Marcus quickly apologized to Mrazivy for using his dangerous abilities without consulting her first. Normally he kept them tightly locked away, but in this situation, he could not come up with any other solution than to use them.
And indeed, his Soul Devour and Life Drain had been quite effective. Zaila's power had dropped by a couple of degrees and was currently suffering from a damaged soul and weakened lifeforce. Her rampage was now far more manageable than it had been before when she was still at peak power.
Also, Marcus was currently brimming with the power he had stolen from Zaila. Her soul and lifeforce had been incredibly rich and given him a temporary boost.
'I should be able to suppress the item's effect on her for a few seconds without any problem. In that time, you will need to cut it out of her.' Marcus said over telepathy to Mrazivy.
'Got it. After what you did she is not putting up nearly as much of a fight. Just make sure not to push yourself too far.'
With their plan set, Marcus once again began pushing himself through Zaila's soul and towards the teethers the pitch-black, barbed stake had rooted into her.
Unlike his previous attempt, Marcus felt far less resistance and easily made it to where the affliction's core was located.
From Marcus' perspective within her soul, he could see that it was causing extreme damage to Zaila and likely causing her mind shattering pain. No doubt one of the ways that it forced its victim into a berserk state.
'Now comes the hard part.' Marcus thought with a steeled expression.
He gathered up all of his spiritual energy and began forcing it out within Zaila's in an attempt to push away the malignant energy.
As he did this Zaila's soul got shredded as he forcefully ripped out the tendrils of black energy infecting her.
Nevertheless, this was within his expectations. At the same time Marcus was employing his spirit healing specter power to repair the damage. It was delicate work and not something that could be easily done, but it was within the power of a great spirit such as Marcus.
Once he had removed all of the black tendrils, it was time to push out the stake. This would end the effect it had on Zaila and limit the damage she would take from its removal. Had they tired to remove it while it was still rooted in her soul and body, Zaila certainly would have died no matter how tough she was. Nothing could survive having its soul destroyed.
It had only taken Marcus less than ten seconds to complete his objective, but for him it had felt like an incredibly long time. He had used up all of the energy he had stolen from Zaila and then some. Still, he had been successful.
'Now Mrazivy. Cut it out, but make sure not to touch it.' Marcus said.
Using swift and precise movements, Mrazivy carved into Zaila's back where the stake had been lodged inside her.
Frankly it was a grievous wound and Zaila cried out in distress as her back was sliced open, but she was unable to thrash about as she wanted.
Roxene, Blitz, and Inten were all currently holding her down on the ground and keeping her in check. Marcus draining her strength had made it possible for the three of them to contain her.
That did not mean she was entirely defeated, a blazing aura of intense flames was emitting from her body, trying to burn everything around her to ash. It was a war of attrition between Marcus' beast companions' defenses and regeneration versus Zaila's power.
With just a few swings of her sword, Mrazivy had sliced deep into Zaila's back and exposed the stake that had been lodged into her body.
Just a single look at it was enough to tell that it was a wicked item that's sole purpose was to cause destruction.
'Just one more strike.' Mrazivy thought as she pulled back her sword.
All she needed to do was hit the stake directly and send it flying out of Zaila's body.
Yet, before she could initiate her final attack, the item fought back. It was like a parasite and was not going to easily be ripped away from its host without resistance.
A dark smoke began blasting out of it and Mrazivy began coughing profusely as it reached her.
She attempted to stop breath to prevent it from entering her system, but the smoke was able to infect her body through her skin.
Unable to keep her focus in the smoke that was damaging her mind and body, Mrazivy failed to block an attack from Zaila's wing that slapped into her.
Evidently the smoke had not only affected her, but Roxene, Blitz, and Inten who were holding Zaila down.
Smacked away, Mrazivy went skipping across the desert like a stone on a lake until she was several kilometers away. The damage she had suffered from the hit was negligible, but it had prevented her from dislodging the stake.
'Marcus, we failed. The stake created some sort of smoke that weakened us, and Zaila managed to throw us off. The wound exposing the stake is already rapidly closing. We need to focus on finishing this now however we can.' Roxene said to Marcus over telepathy.
His two minutes to try and save Zaila were up and now Roxene was urging him to rejoin the fight to put the guardian beast of Aezam down for good.
'No, it is not over yet. Keep the wound open for just another second. We can still do this.' Marcus said back, not willing to give up.
Without waiting for Roxene's response, he began his next action and leapt out of Zaila's soul and body. If Mrazivy was unable to remove the stake he would have to do it instead.
When he found himself in the outside world, he could see that Roxene had backed him up despite her opposition and her teeth and claws were lodged into Zaila and tearing at her back. She was keeping the wound that Mrazivy had inflicted open so that Marcus could remove the stake.
But as Marcus sent out his spectral arm to grab the stake and yank it out, he watched Zaila rip her head free from Blitz and Inten who were restraining her and bite into Roxene with her beak.
The power behind Zaila's bite was tremendous and Marcus watched Roxene's side practically collapse.
Thanks to her Invulnerable Fur unique skill her body had not been pierced but the force behind the bite was still crushing her bones and muscles.
Unfortunately, this was not the worst part of it, Zaila's mouth began to glow brightly and it was clear that she was going to release a blast of flames from her mouth and completely engulf Roxene.
Immediately Marcus turned to protect Roxene over removing the pitch-clack, barbed stake. He could not let her be killed to save Zaila.
BOOM!
Expect, before Marcus did more than turn his attention to Roxene's blight, a massive spear of ice impacted against Zaila's head and bashed her away from Roxene.
A huge beam of flames released from Zaila's beak, but it harmlessly carved across the desert without harming Roxene.
'Go ahead and finish this, Marcus. We have everything else covered.' Mrazivy said, a smirk on her face.
From afar she began launching several ice magic spells at Zaila and containing her movements. Thanks to her intervention the worst had been prevented.
No longer having to worry about Roxene, Marcus turned his attention back towards the stake and saw that it was nearly covered again by Zaila's rapidly regenerating body.
Holding his scythe above his head, Marcus launched his weapon at Zaila's back, and it began moving on its own.
With surgical precision it exposed the foreign object and Marcus sent out his spectral arm and gripped ahold of it.
'You are coming out.'
Using up all the strength he had left, he pulled with all the might his spectral arm could muster.
Slowly the stake began tearing out of Zaila's body and soon he could see the end of it.
Of course, the insidious magic item was not going to simply let itself be removed with ease. Once again it began emitting the same black smoke it had used to prevent Mrazivy from removing it.
'That's not going to work this time.' Marcus thought as he waved his hand in front of him.
Immediately a sphere of fire surrounded him and completely cut him off from the outside. All of the oxygen within and near him was consumed by the flames and prevented the smoke from approaching him.
Normally this would have been an ill-advised strategy for most individuals, but Marcus had no need to breathe and was perfectly fine cutting himself off from the air around him.
He also could not see, but that was fine. He only needed to continue to pull on the stake with his spectral arm.
Soon with one last push he yanked it free from Zaila's body and swiftly pulled it towards himself.
It passed through the flaming barrier he had created with his fire magic and with an outstretched hand Marcus opened his item box and threw the dangerous item inside where it could no longer cause any harm.
After being certain that the pitch-black, barbed stake was sealed away, Marcus canceled his magic and set his sights on Zaila.
The moment the stake was removed from her body, she had completely collapsed and was sprawled out on the ground that had been sundered by their battle.
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