[MP]: 3,205

By now, the mana Tony had used up during training with Kratos was already filled up, which provided enough reserve for him to engage his single opponent before him.

In that case...

[Blade Awakening.]

Before the skill could activate, Tony lunged, with his sword placed diagonally behind at his side; brown streaks of energy left in its wake. His eyes were now an endowment of glistening brown, his entire being falling into a conscious trance, his brown hair fluttering in the midst of the gust emanating from his lunge.

"Wha—"

Marcus didn’t have the opportunity to adapt when his sight bellowed a shining blade of brown light streaking past above his head, and krrrr~

The [Void Avatar] he had called upon shattered into beams.

His eyes widened.

When? How?

He was still in his reverie of shock when a figure rounded him and now stood behind just close enough to his ears and whispered:

"One form."

The figure didn’t give Marcus the chance to turn before unleashing a backbreaker knee, driving his knee into the center of Marcus’ back and forcing him into a forward launch.

Marcus didn’t have an opportunity to react or activate his skill until his body collided against the invisible barrier and bounced back, falling to the ground on his back.

By then, Tony had also closed the distance between them with an unimaginable speed, and when he reached Marcus, he offered his hand.

"Get up."

Marcus flinched, then frowned, and didn’t collect the hand.

However, Tony didn’t care.

He retrieved his hand and turned his back, moving to create a distance between both of them.

[MP]: 3,150 {-55}

His [Blade Awakening] is sucking away his mana incredibly, but it doesn’t matter. He still had more than enough to finish the side quest and complete its objective while reserving enough he would use to face the F-rank dungeon.

Now standing across from Marcus, who was sluggishly rising, Tony flourished his sword to his side and began to speak.

"One form. I knew that you were a void class player, but what I didn’t know was what skills were supplementing your class. If I were to guess, I would have said you possessed an anti-type skill that nullified your opponents abilities."

"But seeing your method of fighting and your skills just now..."

Tony lunged with inhuman speed.

Marcus was just finished weakly rising to his feet when a figure arrived in front of him, complemented by a sword resting on his shoulder, very close to his neck.

His eyes first widened, then began quivering.

How? How does he possess this amount of agility? How can he move this fast? How? HOW?!

Marcus wasn’t left behind in his shock.

The crowd outside, who had been watching the fight, was so surprised that they couldn’t make a sound. Their eyes were just set on the duelers before them; the only thing their mind could register was that a supposed newbie was treating an experienced player like an amateur.

Likewise, on an elevated platform, three figures stood calmly, arms folded across their chests as they continued to watch what was going on in the duel ground. Their calmness, however, couldn’t hide the amazement in their eyes.

On the other hand, by the side of the duel ground, Kratos stood with one hand caressing his jaw and the other with a clenched fist resting beside him.

By his side was a familiar figure yet unknown to Kratos. She stood frozen, her purple eyes widening with each movement Tony made on the pitch.

Back to the duelers.

Tony clearly didn’t want the match to end yet. That was why, even when Marcus tried to activate his skills sneakily, Tony swiftly shifted his sword in such a way that the blade would slice open just a slight wound on Marcus’ neck, while he used his free hand to land a one-sided left punch to his opponent’s face.

Again, Marcus was shocked with the force such a punch carried, coming from someone who was supposed to be in the F-rank.

The punch sent him flying until he collided with the barrier once again and bounced back, giving Tony the ample chance to perform a volley with his body.

BOOM!

Marcus was sent flying in the opposite direction until he rebounded and fell to the ground, coughing out blood.

Once again, a distance was created between the duelers, giving Tony the chance to speak.

"All those things I have said earlier bring me to the first ’A’ of duels and battles: Assess your opponents."

It was true that in the beginning, Tony was treated like the newbie player he was, with just his deflecting and defending skills keeping him barely on the edge of becoming unconscious.

But even those situations were merely a pretense he was putting on as well as a risk he was willing to take. After all, in most cases, gains usually come after risks.

Also, right from the moment Marcus challenged him and the time of accepting the challenge, he understood two things.

Marcus was an A-rank player and was a [Void] class user.

Being an A-rank player also meant that Marcus would either be overconfident or cautious, offensive or defensive. And from the look of his approach, Tony immediately told that the former attributes were the deal.

Marcus was overconfident and will want to be offensive during this duel, probably to toy with him since he was still assumed to be an amateur.

Tony understood that under normal circumstances, his opponent would be stronger than he is, and so...

"That leads to the second A: Analyze your opponent. And this ’A’ will only be effective depending on the side of the assessment you’ve made on your opponent."

"It’s either you are wrong or right, or neutral with your assessment. In my case, I will tell you. I was neutral because I didn’t know how your [Void] abilities worked."

Through all those speeches, Marcus was able to recover his stance. He wiped his mouth clean of blood and kept an intense gaze upon Tony.

If there was anything that triggered his temper the most, it was the fact that this shitty newbie thinks that he was one hell of a trainer or tutor... or, what was he feeling like?

What is his purpose? To humble me?

That won’t work.

[Void Grasp]

He finally got the chance to activate one of his skills, hoping for it to work wonders like before so that the tides could turn in his favor.

What he didn’t know was that his opponent had more to him than met the eye. Or rather, Marcus was just not attentive enough to have noticed it earlier.

Tony’s sword shone brown as he swung it downward, easily cutting away the black tendrils that had materialized from a dark-golden void on the ground.

His indifferent calmness dissipated into thin air, replaced by fury. His eyes narrowed.

"LISTEN TO MY LECTURES, YOU PROUD FOOL!"

"Huh?!"

The crowd outside gasps on hearing Tony’s words. This was the first time they were seeing him in an infuriated state.

The three figures that had been standing on an elevated platform weren’t left out.

"Interesting," the older one among them said, nodding their head.

"Little brother," Kratos called from his stand, his eyes glittering with stars of admiration on them.

It was only now that the girl who had been standing beside him noticed him and turned:

"Did you just call my babe little brother? Tony had a big brother?"

Surprised, Kratos also turned to the girl.

"What?"

In the duel ground, Tony had lost his patience to teach some sense into Marcus. That was why he became decisive and instead lunged without thinking for a second.

Something that Tony was not known for, usually.

However, there was something Tony had said before making his move that snapped Marcus out of his shock.

"Since you won’t listen to details, it was only when I analyzed you, Marcus, that I understood your [Void] abilities and knew they weren’t meant to nullify classes or skills temporarily. Hence, I narrowed my assessment to one result: rightness."

Remembering those words, Marcus smiled and regained his full composure.

"BAAKA!"

"You are wrong."

He lunged with his initial speed multiplied three times as he approached Tony before a glance and executed a devastating one-punch to the latter’s gut.

"If your sword can cut through my ordinary abilities, then why don’t you use it against my nullifying domain?"

Tony was sent sliding backwards. If it had been in the beginning, he would have been midair, but now, he decided to put the figures that constituted his stats in full use.

A punch from an A-rank player can only shift his stance. But that bit was enough for what Marcus had planned.

[Void Dominion.]

Tony returned to his senses upon sighting what was to come.

"Within my domain, all powers return to nothingness, giving me the upper hand to treat them as I wish. HAHAHAHA!"

"Newbie, lecturer, Tony Starke... It. Is. Over!"

"Not at all," a whisper sounded in Marcus’ ears.

Before he knew it, his domain, which was still yet to completely form, had been destroyed, and he was launched into the air like a cannonball striking forward.

[Saint’s Step.]

[-15 MP]

Marcus was unable to collide with the invisible barrier when the figure that had just sent him flying from behind appeared in front of him.

How?

"There was the last ’A’ you didn’t give me the chance to announce: Act!"

Tony gave him a knee upper kick to the jaw, and just as the latter was still groveling upwards in the air, he pivoted and smoothly transferred his sword from right to his left hand.

[Severance.]

[-25 MP]

He activated the stronger version of the skill he had used to destroy the incomplete version of the domain Marcus had wanted to put up, and a thick brown streak of energy was sent into a strike forward.

Time seemed too slow in that moment as every motion was carried out with purpose.

The severance strike easily sliced through the invisible barrier, shattering it instantly.

At the same time, while Marcus was still in the air just within reach, Tony balled the palm of his right hand and—

"Now, it is over."

BOOM!

It came as an explosive force, the punch connecting precisely with Marcus’ stomach and sending him flying outside the circle that had been created earlier by the barrier.

At that moment, Tony seemed to have grown weak, his knee buckling beneath him.

But instead of hitting the ground, he fell into warm arms that wrapped firmly around his body, steadying him just before he could collapse.

The world around him blurred at the edges, sounds fading into a distant hum as his strength finally gave out. His eyelids grew heavy, resisting for only a second longer before closing completely.

And then, with his breath slowing and his body going limp in those arms, Tony slipped into unconsciousness.