Author's P.O.V
The fight between Mark and Cron continued to rage on with every strike they landed on each other, the hall battlefield shook and rumbled upon the impact of each punch and kick. Cron started to evade and strike at precise ranges and areas that started to weaken Mark significantly, but Mark kept on pushing and pushing forward.
"You are not gonna last any time soon, so just give up" Cron tried to persuade Mark, who just kept on tanking several attacks and pressure point attacks from Cron. Mark started to gnash his teeth due to the overwhelming fatigue he felt within him and this started to result in his movements becoming slower and slower, while Cron picked up the pace and started to launch even more attacks. "And I said before... You can't win if you don't understand the true way of the Aurora technique, inner world control."
Cron ended his speech with a jab to Mark's Sternum at the centre of his chest, This triggered Mark to pour out blood from his mouth cavity and his eyes blood shot... But still, Mark managed to get back his footing and charged at Cron with a roar, though Cron just stood there with a cold expression on his face.
"This is starting to get sad... So let me finish this then." Cron powered up and blitzed in front of Mark, who was shocked by this, and saw that everything had slowed down while he stared into Cron's cold gaze. But just as Mark was about to think of something on how to either dodge or block this attack... He started to feel a sudden pain that shot up through his body, as Cron's right fist was implanted in his heart area and though it wasn't inside... Mark felt his heart about to explode. "This should put you to rest."
Mark felt a sudden snap in his chest and at that point lost consciousness as the pupil in his eyes had cleared away. Mark's body started to fall forward, resting his head directly on Cron's right shoulder.
Flashback to back at the academy 7 years ago.
Mark's P.O.V
"Help me! Somebody help me please!" A shout erupted from deep in the forest, close to where I was having my private training. I stopped my air sparing and pointed my head towards the direction of the cry for help, immediately running towards the location without wasting any single second.
"I'm coming! Hold on!" I roared out while making it closer to the location, but something felt... Weird... The energy I'm reading off that location seemed too... Dark... 'What's this... I can sense the mana presence of... 5 people?... No, something is wrong with the other 4... I've never sensed anything like this before.'
I zoomed out of the condensed trees and landed in front of the one student who seemed to be surrounded by... Demons... Wait are this... Hamjis... 'Oh no, what are they doing here, I need to call Father Alfred and warn him about this-.'
My field of thought was cut off as the student immediately tried to run away, but just as I was about to tell him not to shout and anger the hamjis I was too late.
"Aah stay away from me!" the student cried out, angering the hamjis, as they all jumped at once in response to the male student's startling cry. I instantly had my resolve and went on to attack a hamji which was about to claw at the student, but I got in front and launched an uppercut... But I stared back at my fist to see a strange burnt mark... From contact with that hamji.
'These things are even more dangerous than I thought... This boy needs to escape before we get overrun by these beasts.' I thought to myself and tried to turn back and face the student before sprinting off while carrying the student... Just then a hamji charged at my back, knocking me almost to the ground, but I then stood up with a quick barrel roll and charged at that one with a right jab to the face pummeting it into the ground. Another one tried to reach for the student but I held on its ankle and brought it down with a loud and powerful slam to the ground. I then felt a sharp pain through my arm, as one of them had chomped down on my right arm and the injury started to sizzle due to the corrupted mana contact with my skin. The corner of my eyes started to tear up due to the burning agonizing pain that shot through my body, but I decided to hold in my shout of pain and turned towards the boy. "Run! Get out of here!"
The boy who was once in a haste to leave quickly turned to me with a conflicted look on his face. "B-but what about you... They're too much-."
"JUST GO ALREADY! I CAN HANDLE IT!" I roared out and started to fling the hamjis far away from me, I immediately grabbed the head of the hamji that had bitten my arm, and then planted my left fist into its head, deep into the ground. "JUST LEAVE NOW!"
The boy turned away and zoomed off, but just as I was about to take a stance, two of the hamjis jumped at me but before they could bite me, I cloaked my body in a bluish aurora. This made them not to be able to chomp through my skin, so I started to throw my fist at them and started to pummel them... 'I-I can beat them, I just need to finish this quick!'
I was about to deal with the other two, until I felt a large mana presence at my back, As I turned to see one of the two hamjis I dealt with started to conjure up a black orb of dark mana. It launched at high speed at me, catching me off guard and pushing me back drastically. I tried to grab hold of the orb, but it seemed that my mana cloak was starting to fade off due to the massive damage it was starting to take from the orb... My major defence was starting to get destroyed. "DAMN IT!"
I pressed the orb of energy to the ground, as some of the hamjis jumped at my back and started to heavily injure me... But I then decided to crush the orb within my powerful grip and due to this action... A bright light covered my view.
Boom!
The explosion from the orb shook the terrain and the cloud of dust and rumble spread through a large portion of the forest.
The hamjis that managed to survive the blast stared back at the explosion site but then started to growl, as they saw my figure standing tall with my clothes almost burnt off... I just pointed at the hamjis and glared at them. "Come at me, bastards."
Time skip to the next 3 hours.
Author's P.O.V
Father Alfred and the boy came as fast as they could and finally reached my location... To see Mark holding the neck of one of the hamjis with a chad of smoke radiating from his body. The boy smiled and cheered for Mark
"Remarkable... " Father Alfred spoke with an impressed tone... But the moment he saw Mark's gaze... His facial expression became cold, as he started to move slowly toward Mark.
"He did it, he beat them alright!" the boy said and ran past Father Alfred towards Mark with a thankful smile on his face, As he came close, he saw that something was wrong with Mark... His eyes didn't have pupils and his gaze almost looked... Dead... But still... The hamji within his hand struggled in pain as if it was still being strangled. "What's going on?... He's not responding, Father Alfred..."
"....oh no... " Father Alfred said with a sad look on his face, As he tried to reach for Mark's hand, the hamji wanted to claw at him but something amazing happened... The hamji's neck was broken at that very moment... Paralyzing it for that very moment... Mark broke its neck, due to its aggression towards father Alfred... But something about Mark's state still felt wrong. "I see... You truly are an exceptional student mark... You stood your ground."
"What's wrong with him Father Alfred... Is he alright?" the student asked with a sad expression on his face... But Father Alfred just touched the Hamji's paralyzed body... Resulting in the disintegration of the hamji within Mark's hand... And after this was done... Mark's body started to fall back but Father Alfred took his back and laid him down gently to the ground.
"he's fine... He's just tired... Thank you for bringing me here on time." Father Alfred said to the student who still felt conflicted about what had happened... Why did he stroll through the forest just because he wanted to get away from everyone since he felt useless and wasn't doing well in his studies... But if not for Mark... He would have been dead. The student held on to Mark's left hand and started to shed quiet tears. "There's no need to cry okay, he's alright... "
'mark... You have shown what true strength is all about... You had never encountered any kind of foes like this... But you knew you had to face them regardless... Knowing that they would harm the boy even if you retreated with him... You held them down and even managed to defeat most of them... Even till when you were unconscious... Your body kept on fighting... You endured... And that is true strength... Thank you... Mark, for enduring... Even when you have no strength to keep on going."
.
.
.
"Thank you"
End of flashback.
Cron saw that something was wrong... As Mark's right hand held down on his right arm that was still in his chest and started to increase his grip force on Cron's forearm to the point of cracking the bones in them... Cron was shocked by this as he started to struggle to remove his arm from Mark's grip... But then he stared at Mark's face as Mark whispered while bringing his head up with his eyes blazing from a bluish colour to blood red.
"Come at me, bastard... With everything you got."