The Wrong Hero

Chapter 78 - The Wrong Hero

Metal screeched throughout the room. Weapons clashed, causing black flames to spread out in all directions.

Dante's blade met with Takt's for a moment. The younger man switched out his weapon to a thick broadsword, one that matched the other heroes' weapons with their black flames. The grin on his face looked to be one of both excitement and hate.

The moment passed. Dante pushed him back to divert a strike from Motoyasu's spear. When the tip hit the ground, more black flames surrounded them. The fleshy rock beneath them looked to take on a curse for a moment before healing itself, curtesy of the Spirit Tortoise's power.

The Spear Hero snarled at him. "It's your fault!" He'd said that a few times since they began clashing. The most Dante got from him was that someone died, though he didn't know who. The enraged hero didn't give any names.

Dante hoped the two of them would be fighting Takt more, but the boy was a step ahead. He'd quickly positioned himself so Dante was in the middle and had done his best to keep things that way. Fighting two cursed heroes wasn't what Takt wanted. Dante knew that. He was doing that right now and was struggling.

"Hah!" Takt swiped at Dante before he could break away, earning another cut on his side. Thankfully, it wasn't deep. His stats had flipped, but that didn't mean his defense wasn't high. It just wasn't as high as before. He still had some of the effects of his original Wrath curse, namely the stats.

With a swing of his axe, Dante knocked Takt back once more. Despite facing off against a Holy Weapon, the Vassal Axe had strength and attack to spare.

"Come on! Where's all that fight you had before?" Takt taunted.

Easier said than done. Dante didn't want to kill Motoyasu if he could help it. Plus, the energy he put into doing that was effort he couldn't spend on Takt.

"Chaos Spear V!" Motoyasu repeatedly thrust his spear at Dante.

All that meant was it was time for another counter.

"Axe Sweep IV!"

The Axe became longer and wider, coming at the incoming spear thrusts in a large arc. It was able to block most of the spear strikes and deflect the rest. This was a skill transferred over from the Stout Axe. The damage wasn't great, but it looked to be best for defensive maneuvers and creating distance. Motoyasu skid back a few feet from the impact the Axe made against his body.

Like most skills he gained from the Axe, this one was partially improved. Any that had a comparable skill from the Shield—basically, they came from a weapon form unlocked by the same thing—took about half the points applied with the Gauntlet's power up method from the original skill. It made his skills a little weaker, but gave him a wider variety.

"Gah!" Dante grunted, swinging his axe around. The size returned to normal as it struck Takt's blade, which had a fresh smear of blood that was quickly burning away.

"You're too open!" The fake hero continued to taunt, having just stuck Dante's side with his sword.

Dante merely gave another grunt as he gave the boy a greater share of his attention. A few more heavy swings, a few more clashes, and more black fire spreading all around.

"Come on! Put on a good show for your family!" Takt whirled the sword around and smashed it against the axe head.

Two people watched as the three heroes fought with cursed weapons. Sadeena and Atla stood far back, not participating in the battle. How could they? Though strong, neither would be able to handle a fully powered up hero, let alone two. Takt would absorb any spell Sadeena tried to cast and use it to his advantage. That wasn't even mentioning the cursed weapons. With all the cursed fire being spread around, they'd fare far worse than Dante.