158 Don’t leave people behind, please! part Ryu wouldn’t fall so easily, a single hit in the face was nothing to fear and, despite being somewhat inexperienced in fighting, he wasn’t scared to get hurt if it meant surviving.
However, he was facing ill odds and the only thing he could use now was his cursed sword.
Ryu grasped his sword as if his life depended on it and let out all the energy he could muster. He didn’t think on what would happen afterwards, he didn’t think on saving some energy to recover his stamina or health, all he had to do was land one decisive blow to end the fight in one movement.
The sword absorbed Ryu’s energy as fast as he was able to expel it, transforming the blue colored light into a darkfire that seemed to come directly from the abyss.
Stefan’s jaw was about to hit the floor, the dark energy started surrounding Ryu completely, it wasn’t like anything he’d seen before and despite knowing himself stronger he couldn’t keep himself from shivering in fear.
It looked like a liquid that floated on the air, but at the same time, it remained connected directly to Ryu and it didn’t hide him from sight.
When the strange energy became in contact with the barrier, it started cracking until it disappeared leaving Lea unarmed and defenseless. Stefan tried to repel the energy with his own barrier, but it turned out to be in vain.
While It didn’t cover a huge area, it was just a small radius near Ryu, it was dense and gave off an eerie feeling.
“I’m ready now!”
.....
Ryu smiled with a wicked smile with two glimmering eyes that adorned his face, his fangs were protruding now. Unbeknownst to him, his appearance now was that of a beast. He had claws on the tips of his fingers and two small bumps that reminisced Mia’s horns could be seen on top of his head.
“It’s the devil! your holiness do something!”
Lea cried as she fell to the floor in terror, but Stefan was in no condition to do anything either. That is, until Ryu started coughing up blood and fell unconscious.
“Was that it?”
Lea asked intrigued after a whole minute had passed.
“I don’t know child, I think... no, this can’t be!”
The paladin’s eyes grew wide and his expression froze.
“What’s the matter father Stefan!? please tell me!”
“This is... He’s wielding a cursed sword! hurry up and bless him”
“But... If I do it he’ll become stronger and... Shouldn’t we just kill him?”
“I’m disappointed child, If we kill him now we won’t be able to get rid of the curse, someone would eventually pick up the sword and we’ll be in the same predicament. If we bless him now, the curse will most likely starve to death”
The priest hurried to bless Ryu, but instead of a light shining on top of his head, Lea’s hands were glimmering intensely.
“I don’t get it, he’s resisting the blessing”
“I don’t know how this happened, but it seems like the curse its rooted deep inside the host. He should have died long ago, but it looks like he provided enough energy to feed the curse and it stabilized”
Stefan replied at Lea who was still trying to bless Ryu.
“Is that why his appearance changed?”
“I can’t be sure, but it seems like he’s linked with other creatures”
“So, he’s not the devil?”
“Don’t be silly child, he’s simply cursed. Still, to be able to synchronize his soul with so many creatures, I don’t even know how did he do it. It’s good that we found this poor creature before it fully merged...”
At that precise moment the heroes walked into the clearing and found Ryu bleeding out in the ground, his appearance was completely normal and there was no trace of any physical change whatsoever.
Luke hurried up and used his consider skill on Ryu, but what he saw left him horrified. Ryu was dying, his health points were depleting at an alarming rate and if they didn’t do something soon he would be dead within minutes.
“What the hell are you doing to Ryu!? let him go!”
Anne, Bob, Luke and Risa walked into the clearing wielding their main weapons, they were in high spirits after scaring Lea away, but they were still wary of the paladin.
As always, Luke was the first to react, kicking the ground with all his might he quickly closed the gap between him and the priestess. A quick swing of his short sword without hesitation was all he needed to make her retreat.
“Did you break the curse child?”
“I don’t think so”
Lea said agitatedly and Stefan clicked his tongue in frustration.
“What did you do to him!?”
Luke placed his hand over Ryu’s chest to check his breathing, but he didn’t take his eyes out of the opponents.
“We were simply trying to break the curse that afflicted him, there’s no need for violence. If you let us go, no one will get hurt”
“Do you really expect us to beliece something like that? how stupid”
Luke sneered.
“Actually, I think they’re telling the truth. I spent a while on the sacred empire with Helena and that light looked like the blessing skill”
“Wait, what were you doing over there? we’ve been waiting for you at Celarent for ages!”
“We took a shortcut...”
“Aren’t shortcuts supposed to take less time? it’s been months!”
“We got lost, that’s all!”
Anne scoffed angrily.
“Like I said, there’s no need for us to fight each other, I’ll let you take the prisoner and we’ll leave in peace”
Stefan said lifting his arms to emphasize his words.
“You see, I wouldn’t mind letting you go, but the thing is... you hurt our friend!”
Luke said as he vanished from sight, not even Stefan was able to see him despite his reveal skill. I looked as if he had became invisible, but in reality he simply moved too fast to be noticeable in the dense vegetation.
Next thing Stefan knew was he was being attacked from all sides by the heroes. He parried an attack with the handle of his morning star, but the next two attacks hit him proving just how strong were the heroes. Even when facing a much stronger opponent, their stats were no laughing matter.
Anne, how held a grudge against Lea, focused all her attention in defeating her as quickly as possible. This time Stefan couldn’t afford to use sacrifice to save her, he didn’t care about her that much anyway and the only reason why he used his skill before was to increase his attack power.
The intense fight didn’t last for long, because once the paladin saw himself being cornered by the young adventurers, he simply retreated leaving his companion behind.
“Father Stefan! please don’t leave me!”
“It’s the divine providence, my child. I’ll pray for your soul”
With these parting words, Stefan ran away from the scene. Luke would have loved to pursuit him, but Bob stopped him. Now they had something more important to worry about.
Once Luke went back next to Ryu, he tried to give him the medicine, but he couldn’t swallow the medicine because he was unconscious.
“It’s not working and we don’t have much medicine left!”
Bob exclaimed with a worried expression.
“Should I...?”
Luke gulped his saliva down. Everyone knew what he meant, he had to feed Ryu the medicine mouth to mouth.
“I don’t think there’s much choice...”
Risa shrugged. Luke drew closer to Ryu, it was morning already and everyone had a clear view of what was about to happen. Just as Luke was gathering his resolve to pass on the medicine mouth to mouth, Sera came hurriedly from where she was hiding.
“What do you think you’re doing? if someone has to feed him the medicine it has to be me!”
“What!? why you?”
“Isn’t it obvious, mister Ryu came here to rescue me after all. I should be the one taking careof him”
“Those are big words coming from someone in your position”
“So, Luke, what you’re telling me is that you really want to kiss him that badly?”
Sera stared at him, only then Luke realized all he had to do was to let someone else feed Ryu the medicine.
“Of course not! but no one else volunteered!”
Luke said as he threw the waterskin filled with the medicine towards Sera. She took a sip and then sealed Ryu’s lips with a soft kiss as she passed him the much needed medicine. Even though Luke didn’t even have an alchemy skill, the ingredients in the medicine were so effective that it worked miracles.
“This tastes like crap, just let me die”
Ryu joked as soon as he opened his eyes. Although it might have seem like he was exaggerating, the taste was really bad and so far, the only one able to tolerate it properly had been Bob while he was suffering from the stomach ache.
“If you don’t like it, don’t drink it”
Luke shrugged.
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