Curselock

Chapter 13: Witch

“Kill or capture?” Leland asked, pulling hesitant gazes from the others.

“I don’t think we can capture. Look at how he’s fighting the thing.” Jude replied, pointing.

Icewillow twisted and contorted his lean body, moving around the Mana Lion’s attacks. He summoned and moved a frozen puppet of red, making it fight for him as he kept behind it. Together man and construct battled to a stalemate with the beast, finding the lion’s agility too hard to nail down.

The lion moved with horrid speed, pouncing around the battlefield like a grasshopper jumping from bush to bush. It found momentary refuge in the tall grass, hiding its presence before suddenly appearing mid lunge. As it attacked, blue motes of mana spiraled about its head like a whirlpool drowning debris.

“Kill,” Glenny said. “I don’t think we have the luxury to go for anything else.

“Okay, here’s the plan,” Leland spoke up, his voice hardly a whisper. “We attack from ambush before he can kill the lion. Jude and I force him to react to our attack, hopefully giving Glenny or the lion a chance to kill—”

Just then, a blue beam ripped the plateau in half. A shockwave and tremble followed closely after that knocked loose the staircase that the boys hid within.

Jude spoke up. “Or we could try to sneak Onryo out while Icewillow is distracted.”

Leland agreed, but both looked to Glenny.

Leland wanted to point out that they wouldn’t simply “let the man off,” but he felt the argument wasn’t worthwhile. Glenny had chosen, what kind of friends would they be if they failed him now?

“Alright,” Leland said aloud. “We start. Give us a minute to get into position.”

Jude and Glenny nodded, the latter of which turned invisible. With the rank of Glenny’s ability nearly reaching ten, he almost fully disappeared. If one looked closely enough they would be able to see the small creases along his armor and face, but that was if he was at a standstill. Moving, the rogue only appeared as a second thought.

Jude nodded to Leland, causing the mage to throttle his magic. Instantly Icewillow noticed, his head whipping towards the staircase. The ice puppet chittered with fury, rushing to meet the Berserker Legacy. As ice met metal, Leland’s curse completed.

“Slow,”

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For a heartbeat Leland and Icewillow connected, the former feeling nothing but greed. He wanted everything, fame, money, power, family, revenge. He would use his magic, he would use anything and anyone, to achieve his goals. Fear was a powerful motivator, he would rebuild his empire, he would destroy those who took everything from him.

Reality came back to Leland, power and mana already forming on his lips. He whistled, a streak of red plowing through the air just missing his head by inches.

“Maul.”

Six crows flew through reality, and dove. They found the target with anger and vigor, soon covering the man in puncture wounds and dozens of cuts.

A heavy slam pulled Leland’s attention as Jude battered the hesitant ice puppet. In Icewillow’s agony, his magic failed, turning into nothing but red chunks from repeated blow after blow.

“Fracture,” Leland whispered, hearing nothing in response.

The enemy still stumbled from the sudden attack, the crack having been lost to the roars of the wind. Leland repeated the curse three more times, each time knowing the percent chance hit. Something was wrong, however. The man still moved with the steps of a dancer, not a man in pain.

Abruptly a frozen suit of armor erupted from the man’s bloodied form. The crows were warded off, their talons and beaks failing to pierce the spell. Icewillow turned to Leland, his hand outstretched and palm up. He clamped his finger together as he yelled the powerword.

“Erupt.”

Leland’s eyes went wide and he scrambled to active his newly acquired necklace of protection. A faded blue aegis appeared around him. The hostile spell collided against the magical shield, cracking it like a fresh egg.

The man frowned, and quickly mimicked his last gesture. “Erupt,” he sang.

And this time Leland did. His blood boiled, his skin reddened. He puked, only blood pouring from his swollen tongue. He doubled over, wobbling a few steps away before collapsing completely. Pain filled his vision, consuming his consciousness.

Jude watched his friend fall and rage overcome him. With his eyes turning solid white, he rushed the man, pushing through the pain as multiple spells affected his body. “Erupt,” he heard multiple times, each only adding fuel to his undying hatred.

A red crescent blazed from Jude’s axe as his strength only increased. The powerful slice rushed across the plateau, forcing Icewillow to dive to the side.

He landed on his shoulder, hearing a deep crunch as his weakened bone finally shattered. A glinted weapon flew through the air, forcing a wall of red to appear from the grass. Jude was there a moment later, having jumped across the battlefield and into the fray.

With practiced motion, Jude picked up his axe and raised it as an executioner would. He slammed down, the momentum of his rushed attack only adding to his strength. Again steel met ice as Jude cleaved into Icewillow’s red armor.

Wild swing after wild swing battered the man with pure rage, allowing for the precise pecks of the six crows to find purchase. Icewillow tried to move and run, but the Curse of Collapse tied his ankles together. A high swing was met with a partially raised arm, gorging the protective layer near his shoulder. A mid swing wasn’t redirected, creating a long patch of potential damage.

It was then the Mana Lion alpha chose to attack. It fired a blue beam at Icewillow’s back, easily connected against the slow and distracted target. The magical attack sent the man spiraling forward, where Jude was ready with a powerful downward swing.

The blood leaking from the Berserker’s body suddenly frosted over, cutting his heavy strike short. The man rolled away, scampering away from both Jude and the lion. He pushed against the lush grass, right into the invisible legs of Glenny.

Glenny stabbed into the man’s chest, a steel dagger invading his ribcage before abruptly grinding down. A deep cut befell the man’s torso before his organs suddenly expelled from the cut. A volcano of blood and slimy bits rained over the plateau.

Glenny’s sigh of relief was cut short as the man’s body suddenly iced over and melted. The blood soaked into the ground before rising up dozens of steps away. The blood froze, creating flesh from the puppet’s broken body.

Icewillow’s familiar form took, giving him another breath in the land of the living.

“Almost got me there,” he taunted.

Jude roared with anger, jumping high into the air before throwing his axe with incredible strength. He landed with a dull crack, the hard soil below his feet breaking under the strain. They scrapped again but not in Jude’s favor like the previous.

Curse of Collapse and Crow Massacre had both faded, leaving the man unmolested except his gaping wounds. The injuries didn’t seem to slow the man down, if anything, they only gave him more resources to battle with. Red spears of frozen blood shot from the ground where Jude fought on, each narrowly missing the young combatant.

Jude was running on fumes, only the thrill of battle keeping him going. He saw nothing but the enemy before his eyes, not even the bloodied traps the man kept placing in the lush grass. He shrugged off the encore of attacks while defending against the more deadly few, his own attacks slowing as he went.

“You’ll bleed out at this point!” the man yelled over the howling winds.

Jude fought on, his own body blind to him. He must kill, it was all he could understand.

A caw roused Leland’s mind enough to blink the blood from his heavy eyelids. He saw it, a crow with its tail feathers high in the air and its head on level with his own. Its deep amethyst eyes reflected his own broken appearance back to him. He frowned, the cuts along his lips making it difficult.

It cawed again.

Leland ignored it for the moment, shifting his broken body enough to view the battle. Icewillow battled on, his body bleeding like a gutted pig. Jude, on the other hand…

How is he standing? Leland asked himself.

He checked over his body, wiggling his toes and feeling his fingers. Everything seemed to work, albeit with horrible pain. Leland forced himself to sit up, the crow moved to keep within his view. It cawed again, this time hopping forward into his lap. Abruptly it faded, reappearing on the back of his hand a moment later.

He pulled at it a second later, removing his grimoire. He needed to act, he needed to help. The spell came to his mind, his target Jude.

“Slow,” Leland whispered, feeling the battle crazed fury within his friend. Adrenaline fueled him before the effect ended, speeding his heart rate to match Jude’s.

“Fracture.”

“Fracture.”

“Fracture.”

“Fracture.”

“Fracture.”

“Fracture.”

Leland hit his limit, his breath hitching in the process. For the first time since wearing the mage robes his parents gifted him, he felt the effects. It was similar to the ring of regeneration but instead of healing his wounds, it boosted his mana recovery. Although, his reserves were only pushing half empty.

No, what truly was diminished was Leland’s lifeforce. Fatigue pulled his body to a crawl, his heart rate to that of a sloth’s, his thought process to nothing more than sensory. Slowly, it was coming back but for the moment, the battle was up to Glenny.