Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Seeing the scene of Marcus suppressing his enemy with just his combat skills, the crowd was in awe. The title of the greatest genius of Savannah Beast guild was indeed something that belonged to him.

Each of his attacks was ingrained with his experience and was extremely tricky that repeatedly targeted the vital spot of his opponent and gave him no chance to retaliate.

"AHH… this is getting annoying. [Black Hazard]" tearing himself away from his opponent, Roscoe brandished his black sword in a wide arc.

Immediately, the air around him seemed to darken a little and a black blade shadow that gave one chills was sent forth towards Marcus.

Marcus who thought about intercepting such a simple but changed his mind the last second and nimbly dodged it by stepping to the side. The Black blade shadow brushed past him and crashed onto the stage.

SHHHH… a black energy dispersed out of the area and corroded that part of the stage. Looking at this scene Marcus's eyes were grave. No matter what he couldn't allow this energy to hit him.

"Hehe, so you dodged it huh… so what, I can send dozens of those your way. Let me see how you dodge all of these" Roscoe cried out hysterically.

He swung his sword and send those blade shadows towards his opponent in droves. He knew that the difference in their actual battle strength was huge and if it came down to a frontal battle, he was sure to lose.

After all, his opponent was level 402, someone who had breached the level 400 barrier. His only chance to win against such an opponent was by making use of the advantage that he had and that was none other than the weapon prince Ivan had given him.

Before they left the kingdom of Blackthorn, they were each given an artefact or a weapon like his sword that marginally increase their power and help them go against opponents higher level than them.

Roscoe didn't think that he would be meeting Marcus, one of the strongest participants in this tournament on his first battle. But what of it? it seemed that he was needlessly wary of the latter, in front of the might of his sword, all his opponent could do was dance and dodge around helplessly.

The crowd spectating the match and hoping for an absolute suppression from Marcus, couldn't believe what was happening.

In front of their eyes, Marcus was forced to dodge left and right, his clothes were torn and his body which looked tattered was evidence that this was reality and the scene was actually happening. Whatever that black attack was, it was completely dominating Marcus.

Simon: "Isn't that…" Vouves: "….."

Brutus: "…."

The perceptive ones like Simon, Vouves and the guild leaders of the top five guilds were able to tell the nature of that energy apart. They were more befuddled than surprised as to how this participant was in possession of such a weapon.

After all, the nature of the energy the sword released was similar to dark attribute of mana, one of the four rare forms of mystical energy. Although it was far less pure and weak compared to dark attribute, it was unmistakably derived from it.

CHI… CHI…

As Marcus repeatedly dodged the attacks that showed no signs of stopping, the edges of his clothes was corroded and some of the energy seeped into his body draining him of his power.

<strong>BANG…</strong>

He materialised a dark green beast claw and counter-attacked; however, his opponent immediately backed away and opened a few meters distance from him. The other party knew that he would be in trouble and thus was avoiding close combat with Marcus.

"Dammit… making it needlessly hard aren't you. Tch, I planned on using this on those two, but I guess I have no choice".

Unable to get close to his opponent, Marcus mumbled. He stopped rushing towards his opponent and planted his foot on the ground.

"What is he planning to do?" Ivan furrowed his brows looking at the peculiar action of Marcus.

The latter was a warrior so most of his attacks comprised of close distance with a few medium range attacks. Even if the latter has a rare class that he was not very familiar with, this fundamental fact remained the same.

That is why, not him but all the spectators were surprised by Marcus's action except for the guild master of Beast savannah guild who had a calm face from start to finish.

"Using it now takes away the element of surprise in your future battle but I guess against such a persistent enemy you got no choice but to use it" Brutus said staring fixedly at Marcus.

Seeing that his opponent was starting to act different all of a sudden, alarm bells starting ringing inside Roscoe's head. He knew that he shouldn't give his enemy time for doing whatever he wanted to do but because in his attempt to avoid close combat with Marcus, he had opened too big of a distance for him to cover at once.

Even if it cost him quite bit of strain, he repeatedly send those black blade attacks in an attempt to disrupt the latter.

"If my attacks gets weaker the more it comes in contact with the energy around your blade, all I have to do is use an attack that your blade cannot touch".

Marcus sucked the air around him and his chest inflated a little. An emerald glow also appeared around his adam's apple and before anyone could even blink their eyes, he opened his mouth wide and roared.

<strong>ROOOOAAAARRR…</strong>

A loud coarse noise like that of a lIon's roar came out of Marcus's throat and assaulted everyone's ears. The crowd hurriedly covered their ears, they felt like the whole world was crumbling down in front of them.

The barrier had no effects against attacks like that and did not provide any protection to them. Some of the weaker spectators, directly fainted after spewing out a mouthful of blood. If the condition of the audience who were seating so far away, was like that, one has to wonder what happened to the participant who was the main target of Marcus's attack.

Roscoe who hadn't predicted an attack like that would come at him, was caught unprepared. The roar like a tidal wave, easily passed through the multiple blade shadows he sent towards Marcus and hit him squarely.

It was as his opponent said, the energy around his sword might be able to weaken physical or magical attacks but an intangible attack like that was something his weapon couldn't do anything against.

Roscoe was hit squarely by the attack and at that moment his vision went blank and he could hear anything. The attack was so powerful that his eardrums had burst and he was bleeding from all his orifices.

After immobilising his opponent, Marcus easily dodged the incoming blade shadow and rushed toward his opponent. Up until now, Roscoe would never allow him to close this distance but because he was currently immobilised he could do anything.

"Gale Beast Claw… ".

Marcus roared and sent forth a powerful attack that blasted his opponent right towards the audience stands.

CRACK… with a cracking sound, dozens of Roscoe's bones were broken and he spat out a mouthful of blood as he was sent flying.

<strong>BANG…</strong> his frame smashed onto a translucent yellowish barrier that protected the audience from the aftershock of the attack. Roscoe's body slid down the barrier and fell onto the floor below where he stopped moving altogether.

It was clear that he had lost consciousness after just a single attack from his opponent.

"Roscoe Ironwood is down for the count, Marcus Sarge from Savannah Beast guild Wins".

Everyone in the audience took a deep breath of air after such a shocking turnaround.  From that initial loud roaring attack to the connecting claw attack, it did not even take a few seconds and before they could compose themselves, they saw Marcus's opponent get sent towards the barrier, heavily smashing into it.

Marcus who they thought was having difficulty against his opponent, had won after just a single exchange. But was it them or did he look somewhat unsatisfied by the result.

Marcus was indeed a little disgruntled, he had actually saved this skill to use against prince Denzel and prince Erwin. However, his first opponent of the third stage of the tournament, proved annoying enough for him to resort to use this skills.

Now that he had displayed such a skill, his opponents would naturally be worry about such an attack coming and have some guard against it. There was no way he would be able to defeat his opponent with just a single attack like how he did now.

Although, this victory was because his opponent was unaware of him possessing such a long-distance attack and hence was caught unprepared. Because of this, they couldn't muster an iota of defence before they were blown out of the stage.

Marcus glanced towards the area where Denzel and Erwin were seated before tearing his gaze away.

"Hmm that roar attack earlier could it be that he has… this young man does indeed have incredible potential. His disposition that does not cower even when faced with an opponent like you, is worth applauding. It's a pity that, he was born in a low tier kingdom such as this or else his future potential would have been something worth keeping an eye on".

Vouves said after observing Marcus.

"Eh? What is gramps saying?" Denzel asked seeing that the old man was blabbering something.

"Hoho, do you not see it. that participant on the stage was glaring daggers at you, it is obvious that he sees you as a rival"

"Is that so? A rival huh… hehe" Denzel smiled, there was a fire that wanted to immediately go down and battle an opponent like him inside his eyes.