Chapter 516: Living Up to Expectations

Riven POV

He had been anticipating this fight for the past several days. Truth be told, he hadn’t really wanted to attend this tournament. For a person like him, it wasn’t that worth it. The only real thing he would get out of it was the prestige and notoriety. But that wasn’t something he had to worry about either.

His master’s name was already following Riven around, tied around his feet like an anchor. There was nowhere he could go without someone knowing his master or his master’s deeds. Valis was a great master and teacher, but his past caused problems for Riven. Everyone assumed he would be like Valis, but that was far from the truth.

Of course, the unique treasures he might gain would be worth it, but that wasn’t an absolute certainty. Just because he was strong didn’t mean he would get the opportunity to find something special. That relied on pure luck, and if that was the case, then he would have preferred to go out in the wilderness to test his luck there.

Master Valis didn’t think that was the best decision. He wanted Riven to spend more time with people his age, not just training and fighting monsters. Something about balancing out his path if he ever wanted to advance past Tier 5. Riven was half convinced it was bullshit, just something his master said to force Riven to go along with it.

But then he found Julius. Someone he could actually test his skills against. He might even gain a few skill levels out of it.

He was glad to see that Julius lived up to the anticipation. Riven was forced to block the insanely sturdy spikes of mana. These constructs were another reason why he wanted to fight Julius again. They were very different from any other constructs he had come across.

It almost felt like it was a combination of aura and mana, but much more powerful. The fusion of mana and aura wasn’t something that Riven was unaware of. He had been trying to accomplish it for the past year or so, but without any luck.

Yet, this black haired boy had managed to do something that he hadn’t. Not only that, but it was more powerful than what Riven had been going after. A technique stronger than the sum of its parts.

If that were the only thing he had to worry about, then Riven would have still won the fight. But for some reason, his opponent was insane and must have dedicated an insane amount of time to every kind of ability in existence.

Deadly in close combat, the perception of a Scorchwind Sentinel, mana control not far away from Riven’s, aura control surpassing most Tier 3 beastkins, and a willpower that belonged to a Tier 4.

Who in the nine hells does something like that? Who is able to train for that long? He knew better than anyone what kind of advantages talent gets you. But he couldn’t sense a single affinity higher than mere ‘high’.

Plus, nobody was that talented. Talent was a simple head start on other people, but pure talent would never surpass the experience of a trained veteran.

It still took work.

However, it was as if this other boy had trained without sleeping. There is no other way he had the time to train so many skills and techniques, especially considering how young he was. He was younger than Riven, which was crazy.

Riven would have found it more believable if Julius were some kind of ancient immortal who found a way to resurrect themselves. And he would have believed it, if not for the small mistakes he sensed within his opponent’s mana control. They were very minor and so small that nobody would be able to tell. But for someone like Riven or an old resurrected monster, it would be very apparent.

He kept on trying new things. He had established that Julius didn’t have any kind of mana resistance skill. His initial belief that it was some kind of natural fire resistance proved correct. But that still didn’t explain how he managed to survive without a scratch, especially without a perfect fire affinity like the one he had.

His bafflement grew with each moment he fought Julius. He had thought that only people like Eren or Isaac could challenge him. Maybe even that Casey girl, but she was weird. With her soul magic, it was hard to say how strong she really was. Plus, with his protections in place, soul magic would be much less effective on him.

He stared at where Julius was dodging his mana bolts and sending back his own spikes into the sky. Somehow, the boy had been able to track where Riven was despite his excellent stealth skill combined with illusion magic.

As he blocked these spikes, his gaze was stuck on the misshapen lump of metal on the other boy’s head. For some reason, he felt a weird sense of uneasiness whenever he stared at it.

Julius hadn’t been wearing that ugly thing the last time Riven saw him. He wondered if it was something he had grabbed as a treasure.

As he was thinking what to do, he frowned when the last of his barriers shattered like glass under the onslaught of these powerful spikes. However, just as he was about to teleport away, he widened his eyes when he felt Julius’s aura smash against him, disrupting his teleport skill.

He was forced to react as quickly as he could, pushing as much mana into his robes as possible. Then he waved his staff in front of himself, doing his best to absorb as much damage as possible.

However, he knew it was still going to hurt and gritted his teeth as one of those aura-enhanced spikes slammed into his torso. The protection of his robes ensured that he wasn’t speared through the chest, but it still hurt like hell. It felt like someone had dropped a mountain right on his ribcage. He felt several of his bones break and started to bleed internally.

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He quickly ripped apart the aura that had disrupted his skill. He flinched in pain when the aura bit back at him. He had no idea what kind of aura Julius had, but it was a nasty one. You rarely saw an aura so focused on pure destruction. Auras like those were often cultivated in extreme environments. Places that were heavily influenced by death and desolation.

That posed the question of how he managed to get such an aura at his age. It certainly wasn’t normal.

It wasn’t like he could focus on that right now. He tucked those worries away and activated some of the talismans he created. The surge of life mana felt refreshing, and he grunted when he felt his ribs snap back into place.

These talismans were amazing. They were relatively easy to make, only taking several minutes to create one. They also worked very fast, an essential detail in a fight. The main downside was the stress it put on his body.