Transmigrated as a Ghost

The eight thieves that had just robbed a store on the street Marcus and his companions were walking down were running away and about to duck into an alley and disappear into the backstreets of Houten's capital.

Unfortunately for them, Marcus, Mrazivý, Miguel, and Lilia had locked their sights on them, and their chances of escape had been reduced to zero.

Naturally, Marcus could have stopped the thieves from where he was standing with his phantom pressure, but that would not have been any fun. When miscreants are running away from the scene of a crime, it is thematic to chase after them on foot.

"Ah, thank you. I will go and stop them myself. If you all just wait here, I will be back once I am finished." Agustin said, taking Marcus' words as permission to purse the thieves.

However, before he rushed off, Marcus raised a hand to stop him.

"No, that is fine. You stay here. The four of us will go apprehend them." Marcus said, motioning to his companions that also wanted to go after the thieves.

Agustin looked like he wanted to say something else, but Marcus did not give him the chance. With a single step he shot forward at an explosive speed.

'Oops. Better be more careful.' Marcus thought, having felt the cobblestone below his feet shatter from the force of his running.

Thankfully he only caused damage with his first step and adjusted his strength accordingly the rest of the way.

Within just a couple of seconds he caught up to the group of thieves as they wove through the nearby alley.

In an over-the-top manner, he did a front flip over the eight thieves and twisted his body in midair to land in front of them.

"That is far enough. I'll be having all of you return what you have stolen and pay for your crimes." Marcus said, fully embracing the role of a passing by do-gooder.

His sudden appearance surprised the thieves, and they stopped in their tracks and stared at him with shock in their eyes. Being experienced criminals, though, they quickly came back to their senses and looked behind them to find an escape route. They had some combat skills but ultimately preferred fleeing over fighting if they could.

Yet when they turned around, they found Mrazivý, Miguel, and Lilia standing behind them and cutting off their escape route.

With no other choice the thieves pulled out their hidden weapons and tried to make themselves look intimidating.

'I suppose I should not have expected anything even halfway decent. They've got knives, billy clubs, brass knuckles, and a crowbar. All common and cheap weapons.'

When it did not seem that Marcus or his companions were scared of the sudden showing of weapons, the man nearest to Marcus lashed out at him.

The solid iron crowbar came swimming in fast and the man was certain he was about to shatter Marcus' collarbone where he had been aiming.

Except, instead, Marcus simply moved his forearm into the crowbar's trajectory and easily stopped it.

The sturdy iron should have easily broken bone, yet instead it bent out of shape from impacting against Marcus' arm.

"You really shouldn't swing things around so forcefully. You're likely to end up hurting yourself that way." Marcus said admonishingly.

He then cast the tier one lightning magic spell spark and sent a strong current of electricity through the iron crowbar the thief was holding and that was still in contact with his arm.

Shaking violently and letting out a pained scream the man fell to the ground and continued to twitch for a few moments even as he fell unconscious.

Fear was evident on the other thieves' faces as they watched their comrade being easily dealt with. Still, they continued to fight since they knew that being caught would see them dealt a harsh punishment for the crimes they had committed.

Two of them came at Marcus while the other five tried to force their way past Mrazivý, Miguel, and Lilia.

Of course, things did not go well for the criminals that ranged from level nine to only level fourteen.

They were so weak that even if there were a million of them, they would never have stood a chance.

After just a couple of seconds, only one criminal was left standing, and she let out a loud whistle.

'Hm, more people are coming.'

Marcus could feel with his life sense skill that fifteen more individuals were rushing towards their location.

When her allies showed up, the female thief that had signaled them looked hopeful that things would turn around. Sadly, she did not get to see what would become of her comrades as a quick jab from Lilia knocked her out.

'They certainly had quite a bit of backup lurking around. One of these guys is even level seventeen and has some staple combat skills. He's pretty strong if you consider that the average level for people is thirteen.' Marcus thought, appraising the newcomers.

Like the thieves that had been fleeing from the scene of their crime, these individuals had hastily put on masks to cover their faces. Clearly, they had put some thought into their criminal activities.

Nevertheless, they had run into some supremely bad luck by attracting Marcus and his companion's attention.

It did not take long for these new criminals to begin dropping like flies under the assault of Marcus, Mrazivý, Miguel, and Lilia.

"Let's see how you handle my trump card." The strongest criminal and leader of the group said just like a cliched two-bit villain.

From out of a pouch on his belt he swiftly pulled out an ornate magic wand with a fire elemental crystal attached to the end.

As he channeled some mana into the wand, the spell within it activated and a blast of fire shot out of the tip as it produced the tier two fire magic spell flamethrower.

Overall, the spell coming out of the wand was as weak as it could possibly be, but it could still easily prove fatal to any normal person.

"To think that you would use something like that in such a confined space. Don't you realize that you almost burned up several of your friends as well." Marcus said as he shoved his bare hand through the flamethrower spell and gripped the wand to stop the magic coming out of it.

Then with one quick motion he snapped the wand and made sure that it could not be used again.

The moment the strongest thief realized what had just happened, he took a step back and looked at Marcus in absolute terror and mutter, "Monster."

"I mean you're not entirely wrong, but the way said it was still a bit hurtful." Marcus replied before swiftly punching the man in the stomach.

Unable to stand up to the impact, the strongest criminal crumpled and fell over unconscious.

With all of the thieves incapacitated, Marcus and his companions pulled some rope out of their item boxes and rapidly tied up the miscreants.

It was around this time, that a worried-looking Agustin rushed into the alley and looked at the scene in front of him with surprise. Last he had seen Marcus, Mrazivý, Miguel, and Lilia has chased after eight thieves, but now there twenty-three people tied up together int eh cramped alleyway.

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