Chapter 324: Luring Them Out

The first thing he did was walk toward the edge of the city. He didn’t tell the others, but he had been thinking really hard about how he was attacked. The timing was very strange. It was only when he had left the others and was somewhat alone that she decided to attack him.

That made him believe that she or the people who instructed her to attack him had a way to monitor where he was. Or at least managed to find out when he had left campus and followed him from there.

He couldn’t sense anyone following him, though. To be fair, it was to make sure when there were so many people around. Therefore, he decided to go on a little walk by himself.

If someone was still following him, he hoped he would be able to sense them when there were fewer people. If he couldn’t perceive anyone, it meant one of two things.

It meant that either the person who had been tracking him was the woman or had left after the attempt. Another possibility was that he was being tracked via some other method.

In that case, they might still be tracking him at this moment. He also hoped they couldn’t help but take this opportunity to attack him when he was alone. He wanted the chance to attack him to be too tempting, even if they believed he was luring them out on purpose.

So as he left the city gates and entered the wilderness outside, he threw out his perception once again. The entire time, he had not noticed a single person following him. If they were still tracking him, it certainly wasn’t by simply following him like the two men had done all that time ago.

There was likely some other technique behind it all.

He kept on wandering around for quite a while. Eventually, he found a little spot by a creek that rested at. It was getting quite late, and the sun had already set, but with his advancement to Tier 3, he had the ability to see in low light much more easily.

He looked up at the sky and noticed that some of the stars were already peaking through the slightly cloudy skies. The moon was bright as ever, shining down onto the shimmering water.

It was very relaxing, and for a brief moment, he loosened his shoulders, taking it all in. The assassination attempt had worried him more than he had told or shown the others. It wasn’t about the fact that he could have died either. It was more because he liked knowing who he was fighting.

With this recent attack, he had no idea who he was fighting.

Did his cousin break his promise and end up telling his father? Julius was quite sure that the boy had been sincere in his promise. But what if the other boy changed his mind? Or what if the father was able to find out about it another way?

There were too many ‘what ifs’ to be comfortable.

This was the first time he had been able to leave the city since he arrived back to Heston and while he didn’t know if he was being tracked, he was going at least enjoy his evening. He might have been just being paranoid, but he wanted to make sure.

Or at least take this chance to lure them out if they were still tracking him. He didn’t want to go about his time looking over his shoulder for assassins.

So with a slight grin, he removed his shoes and dipped his toes into the chilly water. The icy temperature made him shiver, but he sent a warm flow of fire mana throughout his body to make him comfortable.

He then removed some snacks from his storage ring and closed his eyes to enjoy the calmness of the creek.

However, just when he thought all of his worries were unfounded, he sensed a sudden disturbance behind him.

He couldn’t help but release a relieved chuckle as he turned around and slammed his fist into the person who was thrusting a shortsword at his skull. The blade nicked him, but the attacker found themselves being blasted away by his strike.

There weren’t any people around to force him to hold back, so he blasted his aura through his body, fueling his empowerment skill. He used [Flash Step] to dash forward and slammed his knee into the person, throwing them away until they finally stopped when they crashed against one of the trees.

He was about to dash forward again when he sensed a collection of mana coming right at him. Creating a shield of mana behind him, he blocked the powerful attack. The impact was heavy, but his barrier held up against the strike.

He was so preoccupied by the two attackers that he almost didn’t notice the flicker of shadow mana. He leaned to the side as a blade slashed right past him, and with a supercharged elbow, he slammed into the same woman who had attacked him earlier.

He tried to immobilize her with kinetic energy once again. Sadly, she was ready for his technique and had already enforced her willpower, not allowing him to incapacitate her as easily as last time.

Still, the force of his attack had her knocked off her feet, and she disappeared into another shadow before reappearing next to the man who had first attacked him.

Another spear of mana appeared and hissed through the air, crashing against the barrier he created once again. However, this time the attack exploded on impact, staggering him slightly.

The man didn’t let this opportunity slip and immediately appeared at Julius’s side, sending a swift slash at his face. Julius was prepared, though, and created a construct to wrap around the blade. He grabbed hold of the blade and ripped it down toward the ground.

The man decisively let go of his blade before he was pulled alongside it and jumped up, trying to smash his knee into Julius’s chin.

Julius evaded this and threw himself to the side as he sensed the mage and shadow woman attack him while he was distracted. An attack made of shadow mana wizzed over his shoulder and into the dirt. The attack was very akin to the poison she had used against him before, which made him believe that poison was indeed some kind of skill that was enhanced with a Concept.

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The mage’s attack wasn’t powerful like the previous ones. It almost seemed like the attack had some sort of stun effect, as if they were trying to hold him down.

He was a bit worried that he still had not found the mage as of yet. Either they were too far away for [Spatial Perception] to pick up, or they had another way to avoid his detection.

Both were worrying. Plus, he still didn’t know how they were tracking him.

There wasn’t much time to worry about that, though. He was busy trying to fend off three Tier 4s at once.