Path to Transcendence

So for a person like Aubrey who is touted as a genius to lose to a person many years her junior, it must sting. He knew that. He knew that from the second they had their first match together. Yet, he never knew how much it was truly bothering her until now.

It was dead silence after Aubrey\'s words. Julius could only hear the slight humming of the still-active barrier surrounding the room.

Finally Lily was the one who broke the silence. "You know that\'s not fair Aubrey," she said gently.

Aubrey gave a little self-deprecating chuckle. "I know very well that it isn\'t fair." She turned to look at Julius again. "I wasn\'t saying that I don\'t like you. I do, I can speak for everyone when I say that we all enjoy your company and are glad you are our friend."

"But…?" Julius asked softly.

"But, you make me feel inferior like what I do isn\'t enough," she finished.

"I\'m sorry," Julius apologized. He didn\'t know what else he could say. He certainly didn\'t mean to make her feel that way.

She shook her head at him. "Don\'t you dare say that. You have nothing to be sorry for. I\'m feeling this way because of my own insecurities and need to find a way to get over them myself. It\'s not your fault and you should never be sorry for being better than someone else. You worked hard for your strength." She waved her hand at Edgar and Lily. "We all know it."

"You work just as hard too," Julius said.

Aubrey laughed, a real laugh this time. "No, I don\'t."

"Yes, you do. Otherwise, you wouldn\'t have been able to improve your skills so much in such a short amount of time," Julius reminded her.

She gave a short laugh again. "You don\'t think I know what you do every night?"

"What do you mean?" He feigned ignorance. Though, Julius had a suspicion he knew exactly where she was going with it.

"Don\'t think that I don\'t know what you do every night. I spar with you the most out of all of us, so I have a good idea of what you are capable of. And there is no way someone makes that many improvements overnight in their sleep. Every day when we pick up where we left off you are already two steps ahead from the day before. That doesn\'t happen unless you train in the meantime," she said while looking at him in the eyes.

"You train afterward too, I know you do," Julius pointed out.

"Of course I do!" Aubrey exclaimed. "There is no other way to keep up with you. But no matter how long I stay up and train in the middle of the night, I can barely keep you within sight. I can tell when you are holding back when we fight."

She paused and sighed defeatedly. "I know how hard you train. Gods know I do, but how am I supposed to keep up with someone who barely sleeps and spends all of their time in a training room," she half-laughed.

Julius was about to oppose that when she cut him off. "Don\'t even try to deny it. I went looking for your roommate the other week and talked to him. He said that he hasn\'t even seen you sleep in your bed at night."

"Why did you go and talk with him?" Julius was shocked to hear that Aubrey went out of her way to look for Henry. Julius hadn\'t even talked to the guy other than the first day they met. He had been doing his best to avoid the noble brat since then.

"I was worried, we all were, and I remembered you said your roommate\'s name was Henry. It wasn\'t hard to find him after that. There are only so many first-years named Henry after all," she explained. "Tell me I\'m wrong. Tell me that you don\'t go off to god knows where at night and train. I know Edgar has the same suspicions, he was the first one who mentioned to me how much training you must be doing at night."

Julius didn\'t say anything in response to that for a moment. He looked over at Edgar who was looking right back at him with an awkward expression and shrugged his shoulders at Julius.

He groaned inwardly. He hadn\'t told any of them about his nightly routine because he thought that it would just needlessly worry them and he didn\'t think it was a big deal. However, it seemed he was wrong because Aubrey was making it sound like it was.

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"Where do you go at night?" Aubrey asked him directly.

"To the training facilities," he admitted.

She nodded as if she expected that answer. "What about sleep? Do you just sleep on the floor?"

Julius just shrugged, "You know I have a skill that helps fatigue."

"Fatigue is different than the need for sleep Julius. You need to take better care of yourself. Otherwise, you might collapse from the stress you are putting yourself under." This time it was Lily who interrupted with a slightly judgemental tone.

He turned to her. "I don\'t know what you want me to say. I have a skill that helps me train for longer and I take advantage of it. Is that so wrong?" He was getting a little annoyed. He knew that they were just concerned for him, but he didn\'t need five other parents telling him what he could and could not do. However, he also knew that from their perspective he was several years their junior.

"Yeah, it is, especially if your health is worse because of it," she argued.

He looked Lily right in the eyes. "I promise you," he emphasized, "I don\'t feel any side effects from it, and ever since I got to Tier 2, it has been even easier." He felt Lily\'s mental magic being used on him and he didn\'t give any resistance. He wanted her to know he was telling the truth.

After a few moments, she looked at him determining if he was telling her the truth before nodding her head in acceptance.

Julius sighed heavily. "Look. I appreciate the concern, but I have been taking care of myself for years. I might not make the best decisions all the time, but I don\'t have any plans to ruin my future or health for no reason. I need you guys to trust me that I will look out for myself, okay?"

He looked at all of them in the eyes, he wanted to let them know how serious he was being with this request. He was going to do his thing, getting stronger and pushing himself and he wasn\'t going to waste time sleeping if he didn\'t need to. There was too much he needed to do.

Thankfully, the three of them seemed to understand how serious he was being and accepted it.

He didn\'t know how it had digressed into this. It was originally about Aubrey feeling insecure about her abilities. He didn\'t understand how it had flipped to Julius so quickly. On the bright side, at least he had made his boundaries clear. He told them and now it was up to them to respect them.

He didn\'t feel like staying around anymore. The air was a bit awkward now and he thought the best thing would be for them to sleep on it and talk about it again later. He believed it would be fine. If they were friends then they would get over this whole situation and it would be normal the next day.

No healthy relationship was built upon sunshine and rainbows. There needs to be times when things get a little uncomfortable. There was something his gramps used to say to him. "A true friend isn\'t only around when it\'s convenient, a true friend stays around even when it isn\'t."

He didn\'t really understand it for a long time. To be fair, it was something his gramps had told him when he was twelve but only after some years later did he finally understand what he meant. He had been "friends" with many people, people who Julius thought were real friends.

But whenever their friendship hit a speed bump, many of his so-called "friends" jumped ship and only a few stayed around. However, the ones that stuck around were the ones that Julius remembered with fondness and truly thought of them as friends.

As he was leaving he felt something being lobbed through the air at him. He turned around and used his kinetic energy to hold the item in place before it hit him. They were a pair of silver bracelets.

Really? Right now? He thought to himself incredulously.

However, Aubrey\'s face looked determined. Her eyes were directly following him, the challenge within them was clear. She wanted it. No, maybe she needed it. When Julius thought about it, it wasn\'t a bad idea.

So he clicked them onto his wrists and walked right to the center of the room, more exasperated than anything else. Who knows, this might let off some steam between them. He didn\'t have any grudges against her or the others, just a bit annoyed, but that would fade away in a couple of hours. However, this might be a good thing for her.

Aubrey followed him, activating bracelets of her own. They got into position and Edgar activated the rest of the enchantments. "No holding back either," she reminded him.

Julius jerked his head up and looked directly at her, a little in disbelief.

No holding back huh? He gave himself a little chuckle at that. Maybe she\'s right. Maybe I shouldn\'t hold back.

He casually removed his bracelets and dropped them onto the ground with a menacing thump. "Okay, no holding back," he told her.

She held her hands up a little nervously, "Wait, I didn\'t mean that we need to take off our devices. I just don\'t want you to take it easy on me this time. Win or lose, I just want it to be real."

Julius waved his hands and assured her. "You can keep yours on." He hadn\'t meant for her to interpret his actions as he was challenging her to reciprocate. It was merely that the bracelets limited him. He had [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] unlike her and could risk taking injuries. However, since she wanted him to take her seriously, he would oblige her request. That meant he would have to remove the bracelets since he couldn\'t heal with them on, or rather the bracelets didn\'t actually let him get injured for his skill to heal.

"But if you want me to fight you with no holding back, then I can\'t be wearing them," Julius told her.

She eventually nodded her head at him and began preparing herself.

He took a calming breath and firmed his resolve. He wouldn\'t hold back, not right now. She would get everything he had been working on.

It seemed like she was more insulted that he had taken it easier on her than anything else, so he wouldn\'t do that this time. She had his entire attention and if she regretted it, then that was on her.

He took one long look at her, intensifying [Savage Dance]. To his eyes, Aubrey seemed a little worried, but she still got back into her position and waited for Edgar\'s signal to start.