Transmigrated as a Ghost

The repugnant sound coming from the wendigo's throat grew louder and louder until a fountain of blood erupted from its mouth.

At first Marcus was unsure if this was some form of attack, or if the wendigo was simply meeting its end.

However, as the cursed blood poured over its body, the seven golden chains created by Miguel's sacred magic began to crack.

"I can't hold it!" Miguel shouted, trying with all his might to reinforce his magic.

Though even with his best effort, he could not keep his spell from dissipating, and the wendigo's blood degraded the magic until it shattered.

A resounding noise echoed through the area as the sacred chains broke apart. Releasing the wendigo.

'Meteoric Inferno.'

Once Miguel's sacred magic had failed, Marcus swung down with his raised hand and brought down the tier eight fire magic spell he had been preparing.

From the high in the sky, a gargantuan ball of fire began falling down on their position, centered on the wendigo.

So far Marcus had been holding off on using large spells, but it was clear now that he could not worry about collateral damage during this fight.

At the same time as he cast his fire magic, Marcus threw his scythe towards the wendigo and ordered it to attack while he ran towards Miguel.

His tier eight spell was going to cover a massive area and Miguel was currently well within its range.

"Miguel, layer your barriers under my own! We are going to have to endure my magic!" Macus said, ensuring that his tone conveyed the urgency of the situation.

For a single second Miguel stared at Marcus blankly, too many thoughts having been rushing through his head to act instantly.

When Marcus first cast the spell, Miguel had immediately believed that he was being thrown away and that Marcus did not care that he was about to be caught up in his magic. 

Yet an instant later, Marcus had appeared next to him and was preparing to protect him. 

Doubts rushed into Miguel's mind, wondering if this was some sort of trap. He had been betrayed in the past and was unsure if he could trust Marcus here.

Nevertheless, despite his bad past experiences, he could not deny that he had enjoyed Marcus' and Mrazivý's companionship during this expedition. He wanted to believe that they were genuinely good people and not trying to use him just to throw him away in the end.

So, while it might have been out of character, he trusted Marcus and lined up his own defensive skills and magic to protect both of them rather than focusing just on himself.

It was only a couple seconds later that Marcus' spell fell down on top of them and exploded upon impact with the ground.

The sphere that was around a kilometer in diameter burst apart and flames hotter than the surface of the sun spread out and consumed everything in the area.

Marcus' and Miguel's vision was filled with the bright light of the flames as they raged around the multilayered barrier that was defending them.

Cracks began to form on their first line of defense which was Marcus' radiant scales spell.

Soon the intense heat from his meteoric inferno spell overwhelmed his defensive magic. 

After his radiant scales spell failed, Marcus felt the pressure up against his mana barrier.

His own attack proved to be stronger than his defenses and Marcus' mana barrier shattered apart before the flames died down.

Thankfully, Miguel had cast his own magic and was maintaining his own mana barrier that held out against the power of Marcus' tier eight spell.

When the intense fire died down, the entire landscape was blackened and most of the plant life was reduced to ash.

All of the once mighty trees that stood in the area were missing their leaves and limbs, with their trunks now looking like charcoal.

Still, the fact that they remained standing at all went to show just how tough they were. Any normal trees would have been completely burned away.

'Did that get it?' Marcus thought as he scanned the area.

He knew where the wendigo had been just before his magic hit since his scythe had been autonomously attacking it.

Yet, when he finally caught sight of the monster, he was stunned to see the condition it was in.

Despite having an acute weakness to fire, the tier eight spell had only left it covered in mostly shallow burns.

Some areas of its body were dark and deeply burned, but all of its vital areas were only slightly singed.

Marcus could not believe how resilient the wendigo was. He had just dropped the equivalent of a small nuclear bomb on it and the monster had not suffered any major wounds.

Still, at least its burns did not appear to be healing as rapidly as the earlier injuries Marcus had inflicted on it.

When he had cut off its head, it had simply turned into fog and reformed like nothing had happened, but it clearly could not do the same with damage caused by fire or Miguel's sacred magic.

Marcus recalled his scythe to him and immediately received a relocation of how the wendigo had defended itself.

Before the meteoric inferno spell impacted, the wendigo had let out another roar of noxious wind and covered itself in its own blood as a means of protection.

'It must be at least a bit tired after all of that. If we strike now, we should be able to take it out.'

Rushing towards the wendigo, Marcus enchanted his scythe with fire magic. He was not going to let it take his slashes lightly this time.

Following Marcus' lead, Miguel circled around the wendigo and created several walls with his sacred magic to block off its escape routes.

With a flurry of slashes, Marcus kept after the wendigo and kept it on the defensive.

Each of his attacks forced it to either dodge or block, and none of its strikes could reach Marcus as he would simply go ethereal and let them pass through him.

Thankfully the wendigo was unable to utilize spiritual energy and its psychic attacks that could inflict curses were completely ineffective due to Marcus' Still Mind unique skill.

Eventually the wendigo realized it could not harm Marcus and turned towards Miguel. His sacred magic may have been dangerous, but at least Miguel was corporal and could be hit.

Unfortunately, just because Miguel could not completely nullify the wendigo's attacks did not mean he was ill prepared to fight it.

His amethros sword gleamed with a golden aura and the wendigo winced whenever it so much as grazed it.

Now that they had it pinned down, Marcus and Miguel were proving to be the bane of the wendigo's exitance. Both of them had abilities that were incredibly effective against the monster.

In a last-ditch effort, it shook its head from side to side and sent a shower of its cursed blood over the area.

Then when Marcus and Miguel defend themselves, it turned into fog and attempted to flee. 

While it was a monster that was strong in close quarters battles, its true proficiency lay in slowly wearing down its prey from afar with its curses. Fighting head-to-head against disadvantageous opponents was not its style.

Yet, as it thought it would escape since no attacks had caught up to it, the wendigo quickly found out why neither Marcus nor Miguel had pursued it.

A blast of cold energy that rapidly turned into ice engulfed the wendigo as it reached around two hundred fifty meters away from Marcus and Miguel.

Even in its gaseous form it could not move when encased in ice and needed to become physical again to break free.

The ice cracked with ease under its monstrous strength and the wendigo was free again without a scratch on it. Fire may have been its major weakness, but ice was relatively ineffective against it.

Still, Mrazivý's magic had done its job and halted the wendigo's retreat and forced it out of its gaseous form.

In a flash of light, the wendigo's legs flew off from its body and it fell to the ground. 

"I have been looking forward to this. You can't control everything out in the real world and my blade can finally reach you." Mrazivý said, standing behind the wendigo with her sword raised above its head.

With another slash, she cut it in half, from the top of its head, down to the bottom of its torso.

Once again, a normally fatal did not prove enough to kill the wendigo and it turned into fog and put itself back together.

This time, however, it was clearly haggard and running out of energy. Clearly it could not recover from fatal wounds indefinitely.

As a last desperate attempt to escape, the wendigo let out a horrifying roar and spread out its terrifying presence in an attempt to frighten Marcus, Mrazivý, and Miguel.

Unfortunately for the wendigo, it was not nearly as scary now that it was beaten down and on its last legs.

Showing no hesitation, Miguel cast his blest binding spell again and wrapped up the wendigo with seven golden chains.

"Would you like to do the honors, Mraz? You had to put up with the most in order for us to bring this monster down." Marcus said.

"No, you go ahead. I am already satisfied with what I have done. Your magic will be more effective at finishing the job anyway." Mrazivý replied, deferring to Marcus.

Nodding his head, Marcus held his hand out and channeled mana into it to cast a spell.

'Blazegram's Furnace.'