As Gurrom's axe smashed through his remaining radiance scales, Marcus could tell they were not going to be enough to stop the attack and brought his scythe around to meet the blow.
'Powerful slash.'
Activating his attack skill Marcus' scythe and Gurrom's axe clashed against each other.
Sparks began to fly as the two fought for dominance but neither of them was gaining an inch.
"Laser."
Taking one hand off his scythe and turning to the side Marcus unleashed his tier four light spell planning to blast Gurrom back.
Except as his laser spell was fired, the shield on Gurrom's left wrist detached and interposed itself in front of Gurrom.
Marcus then watched as a reflective sheen passed over the shield and laser spell bounced right off it and back towards him.
Taking his own laser spell directly in the chest Marcus was the one blown back and knocked off his feet instead of Gurrom.
Never in his wildest dreams did he expect his own spell to be reflected back at him, and at this point the difference in the strength of their equipment was apparent.
Luckily between Marcus' armor and the natural resistance he had to light element attacks from his exalted blessing, Marcus did not take any damage from his spell and was simply pushed back.
However, this had created and opening for Gurrom who rushed forward towards Marcus, who was off balance and swung his axe down aiming to end the fight with one massive blow.
Yet as the attack was about to make contact Marcus' armor activated and using the force it had been absorbing since the start of the fight, deployed a barrier around him which he further reinforced with his own mana barrier.
Still, Gurrom's strike swiftly shattered through both of Marcus' barriers, though not before losing most of its momentum and allowing Marcus to twist his body around smack it away with his scythe.
Catching his balance again, Marcus stepped towards Gurrom and began unleashing a flurry of wild swings going on the offensive to make it a battle of speed instead of the one of power Gurrom wanted.
Soon Marcus had Gurrom on the defensive and was managing to land a few slices which had caused cuts on Gurrom's body which were trickling blood.
"Heal."
But he quickly gave out another command word and his armor glowed for a moment before his wounds began closing up faster than Marcus could make them.
"Axe Split."
With his healing activated Gurrom purposefully took one of Marcus' attacks and at the same time split his axe into two in order to keep up with Marcus' rapid attacks and even go on the offensive.
And naturally Marcus had to make sure not to get cut even once, since he could not afford for any highly discerning eyes to see the gray smoke like substance that was equivalent to his blood leak out.
'I am not going to win this way.'
Feeling that he was slowly being overpowered by Gurrom's dual axe wielding, Marcus knew that his current method of fighting was not going to get him victory.
Thus, he used one of the cards he still had on the field and called over his iron golem that had been standing stationary.
Gurrom seeing the twenty-eight-foot tall, mass of iron lumbering over ceased his aggression on Marcus and prepared for a more defensive battle.
However, unlike what he had thought Marcus would do, as soon as the iron golem engaged, he ran off making distance and leaving his iron golem to fight alone.
"Giant Slayer."
Using an attack skill meant for far larger opponents Gurrom quickly cleaved through Marcus' iron golem causing it to crumble to the ground and dissipate.
"Iron Wings of the Archangel."
Still this had given Marcus the time he needed to cast his tier five iron magic spell and take to the air.
Seeing this Gurrom was perfectly fine with having a ranged battle and was about to throw his axe and have it chase Marcus around again, when hundreds of the iron feathers composing Marcus' wings began to fall off and fly right towards him.
"Shield Repulsion Field."
Flying out in front of him Gurrom's adamantine shield began to let out a low hum and a nearly invisible field surrounded him.
Then when Marcus' iron feathers came into the barriers range, they rapidly slowed down before bouncing back unable to move closer even as Marcus tried to force them.
'Damn his shield is deploying some type of magnetic barrier. But this does make one thing painfully clear. That shield and armor were not made by Gurrom, they were made by Thabon and are meant to specifically counter my abilities.'
Seeing this Marcus realized that Gurrom must have somehow gotten Thabon's help to beat him.
And Marcus' deduction was certainly right. Gurrom had begged and pleaded for Thabon's assistance and eventually Thabon relented.
He had wanted to stay impartial, but he could not stand the depressed and defeated look that Gurrom had been touting around.
Gurrom had been his apprentice far longer than Marcus, and so he decided to help him by crafting him new armor and equipment to deal with Marcus' abilities that he had showcased during their training.
Of course, Thabon thought Gurrom still might not be able to win since he knew just how strong Marcus was when he used all of his strength, but he at least wanted to allow Gurrom to put up a decent fight so as to not lose confidence in himself.
"Do not think you are safe up there."
"Blazegram's Furnace."
Finishing up the spell he had been working on while Marcus tried to break through with is iron feathers, the visage of a large furnace made of flames appeared in front of Gurrom and Marcus could see that it was incredibly powerful.
This may have been a tier five spell, but Marcus understood that its strength was at the peak of what a tier five spell could be, and likely a spell created by Thabon going by its name.
A jet of flame like that coming from a spaceship then blasted out from the furnace and headed straight towards Marcus.
'I was hoping to keep this hidden as well, but it looks like I will have to use it.'
Boom!
Gurrom's spell hitting its target caused a massive explosion that shook the entire arena, and the heat even began to scorch the air.
Yet instead of seeing Marcus fall from the sky, now that the blinding light created from his spell had vanished, Gurrom saw what appeared to be a two-story tall and impossibly long iron wall.
However, as he followed along the length of what he thought was a wall, Gurrom quickly noticed that it was not.
"Cataclysmic Iron Sword."
Casting his strongest spell, his tier six iron magic spell, Marcus had conjured a three hundred foot long and twenty-four-foot-wide iron sword.
It took him nearly all of his mana to create this behemoth of iron, but the power behind it was worth the cost.
It had easily tanked and blocked Gurrom's strongest spell, and other than a bit of it being slightly warped by the heat, it was completely undamaged.
Everyone who saw this incarnation of destruction watched with batted breaths.
Almost none of them had seen such a display of power, and even those that had an understood what he had done were shocked.
'A tier six spell at level forty-two.'
Aria easily the strongest mage present and the one with the most knowledge of magic could only be astonished by Marcus' feat.
Even she had not been able to grasp a tier six spell until level fifty-six and she was considered a prodigy.
Heck even having a level five magic skill at level forty-two was well within the realm of a genius.
Nevertheless, even under the pressure being emitted by Marcus' tier six spell, Gurrom was not going to relent.
He had come too far and fought too hard to lose here to Marcus.
"Axe mana surge."
After giving his weapon one last command, it quickly began to drain every last drop of mana Gurrom had, and even began to suck in the surrounding mana.
"Grand Swing."
With everything he had left Gurrom unleased a massive blast of mana that went flying straight towards Marcus who was floating high above the ring.
Raising his hand up Marcus's Cataclysmic Iron Sword began moving pointing straight up towards the sky, before he swiped his arm down and the colossal blade followed.
Just the sheer mass of it moving caused violent gusts of wind as it struck down, and when it met Gurrom's desperate final blast of mana, it cleaved through it like warm butter.
Watching his final attack being completely overwhelmed Gurrom saw the iron sword descending towards him almost in slow motion as all his hopes were dashed.
Then as the sword crashed down into the ring right in front of him time began moving again and the force of the hundreds of tons blade smashing into the ring, blasted him backwards until he smashed into the barrier protecting the audience.
The entire ring then crumbled and was torn apart like a massive earthquake had just happened, and gale force winds blew up huge plumbs of dust that covered the entire center of the arena, only being stopped by the barrier.
In fact, if not for the barrier the entire arena would have already collapsed under the sheer force of the cataclysmic iron sword smashing into the ground.
And for the first time the referee actually abandoned his post and jumped outside of the barrier to avoid being caught up in Marcus' attack.
Soon the dust began to settle, and the audience looked out with batted breaths.
The first thing they saw was Marcus still floating in the air with his iron wings, and then they noticed the colossal iron sword still imbedded into the ground.
There was no longer any ring to speak of as it had been completely blown apart by Marcus' attack, and it looked like the area has been carpet bombed.
However, slumped up against the edge of the barrier, with hunks of rubble laying on his body was Gurrom.
He had horrible wounds all of his body and blood was flowing down his head, and pooling below him, but he somehow managed to survive.
Jumping back into the center of the arena, the referee ran right over to Gurrom and immediately noticed he was unconscious, and certainly unable to continue fighting.
"Gurrom Durand has been rendered unconscious. The winner is Lady Irene Geist."
For an instant after the referee's announcement the entire stadium was still quiet, still in shock from Marcus' final attack.
But in just a moment later, it erupted into he loudest cheers so far heard in the tournament, as thousands of people stood up and clapped with all their might and screamed at the top of their lungs.
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