Chapter 415 - Marcus And Lyra Vs Great Knight Number Thirteen

As Marcus, Lyra, Marek, and Tesia rushed back to the mithril tower that served as the Rebellion's true stronghold. They could hear and feel the battle raging on behind them but paid it no mind as they focused on escape.

However, as they were about to enter the tower, they all sensed five more presences heading towards them and turned around just as they landed.

Seeing them, Lyra, Marek, and Tesia recognized these people immediately, since not to long ago they were comrades in arms.

"Oh, looks like we hit the jackpot. We have the three biggest traitors right here in front of us."

"Hey now, don't you remember the king's orders. He wants them to come back if possible so we should not call them traitors."

"Shut it you two. You can bicker all you want later. Right now, we have a job to do."

As the five newcomers looked at the rebels and Marcus, they had a stare down for a few seconds before Marek said, "Tesia, go inside and hasten the preparations for the tower and make sure that it does not get damaged. I will hold off Armand, Edek, and Felcia. Lyra and Jed could I ask that you take on Ludwik. I do not think I could handle more than three of them at a time."

Except as he said this, the man he had not mentioned looked at Marek in contempt and said, "Oh and what about me. Do you think that I am going to just sit back like a bump on a log?"

"Hm no. Your opponent is up there." Marek said pointing towards the top of the tower.

A moment later the lithe cat beastman captain dropped down from the top of the tower and landed next to Marek.

"Very well I will be going then." Tesia said, seeing that reinforcements had arrived.

She knew that her time would be better spent preparing the tower since she understood its intricacies the best. Afterall, it was her tower.

"Francis, huh. Another traitor. Do you really think you can take me? I do not believe you ever one any of our spars." The man who Marek had left out said.

Francis the black cat beastman said, "I would not let that go to your head Wicus. I never tried very hard, and the only reason you kept your rank was at eight and I was nine was because I did not care. Now let me show you what I am like when I get serious."

The two of them then leapt into action taking their fight away from the tower.

At the same time Marek beckoned for his three opponents to follow him and they did confident that they would be victorious.

This just left Marcus and Lyra with the man named Ludwik who was staring at them with disinterest.

"Great and I get the leftovers. Jadzia, you know you cannot beat me. Your match up against me is horrible and you were only the lowest ranked great knight. You should just give up on this and return. Cibor especially wants you to come back and is willing to forgive you. Now come on, before you take this too far."

Of course, Lyra only shook her head and said, "No, it is the king that took things too far by executing my parents. I am not going to stop until my goal is accomplished or my life is taken."

After saying that Lyra transformed into her evolved form immediately and wrapped her bluish silver flames around her body. Going all out from the start.

She then burst forward with her flash fire clap movement technique, and brandishing her two kukris began slashing wildly at her enemy.

Yet even as fast and explosively she had attacked, Ludwik stayed calm and taking out a wooden staff began deflecting her attacks with ease.

Quickly, Lyra was put on the defensive as smoke began to emit out of Luwik's body and eat away at Lyra's flames while trying try entangle her.

"UGH."

Being hit in the stomach Lyra was sent flying backwards as Ludwik hit her hard, and she crashed into the exterior of the tower causing a loud resounding sound.

However, before Ludwik could follow up a titanic sword made of iron slammed down right in top of him forcing him to jump back.

As the massive iron sword hit the ground it caused the already fractured earth to break apart even more while shaking the area.

Except within around thirty feet of the tower a barrier erected and protected it from the shockwaves that were occurring from the raging battles that were all around.

'Persistent healing.'

Casting his tier four healing magic spell, Marcus gave Lyra a boost to her recover as she pulled herself back together.

"Lyra you need to calm down. Attacking in a fury like that is not going to get you anywhere. This guy already knows how you fight, so let me take point and you back me up. I will connect us with telepathy so that we can coordinate."

Nodding her head, Lyra understood that Marcus was right and the two began making a plan over telepathy, as Ludwik jumped over Marcus' cataclysmic iron sword and looked at the two of them with disregard.

He figured that this would be an easy fight as he was level sixty-seven, and he knew that Lyra was only a bit higher than level fifty, and the other guy seemed to not have much of a presence.

Or so he thought until Marcus exploded with power activating his supreme skill and began swirling with the power of light and darkness.

At the same time Lyra used her illusory abilities to create her clones, manifesting eight real ones along with seventy-two fakes.

She then disappeared turning invisible and moving away.

"Hm you already know that your tricks will not work on me." Ludwik said as Lyra turned invisible.

A cloud of smoke began to emit out of his body filling up the space and allowing him to figure out which of the images that Lyra had created were real, and where her main body was.

Truthfully his ability was a perfect counter to hers, allowing him to not only find her location, but also obscure the area for everyone other than him.

But Lyra was not fighting alone this time, and she had already begun to tell Marcus about Ludwick's abilities allowing him to come up with counter measures.

WHOOSH! WOOSH! WOOSH!

Positioning his cataclysmic iron sword into the air, Marcus began spinning it around like a fan sucking up the smoke that Ludwik had created.

Noticing this Ludwik stared angrily at Marcus and leapt towards him while spinning his staff around and casting a tier five smoke magic spell, creating a dozen scimitars of thick smoke around him that moved with his will.

Yet before he could make it to Marcus, his danger sense began screaming and he noticed a blast of blueish silver flames coming for him.

Lyra had used her flame breathe and unleashed it towards Ludwik to steal some of his attention.

And as intended Ludwick formed eight of his floating smoke scimitars into a shield which he began rotating to disperse Lyra's flames while sending it towards her to keep her busy.

'Grand Swing.'

Taking advantage of this Marcus who had been charging his scythe up with mana and the excessive power from his supreme skill, used one of his attack skills along with increasing the size of his blade extending it with the torrent of power he had coated it in.

Gritting his teeth Ludwick met Marcus's attack with his staff, using his own attack skill to try and overwhelm Marcus.

However, he actually found Marcus' attack to be more than a match for his, as he was being pushed back.

Still, he had four of his smoke scimitars which he sent towards Marcus to slice him into ribbons.

But as soon as his smoke scimitars moved towards Marcus, all of Lyra's clones began swarming around him attacking now that his defenses were down.

'Smoke Serpent.'

Nevertheless, Ludwik had been tracking these clones using his smoke field that while diminished due to Marcus' rotating iron sword, still was able to give him the rough location of Lyra and her clones.

The smoke serpent began coiling around Ludwik and blocked all of the attacks that Lyra's clones were dealing.

A moment later the scimitars he had sent for Marcus arrived and began slashing at him forcing him to take evasive action, ending his attack.

Then with his staff freed up Ludwik began dispatching Lyra's clones smashing them to pieces with one hit from his staff.

'Now.'

Stopping his cataclysmic iron sword Marcus had it once against crash down towards Ludwik, with the immense centrifugal force behind it.

Except as the blade was slashing down its movements abruptly stopped as the smoke it had sucked up solidified and turned into chains that wrapped around the sword and kept it in place.

Smirking Ludwik looked towards Marcus expecting to see a look of shock and disbelief on his face, but all he saw was a smile.

Leaving his smoke serpent behind to deal with lyra's clones, Ludwik shot forward stabbing his staff towards Marcus, planning to wipe the smile off his face and show whoever this upstart was who was boss.

Only right before he was about to hit Marcus he disappeared, and his staff passed through nothing but open air.

Though one thing did not disappear as Marcus' scythe remained and began slashing towards Ludwik all on its own.

Still, it did not have as much power behind it now that Marcus was not wielding it. Though it was still annoying to deal with, as whenever it became wrapped up in smoke it simply disappeared and reappeared freed.

'Damn it where did he go.' Ludwik thought while looking around.

He now thought that Marcus had used some sort of space magic to teleport out of the range of his smoke field.

Of course, he was horribly wrong in this assumption and Marcus was now in his ghost form taking position to unleash his finishing attack.

'She destroyed the last scimitar.' Ludwik thought as he felt Lyra take care of the last of the smoke scimitars he had been using to deal with her true body.

He then turned to face her as he felt her coming towards him, while knocking Marcus' persistent scythe away once again.

"You are an idiot to face me head on again. It will not end any differently this time." Ludwik said as he swung his staff at Lyra.

But as his staff hit against her kukris, he could immediately tell that something was wrong as he blasted her away with ease.

'A clone! Where is she then.' Ludwick thought while focusing on his smoke field.

He could still feel the same number of presences which was down to five after he had destroyed a few of Lyra's clones, and he had not felt Marcus reenter.

Yet a moment later he felt a sharp pain in the area behind both of his knees.

Turning his head, there he could not see anything but he knew that it was an invisible Lyra that had stabbed him and slipped past his danger sense.

However, that was not all. Right behind him was a pocket where his smoke field had been blown away leaving an open area.

Still, he could not understand how Lyra had gotten there since he had never felt her leave his smoke field in the first place, and the same number of presences were still inside it.

Unfortunately, he did not have time to analyze the situation and thrust his staff towards Lyra's head.

BANG!

And as it hit, her head exploded, but Ludwik quickly noticed that this was only one of her clones who she had switched places with right before the impact.

A moment later her felt what he assumed to be another of her clones rushing towards him, as he collapsed onto the ground his legs unable to support his weight.

'It's not her!'

Looking towards the figure Ludwick saw that it was actually Marcus who had taken Lyra's place, making it appear as if she never left the smoke field as she slipped into open area Marcus' scythe had created by blowing some of the smoke away.

"Checkmate." Marcus said as he positioned all six of his focusing lenses in front of him.

But before he could unleash his final attack, Ludwick cast the spell he had been holding and sent it towards Marcus.

'Suffocating Smog.'

Plumbs of smoke quickly surrounded Marcus and began constricting around him.

And this spell was not passive waiting for the target to breath in the smoke. It began wrapping around Marcus' throat and forcing its way through his nose.

A normal person would have immediately began choking and spasming violently as this happened, but Marcus just stood their unfazed.

He had no need to breath, and the worst thing this spell did to him was make him mildly uncomfortable.

Seeing this Ludwik was stunned.

This was his most lethal spell that should have been able to kill anyone that it effected.

Even Cibor was not immune to this spell and would make sure to avoid it during any sort of training.

Yet Marcus only gave him a devilish smile and released the spells he has been preparing.

'Quasar Blast and Rending Void.'

Casting both of his new tier six light and darkness magic spells together, Marcus fused the two of them as he had done with his tier four spells in the past.

However, this combination created an attack many magnitudes stronger.. So strong in fact, that as they went through the focusing lens, they began to crack before unleashing an explosion of light and darkness that obliterated everything in its path.