Chapter 173 - 172 Teaching A Lesson (3)

With an icy blade situated against her neck Amara felt the slight trickle of blood flowing down as Marcus' scythe ever so slightly broke the skin.

At that point Adrianna came forward and said, "That's enough, Amara you lost go back to the others and tell whoever is next to enter the ring."

After that Marcus removed his scythe from Amara's neck and she began shakily walking forward, still feeling the icy touch of Marcus' scythe that could have easily killed her.

Looking towards the remaining three future knights one of them being Clarisa, Marcus with a dispassionate look said, "Which one of you is next."

The young man who had been chosen to go next slowly walked forward and gulped already knowing he stood no chance.

Marcus' reactions and speed had seemed inhuman, and his strength was enough to toss them around like stuffed animals, so of course the future knight that had to fight him were afraid.

With his new challenger in the ring, Marcus took a battle stance as the young man named Branson brought out a short stiletto and small round shield.

His weapons now ready Branson rushed towards Marcus with good agility that was pretty fast for his level.

Unfortunately, Marcus was at a much higher level and reacted by slashing his scythe towards the young knight coming at him.

Branson seeing the scythe coming for him brought out his shield to block expecting to deflect the scythe away and then attack with his stiletto.

Except instead of deflecting the blade, Branson felt and overwhelming force on his arm as he was thrown off his feet and went flying through the air and crashing into a wall in a similar fashion to Cain.

'Oops. Guess I should not have used my powerful slash skill. I thought he might have had some special defensive trick seeing as how brazenly he rushed forward, but apparently not.'

As Marcus looked at Branson who was now twitching on the ground after making an indent in the wall, he just shook his head and looked at the remaining two waiting to see who came next.

To his delight the next one to walk forward was Clarisa who seemed to have steeled herself and was ready for battle.

'Now I get to see how the swords I made will do in actual combat. Hopefully she has figured out how to use some of the enchantments since a few of them are a bit complicated use.'

Standing across from each other Marcus watched as Clarisa pulled out her two new swords and said, "I did not know you were this strong Irene. You told me how you were an adventure that just got lucky to help out an get rewarded with a title, but now I see how truly strong you are. But do not think I will be going down easily I am going to show how strong I am."

After giving out her quick speech Clarisa immediately began chanting a spell, one Marcus was quite familiar with.

"Lightning Bind."

Once she finished chanting three rings of lightning began flying towards Marcus at high speed.

However, Marcus did not run or try to evade he simply poured mana into his weapon and when the spell was about to come in contact with him swung his scythe with three quick slashes cutting through the spell.

Clarisa seeing her spell destroyed was not surprised as she quickly chanted her next spell.

"Lightning Strider."

As electricity surrounded Clarisa's legs she shot forward swiftly brandishing her two swords towards Marcus.

Smiling, Marcus activated one of the enchantments on his scythe as it began crackling with electricity of its own before moving to intercept Clarisa's charge.

Swinging his scythe with quick and short movements, Marcus parried each of Clarisa's sword strikes as she tried to use her two swords to outpace him.

Bolts of lightning streaked out as their weapons collided, and Marcus could tell that Clarisa was using the speed boosting as well as the impact resistance enchantments on the swords.

The two continued to exchange blows for a few more seconds until Marcus deftly deflected Clarisa's long sword knocking her off balance.

With an opening created, Marcus brought his scythe down planning to end their fight, however, Clarisa brought forward her short sword and a shield of lightning burst from the blade in front of her.

His scythe impacting into the shield Marcus felt his weapon being pushed back for a few moments as Clarisa jumped away in a flash of lightning.

'Damn, I gave those swords too many gimmicks. She is overpowering the electricity coming off of my scythe with her own. I have even been taking a bit of residual damage just from the lightning encompassing the blades. If I was still human, I am sure my hands would have gone numb by now. I suppose I should get a little serious now.'

"Legs of Light, Arms of Darkness."

With his two spells activating, Marcus felt a surge of strength from the darkness around his arms and an increase in swiftness from the light on his legs.

Pressing the attack, Marcus moved towards Clarisa who was barely able to react to his new speed, crossing her swords in front of her as Marcus slashed with his scythe pushing her back over a dozen feet from the impact.

After taking Marcus' devastating attack, Clarisa felt a sharp pain in her arms and was certain she had a hairline fracture in her left hand.

Unfortunately, Marcus was not going to give her a chance to recover as he leapt forward bringing his scythe back for a big swing.

Clarisa seeing this threw her short sword towards Marcus in a desperate effort to prevent him from attacking her again.

With a sword flying towards him, Marcus reflexively smacked it away with his scythe completely deflecting it but also allowing Clarisa to jump away.

Repositioning himself and getting ready to attack again, Marcus suddenly felt a sense of danger from behind him as he rolled out of the way and saw the previously thrown short sword come towards him before flying back to Clarisa.

Looking at the sword that had just flown at him, Marcus could see a small thread of electricity connecting it to the larger one intertwining the two.

'She certainly has figured out a number of the abilities I gave to those two swords, and I have to say I am impressed by their performance.'

Happy to see how effective the swords he made were, Marcus could not help but smile widely and say, "You have done pretty well using those swords for the first time, but I think we should wrap this up. Come at me with everything you have, this will be the last attack to decide the victor."

Clarisa sensing Marcus intent, sheathed both of her swords before beginning a spell chant and Marcus could see here body begin to glow with power.

'Iai huh, and she is using the overcharge enchantment. Well, let's see what she can do.'

"Lightningedge Flash."

With her spell complete Clarisa blasted forward completely engulfed in electricity taking the form of a bolt of lightning.

Impressed by the show of power Marcus charged to meet her activating his mana body skill and increasing all of his physical attributes.

Swinging his scythe with all three of its elemental enchantments now going, Marcus felt the immense force being produced by Clarisa as electricity surged all around him.

As the two pitted their power against each other even with all of her strength, Marcus soon took over and with a big swing knocked both of Clarisa's blades upwards.

With Clarisa's attack blocked and her stance broken, Marcus brought the handle of his scythe upward and cracked Clarisa hard in the chin.

With a loud resound crack, Clarisa crumbled to the ground as the hit to her chin shook her head and brain.

Clarisa now unconscious and lying on the ground, Marcus leaned down and cast a healing magic spell on her.

Not long after, Clarisa's eyes fluttered open, and she shot up abruptly only to see Marcus kneeling over her.

Realization then came over Clarisa's eyes and she lowered her head understanding she had lost.

"No need to feel down, you put up a good fight, and handled those swords pretty well. Give it a bit more time and I am sure you will be able to master them. But also try not to get overconfident, there are always those stronger than you and being a knight does not make you better than others."

Trying to comfort Clarisa who had downtrodden eyes, Marcus continued to encourage her while also trying to steer her away from the path of thinking too highly of herself.

After walking Clarisa over to Adrianna, Marcus made his way back to the ring where he looked at the one remaining future knight and waited for her to enter.

The small girl named Tessa quickly walked into he ring and took out the biggest fuckoff maul Marcus had ever seen.

In fact, the massive weapon was even bigger than Tessa who only stood at a little over four feet tall.

Of course, Marcus was quite surprised to see the small girl holding such a large weapon, but not as much as if he had not used his appraisal skill on her earlier.

'I thought it was a bit weird that when I appraised her earlier that she had the highest strength stat among the group, at over four hundred. She must have some type of blessing or maybe a unique skill to have such a high stat at her level. Unfortunately for her, I am still stronger.'

With his scythe in hand Marcus waited for Tessa to make the first move, and it was not long before she jumped into the air and brought down her maul with a big overhead swing.

Jumping to the side Marcus dodged out of the way of Tessa's attack as the maul impacted into the ground causing a large crater where it hit as cracks began snaking through the ring.

Staring at the damaged that Tessa had just caused, Marcus was impressed by the sheer force behind the attack.

'Looks like I am having to give it some effort if I want to face her head on.'

Activating his mana body skill as well as casting both arms of darkness and iron skin, Marcus sprinted towards Tessa planning to pit power against power.

The two then began to exchange blow after blow each one creating a resounding sound and the ground around them even began trembling and falling apart.

Tessa for her part was quite surprised to have Marcus go blow to blow with her, since most people could not even take one of her attacks head on without being blown back.

Even her own master could not take her overwhelming strength for more than a minute or so.

However, Tessa had quite the glaring weakness in that her agility was lackluster, and soon Marcus began increasing his speed, attacking her from multiple angles faster than she could react.

"Reckless Surge."

After screaming the name of some ability, Marcus watched as a red aura began surrounding Tessa and she violently swung her maul toward him.

Swinging his scythe to intercept, Marcus was surprised to find himself completely overpowered and his scythe was blasted out of his grasp.

Shock on his face from the sudden burst of strength Tessa was displaying, Marcus had to quickly duck his head and jump back as she began swinging at him with wild abandon.

Evading a few more heavy blows, Marcus could see that reason was leaving Tessa's eyes and he could hear the sound of snapping and creaking coming from her.

'Shit, she has entered some type of berserk state and its prolonged use is starting to rip her muscles and her bones are creaking under the strain.'

Seeing that she was doing damage to herself, Marcus decided to end the fight quickly and cast his tier three lightning magic spell.

"Lightning Bind."

Spinning his arm three rings of electricity fired off from Marcus' arm and enveloped Tessa causing her to be unable to move.

She continued to struggle for a few moments thrashing around violently before the electricity from Marcus' spell caused her to go unconscious.

Sighing in relief, Marcus walked over to Tessa and cast his tier four healing spell, persistent healing on Tessa and watched as the pained expression her face soon turned to relief.

'Whew she had me worried there for a second. That skill certainly increased her power, but it seems that extended use has some nasty consequences.'

After making sure that Tessa was doing all right, Marcus carried her over to her friends to let them take care of her.

"She should be fine soon. I cast a powerful healing spell on her so in a few minutes she will probably wake up."

Nodding their heads, the other future knights took Tessa and laid her down on a near by bench when Marcus heard the sound of clapping coming from behind him.

Looking in the direction of the clapping, Marcus saw Sir Kase who was standing next to the now awake Cain who was whispering something in his ear.

"That was most impressive Lady Irene, but you do not seem to have broken a sweat fighting our soon to be young knights.. So how about it, would like to have a match with a veteran who can show you what the true strength of a knight is."