportation skill, but he didn’t want all of his skills to be revealed. Not yet.

  Still, the pain was annoying, and he was forced to sit quietly as the healers stitched his back together. He could help but admit that they were really good. Their control over life mana was phenomenal. There were three separate healers aiding him.

  One was the same guy who always seemed to be there. The other two he didn’t recognize. However, one of these two new healers was in charge of establishing some kind of circle around Julius’s body. It was similar to the one that Freya had shown him not too long ago. One that would stabilize the area and improve the healing efficiency.

  Of course, there was a massive disparity in the circles' complexity and power. With that being said, he could still appreciate the delicate manipulations that went into the technique. He was even taking notes when he spotted things he found interesting.

  The other new healer was mainly flooding Julius with large amounts of revitalizing life mana. It sort of felt like someone was flooding his body with enormous amounts of caffeine.

  His back was already being stitched together with a speed that he rarely saw in healing skills. It wasn’t like his injury was light either. Most of his flesh, all the way down to his bones, was flayed off. In fact, they seemed more concerned that he wasn’t acting like he was in pain.

  “Are you sure you are okay? I can’t imagine the pain feels pleasant,” the healer asked him with a worried glance.

  Julius nodded. “Don’t worry, I have a skill that helps with the pain.”

  The healer nodded and continued the healing.

  “What’s your name by the way? I think you have told me yet,” Julius noted.

  “It’s James.”

  “Nice to officially meet you, James,” Julius said with a bright smile.

  The healer scoffed amusedly. “Nice to officially meet you, too. Have you looked into the Institute of Healing Arts yet?”

  “Not really, but I am not interested in going to another school. I have a lot of other stuff to occupy my time,” Julius explained.

  “Well, it was just an idea. Given your affinity, I thought it might be a good idea if you learned a self-healing skill. They are always a pain in the ass to pick up, but they can save your life in a pinch. I know that there are several private lessons offered to help with this. You won’t even need to enroll; they are more for students or professors to earn a little extra money on the side, as well as some experience.”

  Julius did his best to hold back a laugh. If only the guy knew that he already had a really good healing skill.

  “Thank you, I appreciate it. I might have to look into them in that case,” Julius said non-committedly. He didn’t really have any plans to do that, but he didn’t want to sound ungrateful.

  “No worries. The world could always use more healers,” James said with a soft smile before concentrating back on the gruesome injury on Julius’s back.

  While he did that, Julius took the time to review his notifications.

  The fight had been more challenging than he had expected, and he ended up getting some nice level-ups. He also learned more about the new technique than he had in the spars with the people from the Sentinels Guild.

  [Graveforce Impact lvl 4 -> lvl 7]

  [Kinetic Shell lvl 12 -> lvl 14]

  [Absolute Spatial Perception lvl 15 -> lvl 16]

  A nice chunk of levels was always a nice sight. He was also glad to see that his perception skill had gained a level. That skill was always such a pain to level up, despite it being one of his most-used skills. However, being forced to use it in new and challenging ways seemed to have done it some good.

  He could already feel the three kinetic skills blending together. The power of the technique was still relatively low, but he was also using his own standards as a reference, so he wasn’t too critical.

  The technique's defensive properties were quite promising. Using kinetic energy to deflect or outright block attacks worked surprisingly well, especially against physical attacks. He didn’t know how it would work against something more ethereal or less tangible, but that would require some testing.

  The offensive potential was quite attractive as well. The ability to create kinetic blasts at a moment’s notice was something he would never complain about.

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  As a matter of fact, he felt that he was getting pretty close to figuring out how to combine them. He needed to thank Lance the next time he saw him. He had likely saved Julius loads of time. Maybe a slice of cake would be an appropriate thank-you gift.

  ***

  Julius was seated next to Lily as he watched Aubrey’s fight. She had the unfortunate luck of facing Eren as her opponent. Julius had already seen Eren in action for a brief moment and had a strong suspicion of who would come out on top.

  It wasn’t because he didn’t think Aubrey was strong, but because of how strong Eren was. The disciple of the Sage of Falling Swords was practically a Tier 4, and it showed when he fought Aubrey.

  Her clones were being slaughtered at an insane rate. It didn’t matter what she did; the swords kept falling from the sky, piercing every clone that appeared. Her mana must have already been running low. It wasn’t like she could dismiss her clones either. They were the sole reason she was still alive.

  If not for them, she would have been pierced by them a minute into the fight. She was desperately trying to create more clones, having to constantly teleport between them to avoid the swords that were tracking her every movement.

  Eren had to have some kind of tracking or perception skill that let him find Aubrey, since he always seemed to target the correct clone.

  Of course, Aubrey still got in some good licks, but they weren’t strong enough to take Eren down. Her only real viable attack was her prismatic beams of light. She would need to address that particular issue once the tournament was over.

  Julius watched as she managed to weave between her clones, closing the distance between her and Eren. The other teen stoically stood there with his sword still at his side as dozens of swords of golden light pierced down from the heavens.

  Aubrey didn’t always switch with her clones. From time to time, she blocked the sword with her body. After all, her defense was definitely top-tier, even compared to the geniuses gathered at the tournament.

  Unfortunately, there were only so many attacks she could handle since each sword contained an immense amount of power, as well as being extremely sharp. Sharp enough that they were able to penetrate her gem-like skin.

  She took one heavy sword in the back, unable to detect it in time. Shards of her skin splintered off, and he saw some blood spray out of the wound. However, in exchange for this injury, she had closed the distance and was attacking Eren with a beam of light, which was quickly followed up by an irritated Aubrey.

  Eren attempted to distance himself like he had been doing for the entire fight, but Aubrey had something up her sleeve. Out of nowhere, a clone appeared above Eren and pinned him down for a few precious seconds.

  This delay allowed Aubrey to finally get within reach, and she started to unleash a flurry of blows.

  Eren didn’t look panicked at all, though. Still, Julius noticed that Eren looked a little annoyed. Despite being swarmed by Aubrey’s heavy attacks, Eren calmly dealt with her aggression, slamming an elbow full of sharpness mana upward and into the clone. The attack shattered the clone, but there are now a lot more.

  Now that Aubrey had closed the distance, Eren wasn’t able to pin her down with his swords without hurting himself, it would seem.

  Thus, the other teen was forced to dance in between Aubrey and her clones, doing his best to survive the onslaught.

  The ones cheering for Aubrey let out excited screams as the momentum shifted. However, Julius felt the opposite way. A chill went through his spine when he realized something.

  He finally realized that Eren hadn’t even used the edge of his blade yet. Every time he used his sword, it was with the dull side of the blade or with the hilt. For some inexplicable reason, he wasn’t even using his sword like a sword. He might as well have been using a stick.

  Who in their right mind would ever use a stick? That would be stupid. He thought to himself, scoffing, before belatedly realizing the irony of his criticism.

  In my defense, I only had a stick. Eren has a sword but chooses to use it as a stick. There is a significant difference, he noted to himself with a self-assured nod. He felt a little silly defending his own pride from himself, but didn’t want there to be any misunderstandings.

  Julius watched with a frown as Aubrey continued to push Eren harder and harder. Punches were starting to land on Eren now, and Aubrey was pulling ahead. Lily was up in her seat, jumping up and down as Aubrey eventually pushed Eren back toward the edge of the barrier.

  She reached down to grab his shoulder enthusiastically. “Come on! Why aren’t you more excited?” She asked him.

  He didn’t respond, and she took her eyes off the fight for a brief moment, no doubt feeling his apprehension.

  “What is it?” She asked, this time more subdued.

  Julius shook his head. “He’s holding back,” he answered quietly.

  She had a puzzled expression on her face, but instead of arguing with him or asking what he meant, she slowly sat back down. Her excitement was slowly fading away.

  In the next minute, she saw why Julius had been so apprehensive. Right as Aubrey was pushing Eren to the breaking point, he felt a sudden surge of power flood out of Eren. Aubrey must have as well, and to her credit, she responded instantly.

  Several clones attempted to pin Eren down as he gathered some kind of attack.

  For the first time during the entire fight, Eren finally used his sword for real. All Julius saw was a shimmering of light surrounding the edge of the blade. Then, before anyone in the crowd could grasp what was going on, the entire arena exploded with some kind of mysterious sword energy, destroying Aubrey’s clones in the process.

  The crowd was blinded by the light, but Julius stared directly at Eren this entire time. It was only because of this that he managed to catch what happened next.

  In a motion so fluid, Julius was partially stunned by its beauty. Eren brought his blade up high above his head and then back down. Aubrey had put her arms up to guard herself. Julius noticed that she wasn’t able to teleport away with another one of her clones.

  He had no idea the reason for that, but she held firm, reinforcing her arms to the limit. Too bad it wasn’t enough.

  The following sword strike was like the heavens themselves struck Aubrey. A pillar of divine light sliced through her defenses as well as half of the arena.

  All that was left afterwards was an utterly bisected arena and fading particles of white light where Aubrey had once stood.

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