Mercury jumped on stage, ’ I know they made that rule for me, they’re expecting me to perform poorly so they can expel me.
I’ll have to disappoint them but then again I can’t show too much, Mmmm, what a conundrum.
What’s more dangerous, being sent to battle by father or drawing the unwanted attention of my siblings?
Yeah no I’m definitely not revealing my strength, those crazy bastards are more terrifying than the demons.’
Mercury was so distracted by his thoughts he didn’t even hear the announcer starting the battle.
Fortunately he was up against a noble and they were too prideful to use such an opportunity, especially against somebody they considered weaker.
" You, how dare you be distracted in a battle, do you look down on me, do you think that fake ranking makes you a big shot?" Asked Jonathan.
’ Why do they all talk like they’re reading a script?’ Mercury wondered but his lack of response sent Jonathan over the edge.
" Get ready weakling, I’ll end this with a single attack." Jonathan stomped the ground.
A giant hammer of earth rose from the ground, it was as tall as he was and its head was a metre in diameter.
Jonathan himself was a big guy standing nearly 2 metres tall which was very large for a 16 year old.
" AHHHHHH." He roared and lunged at Mercury, his steps shook the ground causing spiderweb cracks on the stone floor.
’ He’s slow.’ Thought Mercury, ’ But his power is overwhelming, getting hit by that hammer will not feel good, no wait, I might be able to handle it.’
Mercury decided not to test it, Jonathan covered the distance and swung his hammer down.
The wind howled and hit Mercury’s face like a punch, ’ Oh that’s really strong.’ Mercury cast a spell then jumped to the right.
The ground beneath Jonathan’s left foot turned soft, his body leaned to the left causing his attack to miss and hit the floor.
BOOOOOM, the stage shook, stone fragments flew in every direction like bullets and dust shrouded their figures.
Mercury used that opportunity to close the distance from Jonathan’s blind spot, Jonathan pulled back his hammer and swung it horizontally.
Mercury crouched dodging the hammer, he placed his hand on Jonathan’s chest and grinned.
" Goodnight." Electric sparks covered his hand shocked Jonathan, the big guy stood there paralysed.
Mercury knew an F rank spell won’t be able to paralyse somebody as strong as Jonathan for long.
He cast another thunder hand and another, he did this five times in a row, by the end Jonathan’s hair was smoking and standing up like a porcupine’s thorns.
Mercury wasn’t done, he cast fireball straight to his face, followed by an ice wave then a fireball, then an ice wave.
The rapid temperature changes dealt more damage to Jonathan than the spells themselves did.
The dust cleared and finally everybody saw the results. The colosseum waa so quiet you could hear the pin drop.
Mercury grinned triumphantly and dusted his hands. " That was easy, makes sense, nobody can defeat the great Mercury after all."
His statement seemed to send everybody over the edge,
" He must’ve cheated right?" Asked one person in a low voice but sentiment spread like wildfire.
Soon the entire colosseum was shouting at him, Mercury’s grin widened," Oya, is this jealousy I hear?"
He pointed at the audience and his voice got low and deeper, " Watch closely you weaklings, the great sage Mercury will show you what strength is."
Mercury’s plan was simple, piss the crowd off as much as possible, that way, the more people will pay attention to his wins.
The more he demonstrates his strength the less likely the academy will accuse him of cheating later.
After all, nobody watches you like a hawk more than somebody rooting for you to lose and definitely doesn’t trust you.
Mercury knew he couldn’t win this entire tournament without going all out so he was going to make every win as impressive as positives while relying on F rank spells.
" HOW DARE YOU FUCKED UP CUNTS CALL MY BABY A CHEATER? DID YOU NOT SEE HIS GREATNESS?"
Mercury heard a loud voice from the VIP stands, his head turned like a rusted machine.
There standing above all other seats was a woman in a white dress leaning over the edge.
Her gaze scanned the entire crowd, a hand grabbed her from behind and yanked her back.
She jumped back up and waved at Mercury with a giant smile, " MERCURY SWEETIE, MOMMY’S HERE TO WATCH YOU, REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN!"
She shouted with a voice so loud it could rupture eardrums, fortunately defensive spells were cast over the colosseum.
Mercury considered himself a thick skinned man but that woman just knows how to embarrass him.
’ Why the hell am I embarrassed, she’s not my real mother?’ Mercury asked himself but that didn’t change anything.
He sighed inwardly, ’ Well then mother, let see who’ll embarrass who.’ Mercury felt like getting petty.
He went on both knees and raised his arms towards her, tears streamed down his eyes, " MOMMY!" Mercury shouted.
" BABY!" She shouted back reaching towards him with tears streaming down her eyes as well.
’ Holy hell this woman has thick skin, she doesn’t act like a noble at all, what’s wrong with her?’
The crowd screamed at him to get off the stage, an invisible force grabbed him and threw him gently at his seat.
The second battle began, it was between two mages, a man and a woman, the man used flame magic.
The woman used wind magic, their spells destroyed the entire stage, by the rules of the tournament.
Stepping out of the ring meant you lost the match, the woman used her wind magic to float.
Unfortunately the man didn’t know the flight spell and when the ring was destroyed he was forced to touch the ground first.
The third battle was between two warriors, one used a spear and the other used a a sword.
Mercury was quite interested in their battle, he himself was not a warrior and couldn’t use battle skills.
The swordman started the battle with a huge swing of his sword, he sent a crescent blade at his opponent.
The blade of energy cut the entire stage in half but the spearman dodged it and lunged at his opponent.
’ He’s fast.’ the ring had a diameter of a hundred metres and the spearman covered it in half a second.
Lighting danced on his feet like boots, each of his steps sounded like the chipping of thunder birds.
But as fast as he was, the swordman was able to keep up, they moved across the ring like blurs.
Most of the audiences were normal people who could barely follow their movements. Mercury’s focus was on something different.
He was wondering how well he can do against them without using his bolts and the conclusion he came to was.
’ I’d win.’