TRANSMIGRATED AS A GHOST

Looking at the three new opponents that had arrived, Marcus quickly remembered the information he had obtained on them when first exploring the demon's stronghold.

'Level forty-two mutant eight-armed troll, Level forty-four huge mantis of some kind, but the worst is definitely that dark blue jellyfish that can control water and electricity and is level forty-five.'

With his situation taking a huge turn for the worse, Marcus quickly developed a strategy that would buy him the most time.

Marcus knew that winning at this point would be impossible, but if he could hold out for just a few minutes, reinforcements would arrive.

Making a break for it, Marcus began running away from the demon that was the biggest threat and straight towards the three new beasts and monsters.

Unfortunately, the demon really wanted Marcus dead and like a blur it was right on top of him.

The demon began stabbing forward with its blade arms prioritizing speed over power while from behind the huge mantis with morningstar arms came up towards him ready to attack as well.

'Embodiment of light.'

Knowing that he needed more speed than power, Marcus switched over his embodiment skills and with the sharp increase in speed Marcus was better able to avoid the demon's rapid thrusts if only just barely.

However, as the mantis began swinging its morning star like arms at him Marcus was unable to avoid it normally, so he went back to his ghost form to allow the attack to pass by him harmlessly.

Nevertheless, while the mantis could not hurt him, the demon had some means of dealing with Marcus' etherealness and thinking it had won stabbed straight towards Marcus who's mobility was now lowered.

Except this had all been apart of Marcus' plan as he backed up towards the mantis floating under it and putting it between him and the demon's attack.

Yet instead of redirecting his attack, the demon simply stabbed through the mantis and into Marcus who just barely managed to keep the demon's blade arm from impaling him and only slicing deep into his right arm.

The grey mist that made up Marcus' essence began gushing out from the wound and Marcus felt the sharp pain from the injury.

Gritting his teeth and taking the pain, Marcus resolidified, and his high-speed regeneration went right to work healing his arm, as Marcus ran under the mantis and out the other side to where the troll and the dark blue jellyfish were waiting.

When he appeared a rain of water balls crackling with electricity fell towards him from the jellyfish and the demon side stepped around the mantis and sent out a barrage darkness blades.

Weaving and dodging, Marcus did his best to avoid any of the more dangerous blows as he was sliced up and electrocuted by the jellyfish and demon's attack.

Getting out from the barrage of attacks with dozens of minor injuries, Marcus found himself in front of the eight-armed troll, with the demon coming from close behind.

The troll then lunged at him, and the demon raised its blade arms to finish Marcus off no matter what he did.

'I made it.'

Making no effort to avoid the charging troll that was right in front of him Marcus went back into his ghost from as its arms began pummeling the ground where he had been.

A moment later the demon slashed through the space not carrying about the troll's arms intending to slice Marcus to ribbons.

However, even as it sliced through the troll's arms where Marcus should have been, he seemed to have disappeared even from the demon who could see invisible beings.

The demon then noticed that the troll was beginning to act strange as it thrashed around and the dark aura around it seemed to be flickering.

'Shit this is way harder than I thought it would be.'

Marcus was currently having a battle of wills against the troll, as he had possessed it when it tried to attack him.

Nevertheless, the dark aura that currently had dominion over the troll was also fighting Marcus. But using a trick he had figured out after defeating the shadow demon, Marcus was attempting to absorb the power controlling the troll using his embodiment of darkness and the mysterious unique skill that was still mostly locked.

Luckily since he had already done it before and now had the aid of his tendrils of shadow it was not as taxing on him, and soon Marcus had managed to absorb the dark energy that had been used to control the troll and take it over himself.

'You have leveled up to level 39.'

Surprised to hear the sudden level up notification, Marcus did not have much time to worry about it as the demon seemed to have grasped the situation as the dark aura around the troll dissipated.

Marcus while still in the troll's body felt the demon stab both of its blade arms into it and pump a massive amount of darkness energy in.

Luckily the troll's natural regenerative abilities along with Marcus' kept it from dying, and Marcus brought down all eight of the troll's arms towards the demon.

Unfortunately, the demon was much faster and after taking its blade arms out of the troll's body, sliced off all of its arms with a few quick swipes.

Feeling that staying in the troll any longer was not going to help him Marcus left its body and watched as just a moment later the dark blue jellyfish wrapped it up with is tendrils allowing the mantis and demon to tear it apart.

The poor troll barely lasted a second as it was ripped to shreds and the darkness energy from the demon corroded its body away even through its regeneration now that Marcus was no longer supporting.

With one less enemy Marcus felt his burden decrease slightly, and he even felt refreshed after absorbing the energy controlling the troll along with some of its life forces by way of his tendrils of shadows.

'Done'

Using the brief moment he had while the troll had his other enemies attention, Marcus had opened up his status and quickly distributed his new stat points.

Now slightly stronger than before, Marcus darted around towards the mantis hoping to keep it in between him in the demon.

Alas, the demon was not going to let Marcus keep using these kinds of tricks as it hurtled the swirling void of darkness toward him, and it slowly began to compress.

Marcus had seen it use this trick before and knew that a powerful explosion was coming his way, so even though he was trying to conserve mana Marcus deployed a heighted radiance scales right before the demon's spell blew up.

KABOOM!

In a huge eruption of darkness, the demon's spell exploded, the attack taking over a large area as Marcus braced for impact.

As the explosion of darkness engulfed him, Marcus felt his radiance scales being broken apart quickly, and soon his spell collapsed as the remain force of the demon's attack began assaulting him.

Luckily his spell had withstood most of the force behind the attack, and after taking only a slight bit of damage due to his high resistance of darkness energy Marcus made it out with only light wounds.

However, as the attack dissipated Marcus noticed that all around him was a sheet of water coursing with electricity and many tendril of the dark blue jellyfish had surrounded him.

Except the worst part was that the demon was standing right behind him, both of its blade arms poised to attack the instance he moved.

For all intents and purposes Marcus was trapped.

If he tried to turn ethereal and pass through the jellyfish's blockade, the demon would certainly cut him down, and trying to run away with still in his physical form would have him assaulted by the jellyfish.

"You put up a good fight, but you were hopelessly outmatched against me. It appears that I even overestimated you since you seem far weaker this time. However, I will give you chance."

Marcus then heard a loud metallic clang next to him and saw one of the collars that was affixed to the higher-level monsters and beasts under the demon's control.

"Put that collar on and submit to me willingly, and I will let you live as my slave. Try to flee and I will gut you like a fish. You have five seconds to decide."

Turning around and picking up the collar, Marcus wondered if he could maybe resist its effects somehow if he put it on but pushed that out of his mind quickly.

He was not willing to take the chance that he would lose his free will and would rather go out fighting.

'It is still a bit early, but it seems I have no choice but to go all out now and hope for the best.'

With just one second left Marcus prepared himself for the fight of his life when he suddenly saw the demon's face grimace, and a moment later in a burst of light, the winged unicorn Veunlux flew into the room and slammed into the mantis monster that was near the entrance sending it flying.

The demon's eyes then went wide as it understood what was going on and without hesitation moved to cut of its arm and activate its escape ability.

'Not going to happen.. Embodiment of Eclipse, Harmony Form.'