"Begin!"
Lucius heard the announcer's words cut through the crowd's murmuring. Yet, instead of making an attack, he stood and glared at his opponent. It had been quite so ti since he had last seen Thomas.
If mory served him correctly, it was at his father's execution…
"So," Thomas called out. Clearly, he was using his tactic of taunting his opponent to try and goad Lucius into making a wrong move. "I hear you want to marry my cousin. You know, Rena von Petra?'
Lucius said nothing, standing still and watching every step Thomas took in his advance towards him. He gave nothing away and let Thomas choose to believe in his self-assuredness.
"You see. I happen to know a thing or two about her. Since you are from Eroa, you may not know this yet, but the girl is damaged goods." Thomas continued with a cruel laugh. "You see, a few years ago, she decided to get into a relationship with a Marked One, of all things!
"Not even just that, but it was also her bodyguard! She used the idea of becoming an adventurer so she could have her private honeymoon away from the house with her sweet little toy. Are you sure you want second-hand goods? With your abilities, I am sure so many other options are available to you."
Thomas continued to talk and attempted to goad him into attacking first, but while the boy made him angry, Lucius had no intention of falling into his petty tricks.
'I don't like him anymore. He hasn't grown at all from when he was a child.' A dark voice echoed in the back of Lucius' mind.
'Grimm… what do you want?' Lucius questioned.
'Nothing at all… I just think you need to make a show of this.' Grimm whispered, his voice dripping with temptation.
'No, I can't use my mark. Go away.' Lucius responded. He felt the presence give an annoying 'huff' of sorts before receding back into his mind to an area he could no longer sense it.
"Co on, why won't you do anything?" Thomas growled. "Fine. I'll move!"
"[Flamma: Fireball], [Flamma: Fla Javelin]"
Two spells hurdled towards him, the Fla Javelin being the quicker of the two. Lucius sidestepped that spell at the last mont, letting it sear into the stone instead. The fireball was directly behind it, so he kicked the ground and launched over both the explosion radius and the caster.
"[Aqua: Water Blade]"
When he landed, he imdiately had to duck under a Water Blade that Thomas tid to strike the mont he landed on the ground. Discover stories with m,v l'e-
"Dammit! Fight back!" Thomas screeched. "[Sword Arts: Heavy Slash], [Sword Arts: Aura Blade]"
His opponent lunged towards him, forcing Lucius to defend himself from the strikes with his weapon. He was already channeling his Arts, so it was no problem for him to stand up to the man's mana-empowered attacks. Sparks flew from the collision of steel as well as opposing mana sources.
Thomas attempted to force his attack through by pushing down with his sword with both hands, but Lucius simply stood in opposition using only his single hand to hold Thomas back.
"Try again." He said coldly.
Thomas roared in defiance. "[Shield Arts: Shatter]!"
It seed his plan was to sacrifice his shield using this Art at close range. Honestly, it was a brilliant plan under many circumstances. However, this situation was not one of those. Lucius was able to counter this easily.
The single most important rule of 'Shatter' was that it required you to sacrifice your shield. aning without a shield to sacrifice, the Art would fail to activate. Knowing this, Lucius squeezed his fist and felt a surge of Thunder Mana gather within it.
In one massive strike, his fist collided with the shield, splintering it and throwing Thomas backward several feet. Lucius had channeled a Thunderclap into his punch, instantly destroying the shield.
"What… did you do?" Thomas demanded. "How did you do that?"
Lucius casually rested the back of his machete on his shoulder and shrugged. There was no need to answer the man. To do so would have been a waste of ti since there was no way Thomas would understand how it had happened.
"When I win this, I will take control over House Petra, and I will force Rena to work in a whorehouse for the rest of her days to pay for the embarrassnt she wrought on this family for daring to dirty the bloodline with a Marked One.
"You will never marry her. So, take note of her beauty now because next ti you see her, she will be a used dried-out husk!" Thomas roared.
'Uh-oh,' Grimm whispered. 'Bad move.'
Everyone in the capital could see and hear everything that happened in the arena for the final fight. This included everything that Thomas had said. Truthfully, for everything Rena did to 'embarrass the family,' Thomas had just done more with his uncouth behavior.
When Thomas finished his threat, he had a wide grin on his face. He was so happy with the result of his taunting because he and everyone else could see how that statent made Titan tense up. He lowered his machete with the blade facing downward.
"Enough." He growled. With one word, Thomas' knees began to quake.
Lucius began to feel the rage build up in his chest. A rage that he had nurtured for years started to boil over. It had been a long ti since he let this anger out.
The mask he wore hid one's mana output. However, everything had a limit, and so mana beyond a certain threshold could not be held back. It was this excess of mana that started to pour off of Lucius that made Thomas' knees quake.
The air around them beca thick with it, and a faint shimr developed, not unlike what happens on a hot sumr day on a stone road. Thomas looked like he was struggling to breathe from the intensity of the mana.
"Do you concede?" Lucius asked calmly. The air trembling as though his voice was the very thunder of a storm itself.
"Never." Thomas croaked.
Lucius let out a small sigh and held out his sword arm. His machete was pointed roughly in Thomas' direction but not quite at him. He carefully evaluated exactly where his weapon's tip was pointing and activated a very powerful skill.
"[Overcharge]"
All the mana that had gathered in the air around him, as well as every ounce of it throughout his entire body, gathered at the tip of his blade and ford a ball of electricity that crackled with barely contained destructive potential.
When he was satisfied, [Overcharge] activated. A beam of light shot towards Thomas. It was as bright as a thousand suns and created a sound similar to an entire orchestra of brass instrunts playing out of tune. The beam reached the barrier around the arena, and for a mont, nothing happened.
However, as the beam continued to discharge, every citizen in the capital heard the sound of crunching glass.
In a re mont, the 'unbreakable barrier' around the arena shattered and fizzled into nothingness. Satisfied with the completion of his spell, Lucius walked up to Thomas and asked once more. "Do you concede?"
Thomas simply responded with a nod. Satisfied with that answer, Lucius walked back to the center of the stage and waited for an extrely terrified announcer to approach him.
"W-w-well it s-s-seems we have a winner, folks… Give it up for Titan!" The announcer shouted.
"Actually, I have a few words." He said, interrupting the announcer's final speech.
"It seems our dear champion would like a few words with the audience! Please, by all ans." The announcer said.
Lucius looked straight at one of the recording crystals. "I am Titan of Eroa. I entered this competition on behalf of the country of Eroa, which beca my ho. However, Eroa was not my first ho."
Lucius lowered his hood and slowly removed his mask. The crowd collectively gasped at his shaggy, black hair and piercing eyes, one silver, and one gold. "My na Lucius, forrly of Pelith and servant of House Petra."
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