April 28, 2020

  The little girl can immediately sense that the person in front of her is not a human. They have the same feeling and presence as the monsters from before. No, their auras can’t even be compared with their massive difference. This person is so much stronger… and so much more terrifying than anything that she has ever witnessed with her eyes.

  The girl falls on her back due to fear. She slowly crawls away, hugging one of the nearby corpses and crying somberly. Meanwhile, Waldo stares at this scene before him. One lone girl in the midst of a massacre. Could she have taken down the cursed spirits on her own? If so, she must have some kind of hidden power, but that shouldn’t be the case. Her cursed energy levels are pitiful. How could she have possibly defeated 20 cursed spirits on her own? That’s bogus.

  “Pitiful human child… Did you destroy the cursed spirits that attacked this place? Or were there sorcerers that killed them off?”

  The child stays on the ground, looking up at Waldo with a terrified expression. The way he speaks, the way he looks, the way his presence feels, all of these factors were seeping endless fear into the child. She tries to answer Waldo, but her body won’t respond. She can’t seem to think straight, causing her to be unable to respond to Waldo’s question. No words come out of her mouth. Waldo starts to get irritated that this girl doesn’t answer him.

  “I asked you a question, brat! You’d best answer me, or I’ll obliterate you.!”

  Waldo kicks the girl across her head. She’s knocked unconscious from the attack and falls onto the ground. Waldo scoffs angrily.

  “Knocked out by a singular attack. Such a weak person couldn’t possibly be a jujutsu sorcerer.”

  He looks at the corpse next to the girl. It’s a male corpse that looked as if he were in his 30s. Waldo crouches down and rips off all of the clothes from the corpse, checking his wares for any items. The only thing he finds from the corpse is a singular diamond ring. Waldo isn’t as interested in bling, but he still decides to keep the ring in his pocket. Once he’s done ransacking the corpse, he grabs the girl, carries her over his shoulder, and walks away from the bloodshed.

  .

  .

  The echoes of screams, the sounds of the dead, and the mingling of curses. Red blood begins to fly around and paint the ground in a crimson hue. A warm drop of blood lands on the girl’s cheek and chills run down her spine.

  “Just keep running, dear! Don’t look back! Hold my hand!”

  Her father clutches her hand tighter, and they keep running. The girl hears several screams behind her and several sounds of fighting. It was just a peaceful day for her. For some reason, their refuge in Fort Worth suddenly got attacked by crazy monsters. They came from several sides and began to kill everyone they saw. Some people stayed behind to help defend the refuge against the monsters, while the girl and her father, along with many others from the refuge, fled Fort Worth so they could hold onto their lives. They didn’t have anything to take with them besides each other. The trip was going well until some of the monsters from Fort Worth diverted from the crowd and followed the group of civilians that fled from the refuge. Everyone starts to panic as the monsters get closer to them.

  “Everyone calm down! We’ll keep these things away while you run off! We’ll hold them back, so please live for the sake of humanity!”

  The sorcerers that were part of the survivors selflessly run from the group towards the monsters. They fight back against them using their cursed techniques and cursed tools. They manage to hold them off long enough for the rest of the survivors to gain considerable distance. The girl was certain that the sorcerers would be able to win against the monsters. They were performing strange moves like it was magic. However, the monsters began to become influenced by something. They acted more sporadic and relentless than before, applying more pressure onto the sorcerers and chewing them up into mincemeat.

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  “AAAUGH!”

  “Thomas, no!”

  The sorcerers began to fall one by one. They just weren’t enough for the desperate barrage of monsters. The girl started to see that hope of coming out alive was slim. Suddenly, one of the monsters comes out from the sides. It roars and throws out a slash of its claws. The girl’s eyes widen in fear. Her body freezes at the sudden jump scare from the monster. However, her father notices the attack before her and gets in between, shielding his daughter and taking the full brunt of the attack. His entire back has been slashed to bits and left some of his bones to be exposed. The substantial blood loss is causing him to lose all of his strength in a matter of moments. The girl’s face loses all of its color as she watches her father slowly fall to his knees. The girl falls down to her knees and wraps her arms around her father’s body.

  “Dad! No, dad!”

  “Mara, you have to run! Forget about me! Regroup with the other people and save yourself!”

  “But… dad… I can’t leave you! I don’t want you to die too!”

  The cursed spirits begin to circle around Mara and her father. They stopped resisting against the others and went for the closest vulnerable prey. A sorcerer suddenly steps in and kills one of the cursed spirits with their cursed tool.

  “Little girl, what are you doing? You have to run away from the monsters! I’ll make sure your father gets help once I deal with them! You have to go! Quickly!”

  The cursed spirits begin to charge at the sorcerer. The sorcerer, despite their body trembling, stands their ground and meets the challenge of the cursed spirits. Mara watches the sorcerer fight against the several cursed spirits with courage. She still clutches her father despite being told to run away. A year ago, Mara’s mother died ill with a rare disease that was common in her lineage. There was nothing that doctors or medical experts could do, eventually leading to her death. It was a miserable day for everyone, and Mara’s father began to work extra hard in order to support Mara as best as he could. But now, he was about to die in front of her eyes.

  “Little girl, you have to go! Please! I’ll keep your dad safe!”

  “Please… Mara… you must run!”

  Mara can’t decide what to do. Should she run away and abandon her father like this, or should she stay here and hope for a miracle? It was the toughest choice she would have to make for the rest of her life, and she wasn’t ready to decide. But she just can’t run away from her father! Suddenly, the sorcerer’s arm gets blown off by one of the cursed spirits. He yells in anguish, holding the area that it was cut off. However, he quickly gathers his composure and tries to smile it off.

  (I can’t let the girl see me in such a state! I have to protect her and her father until the end! I can’t let her down! Endure!)

  The cursed spirits begin to cackle and gather around once more. This human in front of them has been weakened. It should be easy pickings now. The sorcerer grunts and steels himself.

  “Give it your worst, you sick bastar-“

  The head is then taken off the shoulders. Mara gasps and covers her mouth, afraid that she will vomit on the spot. An unexpected opponent comes into the battlefield, one much stronger than the others. It steps over the sorcerer’s body and smirks at Mara.

  “No… no… please… stay…”

  Suddenly, Mara’s eyes and hair flare red as her hands begin to light up.

  “STAY AWAY!"

  In the heat of battle, something awakened inside of the little youth. A desire to protect with a burning passion, to keep that which she loved. It was a sudden burning heart that was guiding her. But she couldn’t do it by herself. She must use the power vested inside of her in order to burn…

  Holding her glowing hands in the air, a couple of the cursed spirits in the group suddenly begin to catch aflame and burn down. They garble and scream in pain, flailing around and trying to get rid of the flames. The other cursed spirits stare at this with horror in their eyes. The new cursed spirit that arrived shrieks in terror at the sudden deaths of the curses. However, it chuckles and sends the cursed spirits towards Mara. However, when they get close to her, Mara coats her fists with reinforced cursed energy and, in one punch, exorcises one of the cursed spirits.

  Such development would ordinarily be impossible, but Mara was currently in a burning, awakened state that allowed for accelerated strength. The jujutsu powers that lay dormant inside were triggered to activate by the ambush of cursed spirits. She proceeds to run towards one of the cursed spirits, and using her newfound technique, touches its face and burns the body to nothing but ash. However, using her technique in this state makes her power backfire. Her abilities become too powerful for her body to handle, burning her hands as well. But she couldn’t feel the damage she was inflicting on herself. She only had the desire to burn away at these cursed spirits.

  The strongest cursed spirit scowls in anger and charges towards Mara. It fires lasers from its fingers towards Mara, the lasers weaving through the air and coming from many different directions. Mara gets closer to the cursed spirit, dodging the lasers with nimble movements. Suddenly, she disappears from the cursed spirit’s sight. The cursed spirit desperately looks around, wondering where she could have gone. It feels a touch on its back, before becoming ablaze in a fiery inferno. The cursed spirit is swiftly exorcised by the flame and returns to nothing. Mara looks at her trembling arm, now covered in severe burns and flesh wounds. Her hair and eyes gradually go back to their original color. Her eyes grow heavy, and her legs begin to wobble.

  “Dad…”

  Before she can reach the body of her father, she collapses on the ground. The grounds of the massacre.