Chapter 468: Attacked and Rescued

Derek POV

He watched with an amused grin as the small blue spikes flashed across the entire field. Each flash resulted in the death of a fox. It was a slaughter, and no matter what those interferers did, they were helpless to stop Julius.

While most of the people watching the match were taken aback by the sudden development, he and his friends weren’t. They were used to Julius and knew better by now. Their friend was freakishly strong.

People were giving Derek a lot of attention because he was heir of House Zenith and also because he had won the Goldencrest Tournament. What people didn’t seem to grasp was that Derek had only won on a technicality. In truth, he was certain that Julius would have beaten him in the finals if he hadn’t been distracted by training all night long.

Perhaps it was better that it had gone down like that. At least that way, Julius had been able to avoid the attention of large powers. Unfortunately, Derek didn’t think that would last now that he had demonstrated a portion of his real strength in front of the entire capital.

While it might not have been his true strength, it would certainly be enough to capture the interest of many people.

“Fascinating,” his uncle said with a grin on his face.

His aunt looked like she had bit into a lemon, but his grandfather looked like it had been an expected result. Derek wasn’t that surprised that his grandfather was able to determine Julius’s true skill. As much as Derek loved his grandfather, the fact remained that he was a monster who was known as the Empire’s strongest Duke. Only older monsters and hidden masters who stayed out of the public’s eyes might be stronger.

He suspected that the Doren person who had whisked Julius away was one of those people, and Derek had made sure to tell his grandfather about Doren just the other night. To his relief, his grandfather had indeed heard of Doren.

His grandfather wouldn’t explain that much about who Doren was, but he made sure to warn Derek to avoid the man if possible. While he likely wasn’t hostile, he was apparently highly unpredictable and had been the source of many tragedies over the past centuries.

Derek really wanted to know what he meant by that, but his grandfather was persistent in keeping the details a secret. It only made his curiosity grow.

“Did you know he could do that?” His uncle asked him, breaking him out of his thoughts.

Derek turned to look at his uncle, who looked impressed by what he had seen, and nodded firmly. “Julius is very strong.”

“Stronger than you?” His uncle sounded genuinely inquisitive.

Derek laughed and scoffed. “Yeah.”

For some reason, people found it hard to believe that Julius was such a talent. Derek had tried to explain to his family that Julius was someone they should make every effort to support. If not for him being Derek’s dear friend, then it would be because Julius would go on to become one of the powerhouses of the Empire.

Perhaps, they would now start to listen to him. They would have to if they didn’t want some other House or power trying to snatch up Julius. While Derek knew that Julius wouldn’t take their offers, they didn’t, and would still make every attempt to get him to join them. He knew his friend well enough to know that Julius would hate it.

The dinner event would have been a perfect opportunity to do so, but they had let Julius run off to do his own thing. Plus, Julius already had someone like Cain Steelborn as his master. While Cain was powerful according to his grandfather, he wasn’t someone with political power like House Zenith or House Violet.

They would need to make a public announcement soon, if not to prevent people from bombarding Julius with unruly requests. It was very likely, especially since Julius completed the first stage within a minute the moment he actually took it seriously, something very few had done so far.

***

Julius POV

He really wanted to heal himself, but he also knew that it would likely hurt him in the long run. He had already garnered this man’s attention, and if he found out about Julius’s healing skill, he would probably change his mind and come back for Julius.

Furthermore, it was just a little bit of pain. He wasn’t in any actual threat of dying, but it sucked that he had to endure it until the man walked away. The only thing that Julius could do was take out a healing potion from his ring and pour it down his throat.

He wasn’t able to actually swallow the liquid, so he was forced to use some aura to shove it down his gullet literally. Only then did the healing potion begin to work.

Julius let out a little sigh as his blistered and burnt body began to heal slowly. As much as he wanted to say something to his assailant, he understood that it wouldn’t be worth it. They had already decided to leave him be for now, and there was no reason to taunt the man at this point.

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Additionally, Julius wished he were surprised about his current situation, but he wasn’t. This was a significant reason why he had wanted to conceal his true strength from others. He just hadn’t expected someone to literally try to kidnap him before he could leave the stadium.

Although in many ways, he was lucky that Adrian had decided to leave him alone. So with a groan, he fell onto his back as the soothing life mana did its work. Drasil wanted to help, but Julius told him not to. He glanced around the area and noticed that there was a little bit of a crowd collecting around him.

Perhaps that was another reason why the man hadn’t just taken Julius from the start. It wasn’t like this was some back alley where he could do what he wanted. This was still a tournament organized by the Empire’s ruling powers.

Julius did notice that nobody made a move to help him; they just watched as he groaned on the floor, and the Tier 5 man walked away like nothing happened.

Julius, on the other hand, stared at the man’s back with a complicated look. However, that look quickly turned into one of amusement when he sensed someone arrive.

“Where the fuck do you think you are going?” Cain’s voice echoed through the area with a dangerous softness to it. All of his aura was still contained and shrouded, but Julius had been around Cain long enough to know that the large man was unnaturally serious.

The Tier 5, who had just scorched Julius’s aura and body, slowly turned around to look at Cain. The man chuckled as he spotted Cain calmly stalking toward him, and to Julius’s shock, ignored Cain. He turned back toward the direction he had been walking and waved at Cain.