Blessed Curse of Lust

Thea was the first to engage the skeleton. She readied her sword and cut towards her opponent. The undead being blocked her attack with ease and prepared to make its own. There was a good reason why Thea took the front.

Within the group, she was by far the strongest physically, not to mention she was the best when it came to sword fighting as well. Even with that, she didn’t think she could take the being head-on. Luckily, she didn’t need to.

Both Yelena and Eris moved to the skeleton knight’s flanks and launched their own attacks. Yelena’s blade got into its breastplate. It made a small scratch on it, but she couldn’t get through. Eris thrusted her rapier at its head, trying to aim at the open parts on the helmet, get inside, and hopefully destroy its skull.

While the undead couldn’t fully protect itself from all the attacks that were coming at it at the same time, it did manage to turn its head just enough, so Eris’s plan didn’t work. It was strong and fast, with incredible awareness. No surprise, it was the highest-rank undead that could naturally form.

It didn’t look good. Even with their combined strength, there was no way of telling how this fight would go. Knight-rank undead would be something a 3rd or 4th year group would normally face. They were truly out of their depth here, but had no choice other than to face it.

“Shit! This thing is tough!” Yelen clicked her tongue after seeing her attack barely made a scratch on its armor.

It was a tough situation. She knew she wouldn’t be able to cut through the armor, which made it all the more difficult to fight against the skeleton. For a moment she considered half-swording*, trying to get inside the gaps on the armor, but even that wouldn’t work well. It wasn’t like she was fighting against a flesh and blood enemy. The only way she could actually kill the undead was if she managed to get to its spine, which was unlikely to happen even if she got into a gap. Not to mention, it could put her in a very vulnerable position if it didn’t work out.

The skeleton turned its attention towards Eris, completely abandoning its previous idea of attacking Thea. It was either because it considered Eris the biggest threat, or perhaps because she was the last to attack it. The undead being was ready to make a cut towards the elven girl, but was interrupted again.

“No, you don’t!” Thea said.

The girl cast a spell; a brown circle appeared in front of her palm. The next moment, pieces of rock started forming around her hand, covering it almost up to her elbow. She raised her hand, now fully covered in rocks, and punched at the skeleton’s chest.

A loud thunk sound echoed in the room as her fist connected with the breastplate. The undead was pushed back several feet, but it was still standing. Looking at the armor, there was a quite sizeable dent on it. Thea clicked her tongue.

“What is that thing made of?” She sounded frustrated.

Thea hoped the attack would at least create a small hole in the breastplate, but it was much stronger than they had all originally thought. The undead being wasn’t fazed by this at all. As soon as its backward sliding motion stopped, it started walking towards the group again.

Several smaller balls made out of fire appeared around it. In a moment, each of those exploded. The explosions kicked up the dust from the floor, temporarily concealing the skeleton. Within just a second, the undead being stepped out of the dust cloud. The armor it wore had a few more dents, but otherwise looked unharmed.

“Seriously? What the hell is this thing?” Valerie couldn’t believe her magic didn’t do anything.

“Stand aside!” Came Lily’s voice.

The ones on the front quickly moved to the side, giving enough space to whatever Lily had in mind. The redhead cast her spell; the blue magic circle she created glowed with blinding light.

“Mana overflow?” The only one in the group who was surprised by this was Eris, who had yet to be told about Lily’s unique ability.

Lily activated her magic. Level 1 spell: ice spike. It was the same one she used against the skeleton earlier. This time, however, what came out wasn’t a spike. No, the more fitting description would be ice pillar. It was roughly as long as an average adult male, and remarkably thick as well. The spell flew towards the enemy with incredible speed.

Their opponent didn’t seem surprised, which was not odd. It was not capable of such emotion, yet it felt odd that the being didn’t even flinch at the sight of that spell. It raised its sword; the runes carved into the black metal glowed brighter, and the blade was enveloped in fire.

As soon as the ice pillar got close enough, it swung downwards, cutting into it. Steam rose, filling the area as the fire and ice met. The blade was melting and cutting through it, splitting Lily’s magic in half. It parted into two, both sides flying past the skeleton and crashing into the floor behind it.

“It can even use magical equipment? This is bullshit!” Valerie screamed.

They already had a feeling that the sword was magic equipment, given the runes carved inside it, but they didn’t think it could actually use it. This just made things even worse.

“Don’t lose focus! Keep attacking!” Yelena snapped at the group, trying to get their focus back on the fight at hand.

Lily staggered a little. Using this much magic at once was exhausting. Even experienced mages would feel the pressure it put on their mind, and Lily was far from experienced. She felt dizzy, and it was hard to even stand still.

The three at the front rushed over to the enemy and attacked again. Thea was the first to make contact again, launching a series of attacks against the undead. She knew that even if she could land a hit, it wouldn’t do much, but her goal was just to distract it.

Yelena appeared at its side. She put her palm close to the undead being’s ribs and cast a spell. The purple circle that had appeared soon unleashed a powerful lightning strike. The hit was successful, and while the lightning itself didn’t do much against the monster, its pure strength was enough to put a dent in the armor. If she could repeat this one or two more times, she would surely be able to punch a hole in it.

The skeleton staggered for a moment, which gave Eris the perfect opportunity. She placed her palm against the blade of her rapier and cast a spell. Soon, visible greenish wind energy enveloped her weapon.

“Oiya style: Wind’s fury.” She whispered it under her breath.

Eris made several quick cutting motions with her sword. The blade never even touched the enemy, yet after each motion, deep cuts appeared in its armor thanks to the wind energy she was releasing with them.

The first few times, she successfully hit, until the skeleton turned its attention to her and started blocking with its sword. Its weapon was clearly made out of something even stronger, since Eris’ attacks didn’t even make a scratch on it. She cursed internally, seeing how even one of her best technique was mostly ineffective.

Thea already prepared her spell. She was about to use the same one as before to punch its chest again, hopefully getting through the armor this time. The skeleton took notice and jumped back a few feet.

The undead raised its sword; flames appeared around it, and it slashed downward. As soon as the tip of the sword touched the ground, a long line of flame erupted, going towards the group at terrifying speed.

“Get away!” Yelena yelled while jumping to the side.

The other two did the same, barely managing to avoid the incoming attack. It didn’t stop there. In this case, even their back line was at risk. Valerie had enough time to move, but Lily didn’t. The redhead was still dizzy from her spell, and she was the slowest in the group too.

She did try to get away, but the flames caught her right side. She felt her flesh being burned on her arm and leg. The girl screamed from the sudden pain and fell to the ground. Her right arm below the elbow and her right leg below the knee both had serious burn injuries.

“LILY!” Yelena screamed.

The anger the white-haired girl felt at that moment was indescribable. She felt her blood was boiling. Seeing the one she loved getting so seriously injured, being potentially at death’s door, and hearing her painful screams made the girl lose her mind.

“I’ll kill you!” Yelena was seething as she spoke through her gritted teeth.

She raised her arm and pointed towards the skeleton. The dark pink circle appeared in front of her hand. Just like before, only the inner part was filled with intricate patterns, with no runes on the outer one. She was going all out. She would use every bit of divine energy she had to kill this thing once and for all.

As she did this, something else appeared too. Three sets of chains appeared around her body, glowing the same dark pink color as the magic circle she was holding. Each wrapped around a different part of her body.

The top one was just below her shoulder, going around and wrapping up both her hands. The second was around her waist, and the third around her legs. Despite the appearance of these, she didn’t feel like her movement was restricted in any way.

“Damn! That wasn’t supposed to show yet!” Lucia appeared in Yelen’s field of vision; the goddess had a clearly surprised, but at the same time concerned, expression on her face.

The first set of chains began to crack; they sounded almost as if they were made of glass. Lucia quickly raised her hand and started casting something too. As soon as she did, the cracks stopped, and the chain got repaired.

“What are you?” Lucia whispered.

Yelena didn’t care about all that had just happened. Not about the chains, not about the goddess and her words, nothing. The only thing she could see was the undead being that hurt the one she loved. Making sure not even a speck of dust remained of it was the only thing she could see right now.

The white-haired girl released her divine magic. A pink bolt of energy shot out and flew towards the skeleton. It saw it, but didn’t even have time to react. The bolt impacted against its chest armor. The chestplate looked as if it had imploded. The front part was flattened against the back, crushing the skeleton’s ribs and spine and grinding it down into fine dust.

The bolt punched a hole through both the front and the back plate, then crashed into the wall behind the undead. While its power was diminished from hitting the enemy, the divine magic was still strong enough to cause a sizeable crater in the wall and dig several feet inside it.

The skeleton’s grip on its sword got weak, and it fell to the ground clanking loudly. Soon enough, the rest of the body, or what remained of it, followed and lifelessly hit the floor. Yelena looked at it for a second as her strength left her body. She suddenly felt dizzy, disoriented. Her legs and arms started shaking; she was sweating, and she was breathing heavily.

For a moment, she lost her balance and started falling back. She felt someone grab her from behind, holding her up.

“It is okay now! Just rest for a moment.” It was Lucia’s voice. It sounded calm and reassuring.

Yelena slowly turned her head towards the others. Valerie and Thea were kneeling on both Lily’s sides. While none of them knew healing magic, they were prepared for cases of injuries. Thea pulled a bottle of yellowish liquid from her bag, bit down on the cork keeping it sealed, and pulled it out.

Thea began pouring the liquid onto Lily’s arm. At the same time, Valerie also got a similar bottle out and did the same on the girl’s leg. Lily was still in great pain, screaming on the floor. As the healing liquid started to take effect, her expression softened. It won’t be enough to fully heal her, but it helped stabilize her condition and at least lessen the pain she was suffering from.

Yelena cursed in her head. She was still angry. Angry at the undead being, angry at herself for not being stronger and able to kill it faster before it could injure Lily. She hated this feeling.

The only one who didn’t move from the group was Eris. She was looking at Yelena, with her mouth gaped open. She witnessed the effect of the white-haired girl’s spell. She knew. She was fully aware of what Yelena just did. She realized who she was.

Once the initial shock wore off, Eris stepped closer and knelt before Yelena, putting her right arm across her chest. The white-haired girl raised an eyebrow at the elven girl’s action; she didn’t know what to make of it.

“Y… you are a champion of one of the gods… right?” She asked, her voice trembling.

Yelena gathered her strength enough to stand on her own feet again and no longer needed to rely on Lucia to hold her up. She started walking towards Eris. The elven girl looked up; there was a hint of worry in her eyes.

“Yes, that is correct. I’ll explain the details once we get back. Also, stop making a fool out of yourself. You don’t need to kneel in front of me.” Yelena put her hand on Eris’ shoulder as she walked past the girl.

“How can I not? You carry the very will of the divine with you! It would be disrespectful if I didn’t do at least this much.” Eris argued.

“As I said, we will talk when we get back. We have more important things to worry about.” Yelena waved Eris’ words off.

She walked over to the other three. The white-haired girl looked down at Lily. The burns looked serious, but luckily not too bad. Nothing that couldn’t be treated. Still, watching the girl being in so much pain was difficult.

“How is she doing?” Yelena asked as she knelt down to take a closer look.

“She will be fine, but we need to get back as soon as possible to get her treatment. The potions are enough to help against infection and heal up a little so she isn’t at risk of losing her limbs, but she needs proper medical treatment.” Thea said.

“Okay, let’s get going! We need to abandon the idea of exploration. We will find a way to get out through the hole we came in. Especially since there is no way to tell if there are any more of these things here.” Yelena glanced back at the crushed remains of the skeleton knight.

Yelena put her hands under Lily and gently lifted her up. She was very light; even though she was still feeling a little weak, she could easily carry her. The others stood up as well. Thea walked over to the remains and grabbed the sword that the skeleton wielded before she rejoined the group. Eris also moved next to them, and together they made their way back to where they came from.

“We will need to speak to you once you get back,” Lucia told Yelena.

The white-haired girl nodded; even if at the moment she didn’t pay much attention to other things, she did notice them. There was a lot to talk about with the goddess. Especially those chains, which have since faded away as if they were never there.

*Half-swording is a real medieval swordfighting technique, in which the wielder would grab the blade of the sword with one hand, while holding the grip in the other. This allows for more precise control of the blade tip when thrusting. Mainly used to get inside the gaps in the opponent's armor.

Despite popular belief, this would not harm or cut the wielder. Cutting only happens when the blade moves against a surface. With a good enough grip, half-swording is possible even with bare hands, as long as the wielder can maintain a firm grip on the blade and it doesn’t slide around in their hand. Gloves or gauntlets are strongly recommended for using this technique safely.