NOVPUBJulius let out a tired sigh of relief as Liam finally went down. His opponent was a persistent one, he had to give him that.
Julius had to coat his entire fist with his aura in order to hit the other boy through whatever skill he had been using. While he likely could have kept on attacking and forced his opponent to waste all of his mana, that didn't seem like a particularly fun way to end such an entertaining fight.
Julius watched calmly as Liam stayed on his back, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he was taking huge heaving breaths.
The crowd was going crazy. Many people were stunned with disbelief that two of the top runners of the tournament had just been defeated by relatively unknown students. However, the excited roars overtook these mutterings, and they were on their feet cheering wildly.
Despite this, Julius did his best to ignore them and slowly walked over to Liam. The blue-eyed fourth-year tilted his head to the side as he sensed Julius's approach and gave him a quick glance before looking back up at the sky.
"Good fight," Liam muttered begrudgingly, as if it pained him to admit it.
Julius paused a bit, surprised that Liam was the first one to say something. "Thanks, you too. I had fun," he replied happily.
Liam chuckled. "You know, I hate to admit it, but I did as well."
Julius chewed on his bottom lip as he stared at Liam. His current dislike for the boy was not as extreme as before the fight. He actually somewhat respected him now after fighting him. You could tell a lot about a person from the way they fought, and Julius believed he had figured out a lot about Liam now that he had.
So with a lighter heart and in a pretty good mood from having an enjoyable fight, he nodded toward Liam before turning to leave.
However, Liam called out to him before he could walk too far away.
"Hey, I am sorry about being a dickhead," Liam apologized with a wince.
Julius was startled. He had not been expecting that.
"Pardon?" He asked, fully turning to look back at Liam who was in the middle of sitting up on his butt.
"I said I was sorry for treating you like I did. I promise I am not a bad guy. I was just… I guess I was just jealous," Liam said with a little bit of shame.
Julius tilted his head and gave Liam a curious look. "Jealous? For what?"
"Because you were able to get so close to all of them in such a short time. No matter what I did, they never gave me the light of day," Liam muttered.
Liam didn't even have to say who he meant by 'all of them'. Julius knew precisely who he meant.
"Why does it matter so much to you? Don't you have your own group of friends?"
Liam shrugged. "Yeah, but that was after years of trying to be their friend. From my perspective I saw some random first-year achieving something that I never was able to, which was why I was such an asshole to you."
Julius frowned. "And now? Do you still feel the same way?"
Liam shrugged again. "I don't know. Maybe. But I at least realized that I shouldn't take it out on you. It's not like it's your fault."
"Hm, that's surprisingly mature of you," Julius commented.
"Surprisingly?" Liam asked in an offended tone.
"Yeah, especially considering what I have seen from you so far," Julius said bluntly.
Liam drooped his shoulders. "I guess you have a point."
Julius was about to reply, but Liam suddenly spoke again. This time, though, his voice was slightly desperate.
"How are you so strong?" The other guy's gaze was unwavering as he asked Julius.
Julius lifted his hands. "Training and luck," he said truthfully.
As much as he wished he could have taken all the credit for his current level of strength, he was self-aware enough to realize that luck played a large part in it as well. His reincarnation, or whatever it was, had given him a huge head start.
Take his Phoenix Concept, for example. He wouldn't have been able to get the Concept without the requirement that he had already 'died'. He also wouldn't have been able to create a core with such a large mana pool, enabling him to fight the way he did.
But these advantages didn't just let him be stronger in a fight. With his healing skill, he was able to practice and train for far longer than anyone should be able to. Hence his injured soul. His massive mana pool also allowed him to constantly use mana-based skills more than most would be able to. This allowed him to train his skills more frequently as a result.
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Furthermore, he didn't forget that his soul was much stronger than most people's. This gave him a bunch of other benefits that weren't as obvious as his large mana pool.
So while he had undoubtedly put in a lot of effort over these years, he understood that he wouldn't have achieved the results he had without luck.
"Training and luck, huh?" Liam asked, sounding almost like he was amused by his answer.
"Yeah."
Liam looked at Julius's face for any signs of deceit, but must not have found any because he looked away with a sigh. "I guess I can see that."
"Were you hoping for a different answer?" Julius grinned
Liam smiled slightly. "Yeah, I was hoping you were going to say that you found a priceless treasure or the royal family gave you something that made you this strong. Probably would have been an easier pill to swallow."
"It kind of sounds like you are an envious type of person," Julius noted matter-of-factly.
"You don't have a filter, do you?" Liam said with a frown.
"To be fair, I think I am entitled to that considering our history," he pointed out.
"I think I am beginning to understand what Aubrey and the others see in you," Liam said deflatedly.
"Thanks!" Julius said brightly.
Liam's eye twitched, but he changed the subject. "What did you do with those constructs of yours? They seemed way more powerful than a close combat fighter should have as a skill."
"I use a lot of mana," Julius said simply, not planning to share his secrets with Liam. Although his opinion on the guy was beginning to change, it didn't mean he was going to be revealing his secrets to him.
Liam seemed to understand this, though, and he nodded like he was expecting such an answer. "Yeah, that's an understatement. Were you even low on mana towards the end?" He asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"Yeah, you made me use a lot."
That was a half-truth. He hadn't been low at all. Since his body enhancement skill relied on his aura, he had saved a lot of his mana. However, he was being truthful about using a lot. His constructs required a ton of mana, probably more than what would be considered efficient, but he was still improving them each day, so he hoped that would change.
Still, he had more mana than he knew what to do with sometimes, so he had never even gotten close to below half at any point during the match.
Liam looked at Julius with a suspicious glare but didn't pry any further. Instead, he looked up at the crowd, which was still cheering loudly.
"Would you be against the idea of fighting me again? This time just for some training?" Liam suddenly asked, looking a little nervous, twiddling his thumbs.
Julius grinned sincerely and nodded firmly. "I was going to ask you the same thing."
Liam let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, sounds good. But I want to let you know that I plan to win next time."
"Yeah, that's what they all say," Julius said imperiously while stifling a grin.
Liam rolled his eyes. "Just you wait."
Julius smirked and couldn't help but get excited by the competitiveness he saw flashing in Liam's eyes.
***
"You showed that arrogant sod!" Aubrey said enthusiastically while grabbing hold of him in a chokehold.
"I don't think we should call him that anymore," Julius said to her once he freed himself.
"Why? Did you suddenly fall in love with him during your match?" She teased, still trying to cling to him.
Julius stiff-armed her away with a laugh. "Shut up. I just don't think we need to keep calling him that."
Lily walked over to him, shoving Aubrey away, and gave him a congratulatory hug. "Did you guys bury the hatchet or something after the match? We saw you two talking afterward."
"Come on? You guys should know that Julius was probably rubbing it in his face," Aubrey said proudly.
He reached over to her and jabbed her stomach. "You know I don't do that after I beat a person. Unlike a certain someone, I am not a sore winner."
"Who do you mean?" Aubrey asked, completely genuine in her confusion.
"He means you, you big dummy," Derek said while placing a hand to his forehead.
"I'm not a sore winner!" Aubrey argued.
"How many times did you rub your victory in Edgar's face in the past couple of hours?" Derek asked.
"A lot! But that doesn't make me a sore winner, I am just excited!"
Derek threw up his hands in defeat. Not even he could beat such a shameless woman in an argument.
"Okay, so what did you two talk about?" Edgar asked, also ignoring Aubrey's protests.
"He apologized and then asked if we could train together in the future," Julius admitted with a shrug of his shoulders. He was still a little taken aback by Liam's behavior. It was like he was a totally different person, and Julius couldn't say he hated it.
"He apologized?!" Aubrey exclaimed. "Bullshit."
He ignored her and let Lily go over to hush Aubrey.
"I actually have to agree with Aubrey here. Why would he apologize to you? I don't think he has ever apologized to us a single time in the past four years," Edgar commented.
"Never?" Julius asked with a frown.
"Never."
Huh, maybe Julius was a special case then. Or perhaps, Liam didn't feel like he was the one who needed to apologize. From what little he got from the other fourth-year, it sounded like he believed the others had been snubbing him, and he relayed that to the others.
"I mean, yeah, we didn't want to hang out with him," Aubrey said like it was obvious.
"So you were mean to him?"
"To be fair, we just thought he was being annoying at the time. We didn't know that he wanted to be friends," Edgar said with a shrug.
"What about now?"
"What? Be friends with him?"
"Yeah."
"Eh, there's too much history at this point. The only person here who really hates him is Aubrey, and we don't see the need to hang out with a person our friend dislikes," Edgar reasoned.
Julius nodded. He could understand that. There was no reason to make Aubrey uncomfortable or angry just for the sake of trying to become friends with that person.
Still, he would take up Liam's offer for training. The way the fourth year used ambient mana to supplement his techniques was something Julius could learn a lot from. While it wasn't what he had been expecting, he had enjoyed this match at the end of the day. Much more than he could have ever thought he would. 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝒃.𝙘𝒐𝒎
