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Haru.

Claws slashed down wildly, and my body danced back, jabbing at the face of the cursed as I retreated. Claws broke the earth and instant the cursed pounced at me. Vanessa bats down the claw with Jimmy's sword. Riposting back with a holy mana. The weapons point enter the mist and the cursed human screeched as their shoulder sizzled. Darkness around an arm twisted in the form of a sword and stabbed back. A small circle of mana on the back of my hand blocked the strike to my chest. In the exchange, the cursed fled, holding its bleeding shoulder.

“How did you learn to fight like that!?”

Vanessa rolled my shoulders. Practice. Hours of sparring with a man who barely held back.

Vanessa shifted my body a little lower, mana buckler in front and sword in a piercing stance. She watched the cursed for his tells. How it shifted its feet, where it leaned, which muscles twitch.

Through her eyes, I noticed.

“The host… He is aware?

Yes.

“Lands above…”

How is this even possible? Why would a person suffer such pain and anguish to don the curse? Madness or desperation?

Quiet your mind. Vanessa said within me. I do not hear your thoughts but I feel them. Such thoughts, whatever they are, are useless. What is important is that we stay alive. We must make our will one.

The cursed pounced again, thrusting deep. I thought to block. Vanessa jumped to the right. Black mist extended like a lance, killing a soldier meters away.

I felt Vanessa swear as footwork brought her closer to the cursed human in a single leap. A slash upward marked the cursed chest. The black mist sword sliced from the left, and Jimmy’s sword tinged as they clashed. My feet scraped the earth but Vanessa kept us steady with great balance, holding back the cursed’s amazing strength. Mana sparked from my blade, forcing the cursed mist weapon to fall down. Vanessa’s slash to the cursed was evaded, and a line of red bled from the neck. Screeching, the cursed stepped back and Vanessa followed in pursuit. One, two, three stabs were blocked by a shield of black mist. Holy Mana shattered it and with a fast step, Vanessa lunged with all her strength. Mist burned away as my blade bore into the cursed neck. The shield Buckley blocked the last attacks of dying. With no hesitation, Vanessa slices up, squirting blood onto the tent fabric above. Mist evaporates like a puff of smoke, leaving a dead man flopping on the floor.

Loud cheers blasted my ears. My jump in celebration and a healed Lieutenant General.

“Well, shit… I feel dumb now.” I gave back his sword and Jimmy pushed it away. "No, keep it. More useful in your hands. Don’t know when you might use it again.”

My first… I wish he could have seen it.

I need her. I took the ultimate risk and came back, thinking my knowledge would save us all. But I am just as lost as before. Floundering like a lost child. Helped and saved just like before. Until the ceremony, I need her.

Screeching in the distance brought up heckles.

Damn it all…

Jimmy sighed. “Told ya.”

Tarion

Like zombies, cursed fought for a chance at me. I swiped, slicing horizontally from my left and the agile cursed men evaded with a leap, pouncing back immediately. Heightened senses found a cursed attacking my blind spot on my left. My left hand grabbed the attacker's arm. I pulled it closer and my greatsword pierced its heart. Another grabbed onto my cloak. I remembered Edna Mode’s advice, summoned swords from my inventory, and three blades stabbed the arm and shoulder of the cursed nailing it to the grass. Free from the creature's grasp, I flash-stepped forward; my elbow broke bones within the mist creature, but the cursed still wailed with its inhuman mouth. Mana-repulsion tore a hole where the elbow connected, blasting it back. I swung my sword at another cursed’s neck. A smarter cursed cut the air as I leapt away. My sword flicked three crescent mana slices, killing one and maiming another. I landed backwards in a crouch, slipping underneath a sweeping black sword.

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My cloak hid my greatsword as it stabbed under my left armpit into a cursed’s thigh. I struck with a qi-imbued uppercut palm, crumbling the cursed chin in its nose cavity. Even as I felt the host’s teeth shatter, the creature grew large axes on its hands and, in desperation, swung from both flanks. My mana shaped into bucklers, tinging off the cursed’s attack. Mana exploded from my hand and the creature’s head was no more. A kick to the rear with wind rocked a cursed while I extracted my sword out of the dead man's thigh to guard a heavy sword. The enemy’s slash pressed on as it tried to pressure me with its power. Guarding its mist sword with my sword pointed to the right, I hit my sword guard, slicing at the cursed’s face inside its range. A slanted head evaded the mana, but my attack wasn’t completed as my left palm butted my greatsword to fly a missile. Dodged again, mana tethered levitated the greatsword for a second before a few pulls on the rope, chopping into a head from the left ear. Like Thor, my trusty weapon returned so a cursed could be slashed from shoulder to pelvis.

I swung to the right, cutting a black mana arrow in two. One arrow reeked of evil as it shot by my cheek as I sliced a great arc of mana. Two fell victim as one cursed leapt over and followed with sharp footwork. Lunging with its cursed sword arm, the air popped. Shields form on the point of impact on my great sword, bracing the cursed’s great power. Two rusty steel swords flashed to my sides, and with mana tethers, they guarded against a surprise attack from two creatures. Two fingers on my weaponless hand fired at a spike out of the air with a mana bullet.

“Tsk! Ghouls, kill him!” The masked woman screamed in the back.

The rusty swords grinded against the cursed’s weapons; the cursed in front bombarded me with swift jabs to get my attention as several cursed leapt high with long lances pointing down. I caught another spike.

“Mm…”

105 points in mana capacity.

I broke the stone spike in my left hand and raised it high.

“Ghouls…seems derivative but I like it.”

I closed my fist and wall air and water vapour burst outward like the shockwave of a bomb. Ghouls soared away from my storm, tumbling in the distance. Some grabbed hold of the ground claws or swords. The mage was safe in her shields.

55 points agility. 50 points senses.

I blitzed past ghouls, cutting all in my way to the mage with my mana blade. After a few moments, she’s in my reach. In the tail stance, I stomped with Qi. With no wind resistance, I flash-step-slashed upwards at the stunned warlock.

I paused. A step back, a spin dodged three flame balls. Spinning away from another ball of flame, I sliced back with mana, which was effortlessly guarded against with her mana shield. Lifesight saw.

A lady flicked her fingers; a magic spell started to form in my left and a bullet of mana stopped its formation.

“How!?”

“Mages are powerful.” I cut in another, But they are slow.”

Her hands emoted as she weaved more spells. With keen eyes, I slashed all mana that coalesced. Screeching alerted me of danger from behind; I stabbed backwards with the sword of Osberg. Pulling off my weapon from the dead’s guts, I whipped it upward with great speed and mana into the mage's shield, making her tumble across the camp. She broke tents as she bounced in her shield. As her momentum stopped, fissures showed in the blue shield.

“Summoners…” Wind pushed aside debris in her way. The mage bashed the earth with a fist, making a mini-crater in anger. “Summoners! Give them to me!” The forest dwellers hummed again; the screeching died off as curses from the ghouls were sucked from them into the mage's body.

“That's enough.”

A mage's head spun around in the shattered pieces of their mana shields. Falling on the grass with a thud, her mask broke, revealing an elderly but beautiful woman in her sixties. Seeing her ‘true’ abilities would have been interesting, but I didn't have time to waste on curiosity.

However, I did learn some things. The cursed human hosts are almost always circleless. Perhaps they were rejected members of a clan, bottom of the barrel in the towns, and not strong enough to join a respected regiment in the army but they were trained. Trained well.

The mage and teleportation rune that Kellen used. I thought it was possible that Vel made it for them. But he was too much at odds with their plans to work with the cult. Mage Tower Mages would never dirty their hands with simple, chaotic and dirty magic like the curse when they had better options. So the only option left would be Rogue Mages, the Seeker's sworn enemy. Other than locating a young mage to escort to the tower, their original purpose was and still is the elimination of all unsanctioned magic users. Rogue Mages who murder on scales that exceed mine, scientists who experiment with the taboo and the innocent, and those whose only crime is hiding away, wanting autonomy in their lives. I heard this tower master is more forgiving than his predecessors, letting in rogue mages who seek to change. But no generous man becomes the master.

I remember the rune he gave that safe in my inventory. Perhaps there was more to this proposal than I thought. I smiled.

Forest-dwelling summoners, rogue mages. Even elves. Like ages of old. When kings wielded mages like chess pieces. And mages became kings.

What a fantastic world.

With the mage’s spell broken down, I spoke. “Ravens. Summoners. Kill them and the stragglers.” I heard the sound of twigs creaking as the shadows moved.

“Kurt?” He appeared beside me, almost giving me a fright

“No more camps to report, your grace. Shall we keep searching?”

“Mmm…fuck it, let's go back.”