Receiving a telepathic communication from Mrazivý that the battle was over, Marcus slowly floated up out of the ground and looked towards Argus who had just killed Felica with one big move.
‘Is it really over?’ He thought as he looked around.
And as he stared off into the distance, he could see the faint outline of the remains of the kingdom’s army fleeing.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Marcus was truly glad that the fighting was over.
He was completely out of strength and even floating very slowly was about all he was capable of right now.
Closing his eyes, Marcus focused on his entire being, and tried to figure out if he had done any lasting damage to himself by using soul devour again.
‘Looks like it is fine for now. But I still need to be careful.’ Marcus thought, seeing that he did not have any lasting damage from using his most dangerous skill. At least this time..
However, he did not get any more time to think about his inner troubles as he was suddenly tackled.
Having run up to him and giving him quite the hug, Mrazivý embraced Marcus even using her spiritual energy in order to touch him while he was in his ghost form.
Marcus then saw tears running down her eyes, and he realized that she must have been really worried about him despite the cool façade she put on when she first arrived.
Though if he arrived and found her in the same state he had been in, he would have definitely been similarly distraught if not even more so.
Going into his solid form so that they could have a proper conversation, and since she was kind of crushing him with her spiritual energy, Marcus said, “Mraz, could you loosen up a bit. You are about to crush me.”
Releasing her heavy hold on him and moving her head back, Mrazivý looked him in the eyes before kissing him.
She was absolutely relived that he had survived, since when she arrived, he was completely broken and just moments away from being destroyed.
Of course, Marcus would have been fine since he still had his once a year reset button, but it was still very distressing to see the person you loved in such a horrible state.
As the two of them savored this moment of their reunion, Argus walked over brazenly and said, “Jed I see that you are acquainted with this mysterious warrior. Might you mind telling me who they are?”
Pulling back from each other, Marcus looked at Argus with a bit of embarrassment and said, “Ah yes this is my lover, Mra-, I mean you can just call her M. I do not know the exact details, but it looks like she got worried about me and came to help.”
“Hm, what an odd couple. A spirit and some sort of dragon human hybrid being in a relationship That is certainly not something you see every day.” Argus said seemingly very interested in both Marcus and Mrazivý.
Naturally he had noticed Marcus’ ethereal abilities and the way that he let off a gray mist when horribly injured. Which confirmed his suspicions, that Marcus was indeed a spirit and not someone with a unique skill that allowed them to be ethereal.
Then there was also Mrazivý, who while still being in a humanoid form, had many characteristics of a dragon, one of which being their immense strength.
Hearing this, Mrazivý realized that she was still using her transformation, and quickly her form began to revert.
However, while she went back to looking mostly human with her wings and scales disappearing, her fangs and horns while shrinking, were still noticeable.
Immediately as she disabled her dragon form, Mrazivý began to stumble her body feeling heavy after the intense battle she had just been in.
Still, she managed to keep herself up with her willpower, especially since she was partially supporting Marcus who could barely stand.
Seeing Argus’ very interested, almost creepily so gaze, Marcus decided to change the subject and said, “Now what happened with your battle against Cibor? You said that he turned tail and ran?”
“Ah yes, I suppose that you would want to know about that. Well, I do not mean to praise myself too much, but after a few dozen whacks from my hammer, Cibor realized that he was outmatched.” Argus said while laughing make it seem like he single handedly drove away Cibor without a sweat.
Of course, this was not really the truth, and Argus actually played more of a support role, blocking Cibor’s attacks, or creating openings, while Marek used all the power he had gather from his unlimited stockpile to push Cibor back.
Though if it came down to the final attack that caused Cibor to retreat, it was a heavy blow that was dealt by Argus who feinted blocking for Marek and instead smashed Cibor in the face.
Except when he had done this, Marek himself got cut up pretty bad by Cibor’s attack, but at the least it still forced Cibor to retreat due to his face being crushed.
“Ah but you can hear more about this later. It would probably be best if we head back to the wall and prepare, in case Cibor decides to come back after recovering and reorganizing his remaining troops.” Argus said after a couple of minutes.
Nodding their heads and following along, Marcus and Mrazivý followed Argus back to the city’s wall, though their progress was a bit slow do to how worn out everyone was.
‘Roxene how are you and Lyra?’ Marcus sent out with his telepathy now that the battle was over.
Then, after around a minute of silence Marcus received back, ‘We are both still alive. I was asleep. Very tired. Going back to bed. Find you later.’
After receiving this short and very to the point response from his beast companion, some of the internal tensions he was feeling released.
Certainly, Marcus had wished he could have fought right next to Lyra on the battlefield to make sure she was safe, but when they were strategizing, he realized that the best bet was for him to fight alone since he could cause the most damage that way.
Anyway, it was not like Lyra was not very strong in her own right, and Marcus knew that he could not be there to protect her at all times like a delicate flower. He just wanted to make sure he did what he could, so that his old friend he had watched die once before, did not meet the same fate again.
With one of his worries now alleviate, Marcus turned his attention towards Mrazivý, and while they were walking used his telepathy to talk to her.
‘So, Mraz. Would you mind telling me about that new power of yours, which I assume is your evolution, and what led you to come here?’
Nodding her head Mrazivý looked intently at Marcus before saying, ‘Yeah, you are right that I achieved my evolution, and it was even stronger than I thought it would be. Now I am not exactly a human, having awakened the dragon blood in me, and becoming a sovereign ice dragonoid. Truth be told, now I am a hybrid of human and magical beast, and the magic core I absorbed actually became my own.’