Curselock

Chapter 77: Fury

Leland cursed as he reached for Jude. He tried to stop him. He tried to interfere. He tried to crush the rage before it consumed his friend. There was no time to talk about things. There was no time to hear out both sides. There was no time to argue whether to fight or not. There only was. And it was now.

Purple light clashed with blue as Leland’s hand twisted away from Jude and slammed into the open page of his grimoire. Instantly magic and lifeforce took to reality, swirling up through his body to the top of his head. The curse activated along with creating its namesake, the Harbinger Halo. Power bubbled in Leland’s veins. It was only five present, but he felt like the king of the world at that moment.

“We can try to run!” Glenny said just before he slipped into invisibility.

Leland pushed mana and lifeforce to his lips, whistling into the cavern. The flock of ethereal crows didn’t seem to mind the enclosed arena, and began their assault. They attacked the bow wielder, focusing on his eyes rather than tearing at his open skin.

“They will just follow us!” Leland yelled back, his voice brimming with raw power.

Jude took another arrow to the chest. He didn’t grunt or cry, instead he slowly picked up speed, rushing toward his target. Another arrow sailed through the air, missing wide as a crow cut into the archer’s face. That didn’t faze Jude. He was sprinting at this point, only the ankle high water slowing his rage.

Empty handed, he raised his arms up as if swinging an imaginary sword. The woman cocked her head at the strange gesture, raising her weapon with a smirking hesitance. Jude thrashed his arms down, his battle axe appearing mid-swing.

The woman’s eyes widened, rushing to absorb the blow. Metal met metal and the woman’s guard was broken. Jude threw another wild blow, using his weight as a propellant. Just then, Glenny’s twin spike of red power appeared behind the woman.

Both Jude and Glenny attacked, the former high with a horizontal sweep, the later low with a brutal thrust. The woman cursed, spinning to block Glenny’s stab with the brunt of her thick short sword while unveiling her Legacy’s call sign to intercept Jude’s slash.

A tail shot through her armor, connecting with the battle axe with a metal pang. Her tail then flexed, slicing at Jude. A red streak appeared across his arm.

Whizzing through the air, an arrow cut into where Glenny’s attack originated . The arrow then turned invisible while a slop of blood fell to the watery floor. The rogue grunted, his invisible form ripping the arrow from his thigh. He quickly retreated, each step sending more ripples through the reflective pools of water.

The archer lined up another shot— He stopped, turning his attention to Leland.

The Legacy of Curses was distracted. Before him were the last remaining souls of the Damned carrying lost souls. They both held out their arms in offering, waiting for their master to choose which soul was being consumed.

But something was strange about the lost souls.

Leland couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Information was invading his brain. His mind was burning with horrid screams, the very screams he had been searching his mind for at the Huntress’ behest. Something was wanting to make itself known. A curse, that much was apparent. But what was it? What could cause so much pain?

He couldn’t think about it now.

Leland lowered his hand, taking the lost soul from that of the Damned. Green mist enveloped his mind, body, and soul, ushering in the power of consumption and that of the Warlock. He turned his attention to the archer, pushing his lifeforce out.

“Kneel before me!” he spit.

The man’s eyes widened as violet fire exploded into life. He loosed his arrow, activating a Legacy ability of his own. The arrow passed through the fire without so much as a char mark. It rotated faster and faster as it flew, shining a deep amber and shedding a hail of sparks. The cavern’s pools of water momentarily turned orange, like a lake under a fireworks display.

As a soul of the Damned clawed itself out of the rocky floor and layer of water, it locked eyes with the man before green mist filtered from his body. Yet, the arrow continued toward its target.

Leland flinched, pushing mana into his protective necklace. Then, like waking up to a nightmare, he remembered the panthers from earlier in the day. He had used his necklace back then, protecting himself from a potentially deadly pounce.

So, when no bubble aegis formed around his body, Leland cursed at himself. Fear gripped him momentarily, along with the precognition of dying from his own stupidity. How hard was it to make sure he recharged his necklace? Guild Master Gill had warned him about this when he won the enchanted piece of jewelry. How could he be so—

Alive?

Leland peeked through his tightly shut eyes before falling back in surprise. He landed with an ungraceful splash. Fully sprouted from the ground was the remaining soul of the Damned. This was the first time he had seen a soul in its entirety. Mystical green, fleshless yet muscled, skeletons with an odd blurry façade to their haunting appearance.

Truthfully, Leland wasn’t surprised that the soul looked the way it did. In fact, he had assumed it was how they looked from the moment he first summoned one. What did surprise him, however, was that the soul had caught the arrow cold.

Still spinning like a drill, the arrow continued to unleash sparks. Yet, it was harmless. The soul had made sure of that. It looked to Leland, giving him only what he could call a “nod of appreciation.” The soul then dropped the arrow, fading away with a mist of green.

Internally, information came to Leland’s mind. The last remaining lost soul had been consumed, thus freeing the soul of the Damned holding it. Reincarnation would come later for both.

Seeing his target fall, the archer instantly turned his attention to his teammate and the two attacking her. He fired two pot shots off at Jude, the berserker simply ignoring his ever growing collection of pointy sticks jutting from his body.

The man scanned for Glenny, finding rushing ripples heading for his teammate. He fired an arrow, activating another ability. The arrow split, turning into an arched volley. They hurdled through the air, covering every location the rogue could dodge to.

Only, he didn’t have to.

An icy curtain burst from the ground just before Glenny. He ended up slamming into the thin wall, breaking through it but not before six arrows were stopped dead.

A low growl sounded from further down in the cavern and the archer and Glenny turned to find the bear cub snarling.

The water around the archer’s ankles froze over at the same time Leland got to his feet. A shriek whistle echoed through the chamber, along with the single word “Maul.”

Crows came in with a blitz, each smashing into the archer from various angles. The man fumbled from the sudden attack, the icy restraints on his feet proving to be a momentary distraction. He forced the ice to crack, kicking out, before diving to the side. Violet flames met him like a sticky incendiary.

The man grunted as he scrambled away from the heatless fire. Part of his shoulder burned with a vibrant dazzle, meshing with the still leaking green mist. The pain was horrible to the point that his pull-string hand struggled to draw. He loosed a weak arrow at the soul of the Damned still staring at him.

The arrow passed through seamlessly.

A crack sounded in his shin, along with the pain equivalent to shattered glass. Then came the crows, rushing back with unbridled speed and sharp talons. They ignored his eyes this time, focusing on his hands. He dropped his bow when another crack sounded along his mid-spine. He crumpled as his muscles gave out. The crows pecked at him, tore his flesh, ate his muscles.

Soon his soul fully leaked out, leaving him as nothing but a husk. The soul of the Damned shot forward, taking the now lost soul before disappearing into the ground. It reemerged next to Leland, hoisting its offering to its master.

Leland ignored the soul, focusing his attention on Jude and the woman’s duel. Glenny was nowhere to be seen, only a fading ripple coming from the far end of the cavern.

After casting Curse of Collapse on the woman, Leland pushed his lifeforce lower and lower with casts of Fracture. He wasn’t afraid of passing out from lack of lifeforce, not when he had a lost soul nearby to instantly heal his fleeting life. Still, he didn’t want a headache, not with Glenny out of commission and Jude enraged.

He would save it for now.

Jude and the woman were at a stalemate, yet every passing second more pain was converted into strength. Jude would eventually win, but his body would be ruined. Not that he cared. Not when the rage had taken over.

Multiple bones, all hardened with the strength of a mid-tier rank two, felt odd in the woman’s body. She chalked it up to the vibrations of blocking blow after blow but as she glanced at her partner, she realized something else was happening. Bumps appeared under the man’s skin, fractures pushing out of his dead flesh.

She grunted, finding Leland muttering to himself in the back. Gritting her teeth, the woman kicked forward, brushing past Jude and marking her target. She was slow, from the water and the exhaustion surrounding her heart, but she trudged forward like a hound.

Leland didn’t move, he couldn’t. Not if he wanted to maintain his focus.

“Fracture, Fracture, Fracture, Fracture,” he said, pushing as much mana and life force into every curse as he could.

When he was testing his spells on the Huntress, none of his spells took effect. The rank disparity was simply too high. This time, however, was different. Leland was at the cusp of rank two while the woman was mid rank two. His spells affected her, just slower.

Each heavy step in the water put force on the woman’s skeleton, on her brittle bones. Her knee gave out, sending her sprawling into the water.

An icy spike from the bear cub erected directly below her torso. Ice sheared into metal armor, sundering it like that of a sword. Blood leaked around her, turning the reflectant water sickly red. The blue glow of the cave still outshined the crimson however, at least before Jude attacked.

His axe came down like a boulder falling off a cliff. It cut into her back, severing her spine before he yanked it out and chopped down again. And again. And again.

Soon the pool was a nasty brown.

And soon Jude turned his sights on Leland.

Pages flipped with a rush of imaginary wind. Leland’s grimoire opened to the contract of the Lord of Spirits. He cursed as he slammed his palm into the page, he stepped back when he cursed Jude to slow down.

A hot wave filtered through the cavern as Leland’s curse took on the aspect of victory. Glory was what he went with, something he hoped Jude’s rage would connect with more easily.

Jude continued forward, uncaring.

“Stop it!” a voice said, cutting through the cavern along with icy mist. Part of the already cold water froze over, enough of it around Jude to cause him to turn.

“Stop it!” the cub pleaded. “We’ve won!”

Jude tilted his head at the creature. Something about its black with blue-white fur bothered him. What was it? His heart started pumping, along with it the rush of battle. Yet, the battle was over, wasn’t it?

Oh, he mused. This must be victory.

Jude continued to step forward, his mind still foggy. His eyes, however, were still trained on the cub. Her fur, her soft fluffy fur. He recognized something was wrong with her fur, however. What was it? Black with blue-white tips, yes. Damp because of the water, right. Red from the blood—

Jude pulled away from the rage and the exaggerated feeling of victory. He blinked a few times before rushing forward and saying, “You’re bleeding worse!”