Transmigrated as a Ghost

'Marcus, can you hear me?'

'Yeah, you're coming through loud and clear, Roxene.' Marcus responded with telepathy.

After noticing Marcus had suddenly disappeared from his previous position, Roxene had noticed that something was wrong and taken off after him.

'I should be close enough to see you, but there is no sign of you. Even your scent is completely gone. Where are you right now and what's going on?'

'Sorry, I'm not exactly sure where I am since I'm inside the stomach of a monster. It's called a Cauldron Bloom and is level eighty-five. Though the locals seem to have given it the name, reaper of the forest.'

For a couple of seconds, Roxene remained silent as she processed the unexpected information Marcus had just relayed to her. Unlike the others, she had not known he had been warped away by a hostile entity since she had still been patrolling the woods to make sure none of the brigands got away.

'Why do you sound so calm if you are currently being eaten?!' Roxene shouted into Marcus' head.

Normally she would not have allowed her emotions to flare up like this and show such blatant concern for him, but the situation had caught her by complete surprise. Originally, she thought that Marcus was just using his ghost form for some sort of mission. Only now she had learned he was in some sort of danger.

'I'm perfectly fine right now. The creature that has me in its stomach doesn't seem to know how to use spiritual energy, so I've just gone intangible to avoid being eaten. The problem is that it also got one of the people from the caravan. I'm doing my best to keep them from getting killed, but it's not easy. It'd be difficult for me to counterattack with things the way they are.

If you could, I'd like you to attack it from the outside and make an openin- Oh shit! Another person just got teleported. Sorry Rexene, I'm going to be busy keeping everyone that gets brought in here alive. I'll have to leave fighting it on the outside to you and the others. Ah, and make sure to watch out for any thin strands of mana. That's how it teleports people.'

With that last piece of advice, Marcus cut off telepathic communication with Roxene and turned his entire focus on keeping those eaten by the Cauldron Bloom alive.

"I'm going to make him cook up some premium meat for me after this." Roxene grumbled while searching for the Cauldron Bloom.

However, the monster was undoubtedly an expert at concealing itself, as even her keen senses could not pick up a trace of it.

Still, she knew it must be nearby since she could sense Marcus' presence in the vicinity.

Roxene attempted to locate it by firing off several spells in every direction in case it had concealed itself with some sort of skill or race ability, but her attacks only hit the numerous giant trees that made up the forest.

'Guess there's only one place left for it to be hiding.' Roxene thought, looking down at the ground below her.

Having eliminated the other possibilities, she figured that the Cauldron Bloom was most likely hiding undergrown. This would make it annoying to reach, but not impossible.

Rapidly slamming her front legs down, Roxene began digging into the earth and excavating a large hole.

It was as she was doing this that Mrazivý, Lilia, Blitz, Aurelia, and Zareen finally arrived.

"The creature that's eaten Marcus is probably underground. Help me dig it out." Roxene said, getting right to the point before anyone could ask any questions.

Of course, Mrazivý and Lilia especially wanted to know more, but they held off since slowing things down just to get more information would not help them at the moment. Their current objective was to dig, so they got to it.

Thankfully, with their incredibly high stats, they were able to displace an immense quantity of dirt quickly, and soon found the top of the monster that had been stealthy attacking the caravan.

The top of the monster looked like a giant orange flower that was currently folded up into a bud.

However, the second it was disturbed and the dirt covering it was removed, the Cauldron Bloom's flower opened up and revealed a giant circular mouth filled with multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth that were rapidly rotating like saws. Clearly it could devour things even without first teleporting them directly into its stomach.

In a rage, the Cauldron Bloom shot out of the ground and forced Mrazivý, Lilia, Roxene, Blitz, Aurelia, and Zareen back.

Now that it had come out of the ground, almost the entirety of its massive form was visible.

While it did not stand as tall as the mature trees in the forest, it easily rose a towering two hundred meters into the air, and its stem was around thirty meters in diameter.

Arcane lights could be seen flashing throughout its body, and those with practically keen eyes could see what looked like several figures being churned around within it.

Lilia was the first to act now that their target had revealed itself.

Immediately she formed her amethros gauntlets around her hand sand charged in as fast a bolt of lightning.

After pulling her right arm back, she threw a heavy punch towards the base of the Cauldron Bloom.

Yet, the attack never connected. Her fist instead passed through a tear in space that opened up a portal and sent her own attack right back at her.

Unable to respond to this unexpected development in time, Lilia ended up punching herself directly in the chin and being flung away by her own power.

"Aurelia, go make sure she is okay. Everyone else, let's try probing its defenses with ranged attacks first." Mrazivý said, taking command of the battle.

Following her orders, Aurelia changed from her humanoid form back into a golden lioness and rushed after her master.

Blitz and Zareen likewise transformed back into beasts in order to display their full power. The monster they were facing was undoubtedly something they could not beat with only half measures.