Secret Society: Raising Calamity Class Disciples

Eulene's right arm disappeared, along with the sword she was wielding. Even her storage ring was gone.

Blood drenched her silver robe and dripped to the ground.

But not a voice of pain escaped her mouth. And her black eyes looked unfazed. It was just a right arm.

[Can you feel where your arm is?] Xavier's voice reached her mind. He was standing straight and steady, his pore less mask blank mask pointing at the abomination.

[Yes] Eulene replied with a calm voice. [What just happened?]

[As I hypothesised, the Curse's authorities upgraded. Before, it could only teleport inanimate objects it was not in touch with, and could not store anything. But now that it possessed its host, not only can it teleport animate bodies and body parts, but also store objects—as proved by the fact that your arm and sword went missing.]

[I can still feel them] Eulene's black eyes were still fixed on the deformed psychiatrist. [But it's not in this space]

[Can you get them back?]

[Get what back?] Eulene turned to Xavier.

Light flickered on Xavier's blank mask. The red glowing smile returned.

Eulene was not armless anymore. Her missing forelimb had returned, along with the sword and the ring. Even the blood on her robe and the floor disappeared. It was as if it never happened.

A high frequency distressed screech caught their attention.

There was a gaping hall at the slender hunchback's chest. No blood came out from the endless blackness that seemed to exist behind that wound. The aperture was subsiding at a visible pace.

[Besides, how did you sense that it was going to make a move, and at me] If Eulene was not afraid of one thing in this world, it was asking questions—even if the other party was her rival.

[Its eyes] Xavier replied. [Even though it is completely white and devoid of pupils, if you lock your senses on the particles of its eyes, you can discern it moving its gaze between you and me. Besides, I have figured out its habit. Its glances' timeframe ranges from 30-40 milliseconds. When it attacked you, the duration exceeded the timeframe]

Eulene locked her senses on the monster's seemingly unmoving eyes. He was right, it was indeed teetering its gaze between the two.

[Speaking of eyes, I don't feel those gazes anymore] Eulene commented.

"And possessed hosts can't affect the decisions of the Curses," Xavier did not bother transmitting these words.

"Have you discovered anything else?" Eulene did not feel the need to use transmissions anymore either.

"It needs to focu-". Xavier disappeared from his spot, appearing a couple of metres away. A part of his black sleeve disappeared, but it stitched itself back at a visible rate. "It needs to focus on the area to 'steal the space'."

Eulene nodded. "Stay out of its sight—got it!"

"And don't get too close, beings tend to focus faster on objects closer to them. And buy me some time. I need to prepare something."

Eulene flashed away from her spot, avoiding a spatial steal and swung her sword at the abomination. A translucent sword wave flew to the monster at breakneck speed, but the moment it touched the deformation's body, the wave disappeared. The monster remained unscathed.

A second later, the sword wave appeared just before Xavier, who had his hat on one hand while his other hand was scavenging for something inside the hat. Xavier, who had his senses peaked, stepped to the side, dodging the slash by a millimetre.

"Found it!" The smile on his mask glowed as Xavier brought out a long rifle from his hat. He donned his hat back on and pulled the lever to its side, cocking it.

Eulene had obviously noticed the rifle—made of polished wood and lined with silver. "That's not fair!" She yelled. "I want one too!"

Xavier ignored Eulene like a pro and aimed at the deformed Joseph, right between his eyes. Six mini tornadoes manifested right before the muzzle of the gun—three on the left and three on the right. The tornadoes on both sides were rotating counter clockwise and the ones on the right were spinning clockwise.

The tornadoes might have been small, but they were spinning with impossible speeds, scattering wind across the entire space. But Xavier remained unaffected as he pulled the trigger.

The moment the bullet came out from the rifle's muzzle, the first pair of tornadoes gave the bullet a boost. The next two pairs of tornadoes reinforced the velocity even further. By the time projectile, escaped the tornadoes' field, the bullet flashed to its target.

But it was redirected to Eulene. She slashed her sword, dividing the bullet into two equal halves.

Both Xavier and Eulene continued with their attacks. When the being's eyes focused on Xavier, Eulene would slash at it while Xavier dodged, and when it focused on Eulene, the opposite happened.

But the abomination remained unscathed, standing right where it originally was—with a hunched back. Even approaching it from the back was futile, since it could creepily rotate its deformed head 360 degrees.

Moreover, it redirected all of its attacks—Xavier's shots to Eulene and Eulene's slashes to Xavier. Sometimes, it would redirect the attack without any delays and sometimes, it would temporarily store the attacks and try to surprise the duo with a sudden attack.

And when Eulene got too close with her sword, the creature focused all of its attention on her, making it impossible for her to carry on with the attack.

Clearly, its intelligence exceeded average humans.

Ten minutes passed this way, but no breakthroughs transpired. The abomination remained unscathed, but so did Xavier and Eulene.

Right at the thirteen minute mark since the start of the battle, the standstill broke.

The possessed psychiatrist managed to trap Xavier with several sword attacks and steal a portion of Xavier's rifle, rendering it powerless.

But the red smile on Xavier's mask remained as bright as ever while he put the remaining of the rifle back into his hat.

"You dug your own grave. I was using the rifle to limit my power output."

Xavier snapped his fingers. The whole whole place began to violently shake.