Chapter 349: Why Was There Even Doubt?

The man was good. Very good. It took everything Julius had within himself to just keep up with his speed. However, it was also a great opportunity to test his close combat skills against someone who outmatched him physically.

The results were… satisfactory. He wasn’t completely beaten, but he found that his lack of reach limited his ability to do any meaningful damage. Add that to the fact that he was actively delaying his healing skill from aiding him. It was a challenge to give any resistance.

However, he paused when he was alerted to a notification.

[Flash Step lvl 19 -> 20]

He grinned even wider than he already was, but ignored it for the time being. It was time to stop fooling around and give a little fight back. As much as he enjoyed training his skills, his pride didn’t feel so good letting this man just beat him up.

And it was perfect timing too. The man must not have been very good at prolonged battles, because Julius could already tell that he was flagging. His aura which was once carefully controlled, was no longer.

It also helped that the man was now out in the open. Julius still didn’t know how the man had hidden from his sight even with his new perception skill. It was a bit worrying and showed that even though the skill was overpowered, there were still ways to avoid its detection. He was glad he learned this now rather than later.

For a moment, he was letting himself get overconfident in the skill’s ability.

He finally used [Phoenix Renewal] to heal all of his injuries. The rush of life mana was relieving. The pain from his injuries had been accumulating, and now that they no longer burdened him, he felt like a brand new man.

He stopped and studied the man frozen in place as he watched Julius heal instantly. He had to admit that seeing the man’s panic and surprise when he saw Julius’s skill was satisfying.

It always caught his opponents by surprise.

“You gotta be shitting me,” he heard the man mutter under his breath.

Julius let himself bask in the man’s surprise for one more moment before he went to work. He activated all of his skills and pressed down his will onto the assassin. His willpower acted like a battering ram to knock him off balance.

His aura, while not blowing through his defenses, still managed to pack a mean punch to anyone subjected to it. This was the same case for the blade-wielding assassin. His surprise at the healing skill also helped Julius stagger him more than he probably should have.

It was at this moment that he used his kinetic energy technique to restrict the man’s movements. Thanks to the circumstances, he managed to pause his opponent for a brief second, allowing him to get in close for the first time.

A punch loaded with more aura and mana than he had shown so far blasted into the barrier that covered the man. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to break through. But that was why he was already slamming his knee upward, creating a shockwave of force from the impact.

This luckily seemed to rattle the barrier, and was why he ignored the incoming blade heading straight into his stomach. He did his best to stop it with barriers, but the man’s Sharpness Concept tore right through. [Barrier of Severance] had no chance, showing the reason why he wanted to upgrade it.

However, he was okay with taking the attack. He was no longer going to hide his healing skill, and he was going to fall back to his favorite fighting style, a head-on battle to see who could soak up more damage. Something he was confident he could win no matter his opponent.

All thoughts of defense were gone and he placed all of his attention on offense. He no longer avoided the slashes from the blade, he would take them on the elbow, letting the blade cut deep into his muscle, until it hit bone. But then he would exact his own punishment before healing his injuries and then going back in for more.

He kept on brutalizing the barrier, knowing that it would break at some point. To make things go a bit faster, he created a bunch of constructs over his shoulder as they brawled it out. Just slinging them at the best opportunities. This, of course, meant he was sometimes in the way of his own attacks, but it was worth it. He made sure he dished out more than he received.

Finally, after a massive barrage of spikes slamming into the barrier, he felt it crack. Smiling widely as he sensed the opportunity in front of him, he pushed his skills to the maximum and started to go wild. Nothing mattered to him at this moment except breaking through.

The assassin desperately tried to disengage, likely realizing the danger as well. But Julius didn’t let him. He would constantly harass the man with his aura and kinetic energy technique, making sure he could back off.

His opponent kept on trying to use a specific skill the entire time during the fight. Julius had a feeling that this was the same skill that allowed him to hide from his senses. Luckily for Julius, it would appear that this skill took time to deploy and use.

Otherwise, this fight would get much harder than it already was.

Eventually, after a couple minutes of brutal strike after brutal strike, the barrier was shattered from the force he laid upon it. A large cloud of black mana immediately plumed all around the two of them and Julius could sense the man trying to escape.

He could also feel some kind of disorientating effect coming from this mana. If not for his perception skill, he might have lost track of the man. Luckily for him, that didn’t happen, and as the man was turning away to run, Julius slammed a leg into his hip.

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The sheer force from the blow created a shockwave, and he felt something crack in the man’s body. Making sure he could not get away, he quickly sent a volley of spikes to smother his opponent.

With the barrier gone, his constructs managed to do much more damage than before. The man must not have been that great at body enforcement beyond what he was given when he advanced to Tier 4, because these spikes pierced the man’s defenses quite easily.

The explosions ripped large gouges of flesh from his body, even going so far as to remove an entire arm from the assassin.

He saw the man take out a potion right away, but Julius threw a small needle of mana right at it, shattering it before he could take a sip. Then, before he could react, Julius appeared right in front of him and slammed a fist directly into his temple.