Chapter 330: Julius vs Liam

Julius took the familiar walk down the tunnel toward the stadium. At this point, the crowd noise was actually comforting, and he barely heard it in the background.

When he eventually exited the tunnel and saw the colorful pops of mana exploding through the sky, he grinned. He would never get tired of the sight.

He ignored the cries from the crowd who were shouting Liam’s name enthusiastically and strolled right toward the center of the field, where an official was already standing, waiting for him. Liam was approaching from the other side of the field and stared at Julius coldly the entire time.

The official quickly explained the rules to each of them, but neither of them was really listening. They had heard the same things for the past two weeks and knew the rules by heart.

What surprised Julius a little bit was that Liam didn’t try to taunt him. The fourth year was taking this very seriously and was wholly focused on the fight. He kept the same icy expression on his face as he tracked Julius moving toward the end of the field.

Julius, on the other hand, couldn’t help but smirk slightly. He was enjoying how much Liam was taking this seriously. If the noble boy didn’t think Julius was a threat, he wouldn’t have shown such carefulness. Who knows, he could have been verbally taunting him and baiting him.

The fact that he wasn’t was a sign of respect, and in Julius’s eyes, that was a win.

When the official gave the signal for the fight to begin, Julius smiled widely as he sensed a flood of ice mana rush out of Liam. Fast and powerful were the first thoughts he had, as a trio of swords made of magically hardened ice pierced through the air. He already knew that these swords of ice weren’t to be easily ignored. He had personally seen them tear through the barriers of other students like they were tearing through wet paper.

There were at least two Concepts buried in these constructs, and Julius gave them the proper caution, which of course meant he didn’t bother to move. He felt his smile widen and casually placed his palm in front of him. He then created a barrier made of mana coating his palm.

See? If he weren’t taking these swords as a serious threat, then he would not have bothered to create any barrier. He would have let them hit him straight on.

Just before the swords smashed into his open palm, he wrapped his kinetic energy around them and siphoned as much force from them as he could. The Concepts within them made it a little difficult, but he used his powerful willpower to break through with sheer brute strength.

When they collided into his palm, he chuckled as the remaining power still forced him to take a step back. The impact didn’t even destroy them either. After they slammed into his palm, they fell to the ground, creating a bright, resonating chime as they clattered to the ground.

Liam’s facial features tightened as he watched Julius take his attack head-on without flinching. To which Julius gave the other boy the most aggravating smirk he could as he strolled forward, Liam.

Before Julius could take several steps forward, he was once again bombarded with ice constructs. This time, they weren’t swords. Liam must have decided to go with a larger number of smaller dagger-shaped constructs, attacking from all sides.

Julius sent a powerful pulse of fire and kinetic energy in every direction around him, destroying a significant portion of the constructs. He then dashed forward at Liam, using his momentum to avoid the daggers still flying at him.

However, Julius was surprised when he felt a small and subtle movement of mana under his feet. He focused downward and saw that Liam was manipulating the three dropped ice swords, repurposing them to create some ice chains that were attempting to wrap around his ankles and immobilize him.

He shook his head, slightly impressed by the skill it took to do this. It wasn’t the fact that he could recycle the used constructs; it was how subtle the action was. If Julius hadn’t been paying attention, he might not have noticed until it was too late.

He swiftly sent a bit of mana toward these chains and used his body to rip through them, shattering them into small particles of ice. However, as he was distracted by this, the small daggers of ice started to pepper him.

They weren’t as strong as the swords, but they were much more annoying. It was like being hounded by a swarm of bees, and he could feel the constructs trying to inject some type of ice mana effect into him.

Despite Liam’s best efforts, the daggers weren’t able to break through his defenses, and he advanced toward Liam, who was creating multiple obstacles between them.

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While this happened, he sent out a quick burst of kinetic energy around himself again. The daggers that were still slamming into him broke apart, and he did his best to avoid the largest number of them.

Just because they didn’t break through his defenses didn’t mean he enjoyed getting hit by them.