Cultivation Through Artifacts

The whole platform shook the moment the muscular guy 'summoned' the massively huge axe that was just as big as him; the axe head had an elegantly shaped edge and had no marks or engravings. The maple, which was made out of hard but pale-looking wood, handle was almost 50 inches long and had an uncovered metal grip covered with tiny and shiny pebbles that give it a royal look next to its extremely heavy and lethal look.

It was apparent that it was made for the sole reason of battle! 

Grabbing the handle that was as thick as a human arm, the guy lifted the weapon quite easily, almost like he just raised a kid from the ground, and placed it onto his shoulder causing the ground below his feet to form huge and wide cracks in an instant!

"You two... Step back, I will take care of him personally." said the guy with a smile and started to walk toward Khal, each of his steps leaving shallow footprints after he raised his feet.

"Okay~" the girl and the guy with an indifferent look that stood all this time next to the gigantic guy nodded with agreement and stepped several meters back, giving their friend bigger space to fight; they knew what will come and they didn't want to remain nearby when 'that' happens.

"Marx and Merlyn from the Eastfield Family and their childhood friend Asur. All three of them are Fourth Stage Cultivators and had been enrolled into Moon Academy half a year ago." Nate, who watched as the guy called Marx walked closer to Khal talked in a relaxed voice, indicating his speech obviously toward Liza on his side.

"Marx and Merlyn? The siblings that are famous for creating ruckus everywhere they go?" asked Liza instantly, instantly recognizing the two names.

"Yes, them." nodded Nate mildly and leaned back, "When they enrolled into Moon Academy they were still on the First Cultivation Stage so considering the fact they reached the Fourth Stage under a mere 6 month could be deemed as an above-average feat. But still, who would have guessed they will appear and join this mass challenge by Khal..."

As Liza listened to Nate's words, her delicate eyebrows knitted together tightly while deep worry surfaced onto her face, "If I can remember right, Marx has an extremely powerful Talent. But I'm quite sure it was not a weapon-associated one, so what is that axe?"

"You are right," nodded Nate and started to explain, "Marx Talent is a common Body Strengthening Talent which lets him control his body's physical abilities to their fullest. As for that axe, that is one of his family's treasures called the Mountain Divider. It was summoned by him through the Spatial Ring on his finger."

When the word 'Spatial Ring' left Nate's mouth, Liza's complexion changed and her small eyes widened extra large. Spatial Ring was a special Artifact that was fused with a large amount of space power; only a Cultivator on the Ninth Cultivation Stage with the element of space could create such an item with the help of an extremely proficient blacksmith and even like that the chance for failure was extremely large! So hearing that Marx, a guy who was from a normal family and had an above-average background had a Spatial Ring was something so startling that even the Ourvi Family would get jealous about for sure!

"How were you able to tell it? I can't see a single ring on his fingers let alone a Spatial Ring. Are you sure you saw it right?" asked Liza, turning her gaze at Nate on her side.

However, Nate just simply smiled once again and pointed at his eyes, "These eyes of mine never in my entire 17 years did lie to me you can rest assured. What I saw was real and it was truly, without the slightest mistake, a Spatial Ring."

"..." Liza looked at Nate in silence and a bit later sighed and nodded.

And just as she did that, Marx arrived exactly 7 meters away from Khal and started to grin widely, "7 meters. Precisely a meter more than your powers radius and the perfect distance for me to attack."

Immediately as he said that, Marx grabbed the handle of his axe with both palms, and while keeping the maniac-like grin on his face he talked, but this time not toward Khal, but the spectators behind him in the distance, "If I were you... I would fuck off!"

And with that exact sentence...

"MOUNTAIN DIVIDER!!!" growled Marx loudly, his voice alone shaking the whole arena, and with a powerful motion swung the axe from his shoulder toward the ground like he wanted to chop the whole world into two with that sole wave.

"!?" the moment Khal saw as Marx moved his weapon from his shoulder, he thought he will have the time to move and get behind him, but he was entirely wrong; not only did he not have the time to get behind Marx with the help of his Second Form, but he couldn't even approach him! The only thing he was able to do was to activate his Secret Art's First Form and by accelerating the Essence around his feet to the utmost maximum limit his legs currently could tolerate, dodge to the side as fast as he could do!

And precisely as he did move toward the side, an enormous power broke forth from Marx's weapon, splitting the ground where Khal stood a split second ago into two while approaching the people in spectator seats in the distance with tremendous force ready to smash and bury them alive!

*BOOOM!!*

*TREMBLE!!!*

The entirety of the arena shook and trembled like a giant just descended and fell onto the ground, making all the people around grab the closest thing in their proximity to stabilize themselves while starting at Marc with eyes that they looked at a ghost!

The ground below Marx was smashed into debris and dust, forming a massively deep crater under his feet, while a 5 meters deep and 2 meters wide split spreading all the way into the distance where the spectators were.

"Just how strong is he?" was the very first thing Khal thought about as looked at the assault's aftermath that barely passed before him; just glancing at the split that could have ended his life if he didn't react in time made Khal sweat profusely.

"Cough... Cough... Can you please hold back a bit next time? I think none of us want unnecessary trouble, especially not unwanted casualties." waving the dust cloud that was created by Marx's attack, Logan was calmly talking toward Marx as he lowered his hand; it was obvious he stopped the attack to save the people behind him that could have easily died because of that chop!

"!" everyone, including Khal, was surprised by this because they didn't notice the moment Logan moved at all; he was more than a hundred meters away from where he just stood a split second ago so he either used a powerful Movement-type Secret Art, or he had a Talent associated with teleportation.

But of course, Khal knew that the latter one couldn't be, because Logan's Talent was a Flame-type Talent and not a Movement-type one, so the only explanation that was feasible that he used a powerful Secret Art!

"Could it be my Art? But then which Form was that?" pondered Khal, but suddenly a laugh came from his side.

"Haha, hold back a bit? We are in the middle of a challenge! Our task is to fight to the best of our abilities while yours is to prevent the onlookers to get harmed during our fight! It is that simple! I don't understand why I should hold back!" chuckled Marx loudly, making everyone around turn dead silent.

On the other hand, Logan just simply knitted his brows together tightly while opening his mouth to say something, but realized he couldn't; what Marx said was true.

After thinking for a while, Logan crossed his arms before his chest and said, "That is true, but that doesn't mean you can act without consequences. Considering your Cultivation Stage and Talent, you have enough experience to control your power to several degrees, so you could have easily attacked only your opponent without putting the spectators' lives in danger. Yet, you not only did attack without any sign of restraint but even tried to kill innocent people. As a teacher of Moon Academy, I can't tolerate such ignorance, so this will be your first and final warning... Control. Yourself."

"..." Marx's smile at the end of the sentence had already vanished while his sharp eyes shot daggers at Logan with an ice-cold expression.

Silence descended between the two and just as everyone thought Marx will make a ruckus once again just simply noted and averted his gaze, "Tsk... Fine. I will do as you want, but that doesn't mean I will hold myself back against him."

As an answer to that, Logan just solely shrugged and waved his hand around with an indifferent face, "You can do whatever you want until you don't make foolish mistakes. Now fight!"

"Perfect!" grinned Marx instantly and was about to attack Khal once again, but suddenly out of nowhere, Khal emerged out of thin air exactly a meter before him. 

"Now it's my turn!" said Khal with a slight curve on his face and swung his fan that was already covered with thick silver light.

"!?"

*BOOOOM!*