Chapter 100: Cursed To Death!
A few others followed.
Seeing their friends and brothers ride toward the enemy, those who had considered retreating calmed their fears, gritted their teeth, and joined them.
Like rain trickling down into a heavy downpour, several others followed suit.
At the forefront of the battlefield, Li Shang and Mulan had already clashed with the metal men.
Li Shang slashed his blade forward.
CLANNG!! BANGG!!
The Metal Man blocked the strike with his blade. His feet skidded back across the snow.
The feedback from the attack rippled through Li Shang's hand, but he quickly shook it away and held onto his blade.
Li Shang thrust his blade forward.
DING!! DANG!!
His sword pierced through the gap in the metal man's helmet.
A dull sound rang from within the metal man.
It was hollow.
Li Shang's face twisted considerably. Up until now, he had thought his observations were wrong and that someone was residing within the suits of metallic armour. Perhaps they were too short for him to notice, and this had merely been an intimidation tactic.
He had just realised that it wasn't.
The Metal Man stumbled back.
DANG!! BANGG!!
Li Shang pulled out his sword and slashed against its helmet.
The helmet caved in and flew off its body towards somewhere on the battlefield.
Li Shang wanted to take advantage of the situation and press another attack, but the Metal Man stumbled backwards once more. This time, unable to regain its footing, it fell onto the snow.
It lay there. It didn't get back up.
Li Shang furrowed his brows. The Metal Man had proven to match him in strength. With the magical nature surrounding it, he found it hard to believe that it was dead. However, he didn't have time to ponder his thoughts as another Metal Man charged at him with reckless abandon.
It aimed its blade at Li Shang's horse.
Li Shang leaned to the side of his horse, meeting the strike head-on.
His blade slid down the metal man's blade, sending sparks flying.
The Metal Man halted the blade with its arm. It quickly grabbed onto his blade.
But how could Li Shang let such a mistake happen so easily?
Li Shang pulled the reins of his horse, drawing it back and leaning back as well.
The blade slipped out of the metal man's hand.
Manoeuvring to its side, Li Shang slashed against its helmet continuously.
BANGG!! DING!!
The Metal Man froze and stumbled forward. Its helmet fell off and landed on the snow.
The Metal Man fell flat onto the snow soon after.
It didn't move again.
Li Shang narrowed his gaze at the scene. He shifted his eyes to the first metal man he had felled and realised that it hadn't stood up either.
It was as though…
They were dead!!
"PINGG!! EVERYONE, STRIKE THEIR HELMETS!! IT'S THEIR WEAKNESS!!" Li Shang turned to his comrades and shouted before swiftly clashing with another Metal Man.
Now that he knew their weakness, he felt even more confident.
Hearing Li Shang's orders, the soldiers immediately went after the metal men's helmets.
However, their gazes couldn't help but drift towards Mulan.
Around Mulan were several Metal Men already lying dead on the ground. Every time she struck a Metal Man, they were knocked backwards, their weapons flying out of their hands.
It was as though these Metal Men were nothing but straw men before her.
Mulan had already noticed this strange occurrence.
She had sensed a sudden force erupt from her blade with every clash. She had noticed it during her training with the others in the camp and even during her battle with Shan Yu, but she had been unable to dwell on it because of the complexity of those moments.
But after learning that Aladdin's items must always contain some magical capabilities, she investigated her sword out of curiosity.
What she found was shocking. Not only could the sword release a portion of the attack dealt against the blade, but it was also exceedingly sharp. So, if an opponent struck her blade, it would automatically release a portion of their attack back at them along with her own strike.
It was just as magical as she had presumed. This was why she hadn't used the sword during the battle on the training ground.
And she had kept this to herself. Only she and Aladdin knew about it. So, as she attacked the Metal Men, it looked as though they were unable to withstand a single strike before being sent crashing onto the snow.
Upon hearing Li Shang's command, Mulan plunged her blade into a Metal Man's metal and flung the helmet aside.
SCRIPP!! BANGG!!
The blade punctured through the metallic framework.
Like puppets losing their strings, the Metal Man fell onto the snow, unmoving.
It worked!
"ATTACK THE HELMET!! THAT'S THEIR WEAKNESS!!" Mulan announced.
She charged forward, aiming her strike at another Metal Man's helmet.
Seeing Mulan, Li Shang, and the others tear through the ranks of the Metal Men with ease, the approaching soldiers struck at the Metal Men's helmets.
After seeing the Metal Men become incapacitated and unable to rise, they also shouted.
"ATTACK THE HELMET!! THAT'S THEIR WEAKNESS!!"
The soldiers passed the warning further back to another.
And to another.
The announcement soon reached General Li and his approaching force.
"YOU HEAR THAT, MEN?! DO NOT HOLD ANYTHING BACK!!" General Li screamed as he charged into the fray.
Unfortunately, not many men were strong enough to meet the Metal Men head-on.
Still…
Still… the fact that they could strike down these metal abominations head-on with their blades filled them with courage.
The war against the Huns had begun.
Meanwhile, hidden within the cold mist above was a solitary figure.
Aladdin watched the war unfolding below and sighed. Around him was a kaleidoscope of shifting colours, like that of a rainbow. If any sorcerer were beside him, they would have been horrified by the sight.
Because what surrounded Aladdin wasn't merely a rainbow of colours, but a dense, absurd amount of magical power emerging from his body to the extent that it reflected and illuminated the air around him.
The magical power flowed down toward the Huns' army.
After being given an option, Shan Yu had surprisingly chosen to die in battle as a Metal Man.
Aladdin didn't know what was running through the man's head, but he didn't care. Since Shan Yu had made his choice, he would make sure to fulfil it.
Using his knowledge of his curse and the spells he had learned from Nasira, Aladdin placed another curse upon the Huns, layering it over the first.
"The Metal Men climbed up a mountain.
The Metal Men had a great fall.
From metal to rust, from life to death,
Slow as a snail,
All the Imperial soldiers couldn't put them together again."
This was the curse he had placed on them.
It slowed down their movements considerably, and as long as a part of their bodies was removed or they fell to the ground, they would scatter and remain there, unable to put themselves back together. They would automatically rust to death.
It was a horrifying way to die, and that was why it was still a curse.
Though he had faced resistance, indicating that the one who had placed the spell on them was powerful, he wasn't outright removing the curse, but merely tweaking its mechanics. Because of this, the resistance only lasted for a brief moment.
It was much easier and faster than figuring out a way to undo the original curse.
From what he sensed, the sorcerer should have known that their spell had been tampered with. If they cared, they would have already arrived. But he had searched for the sorcerer who had cast the curse on the Huns, but he hadn't found anybody. He could only presume that they were long gone.
As for why they had placed the curse, Aladdin could only guess that perhaps the Huns had annoyed them, or that they had wanted to test their skill set on them simply for the sake of it.
Considering the number of times things like this happened in fairy tales, Aladdin wouldn't be surprised if it was one of those reasons.
He didn't know how close he was to the answer.
Nonetheless, they had given him a brand-new spell to use in his repertoire. Since Genie kept a leash on the number of curses and dark spells used in Agrabah, spells like this were worth the treat.
Aladdin hoped he could encounter new dark magicians and couldn't help but look forward to meeting Mozenrath so he could learn new spells.
As for the consequences Aladdin could see unfolding, China had learned about the magical world, and since it had, the surrounding nations would come to learn about it too. He had planned on slowing down this event because he didn't know whether he could bear the overall impact.
A dark sorceress wandered into China, so who was to say Prince Charming had an unexpected encounter before he met Sleeping Beauty, or that the Wicked Queen hadn't given Snow White an apple pie?
The possibilities were immense.
'I will need to find a way to get to Genie when I return,' Aladdin thought.
Soon, his magical power stopped flowing out of his body.
The atmosphere around him became normal.
Aladdin exhaled tiredly.
He shifted his attention to the battle unfolding below.
He had already done his best, making it easier to kill the Metal Men. Since it had come to this, Aladdin saw no need to allow the Imperial Army to suffer any more losses, so his magical power burst forth from his body once more.
He didn't increase their strength because doing so on such a large scale was troublesome. Instead, he manipulated the elements to support them.
To outsiders, Aladdin appeared to be trapped in a kaleidoscope of shifting colours.
To the Imperial Chinese soldiers, it appeared as though luck was on their side.
The wind blew at the right moment as they swung their blades, pushing their swords with even more force. The snow beneath the soles of their enemies slid apart, causing them to tumble to the ground before they could even approach to engage in battle.
Their horses always found solid ice to stand on, but their opponents always seemed to unexpectedly run out of luck.
How could they not suspect that luck was on their side?
They only suffered the recoil from their blades clashing against the steely surfaces of the Metal Men.
Several hours later, the war was reaching its climax.
Mulan and Li Shang stood before a man much larger than the other Metal Men they had previously encountered. They had already defeated the guards protecting him.
The Metal Man knelt on the snow, with a metallic bird filled with rust lying beside him. His weapon lay several meters away.
Mulan placed her sword against the Metal Man's neck.
Li Shang stood at the side, inspecting the metallic bird.
This Metal Man and bird had given them a tough time. Somehow, they felt that both of them felt familiar.
"It's you?" Shan Yu spoke, staring intently at Mulan and Li Shang. He couldn't forget their faces.
Mulan stared at the Metal Man in disbelief. She hadn't expected the Metal Man to speak suddenly. She didn't think that they were even capable of words, since none of the ones they had killed had spoken to them.
Li Shang flinched. He pointed his blade at the kneeling Metal Man.
"Who are you?" Mulan asked suspiciously.
A foreboding feeling rose within the depths of her heart.
"You don't remember? Haaa... I see... My current form is nowhere near human compared to the last time we met," Shan Yu responded, his voice tinged with regret.
"YOU?" Mulan's pupils contracted.
Li Shang also felt a wave of shock wash over him.
Before any one of them could speak, Shan Yu nodded and said, "Yes, I am Shan Yu, leader of the Huns... No, the leader of the Metal Men. Cursed to never die... But now cursed to death..."
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HURRAAYY!! WE HAVE REACHED OUR 100th CHAPTER!!