The curse stood in the middle of the warped hallway with its head tilted slightly to one side.
Its pale skin looked stretched too tightly over its body.
Its eyes moved lazily between the three of them.
There was no caution in its expression.
He was simply watching.
Like a child staring at insects trapped in a glass jar.
"Hehe..."
Its smile widened.
Sora slowly rose back to his feet.
His metal constructs dissolved from around his arms and reformed again in thinner layers over his hands.
Not that he planned to fight but because doing nothing at all felt worse.
Cold sweat rolled down the side of his face.
Every instinct he had was screaming.
The cursed energy pouring off the thing in front of them was immense.
Not overwhelmingly so.
More like a large dam let loose.
Like standing face to face to a giant.
Behind him, Yuji and Megumi pushed themselves up from the ground.
Yuji wiped blood from the corner of his lip where he had slammed into the floor.
Megumi was already in a stance, one hand lowered slightly as if ready to summon another shikigami at any second.
Sora did not look back at them.
"If you guys are up, then take a look at our target. I hope you are not dissappointed."
Sora spoke with a bit of humour but failed to deliver it.
Neither of them responded back.
They already were looking at the curse.
The curse itself was still and did not move much other than groping itself.
Its long fingers twitched once.
Then it laughed again under its breath.
"Hehe..."
It was not taking them seriously.
Sora could tell.
That should have made him feel better.
Arrogance blinds the being.
But a lion that was bored was still a lion.
His mind raced.
Fight?
Impossible.
Even if they all attacked together, he could already picture how it would end.
Broken bodies that were smashed into the walls or sliced limbs flying off of our bodies, painting the area red with blood.
*Shudder
Sora couldn't help but shudder at the thought.
They needed to escape ASAP.
Then another thought struck him.
'Nobara.'
His jaw tightened.
She had been dragged somewhere below.
The thought made something twist in his chest.
But if they tried to fight this thing now, they would never reach her.
They would die here.
Sora took a slow breath.
"We need to split its attention."
he said.
Yuji frowned immediately.
"What? Why?"
"One of us runs while the other two keep it distracted."
Yuji turned toward him.
"Why should one of us run?!"
His voice was low, confused and desperate.
"Can we not escape together?"
Sora finally glanced back over his shoulder.
"For all we know, it can catch all of us if we move together."
Yuji clenched his fists.
"We don't know that."
"We do Yuji..."
Sora said.
His voice came out sharper than he intended.
"We do."
The curse still had not moved.
It watched them talk with the same lazy curiosity as before.
Almost like it wanted to hear what they would come up with.
Megumi spoke before Yuji could argue again.
"He's right."
Yuji looked at him.
Megumi kept his eyes locked on the curse.
"Against something like this, numbers do not matter."
His voice stayed calm but a hint of tension could be seen on his face.
"If it decides to kill us, all three of us die together."
The hallway went silent again.
The distant sound of dripping water echoed somewhere in the dark.
Yuji's breathing grew heavier.
His fists trembled.
Was it from fear?
Could be.
But the real reason was that he was helpless once again.
The curse took one slow step forward.
But the pressure in the hallway immediately became heavier.
Its grin widened.
"Hehe..."
Sora's senses screamed louder.
The monster looked relaxed.
But that did not matter.
A volcano looked calm too, right until the mountain cracked open.
*SWOOSH
The curse disappeared from where it stood.
One moment it was twenty feet away.
The next, the air in front of Sora folded inward.
His eyes barely caught the movement.
A pale blur of motion which looked humanly impossible.
Instinct screamed louder than thought ever could.
Metal surged upward from his arms.
A rough shield formed in front of his torso while thin plates of steel snapped across his chest and ribs.
It was slow and incomplete.
*BAM
The curse's fist crashed into the shield.
The metal buckled inward instantly.
The impact slammed into Sora's abdomen like a battering ram.
The world lurched sideways.
His feet left the ground and headed towards the back.
*CRASH
Sora smashed through a crooked door and rolled across the floor of a ruined room.
Dust burst into the air around him.
The ceiling above spun once.
Pain spread through his entire body in hot waves.
"Cough...!"
He forced himself onto one knee.
The metallic armor across his chest had caved inward.
Tiny fractures ran through it like cracks in frozen glass.
The curse was fast.
Far too fast for his liking.
Back in the hallway, Yuji and Megumi reacted a heartbeat later.
Yuji charged first.
He gripped the cleaver with both hands and swung downward with everything he had.
The blade cut through the air with a sharp whistle.
At the same moment, Megumi slammed his hand downward.
"Great Serpent!"
A massive serpent burst from the shadows near the floor.
Its body shot forward and wrapped around the curse in a blur of scales and muscle.
For the first time, the curse stopped smiling.
Yuji's cleaver came down.
CLANG
The strike landed directly against the curse's shoulder.
But instead of cutting deep, it sounded like metal hitting stone.
The impact still forced the curse downward.
Cracks spread beneath its feet.
The serpent tightened its hold.
Its massive body coiled tighter and tighter around the curse.
Yuji stepped back for another strike.
"Got it!" he shouted.
The curse tilted its head.
"Hehe..."
Its arms flexed once and-
Then the serpent exploded apart.
Just dismissed instantly by the sheer force of the curse breaking free.
Megumi's eyes widened.
The curse moved again.
This time Yuji barely saw it.
A pale hand grabbed the side of his face.
Then Yuji was thrown.
BOOM
He crashed into the wall hard enough to crack it.
Chunks of concrete rained down around him.
Yuji groaned and pushed himself back up immediately.
The curse looked down at its own hand.
Then back at Yuji.
Almost disappointed.
Like it had expected him to break more easily.
Megumi summoned Divine Dog Totality without hesitation.
The large black shikigami lunged from the shadows with glowing eyes and bared teeth.
Its claws raked across the curse's side.
This time, it actually worked.
Thin dark marks appeared across the curse's pale skin.
The curse looked down at the scratches.
Its smile vanished for the first time.
The hallway grew colder.
Sora stepped back into the ruined corridor.
His breathing was uneven.
Reverse cursed technique spread through his body in uneven pulses, patching together the worst of the damage.
Not enough to fully heal.
Just enough to move.
His eyes locked onto the curse.
It was arrogant before.
But now it was irritated too.
That was worse and better.
Wiping the blood the off from his mouth he readied himself.
Metal spread across Sora's arms again.
Not as armor.
As thin cables.
Sharp-edged wires.
Blades.
Anything he could create fast enough.
"We can't stay close to it!" Sora shouted.
Megumi nodded immediately.
Yuji wiped blood from the corner of his mouth and tightened his grip on the cleaver again.
The curse looked at all three of them.
Then it smiled wider than before.
"Hehe..."
Its body lowered slightly.
Like an animal finally deciding to hunt.