Chương 489: Chapter 487: Dogpile

Intelligent opponents were always more challenging to handle than mindless ones. However, that also meant he had more opportunities to improve. By being smarter, he was forced to use some more creative options. Now that their dogpiling strategy was no longer working, they were keeping their distance. Instead, they were throwing long-range attacks at him. These attacks were much weaker than their normal ones, and only the disruptive bolts of mana from a couple of them caused him any real trouble.

It became apparent that they weren't going to throw themselves at him any time soon, and so he was already preparing himself to do it for them. However, he suddenly felt a pulse of mana, and a wave of black light headed right for his face. The origin of this attack was from the big ass goblin monster still sitting on its stone throne. Its little horns were glowing with the same black energy. Julius didn't really have time to examine these horns and had to deal with the black mass approaching.

He manipulated one of his barriers to block the mass, but to his surprise, the black mass split apart. These parts were like water splashing against a glass pane, and they went around the barrier, coalescing back together once they were on the other side. Julius was fascinated immediately. This mass didn't seem to lose any of its potency, nor any of its force when doing this. He was curious about how this attack worked and even considered letting it hit him.

He held back, though, something he had been getting much better at over time. Instead, he stepped to the side at the last moment and let this mass fly past him. Still, he wasn't shocked when he saw the mass freeze in the air and reverse back at him. His eyes were still on the monster boss, and he flicked his hand backwards using some of his aura to eviscerate this mass of black energy. To his interest, his aura came across some resistance.

While it was able to tear it apart, it took considerable effort on his end to wipe out every trace of it. The technique was surprisingly resilient and didn't rely on willpower to keep it together. It relied on complexity and structure to do that. Julius grinned at the boss monster, who was now sitting straighter in their throne. Seeing him deal with the attack so easily must have finally drawn the monster's attention.

The big goblin rose to his feet, grabbed a stone staff on the side of his throne, and pointed it at Julius. The other goblins who had seen this all quickly ran out of the way for some reason. They looked truly terrified, and Julius soon found out why. He was barely able to detect the mana workings of the skill, and in less than a second, a dense beam of black energy came roaring at him. This black beam was different from before.

It was much more powerful and had a lot more mana, but there was this sickly property to it that caught his eye. It reminded him of the Corruption Concept he had come across previously, but only slightly different. It focused a lot more on eating away mana structures rather than flesh and aura. Julius swiftly placed three of his barriers in front of him.

The black beam slammed into the barrier with a mighty thud, and while they held up against the immense force of the beam, the attack still had a lot of power behind it. His barriers showed signs of strain as the black beam corroded their integrity. Not only that, but the beam split into multiple sections, much like the previous attack. Each of these sections went in various directions, attacking Julius from all sides. Julius took control of his other barriers and whirled them around himself.

It took some effort to track the trajectories of all these attacks, but he managed to do so. After he dealt with the barrage, he created several spikes around him, formed out of the slowly deteriorating barriers. Then, with a wave of his hand, these spikes let out a shrieking whistle as they tore across the distance. He saw the monster's eyes widen barely as these spikes appeared before it with incredible speed. However, it reacted in time, creating several barriers of its own in its path.

These barriers reassembled the black beams of mana and ate away at his constructs the moment they made contact. Unfortunately, Julius's constructs were enhanced with his aura, which gave them a little extra boost and increased their durability. The first two spikes were stopped by the barriers, getting dissolved by whatever energy this creature possessed. But the other two spikes shattered these barriers and exploded in the monster's face.

An explosion of dust billowed outward, and when it settled, Julius spotted the monster wincing as it rubbed its face. The spikes had done a lot less damage than he expected. But to be fair, there was an alarmingly large quantity of mana being channeled through this monster's body. The goblin boss looked behind him at the location where his throne used to sit. Its face underwent several changes as it observed the now broken pieces of stone.

Then turned back to Julius with an alarming amount of anger rippling through its gray face.

"My bad. I was aiming at you, not your throne," Julius yelled out, hoping to appease this monster. He honestly didn't mean to destroy something that was clearly special to the beast. All he got in return was an ear-shattering roar from the massive creature.

"What do you want me to say? You are the one who attacked me first, don't try to play the victim now," Julius shouted back. He couldn't believe the audacity of the creature. It was its own fault at the end of the day. It probably shouldn't have attacked Julius while still so close to it, and definitely shouldn't get mad when something happened to it. That was unreasonable. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Of course, Julius didn't know if the monster could understand what he was saying, but he wanted to think that the monster understood his tone because the beast suddenly ripped the greatsword from its back, and even more mana was channeled into its body. The monster moved way faster than a beast that size should be able to. It was even faster than the smaller goblins, and Julius suddenly found himself face to face with a nine-foot angry monster swinging a gigantic sword at him. That put a smile on his face.

He tried to siphon as much kinetic energy as possible, but there was only so much he could do. Logic told him to step to the side, but his heart told him otherwise. He wanted to see just how he compared to such a beast and whether he could hold up against it. From his estimation, the beast had more strength than most of the Tier 4s he had faced. He let the claw constructs over his fingers melt down and form into a staff on his own. He had come to enjoy using a staff more than a sword at times.

It required less finesse, and despite his passable skill with a blade, he wasn't at the same level as some of these other geniuses. A staff enabled him to smash to his heart's content, and that was precisely what he did. He strengthened his body with as much kinetic energy, mana, and aura as possible. The influx of energy was intense, and, unsurprisingly, his Tier 3 body was unable to contain it all.

He felt some of his veins rupture and his skin get blown apart, but for those brief seconds, he was unbelievably strong. He met the massive monster head-to-head. His staff clashed against the greatsword. To his excitement, he came out slightly ahead. The beast rocked back from the impact and shook its head to recover itself. Julius, on the other hand, found his body barely holding together from that intense clash.

His body was already hanging by a thread from his own empowerment, but the additional force pushed his limits even further. Fortunately, he was used to this pain, and it didn't stop him for a moment. Before the beast could recover fully, he was already closing in with his staff raised above his head. However, to his immense displeasure, the goblins finally decided to make their presence known again. Two of them attacked him from the sides, forcing him to deal with them.

He sent two quick pulses of kinetic energy at them, making sure to narrow them as much as he could. They weren't as sharp and piercing as Arthur's attacks, but they were enough to injure the goblins quite badly. While he was doing this, another three goblins were already swarming him. He swept his staff outward, blasting two of their heads off, with the third one avoiding the same fate by the skin of its teeth. Their job was done, though.

They had given their boss enough time to recover, and Julius found himself swinging his staff upward to parry the black beam of energy. There was a lot of weight behind it, but he used some kinetic energy to lock himself in place. This gave him the leverage to parry the beam upward. Then he stepped closer and used his foot to propel himself at the hulking monster before it could shoot another beam.

The previous beam was already coming back around, but Julius positioned his body so that when he tilted his body to the side, it ended up hitting a goblin instead. He could have used his void skills to help him in this battle, but if there was one thing he really wanted to keep hidden in his back pocket, it was those skills. His regeneration was remarkable, but people would not assume that it was as powerful as it really was. That gave him some leeway.

His void skills, on the other hand, were completely broken for a Tier 3. His movement skill allowed him to bypass enchantments and barriers specifically made to counter spatial skills. [Void Strike] was similarly dangerous. It could penetrate the defenses of a Tier 5, albeit a crafter, and it was still noteworthy. He knew he didn't really have to worry about someone kidnapping him and experimenting on him now that he had some powerful backing, but it didn't hurt to be a little cautious.

Plus, he had other stuff he wanted to work on. For example, his fire. The same fire that he swiftly flared around his staff, like a snake coiling around the shaft. More importantly, though, he didn't need it. He could handle these monsters without using such skills. The flames burnt his hands, but he dealt with it. He had endured worse and had a feeling that his body would slowly get used to it. Or rather, that was his hope. He looked over at the boss goblin and watched as it swung its greatsword at him once again.

This time, aiming for his lower half. His focus skill boosted his mind, and he felt time slow down. He lowered his staff downward to parry the blow; his hands stung from the vibration of the impact. The horns of the monsters started to glow with black light, and before it was able to attack, Julius had already created several needles over his shoulder. The needles shot toward the monster's face, and it was forced to delay its attack, attempting to dodge the deadly constructs. It was too close, though.

It tried to enhance its defenses, but it wasn't enough. The needles of superheated mana drilled straight into the beast's face. One of them even managed to pierce its eye, and it roared out in pain. An explosion of mana and aura rippled outward, but Julius stood firm. He didn't back away. In fact, he stepped closer and slammed his staff into the head of the taller beast. A dull crack resounded through the ravine as the monster stumbled backward and fell onto its back.

Julius was going to finish it off when the smaller goblins intervened once again. They resumed their previous strategy of dogpiling now that there weren't barriers all around him. He held back a sigh and allowed them to do so. He only created a barrier around his body as he gathered more kinetic energy. Then, in the same way he had done it before, he compressed the kinetic energy, releasing an enormous explosion. The nearest ones were vaporized while the others were flung away.

Julius suspected that the goblins had been trying to delay him, but their strategy failed. He already had his aura clamped down on the large goblin, and despite its attempts to get back to its feet, Julius was constantly ripping into its aura with his own. He casually walked over to the beast and stared down at it. The creature was so busy dealing with Julius's aura that it didn't even notice his approach. It simply writhed in pain as Julius knelt next to its head.

The fight was over, and instead of killing, he wanted to spend some time analyzing the monster's horns. They were fascinating, and he could feel that they were the origins of that weird black energy. Other goblins tried to save their boss, but Julius slaughtered any who came close. Only when he felt his curiosity was sated did he finally slam a fully empowered fist into the monster's skull, ending its suffering.

After he did that, he looked upward with a smile at the person he had sensed watching him ever since the beginning of the fight.

"Can I help you?"