The Strongest Curse Master

[Blow it up!] I ordered DD, listening to her say that she and the Curseling were at a standstill.

The town was already in total chaos, an explosion right now would add to the panic, but if it managed to finish the Curseling, the chaos could begin to fizzle out.

[Roger that,] DD agreed without a second thought.

However, DD didn't just blow up the roots, tangling and holding the Curseling at bay, without a thought. She was very strategic about it. She gathered as many roots she could below the Curseling, under its underbelly. This way even if the explosion failed to kill the Curseling it would be able to throw it out of the ground. Next, following her master's orders she detonated the engineered roots with a mere thought.

*Boom!*

Ava who was struggling to make out what the boy of her dreams was aiming at using his big Rifle, was startled by the sound of the explosion. However, her astonishment only grew as she saw a massive and fat worm-shaped Curseling the size of a small mountain shoot into the sky from the ground, surrounded by mud and dirt, letting out a loud screech that suppressed the dying sound of the explosion.

She instinctively winced and covered her ears, but the boy beside her didn't flinch in the slightest, he stood steady as a rock, continuing to aim at the Curseling through all that mud and dirt. She had no idea how he knew there was Curseling around or how it would come out of that exact spot, but she had this undeniable assurance that he would handle it.

Soon another streak of lightning appeared in the sky and with that the screech of the Curseling died. Before its massive body could hit the ground, it dissipated into the surrounding living behind its curse core, which vanished in clouds of mud and dirt before it could hit the ground too.

"Lets search the surroundings for the captured agents," I instructed Ava and also, Emi and DD too through the status screen. Honestly, this wasn't about finding the missing agents, but the curse caster. If he were dead, I wanted his innate curse tool. No matter the cost.

I used my curse map to scan the two-mile radius and found nothing except for Matthew's curse dominion. I took off from the froslight platform, deciding to expand the search radius. After all, the agents were Sky-tier. The average search radius for a mortal was three to five miles, sometimes even ten miles. I am sure a Sky-tier could cover several times that if on a run for their life. I needed to find them. Learn what happened to the curse caster's innate curse tool.

"Okay," Ava nodded and hurriedly followed behind the boy, who took off using his exo-armor's state of the art jets. She decided to follow him not only because of her feelings for him but because he appeared to know what he was doing compared to her, who had no idea how to react in this kind of situation.

…

"Damn it!" I cursed aloud in frustration, having spent three hours searching for the missing agents without any results. I was certain that they were alive because the curse terrorist wouldn't kill their own curse caster, meaning someone else killed him. It had to be the agents, who else but them?

I believe that the Agents were ambushed by the Curse Charmer, got captured, and forced to release the imprisoned curse terrorists. Then they were held hostage by the curse terrorists to use in case they got caught again while trying to finish their incomplete mission. However, something happened after the curse caster successfully cast the curse spell. As a result, not only did the caster die, but the agents escaped.

However, the escaped agents didn't rush back to the array formation in the town or report to the nearest C.I.B. base. My bet was they were injured and passed out somewhere here, but I already searched for three hours and dealt with all the curse threats to the town we found during our search, yet I found no trace of them.

"Ace, Agent Marcus has reported at the local C.I.B. headquarters and reported Agent Berry's death. My mother is asking us to stop the search and head home," Ava eagerly informed the boy. She knew this information was important to him, but did not know why it was important to him. Like everyone else, she assumed he was worried about the missing agents.

"They did? Let's go home," I said, and then I asked, "Did she tell what happened to the curse caster?"

"No, she didn't. Do you want me to ask her about it?" Ava asked, eager to help the boy and renew his impression of her.

"No need. We will learn about it when we return, anyway. Hurry. Let us not worry others," I rejected Ava, knowing unlike her, Matthews would see through my intentions. Therefore, I decided to ask about it in person, so I urged Ava to hurry, accelerating towards the direction of the town.

"Okay," Ava continued to follow the boy even though she could return to town with a few blinks of her eyes with her curse abilities. However, she wanted to spend as much time as she could with the boy.

Honestly, Ava had the urge to ask him to go slower. Now that the agents' whereabouts were known, it wouldn't hurt them to enjoy the surrounding scenery after a stressful day. But she knew it would be wishful thinking on her part. So she kept it to herself and didn't dare to speak those words out loud. At least not until she found the perfect counter to the reason he gave her for why he felt they could never be together.

Retrieving Emi and DD, who were searching on the ground and underground, I accelerated towards the town at the highest speed Specroll could summon as an exo-armor ignoring Ava's suggestive glances. I already did my part to help her understand that I wasn't interested in her and why I wouldn't ever be. If she still didn't get it, it wasn't my fault.