Transmigrated as a Ghost

'What was she thinking?'

Looking down at Mrazivý, Marcus could not believe what she had just done.

She had pushed back the giant lead ox with one hand and tossed it aside like it was a piece of trash.

While Marcus' display had been impressive and he showed off prowess that was far beyond the norm, even while holding back. What Mrazivý had just done must have been practically impossible for most of the audience to process.

All around was just stunned silence. For the first time since the start of the festival their was barely any sound in the arena and everything had gone still.

Eventually the announcer got his wits about him and loudly shouted that Mrazivý had won, before rapidly talking about what an impressive feat she had just performed.

Several people in the audience began clapping, but it was quite subdued compared to the applause that Marcus had gotten after his performance. All of the normal people in the arena were simply befuddled by what they had just witnessed.

Some even began shouting that the match had been rigged somehow and that the lead ox must have been some type of illusion. Marcus noticed that among these people, most were holding tickets used for betting on the match and he imagined that they had lost.

Of course, what they had seen was reality, just one so preposterous that it seemed unbelievable.

As the crowd became more discounted and seemed like it might riot, a single man jumped down to the floor of the arena where Mrazivý was.

This naturally drew everyone's attention, and those that recognized the man went wide eyed and their mouths gaped open.

'He's strong. Very strong.' Marcus thought narrowing his eyes as he looked at the man.

Mrazivý also took a defensive posture after noticing that this man was not the average persona and strong enough to be a threat to her.

Thankfully, the man held his hands up and adopted a posture showing that he had no intention of fighting, before turning back to look at the crowd of people who were now watching him.

"I am Aziz Sulb, and I am sure that many of you have already recognized me having watched my matches in the previous festivals! I can assure you that what you just witnessed was not some form of illusion or trickery! This woman is simply powerful enough to push back a lead ox with one hand! A feat that I could similarly accomplish!" The man shouted loud enough for everyone in the arena to hear.

Hearing the name, Marcus recognized it immediately since it was one that he had been warned about by the Eazim Clan's grand elder.

'So, that is the brother of Sulb Clan's current grand elder and one of the strongest fighters in the nation.' Marcus thought, looking down at the man who looked like he was in his late twenties.

He was quite a bit smaller than Marcus expected, not being the hulking type of man that he envisioned.

His body was toned, but not overly muscular, and his height was only sitting at around one hundred sixty-five centimeters tall.

Still, despite his form not looking overly imposing, he was certainly very strong. Easily the strongest person Marcus had seen since coming to Aezam.

With a man of such repute having vouched for Mrazivý's strength the crowd began to settle down.

"Thank you for that. It seems that I may have shown off a bit too much." Mrazivý said.

"No, you did nothing wrong. In fact, you displayed abilities far greater than I was expecting. I am very much looking forward to the tournament now." Aziz said, a wide grin on his face.

He then jumped high into eh air and disappeared from view, flying through the sky and heading off somewhere else.

'Looks like we are going to have some challenges in the tournament.' Marcus thought, watching Aziz fade into the distance.

After things settled down a bit, Marcus and Amira met back up with Mrazivý and began making their way to their lodgings. For the duration of the festival, they would be staying in a hotel within the area of the festival since it would be too much trouble to return to the grand elder's estate every day.

It was already well best midnight now and while there were still some people moving about, most of the festival had shut down for the day and things were relatively quiet.

'Marcus they are converging on us.' Mrazivý said over telepathy.

Throughout the entire day they had noticed people following them, but now it seemed that the ones that had been running the pillar cutting event were making their move.

With her superior hearing Mrazivý had been listening around to the moment of people and noticed a large group slowly encircling them just a bit before Marcus did.

Soon enough he was able to get an accurate count of the assailants coming for them using his life sense skill.

'I'm impressed that they got this many people together so quickly. There are over a hundred of them.' Marcus thought, focusing on the people around them.

For the most part none of the ambushers were all that strong, just being your average thugs, but a few among them were not weak. One of the signals that Marcus felt was likely above level fifty and he was very surprised to fine someone that strong among their ranks.

Nevertheless, if they wanted to really threaten them, then they would have needed to bring someone as strong as Aziz.

"Lady Amira, something is amiss here. We are being surrounded." Amira's head guard said.

He had noticed the lack of regular citizens around them as they continued down the streets and the shifty movements of those that remained.

His senses were pretty good, but while he did notice that there were about to be ambushed, he was a little late to prevent it.

Immediately Amira's guards took up a defensive position around her and stopped moving while trying to assess the situation and find the best escape point.

One guard also came over to Marcus and Mrazivý, but they sent him away to protect Amira since they did not need any help.

Noticing that their targets had taken up defensive postures, the people surrounding Marcus' group stopped trying to blend in as normal citizens and began to show their true colors.

"Whoever you are, I must inform you that I am Amira Eazim, and taking such actions against me will only lead to your deaths. If you are to withdraw now, I will not have my clan take actions against you." Amira shouted out, trying to keep an air of authority despite the fact that she was scared.

Of course, the people attacking them were already aware of her status, and none of them faltered.

"Mraz, do you mind if I leave things here to you. I am going to round up the ones that we absolutely need to catch alive." Marcus said.

"Sure. This should be easy enough. A little light exercise before bed." Mrazivý said, as she took out her system recognized adamantine saber.

Seeing this powerful weapon caused the thugs that had surround them to falter a bit and almost all of the archers that were waiting on top of the nearby buildings trained their weapons on Mrazivý.

However, in the next instant their alarm was heightened further when Marcus simply vanished.

He had reverted to his ghost form and began flying off towards where Talab was to make sure he caught the ringleader of this ambush.

It took Marcus only a couple of seconds before he arrived above the building that Talab along with a contingent of his closest followers were waiting on top of.

"Where the hell did that guy go?! He just vanished!" Talab said, frustration in his voice.

He had been watching through a spyglass and noticed Marcus disappear.

"Hello. Were you looking for me." Marcus said reappearing right behind Talab.

The man turned around and found Marcus within arm's reach of him and went wide eyed in shock.

In the next instance, Marcus' fist had collided with Talab's face and broke the man's nose and knocked out several of his teeth. Marcus had not taken kindly to the man who talked about torturing his wife in order to force her to open her item box. Even if he was no threat to them.

The other people standing around on the roof were stuck in a daze but what had happened and did not have any time to react before Marcus knocked them all out. The force of which he applied being propertied to how much they had participated in planning this assault.

"That should do it here." Marcus said, tying up the dozen people with his iron threads to make sure they did not escape. "Now time to deal with the ones hiding and waiting."

Vanishing again Marcus flew into some of the nearby building and incapacitated several assassins that had been hiding in these rooms.

'Oh, she noticed me' Marcus thought as he struck towards one of the assassins and was dodged.

This was the single attacker that was over level fifty and was clearly a true professional.

The second she saw Marcus; she threw down a ball which exploded and created smoke screen of poisonous gas.

Marcus though was not impeded at all by this and followed behind the fleeing assassin and caught up to her with ease.

She tried a few more desperate maneuvers to escape, but Marcus was pretty much just toying with her to see what she was capable of. He was enjoying seeing what tricks a high-level professional assassin had.

Eventually the assassin realize that she was being toyed with and pulled out a spell sealing talisman form her item box.

With but a glance Marcus realized that this talisman had a space magic spell sealed within it and that the assassin was going to try and teleport away.

Yet before the spell could activate, he upped his speed and appeared right next to the woman before gripping ahold of her arm hard enough to shatter the bone.

She dropped the talisman without being able to activate it and let out a grunt of pain.

But despite being caught and now seriously injured, she did not stop fighting and spit a needle out of her mouth at Marcus.

Sadly, it was lacking in the force necessary to injure him and bounced right off his neck.

"Sorry, that is not going to work, and I cannot let you get away." Marcus said, before hitting the woman on the back of the neck and knocking her out.

Hefting her over his shoulder, Marcus went around collecting the other assassins he had incapacitated before retrieving Talab and his retinue.

When he returned, he found that the road was littered with bodies and broken weapons, each with a single slash wound through them from Mrazivý's sword.