Curse and Opportunity

Clang Clang Rip

The enemy continued with his attacks, and I was defending with my all, using everything I had, but I was still getting injured.

The talent alone isn't enough to bridge the gap of level and experience.

Still, I have to survive, and I am pushing everything I have to the limit. It is the only thing; I could do to survive against this enemy.

"Stop resisting and give up or things will get far worse than they are right now," he said with the compulsion skill, before attacking me, with an extremely fast attack.

He has a skill like Swift Blade and when he combines that with an illusion attack. It made the deadly combination; the majority of the injuries on my body were a result of that.

They are extremely painful; tears are constantly streaming down my face and my nose is runny, and the worst thing, I couldn't even wipe it away.

I had never fought such a messy battle.

Clang!

I defended the attack, feeling the hammering blow on my wrist once again. The speed and pain aren't the only things he has, he also has the power behind his attacks.

As I defended, he immediately moved to my right and attacked again, and this time, I decided to dodge, giving a little relief to my hand.

Dodging of the attack came with the risk. 

The bastard had made the floor slippery with his skills. If I didn't have the Gymnast's Grace, I wouldn't have dared to move even a step.

I dodged the attack successfully; other than my clothes, it wasn't able to tear, anything else.

BANG!

I had just dodged the attack and moved my rapier to counter another when the deafening bang rang through the ship, and with it came the sharp wooden shrapnel that blasted in every direction everywhere.

Some of it struck me, including my head.

The cannonball had struck the ship at the port side, taking a portion of it. The two people who were fighting near it flunked into the sea.

It is a good thing; the enemy is targeting the ship with the aim of sinking it and thus targeting the bottom of it. If that cannonball landed on the deck; it would have caused more than mere injuries.

Clang!

I countered the attack while bearing the splinters.

He seems to be used to using such things, there is barely any surprise in his eyes. He even moved his neck away smoothly to dodge the large piece of wood coming at him.

He is experienced in fighting in an environment like this. It would be idiocy to even consider using such an environment against him.

From the beginning, I have only one target, and that is to survive. I didn't even think of killing him; he is more powerful than me, more experienced and I am surviving till now, which is a testament to my own skill.

I crushed every thought of adventurism in this battle. It might have worked in the other battle, but it won't work on this one.

Ting!

"I am not going to ask who hired you, but tell me how much they paid you for this mission. You know, for future reference," I asked it as his sword hit the chest place, I was wearing, taking a breath out of me.

The enchanted light armor is the reason I am alive. If it weren't for them, my body would have been floating in the sea.

Rip!

The next attack hit me, giving me a cut across my stomach, and with it came a blinding pain. I bore it and moved my sword to defend against another attack.

It is the only thing I could do. It is the only thing everyone here could do.

I could see a glimpse of other battles. 

Zela is doing everything she can to stop the other mage from sinking the ships. Captain Perry and his men are steering the ship and attacking the enemy with cannons.

I thought the number of cannonballs on the ship was excessive, but now, it didn't feel like that.

Still, I could see Captain Perry lowering the intensity of them with the passing of time. The numbers might be large, but the way we were firing them, they would run out eventually. It is wiser to use them economically, especially when our enemy has run out of them.

Now, it is firing energy blasts, and only two cannons seem to be capable of that.

It is helping Zela a lot, as the Mage has to direct some of his spells to defend against the cannons.

On the ship, the condition is the same. Captain Oliver is struggling against the enemy, who is stronger than him, but the young captain is putting up an impeccable defense.

Stone and Captain Azalea are a little worse than him. Their conditions are similar to mine, with their bodies getting covered in injuries, while there is not a single injury on the body of the enemy leader.

Even after exchanging hundreds of attacks; they were not able to bring even a single attack on him.

It is clear that the leader either has some powerful class, or he is a little higher in the Level 30s.

Stone is not weak; even bandit leaders weren't able to injure him as this man had done and he did it so quickly.

Hun!

The leader was in my line of sight when I saw him do something surprising.

….

Azalea

"I really didn't want to do this," said the leader with regret, and a moment later, a small silver scroll appeared in his hand.

'Spell scroll!' I thought and attacked to rip it apart; Stone beside me was the same, but the leader was fast. He unfurled it too quickly, and it shone in the dark grey light before the dark grey beam shot toward its target.

"Stone, watc!" I screamed in alarm, but the beam was so fast that it had struck him, before I could even form a first sentence.

"The curse beam of Htolon; powerful in its own right, but especially deadly to you with that curse, you are suppressing inside your body," said the leader to Stone as he dodged my attack, before attacking with his.

He was fast as a viper, and I moved to defend because Stone didn't seem to be in any condition to do that.

The beam seemed to have frozen him, with blackthorns coming out of his body and spreading all over him.

….

Ahhhhh….

I heard Stone's scream as the curse he had been suppressing had burst out with the full power, thanks to the attack that the enemy leader had cast on him.

Zela had told me about the curse.

It is a powerful curse that acts like a disease. When it is cast, it is very weak, so it hides and slowly grows stronger. Once it got strong enough, it started to restrict the body from using its full strength and flare to consume the body to make itself stronger.

Jon and Zela were lucky enough to have their curse removed from the lich, but Stone and the other three still have it.

Stone's is strongest; he had taken the brunt of the curse and only survived because of his giant blood. 

Now, it didn't seem to be enough, seeing how it had immobilized Stone. The curse had never done that, at least not in the midst of battle.

I feel ashamed seeing him; the healing requires a Bishop at least, and even with my power and family's name, I couldn't get their services to heal them.

Most, I was able to get a special kind of holy water, which suppresses the curse and stops it from growing further. It also has a small effect of eradicating it but needs to be taken regularly for at least a decade.

"The giant blood is gone, and that woman poses no challenge to our leader. Soon, all of you will die," said the man in front of me, grinning.

Clang!

"Tell me that, after it happened," I replied, and defended against its attack. It attacked again, and I moved to dodge while sneaking a faint glance at the enemy leader, who was furiously attacking Captain Azalea, who was trying to defend Stone.

It is clear that alone, she is no match for the enemy, but she is still defending.

I felt like her condition had become similar to mine, but the enemy she was fighting was stronger than mine, more experienced, and crueler, seeing the way he was injuring her.

I wished I could help her, but my life depended on her.

Once the energy leader dealt with her; it would only take him a moment to finish Stone off in his current state before coming at me.

I am no match for it, even if I had used everything I have; I wouldn't be able to avoid its attack, even if it was an attack where he didn't use even a single skill.

Hun!

A few seconds passed and her condition before worse, when suddenly something happened that attracted the eyes of nearly everyone on the ship.

'Did he want to drown us all,' I thought when I saw an enormous wave growing out of the sea.

It grew bigger and bigger, till it had to take the whole ship under its shadow when suddenly it stopped as if someone had taken power out of it and started to fall

Even my opponent seemed to be surprised by it but didn't move away to pick up the railing, as so many did. Instead, it turned to me and came at me, with a laugh.

I moved to defend myself while my heartbeat was in fear.

The wave is huge, but it won't kill. It would have become a killing if it had grown even bigger, but it is still dangerous.

It might kill to flip the ship. If it didn't do that, it would throw us into the sea, which is even more dangerous, as it would make us completely at the mercy of the mage, and I don't think there is any mercy in his heart.

Clang!

I defended the attack, but I came at me, and this time, the wave had come close. It is a moment away, crashing into the shop.

Rip!

His sword cut through my stomach once again, giving me a burning pain, but it was not the not the only thing I felt.

I also felt the water.

BANG!

The next moment, the wave crashed on the ship hard; that I felt like, I had been hit by the sledgehammer.

Hun!

Though, the force didn't throw me away from the ship, as I had expected it to do. I found my feet sticking to the deck with surprising strength, that even such a powerful wave was only able to push me back.

Which inadvertently saved me from the killing attack, which would have divided me into two.

"Lucky bastard!" cursed the enemy and came at me with another attack. As the water, begin to disperse from the deck.

I didn't even see the effect it had caused. As I used everything, I had to push my sword forward to defend against the attack.

BANG!

I defended the attack and moved my sword again to defend another when I heard a deafening bang.

A cannonball crashed into the ship.

It crashed close to the deck, blasting a huge hole and throwing splinters of wood all over. 

Some pieces hitting with one especially long one buried itself in my thigh. I didn't even look at it, as my focus is something else I had noticed.

The big piece of coming toward hard. It is coming directly at the enemy in front of me.

He also seemed to have sensed it. He stopped the attack and moved to dodge the big piece of wood.

BAM!

Unfortunately, it came too fast and hit him hard. Breaking his bones and sending him stumbling forward.

I was shocked to see the turn of events, but I instantly recognize the opportunity, it is and moved forward with everything I had, not caring about the pain I was feeling or even a large wooden splinter into my leg.

I moved forward and swung my sword, harnessing every bit of power from Swift Blade and Weighted Strike.

My sword moved with a speed it had never moved before and took only a fraction of a second, to reach the neck of the enemy.

It was when his disoriented eyes focused and he saw my blade. 

His eyes widened in horror, but true to his experience, he reacted quickly. Unfortunately for him. Like that block of wood, my sword got too close, too fast for him to dodge.

My sword reached him, and enchantments of my sword flared at full power. At the same time, I activated Sharpness and harnessed every bit of it.

Pachack!

A sharp wet sound rang out as my sword came out the other side, while the masked head of the enemy flew into the air.