I was at the brink of death and I remember seeing all the lights go out as my mind shut down. There was surely no way I could save myself from the fast-approaching finishing blow coming at my skull.

My body felt weak, and numb, but I still felt some raw power gathering around my body. This energy felt as if it was trying to whisper something to me as I lay crashed in the ground, awaiting my demise.

Death comes to us all, one way or the other. Frequently, it's sudden and mysterious. One minute you're talking to your loved one, and in the next, you find them all dried up in the grasp of their favorite sheets.

If you've seen the worst in the world, you can only pray they rest in peace and let go of their soul. But that doesn't stop you from wondering if they got a proper death.

And in my case, I didn't know if my death would be proper. I would be ending in the hands of a powerful warrior in a world that I only thought to be fiction. Did that mean that my story would end here, or was I just having a crazy dream.

But this was too real to be just a dream. If anything, this was as real as the energy creeping in my bones. In one minute, I was stuck in the ground with hardly any power to move. But in the next, I found myself standing strong like a pillar holding a woman by the neck.

If you asked me then, I could never be able to describe how that had come to be. At least, not to some extent.

My stats had all reached their all time high, and they all recorded a 200/200. That did explain how I was able to move so fast and swiftly from dodging the punch to performing a counter-attack.

My strength enabled me to hold her up with one hand as I gently squeezed her neck, fighting against the abrupt desire to tear her apart. My max health made me feel like the strongest person in the entire world. It felt as though I could do anything.

I could hear her panting from both horror and despair as she struggled against my arm. It all had happened in a flash, and she would have never imagined that things would take a turn so damn quickly.

Both she and I were on the same page on that. I also didn't understand the current situation, though I had the upper hand. But I still had my suspicions.

On my left hand, I had the coin still clutched in my palm tightly, and I could tell that the coin toss had worked. I had gotten a technique, and I understood the energy around me.

I don't know how, but I knew it was cursed energy, and I could manipulate it. I knew how to use it. I knew that it provided a fighting chance for me against the Amazons.

I felt knowledgeable of the technique I bore. I could sense them all around the island - all the shadows of the Amazons!

I could feel the ones closest to me move as they approached me, hoping to save their sister from instant death. They had seen the quick movement too, and they hoped that the worst would not happen.

Feeling content about my current situation, I finally raised my bowed head and turned to face the warrior fighting not to lose her consciousness. And recomposing herself to die with dignity if this was the end for her.

"The Cursed energy must have rejuvenated my abilities." My thoughts recognized that my power was at it's highest for the first time. My face turned to glare at the angry mob coming at me.

All I felt was a nagging desire to shred all of them into pieces. One by one as fast as I could. But I had a conscious, and I couldn't let the worst become of me.

"Maybe there is a way to turn this around." I thought to myself. "But something must be done first, and fast."

I let the woman in my hand go and decided to save myself.

Their blades looked fiery, their spears sharp and light as they jumped and skidded towards me. This would have been a scary moment for any man who would have just found themselves in a fantasy island with a reputation for disliking men.

But that's not how I felt. I didn't feel neither scared nor bothered. I just felt worried. Worried that I would snap and devour each and every of them.

I could see the purple glow surrounding each of them. The purple display of cursed energy from their negative emotions.

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Something about all that cursed energy amped the malevolence filling my heart. But I couldn't let that get the better of me. I was not ready to be a murderer.

My life itself was on the line, but my heart still chose to remain in the right place.

I took a deep breath and my awareness to my surrounding heightened.

"Not today Wan." I told myself. "But it's okay to break a few bones."

"Batman does that a lot." I reaffirmed as I dodged the first spear and caught it, breaking it into two. "And that never made him a bad guy."

She still clutched the half-broken piece as the momentum pulled her closer to me, and that gave me an opening to land a powerful punch in her stomach.

Without hesitating, I made a 360° dodge instantly while lowering my height, and then flew in a rolling motion to escape the series of blades coming my way.

I safely landed a distance apart and did a sweep kick that swept another off her feet. I felt an adrenaline rush in my system as soon as I managed to narrowly escape a pierce through my kidney and did an elbow blow to my assailant.

"This is gonna be fun." I thought to myself while improving the flow of cursed energy through my body. I could feel it aid to my swift movements and powerful kicks and punches, but I still wasn't sure if my control was perfect, or if I could run out of it.

But I had to survive to know that, so I didn't hold back. Blessed with a power equivalent to two Amazon warriors and a good control over cursed energy, nothing could stop me from trying out all the crazy stunts while fighting for my life.

I swung my legs freely while doing kicks and threw my punches recklessly with a newbie's curiosity. I used their weapons against them as I jumped on the spears while swinging my kicks.

I didn't hesitate to break some bones, but also felt uncomfortable about it. Maybe I would get used to it (I surely did, much much later).

This time, I didn't allow my stats to go lower like they did before. I took note of the archers and evaded their arrows, even using their sisters as shields. They were lucky that they could use bullets and bracelets, and had armor protecting some of their most vital parts.

While the battle did seem to be going my way, it didn't go without a struggle. I still had much to learn in the art of combat, and a rude awakening dawned on me as they started to learn my ways.

I was powerful, yet inexperienced. I could only repeat the same moves a limited number of ways before they got the hang of it. Something I should have been aware of with my sorcerer instincts that only kicked in when I started to get punched and kicked.

The sorcerer's instinct, as I came to understand, was an analytical way of thinking. By narrating to myself what was going on around me, I could gain a strategic advantage over my opponent.

Or, I could understand what my mistakes were and where I had gone wrong (this usually went on up to the brink of death). The latter was the case I was currently in as they started to attack me using more brains than brawns.

What mad me even more vulnerable was my fleeting control over cursed energy.

Spirituality allows a sorcerer to strengthen their cursed energy and use it effectively without exhausting their reserves. I was lucky enough that I had crashed over a hundred warriors using my cursed energy, but my luck was beginning to run out because of a near to null mastery over Spirituality.

It takes sorcerers a long time to master effective manipulation of cursed energy, and I was a few years short of that (or perhaps just a few practices).

But my cursed energy wasn't completely gone, and I still had some tricks up my sleeve. If I did it right, I could manage to disrupt their tactical formations by bringing in something new to the table.

Namely, a shikigami - or rather, two shikigami.

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