Chapter 678 Testing Out the Strongest Scythe (2)

‘This is not working.’

Currently embroiled against all seven of the level sixty or higher knights, Marcus was having a much harder time of dealing with their assault now that he did not have the element of surprise and they were getting used to his movements.

No longer were they just launching powerful attack at him, they were making little moves to throw him off and wear him down.

Their coordination had also gone up a notch as they switched from a defensive formation to an offensive one in order to prevent Marcus from defining the battle anymore.

‘Crap! That one almost got me.’

Right now, Marcus was doing his best to block the attacks from all seven knights and trying to make an opening for attack, but that was easier said than done.

In fact, he was having a hard enough time just staying on the defensive and had only managed to go unscathed so far by blocking attacks with is armor or mana barrier.

And whenever he tired to attack at least three of the knights would move in to stifle his efforts and the other four would press the attack to force him back on the defensive.

Of course, if he wanted to, he could use any number of spells or simply his powers as a ghost to escape or turn the tide completely. But that would defeat his purpose of testing out his new scythe.

‘Guess I will have to start using some of its nastier abilities.’

After being pushed around for a good thirty seconds, Marcus finally decided to let loose on his scythe’s power and really test it out.

‘Let’s start with this one.’.

Swinging his scythe forward Marcus activated its weight increasing formation and made it several times heavier.

This time when his attack was blocked the three knights that moved to intercept him were flung much farther back, and the halberd user who was leading the defense found his weapon now bent in the middle where it had received the attack.

‘And next.’

Turning back around he connected with Samson’s rapier as he was swinging down. And for a moment speaks flew before the thin adamantine blade of Samson’s rapier was cut clean through.

Blood then sprayed across the training ground as Marcus’ scythe grazed his side where his light armor did not cover.

‘Wow the oscillation formation works better than I thought.’

Marcus was amazed by how easily he had just cut right through an enchanted adamantine blade, even if it was on the thin side.

However, he did not have long to reveal in this achievement as the other three knights were still around him and had already regained their cool and were on the attack.

Yet suddenly Marcus’ scythe made a move that was wholly unexpected, and like his shield began defending him on its own.

‘Impact.’

Turning around after catching the attacking knights off guard with his scythe’s auto defend feature, Marcus landed a punch enhanced by the skill he obtained from Inten on the heavily armored tank knight whose shield he had damaged earlier.

And while his armor did take the brunt of the hit, his insides were still rattled and he coughed up a mouthful of blood as he was blasted back.

“Unstoppable Slash.”

Aiming to force his way through Marcus’ auto defending shield and scythe, Launce brought his large broadsword at Marcus from his blind spot and put in as much power as he could into his weapon.

Marcus’ scythe quickly moved to intercept and the two weapons clashed for a bit before the scythe was pushed back.

Without a wielder behind it the amount of power it could exert was only so much, but it still did manage to greatly reduce the power of the attack.

Turning on his toes and keeping up his fluid motion, Marcus grabbed ahold of the scythe and spun around with it while jumping out of the way of Launce’s remaining attack.

‘Nice try.’

Immediately as he got away Dickory blasted him with a barrage of arrows, but he had been prepared for this from the start.

His scythe quickly flew out of his hands again and towards the archer as he used its auto attack function.

Then he jumped high into the air and placed his shield in between him in the arrows in order escaped the massive explosions they created where he had been before.

‘He is doing a pretty good job, but it is only a matter of time.’

Glancing down Marcus could see that Dickory was trying to run away from his scythe which was attacking him relentlessly.

Still, as good as he was, he already had a number of shallow cuts all over his body, and his bow was begin chipped apart whenever he used it to block.

Unfortunately, while Marcus would have liked to let his scythe take down who he considered to be the most troublesome opponent. He needed it to come back to him so he could properly defend against the other knights who had regrouped and were about to launch their next offensive.

As soon as they were together again, the six of them all fired consecutive blasts of mana out of their weapons and sent a massive attack towards Marcus who was still in the air.

But right before their attack hit, his scythe made it back to his hands and he slashed down with his own mana attack.

The two powerful blasts met and fought against each other before Marcus was pushed back slightly and the two attacks exploded as they reached their limits.

The entire sky lit up brightly as the massive culmination of mana burst and shook the area.

Gale force winds began blowing about whipping up the nearby foliage and even dislodging the trees from the edge of the royal woods.

‘Whoops that caused a bit more destruction than I expected.’ Marcus thought as he looked around from way up in the sky where he had retreated.

Looking around in a panic all the knights realized that they had gone a bit overboard with that attack when they saw the collateral damage they had created.

However, Marcus did not give them much time to consider the reprimand they were likely to get, as he slammed back onto the ground and continued his assault.

‘What the!?’ Launce thought as he received Marcus’ next attack.

He could feel that a bit of his mana had just been siphoned off and looked at Marcus in surprise.

In response to Launce’s shock, Marcus smirked, and continued his assault while using his scythe’s mana draining feature.

Now whenever his weapon made contact with anyone’s weapon or body it would siphon off a bit of their mana, and quickly wear them down while also give Marcus a new stockpile of power to draw from.

Quickly the knights realized that a prolonged battle was not in their favor as they strength was steadily sapped away by Marcus’ scythe now that he was no longer holding back on its powers.

‘Give it everything you have. We are going in for one final attack.’ Launce said over the knight’s telepathic connection.

Encircling Marcus, all seven of the knights unleashed the best attacks they still could, and hoped to finish the battle in one big, coordinated attack.

‘Let me see how well this works.’

Holding his scythe forward Marcus charged it up with an excessive amount of his own mana along with every bit he had stolen from the knights.

Then an instant before he was hit the glowing orange eye reappeared from the Doomsday Worm’s core and created a powerful barrier around Marcus.

Huge explosions of power went off around him and he watched as waves of mana tried to break through his barrier.

But as the powerful attacks from all the knights began to dissipate there was not a single crack on the immensely durable barrier Marcus had created that was reminiscent of the Dread Burrower’s.

With Marcus having not taken any damage from their final assault, all of the knights looked out in despair to find that their best efforts had been thwarted.

At this point most of them were out of mana or only running on dregs. And with Launce being the only one with the mana regeneration skill, none of the others would be in peak fighting shape again anytime soon.

“We surrender Lady Geist. We are no longer fit to fight.” Launce said, knowing that he and his team were beat.

Hearing this Marcus looked a little disappoint. He still wanted to use his scythe a bit more. But overall, he was satisfied, and knew that Launce was making the best judgment to prevent any serious injuries.

“That was a good fight. You all really had me sweating there at one point.” Marcus said, complementing the knights.

“No, we do not deserve such praise, Lady Geist. I know you were holding back and incrementally testing out the powers of your scythe. Had you been serious we would not have even lasted a minute.” Launce said as he shook his head.

He had watched Marcus’ fight Quillon during the kingdom’s tournament and knew that along with his skills with the scythe, he was also a master of many magics which he did not use once during their battle.

“Well anyway, thank you for indulging me. Anyone I normally would have sparred with is busy right now, so without all of your help I would not have been able to truly test out my new weapon.”

“You are more than welcome Lady Irene. And I would like to thank you as well. Your help here allowed us to train in a way we rarely get to. Only when the true elites of our kingdom are fee do we ever get to run drills where we can fight against one far stronger opponent.” Launce said while bowing his head.

The other knights who had fought Marcus soon followed suit. Showing their gratitude for him giving them such a memorable match.