The cursed bolt of magic splashed against the wall of ice that shot up from the ground, to Ethan’s surprise it melted his ice almost completely, only a thin sheet remained where the bolt hit. The black flames of the cursed bolt were stronger than his ice. He already had a guess why, while his was just the simple ice element he seemed to have something aligned with curses and fire, so cursed flames.
Ethan jumped back while the small horde of undead monsters surrounded James, he looked at the ogre for a moment, the one that got killed by his companions while he escaped. It seems James was in the goblin camp or close to it and revived some of them, he was wondering what happened to Marie but this was neither the time or place to think about the magical girl.
A barrage of curse flames shot towards him, while the firepower was impressive it was severely lacking in range and adaptability, the bolts only flying straight. It seems James hadn’t figured the system out, still relying on skills for everything.
Ethan jumped back and fired some ice spikes to distract the boy, while doing that the first goblin got grabbed by his chains, instead of wrapping around its body the two chains that launched from the water moved towards its shoulders, the meat hooks dug deep into the dead flesh, getting stuck on the collarbone of the monster and pulled it into the depth of the swamp. Two more goblins followed and their corpses floated to the top moments later, their bodies encased in ice. Inside was only a mess of blood and gore.
“You shouldn’t attack people without knowing their strengths first! Also I only killed one goblin, there are many more back in the camp!” Ethan called out and stopped in the middle of the water. James looked at him, anger clear in his face. The black veins that covered his now pale skin was not a good sign. If he continued with his reckless behaviour, Ethan feared, then he would die. How he knew this was a mystery but he felt some relation to his plague mage class. Curses could act like diseases after all.
“James, you need to stop, your own magic is killing you!” Ethan sidestepped a flame whip that evaporated the water he was standing on seconds ago. Finally the kid talked with him but it was gibberish and insults only.
“Fuck you! You stupid fucking fuck asshole! I hate them! All of them! THEY WILL PAY! GO MARIE!” At the end he only screamed and Ethan flinched, his voice was deeper, more guttural than before. By the mentioning of Marie he looked around but Ethan didn’t spot her, then a cackle behind him alerted Ethan to the enemy a second too late. Five long black fingernails that looked more like claws dug deep into his back, he felt it penetrate something. Ethan gasped and clenched his teeth as the pain assaulted his body, with the wounds something more sinister invaded his body. Black veins formed from the wound and the flesh started to turn black. Pumping his body full with mana helped to relieve it but how long he could keep this up, he didn’t even wanna know.
His eyes fixed on Marie or rather what was left off her. The skin was as pale as James, her eyes black and burning with cursed flame, same for his chest, tongues of flame licked over her naked breast where her heart should be. The mouth was basically gone, her lips long chewed off from her new needle- like teeth. The whole body was covered in wounds that leaked black ichor and between her legs a slimy afterbirth dangled around that dripped with blood and pus. She looked horrifying and her witch-like cackle made him shiver.
“Look what they did to her! Marie is a monster just like me! She got raped by those green bastards!” To emphasize his statement he kicked one of his revived minions.
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“Now you will pay too much for making me this! You didn’t even try to find us! Help us survive in this hell!” Ethan thought about answering but James was gone, his anger was unnatural, after all they left Ethan to rot alone while they escaped.
He could end his suffering now but what would that make him, a simple killer or would he show mercy that way? It still made him a murderer even if he acted in self defense. While he could think about moral values all day he didn’t have time, another attack came and Marie jumped at him again, a long tongue tasting the air, at the tip was a thin bone needle.
Ethan evaded all the attacks, the moment of surprise gone. His ice chains proved to be more efficient than he thought, her undead mind wasn’t very intelligent compared to a human so he easily managed to lure her into ambush where multiple chains wrapped around her arms and legs or meat hooks managed to dig into her pale skin.
But the horror was clear on his face as she just…ripped everything off that's stuck. Skin, flesh and bones get discarded through the use of claws and teeth. Soon her body was dragging behind flaps of skin, entrails and broken ribs and one of her collar bones floated in the water.
While chasing her around James never stopped flinging spells his way but his aim was off and Ethan mostly ignored him and his constant stream of profanities. Why the boy that wanted to become a knight didn’t attack him with a melee weapon was weird, but maybe he simply lost his sword during his imprisonment.
At some point Ethan had enough, his body grew weaker from the curse he was inflicted with, he stopped running and held his staff in a white knuckled grip, a chain appeared followed by the spiked ball at the end. He changed it to look more like a cylinder and then when Marie got caught in his next ambush he did a wide arch, spinning around once before hitting Marie straight in the face with the spike covered cylinder. Bones cracked and blood exploded into a mist cloud, Ethan could see shattered bones and the gray matter of her brain as it flew to the side and landed in the water. He stumbled from the amount of energy he used, it seems the curse was sapping his strength. Using his staff as a crutch he moved back to James. Chains of ice wrapped around him, these ones without hooks or spikes to keep the kid alive, for now.
The rest of his undead entourage died quickly, ice spikes, waves of frost and chains discarded them easily. Why didn't he send them out to fight him? Because he was so occupied with throwing insults only his strongest minion managed to get recognized.
James looked at him, his eyes filled with hate and madness. The chain around his mouth stopped him from speaking while Ethan examined him for a moment. They stared at each other, pale blue snake eyes against dark black flames of madness. He could feel their energies clash, spark of blue and black moving to invade their other domain. “You’re not yourself anymore, no you’re gone James…I should kill you now and be done with it. It would make me a killer but you could find peace.”
He still looked into his eyes, searching for a sign of humanity, a moment of clarity, real intelligence instead of hateful instincts but there was nothing. James didn’t do anything to him before so it felt wrong to make him suffer.
Ethan held his head high and turned around, he couldn’t watch what was about to happen. An ice spikes the size of his thigh pushed from the water, penetrating James entire body, the sharp point destroying bones and organs, ripping apart his black heart only to end up crushing his spine and neck, the last thing intact was James head, now impaled on the ice spike while his body was cut in half, each half dropping to the side.
The only thing remaining was his head…hateful eyes still open and his mouth now stuck in an endless snarl. It was gruesome but Ethan feared what would happen if he kept the body of a cursed necromancer intact. The poison vanished once James truly died. He didn’t look back while walking over the blood filled water, he was now truly alone in the tutorial. The only human to continue on his way….
