I Awakened A Divine Curse

The creature's jaws snapped inches from Auren's face, its frost-laced breath burning his skin like winter fire. He pushed against its bulk, muscles screaming in protest, when movement flickered at the edge of his vision.

Meredith, lurched upright, blood streaming from her temple. Her fingers scraped the wall, prying loose another jagged shard of stone that pulsed with an eerie light.

With eyes narrowed to slits, she hurled the shard with deadly precision.

The makeshift weapon spun through the air and sank deep into the abomination's left eye. It reared back, a howl of pain ripping from its throat that shook dust from the ancient ceiling. Auren saw his chance.

He yanked his trapped arm free with a snap that echoed through the chamber, bone grinding against bone, as he carved through flesh with a blade that had appeared in his grip.

"Meredith—the tiles!" he gasped, cradling the stump where his hand had been. "The enchantments!"

Recognition flashed across her face. She bounded across the chamber and slammed her heel onto a fractured tile where faint blue runes flickered like dying stars. The floor trembled beneath them, and a wave of light surged through the room, rippling outward in concentric circles. The creature faltered mid-lunge, its icy breath sputtering and fading as the ancient sorcery awakened from its slumber.

Auren leaped, conjuring a fresh blade—this one serrated and black as midnight's heart. He plunged it deep into the beast's wounded wing, twisting the weapon as gravity claimed them both. They crashed onto the slab where Jasper lay unconscious, the impact fracturing the stone barricade with a thunderous crack.

"Get him clear!"

Auren commanded through gritted teeth, grappling with the thrashing monstrosity. Meredith dove for Jasper, dragging him backward just as the beast's talons gouged the ground where he'd lain seconds before, leaving deep furrows in the stone.

The creature's remaining eye fixed on Auren, glowing with hatred. It lashed out, but Auren clutched his cloak and vanished—materializing behind the beast, his blade slicing a deep wound across its spine.

But the victory was fleeting. The creature whirled with unnatural speed and smashed into him with razor-sharp talons.

Auren sailed through the air, blood spraying from his lips as the world spun around him. His body tumbled across the ground like a discarded doll. Before he could regain his senses, the abomination was upon him again, closing the distance with terrifying purpose.

But Meredith refused to stand idle. With a grunt, she wrenched free a decorative rod from the wall, its tip crowned with a crescent arc that gleamed in the dim light.

She sprang forward, driving the makeshift spear into the creature's injured wing from behind. The beast released a screech that split the air like shattered glass, then pivoted with frightening agility. One massive paw struck Meredith squarely in the chest, launching her backward until she slammed against the far wall.

The creature abandoned Auren instantly, its single eye—a beacon of cold white fury—fixed on Meredith as it gave chase. Each thunderous step cracked the stone beneath its claws.

Auren gasped in the sudden quiet, the moment of respite washing over him like cool water. His lungs burned with each breath.

Across the chamber, Meredith scrambled desperately, rolling along the wall as the abomination's beak crashed against stone again and again, missing her by mere inches. Each impact showered her with fragments of broken rock as the creature tried to pulverize her skull.

Auren forced himself to one knee, his face a mask of determination. He raised his fist high above him, gathering power that crackled invisibly in the air. Then, with a roar that tore from his very soul, he drove his knuckles into the ground.

The chamber convulsed as though the world itself had been struck. From the point of impact, darkness spilled outward like liquid night, swallowing everything in its path. The spreading shadow devoured what little pale light remained in the hall, advancing like a tide of pure oblivion.

The darkness upended the hall's equilibrium, sending everything reeling backward as if struck by an invisible wave. The abomination, caught in the surge, staggered sideways, momentarily disoriented by the sudden shift.

Seeing the creature stunned, Auren drew ragged breaths through clenched teeth. He swallowed the agony coursing through his body and bolted forward with astonishing velocity, his feet barely touching the ground.

He reached the creature in heartbeats, gripping a newly manifested longsword with his remaining hand. He circled behind the beast, his movements a blur of desperate purpose, and brought the blade down with all his strength.

But the creature sensed him coming. It twisted its massive head and caught the blade between rows of serrated teeth, then clamped down. The steel shattered like brittle ice in its maw.

The color drained from Auren's face. Two weapons destroyed in mere moments. His confidence wavered—all that training, all those battles he'd survived, suddenly feeling hollow and meaningless. The power he thought he'd gained seemed nothing but a cruel illusion.

The abomination pulled its head back, muscles coiling like springs, then thrust forward with terrifying speed, its beak aimed directly at Auren's chest.

With his missing hand throwing off his balance, Auren lurched awkwardly sideways. His body felt foreign, unresponsive. The realization hit him with brutal clarity—it would take countless hours to relearn combat with a single hand.

Auren twisted away, his movements clumsy and desperate. The creature's beak missed its mark but carved across his armor and chest, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. The shallow wound burned as if touched by molten metal.

He stumbled backward, each breath sending fresh waves of agony through his torso. Across the chamber, Meredith had somehow found her feet again. Blood matted her hair, but determination blazed in her eyes as she pried another enchanted stone from the crumbling wall.

Her arm snapped forward, the glowing shard spinning toward the abomination's remaining eye. But this time, the creature was ready. With an almost contemptuous tilt of its head, it dodged the projectile, the stone whistling harmlessly past.

The momentary distraction gave Auren an opening. He lunged forward, summoning the last of his strength, driving his final blade toward the creature's exposed chest. But before the steel could find its mark, a massive talon filled his vision. The creature's claws slammed into his head, driving him to the floor with bone-crushing force.

The talons punctured his helm as if it were parchment, digging into his scalp and ears. Blood poured from the wounds, hot and thick, as the creature tightened its grip with merciless precision. Auren's skull creaked under the pressure, threatening to splinter.

A guttural groan escaped his lips as he thrashed beneath the monster's weight, each movement only driving the claws deeper into his flesh. The creature pressed down harder, its single eye watching his suffering with cold satisfaction.

Meredith's face contorted with anguish. She charged forward with reckless abandon, her eyes suddenly ablaze with an unearthly violet light. The makeshift spear's crescent tip glinted as she thrust it toward the abomination's exposed flank.

The creature's head swiveled with unnatural speed, its remaining eye locking onto Meredith. The cold light within it pulsed once, and something ancient and terrible reached out from that gaze.

Meredith's charge faltered mid-step. Her legs buckled beneath her, sending her crashing to the ground in a graceless tumble. She lay there, trembling, as an invisible weight pressed upon her chest. Her heart hammered against her ribs as if trying to escape, and her limbs refused every command to move.

A primal terror unlike anything she had ever known flooded through her veins, drowning reason and courage alike.

She was a Nascent but she had been battling before now, maybe not Cursed creatures, but in all her years of battle, nothing had ever stripped away her will so completely, leaving nothing but the raw, animal instinct to flee—an escape her paralyzed body could not grant her.