281 Soul curse II
"Small animal, moving through the grass on the left!" Invictus roared as he used a spell to summon a blade made of purple, and sent it flying at the Armoured Vulture that was swooping down towards him.
All around him lay dead carcasses of various beasts so it was entirely normal that it attracted the attention of scavengers, but the timing could have been better. Invictus himself had lost all his weapons during the fight, and his armour had also been ripped apart, destroying some of the cards he kept tucked in.
With many of his primary cards destroyed or used up, he was shuffling through cards from his deck right in the midst of battle.
The grass on his left suddenly parted, revealing a cursed fox, dashing towards him. The hair on its body had already fallen off, with a lot of its meat rotting right off its bones. Yet a vibrant red thread ran through the black meat on its body, holding everything together, pulsing with cursed energy.
It was moving fast, and almost reached Invictus, but before it could get close a cartoonish flying whale fell out of the sky and crushed the fox underneath it into a cursed meat-patty! Several other cartoonish creatures flew or ran around them, fighting off the creatures as well.
"This is not sustainable," Irene said as she casually sat on a chair in the middle of battle, with the two boys fighting around her to keep anything from reaching her.
Her attention was focused solely on a sketchpad in her hands, where she was using her fingers, each one dripping with a different colour ink, to paint her favourite Terracotta Army! Each and every swipe of her finger consumed a massive amount of aether, but she could tolerate it for now.
"We don't have a choice but to fight," Patrick responded evenly as he burned a cursed creature to death.
Patricks entire body was covered in yellow flames as a result of his passive rapidly absorbing cold to toughen his body up. Compared to the rest, he was the most calm and methodical. Since it was incredibly difficult even for cursed beings to harm his body, he just systematically went about killing them, disregarding everything else.
"Easy for you to say lover boy!" Invictus said with a hint of irritation in his voice. "You're not the one bleeding to death here. Or the one being sucked dry of aether."
Patrick smiled towards Invictus, irritating him even more.
"You're just jealous I have a beautiful wife," Patrick said tauntingly, as he used another card to channel the heat around him into bullets, shooting at the grass all around them to burn it up, leaving the attacking animals fewer places to hide.
The two of them initially got along well, and with both of them showing skill far beyond what others of their level should be able to display, they developed a bit of friendship. But when they reached Pine Needle city, guided by the homing pigeon tattooed on Nero's body, they found the hiding spot of the Clear Path terrorists within a day.
18:54
The two of them initially got along well, and with both of them showing skill far beyond what others of their level should be able to display, they developed a bit of friendship. But when they reached Pine Needle city, guided by the homing pigeon tattooed on Nero's body, they found the hiding spot of the Clear Path terrorists within a day.
After coordinating with their contact, they sprang an ambush. The results of that ambush could be considered to be mixed at best.
The local sect forces quickly responded to the attack, while the terrorists also fought back relentlessly. Caught in a threeway battle, Patrick and Invictus only succeeded in rescuing Irene and quickly escaped.
The terrorists too, now exposed to the forces of Saint Codale, ran away from the city, unwilling to chase the two.
The fact that Irene was rescued should have been good news for Patrick, even ignoring the fact that their mission was only partially complete. Unfortunately, things did not play out so straightforwardly.
"Boys, focus," said Irene when a cursed badger almost broke through their defences and reached Irene.
"One of us will have to reveal our hidden trump card," Patrick said in a matter of fact way, locking eyes with Invictus. Ever since that guy found out Patrick was married, and to such a beautiful girl as well, he had been feeling incredibly bitter. Especially since both of them were Hammel, which meant that they actually knew each other. Technically speaking, Irene was Invictus' senior sister, and Patrick his brother-in-law!
The sudden change in their dynamic made Invictus feel unresigned, but there was nothing he could do.
Or well, at least he could tease Patrick. He was about to give him a scathing retort when Irene spoke instead.
"I'll do it. You boys keep talking the big talk."
Her painting was complete, but just making it drained her of nearly all her aether. Fortunately, she did not need to rely on her own aether to activate her paintings or tattoos, which is what made her innate ability so overpowered and broken.
She pulled out a fist full of aether shards and dropped them into the painting, as if it was a pool, and watched as the Terracotta Army climbed out of the page. One soldier, two soldiers, three, thirty, all the way until fifty soldiers climbed out did the painting last. But more impressive than their numbers was the fact that each of them had the physical strength and defence of an Initiate!
Immediately, they attacked all the cursed and non-cursed creatures around them with wild abandon, uncaring for their own safety. As a result, many of them died quickly, but that hardly mattered to Irene. All it took was a few minutes, and the fight finally came to an end.
But they would not have long. So long as they remained in the wilderness, without hiding properly, they would continue to be attacked relentlessly.
Patrick, after finishing off the last beast, took a deep breath in, and suppressed his passive ability, reducing the flames surrounding his body until they completely vanished. Among their entire group, he was the one who was completely unhurt, retained the largest aether reserve and killed the most enemies. Well, killed the most if one didn't count the army that Irene summoned.
Once he had cooled down, he returned to Irene, who was allowing all her tattoos to shrink and reattach themselves to her body while still seated. Once she was done, Patrick kneeled down and gently picked her up from her chair.
The Clear Path terrorists took control of others using slavery cards, binding them to the will of the card owners. Irene circumvented the control of such a card by making the target of it one of her tattoos rather than herself.
This was not a feat others could replicate, since each of her tattoos counted as actual, individual spells each with their own unique spell model. She just happened to have a tattoo in the form of a mannequin on her body that could be used as the subject for binding oaths and spells, which she used to get around swearing oaths. Who knew she'd one day have to use it to get out of becoming a slave?
But while she escaped a single layer of Clear Paths precautions, she ultimately fell victim to the more hidden, more insidious means they had secretly used.
Unbeknownst to Irene, the terrorists from Clear Path had used an extremely vicious Soul curse on all of their victims. Neither Irene, nor Patrick or Invictus could determine the exact details of the Soul curse, but as long as she was far away from the person who cursed her, her body would begin to weaken, her mobility fade, until eventually she would die.
Since they had discovered this little detail, the three of them had been even more desperate to catch up to the Clear path terrorists. A part of it had to do with the fact that their mission was to rescue all the victims, not just Irene. But finding a way to remove the curse from Irene was just as big a motivator for them.
Invictus gave Patrick a dirty look as he saw him pick up Irene in his arms, with Irene wrapping her hands around Patricks neck so that it was easier for him to carry her. Even now, despite being in such a perilous situation, the fact that they could act so calm and without any anxiety at all greatly triggered Invictus. It was as if they were trying to show that the power of love could conquer all!
"We can't afford to be delayed any longer, or the situation will get truly desperate. Allow me to reveal my trump card, so that we can quickly save my sister," Invictus said pointedly, only causing Patrick to chuckle.
The Hammel family, despite not being a real family, valued their bonds more than anyone else. Even if Irene had given up her Hammel name due to being deceived by that evil, treacherous snake Patrick, Invictus still treated her like his older sister.
As such, he did the one thing he never thought he would, and used the card he had always kept hidden in front of people.
From within his chest emerged a golden card, and when Invictus grabbed it his eyes suddenly turned golden as well.