Chapter 435: Easier Than Expected

A massive explosion rocked throughout the cavern, and the earth mages who previously tried to collapse it on them were now desperately trying to prevent it. Since they were also in the line of fire, they didn’t want the roof coming down any more than Julius did.

Julius looked over at the Tier 5, who was unconscious inside the ruined set of armor with a frown. Truth be told, he would have never been able to hurt the man or at least seriously injure him on his own. It was only thanks to the powerful armor that he was able to generate enough force to get through the Tier 5’s defenses.

Funnily enough, it would have been better if the man had fought Julius without the armor. Even with his poor combat skills, he would have beaten Julius nine times out of ten. [Void Strike] had done an excellent job at slowly whittling away at the integrity of the enchantments. To make things worse, Julius made sure to target what seemed to be the most critical sections of the array. Thankfully, it worked out, and he was able to take out the Tier 5.

It wasn’t like he had actually beaten a Tier 5 on his own; there was a lot of luck and help from Emil, but he would take it. At the very least, it was a better showing than the last time he had fought a Tier 5.

The bad news was that he was quite exhausted. He had used every ounce of his power to overclock his body so that he could stand toe to toe with the Tier 5 for that brief amount of time. His mana was also almost depleted, and his soul was feeling quite raw after exploding his soul several times.

He was going to need a nice little break after this was done. He might need some help from Freya as well, to make sure that he doesn’t have any problems in the long run. She would likely give him crap for pushing himself too far, but she would still do it.

Hopefully.

As much as he wanted to finish the Tier 5 off, Emil needed help immediately. The bear was very strong and had gained a slight advantage over the other man. Therefore, Julius mustered as much energy as he could and forced himself to run over.

He hefted the staff he had created with aura-woven mana over his shoulder. Not to toot his own horn, but the staff was quite a magnificent piece of mana manipulation. He was pretty proud of its construction.

He took some inspiration from the healing structure Freya taught him and added to his already powerful aura-woven mana techniques. This allowed him to force more mana than he would otherwise be able to without the entire construct falling apart or worse, exploding in his face. Such things had happened in the past, much to his embarrassment.

Additionally, the construct didn’t require as much finesse or delicate control as a blade would have. He simply needed a blunt instrument, and it was shocking how much stronger a construct he could create by choosing such a simple shape.

He should have done something similar a long time ago. It would have made his life so much easier. With that being said, he previously didn’t really have a skill that would go with a staff. However, [Void Strike] worked surprisingly well with the staff. The new skill synergized with the staff much better than he could have expected.

It was funny. The unique nature of the skill meant that the staff was covered in the chaotic distortions of the void. This also meant that the staff was covered in a layer of energy that was very difficult to break physically and ensured that it didn’t break when smashed against the Tier 5 armor.

As he charged his body with power once more, he felt something tear. He disregarded this sensation for the moment; he had Drasil frantically healing any damage to him and would worry about it later.

He noticed that Emil was about to take another blow from the Frost Bear, and realizing that he wouldn’t be able to make it in time, he took a deep breath and slammed his foot down as he threw the staff instead.

The staff ripped through the air and once again, the bear was slammed by his staff. It didn’t do that much more damage than the last time he threw it, but it gave Emil enough time to protect himself.

Barehanded, Julius tore towards the bear, picking up the first staff he had thrown earlier from the ground. The staff had some cracks in the surface from the overwhelming amount of kinetic energy he had charged through it, but it was quickly fixed by a bit of mana to fill in the cracks.

Fortunately, the Frost Bear was still very much on Emil and didn’t even bother to confront Julius as he got within striking distance. Emil was aware of his presence, though, and took this chance to swing wildly at the bear, who used its armored shoulder to block the blow.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it’s taken without the author’s consent. Report it.

Julius jumped with kinetic energy and slammed the wide-open bear with the staff, aiming right between the gaps of the helmet and the chestplate. To his frustration, the blow still didn’t do that much damage. The bear shook it off like it was nothing, but he had gotten the monster’s attention at the very least.

Much like before, the bear’s domain blasted out and tried to freeze Julius, but this time, Julius was prepared. He had already charged his soul, and the moment it touched Julius, he let loose a small explosion.

His already wounded soul was damaged even further, and he coughed out a spray of blood right on the bear’s fur. However, he didn’t use [Void Step] to gain some distance. Instead, he latched himself onto the Tier 5 as if he were a leech.