Chapter 517: Smashing His Way In

Julius currently had the advantage. He had applied so much pressure that Riven was slowly being pushed back. No matter how many spells or skills the mage could use at once, it didn’t matter if Julius didn’t allow him to.

He continuously sent barrage after barrage at him. Sometimes he didn’t even bother to use his Ruinflame Crown. The thing would only slow him down and limit the number of attacks he could send out. Quantity was more useful at the moment than quality.

He had quickly realized that despite all of Riven’s skill and talent, there were two major weaknesses he could take advantage of.

One of them was the fact that Riven was only able to use so much mana at one time. It was something that Julius had problems with, but slightly different in that Riven wasn’t able to use a lot of mana because his body wasn’t strong enough to withstand that much mana at once. In Julius’s case, it was because he wasn’t used to using such large amounts.

He had gotten around this slightly through diligent practice and by incorporating other abilities. One of those abilities was [Spirit Fortification], which helped lessen the requirement of using a lot of mana while still enhancing the overall power of his constructs. Adding kinetic energy accomplished something similar as well.

The other weakness Riven had was a lack of decisiveness in battle. Don’t get him wrong, Riven was very experienced and skilled in combat. But there was a lack of killer instinct that Julius often associated with warriors or frontliners.

That was why Riven took longer than usual to formulate an attack or to counter if he was caught off guard and wasn’t able to go with his usual strategies. Julius suspected that the next time he fought Riven, it would be different, and that Riven would have a dozen strategies in place to counter Julius’s skills.

However, since this was the first real fight between them, Riven wasn’t prepared for the plethora of abilities at Julius’s disposal. To be fair, it was hard to be prepared, even if you knew in advance, given the number of options available to Julius.

In the meantime, he kept up the relentless pressure. Because of this, Julius was able to slam his aura into the mage periodically. He had already gotten used to it at this point and had quite the impressive willpower of his own, so the effects were limited, but it was still effective in disrupting any attempts to counterattack.

He said that, but suddenly he felt a humongous surge of mana being channeled into Riven’s body. Julius was convinced that this attack wasn’t something he should just let happen, so he upped the intensity of his attacks and frowned when Riven used his teleportation skill to escape.

Julius had already gotten a good idea of how the skill worked, so he was able to track him, already sending over two dozen spikes at Riven’s predicted position. However, the distance was so far away that it took some time for these attacks to reach him. It would appear he had miscalculated how far Riven could teleport.

This enabled Riven to gain some much-needed breathing room, and that was all the space he needed. Before Julius could do anything else, he felt that surge of mana gradually transform into a solid structure of interwoven mana.

With how much force was being exuded from the technique, Julius was reminded of the runic circle that he had been trapped in. The threat of that circle was the main reason why he had been putting so much pressure. He didn’t want Riven to have a chance to create something like it again.

Or maybe he did. If he was being honest, he was very curious how the runic circle worked and wouldn’t mind having another chance to experience it. Unfortunately, now wasn’t the time, and so he set aside his own interests for the greater good, holding back his tears while he did so.

However, his sorrows were quickly replaced by excitement when he sensed the technique’s power continuing to grow. It had already surpassed the runic circle he had experienced before, and it felt much more dangerous.

A massive blue sphere of mana and Concepts all formed together in a destructive mass. Then, before he could inspect it for long, he saw it grow larger and larger. Riven was clearly having a difficult time controlling it, but somehow managed to keep it together despite using so many various types of magic.

Julius nodded slowly to himself. If there was anything he felt confident in, it was that when you saw a massive fucking sphere of mana so dangerous that it was on the verge of collapsing, it only meant one thing.

Smash his face against it.

So that was precisely what he decided to do, and without a second of hesitation, he ran full steam at this coalescing bubble of water, wind, and earth magic. There might have been more things added to it, but from what he could tell, it was basically just a humongous orb of mana-filled water, razor-sharp winds, and sharpened stones flying through the air at ridiculous speeds.

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He covered his body with as many protections as he could think of. Several layers of mana molded around his body, and he also created a layer of his aura to help rip apart attacks before they could hit him.

There was an intense pressure from whatever Concepts were fused into this technique, but Julius shrugged it off, using his own Emblem to take the brunt of the force. He dashed forward, using all the kinetic energy at his disposal.

In his excitement, he had even chosen to manifest a pair of bright azure blue wings on his back. He didn’t care about hiding his flight abilities at this time; he really needed to get closer before Riven could finish the technique.

The wings offered him some additional stability and speed, allowing him to cross the distance in no time at all, shooting spikes along the way. He collided with the sphere head-on and felt an overwhelming force slam into him.