Clement saw it, purple flames emerging from every shard of the broken armor, all coming together to form some kind of spirit. Diane soon noticed and ran in front of Clement, shooting the spirit with a special marked arrow. As it reached towards the spirit, the arrow immediately disintegrated.
"This…this is no ordinary magical spirit, it's a curse!" She said, frightened but trying to remain calm. The curse then began constructing its own suit of flesh and bones. Clement was now horrified at what he was seeing, a massive human body being made right in front of him. A sudden feeling of exhaustion hit Clement. His consciousness was slipping away.
Diane heard a thump next to her. "Clement?" Diane said, looking over at him worryingly. She immediately went over and lifted him off the ground and carried him over her shoulder. As she glanced back at the curse spirit, it had already transformed into a colossal, muscular man, nearly twice the size of a fully grown warrior. It had cloth wrapped around its head. Diane quickly threw a smoke trap on the ground and moved as quickly as she could while carrying Clement.
"This is no good… how can I possibly stop this thing on my own?" She thought. Diane went through another passageway between the buildings to hide. The curse spirit charged through the smoke and ran right past them. Shortly after, the smoke disappeared, Diane peered from the corner of the building and aimed her bow at the back of the curse's neck. The arrow snapped in half as soon as it made contact with the curse. This made it turn around in an instant, Diane hid behind the building again.
"There has to be a weak point to this curse's body, but where?" She thought. Diane was on the verge of panicking, worries and anxious thoughts flooded her mind. Not only did she have to fight that near unstoppable force, but she also had to protect Clement and herself, all without making too much of a commotion. She grabbed Clement and hurried up the wall, climbing high enough so that the curse wouldn't be able to see them and charge forward once more. Diane followed it while on the rooftop. The curse stood and looked side to side while in a small, empty streetway. A narrow waterway was in front of them. The curse seemed too confused to know its next move, no targets were in sight.
This gave Diane the time she needed to calm herself, all she had to do was shoot. She reached for her quiver and grabbed a single arrow that had an intricate and pointy design. "I only brought one of these in case of an emergency. Even if all my other arrows are useless against this, I know this one can at least give me an advantage… I can't miss." She pulled back the string of her bow and released. The arrow zoomed and directly hit the curse's shoulder, delivering a huge shock throughout its entire body. Though not in immense pain, the shock was certainly making it more difficult to move.
Diane leapt off the roof, still wary of the curse's stability and if it can get up and move even more.
"That was a stun arrow, it will keep delivering high levels of electricity throughout your entire body until you lose consciousness. However, a curse spirit cannot lose consciousness so who knows how long you will have to suffer like that. Not that I care, as long as you are not causing any trouble."
The curse spirit was struggling to move an inch, the intense amount of shock it was experiencing looked to be too much for it to handle. Diane turned away, relieved that she was able to calm herself and take down the enemy. As she began moving back to check on Clement, she heard a loud groan. The curse spirit had recovered from the shock much sooner than expected, its artificial body appeared even more powerful. Diane couldn't help but watch in horror.
"I had a feeling that wouldn't be the end of it, but I did not expect it to get up again so quickly. Just what is this thing? Is there any way of stopping it?" She thought as she began breathing faster and faster. As the curse spirit prepared to deliver a tremendously strong punch, Diane braced herself, closing her eyes in a way that it was almost as though she was accepting her defeat, there was no way to stop this curse. Not by herself at least.
In a fraction of a second, something flew right at the curse, or rather someone. Diane opened her eyes to see Arianne hitting the curse with a swift kick to its face. Despite how strong the kick was, the curse hardly moved and knocked her away.
"You came back… Arianne!" Diane said with much excitement.
Arianne had a smug look on her face as she landed on her feet and slid back. "Heh. You're right it IS me. And I AM back." She said while catching her breath.
"But this creature, it is a cursed spirit, and even my strongest arrow wasn't enough to contain it."
"A cursed spirit, huh? I've dealt with plenty of those, no need to worry! Just check up on that runt while I fight this thing."
Diane smiled and nodded, feeling rather reassured. She climbed the building she had left Clement and went to see if he was still unable to move.
"Clement! Clement! Are you alright? Clement, we need to leave from here. Arianne is fighting that curse. We should be safe for now but we must get to the others!"
Clement opened his eyes gradually, before softly uttering four short words: "Diane… are you… alright?"
"You should be more worried about yourself. Your condition is not one of a healthy warrior."
"I-I think… I can move." he said as he moved his hands and slowly began to sit up. More and more, Clement gained the miniscule amounts of energy he had drained by casting those advanced spells. Until, finally, he was able to stand on his two feet.
"You need to be careful, Clement. Any more recklessness could be the end of you as well as this quest."
"I'm aware of that. But we should hurry, right?" He said while slowly limping towards the edge of the roof.
Diane couldn't describe how his words made her feel, she was frustrated by his inability to rest, yet at the same time, she felt relieved, even proud of his resilience. "You are quite unique, Clement. I do not believe I have met anyone as strong as you."
"Me? Strong? Did that curse mess with your head or something?" Clement laughed softly.
"What I meant is that you are determined, more so than any other warrior I've fought."
Clement chuckled as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Thanks. That means a lot. But if you want to see what strength on the outside looks like, take a look at Arianne." He pointed and he and Diane watched as the curse was dealing relentless blows but Arianne was leaping away from them almost effortlessly. Arianne reached for her bag at her side and threw a couple daggers at the curse, only for them to bounce off the surface of the curse's skin. The curse responded by trying to slam its fist and bury her in the ground. She moved her legs upward at the perfect moment and was able to repel the fist's force by using her own.
"Listen, you freak, I don't know who or what you are…'' she said while struggling to push against its giant fist. "But… I won't let more casualties spread because of me. I will do anything I can to prevent premature death, even if it means I have to make it so there aren't any traces left of you!" She yelled as her legs launched the curse's fist upwards once again, leaving its guard wide open. She screamed once more. She used her dagger to completely slice off the curse's left leg. It fell on its knee. She leaped up and threw daggers that pierced its shoulders. Her heel slammed into and crushed the nape.
Almost certain that was the final blow, Arianne looked at the curse lying limp on its stomach. She smiled and lifted its face up to see if the curse had truly vanished from the body or not. Unraveling the cloth from its face, she saw that the eyes were completely black, showing no expression.
"Was this…possession? Just what is this thing?"
"Arianne!" Diane called out. Arianne turned around to face her. She had just climbed down the building they were atop of along with Clement. "We don't know how that curse operates, we do know it constructed that vessel out of magic."
"Out of magic? Wait…the only curse that's capable of doing that is-"
They felt the ground quake, it was the curse beginning to stand up again. It was using a broken crate to lift itself up. Arianne quickly turned around to fight once more, but in the blink of an eye, the curse fully stood up. Not only that but it grabbed another crate and threw it at Arianne with full force. As swift as she was, she couldn't dodge it in time and it directly hit her and sent her flying into a wall of a building, causing significant damage to the area and to Arianne. Diane sprinted over trying to see if Arianne was still breathing.
"Arianne! What just happened? Are you still there?"
"Of course I'm still here…" she was coughing as the dust cleared up. Blood was coming out the right side of her forehead. "I shouldn't have underestimated that thing. It's a-" she stopped talking and continued coughing again and again.
"What is it? Do you know?" Clement said as he caught up with the two, "Also, why were you the only one hit? It didn't seem to care about us much now."
"Because it sees me as its primary target now, pretty soon it will come here to finish me off-"
"Do not say things like that. You said you would not allow any premature death." Diane said sternly.
"Here, take this." Arianne pulled something out of her bag, it looked to be a hollowed out horn of a monster. She handed it to Diane. "You're in the best condition out of the three of us, blow on the tip of that horn. It should make a sound that no one but Greyhart can hear. He and the rest will show up to help us. Hurry, we don't have time."
"Arianne…" Diane was surprised to hear that Arianne could come up with a plan in such a short time. She put her mouth to the horn and blew with all the energy she had. As Arianne said, no noise could be heard, not by anyone with normal hearing at least.