Chapter 558: Show Off

Julius wasn’t able to breathe. The weight of the mountain that Liam had dropped on top of him was extraordinary and had some disruptive effect that prevented him from using his mana as freely.

He was stuck.

Yeah, I deserved that, he noted to himself with a wheeze.

If that wasn’t bad enough, he could sense that Liam was still attacking him. While Julius was pressed between the ground and the mountain of ice, Liam was sending some kind of attack through the ice. A wave of freezing ice mana ploughed into him; he could feel his skin instantly turn to ice, and all of his nerves felt like they were on fire.

He let out a laugh. Or at least as much of a laugh as he could with how much ice was crushing his lungs. Then, before another wave of ice reached him, he pulled on his mana.

The familiar sensation of chaotic space wrapped around his body, and he disappeared from underneath the mountain, reappearing above the arena in the air.

He finally saw with his own eyes what Liam had hit him with. It wasn’t quite a mountain, but Liam still somehow managed to create a block of ice the size of a large house, flattening Julius with it.

He saw Liam looking around the area, confused as if searching for something. He must have realized that Julius was no longer underneath his ice. He finally looked up and spotted Julius floating high above him.

Julius saw a dozen emotions flash across Liam’s face. However, the one at the forefront was indignation.

“Oh come on! I thought I had you there,” Liam shouted at him.

“You were planning that?” Julius asked with a tilt of his head and tapped his chin in thought.

“Of course I did. I have been thinking about how to limit your mobility since our last fight,” Liam said with a frown.

Julius merely shrugged.

“I really thought I almost had you there,” Liam noted with disappointment.

“Sorry?” Julius offered.

Liam scoffed and shook his head. “And of course, you have a teleportation skill. I should have predicted that.”

“If it makes you feel better, you are the first one who has forced me to use it,” Julius commented. He was being honest, too. Most people hadn’t forced him to use such a skill. It showed that Liam was a level above the other participants.

In fact, Julius had barely realized he used the skill in the first place. He had reflexively activated the skill the moment he realized he was trapped underneath the pile of ice. The only other way out was a more destructive, even flashier method.

Liam looked at Julius with a flat expression. “No, it doesn’t make me feel better. Now, my entire strategy is ruined.”

Julius was going to apologize again, but Liam must have been feeling annoyed because Julius quickly found himself under attack while he hovered in the sky. The two eagles, which had been separated, flew up at him with murderous intent.

The sky sparkled with ice mana; each flap of the creature’s wings released more frost over the field. Julius tried not to become engrossed in their beauty, which was honestly a more difficult task than one would expect.

However, he observed the extraordinary amount of power these creatures generated. They weren’t things he could easily dismiss as threats. Even with his healing skill, he suspected that getting hit by them directly wouldn’t be a pleasant experience.

Not seeing a reason to hold back, especially since Liam had forced him to use [Void Step]. He pulled on his fire mana, letting it flow into his crown, which greedily fed on the morsels of fire mana.

He could feel the crown’s exuberance about being allowed to go wild. It flared brightly with blue flames as Julius felt his eyes change with the infusion of his ruinous aura. A manic smile slowly crept to his lips, enjoying the sensation of the power as he let go of his self-established reins.

The ruinous fire mana ripped through his channels with such speed that he was a little worried. However, to his surprise, he realized that his mana channels had undergone a slight change. They were able to receive the large influx of mana with much more stability than before.

It was a very minor change, but for someone who had excellent control over his mana, he could tell right away. It must have been due to his exercises with life mana. That was the only plausible explanation he could think of.

He held back a laugh.

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It was just another reason to keep on practicing those insane techniques.

Like normal, the ruinous flames were a little tricky to handle, even with the crown’s assistance. Still, he steeled his willpower and quickly molded the mana into deadly spikes.

He admired them for a brief moment, letting their shimmering surface glisten in his eyes for a second, before he sent them blistering toward the eagles, setting the air on fire as they pierced the sky.

The eagles did their best to avoid the spikes, but that was easier said than done. Julius had already sent out a pulse of kinetic energy, doing his best to hold them in place.

Interestingly, his kinetic energy didn’t take hold as he expected it would. These eagles had a special willpower of their own.

At most, he had believed them to be attached or even an extension of Liam’s willpower. However, this wasn’t the case at all. These eagles had a willpower entirely of their own making, one that Julius found difficult to grasp.