I Can Copy Curses

As far as he understood from his family\'s technique of the Three Divine Ways, achieving the 2nd form would require one to have at least platinum rank strength, and even that was the minimum requirement. Only at that rank would one have enough mana and control to achieve something as elusive as the 2nd form of the Three Divine Ways.

In fact, the minimum requirement was theoretical only; while there were legends of some people achieving the 2nd form in the platinum rank, they were few and far between. One such person was the Sword Sage, who achieved the 2nd form of the Three Divine Ways when he was only at platinum rank, and the astonishing thing was that he was just 16 at that time.

Orion could understand the situation with the Sword Sage, but the masked girl attaining the 2nd form of the Three Divine Ways at only iron rank made the Sword Sage\'s achievement look like child\'s play.

All this seemed too impossible to be true, but the truth was right in front of him.

As Orion pondered all of this, the battle in front of him began.

---

"I don\'t know how you\'re able to attain that state at only iron rank, but this wouldn\'t close the gap in our strength, even if you use the cursed treasure," Carl yelled as his right hand formed small clouds of black flames atop his palm. These clouds were the size of his palm and numbered five.

He threw them in front of him and swung his sword at these flaming clouds five times.

His sword cut through them effectively, slicing each of them in two halves. However, instead of falling, these halves became as sharp as blades and made their way toward the masked girl.

There were ten blade shadows in total, and they swiftly arrived in front of the masked girl. However, she only needed to move her sword once, and all those blade shadows were destroyed by her sword.

Carl narrowed his eyes at this. The previous attack had been a decoy to see if it was her sword that was the cursed weapon or if it was a different treasure, and he succeeded in determining that.

Given how easily her sword destroyed those attacks without a scratch, it was hard to ignore the durability of her sword, considering it looked too ordinary to have achieved such a feat. It didn\'t have the aura of a platinum-ranked sword, so the cursed treasure in her possession could only be the sword she was holding.

"Without that sword, you are nothing in front of me," Carl sneered at her, and like a black streak of light, he appeared in front of her, his sword aiming for hers. He knew that if he wanted to defeat her quickly, the best strategy was to disarm her. Without her weapon, she would revert to her weak iron rank self without the cursed treasure\'s power.

The masked girl also knew that, but she seemed driven by something as she swung her sword directly at Carl\'s incoming black sword.

As their swords collided, both of them retreated. The masked girl\'s hands were trembling as she held her sword tightly, while Carl appeared unharmed.

"You see, this is the difference between borrowed power and true power," Carl mocked her. "No matter how powerful a borrowed power may be, it will never compare to true power." He shook his head as he said that.

"By the way," he continued. "Why so much hate towards me? Why? You have to use a cursed treasure just to kill me. I wonder what I ever did to you to deserve that treatment?"

Carl\'s words seemed to strike a nerve, causing her to yell in agony.

"Agghhhh!"

Her scream was so loud that it caused Orion to cover his ears with his hands.

As if driven mad, she sprinted towards Carl in a berserk manner.

The moment she entered Carl\'s attack range, she executed the technique she had been practicing since that day.

A blood-red dragon materialized beside her, along with a phoenix and a being that was a mere blob of black mass.

These three entities immediately combined to form a ray of light that zoomed toward Carl. The heads of the dragon, phoenix, and the blob were visible at the front as the red ray of light approached Carl.

Carl felt the strength of the attack and responded with a powerful counterattack. He first threw his sword to his left hand while his right hand\'s size increased to the size of his entire body and punched the incoming ray of light with all his strength.

The ground beneath Carl was destroyed as his gigantic black fist collided with the red ray of light.

At first, it seemed like a draw as the two forces were locked in a stalemate. However, it wasn\'t long before the situation seemed to turn in Carl\'s favor—or so he thought.

It was the phoenix\'s head that burst into pieces before disappearing, leaving only the dragon and the red blob of light.

"Hahaha, as I said, a borrowed po—"

Carl couldn\'t complete his words as he suddenly felt the strength of the red ray increase after he destroyed the phoenix\'s head.

His body was slowly but steadily pushed back, no matter how hard he tried to stay in place.

"Damn! What is this attack?!"

He cursed as he increased the strength of his fist, finally able to stop his body from being pushed by the red ray of light.

But at the same time, the dragon\'s head also shattered before disappearing, and the feared moment arrived.

The strength of the ray increased even more, and this surge was too much for him to handle. He was blasted back like a rag doll, but the most ruthless part was that the ray of red light didn\'t stop hitting his body until its energy was completely depleted, and the ray eventually died down.

The masked girl huffed and puffed after completing the attack. It had taken a toll on her, and she kneeled on one leg, catching her breath.

But only a moment later, she stood up and headed towards Carl. However, someone blocked her path. He had a carefree look plastered on his face and stood blocking her path like a lazy man.

"I have no enmity with you. Leave," she said.

Ethan shook his head. "It\'s not about enmity. I just can\'t let you kill him."

The masked girl narrowed her eyes at him. "Then you will suffer the same fate."

A smile appeared on Ethan\'s face. "You can try."

***

Also, I was hoping you could leave some comments or reviews to let me know your thoughts!

*Some gifts would be appreciated as well, but up to you.... *