The Might of Humans

"I cannot believe that they really let humans in this sacred ground. How disgusting," a dwarf Prime Student that appeared to be about 24 years old said. He was shy half of Marcus' height, but he stood there imposingly.

"I think a bearded lump of muscles is more skin crawling," Marcus said with a smile.

The dwarf did not have the patience to take the insult, so he immediately drew his hammer from his space belt.

"Come and fight, you peasant!"

"If you say so," Marcus said before unsheathing his cleaver. Just like before, his entire demeanor shifted from the previous innocent child one to what seemingly appeared to be a blood-crazed mob. "{Cleaver Art: Bone Cutter}!" he cast.

The cleaver turned bright red as Marcus maniacally swung it over and over again while descending from his leap to the dwarf.

"Crazy bastard! {Forging Technique: Thousand Degree Smash}!" The hammer wielded by the dwarf immediately heated up. The cracks on the surface of the hammer glowed bright red as if lava was about to come out of them.

Marcus disregarded the hit attack from the dwarf and continued to strike incessantly as he was about to reach the dwarf.

"Is he crazy?!" Ethia could not help but ask. Any rational person would have dodged, but Marcus showed no signs of stopping.

"Yup," Sheenah answered with a big smile.

The dwarf fell into a conundrum. He knew that he would land his strike on Marcus, but he, too, would suffer from the attack. As the cleaver would land on him first, he would need to take some hits before he knocked Marcus back, assuming the latter would be knocked back.

Seeing the dark grin on Marcus' face, he refused a head-on interaction. Using his left hand, he hit the hilt of his hammer that was already being swung by his right. This caused his attack to halt and instead release a shockwave.

Marcus easily tore through the shockwave before crashing to the ground that the dwarf had already moved away from.

"Damn!" the dwarf exclaimed. 'I would have died! That bastard is a maniac!' he thought.

The fight was just getting started. Marcus continued to dash to the dwarf with nothing but a swinging cleaver. The dwarf could only leap away as he thought of a tactic against this maniac.

"Tsk! Who would have thought that I would need to use this on a human? What a shame! {Forging Technique: Body Refinement}!" The dwarf said before using his hammer to hit his entire body. The previously burning hammer already changed to one glowing in bright yellow light filled with Runes. With every hit, he engraved runes unto his body.

"That is a dwarf for you," Velneist said with a grin.

With the new forge, the dwarf found the confidence to resist the cleaver of Marcus. Sure enough, his hammer was able to meet the slashes of the cleaver. Everyone witnessed the battle between the hammer and the cleaver. They were all expecting Marcus to activate a new technique, but he just swung and swung.

"What the hell is wrong with this kid!?" the dwarf could not help but ask as he continued to resist the slashes of the cleaver. At this point, he could no longer leap away as he was pinned down by the barrage of attacks.

This continued for more than five minutes. Under the full force of Marcus' attacks, the dwarf inevitably sweated. However, the same was not true for Marcus. He was still the same smiling dude maniacally swinging his cleaver five minutes ago.

'What the hell do I do?' the dwarf thought. He knew that he was running out of time. 'Should I take a hit for a chance to escape? I cannot cast an Arcane Spell under this barrage!'

"Hehehe," Marcus creepily laughed as he continued the attack.

"So, that was his plan all along. He was confident in the power of his strikes and his stamina to deliver them for a long time. He knew that a cut from him would sever a limb. Now that the dwarf is pinned, there is not a clean way out," Adriana commented.

On the back, Hethor is nodding as he looked at the battle. He could not help but admit that despite the seemingly barbaric and brain-dead attack of Marcus, the dwarf still fell for it.

"Damn it!" the dwarf cried before resorting to a final attempt to dodge. However, what he did not expect was the cost of it. Marcus' cleaver immediately descended to his right shoulder and cut through his reinforced body to sever his right arm.

Even the calm and composed specially admitted dwarf could not help her eyes from enlarging. She knew full well just how tough the body reinforcement is. Even Hethor was a little shocked. Despite knowing that it was the plan of Marcus, he did not anticipate for him to actually cut through the reinforced body of the dwarf, like it was butter.

The dwarf who had just had his arm cut off could only stare at Marcus in fear. Now, he can clearly see a butcher ready to dismember him. He tried his best to crawl away from him in fear. Pity filled the eyes of the spectators as this happened, but they had to admit, Marcus' actions sent chills down their spines.

"If he had not been stupid enough to underestimate his opponent, that dwarf would have put up a good fight. There might be a lot more techniques hidden in Marcus' arsenal, but that is a Prime Student from The Paragon Academy, surely he had something on his sleeves. How dumb of him to underestimate Marcus just because he was a human. What a shame to The Paragon Academy," Hethor sighed. "Let us proceed to the next fight."

"Allow me," Aeiz said. He was holding back his eagerness to fight after seeing the win of Marcus.

"You should meet me in The Paragon Class," Ethia said as if sure that she would pass.