"Awaken!"
As Marcus heard the fox beastgirl say this, he noticed her aura start to shift and a gold and sliver glow began to emit off her body.
And seeing this he quickly realized he had seen something similar to this before when Treasa transformed.
'She is entering her evolved form.'
Knowing what this was, Marcus was not going to just let her power up and quickly unleashed his next attack.
'Darkness drill laser.'
Combining his tier four light and darkness magic spell, Marcus sent them through all six of his elemental focusing lenses and unleashed one of his most powerful attacks.
Quickly the spiraling blast of light and darkness energy descended upon the fox beastgirl.
But right before it hit her, she disappeared without a trace, as Marcus combination spell bored deep into the already shattered ground.
'Flash Fire Step.'
'Fuck.'
With barely an instant to react Marcus crossed his arms in front of him as the rebel captain appeared to his left and delivered a swift kick clad in bluish silver flames.
Before Marcus even had a moment to process what had happened, he felt his body crashing into the ground before he was tugged back by the chain that connected him to the fox beastgirl.
Being wrenched back into the open, Marcus saw that his enemy had retrieved her kukris and was preparing to deliver a finishing blow.
'Embodiment of Eclipse, Bright Form.'
With the rebel commander using the full power of her evolved form, Marcus was being completely overwhelmed and knew he needed to resort to his strongest trump card.
Increasing all of his stats drastically but especially his agility, Marcus quickly righted his posture and resummoned his scythe to him just in time to meet the fox beastgirls' attack head on.
A devastating explosion emanated from their clash, before the two of them were pushed back as far away as they could be.
Then for just moment there was a stand still as they both appraised each other's recent transformations.
'She is much stronger now and can move impossibly fast. Even faster than Quillon. However, the biggest change is the number of tails she has. Now she has nine.'
Seeing this Marcus knew that this transformation was anything but ordinary.
He already knew that things like dragons and other mythological beings from Earth existed here, and among some of the most powerful were supposedly nine tailed foxes.
'Her wound has also closed without a trace, and her flames are even hotter. This is not going to be easy.' Marcus thought.
And as Marcus was evaluating her, so was she, and she similarly was daunted by the level of power Marcus was emitting.
His latest powerup made him just as fast as her when speed was the primary boost she got from her awakening.
Still, she had no intention of backing down since she thought this might be her only chance to end such a dangerous foe.
Disappearing in a streak of flames the fox beastgirl practically teleported towards Marcus with how fast she was moving.
Yet he was able to keep up thanks to the powerful light that coursed around and through his form giving him comparable speed.
The two of them then clashed back and forth over and over, no longer using any tricks or trying to position for spell, only clashing against each other with raw power.
Quickly their intense battle had them moving around the mountain, and wherever they met, explosions of fire and light and darkness wiped out the landscape.
The two of them unleashed all of their skills, trying to crush the other, but each time they found themselves unable to gain much ground.
However, they both soon realized that at this rate whoever ran out of stamina first was going to be the loser, and neither of them planned on letting that be them.
Jumping back the fox beastgirl began glowing brighter, before twenty-six clones of herself appeared.
This was a far cry from the eight she had made earlier, but Marcus quickly realized something.
Of these clones eight of them were not simple illusions but were real physical manifestations.
The fox girl and her clones then began circling around Marcus making it difficult for him to pinpoint which ones were real and which ones were fake.
However, there was one cavoite and that was that he could still sense the life force emanating from the original.
"Fox Fire Whisps"
As Marcus was being encircled, each of the fox girls' tails began glowing at the tip before small balls of fire formed on them and began flying towards Marcus.
With two hundred forty-three balls of fire flying towards him, Marcus had no way to determine which of the eighty-one were real.
So instead, he just decided to blow everything away.
'Shine Ring.'
Casting a tier five light magic spell, Marcus sent a circular blast of light out that grew in size as it moved away from him, enveloping everything within a three-hundred-foot diameter.
This managed to blow back the fire whisps that were coming for him as well as forcing the fox girl and her clone to escape into the air or be engulfed.
And while he was not sure which of the clones were real and which were fake, it did not really matter since he knew exactly which was the original.
Yet before Marcus could make his next move all of the fox beastgirls opened their mouths and a coalescing ball of fire appeared as they prepared to unleash a simultaneous breath attack.
But Marcus only smiled waiting for the moment right before they fired.
Watching closely, Marcus waited until the rebel captain's fire breath reached its peak and was about to be unleashed.
This would be the moment when she could no longer hold back the attack and would be open to a counter.
'Now!'
'Eclipse Meteor!'
Converging all of the swirling energy around him, Marcus rocket towards his target, become an unstoppable projectile of light and darkness.
Flying upwards Marcus met the flame breath that had just unleashed from the original fox beastgirl and blasted through it, before smashing into her with an immense explosion of light and darkness.
BOOM!
As the explosion expanded the rebel captain's body was blown completely apart being reduced to nothing.
Except Marcus realized that something was wrong.
And instant before he hit, the flame breath he was fighting against suddenly became much weaker, and the body he hit felt unnatural.
'She is still alive!'
As the explosion he caused began to settle down Marcus focused on his life sense, and he located his adversary.
She was now in the place that the farthest real clone had been from Marcus.
Somehow, she had switched places right before Marcus hit her with his eclipse meteor.
Though even then she had still taken a great deal of damage from the explosion which had expanded far further than the hundred-foot range her unique skill allowed her to go if she wished to keep Marcus tethered.
However, Marcus was also worse for wear after using eclipse meteor.
The attack drained most of power, and Marcus was nearing his limits now.
"This is your last chance. Release me or I am going to kill you. I do not want to push this any further if I do not have to." Marcus said trying one last time to end this fight amicably.
"You must be getting desperate if you are asking me for that now. No, I am sure you are worn out after that last attack." The rebel captain responded with a determined expression.
She had already decided to put everything on the line to win.
She believed that Marcus was too dangerous to let go now, and that if she did not stop him here the rebellion would be in danger.
"Fine then. You can deal with you regrets in the next life."
"Soul Devour."
Activating his most dangerous skill, Marcus began devouring his own soul for power and the euphoric sense of strength it gave him began to overwhelm him.
Its power was extraordinary, and he felt as if he could conquer the world as all of the fatigue he had been feeling quickly vanished.
In fact, the power seemed to have grown even greater since the last time he had used it, and the aura around him was even more sinister
Seeing this, for the first-time fear creeped into the rebel captain's eyes, and she felt the overwhelming power that Marcus was currently emitting.
'He had another power like this up his sleeve.' She thought seeing Marcus go beyond the extreme power he had already demonstrated.
"Fine I will break the connection." The fox beastgirl said.
A moment later the chain that connected them shattered, but it was already too late.
Marcus was already on a set path and now that soul devour was active in full force he was not going to be stopped easily.
'Death Dance.'
Using the strongest attack skill he had, which he had obtained from the mythic spirit gem. Marcus began spinning around using the tips of his toes to stop and start abruptly as he cut through all of the remaining clones at a blinding speed.
He did not care if they were illusion or real as he sliced through them.
This time he wanted to make that his target did not escape so he destroyed all of her clones to prevent her from switching places again.
Of course, as this happened, she did not stand idly by and began running away. She knew at this point she was no match for Marcus and fled as fast as she could.
"You're not getting away." Marcus yelled as he quickly began perusing her after finishing off the last of her clones that only had about a third of the strength she did.
With all of his buffs along with the activation of the death dance skill, Marcus moved with extreme grace and speed, and soon caught up to the fleeing fox girl like a spinning top of death.
'Killer Phantasm.'
In a last ditched effort to win, the rebel captain cast one of her tier six illusion magic spells.
This spell unlike her others which created things everyone could see only targeted one person. But its effects were powerful.
It made them see their worst fears come to life often forcing them into insanity where they took their own lives.
She hated using this spell since it was horrifying just to watch what it did to people, but she was out of options.
However, as she cast the spell, she felt it hit her target, and then dissipate having no effect.
A moment later, Marcus had reached her and slashed with his scythe.
Yet by some miracle, she managed to raise her kukris just in time to defend against the attack preventing herself from being killed in one strike.
Still, she was blown back by the power behind the attack, and soon crashed into the ground leaving a long and deep trench before coming to a stop.
And just a second after she had landed, Marcus smashed into the ground right in front of her and slashed his scythe down towards her.
She brought up her kukris and fought for her life, as Marcus pushed against her, crushing her into the ground and causing a massive crater.
Even through that thought the rebel captain resisted with all her might holding Marcus back as she was pushed deeper and deeper.
But she felt her bones beginning to crack, and her arms were soon to waver.
She could not believe she was about to die.
Searching her memories, trying to recall something that could save her nothing came up, she knew she had lost.
Her mind then moved to the one question it had during this entire fight, and that was who this was, wanting to remember the name of her killer
She had tired to recall where she had seen him before, thinking to all of the people she had met in the king's court or when she was still just a young girl.
Yet it was not until her mind wandered very far back, from before she was who she was today, to a time that seemed an eternity ago did she recall who she had been fighting.
"Marcus?!"
Chapter 403 Reunion On Another World