Transmigrated as a Ghost

Chapter 1188: Chapter 1188 A Deplorable Unique Skill

Marcus rolled his shoulders and twisted his neck from side to side to make sure that everything had reattached properly. This was the first time he had done something like this, so while he was fairly certain his head was in the right place, he still wanted to be sure.

"Impossible! What in the world are you? Could you be some sort of humanoid slime?" The Umbrashnul King said, clearly baffled by how Marcus was able to so easily recover from having his head chopped off. There were not many creatures in the world that could do the same.

"Ouch. I’m not sure that I want to be compared to a slime. Although, I guess they are really dangerous in this world, so it’s not really an insult. Still, your way off base. I just happen to be a one-of-a-kind entity. You won’t be able to beat me with that little trick of yours."

Marcus’ words seemed to fall on deaf ears, as the Umbrashnul King once again attacked himself to cause damage to Marcus.

This time he jabbed his spear straight into his chest, and carved a line straight down, before twisting the blade and yanking it out.

A slight pain shot through Marcus as he felt his insides being torn through, but it was truthfully not particularly bad. Being a spiritual being without any vital organs meant that the wounds that had been dealt to him were not as bad as any other.

After the quick cast of a healing spell and he was already mostly restored within just a couple of seconds.

"You know, I think that you should go and see a therapist. You might have an issue with self-harm." Marcus said sardonically.

He figured that this would set the Umbrashnul King off and the man would recklessly attack him or try carving up his own body some more to see if there was some sort of limit to Marcus’ inexplicable healing.

Yet, the king instead melded with the shadows and darted back around a hundred meters. Creating more distance between the two of them.

"Twilight Maw."

Marcus suddenly felt an immense amount of mana coming from his opponent and before he knew it, his feet were sinking into the ground below.

When he looked down, he saw that the shadows below him had become similar to some sort of liquid and were dragging him down.

’Yeah, that’s not happening.’ Marcus thought as he cast the tier three flame jets spell and launched himself upwards.

There was an immense amount of resistance, but he did manage to pull himself free from the shadows that were trying to eat him.

However, the tier eight spell that the Umbrashnul King had cast was not going to be so easily escaped.

From out of the ground, the shadows rose up all the way to the ceiling of the chamber and closed around Marcus.

For the fraction of a second he had to react before they closed in on him, he noticed that they looked like giant teeth.

After that, his perception was snuffed out by the shadows as he was dragged into the mouth of the conjured shadow monster below.

"I suppose that is the end of it. My Damage Entanglement must have done more than that thing wanted to let on. It was not as strong as I first expected."

The Umbrashnul King felt that the battle was over.

Nothing had ever survived being consumed by his twilight maw spell before.

Except, just as he was sinking into the shadows and planning to head back to dispatch the other assassins hired by the Draayer Empire, a blinding burst of light reputed from the ground.

He felt his connection to his magic fade as the spell was utterly destroyed.

"That was certainly unpleasant." Marcus said, floating out of the hole in the ground he had just created and wiping some dirt and dust off of his shoulders.

As for injuries, and that he had taken were already healed. If there was one thing he had plenty of experience with, it was fixing himself up.

Even before his recent evolution, he had been hard to put down.

Now it took something like a far higher-level Lava Dragon to threaten him.

"It seems that without your three little minions backing you up, you’re not quite as dangerous as I thought. You’re also fighting scared now. Surely, you’ve noticed that since I separated you from the others, that you’ve continuously been backing away from me."

The Umbrashnul King was in the middle of taking an unconscious step back when Marcus pointed out how he was creating more distance between them.

This was in stark contrast to how he had fought before when he had Vashtalive, Folcalor, and Duald supporting him.

With those three reliable subordinates by his side, he had pressed the attack and used his melee skills to his advantage.

But since he had been separated from them, the Umbrashnul King had kept his distance from Marcus.

"You seem to have mistaken strategy for fear. Allow me to show you what true terror is."

"Echoes of the Past."

Marcus braced himself when he heard the name of the unfamiliar skill his adversary was using.\

This one was not on the list he had received from the Draayer Empress.

’It’s probably a new unique skill. I was warned that he had picked up some new powers recently.’ Marcus thought, preparing himself for what was to come.

A moment later, he noticed a shadow rising up from behind him and he did not hesitate to slice through it with his scythe.

However, his weapon just slid right through the aberration.

Quickly he realized that these shadows were not real, but merely illusions.

Though, it was not until they started talking that he realized what type of skill this truly was.

"You! It’s because of you that I lost everything and was executed. I never did anything to you, but you ruined my life just because that bastard Wade bribed you."

Marcus’ eyes went wide once he finally recognized the figure suddenly clinging ahold of him.

It was someone he had not thought about in a very long time. He had helped to take Ivar Poulsen down not long after coming to Mirrion.

’I see. So, this is why it’s called Echoes of the Past. Talk about a nasty skill.’

Of course, Marcus did not feel the slightest bit guilty about what he did to Ivar Poulsen. The guy was a horrid criminal and had tried to force Marcus to sleep with him while he was still masquerading as Irene.

Seeing the man again, even in just a shadowy visage, was almost nostalgic.

Still, Marcus was not feeling the terror that the Umbrashnul king had threatened him with.

Yet, the next specters to appear were not so easily disregarded.

"It’s because of you that we died. Had you not held back and fought to kill, those bandits would not have slaughtered us."

"The man that you failed to finish off jammed his spear through me. It’s because of you that I died and left my daughter without a father."

The three people that had appeared this time to torment Marcus were Bodie, Mia, and Ari.

They were the causalities during Marcus’ first job as an adventurer when he was escorting a small merchant caravan from Rivers Landing to Loursend.

That was when he was still coming to grips with the new world that he had found himself in and was unable to kill people.

The lingering morals from his life on Earth had still been very strong back then.

All of his life he had been told that killing other people was unacceptable and would eat away at him if he ever did kill someone.

Mirrion was not such a peaceful world that he could hold onto such values for long, and he truthfully did feel remorse when he looked back on how much of a failure he had been.

It was easy to say that he had not yet adapted to his new world, but Marcus knew that had he fought without restraint, those three would possibly still be alive.

"That’s far in the past though. I won’t let it drag me down."

Marcus waved his arm, and the shadows that were surrounding him vanished. They were unable to keep their hold on him.

The next group to appear were the illegal slavers that had abducted Lilia, but they were even easier to dismiss that Ivar Poulsen. He had not regrets for what he did to them. They deserved far worse as far as he was concerned.

More and more people appeared around him, trying to drag him into despair.

All of them were either those that he had killed or had failed to help.

Fortunately, whatever mental disruption part of the skill that was supposed to make him more susceptible to the specters could not take hold.

Marcus’ Sound Mind unique skill was once again coming in clutch to protect him.

Finally, when the shadow of Gronex dissipated with the wave of his hand, Marcus figured that he was done.

He had been sent through the gauntlet of his past, but he had kept himself mostly under control. He was only slightly unnerved rather than falling to pieces, which was the unique skill’s intended effect.

But, despite believing that he was finished, there was one last shadow that rose up right in front of him. And this one he was intimately familiar with.

"Irene." Marcus said in disbelief, staring at the visage of the young woman whose fate had intertwined with his own.