Chapter 538: Marcus
Ten minutes passed, and the battles across the arena intensified.
The weakest competitors had long since fallen. Pillars stood without their respective evolvers across the grid, each one signalling another elimination, another Evolver whose defences hadn’t held against the predators around them.
The strong preyed on the weak. The weak fell to the strong. This was the expectation. This was the reality.
The stage mirrored the world they all lived in. Surrounded by clusters of mid-tier fighters scrambling to land hits on each other. Surrounded by weaker ones being quietly dealt with one by one.
Survival belonged to those who had earned it.
After his dominant display of power, Moon had become one of the few competitors whose pillar wasn’t being targeted anymore.
The neighbors he had indirectly threatened with his earlier eliminations had decided he wasn’t worth the risk.
The Four-Star earth mage had honored the unspoken treaty.
The ranger had been pulled into a long duel with the swordsman Moon had used as a redirect target. None of them were sparing attention for him. He stood on his pillar in isolation, his runes hidden beneath his feet, his mana recovering with every passing second.
"Thirty-six competitors have been eliminated! Only thirty-six more eliminations stand between us and the closing of stage two!" The commentator announced.
The crowd cheered, the noise rising in waves.
Moon’s eyes drifted across the grid, sweeping past the active duels. Eventually, his gaze settled on two specific figures in the distance.
Marcus and Sarah.
Their pillars sat near the center-east of the grid, close enough to each other that they could see each other clearly.
Both of them were holding up reasonably well. Their neighbors were mostly of similar rank, which meant the engagements they faced were balanced rather than overwhelming. Neither of them had been singled out by a stronger fighter. The bracket’s natural distribution had given them a manageable position.
Sarah focused purely on supporting herself, rarely attacking anyone else.
She cast spells that buffed her own defenses while debuffing her attackers. Marcus moved more aggressively, his attention split between defending his pillar and harassing the competitors trying to break it.
They were still alive. But judging by how some of the more powerful competitors were looking at them like prey, Moon felt like the two were going to be eliminated very soon.
Moon’s eyes narrowed slightly.
The distance between them and his pillar wasn’t insurmountable. He could send a spell across the grid easily.
Lightning Raiju, Ignite, or just several normal elemental attacks. Any of them would shatter Marcus’s pillar in seconds.
He could disqualify them in less than a minute. Ending their hopes of reaching the next stage.
’They can’t leave yet. Not before they arrive...’
It wasn’t mercy, it was quite the opposite.
Eliminating Marcus would end his presence in the arena. He would be escorted out of the arena, and perhaps from the venue entirely.
That was an outcome Moon didn’t want.
Moon needed Marcus right where he was, pinned to his pillar. Surrounded by other competitors.
Locked into the kill zone that the dark organization’s attack was about to land in. If the attack went the way Moon expected it to, the chaos would scatter every competitor across the arena floor.
The dark organization would target prominent names first.
Azure fire began to crackle along Moon’s staff, condensing rapidly into the now-familiar shape of a menacing fireball. The same spell that had taken out two competitors within the opening minutes.
This time around, Moon cast two rather than one.
Moon’s left hand rose alongside his staff, a second sphere of blue flame condensing in his palm. Both spells reached full charge in the same heartbeat, the dual cast was more difficult than a single one, but it was nothing Moon couldn’t handle.
Satisfied with their power, he released them.
The two fireballs streaked across the arena, flying over the pillars of competitors caught between him and his targets. The cameras swarmed instantly, catching every meter of the trajectory as the broadcasts displayed Moon’s attack across every screen in the kingdom.
Marcus saw the first fireball coming.
His eyes widened. His heart skipped several beats.
For a single, terrifying moment, his mind ran through various scenarios. The fireball was on a line that ended at his pillar. Moon had finally decided to deal with him. This was the moment Marcus had been dreading since he learned the truth yesterday. The boy he had spent months mocking at the academy, was now casually directing a horrifying spell at him.
"Damn it..." Marcus gulped the lump of saliva that began to form in the base of his throat.
With shaking limbs, Marcus raised his sword in an attempt to fend off the approaching attack.
He channeled mana into his strongest skill, a swordsmanship skill that charged and condensed his mana into a brilliant arc of blue energy that ran along his blade before releasing it. It was his trump card and his best chance at surviving the approaching danger.
~Whoosh~
The azure fireball continued making its way towards him.
"Shit! I don’t have time to charge it any further..." Dread crawled up Marcus’s spine. He wanted to charge the skill longer to improve his chances of blocking the attack, but the fireball was closing in far too quickly. At this point, that was nothing more than wishful thinking.
Marcus could only release the skill. The blue arc rushed through the air, streaking toward the incoming fireball.
~Clash~
The two attacks met in the open space, but it didn’t last long. The sword arc dissipated against Ignite, unable to slow it down for even a fraction of a second.
Marcus’s face went pale.
The fireball kept coming.
He had no time for another swing. His defensive options were gone. The attack was going to land, he was going to suffer immense injuries and his name was going to be broadcasted within moments.
Marcus closed his eyes, already imagining the horrible pain. He could only brace for impact by covering his body in mana, hoping to mitigate the horrible pain of being burnt alive.
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