Chapter 278 - 278 Marcus Vs Miguel

After the first match of the tournament, the other matches of block one continued with varying results.

Many of the fights were actually quite fierce with both fighters giving it their all.

Of course, there were also plenty more one-sided slaughters like the first match where Andrea overwhelmed Sir Gavan with one blow.

However, other than that first round there had not been any deaths, the competitors doing their best to uphold the wishes of the kingdom, though plenty of the losers and even some of the winners were now missing limbs.

But soon a very interesting fight was about to happen where Marcus' recent acquaintance Novak was going up against the powerful level fifty-five woman in full adamantine armor.

Unfortunately, before the match even began, he knew Novack had lost.

Marcus had already appraised him and found his level to be forty-six. It was certainly a high level by most standards but far lower than the woman he was facing.

And not only was there a level difference, but their equipment was like night and day.

Full adamantine armor was hard to come by and only the most elite warriors of a kingdom could be expected to be allowed to wear something so precious.

"In our next match we have the leader of the adventuring party Endless Horizons, Novak. He hails from the continent to the west and was passing through our kingdom when he decided to join our tournament. And his competitor who only goes by the name of Natalia. This mysterious beauty has won all of her preliminary matches with only a single move."

Hearing this Marcus was a bit surprised to hear that nothing was known about her other than her name.

That meant that she did not have any known affiliation in the kingdom or even to a notable organization.

So, the real question was where did someone so strong come from.

"Begin."

But pondering that question would have to wait as the battle began.

To start off Novak rushed forward with his sharp mithril claw blades glowing with mana.

This was Marcus' first-time seeing weapons like these, but it seemed that Novak knew what he was doing.

Unfortunately, even though he moved very fast with plenty of enhancement skills, he soon found himself almost stopped.

It was like he had run into a wall of molasses, and he was moving slower than a snail.

Natalia then walked up to him and touched him with one finger, before he went flying like a bullet and smashed into the barrier that protected the audience.

It was an overwhelming display of power and Marcus had no idea what had actually happened.

Natalia had not used any chants and no visible phenomenon was apparent.

The only thing he could liken it to was his phantom pressure, but the effect was definitely different.

"One"

"Two"

"Three"

The referee quickly began a ten count which was how long competitors had to reenter the ring if knocked out unlike in the preliminaries when a knockout was the end.

Nevertheless, even while Novack had stayed conscious somehow, he was in no condition to continue and soon the referee called the match.

'She is strong.'

Marcus had no doubt in his mind that this woman called Natalia was the strongest fighter he had seen so far

Her powers were unexplainable, and she had overpowered someone as strong as Novack with no effort at all.

After Natalia's victory the first day's matches continued to go by one after another and Marcus had now identified the strongest fighters in the first block.

Of all of them, four had caught his eye as front runners, one being Natalia, and the other three being those that had been seeded all the way to the main tournament.

All of them were incredibly strong and had defeated their opponents effortlessly, and Marcus was certain that he would be facing one of them in the semifinals.

However, before that he was going to have to win his first match tomorrow, so once the last match of the first block had ended, he went back to his temporary home at the Twisted Cats' Tails Inn.

Then the as the next day came around it was finally time for Marcus' turn in the tournament.

His fight was going to be the third of the day, so he arrived at the arena just as the sun was rising and headed for his waiting room.

Truth be told the anticipation was getting to him and Marcus was having a hard time resting.

While he was certainly not a battle maniac this was going to be the best stage to test out his current strength.

Luckily, he did not have to wait for too long as the two matches before his finished quickly and a member of the tournament's staff came to get him.

Following behind the staff member Marcus was led to a tunnel that exited out into the floor of the arena.

'Time to get started.'

Walking out into the center of the arena Marcus looked around at the crowd of people in the stands and saw plenty of them cheering his arrival.

Up on the main stage Marcus could see that the referee and his opponent were already waiting for him.

Yet as he looked at his opponent, Marcus was surprised to see a young boy around middle school age.

However, that was not all that surprised him. The boy also had dark tan skin and features that were distinctly Latino.

It was a far cry from how the majority of humans in the Kingdom of Borealia looked with their more European features.

Then as a final conformation Marcus found that the boy in front of him named Miguel LaRusso was exactly level forty.

This left little doubt in his mind that the kid in front of him was a transfer from Earth like him.

"On my left we have the rising start of the capital's adventurers guild Miguel LaRusso. At only the age of fifteen he has risen straight to the platinum rank in just a couple of months and has proven himself in the tournament with his powerful sword skills. And on my right is one of the famed Thabon Blazegram's apprentices, a noble of the kingdom, and a gold rank adventure herself, Baronetess Irene Geist. But she is also known by another name that she earned for her outstand performance defending the town of River Landing with powerful lightning and darkness magic, the Darkligth Princess."

As the announcer said his unwanted nickname, Marcus felt a shiver through his whole soul as now everyone knew of it.

Marcus almost collapsed down onto his knees as the shame weighted down on him and he thought, 'I am going to have to give up on my identity as Irene.'

Of course, this was just him being melodramatic, but the thought of being known by the entire kingdom as the Darkligth Princess left a bitter taste in his mouth.

However, he did not have time to lament his nickname going out to the public for long as the referee soon said, "And let the match begin."

This quickly refocused Marcus' mind but he noticed that Miguel had not made any moves against him yet, and was still standing there just looking at him intently.

Whewoooo!

Letting out a loud whistle Miguel gave Marcus a smirk before saying, "You are pretty hot Lady, how about it, did you want to be my woman."

Stunned Marcus could not believe what had just happened.

Here they were in the middle of a tournament and this kid had just asked if he wanted to be his woman.

It practically made Marcus' skin crawl thinking about it, and he wondered what gave this kid the fearlessness to do something like that.

But it soon became apparent as Miguel said, "I am sure you can understand how awesome I am since I am a platinum rank adventurer and this world's hero."

'He is drunk on his newfound power.' Marcus thought as he sighed deeply.

The kid had probably yet to run into anyone stronger than him or even have a hard fight for that matter, and thought himself invincible.

Unfortunately, his luck had run out and Marcus was going to give him a lesson he was bound to learn at some point for free.

"Okay kid come at me with everything you have and if you win, I will be "your woman" as you put it." 

After saying that Miguel's face lit up obviously pleased with the prospect.

"Very well I will end this quick, and we can go out and get to know each other better."

Pulling out his mithril sword from his item box Miguel began charging it with a large amount of mana before saying, "Light speed slash."

Miguel practically vanished into a blur as he shot towards Marcus in a burst of speed.

But even as fast as Miguel had become while using his attack skill, Marcus swung his scythe forward and met him head on.

The two blades then connected, and sparks flew as they grind against each other.

"What!?"

Miguel seemed utterly confused as to how Marcus had stopped him.

He had used one of his best finishers and no one had every blocked it before.

A couple had barely dodged it, but no one had ever taken it head on.

"Well, that was better than I thought you would be able to do, but it was still not even close to enough."

Marcus then sent a blast of pure mana right into Miguel's unguarded torso and sent him flying through the air.

Once his surprise of being counterattacked wore off Miguel regained his senses and twisted his body in the air before landing back onto the ground.

Even after taking Marcus' attack, he seemed mostly fine, but that was because Marcus had held back since he was still teaching a lesson.

"I see you are stronger than I thought Irene. I guess I should get a bit serious since we are out of the preliminaries." 

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Miguel began screaming as he seemed to be powering up as a golden glow actually began to envelop his body, and Marcus was actually surprised by how much stronger Miguel had gotten.

For a moment Marcus even wandered if his hair color was going to change from brown to blonde, but soon Miguel stopped screaming and seemed to be finished activating whatever ability he had.

"Blades of Darkness."

Testing the waters Marcus slashed his scythe forwards sending out three large blades of darkness towards Miguel.

Yet to his surprise Miguel did not move to dodge and he swung his sword around and cut through Marcus' spell, dissipating it.

"Ha do not think that the power of darkness will work on a hero."

It seemed that Miguel had regained his earlier confidence now that he had activated some type of empowering skill and had blocked Marcus' spell.

"Spirit blaze."

Casting one of his tier four fire magic spells, Marcus became wrapped in a blazing aura to match the boost Miguel had given himself.

After that Miguel began running forward and started slashing at Marcus with a flurry of swings.

The two of them began exchanging blow after blow and Marcus could feel the increased weight behind Miguel's sword that was far stronger than before.

However, it still was far from enough to overpower Marcus who was keeping pace with ease.

'He is stronger than I thought he would be, but that is all he has.'

As the two clashed Marcus analyzed Miguel and found that his fighting style was terrible.

It was similar to how Marcus fought until Mrazivý pointed out his flaws.

All Miguel was doing was swinging his sword around with speed and power, and while that would work on most monsters or people considerably weaker than him. It would show just how big of a gap he had between those that actually knew how to fight.

Soon Marcus started adding feints to his strikes catching Miguel off guard and then hitting him in the legs with his scythe's handle or slap him in the side with the flat of his blade

The poor kid was obviously not used to it since he fell for every one of Marcus' feints, and was becoming frustrated and sloppy.

"Is that all you got, I have not even broken a sweat yet." Marcus said obviously trying to goad him into attacking.

And like the emotional child he was, lashed out at Marcus with a big, telegraphed attack.

Seeing it coming from a mile away Marcus simply side stepped and put his foot out tripping Miguel.

The kid then fell face first into the ring's floor and skidded for a couple of feet.

Seeing this the crowd began laughing as they had long since realized that Marcus was toying with Miguel.

Fuming with anger Miguel stood up and looking at Marcus with blood shoot eyes, before he began a frenzied attack using numerous different attack skills trying to overpower Marcus.

But for Marcus this was nothing more than a child throwing a tantrum, and after dodging all of Miguel's attacks pointed his left index finger at his right shoulder and said, "Laser."

Casting his tier four light magic spell, Marcus blasted a hole straight through Miguel's shoulder, causing the kid to scream out in pain.

Blood quickly began pouring out of the wound, and Miguel not used to this level of pain began writhing on the ground.

Still Marcus was not done yet and walked over to Miguel and kicked him stomach with enough force to send him flying, until crashing against the barrier that protected the audience.

The referee soon began the ten count, but Miguel quickly stood back up and began making his way towards the ring when Marcus said, "I recommend you stay back, because next time I put a hole in your head instead of your shoulder."

Hearing this Miguel flinched as he realized that Marcus could have fired his laser spell wherever he wanted, and he had hit his shoulder on purpose.

However, Miguel felt he was not done yet. He still had his final trump card and while he had never used it, he was certain it would grant him victory.

"Valorous Comeback."

The golden glow that had surrounded Miguel began to burst from him as if given new life, and Marcus watched as all of the injuries he had given Miguel disappeared, before the kid shot forward like a golden comet.

Seeing this Marcus was actually astounded, this level of power was certainly coming from a unique skill, but he wondered where this kid could have gotten one since he had definitely not been here long.

Nevertheless, that would have to wait as Marcus had dealt with Miguel's final attack.

'Soul Devour.'

Activating his unique skill an instant before Miguel hit him, Marcus felt an immense surge of power and slashed forward with his scythe meeting Miguel head on.

The two of them clashed for but a moment, before Marcus' power overwhelmed Miguel and he was blown back in a massive blast of mana.

The blast carved a path straight trough the ring before hitting the barrier and crushing Miguel against it.

Luckily the kid had survived because Marcus had not gone for the kill, but his armor was in tatters and his sword had been broken in several places.

"Miguel is unconscious and unable to continue fighting. We have a winner, Lady Irene Geist."

As the referee announced the outcome the crowd went wild. That last display had been breathtaking, and the best clash yet in the tournament.

Yet Marcus did not care about the admiration of the crowd as he gave one last glance towards Miguel before exiting the ring.