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Chapter 142: Cursed (6)

The moment Sanke completed his chant, the room began to shake violently.

"..a-ahh, what's this?" Raina cried out at the sudden vibration below her as she attempted to keep her balance.

"The aura that he's emitting..." Shinto mumbled out in slight worry as his eyes locked onto the prevalent fog of darkness that surrounded Sanke. "Is this all just curses or is it pure magic?"

"Kukuku... You're struggling just from some little topsy-turvy?" Sanke chuckled snidely. "My... Then I can't help but wait for your reaction to what's to come next."

"...Ugh... What's to come next?" Ethaniel frowned at the words coming out from Sanke as he slowly got up from the ground, quickly regaining his balance and footwork. "What, you're going to summon a giant skeletal warrior or something? Bah... You're delaying the inevitable."

"Hmph... You're underestimating my minion? Or are you underestimating me?" Sanke raised his brow in question. However, he soon shook his head. "That doesn't matter. I've had my fair share of entertainment. So all I need now is to end this and proceed to gain 'that'."

The moment Sanke ended his statement, the violent shaking around the room stopped. However, not a second later, the ground began to rumble from below the surface of the group.

"What the...?" Shinto muttered out as he turned to the ground where he stood on, noting that cracks were beginning to appear on it. "..." His eyes followed where the crack was coming from which led to his back. "...!" The moment he turned to the back, he saw a giant skeletal monster slowly forming from the countless skeletal rats and purple slime grouping up together.

It seems as so the violent shaking from earlier came from the charge of the rats stacking up upon one another with the slimes aiding in glueing them together.

"T-This is...?" Raina mumbled out as she eyed the figure before her. Although not yet completed its transformation, it still gave off an aura of intimidation.

"Great... We have to deal with this?" Shinto sighed through his teeth.

"Kukuku... Do you like him? I call him 'Big Bob'," Sanke sneered. "I hope for a solid entertainment as you battle away with him."

"...hah," Ethaniel scoffed as he gripped onto his sword once again. Soon after, he leapt forward as he began to initiate multiple strikes of attacks on Sanke. "Give you solid entertainment? Like I care for that. Just get this over with!"

"Hmph, how impatient... You're not even gonna bat an eye on him?" Sanke frowned as his staff waved in a defensive mannerQuickly creating a barrier filled with dark energy around himself.

"Ugh..." As Ethaniel's sword clashed with the magic barrier created by Sanke, the heavy attacks that Ethaniel had dealt were quickly refracted back to him, forcing him to sway to the side in order to dodge. "What's the point with batting an eye on him when my main focus is on you?"

Without wasting any time, Ethaniel channelled out white energy around the tip of his sword. Moments after, he burst forth an arc of light onto his shield, swiftly shattering it.

"Hah... So you're just ignoring your teammates..." Sanke smirked as he snapped his fingers. "Well, whatever. Dealing with you instead of three is much better," he uttered out as dark swirling circles appeared behind the back of Ethaniel, moments later, missiles shot out from it, quickly piercing through him.

"Ack...!" With the attacks pinpointing his shoulders and legs, Ethaniel gritted his teeth as he soon scoffed. "I'm not ignoring them, it's you who's the one ignoring them."

"-Turn tails of the purifying heat, reach for the judgement!" A female's voiceRaina shouted out in a loud tone as she shot forward a purifying flame over to Sanke.

Moments later, a feeling of warmth was felt on the back of Ethaniel. "You should be more aware." With the help of Shinto's [ Mark of Umbra ] on him, his health slowly rose up as he quickly swung a blade of light onto Sanke.

"Tch... Big Bob was not enough to wipe out the two mages?" Sanke frowned as his eyes turned towards the direction of the giant figure who was frantically running around in madness chasing after Shinto who was attracting aggro.

"Grrr!" The giant skeletal rat leapt forward towards Shinto in an angered manner, however, noting the attack, Shinto swayed to the side as he shot out a mana spark onto him.

"Huff... huff..." Shinto let out a tired breath as he turned over towards the area where Ethaniel and Raina were at. "...Sanke's at yellow... Alright." Nodding his head, Shinto uttered a chant as he quickly casted out a field of slime below Big Bob. In the next moment, he wasted no time as he soon casted out [ Poisonous Gloo ], poisoning it and further enhancing the effects of [ Sticky Ground ].

"What the...? This mere mage is soloing my minion?" Sanke muttered out in shock.

"What? Soloing? Bullshit," Ethaniel scoffed as his blade drew an arc over towards Sanke. "He's playing a game called 'baiting'."

...

During the time when Ethaniel began to leap forward and attack Sanke, Shinto and Raina were left there busily workings their heads to deal with the giant threat known as Big Bob. However, without Frey, it meant that one of them needed to take aggro against the rat to prevent any distraction for Ethaniel to dish out damage.

"...my speed's slow... so well," Raina uttered out as she saw that Ethaniel had left them.

"Sigh... Go aid him. I'll distract the big guy," Shinto stated. With everything taken into account, Shinto was the only option left. Thus, he had to move into full motion with the plan whilst simultaneously supporting Ethaniel when it was due.

...

"Hmph... A strategy of bait?" Sanke scoffed. "What? You think I can't control my own creation?"

"Well, what for?" Ethaniel sneered at the man in front of him. "With his way of handling that guy, you might as well summon a new one." Connecting his skills from earlier, he rained down a pillar of light onto the man and, following up with that attack, Raina shot out another [ Flames of Etheral ].

"Annoying..." Sanke frowned from the barrage of attacks that he received. With another snap of his finger, he hurriedly paraded down Ethaniel with countless sparks of dark missiles on him. However, despite thathis target took the damage head-on.

"Give it up, I'm ending this!"

"Grr... You..." Sanke gritted his teeth in anger. However, he was helpless. What could he do now? His curses wearn't working on Ethaniel, and Raina had continuously been nullifying it. If he were to divert attention to Shinto, he would be taking the direct force of blows from two sides at once, thus disallowing him to force Shinto into curses. "...this is..."

"Your defeat," Ethaniel stated as his sword swung up in the air.

"Kukuku... Hahaha..." Laughter rang throughout the room as his sword clashed with Sanke.

"What now?" Ethaniel frowned.

"My curses don't work on you... Such a pity. That Flame of Etheral is actually working and you have someone who is easily dodging all my minion's attacks..." Sanke murmured to himself. "This guy didn't prepare me for this... Haha... Was he asking for my death?"

As Sanke spoke in a condescending tone, the energy within the room gathered around Sanke. Thus, quantifying the density of the aura around him.

"Urk... You're not done yet?" Ethaniel grumbled.

"Hahaha..." Sanke began to laugh maniacally as his status, enhanced by the dense aura was unleashed. "I'm not done yet...Not yet. Who cares anymore?"

From behind Sanke, countless shadows protruded out as it latched onto the limbs of Ethaniel. In the next moment, with all their strength, they threw Ethaniel as if weightless over to the other side of the room, quickly making him collide with the door and destroying it.

"...!" At the sight of Ethaniel's body flying over in an instant, Raina shouted out. "Ethan!"

"Argh... What's this? One last stand?" Shinto clicked his tongue as his eyes moved towards his party's health bar, noting that Ethaniel's health was in the red.

"Kukuku... Even if Renryth attempts at stopping me came to futility, it's fine. I learnt that these such curses need no such thing to be used against them," Sanke's eyes flashed a bright red as the shadows soon grabbed onto Raina, in the next moment, proceeding to throw her over to the direction of Ethaniel. "I do not care for such acts no longer. Wasting time here and letting everyone do the work... I do not wish for such things anymore."

Sanke slowly walked through the room as he crumbled down Big Bob into ashes. Whilst doing so, his eyes laid onto Shinto. "For you... I'll save you the effort of having the same fate as your friends. I do not need to bother with you."

The dark aura soon began to spiral around Sanke as he began to slowly disappear away from sight.

"...I'm not done with you yet," Shinto furrowed his brow as he activated his skill [ Sanctum Brilliance ]. Soon after, he shot out the two spells enhanced by the skill onto Sanke back to back.

"Hah..." As the divine light enveloped Sanke, he brushed it off as if it was nothing.

[ The target is immune to Silence! ]

"Hmph... This new power sure comes in handy," Sanke's eyes made eye contact with Shinto and in turn, Shinto saw the lifelessness within him. "Haha... It's great really. I can finally take my leave and take what I've longed for. The pendant of Flaming Purity."

"Tch... Hey! Do you think we're done?!" Ethaniel roared out as he drew his sword in an arc, sending three waves of light over to Sanke.

"Oh certainly we're not done yet," Sanke uttered out. "Have this gift in token for my appreciation."

With one last smirk, Sanke disappeared from the room and in place of him, was a few objects that stood on the ground.