Chapter 16. Curse Balls

[Quidditch: Images & GIFs]

A sorcerer can flow their cursed energy from their core to any part of their body, but it's usually not the best approach. The best approach is to manifest cursed energy to your desired part of the body, thereby avoiding the laggage of your jujutsu.

However, with no best friend to enlighten me on such a crucial detail, I kept on flowing my innate cursed energy to parts of my body, allowing me to disperse its effect on my attributes, and condensing the most of it into only one attribute - strength. The idea came to me after seeing my attributes equalize when I woke up in the cell. My innate jujutsu was the reason behind my super attributes, and while the shackles inhibited the flow of cursed energy surrounding me, they didn't inhibit the energy flow within me completely.

And then came the eccentricity that I discovered, after delving into a warm, sumptuos meal delivered to me by Fatsis and digesting it for some time. Rejuvenation occurred, and my attributes peaked, once again.

Armed with super attributes and the knowledge that I could flow my cursed energy, I finally gained the edge to plot my escape from Themyscira. I flowed my cursed energy to imcrease my strength, more than speed, agility, and HP, to certain levels (since I wasn't much experienced).

Since the Amazons were all in one place, on top of a mountain, I figured that one super-super leap would create a distance between us, and I would be out of the island before they could catch up to me. But my plan was foiled by the sudden manifestation of a Vengeful Curse that was shrieking more than it was howling.

I had been forced to take a major number of steps back and forth as the Curse elongated and enlarged to occupy space, forcing me to let go of the flow of condensed cursed energy to my legs. Making a leap to get away from the sacrificial grounds to the edge of the mountain, then leaping again to descend the mountain wouldn't be practical at this point.

[Before - after breaking the shackles]

<Strength 200 400 ->

<Speed 100 200 ->

<Agility 100 200 ->

<HP 100 200 ->

[After letting go of the flow to my legs]

<Strength 100 200 ->

<Speed 200 ->

<Agility 200 ->

<HP 200 ->

As it happened, flowing cursed energy to increase my strength took a toll on my strength, once I reverted to "normal".

Only Diana and I could see the Curse manifesting itself, while the rest of the Amazons struggled to keep my movements restricted, unaware of what was happening.

The Curse constituted of many shapes forming its "limbs", and most of its other structures, but the predominat shape was spherical. It's height had grown to twice my height as someone pushed me from behind while I was backing away from its growth, terror written all over my face.

It had widened to occupy the width of the alter and beyond, with about 6m in breadth. It's broadness allowed for it to push the Oracle scrambling to the queen and her subjects, but Diana managed to dodge the shove. Several others surrounding the alter were also pushed, puzzling the rest of the unaffected Amazons.

On its part, however, the Curse did not attack. All it did was produce prolonged mournfull sounds that only I and Diana could hear, before it split into bits and scattered around the sacred grounds.

With my shackles torn apart, and cursed energy flowing around and within me once again, my sorcerer's instincts had kicked back in, allowing me to recompose myself as the split purple sphericals with grotesque facial features came at me like baseballs.

Judging from the unstable nature of the Curse, I could only deduce that being bound to the alter was what that was keeping it stable, and crumbling the alter disrupted its many years of staying put. But its dispersion was not without consequences, and its separation wasn't fatal.

I could see and defend from the howling balls that were straight out from a horror show, but it wasn't the case for every other Amazon that wasn't Diana. The balls of the split Curse shot straight to where they were standing in disarray, and hit them hard and fast, bewildering them further.

It took an elbow punch to free myself from the two Amazons that had restricted me from behind as I prepared to either dodge or kick at the infinite supply of shrieking/crashing/cursing curse balls. They got hit and were sent flying by two balls that missed me, and fell hard on the ground.

Diana took charge at protecting her mother and royal guards as she advised them to duck and try to escape.

"You can't stay here!" She warned. "There is something attacking us. No time to explain."

"It's a curse." I shouted as I punched through a hurtling ball and kicked another. As soon as I hit it with cursed energy, it dispersed as it got exorcised.

Inspecting the dagger on her hand, I proceeded to hypothesis. "That dagger has cursed energy on it. Maybe it could be helpful."

I had seen her futile attempts at kicking or punching them, even using her sword slash them, but no attack worked on the curse balls. They seemed invulnerable to her raw strength, and immediately got up as soon as they got pushed back, and proceeded to attack the women.

She hadn't thought on using the blade yet, following it's presumed "holy" nature, but she gave it a shot. Plunging it into one of the rogue curse balls, it immediately got dispersed from exorcism.

"Do it now!" The oracle shouted from where she had fallen with a tone of urgency. "Sacrifice him with that blade before it's too late. We could still be saved!"

"Are you gonna listen to her, or are you going to help your sisters?" I asked her, urging her to look around at the women suffering random attacks.

But something stranger was happening. As soon as a curse ball hit them, it didn't bounce, or get exorcised. While it managed to push them back with force, sending them crashing to the ground, it also dissolved and disappeared in their skin.

Furthermore, those who had landed a hit lay unconscious on the ground, with hardly any movement. It was as if they were all fainting, or going into a coma.

My movements had to be fast, as I tried my best to keep up with the flying balls. They all came randomly from their origin point that was now diminish with every ball that it released.

But adding to their ugly physical structure - crookedly shaped mouth and eye openings but no noses, they could also hover around and come from random directions as they tried to hit me.

I had to keep my guard up constantly as I tried to imagine the best way possible out of this scenario.

They were all up in the foggy, dark sky as they hovered around the sacred grounds while performing hits on the Amazons, who didn't know how to play Quidditch, for that matter. Moreover, they proceeded to follow those who had scattered from the sacred grounds and into the surrounding trees.

The adrenaline rush on everyone made the night feel hot, despite the chilling winds that blew eerily.

Besides fighting against a multitude of savage balls, I had to fight against some women who recognized the attack signature and linked it to me. They came at me with ready swords and spears, even punches, but it only took one hit from a random curse ball to put them down.

"What are they doing to them?" I wondered to myself as yet another with a drawn sword fell behind me.

I rushed to raise my hands and caught a ball gnashing it's teeth at my face with the desire to bite. In the brief moment I observed it, I saw a mixture of feelings in it's red eyeball, all surrounding around the theme of sadness.

Afraid of falling prey to it's allure, I quickly turned and threw it to colliding with two more as I heaved in the cold of the night.

Wonder Woman had taken my advice, and she was using the dagger to tear and exorcise the curse balls that tried to crash on her and the queen. It was a small weapon, but it did the trick.

After a few minutes of playing ball with the curse ball, their source of origin finally dispersed as it let out three last balls that joined the rest in the air as they hunted their prey.

They evolved from the short experience and stopped attacking around the areas where either I or Diana was, and instead went for more vulnerable targets, with precision.

After a few more moments of landing successful attacks, their time ran out, and the unsuccessful curse balls exploded in the air, leaving a trail of purple energy in the air, adding to the dampness of the environment. Many curse balls exploded, but many more had caused a lot of damage. Only a few people were left standing in the sacred grounds.

Not even the oracle had survived!

Then it dawned on me. "The Curse must have been trying to stabilize itself!"

But this was no moment for pondering on the details of what had happened. A huge gallery of Amazons was lying unconscious on the ground. This was my chance to finally be free. Whatever had happened was their problem, not mine.

I instantly recollected myself and used the remaining energy to take my leave. My first step was to find a boat, or canoe, and leave the Island, leaving the remnants to count the casualties.

C:N:

Wan draws cursed energy from the coin (Curse jujutsu) and is yet to "leak" his Sorcerer jujutsu for external use.

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