Chapter 491: Apologizing

Jonas POV

He was waiting outside the cave entrance for Julius to return. He had already collected the cores of the monsters as well as any valuable materials he could scavenge. They were gathered together, and he was going to try to give them to Julius when he came back out.

At least that was his plan. Almost an hour later, and the boy hadn’t come out yet. More worrisome was that he was constantly hearing little explosions deep in the cave. At first, he thought it was Julius fighting a monster or something. But then the sounds and shockwaves kept on going for way too long.

Not only that, but the blasts were way too consistent. If he didn’t know any better, it was like someone was trying to excavate.

Are there some valuable gems in there? He wondered to himself.

As he was sitting there, waiting for Julius to come back out, he suddenly stood up. His eyes hardened, and he drilled his aura to the location where he felt someone sneaking around. He demonstrated why his aura was one of his greatest strengths, and it slammed into this figure with a lot of power.

Their invisible form flickered for a moment when his aura disrupted whatever stealth skill they were using. However, to their credit, his aura was only able to stun them for a brief moment, not long enough for him to take them out.

His sword just barely missed their throat, and he was about to attack again, but they launched a half-dozen arrows at his face. He was forced to teleport out of the way and took out his other sword with his left hand.

His aura channeled along his blades. The aura was so powerful that it created small sparks, and a dense white glow radiated from the edges.

Soon, he found himself under attack from even more arrows. These arrows were made of mana and were difficult to dodge since his opponent could manipulate them however they wanted. They had various effects; some of them had a stun effect, others had a poison effect, and some of them even had effects he wasn’t able to recognize.

This didn’t deter him, though. He dashed forward, his two swords at his side as he dodged and weaved through the barrage of arrows. Some of them started to explode when they neared him, but he used his aura to create a bubble of protection. This bubble helped absorb a lot of the explosive power, and he was able to cross the distance without having to use his teleportation skill.

The person’s figure became clearer as he got closer. She tried to get away, but she must not have had a teleportation skill like he did. Instead, she had a wind-based movement skill that allowed her to move very fast. Unfortunately for her, he wasn’t too much slower than her.

He used his teleportation skill to get up right in her face, his swords already swinging for her head. A shield of verdant green appeared in front of her face. His swords were halted for a brief moment, but he pushed more aura through his body and was able to overwhelm the barrier.

Unfortunately for him, that gave her just enough time to blast herself backward, and she created a platform in the air, using it as a springboard that propelled her even further upwards.

Now she was above him, her bow readied with a lot of mana being concentrated on an arrow. He clicked his tongue. He hated fighting people who could fly or mimic it, like she did.

“Who are you?” She suddenly asked loudly, her bow string not fluttering for a moment despite the immense force being strained against it.

“Who am I? Who are you? You are the one who was sneaking around like an assassin,” he said flatly, already preparing his aura. He had dealt with similar skill sets in the past and had several tricks for handling them.

“My name is Lyra, and I am looking for someone,” she said with narrowed eyes.

Jonas didn’t sense any deception in her aura, so she either had exceptional control or she was telling the truth. He decided to give her a slight chance and lowered his swords.

“Who are you looking for?” He asked.

She was silent and didn’t seem like she was about to answer. However, he already had a suspicion.

“Does he have black hair?” He asked her slowly.

He could sense her aura palpitate for a brief moment, so he continued. “Is he perhaps freakishly strong, and sometimes his eyes glow a scary red?”

She took the tension off her bow string and looked at him with a scrunch of her eyebrows. “Where is he?”

Jonah, seeing that she was calming down, placed his swords back into his storage ring. “He went in there,” he said while pointing at the entrance of the cave. “Why are you looking for him?”

She glared at him but still answered him. “We teamed up.”

“Ah! You must have been the person who came with him earlier. I thought I sensed another aura presence nearby.” He had been so focused on the gray monsters that he hadn’t seen her before. He had only taken notice of Julius when the boy smashed his fists into the swarm of monsters.

“Well… do you want to wait with me?” He offered.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

She frowned. “Wait?”

He nodded and pointed at the stack of goodies he had gathered. “Yeah, I was planning to wait for him and give him this stuff when he came back out,” he explained.

“Why?”

He scoffed. “To be his friend, of course,” he said, as if it were apparent.

He didn’t like the judgmental look on her face when she heard that part. But he ignored it. She didn’t know how terrifying Noelle Willow could be. If she did, she would likely be doing the exact same thing that he was.

However, despite her judgmental thoughts, she still decided to join him. She walked over to a nearby rock and sat down as if they hadn’t been trying to kill each other moments earlier. He nodded to himself as the two of them waited for the black-haired youth to come out. Occasionally, the sounds of soft explosions echoed from the cave.

***

Julius POV

“Okay, forget it. If you don’t leave, I will actually kill you,” the voice growled out.

“No! Please, just a few more minutes. I am getting close, I can feel it!” Julius said in a panic. His aura control, as well as his ability to control his emblem, was rapidly improving.

In fact, he had already gained a level in his aura skill during this time. That wasn’t to mention the improvements he had made outside of skill levels.

[Inexorable Aura of Ruin lvl 18 -> lvl 19]