Path to Transcendence

The big scary stone giant decided that it wasn't just going to sit there and let Julius do what he wanted.

Julius sensed mana converging around the giant in a powerful swirl and a second later a stone slab the size of a car zipped toward him.

Julius managed to sidestep it, but doing so left him directly into the charging giant's sword. He created a construct barrier in front of himself just in time to deflect the sword upward and Julius snuck under the massive shield.

Since the monster was so large, the only realistic place to hit it was the legs, so he blasted a fist into the thing's kneecap.

Unfortunately, its defense was not as weak as the other Tier 3s he had been fighting so far. And the only response he got out of it was a loud thud.

He quickly dodged the kick from its other leg and blasted one last strike to the same kneecap before he used [Flash Step] to get away, only barely avoiding the sword that struck where he had been only a second prior.

How was he going to deal with this massive thing? So far even his increased physical abilities weren't able to deal any significant damage.

This thing wasn't as fast as Dustin, but it had the strength and mass to compensate for that. It also knew how to use its weapons pretty decently too.

It might be a battle of attrition at this point, which he suspected the rift was going for by choosing this particular opponent.

The rift might have been planning to waste his resources fighting the previous waves and then send him an opponent that would force him to get into a prolonged battle, hoping that he had little mana left.

Unfortunately for the rift, he didn't think it really knew just how large his mana pool was. While it may have thought he used a lot because of the prior wave, in truth, he only used about half.

That means he should have enough to take this giant down. Or at least, he was hoping that was the case.

He needed to find a better place to attack if he wanted to continue fighting up close though.

Or perhaps not. Continually bashing its kneecap might not be a terrible idea.

He doubted that this thing had a regeneration skill like he did and if he tore one of its legs off, it might just topple over like a skyscraper.

You knew what they said. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Let's see if that works in this case.

With his mind made up, he stepped back prepared what he needed to accomplish such a goal. Instead of creating a bunch of spikes to throw at the monster, he decided to create a large wedge.

It was packed with a lot of kinetic energy and he knew exactly where he was going to put it.

With a smile, he tore right back toward the giant with a [Flash Step] and cranked both of his physical enhancement skills to their limit. When he did, he felt his speed increase dramatically.

He slid under the slab of stone that rocketed toward him and jumped over the sword that followed it with a quick application of kinetic energy. The practice he had with the training course helped a lot. He was able to change his direction and accelerate to his maximum speed at the drop of a hat. This meant that he was able to pass the sword with little trouble.

The real trouble was what was behind the sword.

The shield was an annoying thing and probably one of the biggest issues he faced. With that being said, he had an idea.

He quickly created several strong spikes and shot them point-blank at the giant. The monster instinctively protected its exposed face with the shield. The blast was hard and knocked the giant a step back. The explosion covered its vision in smoke.

That small opening was enough for Julius to use [Flash Step] and a huge surge of kinetic energy to slip around to the side of the giant without it noticing. And when he did he slammed a fully charged leg at its knee.

He didn't stop there, he kept on hammering the kneecap with half a dozen other strikes. Eventually, the giant realized what he was doing and was swinging his sword and shield at him. Trying to swat him like one would swat an annoying mosquito.

But Julius was a tenacious and stubborn mosquito and the monster would find he wasn't so easily brushed off.

He did end up taking a few grazes which fractured a couple of bones and one blow which almost took his entire arm off. But he stayed close and didn't let the giant get any distance.

He did get caught by a backhanded blow he wasn't able to dodge in time, but he managed to heal himself in the blink of an eye before throwing himself back into the fray.

After a few tricky maneuvers, he was able to get back within its guard and continued to hammer away at the same right kneecap he had first struck with stubborn ferocity.

He was aware that he had two real choices. One was to either fall back and use his long-range skills or he had to get really close and make sure its large weapons weren't able to use their superior reach on him. His current plan was the latter.

He danced around the giant like a vengeful storm, not caring about the damage he was taking or the oppressive aura that tried to bog him down. He had [Phoenix Renewal] and he would make sure to make good use of it.

He activated his Emblem to enforce his willpower and sent the occasional burning debuff at its aura. Which he learned had quite a nice effect and merged pretty well with the new skill.

To his joy, the giant seemed to react the most whenever he used that skill.

And while it had an Emblem, Julius was confident that his willpower was much stronger than its willpower.

The brief clashes proved that. The only problem was that since it had an Emblem, that was enough to hold him at bay for now at least. He didn't think it would last for long though. As he was rolling and dodging around its legs, he made sure to keep on hammering its Emblem with his own Emblem.

To his excitement, the aura-burning effect from [Scorching Empowerment] made this much easier and he slowly chipped away at its Emblem while his fist chipped away at its knee.

And then it finally happened. With one final clash of Emblems, he broke through and overwhelmed it.

He managed to create a thick fracture along its Emblem and he felt its oppressive aura dissipate into thin air. And the temptation to kneel before it was gone as well.

The other thing he noticed was that it stumbled back like it was hurt or something. Knowing better than to ignore a perfect opportunity, he smiled briefly before he capitalized on that moment.

He wrapped his kinetic energy around it and squeezed the life out of it. Its ability to resist his efforts was almost non-existent now. The main difficulty was just how large the thing was and how much effort it took him to freeze it in place.

But he did and he made sure to take advantage of its immobilization.

He sent the wedge he had been remotely controlling to stay at a distance to come soaring in alongside as many spikes he could create at once.

The wedge slammed into the kneecap with such force that Julius was knocked over a dozen feet away.

He made sure to keep an eye out with [Spatial Perception] though and was happy with the results. The work he had been doing, continuously hammering away at the kneecap, compromising the structural integrity was successful.

Because of this, the kneecap of the giant was torn completely off and the giant toppled over, desperately trying to balance using its weapons.

He only gave his hard work a brief moment of glory before he lept back toward the giant with a feral smile.

The first thing he went for wasn't to punch its head, which was now within reach. No, his target was the shield that it was using to prop itself up and he sent an overpowered strike at the wrist that was holding onto it.

The monster which was in a daze from what had just occurred, didn't even realize what had happened until it was too late. He managed to rip the shield away and with a quick burst of kinetic energy, sent it flying away in the distance.

He tried to do that with the sword next, but unfortunately, it was able to swing it at him before he could.

But the damage was done. Its leg was lying across the cavern and its shield was no longer a threat.

Regardless, he carefully watched as the giant struggled back to one leg and held its sword, pointing its tip toward him.

The red markings around the creature were flickering and whatever damage he had done to its Emblem didn't seem like it was going to fix itself anytime soon.

The aura it had once been throwing out was gone. Now that it was gone, the giant almost seemed pitiable. The domineering and oppressiveness were replaced with defeat and quietness.

Julius was even able to tell with his last attack, that whatever had been enforcing its body was no longer active. The wrist he struck was almost torn away by just a single strike.

But it still had some fight left in its eyes. The disdainful look was no longer there, but the angry glint was.

He didn't need to be invited twice. He was more than happy to oblige it with another round. This time he was going to finish it for good.
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So with a menacing stare, he strolled toward the giant with another wedge of mana hovering over his shoulder like a guillotine of death.

The monster tried to put up one last effort to fight him off, but it was useless. With no shield, no leg, and its Emblem no longer working, there was no way to defend itself.

Julius smashed the sword aside and drove a spike at the chest of the monster. The stone armor that had once been so sturdy was now like regular stone and crumbled before the attack.

He checked his mana real quick and was able to sense that he had just under a quarter of it left. But that was enough for what he wanted to do. He didn't want to risk this thing having some sort of suicide attack so with a quick thought, he summoned over a dozen spikes over his head.

The pulsing blue from the flames and his kinetic energy danced menacingly over his shoulder. Then with a final command, the salvo of spikes blasted toward the giant and connected in a bright flash of light.

The deafening explosion rocked the cavern and the only thing remaining where the giant stood was the pommel of the sword and some fragments of stone.