'I should have known that it wouldn't be that easy.'
Despite Marcus' attack having an immense amount of power behind it, the blast created from combing two tier six spells never reached Arriba.
Fifteen spectral entities had suddenly appeared the moment that their king was in danger.
One that appeared as a heavily armored knight intercepted Marcus' attack with his shield and another three that had likely been mages in life conjured several barriers as well.
Their combined efforts had been enough to stop the preemptive attack against their liege.
Reflexively Mrazivý activated her Dragon Eyes to read all of the new ghosts' statuses and relayed the information with telepathy to everyone else.
To their surprise, not a single one of these apparitions was below level eighty. And their leader, Ghost King Arriba, was the highest at level eighty-seven.
Marcus' party was outmatched in both numbers and levels, but that did not mean that they were destined to lose this confrontation.
"I'll take the two on the far right."
"I've got the one on the left of the king."
"Leave the those two to me."
"I can handle that one."
"The one in the center seems especially tough, I'll deal with it."
Swiftly everyone took their pick of opponents until only the Arriba and Marcus were left. All of them had decided long ago that he would be the one to take on the Ghost King.
Of course, the vassals of a king would not simply abandon their ruler to go off and fight, but they did not have much of a choice.
Mrazivý, Roxene, Lilia, Alaric, Miguel, Blitz, Inten, Eirwen, Aurelia, and Zareen were not enemies that could simply be ignored.
Each of them viciously attacked their designated adversaries and drove them away.
Within just a few seconds Marcus and Arriba were the only ones left in the throne room and gigantic shockwaves and explosions from intense battles surrounded them.
"Grahhhhh!"
The blood surrounded Arriba and hundreds of bright red skeletons rose up out of it. In less than a second, he had a legion of undead monsters at his command.
With the wave of his hand, the Ghost King commanded his army to advance and crush the renegade attempting to usurper him.
"You're not the only one that can create minions."
To combat his enemy's new forces, Marcus cast the tier eight darkness magic spell, Gloom Titan.
Powerful mana leaked from his body and formed a large pool of darkness that quickly took the form of a fearsome monster with four arms.
"Keep those skeletons off of me." Marcus ordered his conjured monster.
A whip in each hand, the Gloom Titan sent a barrage of lashes towards the blood skeletons and ripped them apart.
This was unable to fully destroy them as each one that was brought down began to reform quickly.
Still, a path to his target had been opened up and Marcus charged forwards without worrying about any of the small fry.
'Powerful Slash.'
When he reached Arriba, he swung hard with his scythe and enhanced its power with the first attacks kill he had ever obtained.
His opponent met his strike and the resounding sound of weapons clashing echoed throughout the area.
Marcus attempted to push back against the Ghost King, but he remained firm and the scepter he was wielding began to glow ominously.
However, as they were locked in place, Marcus gripped the hammer in his left hand firmly and swung it directly at the undead weapon.
A shrill cry that sounded like a cacophony of thousands of voices crying out in anguish followed the blow.
Marcus smiled as small cracks began to form where he had struck the scepter. Thanks to his level ten forge skill, he had a keen eye for any weak points in weapons, armor, and the like.
Along with a new skill called weapon breaker that he had spent his skill points to buy and raise to level seven specifically for this battle, he was well prepared to destroy the abomination in front of him.
"You fiend! How dare you damage the royal scepter!" Arriba screeched while retreating away from Marcus.
An even greater rage was now burning in his eyes, and he was looking at Marcus like he had murdered his family rather than slightly damaged his weapon.
"I understand that you can't see that thing for what it really is. But don't worry, I'll free you from its grasp soon enough."