Chapter 554: New Sparring Partners

He had transformed his gauntlets into a thinner barrier, which allowed him to move his fingers more easily. It wasn’t as strong or as sturdy as his gauntlets, but he didn’t really care. The sword was sharp, but nothing like what he had seen from the likes of Eren or other people.

The most significant danger was the poison, and Julius had already proven that he could deal with it quite easily. However, he wanted to make a point. He didn’t like this guy.

He could see why Derek told him to be mindful around this guy. Unpleasant was an understatement. He felt gross just by being in proximity.

While he held onto the sword, he made sure to enjoy the panic wash over the guy’s face. Corbin tried to rip the sword from his grasp, but wasn’t able to budge it an inch. Julius wasn’t playing around anymore.

He had seen enough of this guy’s skills, and to be honest, he was unsatisfied by what he saw. The guy’s poison and speed were somewhat interesting, but in all other aspects, he was lacking. In his opinion, his last opponent had been more skilled and had more potential. It was a shame that this scumbag was able to make it through to the next round of fights when Erik was sent home.

Eventually, his opponent decided to forget the sword and pulled out a dagger, trying to stab Julius in the face. Julius scoffed, and before the dagger could reach his face, he finally let himself use [Kinetic Shell].

The field of kinetic energy slammed into place around him, forming a protective barrier a few inches from his body. The rippling blue energy stopped the dagger in place, and Julius manipulated the kinetic energy to surround the guy’s hand as well as the dagger.

He wasn’t gentle either; he forcibly clamped down on his opponent’s limb and crushed it. The dagger stopped a few inches from his face, and he heard the crunch of something in the guy’s hand fracture from the force of the kinetic energy.

The arrogant teen cried out in agony and tried to pull back, but Julius had a firm grip on him. He didn’t have any plans to let him go either. He held him there, using his kinetic energy to force the guy to look Julius in the eyes.

Anger and fear raged across the teen’s face. Julius didn’t even flinch when the guy spat out something. A large cloud of poison was shot at his face, but he used a little bit of aura to wipe out the poison effect and some kinetic energy to block it from making contact with his skin.

He continued to hold him there. The worn crown was flickering with excitement. It could likely feel Julius’s emotions and was wondering if it would be able to have some fun.

Throughout the entire fight, it had been slumbering, sitting on top of his head, gray and lifeless. The crown knew that Julius wasn’t taking the fight seriously and had decided to nap through it. However, now it was waking up, and Julius was forced to keep it from acting up.

Julius didn’t like the guy, but he also didn’t have any plans to feed his opponent to his crown. He didn’t think ripping apart someone’s soul with his own ruinous aura would be a good look for him.

Although considering how the crowd reacted to the teen at the beginning of the fight, Julius suspected they wouldn’t mind it all that much. Still, he didn’t need to do that in front of the entire capital.

He didn’t mind sharing his power with the public, but there was no need to show off everything right now. Not against someone this weak.

The crown seemed to understand his thoughts and settled down with what felt like a pout. He gave it a little bit of fire mana as one would do for a dog that listened to their owner’s command. Or like a certain life spirit who loved mana.

Once he got a handle on that, he finally focused on the man he had under the control of his kinetic energy. He was still trying to poison Julius with his skills, but it wasn’t working.

Julius decided to end this fight. Without warning, he let some kinetic energy surge through his head.

While his opponent wasn’t someone he could learn much from, he was still a perfect punching bag on which he could try some of his skills. After all, he still needed to gain some kind of offensive kinetic skill if he wanted to combine [Kinetic Energy Refinement] and [Kinetic Shell] together.

He manipulated his kinetic energy into a dense, swirling vortex, letting the vicious energy build.

Then, before his opponent could realize what was happening, he slammed his head into their nose, taking some inspiration from Edgar’s earlier fight.

There was something viscerally satisfying about headbutting someone. And so he did it again, feeling the cartilage in the guy’s nose get crushed underneath the crown of his head.

Then again. And once more, just for good luck.

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He released his hold over the poison user and let him fly off into the distance. He wiped the blood from his forehead with some aura as his opponent slammed into the barrier with a loud crash.

Something appeared to protect his body from the impact, but it could only mitigate so much damage. Julius observed as the other teen staggered back to his feet, looking worse for wear.

The smirk was gone, but Julius noticed their anger had increased tenfold. So it wasn’t surprising when the other boy was already rushing back in. His entire body was covered in this black poison, but Julius wasn’t worried.

In fact, he was done playing around and unleashed his kinetic energy, immobilizing him in place. This technique was a weird one. It was one of his very first techniques for using kinetic energy, but he didn’t use it all that much.

It required a lot of effort to use, and instead, he could put that effort and kinetic energy into crushing his target into dust. It was much more efficient that way.

But he wanted to make a point, and so he overwhelmed his opponents with his aura. It wasn’t that hard. Despite being quite strong for a Tier 3, their willpower wasn’t enough to hold back the oppressive nature of his ruinous aura.

Before his opponent could gasp, Julius’s aura had already suffocated him, and his kinetic energy froze him in place. Julius let him struggle there for a brief moment before taking control of the kinetic energy [Kinetic Shell] had created and using it to launch himself at the frozen figure.

He siphoned all his kinetic energy from his movement and repurposed it, letting it flow into his arm in a rush. He maintained control and smashed his fist into his opponent’s face, laying multiple panels of kinetic energy over his hands.