Abacus was arrogant but not a fool, Mercury has defeated foes deemed stronger than one after another.
Abacus fully recognised his intellect and his unique way to utilise magic plus his ability to multicast so many spells.
He used his Bronze form, his aura cracked the stone floor and he punched the air sending a shockwave of compressed air at Mercury.
’ An earth wall would just break against this force, alright let try this.’ Mercury stomped his foot on the ground.
Four stone spikes 2 metres long and nearly as thick as human rose diagonally stabbing toward the coming wave of wind, Mercury hid behind them.
Although they weren’t more durable than an earth wall, they had much less surface area and can easily break the wind.
The strong wave of wind split apart and flowed on the sides of the stone spikes but the spikes themselves held.
" Huuu, I’m glad that worked." Shouted Mercury, the ring around him was stripped bare.
The stone tiles were shattered into fragments but the ring itself held and so his his stone spikes.
" Abacus’s wave of wind had enough power to rival an E rank spell yet that boy stopped It with merely four F rank stone spikes.
His surprises seem to have no end." Said one of the guests sitting on the VIP stands.
" His application of his spells is impressive, even most of official mages of the Empire’s magic corp cannot achieve this."
Responded another, their voices were carried across the entire colosseum, the crowd started murmuring.
" Yeah, now that I think about it, defeating so many opponents with just F rank spells, that’s unheard of."
" Yeah, perhaps.. perhaps the useless young master isn’t so useless after all."
Mercury ignored the murmurs and turned his attention towards Abacus, Abacus cranked his neck.
" But, his schemes and mind can only take him so far, in the end, true power is like a storm, it cannot be stopped."
Said the deacon with a smug expression, nobody spoke against him after all they knew he was right.
So far, Mercury has won through his intelligence, his understanding of both his spells and those of his enemies.
However there were limits to that, even if you knew your opponents spells, what can you do if they’re too strong to stop.
Mercury took a deep breath, he knew Abacus was about to attack for real, Abacus was a warrior, not a mage.
His true power lies in close combat, Abacus stomped his foot on the ground and lunged at Mercury.
Sonic booms followed behind him like a hurricane tail, he covered the distance in mere seconds and punched.
Mercury retreated slightly, the ground beneath Abacus’s feet turned to mud, Abacus grinned.
" You think you can use such cheap tricks against me?" The mud turned solid again and his momentum did not drop.
" Flare." Mercury cast a light spell, a burst of blinding light appeared before him catching Abacus off guard.
Mercury had retreated to the edge of the ring in preparation of this, the mud pond spell was merely a distraction.
Abacus was an earth warrior, he can easily harden soft mud to be as hard as stone and Mercury knew that.
But doing that was bound to draw his attention and delay his reaction even by a split second then the real attack would follow.
While Abacus was blinded and his reaction was slowed, Mercury leaned in and grabbed his arm.
The force behind that punch was so strong that without his mana skin, just grabbing Abacus would’ve shredded his skin like a grater.
" AHHHHHH!" Mercury roared and with all of his strength pulled Abacus over his shoulder and threw him on the ground.
However Mercury was already on the very edge of the ring so Abacus ended up outside the ring.
When his vision cleared, the first thing he saw was Mercury grinning above his face, " You lost."
Those words hit Abacus like a thunderclap, he couldn’t believe he lost, he couldn’t comprehend how he lost.
He watched all of Mercury’s fight and knew he mostly relied on his F rank spells and while it’s impressive what he’s done with such weak spells.
It should not have been enough to defeat him, especially when he used his Bronze form, a D rank skill.
Not only did it increase his stats to those of a standard D rank, his defence is even higher, enough to be better compared to that of a defensive type D rank monster.
Yet he still lost, " Ha hahahaha!" Abacus laughed like a maniac, " I underestimated you Mercury Al’Karl, I’m sorry for that.
I acknowledge you as my equal and next time, I won’t lose!" Abacus shouted loud enough for all to hear.
Abacus was a prideful man, not many were good enough to be considered his equal, it’s why he barely has any friends.
Those he did acknowledge were usually too arrogant, not his type of arrogance but one like Marcus.
Abacus did not believe in bullying the weak which is why he didn’t like Marcus, not to mention.
Even with all of his strength, Marcus still relied too much on his family name to get shortcuts in almost everything.
Mercury was allowed to rest for an hour before his final battle against Marcus, two people approached him before the battle.
" Mercury please give up now before you get yourself hurt, Marcus is not like the others, he’s too strong for you."
Mercury sighed with exhaustion, " You are one frustrating woman you know that? Go back to your man and leave me be Emilia."
He tried to walk past her but she blocked his path. " I’m doing this for your own good, stop being so stubborn.
Just give up and let Marcus win, I give you my word he won’t hurt you afterwards."
" Your word is worth less than a pebble on a mountain, now move out of my way, I have a match to get to."
Emilia gritted her teeth, " I’m trying to help you here and you’re treating me with such ungratefulness, don’t you regret Mercury!" Shouted Emilia.
She drew the attention of those around them and Mercury started hearing their mocking whispers.
" So he thinks just because he got lucky a few times he can defeat Marcus?"
" His tricks won’t work this time."
" His fiancée is trying to help him and look how he treats her, how ungrateful."
" Why did you bother yourself with ungrateful dogs Emilia, let him get on that ring so I’ll show him how worthless he is." Marcus appeared behind Emilia.
Mercury faced him without flinching, this angered the arrogant Marcus, this Mercury did not resemble the coward he was used to.
" Don’t think a few lucky chances means you’re worth anything, you’re still just a pathetic worm."
" Then you shouldn’t have an issue crushing me on the ring then, after all, you can’t be worse than a worm." Mocked Mercury.
’ Fuck my brothers, I’d rather face their assassination attempts than give up the opportunity to crush this bastard.’
Mercury made his mind.