Markus versus Nine Learners
Field and Zion Marsh, twin boys, were closest to Markus, only about fifteen metres away.
Using the dustscreen he moved through using his awareness through the essence zone, was able to target the twins. Markus ran to their side before spin kicking Field face first into the ground due to the kick to the back of his head. Zion, sensing Markus was close, shot a large flame to disperse the dust with the force of the fire. Markus created a platform on his knees and slid down across the ground using his momentum to duck underneath Zion's fire and get to him. Propelling himself with the platform he swiped Zion off his feet and kept sliding forward going behind him before detonating the platforms to send himself flying vertically and aiming a wind blast right into Zion's back, tearing into his suit and flesh, infecting his body with deadly blades of whirlwind which sought only to cut and wreak chaos.
Field was coming back, albeit very dizzily, only to see a whirlwind blast hit his brother from above and to hear his brother scream but not wail in pain– for he could not draw in any oxygen and was drawing on unconscious with every moment he tried to breathe.
Markus landed on his feet above Field and with a constructed blunt rod, Markus smacked him in the head unconscious for good.
Whilst this encounter only happened in about a dozen seconds, the rest realised they were faint and bordering unconsciousness, leading them to believe Markus removed the oxygen from his essence zone. They began to run away from the border but it seemed that whilst they were running away, they could not escape for Markus was moving forward to attack the twins. Holding their breathing and fighting the faintness, they looked toward the centre and using their suppressed ability to sense surroundings with essence, they attacked Markus' general direction.
Sensing these attacks, Markus detonated the stick and sent himself upward, avoiding all damage entirely but running into two airborne fighters. Abel and Isaac.
These two were standing on wind platforms as they tried to make out what happened inside the dust screen. Abel was in the middle of conjuring a wind to clear it out and whilst the dust was fading, Markus propelled forward like a rocket to their surprise.
Isaac intercepted him and cast forth several wind blasts. Focusing on the wind blasts within his essence zone, he sacrificed the command to exclude oxygen in the area and instead commanded his essence to overcharge the wind blasts and make them fire prematurely, causing limited harm to Isaac but significant harm to Abel who just cleared the area off dust.
Isaac found himself able to breathe as his essence told him it was safe but Markus came in hot and conjured a windblade. Exhaling and drawing in several breaths, Markus slashed at Isaac who was frantically putting up barriers in panic. Eventually he backed up into another zone without oxygen and with the faintness, he became dizzy and delayed his barrier, allowing Markus to slash him cleanly from his left shoulder down to his waist, causing him extreme agony and sending him deeper and deeper into the oxygen deprived area, causing him to fall unconscious.
Before he could even turn to Abel, Markus felt incoming attacks from below which could not be intercepted with another shell for he did not create another. He immediately dismissed his barrier and fell down five metres, effectively dodging the attacks but it seemed his opponents were unrelenting as they sent agile and yet powerful projectiles at Markus. Continuously creating platforms to move and run in the sky to dodge, Markus approximated that Abel was in no shape and the rest of his opponents were not wind users so he could risk it.
Calling on particles of whirlwind to come to his aid, he created whirlwind blasts under his opponents to give himself breathing room. The blasts indeed went off successfully but Markus forgot that whirlwind was so effective that he himself was not too resistant to it. The oxygen deprived essence zone around the targets collapsed and even after taking a serious hit, they were still better off as they drew in sweet breaths of nourishing air with oxygen.
Whilst they recovered, Markus altogether collapsed the essence zone's command and just rushed to attack Abel. Whilst he could breathe, he had not recovered. So Markus rushed forth and with another blunt rod struck the side of Abel's head, sending him unconscious and slammed into the ground. There were now only five learned opponents against Markus.
He himself drew in breaths and looked down. Ginger and Sennie seemed like water users which he had an advantage against. Whilst Anthony and Lauren seemed like stone users. Jake was the last and Markus knew he was a flame user.
'Dammit– there isn't actually a good next target. If I attack a stone user I'll be delayed and will be vulnerable. If I go for the water users they might evade me and then I'll be neck deep in it. And if I go for Jake… actually it's probably my best option right now. He shouldn't be too strong and I want to avoid him because of our history… dammit. Here goes–' Markus thought inwardly before deciding to attack the flame user and dwindle the number of opponents.
'Dammit- without the oxygen my flames couldn't burn– I needed to use essence to not only make the heat and fuel but also brute force through the lack of oxygen and maintain constant heat and fuel until it hits. My essence is practically empty and for nothing!' Jack said inwardly, breathing heavily and showing signs of essence exhaustion.
As he tried to catch his breath, he soon realised Markus was coming.
His hatred for the guy who hurt him so bad and who likely got his family killed made him forget about all his exhaustion. A deep crimson aura surged from within and lashed out in a shockwave, causing Markus to stagger and back off from jumping head into the fight. Instead Markus decided to pierce through this aura with whirlwind bullets.
The bullets tore into the red aura and into Jake's very flesh but despite their damage, Jake charged forward like a crimson bull. Markus was taken aback to how someone could tank the damage and still charge forward so he flew up in the sky but not before creating two smaller wind blasts below Jake, blowing up directly at his legs which were exposed to damage from the earlier massive wind blast.
Jake wailed and screamed in agony, shooting flames in every direction like a volcano erupting. And he was erupting– with pain, agony and wrath. Markus did not dare use anymore whirlwind against Jake as it would not only prove fatal but also use more of his essence which he would need before long. For now he encased Jake in a box
and let him burn himself out in there.
Although the construct was not very powerful, Jake was a newly ascended rank 3 in most likelihood and consequently his attacks were not refined nor particularly powerful– at least not powerful enough to easily break through Markus' carefully crafted barrier.
Whilst that encounter ended… in a rather unexpected way… there was now good news and bad news. The good news is that there were only four more opponents Markus had to defeat before moving on to finish off Fin. And from just a glance he could tell he would be needed as the expert proved to be a challenge for his council.
The bad news was… the remaining four individuals still had relatively good levels of essence left, were able to breathe and were more motivated than ever to put Markus in the ground after what he did to them and their fellows.
Before Markus could even think he felt himself fall as the ground under him collapsed, thanks to Anthony. Without missing a beat, a pit of spikes formed under the collapsed ground thanks to Lauren. Markus barely had to time to react, let atone calculate for when and where to place a barrier which he could then manipulate and move. Instead he went back to basics and used a wind blast to send himself up.
Only this time, shards of ice were also falling down straight for him. Recalling his training with Bailey, he summoned an equal myriad of wind bullets to upset the trajectory of the ice shards and avoid taking damage however the time was too short and eventually some touched him and drew blood.
As the ice permeated his skin, he felt himself grow increasingly more rigid with every moment, as if similar to whirlwind, this conjured ice was spreading within his body, freezing him from the inside.
His own intuition was spot on. The ice indeed was forming and he would be frozen before long. Seeing as he was not a fire user and had no way to melt the ice within him— he was doomed.
Almost doomed.
Out of desperation and with no other option— Markus put his palm to his side and commanded whirlwind particles.
'This is gonna hurt— but I've no way to melt the ice so I've gotta destroy it… whilst it's inside me… dammit—' Markus thought before shooting himself with a whirlwind bullet.
Enduring the numbing effect of the ice and the agony caused by having your insides shredded, Markus withstood the pain and remained on guard.
The four learned did not give him any breathing room and all four of them got up close. Markus responded in kind by withdrawing his essence to just ten metres around him but he did not dismiss the other fifteen metres— instead he doubled his effective authority and presence in those ten metres.
As spikes of stone rose from the ground and went high up in the sky to diverge and strike Markus whilst more ice shards flew his way, Markus finally created another essence shell but this time of whirlwind.
He dived into the ground and got in between all four of them then said:
"Hope you've breathed enough air bastards—"
The others immediately held their breaths but in that moment they decided to hold their breaths instead of attack. Markus created four pillars of wind and struck the solar plexus of all four enemies, knowing the air out of their lungs and sending them to the floor in pain.
They panicked as they tried to draw for breaths but knew they'd have no oxygen and yet— just for a moment. They breathed normally and did not feel the effects.
"I forbid all oxygen within this ten metre zone from being here." He said.
Markus bluffed. He knew they were scared of losing the ability to draw in oxygen so when he threatened them— it was unlikely they'd ignore him. But now that he dealt a blow to them all and they wouldn't be able to move away quickly enough, he simply cast their biggest fear and watched them all resist the fatigue before passing out.
Eventually he spit blood as the whirlwind effect wore off and all ice was destroyed, restoring his effective ability to move.
Dismissing his essence zone and the command and estimating he only had about 30% of his usual reserves left, he looked toward Fin's battle…
If it could be called a battle. His people were in just as bad of a position as Fin's group— only Triss and Spence still standing against Fin.
He also looked toward the other two fights which were now stuck in a stalemate.
'I can help one of the girls out to finish their fight then quickly join the fight against Fin with her. But if Triss and Spence fall before we can finish the fight— then we'll be super screwed. Then I need to join the battle against Fin and hope one of them finishes and can save my backside because there's no way I can win with only a third of my usual essence… not to mention I'll have to avoid using constructs since he'd only turn them against me. So swordplay only… great…' Markus quickly thought before rushing forward.
Meanwhile in the observation podium.
"Are our stage threes so weak that they lose nine against one?" Charlotte asked
"No… they are strong. It's just that Markus is more cunning than them. Cutting their oxygen, precisely using constructs to defend, bluffing and attacking at the right times and even curing himself off the ice with whirlwind… his combat intelligence and talent is absurdly high. And he's picked all of this up in such a short amount of time…" Bailey responded
"Even if Fin wins, Markus' performance today shocked everyone present. I know of someone who will be very pleased to hear about these developments." Charlotte said
Indeed she would be. But what would please her the most was a victory. What use is winning a battle when you lose the war?
That said— the war was ending, one way or another.