Chapter 515: Fighting A Genius

Julius stood across from Riven. The mana radiating from Riven was oppressive. Julius wondered just how much mana Riven had and if he had more than him. He didn’t believe he had come across anyone who had mana reserves close to him after all these years, at least for his tier.

But Julius got the sense that Riven had quite an impressive pool of mana to pull from.

“Ready?” Riven called out, a wild grin on his face as he tapped his staff impatiently against his thigh.

“Yeah, what are the rules?”

“Well, death isn’t a possibility here, and while I am not a specialist, I know a few healing spells to heal both of us, so we can fight until one of us concedes. How does that sound?”

Julius was a little surprised at hearing that admission. It would seem that Riven was able to use almost every type of magic. If that was the case, then Julius was going to be in for a bit of a fight. However, that was fine with him. The more he saw, the more he could learn from Riven.

From what he had seen from the other mage so far, Julius had a lot that he could steal or modify for his own uses.

“That’s fine for me. On your mark?”

“No, please, after you. I insist,” Riven said with a challenging look and twirling his staff around him.

Julius shrugged and, with a burst of kinetic energy, launched himself at Riven.

Unlike the previous fight they had, Riven seemed much better prepared for Julius’s speed. He reacted swiftly, and several large barriers formed in front of Julius’s path. They weren’t there to stop him, but they were made specifically to slow down his momentum.

Unfortunately, Julius had a lot more kinetic energy at his disposal, and with several consecutive bursts, he broke through these barriers. His fist was heading toward Riven’s chest.

However, just as he reached Riven’s position, he pulled back his fist and turned around, blocking the invisible bolt of mana launched at his head. He distractedly smashed his arm through the illusion next to him and stared at the area with focused eyes.

“You have illusion magic too?” Julius asked with a laugh.

“Yep, my master thought it was a waste of time. He thinks it’s better to use overwhelming might to wipe out my enemies, but Eva insisted I learn it. I’m surprised you noticed so early; most people wouldn’t have. That must mean you have a pretty good perception or danger sense skill,” Riven replied, his voice echoing from all directions.

Julius could only shake his head. It wasn’t only the illusion magic that was confusing Julius; it was how it was combined with some kind of stealth skill. An excellent stealth skill that touched upon spatial aspects.

It meant that Julius wasn’t able to sense Riven as easily with [Absolute Spatial Perception].

Julius cracked his neck and grinned. This was more like it. He had been waiting to fight someone like this. To be honest, he had been quite unimpressed by the Empire’s so-called geniuses.

However, Riven was already proving himself to be different. Julius would have to try a bit harder, it would seem.

Another bolt of mana ripped through the air. It was just a simple attack made entirely of pure mana, but it was dense and powerful. Julius tried to reach out and unravel it before it could reach him, but found himself unable to.

It wasn’t even a matter of willpower; it was the sheer complexity of the bolt of mana. The construction of the attack was so complicated that he wasn’t able to find the thread to unravel before it reached Julius.

Furthermore, Julius could tell right away that Riven’s willpower was monstrous, too. Not as strong as Julius’s, but definitely one of the firmest and sturdy willpowers he had come across amongst Tier 3s.

Several more bolts of mana attacked him from all directions. Julius either dodged them or smacked them to the side with the back of his mana-clad hands. He could tell that Riven was testing him. Their brief fight several days ago didn’t give Riven enough information about Julius, so he was clearly trying to figure out Julius’s strengths and weaknesses.

Julius was fine with that. That meant he was given the same amount of time to figure out how to deal with the stealth skill. He already had a pretty good idea of how he might counteract it. During his battle with Seraphyne, he had learned that it was possible to change the frequencies of his perception.

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However, he also wanted to wait until he had a better plan, one that might actually hit Riven. Once he did that, he wouldn’t have the upper hand of surprise anymore.

In the meantime, he kept on observing the mana bolts coming at him. Julius had a feeling that Riven was only using these bolts to attack Julius because he had already proven that he could withstand the firestorm and earth magic. Riven was trying to figure out what kind of attack could break through Julius’s defenses—probably testing if Julius had some sort of mana resistance skill.