Marden was in a dire situation. Two spikes had pinned his legs, two had torn through his gut, one had punctured his lung, and the last one had driven clean through his neck.
If it wasn’t for him shifting his body at the last possible second, that final spike would have impaled his head instead. Blood flowed from his wound endlessly, as he struggled to breathe. By now, a large pool of blood had ford underneath his feet.
Despite that, he still managed to prevent Blackwood’s sword from severing his neck and killing him. Coughing out a mouthful of blood, he looked the Headmaster in the eyes and grinned.
He was unable to speak because the spikes had pierced his neck, so he mouthed the following words instead:
’Not bad... Headmaster...’
Then, Marden’s brown eyes blazed with madness, his grin stretching unnaturally wide. The smile was so ominous, so unnerving that it twisted his face into sothing inhuman. While locking Blackwood’s sword with his poison blade, he, too, wove a hand seal in response.
Following that, the blood that had pooled underneath him surged to life. They rose as crimson spikes and shot towards Blackwood, just as Blackwood’s shadows had pierced him a mont before.
The Headmaster’s eyes narrowed, and he imdiately retreated. However, because of the poison already in his system and the extra toxin he had inhaled from his sword clashing with Marden’s blade just now, he was a second too late.
His senses were not at the optimal level, and so... one of the blood spikes had pierced right through the side of his stomach!
After gaining so distance, Blackwood glanced at his wound with a cold look in his dark eyes. Despite the dizziness clouding his senses, he was able to grasp the severity of the injury to his stomach. It wasn’t critical, but if left untreated, it could pose serious risks.
So, he imdiately conjured a dicinal paste from his storage artifact and applied it to his wound, staunching the blood and hastening the healing.
On the other side, Marden had no need for external dicines. He only needed to expend mana, and the wounds on his body would start to heal. And they did. He slowly rose to his feet, the blood underneath him already absorbed by him.
However, he couldn’t risk inhaling the toxin from his blade any longer. Despite having consud the antidote, the poison posed a serious threat to him. That was why he was so reluctant to use the blade. But in order to defeat Blackwood... he had to.
He glanced at his black blade, which had even more cracks than before, and smiled. His smile contained reckless savagery. This blade was quite literally a double-edged sword. With each strike, poison would be dispersed into the surroundings. So not only his enemy, but even he would get poisoned by it.
But fortunately, he could heal. And Blackwood... could not.
The silhouettes of his kin surrounded him, their eyes burning with fury at the evil he brought upon them. Yet, Marden paid them no heed. His gaze turned bloodshot as he fixed it on his opponent. Then, with a deranged grin on his face, he said:
"Co now, Headmaster. Let’s see which one of us is going to fall—"
But midway through his sentence, his expression turned cold. He turned his head ever so slightly and, for the first ti, scanned the battlefields other than his own.
Earlier, his battle with Blackwood had been so intense that he couldn’t afford to pay attention to others’ situations. But now that his battle had been dragged within the city walls, he was able to sense much more.
Seeing his stunned expression, Blackwood’s lips curled into a cold smirk, "Cat got your tongue?"
Marden remained silent, his blood turning cold. He had brought six Mana Core Magi from the Cult with him. Furthermore, each of them had two Rank 4 undead knights they could summon. Yet, now when he scanned the battlefields, he was genuinely taken aback by the results.
Out of the six Mana Core Magi... only three remained.
He was even more surprised when he realized that Felix, who had been tasked with capturing Adam, was no longer present. He couldn’t even sense the man’s corpse!
Marden ruffled his hair in annoyance as he grumbled, "Ah, so the boy even took care of a Mana Core Magus? What a surprise..."
But what shocked him even more was the number of Mana Core Magi on the enemy’s side, and the fact that none of them had perished. Whereas he was already down by three.
Despite making several arrangents through the Cult’s spies in the Twilight Brotherhood and ensuring that the clandestine organization did not send any powerful reinforcents to Ravenfell, he still fell short.
Blackfire Balthazar was a good friend of the current Emperor of Acadia, so it wasn’t a surprise that he would join this battle. As for the Silent King... the assassin would fight for whichever side paid him.
But Marden never expected Berger, Blackie, and Nylian to also get involved. These were three Mana Core Magi he hadn’t accounted for. As well as Ink the Kraken, but he was still oblivious to the creature’s existence.
There was a reason why it was called a secret guardian of Saratoga. That was because its existence... was a secret.
"The strength of Acadia runs deep," he muttered under his breath, sighing helplessly.
At the sa ti, he couldn’t help but foster feelings of disdain towards the Mana Core Magi he had brought with him. With a dark scowl on his face, he thought to himself:
Aye, it appears I’d have to resort to that, after all. You incompetent wretches deserve it!
He then pointed his black, poisoned blade at the Headmaster of Saratoga, then muttered in a chilling voice:
"Well... it’s a good thing I always keep contingency plans. So, then... I’ll start by taking your life. You’d make a perfect undead puppet for my Lord."
Before his words had even left his mouth, Marden had already disappeared, transforming into a savage red blur as he closed in on Blackwood.
The Headmaster, on the other hand, augnted his entire body with mana. The darkness flared on the blade of his long sword, and he, too, rushed toward his opponent, turning into a black flash of light.
Multiple deafening sounds of tal clashing against tal echoed in the Uptown Quarter as the two Mana Core Magi went at each other like reckless beasts with cold, calculating minds.
Wherever they went, they left a trail of ruin in their wake. Buildings were reduced to rubble, blood-soaked roads were torn apart, and corpses dissolved into mists. Yet their swordfight never ceased. Within re monts, the Uptown Quarter was completely uprooted.
With every clash of blades, Marden’s sword released more poison into the air. Both Magi inhaled the deadly toxin, but while Marden swiftly healed his injuries, Blackwood’s condition worsened with every passing second.
Until finally... Marden delivered a faint, catching Blackwood in his trap. And then, with a vicious thrust, his cracked black blade pierced straight through the Headmaster’s chest!
Marden grinned wickedly as he proclaid:
"I win."
But in the very next instant, the grin on his face froze.
Blackwood’s body dissolved into a murder of ravens, and the next mont, they tore past Marden in a violent flurry of wings and shadows!
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