Local Faith IV

Normally a curse spirit would not be seen with another curse. They are very territorial and do not care if they kill their own kind.

But there are three ways when you can see them in the wild.

Either they are very powerful and have a sense of self, being able to rationalize and think. Though those only happen when they are of high-grades.

{For example, Hanami, Jougo and Dagon.}

The second is that they are pathetically weak and group up with other curses. Only third grades and lower than that group up with others.

Lastly, the reason two powerful curse spirits being near other meant that they are rivals. Fighting each other to kill the other.

A territorial battle had occurred but Arai, Nanami and Haibara had entered the shrine without knowing this. They were now surrounded by another first grade curse spirit and had no way out.

Trapped between two walls.

'Are you kidding me? Another first grade... we're doomed.' Arai struggled but managed to stand on his two feet. He wiped away the blood on his face and took hold of his daggers. Right now, he had no shikigamis on him left.

Facing against a first grade curse spirit, they were all easily killed. With nothing left, Arai would now have to fight in close quarters which isn't his forte.

[First Grade Curse Spirit: Akuma]

His size was equal to that of a bodybuilder and height about 6ft. A humanoid curse spirit that had blazing red hair and black sclera. Its iris and pupil were one and the same with a blood red color. It's skin was foggy as if it was a spirit, not tangible to the material world.

But this curse spirit held an even greater amount of curse energy than the other. The two curse spirits each held more curse energy than any of the sorcerer present. And now with it's entrance, there was no certainty of this fight's conclusion.

"BOMBA!"

The new curse spirit had deployed an Innate Domain. Unlike the other curse spirit, this domain didn't have a complex set of rules to follow. It had a simple technique imbued within it.

Explode!

Activating its technique it forced an explosion at Arai's location. Arai was the weakest and a curse would always go for an easier prey and since he had just suffered a blow to him, Arai was full of openings.

'I can't dodge this!.'

The attack appeared right under him as he ground shined brightly. The light grew and grew engulfing Arai's entire body. The explosion was about to be activated but luckily he wasn't alone in this fight.

Haibara quickly used his clay to push and covered Arai from the blast.

"Arai, we're separated from Nanami. We need to take care of this curse spirit so that we can help Nanami or vise versa." Haibara was dead serious when he said this as no joy was seen in his face.

The unsettling in his heart was growing more and more at this moment. None of them were first grade sorcerers. They are all weaker than the curse spirits present but they have some advantage.

The Baki curse spirit is weakened with a lot of its cursed energy gone and the Akuma one is facing two sorcerers instead of one.

'Still, that won't guarantee our victory. I just need to keep this curse spirit occupied so that Haibara can kill it.' His hand trembling as he knew this mission could be his last. 'Don't hesitate, even if you die do it for the mission.'

The Akuma curse spirit didn't wait as he threw another explosion but the two luckily recovered enough to dodge it completely. This Innate Domain had no loopholes, nor rules.

They just had to kill this curse spirit to stop its attacks.

Arai who knew this looked to another fight that was ensuing at the same time. Nanami who sensed his gaze looked back at him. "Isao don't lose focus. Go deal with yours and I'll deal with mine."

With Nanami's reassurance, Arai felt more at ease and was now ready.

He snapped his finger to which the curse spirit was confused. Nothing happened even though he had done that.

"Let's go."

"Yeah."

Both Haibara and Arai charged at the spirit. With Arai's mental state, it wasn't optimal to attack its mind directly. So he opted for a direct attack.

"BOMBA!"

Lifting its finger up, a wall of explosion was made blocking them from coming closer. But a curse spirit despite being intelligent will not have as much combat experience as sorcerers.

"GAAHA!!"

A pain was felt from its back, turning around Akuma saw a 10 foot long alligator with green skin instead of scales. It's eyes were like that of a human and it's tongue like a snake. It's teeth were as sharp as a blade and tail has spikes on it.

It was one of Arai's shikigami. It was left outside just in case he needed to attack. A shikigami of this size would not fit in this hallway but now that the explosion cleared a lot of space. It could now go in.

Though a semi-grade 2 curse spirit was no match for a first grade one. Akuma held the mouth of the shikigami and threw it towards a wall. It could not resist and crashed through.

But the shikigami was only supposed to stall for time, now Haibara and Arai jumped through the explosion and were covered in clay to protect them from the blast.

Haibara used all his clay to then overwhelm the curse spirit in a giant wave.

With its concentration back, it countered with another wave of explosion putting Haibara's attack to a stop.

Arai slid right next to the explosion barely avoiding it. He could feel the heat from it and ash filling the air. His knives slashed down at the beast but the only thing that got damaged was his weapons.

Against a first-grade, weapons of this quality wouldn't even scratch it.

The curse spirit who noticed the pitiful attack glared at Arai. "Well this isn't going to go well." He sarcastically said before being launched across the battlefield. A backhand from the curse spirit was all that was needed to beat Arai.

Flinging Arai to the air.

'Damn, its output is insane! I doubt even Iori has more power than this thing.' Arai thought. His skin was ripped apart when getting hit as his flesh was more in the open.

'But I'm not done yet!' His eyes glowed green as he forcibly entered the curse spirit's mind.

Entering its mind, Haibara immediately noticed the lack of response from the curse spirit and figured out Arai's move.

"Even though he's really hurt he's still taking that risk, I won't waste it!" His clay gathered around and he immediately wrapped all of it to the curse spirit. Still, a first grade curse spirit wasn't so easy.

The curse spirit had been here and was watching the fight. It had intelligence and could determine when was the best way to intervene. Knowing that if it fought three sorcerers at once it would lose, it determined that it should help its fellow curse spirit and kill the sorcerers, leaving its fellow curse spirit for dessert.

Whilst doing so, it saw Arai's technique and was prepared for it.

Breaking Arai's work in seconds.

*AAAAHHH!!*

He screamed in pain of having his mind attacked and ejected out his opponent's. Arai's right eye was now dyed completely red with his noise and mouth filled with his own blood suffocating him. His left eye was the only eye he could see with now.

But this time was just enough for Haibara to trap his opponent and-

[Clay Technique: Clay Coffin!]

The clay that formed around the curse spirit crushed it and had spikes pierce through its body. With its guard down, Haibara's technique managed to destroy its body.

Though even though the power was enough to kill a human, a curse spirit was powerful enough to withstand it. The clay that was trapping it was being illuminated indicating it was about to explode.

"Tch!" With an impending explosion, Haibara had no choice but to protect himself. Arai was out of the range of the explosion so Haibara didn't bother protecting him.

The explosion was powerful enough to completely destroy Haibara's clay rendering it useless now. And now walking through the smoke, Haibara saw the curse spirit slowly heal its injuries.

"C'mon even that isn't enough to exorcise it?" Haibara muttered with sweat running down his forehead. His curse energy was running low but he could see that the curse spirit was on its last legs, just one more good attack can take it down.

"You bastard!" Arai who was on the side smiled crazily when he saw this opportunity.

[Contract Technique: Gift!]

His shikigami who was earlier blown away had a new order. It charged to Akuma and detonated itself. With its power, it easily passed through the first grade and blew a hole through it.

*GAAHH!*

A hole through the entire body was no easy feat to recover from. Even if it had its full curse energy, the only thing it could do was die. But the manner of which would determine its fate.

A curse spirit will always be hostile to humans in general.

With its last attack having failed, it determined only one way to win this.

Cursed energy gathered into one spot, with its technique activated. Haibara and Arai could now see a bright yellow ball of light resembling that of the sun completely blinding them.

"It's not done yet?! How much can this thing take?!"

Arai and Haibara were in a tough situation. They realized what it was about to do and tried stopping it.

But Arai's cursed energy was plummeting and his mind was so damaged that he could no longer invade his opponent's.

Haibara could still attack but his clay was far too slow to stop the explosion.

"BOMBA!"

The curse spirit screeched out before releasing its technique.

The explosion engulfed the entire shrine as even the villagers outside heard the loud explosion and smoke coming out of the shrine.