Chapter 7 - A Malevolent Shrine (Part 2)

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

[Narration]

…

(Third POV: Sloth & Akira)

Sloth ran through the tight stone corridor with Akira behind him. As they ran forward through the dark, a bright light could be seen at the end of the way.

Without hesitation, they ran forward and into the light. Their path expanded from a tight corridor to a wide field of graves.

'The dimensions for this shouldn't be possible.' Sloth thought as he looked around.

Taking out one of the pink manta rays, he hopped on it. It blasted forward through the air.

Akira, seeing Sloth take off, also ran forward at full speed. There were only graves. The dirt held no grass, and not once had they heard a single sound outside of their own noises.

It was as if the life of this place had been sucked dry. Sloth narrowed his eyes as he once again looked around for anything alive.

'If the Finger Bearer is different, then different rules may apply.' Sloth's eyes widened as he realized something as soon as he finished his thought.

'Could there be other curses in here besides the Finger Bearer?' Sloth began recounting what he saw outside of the shrine. 'There were no curses at the shrine, and even then, no Minecraft mobs were spawning near it.'

Sloth had to stop his thoughts as he saw what appeared to be a curse in the distance. Flying closer to the ground, Sloth stopped 25 meters away from the curse.

Akira appeared next to him as soon as he got off the manta. And while the curse lay unmoving, they both stared at it.

It was undeniably a skeleton and a big one at that. It was standing upright without any motion.

"Akira, that thing is definitely not a human skeleton."

"What gave that away? Was it the freakish height? Whatever this thing can do, I know it's staring at us."

The skeleton's head was facing their direction but wasn't directly looking at them. It had no eyes, which made it almost impossible to guess where it was staring. The only way Akira knew was because of his instincts.

"Whatever this thing is, let me handle it, Akira." Sloth placed his left hand on Akira's shoulder. "I need more curses for my army." Akira nodded as Sloth began walking forward.

The walk broke into a full-blown sprint as Sloth pulled out multiple centipede curses. They launched out at high speeds toward the skeleton.

A smirk grew on Sloth's face as he kept running while wanting to see what the curse would do.

'This should be enough to make it re-'

The world became wrapped in darkness as Sloth couldn't even see his curses. He couldn't even see the ground, as everything besides the skeleton was pitch black.

"Cease."

A wave of nausea hit Sloth as he reeled his head back while his body didn't seem to want to move. With his arms out forward and his head pulled back, Sloth began falling to the ground.

*STEP* *STEP*

The skeleton began walking to Sloth, and with barely being able to begin to lift himself off the ground, he would fall victim to the curse.

*STEP* *STEP*

The large humanoid skeleton was only two feet away from Sloth and began to kneel down to touch him.

"What are you doing, Sloth?" Akira said as he appeared to the left of Sloth, only two meters away. A devious smirk formed on Akira's face as he pulled out the Inverted Spear of Heaven.

Raising his arm up, he swung the spear at inhumane speeds around himself.

*SHATTER*

*CRASH*

The simple domain the curse had laid out shattered into pieces. The darkness disappeared as if a figment of imagination.

As the curse looked at Akira, Akira suddenly disappeared, only to reappear in front of the curse with a kick to the side of its head.

Sloth, who was still recovering from the nausea, stood up only to fall backward.

"You're pretty dangerous," Akira said as he dodged a swipe of the hand from the curse and laid another kick into the curse's face. "But when that simple domain trick is taken away, you're kind of slow."

Akira suddenly pulled back as a massive worm curse bit onto the curse, taking it in the air. Sloth had released the worm curse he had.

The curse now being held in the mouth brought up its hands to touch the worm curse, but as soon as it tried, the worm curse immediately disappeared.

Sloth had used his ability to instantly recall it. Now, with nothing holding it up, the curse began falling down.

Akira, seeing the curse fall, bent his knees.

*BANG*

Stomping on the ground hard as he jumped into the air, Akira flew fast toward the curse's location.

The curse held both hands out toward Akira, only for him to use the Soul Split Katnana to cut off both arms.

As soon as he did, he reoriented himself mid-air, and because of his momentum, he crashed into the curse.

With another devious smirk, Akira put away the Soul Split Katana and grabbed the curse by the sides of the head.

Moving their positions mid-air, Akira's feet found themselves on the curse's head. Using the head as a springboard, Akira soared higher while the curse flew impossibly fast toward the ground.

*BANG*

The curse hit the ground with a bang. The curse immediately tried to crawl out of the crater it made in the ground. Its wounds were quickly being mended.

Right as it got up, Sloth appeared to its left with Playful Storm. Bashing the curse across the chest, it was sent flying.

That was until Akira appeared in front of its flight path and connected his fist to its face, sending it flying backward.

Sloth once again appeared, but in its path, and halted its momentum with a swing to the face. The curse's head turned 45 degrees, only for Akira to come in and turn it 45 degrees in the opposite direction with a punch.

Sloth swung Playful Storm at the back of its knee and forced it to kneel so Akira could get more punches in without having to jump.

The curse tried to heal, but with Sloth hitting its body and Akira's punches to its face, the healing process wasn't given enough time.

A swing from Playful Storm to the back of the curse's head made it look straight down, only for Akira to land a punch square on its face and slam the curse into the dirt.

The curse bounced off the ground, and as soon as it reached its maximum height of a foot and a half, Sloth touched it. The curse was immediately turned into a sphere.

Sloth opened his mouth and began swallowing the sphere. "Bleeh!" Sloth almost puked due to the taste of it going down.

"If Round Deer tasted like cotton candy, then this tasted like some ass," Sloth said to himself as Akira watched with amusement.