Marcus was no lowly magical creature like a Grayrock Maned Wolf. He was a genuine Level 1 Awakened, and the energy within him was absolutely worth Duke absorbing.
If Duke did not even absorb the energy within Marcus, it would seem far too unreasonable.
So he had to display this scene before the caravan. In truth, Feyn and the others found it entirely normal when they saw it and never considered any other possibility.
No matter what, they could not have imagined that Duke had deliberately staged it, much less that he was someone from another plane.
As for Marcus's corpse, everyone merely assumed that Duke's giant claw of yellow sand had completely crushed it and mixed it into the sand, leaving only a little blood on the ground.
The once-tense mountain pass became utterly silent, as though everything had been nothing more than an illusion.
But everyone knew this was no illusion. Lord Geralt standing before them was an exceptionally formidable Level 1 Awakened.
Such a powerful awakened ability was enough to make him an honored guest in any massive City-state, someone everyone in the caravan had to look up to.
Duke noticed that the warhammer had dissolved into a stream of energy the moment Marcus died.
It seemed that this warhammer was indeed not a weapon in the traditional sense, but part of Marcus's Awakened ability, commonly known as an enchanted armament.
Enchanted armaments were a common Awakened ability. For example, the enormous Tower Shield in Bal's hand was also an enchanted armament.
Enchanted armaments came in many forms. They could be weapons such as swords, warhammers, and bows, or even armor worn on the body.
Besides possessing the characteristics of weapons or armor themselves, these enchanted armaments often had special abilities connected to their Awakened users.
Awakened