Chapter 177: Chapter 182: This Is How You Use Cursed Energy
"What's wrong?"
"Why are you making that face? I thought you weren't interested in playing hero?"
"It's fine if you just stand by and do nothing. After all, it's just a homeless guy. The only person who'll care about him is the janitor cleaning the park in the morning."
A mocking voice, full of amusement, came from the mouth on Yukinoshita Haruno's cheek. It was like the laughter of a demon, whispering temptations straight into her soul.
The short-haired girl tensed up, gritting her teeth so hard they made a grinding sound. Her voice seemed to be forced out.
"You're the one who brought me here, aren't you?"
Yukinoshita Haruno, who had always thought she could see through and understand all the fake words adults used, finally witnessed the even dirtier tricks they had up their sleeves.
She had no interest in being a hero, nor did she want to be a friendly neighborhood protector like Spider-Man. But if a living, breathing person was about to be killed by a monster right in front of her, and she happened to have the ability to stop it, she couldn't just stand by and do nothing.
"You win. Just make sure to pay me back later."
Seeing the strange-type curse about to catch up to the unlucky homeless man, Yukinoshita Haruno realized she didn't have time to hesitate anymore. She let out a sigh.
This was her first time facing a curse. She had no idea how to fight it, so she could only go with her instincts.
She reached out and summoned a clone. A shadow split from the short-haired girl's body, quickly leaping off the owl shikigami, leaving behind white afterimages trailing through the air.
The shadow solidified mid-air and landed directly on the strange-type curse. Even though Haruno had only learned Aikido from her mother for self-defense, that didn't mean she didn't understand how to deal real damage to someone—damage that could be fatal.
The clone Haruno crouched on the curse's shoulder, wrapping her arms around its head. A strong twist would be enough to snap its neck!
Her arms tensed up, ready to exert force.
Then...
She couldn't twist it at all. Worse, the curse grabbed the clone with its large hand, flung her to the ground, and shattered her into pieces.
The destroyed clone dissolved into glowing particles that scattered into the air.
Sitting atop the shikigami, the real Yukinoshita Haruno froze in place.
She hadn't expected her "surefire" attack to be completely useless.
"Use cursed energy to strengthen your body. Otherwise, with those thin arms and legs, how are you ever going to land a hit?" Hayashizaki said lazily.
"Hmph! If you're not happy with it, why don't you do it yourself?" Haruno huffed.
Even though her clone hadn't managed to harm the strange-type curse, at least it had drawn its attention. The creature stopped chasing the homeless man and instead turned its gaze to the owl shikigami flapping its wings in the sky, along with Haruno.
As for the homeless man, he didn't even dare to look back to check if the monster was still after him. He just kept running for his life, completely unaware of the girl riding the owl shikigami above him.
"Since that unlucky guy got away, does that mean we can run too—ah!"
Before Haruno could finish her sentence, her words suddenly turned into a startled yelp.
The Nue beneath her transformed into a shadow, and with its form vanishing, she lost her footing and plummeted toward the ground.
Luckily, she wasn't too high up, and there was a soft grassy field below. She landed with a thud, and while her backside hurt from the fall, she wasn't actually injured.
"Tsk! Hayashizaki, you bastard!"
Haruno scowled, rubbing her sore butt over her denim jeans.
She looked annoyed, but the curse? It looked like it was about to grin so wide its face would split open.
Earlier, when Haruno was sitting on the Nue, the curse had no choice but to watch from the ground. But now that she had fallen, it wasted no time stepping toward her. Drool dripped from the corner of its mouth, sizzling as it burned away patches of grass.
Its shadow loomed over her. She instinctively looked up, and her body trembled involuntarily.
So this guy really wants to make me fight this thing alone? He even went out of his way to bring me here just to watch some poor guy get chased by a curse? What the hell is he after?
Strengthen my body with cursed energy... But how? I don't know how to do that!
No matter what, Haruno was still just a girl.
Even if a twenty-year-old Haruno were here, she'd probably be shaking in fear. And the one standing here now was just a middle school version of her—one who still had the overconfident bravado of a little brat.
She quickly backed away, and white afterimages flickered around her. In the blink of an eye, five more Harunos split from her, leaving the curse momentarily stunned. It didn't seem to know which one to attack first.
Cursed energy reinforcement... Reinforcement... Is this how you do it?
Forget it, I'll just try and see what happens!
Counting the clones, there were now six Yukinoshita Harunos in total, each surrounded by a blue glow of cursed energy as they closed in on the curse.
Yukinoshita Haruno launched a full-on righteous beatdown.
The bizarre curse spirit, dizzy from dealing with the clones, saw its prey attacking first and didn't bother thinking about which one to target first—whoever was closest would do!
The Grade 3 curse spirit's attacks had a significant impact on the clones.
A fist larger than a cooking pot slammed into one of Haruno's clones, shattering it into scattered fragments that dissolved into tiny glowing particles in the air.
Luckily, the curse spirit was sluggish. After throwing a punch, before it could even pull its arm back, one of the clones struck its waist hard. The cursed energy on the spirit's fist left a bowl-sized dent in its torso.
Then came more attacks—its back, stomach, and head. The clones didn't need to worry about getting hurt, so they attacked recklessly, throwing themselves at the curse spirit without hesitation. Even if they got hit, it only drained Yukinoshita Haruno's cursed energy rather than causing real damage.
The curse spirit staggered from the beating. Then, with a swift sweep of her leg, the short-haired girl knocked it completely off balance. The towering two-meter-tall creature toppled backward like a falling tree, crashing onto the ground.
The loud impact echoed through the night park, startling birds resting in the treetops.
"That should be enough, right?"
Seeing the curse spirit lying motionless, Yukinoshita Haruno withdrew her clones and, slightly out of breath, asked the question.
"Why not finish it off?" Hayashizaki asked, puzzled by the lack of a follow-up attack.
"Finish it off...? Look at the size of that thing. How am I supposed to take it down with just my fists?" Yukinoshita Haruno replied.
Hayashizaki suddenly understood. "I see. You're just using cursed energy by instinct."
She stepped forward. "Switch with me. Watch carefully."
Taking control of the body, Hayashizaki approached the struggling curse spirit. She raised a fist, and blue flames ignited around it.
Without using any force or cursed energy beyond what Yukinoshita Haruno herself could handle, Hayashizaki threw a punch. The cursed energy exploded, blasting the curse spirit's ugly head into pieces.
"This is how you use cursed energy."
---
---
You can read 10 advanced chapters at my patreon.com/YeyeQiu