Chapter 209: Bad Feeling

Julius was gassed.

By far the biggest problem was his opponent’s physical prowess. There was just no way for Julius to keep up with the man. By the time he tried to react to his movements, he was already getting punched in the face.

He could see it, but could only watch as the fist connected with his face.

He was just now starting to understand just how much Gabriel must have been holding back whenever they sparred.

The other thing that really made it difficult was the man’s authority. Although Julius was able to keep it at bay, it wasn’t like it was easy.

It took a significant amount of mental commitment to deal with it. It forced him to control less of his constructs which whas probably his largest source of damage.

The problem with his blue fire spikes was how much mana and focus they took. The man had a way to interfere with them just enough to where he could avoid them easily. Additionally, his reaction speed outclassed the speed at which Julius could shoot them. Which made them less useful than they normally were.

He was lucky that his opponent didn’t seem to going for instant kill shots. The man for some reason was hesitant to kill Julius. He always held off before he would kill Julius.

There were a couple of times when Julius was completely wide open, with his arms and chest crushed like a compressed soda can, but the man never tried to smash his head open.

While Julius wouldn’t be that surprised if he was to survive that, it was a bit confusing to see that the man didn’t even try to go for it. That was why he believed his opponent wasn’t trying to kill him.

Although, at this rate, he wasn’t going to be able to keep it up for much longer.

His mana was almost out. Something he thought he would never say.

The last time that had happened was at the troll rift. However, in that time Julius had gained even more mana. So the fact that he was almost out said a lot.

He had chosen or rather been forced to stop using his full body armor. It was actually cheaper mana-wise to just tank the hits than to recreate each damaged armor piece.

Now that mana usage was becoming an actual issue, he realized that his armor was a bit wasteful.

He had no reason to use armor for his entire body. He just needed to select pieces to protect his vital points. Furthermore, he could even just create a construct whenever he noticed an attack on the fly.

His mana control had gotten good enough that he could probably pull something like that off.

It would certainly save him a lot of mana that way. Even though he wouldn’t look as cool, it would probably be more efficient. He was learning that he would have to be a little more careful how he used his mana in the future.

That is if he still had a future in a couple of minutes.

Shaking those negative thoughts out of his head, he focused back on the fight.

The man was giving Julius an expectant look. As if he was trying to say to Julius, ‘give up, you’re not going to win’.

Julius wasn’t going to deny that the man was probably right, but he wasn’t the type of person to shy away from a fight just because he thought he would lose. That wasn’t the kind of person he wanted to be. He also had a friend who needed him right now, sitting behind that door.

He checked his mana capacity. There was just enough mana left where he could launch one last offensive. He would need to make each ounce of mana count.

He had a plan in mind, though it was certainly one of his more crazy ideas. He was going to have to rely on a mixture of luck and hope that the man wouldn’t immediately go for the kill shot.

Julius took a calming deep breath, his mind was clear, and so was his will.

He saw the man gently shake his head and once again come after Julius with an insane burst of speed, only [Spatial Perception] allowed Julius to track the man.

I got one shot at this, he reminded himself.

His opponent went for the same thing. He came blitzing in and smashed apart the constructs and Julius’s defenses with a couple of powerful strikes.

Once Julius was undefended his opponent sent a vicious punch at his chest. However, unlike the times before, Julius was already moving before the man struck out, guessing and hoping to get lucky. While he was dodging, he also finally used his kinetic immobilization technique for the first time during the fight.

He had been saving it for a couple of reasons. For one, he didn’t think it would actually do much to his opponent, considering how strong the man’s willpower and Authority were.

Also, he wanted to keep it as a last-ditch ability that might give him an opening. An opening just like this one.

As the technique reached the man, it barely had an effect. Instead of freezing the man in place because of his siphoning the kinetic energy, it was more accurate to say that it froze him for a moment because of how surprised the man was. It was akin to a kid grabbing a hold of an adult’s coat jacket with their two fingers.

Fortunately for Julius, that was all he needed.

As the man’s arm was passing by Julius, he reached out and clapped down on it. The constructed armor that had been surrounding his fists, melted down like water and wrapped around his opponent’s arm.

For the first time ever, Julius pumped the constructed gauntlet with kinetically enhanced fire.

He had always been too nervous to do so. Making blue spikes was different, they weren’t attached to his body, which meant that the chances of them killing him were much lower. However, he also realized how stupid he was being.

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When had he begun to stop pushing his skills and abilities just because he was scared of what would happen? When had that fear begun to override his desire to get stronger?

It was pathetic and it was disgraceful.

He should never be scared to use his own techniques backfiring on him. If he kept on doing that, it would just act as an anchor that would keep him down for the rest of his life.

So with the type of confidence that only came when there were no other options, he supercharged his construct.

Both his arm and the man’s arm were enveloped in a brilliant blue flame. And before the man could try to disrupt it or before Julius chickened out, he detonated it.

The blast was many times stronger than his spikes had been. The resulting explosion tore his entire body apart. For the first time during the fight, he lost consciousness briefly.

When he awoke, he was buried under a pile of rubble with his body slowly healing itself. He was bone dry and had no mana left. He distantly felt Drasil pumping in some of his essence to supplement his skill, trying to heal him as much as he could, but the damage was way too great and Drasil had already been feeding Julius his essence during the entire fight.

He took a look around, trying to get a grasp of the situation. He first noticed the gaping hole in the ceiling and the complete mess the cellar was in. The once large room was now buried in stone, with the ceiling about to completely cave it.

However, he clenched his teeth tightly together when he spotted the man staggering to his feet on the other side of the room. On the bright side, the man didn’t come out unscathed. His arm was a bloody mess, bones were sticking out of it from multiple places and there were burns marking him up and down his body.

Unfortunately, unlike Julius, he seemed still able to fight.