Chapter 137: Concept and Aura

“What do you mean?” Julius asked.

However, before Derek could answer, Kyle interrupted. “Wait. How did you know she was invisible?” He asked curiously.

“What do you mean ‘how did he know’?” Aubrey said to Kyle confused. She pointed to Julius. “He has that stupid perception ability of his,” she said like it was the most obvious thing.

Kyle put his hands up defensively. “Yes, I understand he has that frightening perception ability. But I was able to sense that Amelia had something close to a mist or vapor affinity and those are notoriously good for stealth. Arguably on par or better than shadow affinity users depending on the conditions,” he explained carefully. “I just want to know if Julius was able to actually sense her or if it was just a general gut feeling.”

“I was able to feel her entire general shape. That was how I was able to recognize her tonight,” Julius told Kyle.

“Interesting,” Kyle said softly before turning away and talking to himself like how he usually did when he found something that got him curious.

“What I find more interesting is how well you held off her aura,” Lily commented as she walked next to Julius, ignoring Kyle.

He turned to look over at Lily who was glancing at the beautiful storefronts they were passing. They were in a district that focused on nightlife. The entire street was illuminated in bright lights, and there were a good number of people still out and about.

“Yeah, I was too. When I said that her aura was weak, I was mostly just playing it up. To be honest, it was quite good. Not to mention, that I don’t think she used everything she could. It felt like she was still holding back quite a bit,” Julius said to Lily.

“I didn’t like her, I got to give her credit. She wasn’t weak if her control said anything about her. How did you fend her off?” Lily asked.

“I would like to know how you did as well,” Derek said.

Julius looked around and gave Lily a knowing look. She just shook her head and smiled before deploying a small isolation barrier of aura and psychic energy around them.

“It was my Concept and my aura skill that did a lot of the work,” Julius told them.

“So, that’s why your aura practically cut through hers without a problem. I thought that might be the reason. I just didn’t think you were quite on that level yet to use your Concept in such a way,” Lily said.

Julius shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t know either,” he freely admitted. “It sort of just happened on its own. I have been using my Concept this past week nonstop though, and without the use of my sharpness-based skill. I think that’s a big reason why I could do it.”

“Do you mind if I see for myself?” Lily asked him curiously.

“What? Like seeing how my aura defended against Amelia?” Julius questioned.

Lily nodded her head. “Yes, I want to experience it for myself.”

Julius didn’t see a reason why he wouldn’t. Perhaps she would be able to give him some information as well. “Sure, go right ahead.”

Julius felt Lily’s aura extend from her and start to approach Julius’s. Unlike Amelia’s aura, Lily was much more gentle. It was slow and prodded the edges of his aura like one would an interesting object.

Julius didn’t do anything and let her play around with his aura to her content. He did notice that his aura wasn’t defending itself like it had earlier. It was surprisingly docile.

It wasn’t until Lily started to get closer and bury itself deeper that her aura elicited a reaction from his. The moment it got too close, his aura started to defend itself. It was like it was waving a long sword at Lily’s aura, preventing it from getting any closer.

Then suddenly, Lily’s aura increased in intensity by a lot. It was full-on pressing onto him, much like Amelia’s had done. Whatever natural defenses his aura had deployed wasn’t enough to stop her this time. She blew through it like it was nothing and it felt like he was getting bumrushed by a golem again.

Julius knew that if he wanted to defend himself, he would need to start actively controlling his aura, otherwise he would be quickly smothered. So with a quick focus, he manipulated his aura to condense down and start tearing apart Lily’s aura with his Concept.

He saw Lily grin widely as she felt him fending her off. Then he felt another increase in intensity, this time it was less of a brute force method like she had been using and more of a subtle sneaky manipulation. Her aura snuck through his gaps and slithered its way deeper into his aura, slowly breaking it down from the inside.

It was very different than Amelia’s tactic. She had just tried to strangle him with aura. Lily’s aura felt like she was trying to seep into his pores and take control of him like a puppet. It was much more terrifying and much more challenging to fight against.

However, he wouldn’t go down easily. If she was trying to sneak her way through the cracks in his aura, he just needed to make sure there weren’t any cracks to sneak into.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He compressed his aura deep into himself, making sure that there were no gaps. Then he infused his Severing Will Concept throughout the entire aura, with the intent of severing anything that wasn’t his own aura.

And it worked. Julius felt Lily’s attempts to sneak in being repelled with much more ease.

It was ironic. He had been wearing Professor Youma’s aura-suppressing ring for so long, that he hadn’t realized that he no longer needed it. At some point in his training, he had been able to suppress his aura with practiced ease.

He had gotten used to the increased power in his aura from his Tier advancement. Even the boost he got from his soul evolution wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. It was more power, yes, but he didn’t find himself flailing around trying to contain it like he had been. The many long nights and endless aura training sessions were showing their worth.

Julius found himself having a lot of fun as he kept trying to keep Lily away from his aura. She was really good. He knew that already, but until now he didn’t understand quite how good she was.

He had the advantage of using his Severing Will Concept to help him, but his ability to manipulate aura still fell short of hers by a lot. If he didn’t have Severing Will, he suspected she would have already had him dozens of times. Now that he was paying attention to her aura really closely, he had an inkling that she also had a Concept of her own that she was using to help her. However, instead of making her aura like a sharpened blade, it acted like his aura skill, [Empowerment of Will]. It just made her aura overall stronger in every way.

Eventually, no matter how hard he tried to keep her out, she was better. She slowly ground him down in a battle of attrition and had been using large spikes of aura to spear his compressed aura. The opening she would then exploit by prying it apart and invading his aura.