Chapter 171 - 170 Teaching A Lesson

After Marcus had given Clarisa her new swords a bit of fanfare erupted between her and her friends as they rushed over and asked to look at the swords all taking turns examining them, some with an ugly look of greed on their faces (namely Cain).

While that was happening Sir Kase came up to Marcus surprising him a bit and said, "My that was some fine work you did on those swords Lady Irene. I am surprised that I have not heard of you or your family. Are you perhaps the first in your line to become such a talented forgemaster and might I ask which family it is you serve under if I am not being to forward?"

Surprised by the sudden interest that Sir Kase had, Marcus was caught off guard especially by his line of questioning, but after taking a moment to gather his thoughts responded saying, "Actually, I only recently obtained my title and I do not work under or for any other family. I am, however, the newest apprentice for Thabon at the Blazegram forge, maybe you have heard of him."

Sir Kase's eyes then went wide with realization, and he said quite abruptly, "So you are the antisocial Baronetess that has been made the apprentice of the greatest forgemaster in the kingdom."

Taken aback by the sudden outburst of Sir Kase, Marcus simply nodded his head in acknowledgment before Kase realized his blunder and promptly apologized since what he said could have been considered offensive.

"Forgive me Lady Irene for my loss of etiquette and I did not mean to offend you in any way."

"It's fine, though being called anti-social is a bit tactless, I certainly have not made any effort to make connections, so I suppose it is not untrue. Now raise your head and get back to what you were going to ask me."

Raising his head with a slight expression of embarrassment on his face, Kase took a moment to collect himself before asking, "Lady Irene after seeing the craftsmanship of the weapons you made for young Clarisa, I was wondering if I might be able to commission a weapon from you myself. And since you are not tied to any family it should not be a problem correct."

Thinking about it for a second Marcus was not sure about the character of Kase, especially because his apprentice certainly seemed to have a problematic personality and Marcus was not confident that it was not from Sir Kase's teachings.

"How about we discuss it after the training that Adrianna went through the trouble of arranging is over. It seems that the others are finishing up looking over Clarisa's new weapons and I really want to see what new knights of the kingdom are capable of."

Marcus intently watching Kase's expression after giving his semi rejection, saw a flash of anger go across his eyes before a smile appeared on his face and he said, "Very well, though I do hope you do not hurt yourself, each one of them has been well trained and are professional fighters, please try to stay safe."

After that Kase walked away and the conversations began to die down as Adrianna walked forward, towards the group of future knights and said, "So which one of you wants to go first and test out your skills on Irene."

Scanning the group, Marcus watched the reactions of the group seeing that most of them did not seem to be all that interested except for Cain, though his interest did not seem to be in fighting as he gave a wink towards Marcus.

"I will go first; I am quite curious to see what kind of skills Lady Irene has." Cain said, with a confident smile on his face.

Cain then walked into he middle of the ring where they would be able to fight, and Marcus followed suit standing on the opposite side.

Taking his scythe out of his item box, Marcus then looked towards Cain seeing him take his own weapon out of his magic bag, producing a mithril halberd with red streaks going down the blade.

Taking a good look at the halberd, Marcus analyzed the quality of its craftsmanship using his keen eyes.

'Hm decent work, whoever made it either does not know about celestial platinum or did not use any, but overall, it is pretty good. I would say it is only a degree or two below the quality of my scythe, though it is far inferior to the swords I made Clarisa.'

Standing in a battle-ready position Marcus decided to wait and see what the young future knight standing across from him would be able to do, confident that he would be able to deal with his attacks.

However, instead of attacking Cain just smiled and said, "Lady Irene why do you not go first, I would not want to end this without seeing your skills so please come at me with everything you have."

Internally sighing, Marcus could only look down on the young man who was talking so big even though he did not know Marcus' level that was actually higher than his.

'What an idiot, if you do not know the level of the person you are fighting you should be far more careful.'

Shacking his head Marcus decided to curb Cain's ego earlier rather than later and said, "Unfortunately you will not be seeing any of my skills, in fact against you I will not even use a single one of my skills that require activation."

After saying this Marcus could see a vein on Cain's head bulge obviously not happy with being looked down on.

However, Marcus did not really care and quickly shot forward at an incredible speed catching Cain completely off guard as Marcus appeared in front of him lightly slapped his face and then back off just as quickly.

Cain having been unable to react to Marcus' swift slap since he had been a laid-back position with his guard completely down, brought his hand up to his cheek that was now slightly red.

With a look of disbelief Cain looked toward Marcus who was now standing around nonchalantly and a wave of anger washed over him for a moment before he calmed down and said, "You just used speed burst did you not, I thought you said you would not use any skills."

Shacking his head Marcus simply replied saying, "That was just my normal agility, no boosts in anyway, though I do not care whether you believe me or not. But now it is your turn why do you not show me your skills before this fight ends."

Fighting off his anger from Marcus' obvious goading Cain managed to keep his calm for the most part surprising Marcus a bit.

"Very well, but I will make sure to hold back as it would be a shame to leave any scars on your body."

Cain then carefully analyzed the situation before lunging forward with his halberd, swinging the blunt side towards Marcus.

Not taking any evasive or defensive action Marcus simply stood there as Cain's strike closed in sure that Marcus' inaction was due to being unable to keep up.

"Thud!"

However, as Cain's halberd was about to hit Marcus' body, it instead suddenly stopped as Marcus simply put his hand out and grabbed the blunt end of the weapon.

Everyone watching not just Cain, stared in surprise as Marcus caught Cain's attack with his bare hand.

With the halberd stuck in his grasp Marcus yank hard pulling Cain along with his weapon towards him, where he quickly threw his knee right into his stomach before twisting his body and bringing his leg up high before kicking Cain right in the face.

The young knight then went flying a few feet from the force of Marcus' kick before slamming into the ground.

Skidding a few more feet before coming to a stop, Cain could feel the searing pain in his face and stomach where Marcus had hit him.

"Hey, is that all you got, I thought I told you to show me your skills. Get up and come at me like you mean it or next time I am going to hit you hard enough to knock out a few teeth."

Cain feeling his pride being stepped on could no longer control the anger welling up inside him as he quickly stood up and looked towards Marcus with hateful eyes.

"Fine then see how you like this."

Cain's halberd then burst with flames before he began chanting a spell.

"Flare Thrust."

Cain then stabbed his halberd forward as he unleashed his tier four fire magic spell sending a massive blast of fire heading right towards Marcus.

Everyone seeing this lethal attack being sent towards Marcus could not help but look out in dread some of them planning to try and intervene, when they saw Marcus rush forward towards the flames coming at him.

Approaching the flames Marcus activated one of the enchantments on his scythe and a powerful dark aura began flowing out of it.

With a wide swing Marcus slashed towards the flames coming towards him and a massive burst of darkness came out from his scythe and began devouring the flames.

As fire and darkness fought it was not long before Marcus overpowered Cain cutting through his tier four spell.

Cain for his part never expected such a thing to be possible, with just his weapon alone Marcus had complete destroyed his most powerful tier four spell.

Unfortunately for Cain, Marcus was not done yet and rushed forwards towards the dazed Cain and with the flick of his scythe smacked him upside the head sending him flying.

"Bam."

Cain smashed hard into the training ground's wall headfirst leaving cracks in the stone before sliding down unconscious, a stream of blood flowing down his face.