I Can Copy Curses

Chapter 53  53. Orion vs The Third Guardian - 1

Orion, who had been prepared the whole time, reacted swiftly by turning around and slashing with his own sword.

"Clang!"

The sound of metal colliding with metal reverberated throughout the hall.

As their swords collided, cracks began to appear beneath their feet, accompanied by a resounding shockwave that spread to every corner of the hall like ripples in water.

Meanwhile, Orion directly bore the strength of the guardian. Sensing the power behind the guardian's sword, he felt that this third guardian could one-slash kill the second guardian.

He thought that if not for his sword and his body covered in a layer of absolute defense, he would have been blown away by his strength.

'I should be able to handle this much strength.'

However, just when he began to feel confident about his fight with the guardian, the red skull symbol on the guardian's chest hummed with a red glow, rapidly pulsating the glow towards his arms.

Almost instantly, Orion felt that the strength behind the guardian's sword increased, and before he could activate his curse—Burdened Gravity—to increase his weight in response to the increased strength of the guardian, he found his own body tumbling through the hall, sliding and smashing the floor along the way.

He felt as if a string had been tied to his back and someone powerful had just pulled the string with all their strength, causing his body to be pulled back like a broken kite.

His body hurtled and continued to smash the floor until a wall appeared and his body got slammed on it.

"Baam!"

Orion didn't even get to properly stand up before the guardian materialized in front of him.

Seeing that, he quickly activated his curses—Burdened Gravity and Shattered Precision.

In that moment, Orion felt a strength unlike anything he had felt before, and seeing the guardian in front of him, he unleashed a punch straight at the chest of the guardian.

"Boom!"

His fist connected with the guardian, resulting in a resounding boom before a figure was flung away.

The figure belonged to the guardian, but unlike Orion, the guardian didn't continue its momentum of being blasted away and used his massive sword to stab in the ground before he came to a stop.

'It still didn't do much damage.'

Orion felt frustrated as he looked at the part of the armor he had punched and saw that not even a scratch could be seen in that area.

'Damn, this guardian is too strong. Its armor is almost impossible to break; his attack seemed to be able to overcome my absolute defense; and its speed appeared fast enough. There isn't an area where I excelled in comparison to him.'

He felt the pressure on him increasing as he thought about the difference in their power level.

'Still, he isn't invincible. He can be defeated. I just have to use my curses well.' n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

But he didn't lose hope.

Previously, he used the Shattered Precision with his fist and didn't use his sword, so he wanted to see if, with the sword, there would be any effect or not.

As for why he didn't use his sword, he lost the grip of his sword when he got blasted away by the guardian, resulting in him losing the sword.

Therefore, he quickly activated his curse—Electrostatic Disruption and summoned his sword.

A moment later, his sword flew back to him, and he caught it, held it in his hands, and used the other two swords to let them fly around him for backup.

The guardian stared at him menacingly the whole time. He didn't seem to be in a rush at all.

"I hate that smell on you."

Once again, the guardian spoke with his metallic voice, making Orion a little uncomfortable.

He couldn't understand what the guardian meant by that. Before their fight started, he recalled the guardian saying something similar to him.

Also, since the guardian could talk, he wanted to ask something from him.

"Why did you come here?" Orion asked. "We are supposed to challenge you, not the other way around."

The guardian didn't reply to him and slashed with his sword.

But for some inexplicable reason, Orion found himself standing in front of the guardian, whose sword was cleaving at him.

He hurriedly activated his curse—Dimensional Dissonance resulting in the guardian's massive sword passing right through him.

He used that opportunity to completely pass through the guardian's body, and using the curse of Detonating Flesh, he touched the back of the guardian before he vanished from the scene.

At that moment, the guardian hurriedly turned around when he sensed someone touching his back, but to his bewilderment, he found no one standing behind his back.

"Boom!"

Suddenly, the guardian's body glowed with a purple light before an explosion sounded in the hall as purple smoke began to emanate from the back of the guardian.

However, Orion, who stood not far from him, witnessed in despair that the back of the guardian remained unscathed.

'Damn it, even the explosion does nothing to him. It seems I'll have to fight him head on and look for chances to injure him.'

That's the only way he could think of killing the guardian because so far he had used all his curses, but none seemed to have any effect on the guardian except his physical prowess, which seemed to be on the same level as the guardian after using the curses of Burdened Gravity and Shattered Precision.

But he still hadn't used two of his curses namely—Unbridled Fury and Frozen Torment which he thought might turn the table for him, especially Frozen Torment, which could be useful in handling the armor.

Meanwhile, everyone in the hall felt shocked that someone among them could fight with the third guardian for so long.

They had long lost hope of obtaining freedom, but witnessing the encounter between them once again ignited the spark of hope buried deep within them.

On the other hand, Agnar's reaction had been somewhat mixed. He felt sad about the sudden demise of his old friend Feran and excited about the battle. He, too, wanted freedom—more than anyone here. Only he understood what it felt like to live in a temple with nothing to do and despairingly wait to become one of the specters.

Therefore, after witnessing someone fighting toe-to-toe with the third guardian, he couldn't stop his excitement—excitement that there may be hope for them after all.

Whereas Runo, who had been running towards his teammates, stopped midway as he witnessed the battle. He felt shocked and… frustrated—frustrated that someone he had easily taken care of not too long ago could now do the same to him, and it wasn't just anyone—it was the very person whom he hated his guts.

'Damn it!'

He cursed inwardly as he stopped focusing on Orion and turned his attention towards his teammates.

"Agnar, wake them up and make a defensive wall around us."

Spotting Agnar standing not too far from his teammates, Runo shouted.

Agnar understood the situation and tapped the floor with his staff. A moment later, the floor around every soul form began to transform as walls constructed themselves from the floor. These walls formed in a concentric manner around the hall, leaving a large open area for Orion and the guardian to continue their battle.

At that moment, those soul forms who happened to be outside those walls ran and hid behind the walls.

Meanwhile, Agnar woke up the kids, who were busy practicing the Three Divine Ways.