I kept my voice steady while my vision pulsed at the edges. “You want the essence of the corrupted. Fine. But if you pull your champion back and open the door, I'll give you the core, and we leave. Everyone's happy.”
Behind me, I could feel Rhea working furiously with my senses; she was burning mana at an extreme rate. If I could feel it, so could this entity, but it appeared it wasn’t worried about her. That at least worked in our favour.
The three eye sockets burned brighter. “Your healer is mine. Your companions can’t help you, and your very life is bleeding onto the floor…”
I gave a weak grin. “And yet you are talking.”
Silence.
The giant shifted its grip on the greatsword.
“You think small,” she said. “You cling to survival like the vermin you are.”
Oh, how you are mistaken.
“It worked so far.”
Another second. Another.
I felt Quinn’s shoulder under my arm. His breathing was slow and controlled. I districated from him, taking a some steps forward, interposing myself between him and masked Mary, then I put a hand into my pocket and took out the green bead, without showing her, it, I corrected in my mind.
Rhea's magic hissed behind me.
Almost.
“I accept,” the entity said while locking its gaze on my hand.
Lying bastard, you don’t think I can’t tell? I worked with and against the best liars in the world. You are a child in comparison. “Then this is for you,” I answered.
The mask flared with power, its excitement so clear it was palpable.
When I opened my hand, I showed it the murky green bead, the core of the gorg chieftain. The creature looked confused for a moment, then finally I managed to finish my preparation with the bead in my hand and cast Curse Rebinding, unravelling the curse in it and sending it at the mask.
A screech tore into the air as the curse clashed with the mask; it was resisting its intrusion, and I was fighting on two fronts, as the curse itself wanted to return to its vessel, so I raised my hand and threw the core with all my strength into the floor.
With a crack of breaking glass, the curse slammed itself into the mask with renewed vigour as it lost its home, trying to find another. The mask was still resisting it, its barrier flaring bright as a dark, malicious mass of living energy tried to enter it; as it failed to do so, I felt it settle for the second best, Mary’s own body.
Fuck.
Then I heard Rhea slamming her palm into the floor with a resounding pulse of mana.
The cavern shuddered.
Light flickered across the pedestals. The faint magic that had suffused everything since we entered just stopped.
The entity recoiled.
“Impossible!” she shrieked. The voice lost its smooth authority, warping with rage and pain. “This sanctum is bound to me!”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Not anymore,” I muttered.
The entity’s gaze locked on me as I could see her form sag under the curse influence, I had no idea what effect it had, but it was formed by the fusion of all the lesser curses in the stat potions, it shouldn’t be pleasurable at all.
“KILL THEM ALL!!” It snarled.
The giant moved. At the same time, I felt Quinn for a second, a flicker of his presence away from me and on the side.
I had to stop the champion somehow.
Every curse I had, I sent its way; at the same time, I layered weakening hexes, as many as I could with my dwindling mana pool.
Golden-green energy flared from the mask, streaking towards the giant.
It flickered, then stuttered, and my curses hit the champion in full force.
It staggered back a couple of steps while Alya ran to it. “No wait!” I shouted. She was in no condition to fight that thing; blood soaked her clothes. She wasn’t as fast as Quinn; still, she charged, mace and curved sword blazing.
She managed to reach the champion, but before even having the time to strike, she had to cross her weapons in a guard as the greatsword came down.
The impact cracked like thunder as the strike broke her guard; both weapons smashed into her chest as the blade ploughed through, opening a gash into her chest as she got hurled back as the greatsword continued into the stone floor, shattering it. She hit the stone like a rag doll and did not get up.
Rage cut through the fog in my head.
I raised my hand, giving intent to my mana as Quinn’s presence slid through the shadows behind the mask, silent as falling dust.
I casted Drain the Accursed as I stole the life from the champion, it roared and run my way, part of that power I used to stabilize my condition, I felt my body get energized, but I couldn’t heal fast enough, so I shaped the power into a single point of golden light, my will creating a miniature star in front of my hand, then I infused it with more and more as I pulled with all my might, as the greatsword was scything towards me I released the spell. A giant golden blast tore into the champion's hands as it made the greatsword fly besides me and clank multiple times as it bounced around.
The champion roared as its right hand ended in a stump and the other lost two clawed fingers, blood spilling onto the stone. I kept stealing his life, healing myself and preparing another spell, while I added more hexes with the last of my mana, a golden spear took form besides me. I grabbed it and infused more and more lifeforce into the spell, then I added my strength and hurled it with both magical and physical might at the champion’s knee.
The compounded effects of the hexes and curses combined with my trait allowed me to hurt him badly; still, it wasn’t a champion for nothing; it raised its leg, making the sabaton protecting its shin take the spell instead of the exposed knee. What it didn’t anticipate was for the force of the spell to be so high that it tore through the sabatons and took with it part of its shin; as it put its leg down again after the hit for balance, the bone snapped, and he crashed into the ground.
At the same time a screech like no other sounded from Mary; I instinctively turned to look at her and saw Quinn moving away, the mask now was burning golden-green flames only through two of its eyes; the third one on the forehead was sporting the maroon core of the root monster.
Black veins burst from the third eye socket and raced across the mask, threading through the elegant root patterns like ink spilt into clear water. The mask tried to resist, but it couldn’t.
Mary collapsed to her knees.
The scream that tore from her throat was layered, two voices scraping over each other, one human, the other ancient and wrong. The sound bounced off the cavern and came back distorted.
“Quinn, the mask! Get it off her!” I shouted.
The kid sprinted in again, planted a foot on Mary’s chest to pin her, grabbed the antler on the mask and pulled.
The mask resisted, golden-green light lashed out in frantic pulses, but every surge only dragged more poison through its own channels. My curse turned its strength against it, lifeforce converting into venom with every attempt to draw its own power.
“LET GO OF ME, WORM!” the entity shrieked through Mary’s mouth.
Quinn bared his teeth. “HOW ABOUT NO, BITCH!!”
He pulled harder, the mask began to peel from Mary’s face, black and white roots were still anchoring it to her skin, pulled taut by Quinn’s efforts.
My curse screamed at me to go and help her, but I saw in my periphery the champion move.
It should not have been able to.
Half a hand, one ruined leg and a set of curses and hexes hindering its very being. Still it launched itself at me with a roar that I could feel in my very bones.
I barely shaped a barrier in time.
Claws screeched across the surface, sparks and warped light spraying between us. The impact drove me backward anyway. My boots left the floor. I hit the floor and rolled, my vision flashing white as pain tore through the half-healed wounds.
I forced myself up.
The champion stood against me.
With its greatsword back in its ruined hand.
I got played, but I wasn’t out of the game yet. On the contrary, I was just getting back on my feet; its very lifeforce was sustaining me, and I will use it to take it down.
20 chapters ahead!
