Path to Transcendence

"Why struggle so much? It should be obvious that you aren't going to hurt me," the Tier 5 said to Julius as he continued to dangle him by the foot with casual indifference.

"And what? Be content with being kidnapped?" He mumbled out from his still-healing mouth.

The man shrugged. "It would be less painful at the very least."

Pain? Julius almost laughed out loud. He wasn't feeling any pain at the moment. All he felt was rage.

Rage at his helplessness.

And one thing about rage is that it makes people do stupid things, which was why he prepared himself for his next all-time stupid plan.

He knew in his head that he should just bide his time. Wait for someone to come or intervene. If that didn't happen, at the very least he would be able to recover some of his mana which was getting pretty close to empty at this point.

But he was a dumb, prideful boy, who loved to fight, so of course that meant he wanted to continue to battle it out.

The main issue that he was having wasn't even the man's Domain anymore. It was just being able to gather enough power to physically hurt the man. Being beaten as badly as he was didn't feel good. But not being able to scratch the man hurt his pride even more.

Which is why he was resolved to at the very least injure the man before he was done. He already instinctively knew that winning was out of the question, but taking his pound of flesh was still possible.

So without any precaution or sense, he began to release as much kinetic energy and mana through his body as possible. He always had an issue about his body not being able to handle the full amount of his mana. While it got better when he advanced to Tier 3 and learned a new body skill, it still didn't quite allow him to use all of his mana at once like he wanted to.

But he threw all caution out of the window. It didn't matter if his body could withstand it or not. He jammed way too much mana into his body and flooded it out in an explosion wave. He didn't care it hurt him more than the man in front of him.

He would heal whatever damage was done. But if it forced the man to start taking him more seriously, it would be worth it.

Determination filling his bones, he connected with Drasil who had been sleeping peacefully while all of this had been going on. If he was going to do this, he was going to have to rely on the little green guy's support.

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The connection came easily. It didn't matter if Drasil was sleeping, their bond was quite strong and he was able to feel the steady surge of life mana as he deepened their link.

With a calm and steady mind, he sent a burst of mana through the leg the man was holding on to with such ferocity that it exploded before the man realized what was happening.

Julius noticed the surprised face of the man as he was taken aback by his action. He then used [Phoenix Renewal] to heal his leg in the blink of an eye, using the surprise of the man to his advantage.

However, instead of running like he had done before. He ran forward, more mana and kinetic than he had ever held in his body at once, ready to explode. With a burst of speed that made the assassin he had fought earlier almost seem slow in comparison, he smashed a fist into the chest of the hulking Tier 5.

All of the gathered mana and kinetic energy surging out in a deafening roar.

As expected, Julius's arm didn't survive the attempt. Neither did most of his torso. He was treating his body like a disposable sack of flesh that carried his attacks, only using the circuits as a way to direct his attack.

This time, he laughed out loud when the man was knocked off his feet. There was a scorched mark on the man's white shirt, and while there wasn't any actual damage,e Julius knew that this was an improvement. Before he hadn't even been able to break through whatever green layer that was surrounding the man.

But now, seeing the damage on the man's shirt, he could see that he had a chance.

So with the other half of his body that was healthy, he slammed another strike into the staggered man. Using just as much power into his blow, but this time making sure to concentrate on leveraging his Emblem.

All the while, he was recycling as much kinetic energy and mana as he could, squeezing out every last drop.@@novelbin@@

He then used the same method of jamming his Phoenix Concept and Will Concept together and timed the strike to explode along with his Emblem blasting apart.

He didn't care about the damage that his soul was showing already from his rash actions. If it meant he had the smallest chance to hurt the Tier 5 in front of him, he was willing to tear his body and soul apart a thousand times.

Thankfully, it would appear that his strike did more damage than the last one. The addition of his Emblem helped break down whatever defenses the man had just enough so that his attack made it through.

This time he noticed that the man grunted in astonishment as Julius knocked him back even more. A little bit of blood showing through the white shirt.

A manic grin bloomed on Julius's face as he realized what he had just achieved.

The man also seemed to come to an understanding as well because he no longer let Julius wail on him unchallenged. With a lazy jab, the man tried to punch Julius in the face. Just because the fist was lazy by the other man's standards, didn't mean it was slow.

But Julius had already predicted this. He shattered every bone in his leg as the surge of kinetic energy let him avoid the man's fist by a hair and he threw a punch with one of his regenerated arms, smashing into the shoulder of the Tier 5 with a resounding boom.

His arm vanished in a mist of blood but smiled as the force behind the blow sent the man staggering once more. Furthermore, this time he had shoved his Force Concept and his Concept of Sharpness into the attack, increasing the offensive potential and finding the combination of the two to be much easier.

He created a construct surrounding his leg made of pure mana to stabilize himself as his leg healed in the meantime and used it as a pillar to throw another front kick at the back of the staggering man's head with his remaining good leg.

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The impact was by far the loudest out of all attacks and the Tier 5 was sent sprawling into the dirt. With a big blackened scorch mark on the back of his head.

Realizing this was his chance to pounce, Julius jumped over with his two mana-constructed legs and drilled an elbow into the back of the man's head.

But his heart sank as the feeling when he struck the man was different. This time it felt like he had just tried to punch a steel building. He had to explode the barely regenerated remnants of his leg to avoid the lightning-fast backhand that almost took his head off.

The man didn't go after Julius immediately. Instead, he got up and dusted the dirt from his shirt, rubbing the back of his head as he did casually.

"Damn, you really are a monster ain't ya? What a ruthless method you decided on. Absolutely no care about your own health as long as you get in a hit or two, huh? I guess you can make it work considering that absurd healing skill you got there. You are making me even more curious by the minute."

"Curious enough to let me go?" Julius asked as the rest of his limbs regenerated, trying to delay as much time as possible. He was almost entirely out of mana and each second helped him recover more.

The man chuckled with eyes wide with unhidden desire. "Curious enough to make sure I take you alive at any cost now. I can't help but wonder what kind of healing skill you have. What kind of sacrifice must you be making for such an effective skill? There is no way you can just heal like that without any consequence."

Actually, I kind of can. It's a big benefit of having a Phoenix-related skill and a cute life spirit, he thought to himself although he wasn't planning to share this with the man anytime soon. He suspected that if he told the man, the Tier 5 would be cutting him open in the middle of the plains, looking for a way to get a skill.

That was how intense the man's greedy gaze was.

Julius could only smile to himself as the man stalked toward him with a newfound purpose.

***

Marcus POV

When they arrived, he couldn't help but notice how many dead bodies were present. There were at least a few dozen dead people scattered about.

Death wasn't an unusual thing on the continent. With how many monsters and dangerous people, safety was something that was in short supply. But it was still saddening to see such a waste of life.

After examining the sight for a brief moment, he came to a quick conclusion. Some sort of caravan of merchants with guards came under attack by a group of thieves. Most of the bodies seemed to belong to the thieves, with only the occasional guard lying dead in return.

That was actually quite impressive. That meant that these guards were quite good if they were able to deal with such opponents. Because these weren't normal bandits either. Their gear was much too good for simple poor bandits trying to make a living. These were professionals.

However, it would also seem that the battle was pretty much over. Most of the bandits who weren't dead had already retreated. But what really caught his attention was that the guards who had won weren't staying to sort through the gear of the dead.

They were in the middle of packing up and running away. He did notice a few teams were staying around, but all of their attention was placed where Marcus sensed the only ongoing battle.

With another quick teleport, he and Stella both went over. But they were surprised at what they saw.

Off to the side, there was a group of Tier 4s. One was unconscious and badly injured, another was in some sort of restrictive restraints, and the final one was crawling along the ground without any legs, also in restraints.

Then there were the people fighting in front of him. It was the Tier 5 that he had sensed and been tracking. Godfrey was a well-known Tier 5 who had multiple bounties on his head from various associations.

Recently though, he had been known to be working with a group calling themselves the Conclave. A relatively new organization, but has made their name known by how brazen some of their actions have been.

Marcus was instructed to capture or, if that wasn't possible, kill Godfrey.

It was the other person who had really shocked him.

It was a Tier 3 boy who was in the middle of getting demolished by Godfrey. As a matter of fact, the boy was doing more damage to himself than he was doing to Godfrey.

The boy, whom he had already assumed was the Julius that Lady Lily instructed him to find, was literally using so much mana and kinetic energy that he was exploding himself to pieces trying to keep up with the Tier 5.

And even more impressively, it was working… for the moment.

The boy had some kind of healing skill or item that allowed him to regenerate his eviscerated limbs with ease. Letting him keep using this stupid and suicidal technique.

I think I know why Lady Lily was so worried now, he realized with a sudden burst of clarity.

She had emphasized the importance of finding the boy before he did anything "stupid". At first, he thought she was being dramatic, but he could see his folly now.

She was completely serious. Because only a fucking lunatic would fight in the way the boy was fighting against a person two tiers above him. He watched as the boy smiled manically as his shoulder and arm were mangled beyond belief as he threw a punch at Godfrey, it unsurprisingly was blocked. However, it was followed up with another strike that exploded the boy's leg into a fine mist of blood but impressively rebuffed Godfrey.

He stood there for a brief moment, partially in shock and the other in awe.

Then just as Godfrey's Domain tried to restrain the boy, he sensed a weird usage of Concepts and the boy's Emblem. The resulting surge managed to disrupt whatever control the man's Domain had over the boy, but Marcus couldn't help but wince at the damage he felt echo through the boy's aura.

He could immediately see that Godfrey wasn't trying to kill the boy. No, the boy was in more danger from himself than the Tier 5 to Marcus's befuddlement.

With a shake of his head, he decided that he better step in before the boy killed himself, but before he could, he felt Stella make her move. Her shroud that she was using to hide her presence was torn away as she threw a complex spell of time magic at the Tier 5.

The attack surprised Godfrey, as the man hadn't noticed their presence yet, being too distracted with the boy.

A sphere of dense runes encircled Tier 5, and then another layer of dense spatial magic surrounded it.

Godfrey tried to react in time, but his teleportation skill was wiped away by a superior space mage and could only stand there frozen in place under the power of the time sphere.

Marcus whistled to himself at the speed and power of Stella's magic. She deserved her reputation. Being able to use both time and spatial magic was extraordinary. Being able to use them with such precision and ruthlessness… was completely insane. And she made it look so simple.

There wasn't a thing Godfrey could do as he was frozen in time and encased in a barrier of space magic that even some Tier 6s might have a hard time getting out of.

Marcus would not have been able to capture him with such ease. He would have needed to beat the man unconscious beforehand, and even after that, he didn't know how he would keep him contained.

He turned toward the boy, who still hadn't quite realized what was happening. All the boy knew was that two new potential opponents appeared behind him. And so Marcus wasn't surprised when a salvo of mana constructs soared toward them.

With a chuckle, Marcus used his telekinesis to grab ahold of the constructs and ripped them apart, showing a little bit of interest at how sturdy these constructs were made. It actually was quite hard to dismantle them quickly.

This boy is becoming even more interesting.

Stella on the other hand, didn't even bother trying to placate the boy. She simply threw a sphere around the boy, which he somehow managed to detect, and tried to dodge. Unfortunately for the boy, she was too quick and managed to capture him without much trouble.

Once the boy was contained, the two of them turned to look at each other at the same time. Each of them had furrowed brows as they looked back toward the now-frozen boy, thinking the same thing.

Is this the right person they were tasked with finding? And if so, what kind of person did their young masters send them to find?