Prince Kaiser pushed himself away from Bertram Beaumont the moment the latter dropped him.
He sniffled, running his fingers back through his moist black hair, "Good, it has finally revealed itself. What's left now is to exorcise it."
He said it with so much confidence that it prompted a simultaneous puzzled look from the four Sentinels. It was as though he hadn't been flung aback by an attack from the monstrous curse just about a minute ago. And the curse didn't even touch him to do that.
Was this really bravery, or pride and arrogance?
Folding up the sleeves of his black shirt, Kaiser studied the dome around the village. The sun and clouds were still visible, though veiled by the thin-like structure of the dome. This made the entire village fall into partial darkness.
His eyelids dropped as his shadows almost lost their vitality.
'I can't cast my shadow spells without a good source of light to create shadows. This barrier has to be taken down, or I'll be almost useless in the exorcism,' he deduced inwardly with a frown.
He took a glance at the Sentinels, who were busy trying to formulate a plan.
He delved into his thoughts once more, 'Manipulating darkness itself still consumes a lot of mana. I'll have to save that for later.'
The curse remained where it was standing, growling aggressively at them, its deep hollow eyes almost boring into their souls. There was only about a distance of twenty meters between them, but the Curse didn't move.
Taking a slight puff from his cigar, Aldous Benedict walked up to the prince, "Your Highness, this curse isn't something all of us can handle alone. The best option would be to call for backup, but this barrier has trapped us in."
"It's probably how it trapped the villagers and Sentinels. Whatever the barrier is, it's not visible from the outside. I feel it also blocks out any form of sound," Kaiser said, entering a brief cogitating state. He was trying to get a rough estimate of his mana reserve. Then he added, "It makes everything look normal on the outside, while the curse does whatever it pleases on the inside."
"That actually makes sense. It's no wonder the Mana Aura of the other squads vanished without a trace," Aldous reasoned with a sparse exhalation of smoke.
"However, do you think the other Sentinels didn't also realise this fact?" Kaiser asked the captain, slightly cocking his head to the side. He continued without an answer, "Since they had no choice, they must have engaged it in battle. Not only did one of the squads have a priest, each Sentinel was more experienced than you lot."
Anyone would have taken the last statement as an offense, but he was the prince, and he was also right.
"But still, they lost," Aldous muttered, getting the gist. He tilted his head sideways when he heard some approaching footsteps.
It was Flynn White and Bertram, ready to carry out their just-thought-out plan.
Aldous retracted his gaze back to the prince and said, "We put this into consideration too, and came up with something. Now I'm not saying one of the former squads didn't try this too, but at least we have an external party to make us the exception. You, your Highness."
"I'm flattered," Kaiser gave a long stare at the Curse meters away. "But what exactly is this plan you've come up with?"
"It's a very simple one, actually," Bertram answered. "I'll engage the curse in a tussle of strength, distracting it long enough for you and Aldous to somehow restrain it. By that time, Flynn must have located its core, and he'll deal the finishing blow."
Ruminating over the plan, Kaiser couldn't help but nudge his chin at Henry as he asked, "What about him?"
"He's a Descrier, and has just begun his combat training. He'll be on the side-lines for now and help gauge the Curse's strength," Bertram explained, uncoupling his black Sentinel cape.
As the falling cape swayed behind him, they could now see his taut biceps and torso pecs that pressed hard against his uniform.
"Are we sure physical attacks will work against it? And even if it does, won't its body corrupt you on contact?" Kaiser asked.
Flynn answered this time around, "I've fortified his body with holy seals. I also cleansed him, so he can keep the seals activated with his own Mana."
"I see that I might have underestimated you guys," Kaiser muttered with no particular change in expression. "But we still have to tread carefully. There must have been a reason as to why that thing isn't coming after us. It's probably guarding something or indirectly inviting us into its domain."
"Understood," Bertram nodded with a slight grin as he curled his hands into fists.
He inhaled slowly and exhaled in the same manner. He then crouched with burgeoned thighs. The next second, he was off, leaving a small crater and a mild aftershock behind.
He hurled himself forward through the air and descended on the curse with a mighty blow between its eyes. A loud boom resonated on impact, reverberating across the village like a tidal wave.
The Monster curse staggered back on one foot, and was this close to a near fall, but it quickly regained its balance and stood its ground, roaring again in dominance.
As the golden runes around his right fist faded, Bertram pressed his boots against its face and vaulted off into a backflip.
However, just as he made to land on the upheaved ground, the curse swung its right arm in like a giant pendulum, hitting the Sentinel point-blank, swatting him aside like a bug.
In that brief moment of impact, multiple golden runes gleamed between Bertram and the Curse's hand.
Several grunts escaped Bertram as he skidded across the ground for almost twenty metres, tearing through the soil and rocks with each roll.
Using his insane agility and endurance, he found some balance and flipped horizontally, planting his boots on the ground as he still moved back, his eyes fixed on the curse afar off.
He soon came to a halt, the surrounding earth upheaved as though it had been excavated. He punched his knuckles together and blitzed across the village at a whim, leaving a dark blue blur and several afterimages.
The curse's keen senses alerted it of a familiar threat, and it turned its head in that direction. However, it was too late.
Bertram struck his body against the curse at the speed of sound, erupting an erratic sonic boom, and a few shockwaves.
The holy seal fully revealed itself around his body in the form of several golden runes. It was quite similar to the runic armour that the Elven witch, Achlys Arthedain, used in the Blood Forest, just that this one was to protect its host from metaphysical attacks. This was why the holy seal didn't activate when Bertram took physical damage.
It only shone briefly when the curse touched him. But as soon as he struck the ground, it went docile.
The curse was thrown aback to a considerable distance, but, almost immediately, the oddest of things happened. Reality seemed to glitch for a second there, as the curse returned to its prior spot almost as soon as it left.
Bertram jumped back with knitted brows, tightening his fists, "What in Aethera's name is this abomination?"
Prince Kaiser blinked three times in quick succession as he watched Bertram go toe-to-toe with the monstrosity of a curse. It made him wonder why they were so fearful in the first place. The man was a literal powerhouse.
He understood the fact that curses were quite tricky. They were also almost immune to physical attacks, but with this same combo of a holy seal and a strength-based Sentinel, the previous squads might have actually come out victorious.
Or did they perhaps miscalculate?
Still staring at the ongoing fight in wonder, Kaiser asked, "Is he a Berserker?"
"No, he's a water Mage," Aldous answered. "He can't conjure water out of nothing, so he's practically useless without a source of water to control. But he was lucky to have been taken in by Lord Alaric Arthedain of the elves, who trained him to channel most of his Mana into physical argumentation."
Kaiser clicked his teeth with lowered eyelids, the wonder in his eyes immediately fading, "Tsk. Too many False Berserkers these days."
"I thought that title was only excluded to Lord Arthedain?" Aldous creased his brows.
"Yeah? Then what would you call Bertram now?" Kaiser answered with a question, pointing at Bertram that was currently under the Curse's foot, lifting its burdensome weight.
Aldous shifted his gaze to the tussle and was at a loss for words.
Dropping his hand, Kaiser shrugged, "Exactly."
The holy seals around his hands and upper body sparked brightly as he bore the full weight of the enormous curse.
With gritting teeth, he pushed his chest out and stretched his hands back. Then he arched his back and threw his hands forward with all his might. The curse's foot went in the same direction, likewise its body, and it fell face first to the ground, crashing through a nearby house. But still, its other leg didn't leave its location. It was as though something was keeping it glued to that place.
Cracks emanated from Bertram's joints as he flexed his muscles to reduce the soreness.
He took a glance at the wreckage through the house and the slowly rising curse. A sudden realisation then dawned on him, and he narrowed his eyes, "Wait a minute, did this thing grow bigger?"
In truth, the Curse had indeed grown bigger. The ten-foot tall curse of a few minutes ago, was now over twenty feet.
Though a little inconspicuous, the growth spurt was actually rapid, but everyone was either too engrossed in Bertram's feat of strength or thinking the entire plan through, to even notice.
Bertram might not have noticed it if the curse hadn't decimated the house as it fell.
Kaiser and Aldous noticed the sudden growth too, as they moved around houses to get behind the curse.
Gradually rising back to its two feet, the Curse roared at Bertram. But it wasn't just an empty, angry roar anymore. Spikes of corruption were hurled out of its mouth and rained down on Bertram in a flurry.
Jumping backwards and sideways in a blur, Bertram wasn't sure if the holy seals would help defend against the attack, as he could see pieces of flesh around the spikes, which implied that the corrupted spikes weren't completely metaphysical in nature.
Several small radii of the ground rotted into disgusting puddles as the spikes plunged through the earth.
The curse raised its head as Bertram moved farther away from it, pouring out more spikes. It was as though it had an endless supply of them within it.