Taking their starting places within the training grounds, Marcus took a coin from out of his item box and said, “I am going to flip this coin into the air and when it hits the ground, we will start the battle.”
Hearing this both Mrazivý and Quillon nodded their heads agreeing to this condition.
They were both raring to go, even if they had not settled on any plan or really intended to work together at all.
On the other hand, Marcus and Lyra had strategized thoroughly, and had already establish a telepathic link ready to coordinate with each other.
Flipping the coin into the air, Marcus it sent up pretty high, well over a hundred feet, and then looked towards his opponents.
Yet as he looked forward, he noticed that they had both adopted the same posture, ready to unleash the same opening attack that Quillon used in every round of the tournament.
‘Hm, I guess Mrazivý has learned it as well. Still, do they really think it is a good idea to start off with such an attack so openly. I mean they are not making any attempt to hide their intentions. In fact, now that I look at it, they are definitely both targeting me.’
Analyzing how both Mrazivý and Quillon were setting up, Marcus was pretty confused.
Sure, that attack boasted incredible speed and power, but if he knew it was coming, he could easily deal with it as he had already planned counter measures with Lyra.
‘No, it must be a bluff. Surely, they are not just going to charge in headlong.’ Marcus thought.
But as the coin finally hit the ground and the match started. That is exactly what happened.
‘Sword Savant Style Second Form, Light Speed Slash.’.
Launching forward with an incredible burst of speed, both Mrazivý and Quillon launched themselves right at Marcus while drawing their swords with blindingly quick movements.
‘Flash Fire Clap.’
Except as soon as they had moved so had someone else, already having been aware that this opening attack would be likely from Quillon.
However, she had never expected both of them to charge in so blindly, especially when she was here.
With her high-speed movement technique Lyra was able to move just as fast as Quillon and Mrazivý had, and appeared right in front of Marcus who had taken up a defensive posture.
‘Reflector shield.’
Creating a tortoise shell that looked like it was made of diamond in front of her, Lyra intercepted both Mrazivý’s and Quillon’s attacks.
With as much speed and power as their attacks had, it came with the downside of being a fully committed attack.
Once it was initiated it was pretty much impossible to stop or change course, and Lyra had purposefully left them no room to do so.
The instant their two blades that were filled to the brim with speed and power hit one of Lyra’s strongest trump cards they were bounced right back.
Two streams of blood sprayed high the air as Quillon and Mrazivý were sliced deeply from the right side of their chests up to their shoulders by their own attacks.
It was a devastating wound even for two people as strong as them, and the burning sting of immense pain quickly washed over them.
Yet their troubles were not even close to over, as Marcus reached his hand forward past Lyra’s unique skill that was already fading.
An immense amount of mana was coalescing around his arm and a massive amount of light was collecting in his hand.
‘Quasar Blast.’
Casting his tier six light magic spell, Marcus unleashed a staggeringly powerful blast of light that completely engulfed both Quillon and Mrazivý.
It was brutal attack that showed no mercy and fully punished their blind and reckless charge.
Quickly the powerful spell that could easily destroy and entire small town on its own, impacted the barrier around the training ground and tried to force its way through.
All the while Mrazivý and Quillon were caught up in this devastating attack.
Eventually the blind light faded as the mana used to cast the spell waned, and the forms of Mrazivý and Quillon became visible again.
Both of them were now heavily injured from taking their own attacks and being blasted by Marcus’ spell.
Still, they had managed to use their skills to deflect most of the power of Marcus’ quasar blast away from them, otherwise they would have already been out of commission.
After their impressive opening, Lyra clapped her hands together and two dozen illusions of herself and Marcus formed before they began charging forward.
They knew it would be best to push their advantage while their opponents were still recovering and planned to not give them any chance to regain their balance.
‘Go after Quillon first. Mraz’s dragon eyes will be able to tell her which of us are the real ones, but Quillon will still have to be wary. If we can take him down first, we can then take on Mraz together afterword.’ Marcus said telepathically to Lyra.
Sending back her response she agreed to Marcus’ proposal and the two of them rushed towards Quillon.
With her kukris in hand Lyra began slashing at Quillon in tandem with her illusions, forcing him on a complete defensive as he had to determine which attacks were real and which were fake.
And to make matters worse for him, Marcus and his two dozen illusory clones were floating in the air and firing lighting javelins down at him.
‘What the hell, my danger sense does not seem to work on her and her illusions, and even though Irene is just launching a tier two spell at me, it has insane power and speed!’ Quillon thought as he felt the pressure on.
It was taking him everything he had just to defend for these couple of seconds, and he had already taken around thirty glancing blows from Lyra and was bleeding all over.
Of course, Quillon was not alone on the battlefield and Mrazivý quickly jumped into the fray, aiming for Marcus who was floating in the air.
Naturally she had been able to spot his real form among the illusions, and no longer holding back activated her dragon form.
This not only gave her far greater power, but also a set of wings that allowed her to fly through the air with greater ease and more maneuverability.
However, as she flew towards Marcus, a massive form appeared in front of him as an iron golem manifested in between them.
But there was something different about this iron golem that Mrazivý had never seen before from this spell.
The golem which was normally only a few levels higher than Marcus but still much weaker, now stood over eighty feet tall, and as she looked at it with her dragon eyes she saw that it was level sixty-seven.
‘What the hell, how could it be that many levels higher than him!?’ Mrazivý thought as she saw Marcus’ iron golem.
Nevertheless, whether she understood how Marcus’ iron golem had suddenly became so much stronger or not, it did not change the fact that it was now a threat.
Bring down its arm it swiped at Mrazivý, and as she dodged it, she felt the wind force pass by her and could not believe that this was a tier four spell.
Its attack power felt just as strong as any of Marcus’ tier six spells which were the strongest that he currently had.
‘Fine then. Raging Tundra.’
Casting her tier six spell in response, Mrazivý sent out a huge wave of cold energy that quickly froze Marcus’ iron golem and continued to swallow the area in its icy embrace.
‘Fox Fire Inferno.’
‘Fire Storm.’
Countering Mrazivý’s wide area attack, both Marcus and Lyra unleashed fire around themselves and kept the raging tundra spell from enveloping them.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Quillon, who was already badly injured from Lyra and Marcus’ concentrated attacks.
Quickly he froze over, having no recourse to block this spell in his current state.
This simply went to show the difference in the teamwork between Marcus and Lyra vs Mrazivý and Quillon.
“Mrazivý you really need to be more careful about where you are aiming such a huge spell.” Lyra said mockingly.
In response to this Mrazivý who was feeling frustrated by how poorly the battle was going for her side, opened her mouth and prepared to use her breath weapon.
CRACK!
Yet as she did, the ice around Marcus’ iron golem began to crack, and the massive colossus of iron broke free and slammed its hands together around Mrazivý.
A loud resounding clap shook the area as the iron golem brought its hands together, and the ice that had filled the area began to shatter.
‘Apex of Winter.’
Activating her last trump card Mrazivý boosted her power to her max, and with pure strength ripped opened the iron golem’s hands that had just crushed her. Before turning her sights on the creature Marcus had conjured.
‘First Form, Typhoon Fang.’
Holding her sword over her head with both hands. She struck down with all her might and cleaved through Marcus’ iron golem splitting it right in half.
At the same time Quillon broke free of his icy imprisonment, but his breathing was ragged, and it was apparent that his skin was damaged by the frostbite all over him.
Nevertheless, he and Mrazivý were still standing, but at this point it hardly seemed that they were working together. Since so far, the only damage they had done was to themselves and each other.