Bearer of the Ancient Curse

Chapter 12: The Gender-bending Cutter

With her remaining arm, Melanie touched her right shoulder with trembling fingers. Her knees quivered and she fell on the ground, her tears running like a waterfall. "No...this can't be happening."

"Hmm," mumbled the professor, looking down at Melanie's breakdown. "Seems like she's having a problem." She then faced the crowd and flashed her cheeky smile. "Do guys think the battle ends now? Or this newbie has something interesting to show us?"

"Boo! She's going down!"

"No fun, no fun!"

"End it! End it! End it! End it!

"End it! End it! End it! End it...."

Melanie was torn. She did not know if she should feel angry, sad, or disappointed at that point. In her seventeen years existence, her limbs helped her mobilize her daily routines and now that one of them was gone, she could not stop herself but grieve and wish to turn back time. Her brain could still feel her arm, her hand, and her fingers as if they were still part of her; even if they were not there anymore, and that mere idea brought more tears to her eyes.

She was in agony and the crowd—they didn't even care about her at all.

Melanie balled her fist and a crease formed on her forehead. She jerked her head to her opponent who was just sitting across her, legs crossed, casually eating the granola bar and staring at her nonchalantly. Melanie glared at her.

"W-why?!" exclaimed Melanie, gnashing her teeth.

Aze tilted her head and showed her smug face. "Why not?"

Melanie tried to muster all her hatred towards her opponent and visualized that into a ball of energy. She pointed her remaining hand to the Aze, recalling the spell Alice taught her earlier. She pursed her lips and focused on returning the favor; ripping Aze's arm out of her body and making her suffer too. She wanted Aze to feel the same pain, to make her taste her own medicine, to make her captive on a roller coaster ride of anguish and torment.

Melanie opened her mouth but the lump inside her thought prevented her from uttering a single word. The spell did not work. Her hand fell on her thigh, tears kept falling as her heart thumped faster inside her chest. She then looked down and thoughts came rushing inside her head. She wanted to destroy the person in front of her. That person inflicted her pain, that person sliced her whole arm like it was nothing, that person did not even say sorry—she deserves to die!

She deserves to die! She deserves to die! She deserves to die! She deserves to die!

"Is that what you really want?" an eerie voice echoed inside Melanie's head.

Melanie bit her lower lip and answered with a whisper, "Yes."

The professor walked closer to Melanie when she noticed the newbie seemed to be glued on the spot while looking down, her jet-black hair covering her entire face. She then placed her palm over her shoulder and asked, "You still going—"

The professor did not even finish her sentence when she noticed Melanie trembling from head to toe as dark shadows oozed out from the ground Melanie was kneeling on, making their way to her body. The ice covering her right shoulder, where her arm was amputated, gradually deteriorated into dust when the shadows settled over her skin, revealing the terrifying burn injury she received from her opponent's previous blow.

"What's happening?!"

"I-is that her true power?"

The shadows surrounded Melanie's damaged shoulder. They stretched and floated in the air, morphing into an arm. When the transformation was finally complete, the shadows disappeared and revealed a fresh regenerated limb which sprouted from dark magic.