Broken

Chapter 72

"<Curse of Misfortune>..." I intoned on the back end of a sigh, the skill coating my new weapons. This was my only useful combat skill, and the current enemy had poison resistance. I wasn't even surprised. I'd just have to hope that 'resistance' didn't also mean 'immune'.

I kept to the midfield, while Carson and Bryce rushed to catch up to the men drunk on battle eagerness. Kuro and Alex were at my side, while Aiden stalked behind us, already casting whatever debuff he could muster. It would've been nice if the boys had bothered with this preparation beforehand, but Aiden wasn't complaining; proof that the man was used to their antics and just exspected it all by now.

Argus and the others wasted no time getting to work, and Rosalind didn't seem intimidated in the slightest. As the giant crimson haired man attempted to pummel her to death, Nick (surprisingly active this time around) dove in and around, attempting to get some sneaky shots in while the banshee was distracted by the others.

"Not enough!" Rosalind cackled as she brought that massive lance around in a sweeping arc, causing the boys to either leap out of the way, or risk having their legs taken out. "Try harder!"

"Damn it." Nick cursed, whipping blood out of his eyes as he landed on the frozen earth between Alex and I. "It's like we aren't doing any damage at all..."

"Even my fire skills don't seem to be connecting well." Alex grunted, eyes focused on the fight as Carson and Bryce dove back in to block any further blows from the crazy banshee. "At least we were able to make contact a time or two when it came to Agatha."

"Are the debuffs even sticking?" Nick asked, shooting an irritated glance over his shoulder at our seemingly indifferent healer.

Aiden narrowed his eyes. "I think her armor is blocking out most of it."

"I suppose it isn't surprising that she'd have some way to counter her obviously lacking mana issues." Alex sighed, his hands alight with flames as he fired off one spell after another, not even bothering to shout out the name of the skill. This kids did non-verbal casting so well one might think he had use of several primordial attributes. Sometimes I'm so desensitized to these people that I forget that- as broken in the brain as several of them are- each of them are still considered geniuses in some form or fashion. In Alex's case, it was in the literal sense.

"Great, so she has monster strength, and she's over geared?" Nick grumbled.

"Nothing we can do about it." I huffed, flicking my green sword in the enemy's direction. "We won't take her down any faster grumbling about it."

Nick looked me over like I was the crazy one in this guild of misfits. "You are the walking epitome of 'water off a duck's back' aren't you?"

Annoyed, I glared back at the roguish male. "Lets go, before Argus looses a limb."

I stalked off into the heat of the fight, where Bryce was fending off most of the blows and the others were doing what they could to get in even a little damage. Even Kuro had joined in, his shadow attribute carrying him hard in allowing him to get past Rosalind's defenses.

Grumbling, Nick followed me back into the fight.

After about five minutes I was a panting mess, standing next to Aiden with Eric, both of us bleeding in several locations and on the receiving end of Aiden's 'care'. Our healer's skills were no joke, and the speed he could help us recover was almost beyond imagining... but it hurt like a bitch! Whoever said healers were a kind and gentle people never met one sponsored by the masochist that was the Higher Power called Misery.

Not once did it look like Rosalind had been affected by my poisoning, nor had <curse of Misfortune>'s random effect activated. Given the unpredictability of that particular trait, that may have been a blessing, though any sort of change might've been favorable at this point. It felt like we were throwing pillows at a brick wall out here.