TRANSMIGRATED AS A GHOST

As Marcus and Quillon had their final clash Marcus was slowly overpowering him.

The full power of all of his unique and supreme skills was more than even Quillon could deal with, until he felt a snap.

With wide eyes Marcus noticed his scythe where he had concentrated most of his power had shattered, its handle and blade breaking apart into numerous pieces unable to deal with the strain of his and Quillon's power.

After that Marcus was blown back crashing against the barrier protecting the audience which shattered being unable to take the full force of his and Quillon's final attacks.

But as the barrier shattered and the overflowing power of Quillon's and Marcus' attacks was about to spill out into the audience, a powerful figure appeared above the ring.

With the clap of her hands Aria, created a new barrier with her sound magic, incapsulating the arena, and dissipating the raging powers within it.

Many in the audience had even begun fleeing the stands as they watched the barrier break, as this was the first time it had ever happen since the tournament had been created.

'To think that the two of them would have the power to break a barrier strong enough to take the full power strike of most high-level sixties.'

Aria along with everyone in the arena was astounded by the display of power that Marcus and Quillon had shown, that was well beyond anything that had been seen in the tournament so far.

Still after the panic of the barrier breaking subsided, everyone looked out at the ring curiously to see who the winner would be.

Unfortunately, Marcus's and Quillon's last clash had blown up quite the dust cloud, and it took nearly thirty seconds before some level of visibility was able to be seen.

However, when things began to clear a single figure could be standing on the rubble that was left of the ring, his sword stabbed into the ground below him to keep himself standing.

And at the edge of the arena's floor his competitor whose clothes and armor were torn apart, was trying to crawl their way back to the ring not having given up yet.

"Ten."

With visibility restored, the referee began the ten count since Marcus was out of the ring.

Of course, he could surmise that MArcus had already been out of the ring for longer than ten seconds, but since it was impossible to confirm, he started the count now.

Hearing this a fire was lit in Marcus as he used every ounce of will and strength left in him to get back in the ring.

Naturally he was in a horrible condition, his soul burst having run out, and his embodiment of eclipse and soul devourer having ravaged him. But defeat was not an option.

'I have to get up, I have to win.' With these thoughts racing through his mind, through sheer will power Marcus began to stand.

He needed to win not only for Mrazivy but for himself.

He could not allow himself to lose after going all out and sacrificing so much.

And with all of his determination Marcus stood up again even as his soul was falling apart, and he could barely keep his solid form.

Even his regeneration skills could not keep up with the abuse he was subjecting himself to, but none of that mattered as long as he could get back in the ring and win.

However, if determination alone was enough to always win, then the weak would not be beaten by the strong.

As he staggered forward, the ten seconds he had to enter the ring ended before he could make the final few steps to the remaining rubble of the tournament's' stage.

"That is it folks. Lady Irene had been out of the ring for ten seconds. The winner is the disciple of the sword savant, Quillon."

Resound cheers echoed throughout the arena as the most intense and amazing match in the history of the kingdom's tournament came to its end.

Loud roars of excitement sounded through the area, but two people felt a deep pit of anguish.

One was Marcus who's hopes of winning the tournament were dashed, and the other was Mrazivy, who was worried about Marcus but also her future.

Their plan had revolved around Marcus winning the tournament, and neither of them had doubted that he would win.

Unfortunately, someone like Quillon was not something that could be planned for, and in the end, it came down to the difference in their weapons' strength.

Marcus' scythe just could not hold up to the immense power unleashed by his and Quillon's final attacks and broke under the pressure.

With his chances to win gone, all of Marcus' strength left him, and he collapsed onto the ground.

He wanted to slam his fists into the ground out of frustration, or yell and scream, but he was completely unable to move.

While he had no visible injuries the internal damage to his soul was great and he was going to need quite a while to fully recover.

In fact, if not for his soul regeneration skill, he likely would have caused serious damage that could have left his soul crippled.

'Damn it, damn it!'

Mentally berating himself, Marcus began playing the fight back in his mind, finding places where he could have done better to eke out a win.

If he had used fire storm instead of his laser spell, or maybe he should have used his tier five darkness magic spell and summoned the ravenous abyss.

He even got to the point where he started thinking that maybe he would have been better of using more of his skill points to level up different skills.

Of course, at the end of the day thinking back on it and trying to find a way to win would not matter, since he had already lost.

Soon the tournament's medical staff, came out cast healing spells on Marcus, though they did not really do anything.

Naturally they became worried and put him on a stretcher and dragged him to the infirmary.

Luckily, this world's physical medicine was basically nonexistent as most injuries could be healed with magic, so none of them noticed that Marcus was not human.

Though, plenty of people who had watched the fight did notice this, but the people at the top already knew, so it did not really matter to Marcus.

After being brough to the infirmary, the medical staff forced some healing and stamina recovery potions down Marcus' throat, before bringing over a device that detected mana.

This way they were able to tell, if Marcus was still alive by seeing that he was still producing mana, since in his current state he looked almost like a corpse.

Still, it was only a matter of time until he was able to move again, and when he could he told the staff member watching over him that he would be fine in a couple of hours, since he had a regeneration skill.

'Now what am I going to do about Mrazivy's situation.'

With his mind clearing up Marcus began trying to reformulate their plan.

A big part of it had revolved around him leveraging the status that came with winning the tournament, but maybe they still had a chance.

However, as he was thinking about, he noticed someone else enter the room he was in, and turning his head saw Mrazivy, with a frantic and worried expression on her face.