The fight between Mercury and Marcus started, everybody was expecting it to end quickly.
Although Mercury has managed to win every fight he’s been in, they attributed it to him being lucky.
Marcus was known for his ruthlessness, they figured he wasn’t going to spare Mercury some pain.
As expected, as soon as the figut started he attacked without saying a single word, Marcus was a warrior but he knew magic as well.
He fired a beam of fire at Mercury, Mercury stomped the ground forming walls of earth to block.
The fire beam burnt through them like they were pieces of paper, by the time it reached Mercury’s position he had already dodged.
" Stone bullets." Mercury fired over a hundred bullets at Marcus, wind blew from Marcus blowing them away.
Seeing his attacks was dodged and Mercury even had the nerve to attack him back, Marcus grew furious.
He couldn’t accept that he couldn’t take down the rat he’s been stepping on for years in a single attack.
He lunged at Mercury with his sword ready to cut him down, Mercury detonated fireballs inside a water ball.
The explosion covered the entire stage in steam blocking Marcus’s vision, Mercury could see him clearly through mana realm.
He sneaked up silently but as soon as he got close Marcus discovered his position, hiding like this was not easy.
’ I need to learn how to completely hide my mana signature, perhaps I can use ambient mana like with mana realm.’
Mercury started brainstorming ideas during the fight, if Marcus knew this he might explode from the anger.
Mercury jumped back dodging a swing of Marcus’s sword aimed for his neck. ’ Is this bastard trying to kill me?’
Marcus blew the steam away and his cold prideful gaze landed on Mercury, wind covered his feet.
’ Gale boots, that’s an E rank skill, I should be careful.’ Thought Mercury, wind carried Marcus.
He flew at Mercury like an arrow but an E rank skill wasn’t fast enough to let him break the sound barrier.
’ Surely he should know this wouldn’t be enough, after all he’s seen me reacting to Abacus who was moving faster than this.’
Mercury knew how arrogant and prideful Marcus was, even if he knew that, it was unlikely he would admit it.
Marcus covered the distance between them and swung his sword from above like a guillotine.
A blue aura surrounded the sword, ’ Blade aura, his talent with the sword is quite impressive to learn this skill.’
Blade aura was another growth skill, it had no defined limit of strength, its power was fully dependent on its user.
Marcus’s blade aura was still at E rank but that still made his blade too fast and too sharp for just anybody to handle.
The most dangerous thing about this skill was that it was a complimentary skill and can be used on top of others.
It was something called an arcane skill, there were also arcane spells, those that had no attributes.
Mercury knew he couldn’t allow that blade to touch him, his mana skin can easily block it but that would expose him.
’ Too soon, I want him to get confident in his victory, I want him to believe I have nothing else on my arsenal.’
Mercury dodged the sword, the ground turned to ice causing both of them to slip, Marcus cracked the ice with his foot.
But by then Mercury was already a dozen metres away, he fired dozens of fireballs at Marcus.
Marcus casually dispersed them and lunged at Mercury, stone spikes blocked path and he cut them one after another.
Mercury kept retreating and running across the entire ring, the crowd screamed and booed him.
He fired his spells at Marcus but he easily dispersed them no matter how many Mercury sent.
Their dance of cat and mouse lasted nearly five minutes, Marcus almost got close but he didn’t even manage to touch a hair on Mercury.
On the contrary, he was covered in dirt and ash due to the many different spells Mercury had fire at him.
They didn’t deal any damage but they dirtied his clothes while Mercury’s own cheap clothes remained pristine.
" Lord Von Drell, you should take better care of your appearance, looking like you just came out of pig’s den does not reflect well on your noble status."
" Shut up!" Marcus roared and swung down his sword, " Wind Blade." A crescent blade of wind four metres tall flew at Mercury.
It was the same as the wind blade spell but it didn’t require any chant and needed an actual sharp blade to use.
" Oooh ooh, that’s very dangerous lord Von Drell, I’m just trying to help here, I know dry cleaner who died impeccable work.
I can hook you up to get yourself cleaned." Mercury shook his head, " Kids these days, getting their expensive clothes dirty like this, what will the ladies say.
Just look at me, clean as a newborn, no wait are newborns even clean? Either way Lord Von Drell, you should look at me as an example, this is how a noble should look."
Mercury pointed at his cheap clothes worn by commoners, they weren’t allowed to wear their uniforms during the tournament.
Marcus interpreted Mercury’s words as his clothes were better, " You think nobles should wear those cheap rags, what do you think nobles are?"
Mercury’s words didn’t just anger Marcus but most of the nobles watching. Mercury rubbed the back of his head and shrugged.
" I don’t think you want to know what I think of you but it involves pigs." Answered Mercury.
His every word was designed to anger Marcus and it was working, arrogant people like this were always easy to send over the edge.
" You will die for your disrespect." Marcus increased the intensity of his attacks, his sword howled with wind.
His swings became faster and each one accompanied by an explosion of fire forcing Mercury to a corner.
Even so, Marcus couldn’t even touch the helm of his dirty rags, Mercury made it look like Marcus was close.
He dodged each attack on the last moment using the most wasteful movements he can for dramatic effects.
Each time Marcus felt he almost had him only to miss once again and each time he missed he grew angrier.
However he couldn’t bring himself to use his lightning element as that would be admitting he couldn’t defeat Mercury otherwise.
In all honesty he was strong, very strong, each attack reached E rank and was incredibly fast.
But Mercury relied on his mana realm who relays information into his mind with zero delay increasing his reaction speed.
And his D rank mana skin which increases his speed to D rank as well, unless Marcus uses his lightning,the won’t stand a chance.
’ Maybe he needs some motivation, fine, I’ll give it to him.’ Thought Mercury.
Marcus swung down his sword again, flames exploded, the ground shattered but Mercury dodged again.
Before Marcus could follow with another attack a heavy slap landed on his face. The entire colosseum froze.
" Di.. did he slap Marcus?" Asked one of the students asked with disbelief in his voice.