Transmigrated as a Ghost

Marcus had to force himself to keep a neutral expression as the Lava Dragon called his bluff.

Obviously, the powerful mythic beast hardly believed that an entity that was in the mid level seventies could truly command some of the most powerful beings on the planet.

Still, the thirty-second reprieve was invaluable in this situation, and Marcus was at least grateful that he was able to gain them this time.

'We've not got long so we'll have to risk him possessing telepathy jack. Let's form a strategy while we have the time.' Marcus said over telepathy to Lyra and Quillon.

'All I'm good at is swinging my sword. The only place for me is the vanguard.'

'My illusions won't be all that effective against a dragon since it can easily see through them, and I'm not sure if my fire will be able to harm it at all. I'll do my best at diversion, but that's probably all I can do.'

With his friends taking their ideal roles in the battle, Marcus decided to take a backline position and provide magical support, ranged offense, and defense.

His skills and abilities allowed him to take up a versatile position, so he would keep back and use his magic to keep control over the battle.

Of course, whether any of their powers would prove effective against the seemingly insurmountable foe before them was yet to be seen. However, all they could do was give it their all. This was not the kind of enemy they could show their backs to and run away from.

"Your thirty seconds are up. It seems that no Great Spirit has answered your call." The Lava Dragon said amusedly.

Without waiting for another moment, it renewed its attack.

Flapping its wings, it sent a volley of supersonic wind blades flying towards Marcus, Lyra, and Quillon.

The three of them immediately dispersed and activated their defensive skills to protect themselves while getting into position.

'Lighting warrior, arms of darkness, legs of light, radiant scales, iron skin, persistent healing, flame emperor…'

Utilizing his neglected spell sharing skill, Marcus stacked up several buff spells on himself and his two allies.

Before his evolution, doing something like this would have drained him of his mana far too quickly, but he now had a far larger pool to work with. As long as he monitored his output carefully and used potions and his Ultimate Refresh to keep himself from running out, he could keep this up for at least an hour.

Still, he was not done quite yet.

Channeling the rest of his mana stores, Marcus combined three tier eight spells and conjured his thunderous molten colossus. It had done well in the battle against a different giant mythic beast and Marcus was hoping that it could take the brunt of Gronex's attacks

Having fully exhausted himself right from the start, Marcus was forced to expend one of the charges of his Ultimate Refresh. Nevertheless, his preparations for battle were complete.

'Now I just need to get Relia out of here.'

One of the other objectives he had given himself was to get their vampiric guide to safety. She was still frozen in horror thanks to Gronex's draconic presence. Her willpower simply unable to overcome the sheer terror that such a beast exuded.

Fortunately, Marcus had just the ability to help him out here without leaving the main battle.

For the first time, he activated his Ecto Duplicate ability.

Sectioning off a small part of his soul and filling it with his spiritual energy, he created what appeared to be a perfect copy of himself.

"Don't worry, I've got her main me." The duplicate said, surprising Marcus with how expressive it was.

After that, Marcus' clone flew off and grabbed Relia. He would take her as far away from the battlefield as possible and keep her safe.

"This feels weirder than I was expecting, but no time to think about it now." Marcus muttered, turning his full attention back to the battle.

His enormous golem was doing its job well and keeping the Lava Dragon distracted while Quillon attacked, and Lyra made a nuisance of herself with her own clones and illusion.

Gronex seemed to be smiling as they fought. He was enjoying their all-out struggle against him. A battle hungry dragon that was finally being satiated after so long.

"Sword savant style fourth form, whirlpool strikes."

Breaking through the Lava Dragon's defenses, Quillon unleashed one of the powerful techniques he had learned from his master.

His blade blurred with a flurry of rapid slashes, and he carved into Gronex's scales.

Sparks flew as the amethros sword scraped against dragon hide, and small spurts of boiling blood erupted from the wounds he inflicted.

Nevertheless, Quillon merely clicked his tongue in frustration. His attacks were far too shallow against such a massive foe. He was barely able to get the tip of his blade into the flesh below before the dense magically enhanced muscles stopped him.

Then before he knew it, something came flying at him from the side at an unbelievable speed.

'Sword savant style seventh form, warding flash.'

As he was about to be hit by Gronex's tail, Quillon unleashed his fastest defensive technique, but there had been no need to do so.

The instant the attack was about to hit, Marcus' colossus moved to intercept and took the heavy blow with its body.

Its molten form rippled as it absorbed the clublike tail.

Enormous splashes of molten metal and bolts of lightning rained down on the Lava Dragon as he pummeled Marcus' construct, but he was hardly fazed. At most it was comparable to a normal person getting splashed by a bit of water and shocked by some static electricity.

'Quillon, don't focus on one thing. There's only so much we can do to cover you.' Marcus said over telepathy.

He understood that his friend expected his attack to do more damage, but this was not the sort of opponent that they take lightly. Even their best strikes were not likely to be very effective. That was something they just needed to accept.

While the two of them discussed this and tried to create another opening to attack, dozens of Lyras were swarming Gronex's face and acting as a distraction.

She had already entered her awakened nine tailed state from the start of the fight, and her eight real clones and eighty-one illusory copies were making a nuisance of themselves.

With a mighty swing from one of its hands, Gronex tore through the space with its claws and unleashed a devastating blast of mana.

Four of Lyra's clones were instantly destroyed, and she was forced to switch places with one in order to avoid being hit herself.

'Apex Boost.'

'Embodiment of Eclipse, Perfect Duality.'

Seeing that things were getting dicey already, Marcus activated his two trump cards.

Thanks to Apex Boost's secondary activation, he was able to raise his stats by another thirty percent for an hour, and obviously the increase in strength thanks to his first Supreme Skill was just as immense as ever.

Of course, doing this put quite the strain on him, but he could hardly complain about a bit of self-damage at this point. Fighting an over level ninety dragon was not something he could do with half measures.

"Try this on for size. Calamity Bolt."

Going on the offensive for the first time, Marcus brought down a tier eight lightning magic spell right on top of the enormous Lava Dragon.

A monstrous spear of lightning seemed to descend from the heavens, large enough to fully engulf even the five-hundred-meter-long dragon.

Yet, just before the moment of impact, a dome shaped shield of magma appeared above Gronex and absorbed the blow.

A blinding explosion akin to a nuclear bomb going off filled the massive chamber.

The kilometers deep sea of magma churned like a typhoon, and the far-off stone above, below, and too the sides that made up this section of the Darklands began to shatter.

As Marcus' spell's name suggested, it truly brought upon a calamity. But even then, it had not been so much as scorched Gronex's scales. The imposing Lava Dragon remined completely unharmed. Its swiftly conjured shield easily holding out against Marcus' magic.

"Yes, that's more like it. This will be more entertaining than I expected. Now, I know that all of you have Supreme Skills. I won't be holding back any longer, so hurry up and use them before you die."

Gronex unleashed a cacophonous roar along with a powerful wave of mana that appeared to be warping the space around it.

With its four wings, it lifted its body out of the magma it had been resting in and hovered in the open air above.

Then without warning, the massive dragon launched itself directly at Marcus. Having determined that he was the most interesting opponent.

"Fine, if that's what you want."

Except, before Gronex could reach his indented target, Quillon appeared right in front of the dragon

"Supreme Skill, Ten Greatest Techniques. Rebound."

With an imperceptibly fast strike, Quillon slashed his sword into Gronex's head.

What normally should have occurred after this was Quillon's sword hardly breaking the scales on the Lava Dragon's face and then being unceremoniously runover by its immense body.

However, what happened instead was a complete and utter disregard for the laws of physics.

The moment the blade touched the giant dragon; it came to a complete stop and its body comically compressed like an accordion.

Quillon's attack always sent whatever it came into contact with flying back towards where it had come from. And a charging Lava Dragon was no exception.