Entering through the bottom of the arena once again, Marcus and Mrazivy were met with cheers as they walked out onto the fighting stage.
Now that both of them had put on a show during their first two matches, a good portion of the crowd had come to root for them.
However, when their opponents entered from the other side, the cheers for them were noticeably louder.
This made sense though, Zilre and Igna had probably had the fiercest battle so far during the Muharib Festival during the first round.
'I guess more people were impressed by them than us. But today we will be showing off what we are really capable of.' Marcus thought, getting himself pumped up for battle.
Still, his aura was not nearly as intense as Mrazivy's. Her eyes were fierce, and she had an elated smile on her face, Clearly, she was very much looking forward to this match.
Zilre and Igna were likewise looking their ways with competitive looks and had an aura of battle lust around them. Undoubtedly, they enjoyed fighting just as much as Mrazivy did.
"It seems that you two are taking this fight seriously. I see that you have already cast enchantment spells on yourselves." Zilre said, noticing the faint effects of magic on both Marcus and Mrazivy.
"Yes, we could not be as confident against the two of you as in our last matches. This time we have prepared accordingly to deal with the two of you without restraint." Marcus replied.
For the next couple of minutes, the four of them exchanged a bit of banter while the announcer was giving out his usual speech before the match. All that they needed to listen out for was the start of the battle.
"And let the match begin!"
The moment that the announcer finished and started the match, all four of them launched into action.
To start, Zilre and Igna jumped back to put some distance between them and Marcus and Mrazivy.
Zilre pulled out a large adamantine shield while Igna pulled out a composite longbow and rapidly fired off several powerful enchanted arrows that were naturally filled with spiritual energy to combat Marcus' intangibility.
Running in front of Mrazivy, Marcus held his scythe forward and activated his best defensive skill.
'Stalwart full moon.'
The image of a sphere appeared around Marcus as he activated this skill, and whenever an arrow launched from Igna would touch this sphere, Marcus' scythe would immediately intercept and deflect it.
Even the arrows that exploded when connected with were knocked away, and Marcus protected himself and Mrazivy as they approached Zilre and Igna who were trying to keep them away and weaken them with ranged combat.
Occasionally Mrazivy would peek out from behind Marcus and send out a mana slash with her sword at Igna, but Zilre always interposed with her shield and blocked the attacks.
Essentially, they were in a stalemate as things were, since neither side could break through the other's defenses from afar.
Nevertheless, Marcus and Mrazivy were slowly closing in, and when they had gotten close enough, Marcus stepped aside and Mrazivy had adopted a bent forward posture with her sword jammed into the sheath at her side.
'First form, light speed slash.'
In a flash Mrazivy accelerated forward and slashed out with her sword, aiming for Igna who was less armored.
Yet, despite her immense speed, Mrazivy did not find her target and instead had her view obscured by what looked like a gleaming green wall.
Of course, this was not an actual wall, but Zilre's shield that had seemingly suddenly appeared in front of Mrazivy's attack.
Still, Mrazivy did not slow down at all, and her sword bit into the adamantine shield and began carving down it until she cut into Zilre's shoulder.
It was an impressive feat since Mrazivy's sword and Zilre's shield were made of the same base material. But Mrazivy's sword was clearly better, being a system recognized item.
Though, while her attack did make it all the way to Zilre's flesh, her sword barely pierced the tough leopard beastwoman's skin before coming to a stop. The wound was not serious and would be gone in just a couple of moments thanks to Zilre's regeneration skill.
A moment later, Zilre tossed aside her shield with Mrazivy's sword still embedded in it and threw her of balance for a moment.
Taking advantage of this opening, Igna launched the five arrows that she had knocked into her bow at close range right at Mrazivy.
The five arrows flew right towards their mark, but never connected.
Marcus had naturally not stood around and had been right behind Mrazivy after she launched into her attack.
Spinning his scythe around, he repelled each of the arrows away, but this was exactly what Igna had predicted.
The five arrows suddenly connected to each other through a magnetic field and were sucked back towards Marcus.
Had he been able to use magic Marcus could have easily used his lightning magic to reverse the magnetism affecting the arrows, but in this tournament that was not possible.
As the arrows closed in on him, rapidly multiplying as they created a web around him that would trap him even if only momentarily.
While this was going on, Zilre and Igna were positioning themselves to attack Mrazivy at full force while Marcus was stuck.
'Unfortunately for them, this won't hold me.' Marcus thought.
The arrows may have been infused with spiritual energy so that he could not use his ghost form to escape, but he had plenty of methods to get out of this situation.
'Lightspeed Movement.'
Marcus' body flashed brightly and in less than a second he had become a ball of light that shot through the web of arrows forming around him.
He reappeared right behind Igna and slashed towards her with his scythe from her blind spot.
At the last moment after Marcus had suddenly appeared Igna managed to turn around and leap away, but Marcus had cut straight through her bow that she had held out to defend herself with, and the tip of his scythe had caught her. Carving a three-centimeter-deep diagonal slash from the top of her stomach down to her left thigh.
Follow current nov𝒆ls on freew(𝒆)bnov𝒆l.(c)om