Chapter 5: Chapter 3 - At Night, Make Sure To Sleep! (Part 1)
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
[Narration]
{Chat}
…
(Third POV: Cursed & Ghost)
Currently in the forest, Cursed sat looking at a locket while Ghost was hitting a tree. The locket had three people on the left side and three people on the right side.
Who are these people? Only Cursed knew, and judging by the sad yet happy smile he showed, the memories he held of them were very strong.
Ghost, however, was hitting a tree, not in an attempt to get resources but in an attempt to hone his ability. He remembered how it felt to hit a black flash on the ground and was currently trying to replicate it.
Even though he was still recovering from the sparring he and Cursed had done, it wasn't enough to make him quit.
*brrrhhh*
Both of them had frozen and turned to their left. They both had heard a sound they knew all too well and soon enough, something came shambling into the clearing.
Its skin was a rotten green, with one of its eyes gone while the other was a glassy white. Its skin had holes and pockets of flesh barely hanging onto its shambling frame.
One of the arms had no skin on it at all, and the other hand had no flesh on it, only bone. This was a zombie. The clothes it had on were in tatters, brown shorts and a red shirt.
They could forgive his terrible fashion sense since he had died, but what they couldn't forgive was the way it had its arms stretched out toward them. It could barely walk forward, yet it continued forward toward Ghost.
Ghost, feeling very annoyed that something that could barely walk forward was trying to attack him, pulled his fist back.
He had been trying to figure out the timing for landing a conscious black flash for way too long. Even with a cheat code to follow, he still couldn't get it right.
He had been in this forest so long that the sun had gone down, and this fact was the main thing getting him annoyed.
Throwing a punch straight at its abdomen, Ghost's fist made contact. The red lightning traveled through the arm, to the fist, into the zombie, and through the air, even touching the ground.
The shockwave from the punch wasn't big, but it could be seen.
'Black Flash!' Ghost said it in his mind, even without actively trying. The zombie was sent flying through the woods and ended up smashing through a tree far away.
While it was flying, the air around it seemed to actively try to get in front of it, showing how powerful that punch really was.
{Yuji Ghost has completed the challenge: Black Flash}
{Yuji Ghost: Black Flash…}
Quickly coming back to his senses, Ghost realized he had figured out the timing, but the reason he wasn't landing any on that tree was due to a tree and a humanoid not being the same.
His ability was a cheat code to land black flashes, yet Ghost was following the humanoid way of landing black flashes and not the way to land one on the tree.
[Yuji Ghost's ability 'The Zone' allows him to land black flashes on anything with a ten percent chance of working. The percentage goes up by two percent with every punch he lands while the ability is active.
Yuji Ghost was following his ability in order to try and increase the percentage gain by autocorrecting the ability if it seemed he wouldn't land a black flash.
What Yuji Ghost didn't know was that the ability automatically changes due to different things having different times of landing black flashes. In the end, he was using the way he lands black flashes on humanoids on a tree.]
*bbrrrueeehhh*
His excitement was high, but hearing another sound, he looked to the left and noticed another zombie. Cursed walked up next to him, as they both knew what was happening.
Because it was nighttime, mobs would spawn. But the reason Cursed stood by Ghost's side wasn't because of a zombie. A curse was also behind that zombie.
They hadn't run into curses all day. For some reason, curses became almost a thousand times more active at night than during the day.
The curse was like a red centipede, with lots of small, thin legs, antennae, and a long body. The mouth of the creature was just like that of an ant with mandibles.
The curse was currently behind the zombie, with the front portion of its body raised in the air.
"You ready, Ghost?"
"As ready as I have ever been, Cursed."
Cursed quickly threw a stone he had in his inventory and arched it to be above the cursed spirit.
*Clap*
Cursed had switched places with the zombie. Turning around, he uppercut the cursed spirit before it had a chance to realize he was in front of it.
*Clap*
The stone, which was now above the creature, who was almost touching it due to the air time it got from the uppercut, had its position switched with Ghost.
"Black Flash!" Ghost had screamed as he landed a downward punch toward the curse's head. The shockwave was much larger than the last, with a blast of air pushing its way through the surroundings from the punch.
The curse was instantly exorcised. After seeing it exorcised, Cursed walked over to the zombie and punched its head off.
He stomped on the zombie's chest just to make sure it was dead. After all, the saying goes, 'Make sure to double tap.' Looking up from the zombie, he stared in front of him.
"Ghost... We're surrounded."
"I know."
A multitude of zombies had begun walking toward them, but they weren't scared of them. There were tens of curses behind those zombies. Some were like the centipede creature they just fought, some were two-legged chicken-men-looking creatures, and some were like little black flying fish.
Cursed backed up and made it so he was back-to-back with Ghost. "Rip and tear?" He said to Ghost in a whisper.
"Until it is done." Ghost responded with not a hint of doubt in his words. Both of them wore large smiles.
*Clap* *Clap*
Ghost and Cursed had traded places with zombies. Immediately, Cursed punched one of the chicken men curses in the face with a right hook.
He then swept the disoriented curse spirit and slammed his foot on its neck. The curse was instantly exorcised.
Ghost wasn't one to be left in the dust, and the second he appeared next to the centipede curse spirit, he pulled back his fist.
"BLACK FLASH!" Ghost screamed it with all his might as he activated [The Zone]. His eyes dilated, and his cursed energy flared like a raging inferno.
His fist rapidly closed the distance between him and the cursed spirit. Once it made contact, red lightning bounced between the point of contact and off of Ghost's body.
He dragged the cursed spirit through the air with his fist and threw him into the other cursed spirits with such force that the red lightning from the black flash instantly destroyed any curse that came into contact with the originally punched curse.
The curse spirit that was punched didn't even land on the ground; a second and a half after being punched, it was exorcised.
Ghost wasn't done, though, as he immediately pulled his fist back again.
*Clap*
Cursed and Ghost traded places. Cursed had been mid-air and above another curse before he swapped with Ghost.
"Black Flash!" Ghost said as he threw a downward punch to the head of a centipede curse spirit. The AOE from that punch instantly vaporized the small flying curse spirits that were around, causing a small wave of air to fly outward from the punch.
*Clap* *Clap*
Cursed began culling the number of zombies as he swapped enemy positions with Ghost, allowing Ghost to land more of his punches.
The number of enemies seemed to be going up instead of down, yet it didn't stop the duo.
"Black Flash!"
"Black Flash!"
"BLACK FLASH!"
Ghost kept throwing out rapid-fire punches. He was pushing past his limits due to the feeling of landing a black flash; he felt as if he could keep going forever.
He was working at 150 percent! The curses that got close were hit with punches they couldn't withstand, and even if they weren't hit by them, the AOE from them would destroy them if they were too close.
'To think he'd be this strong! I can't be anywhere near the strongest if I allow Ghost of all people to surpass me.' Cursed thought as he watched Ghost absolutely violating any enemy stupid enough to get in his way.
'Just watch me, guys.' Cursed thought as he opened his small locket and looked at the people inside.
Killing the zombies around him with a few punches each and a roundhouse kick to the last one of them, he took a stone from his inventory.
He threw that stone as hard as he could, with his energy infused into the throw.
(Delusion Start:)
"Come on, Pyron! The enemies are right in front of you!" A tall, handsome, black-haired teen stood in front of Cursed and spoke to him.
He called him Pyron, and sure enough, when Cursed looked at himself, he realized his body had changed too.
His hair became blazing red, and he had a headband on. He was shirtless, showing off all his muscles. With white baggy pants that looked as if they were of the highest quality.
His hands had brass knuckles on them, and his skin became tanner. A smile appeared on his face as he heard what the teen had said.
"He's right, Pyron. This is something you cannot back down from. You are the hand-to-hand fighter of the group after all." Another teen spoke. This one was shorter than Pyron himself while also being darker in skin color.
Cursed- No Pyron's smile grew even bigger as he readied his fist. "Thanks, Seyia, Arnor!" The name of the first teen was Seyia, and the second shorter teen was Arnor. Pyron spoke these words with a smile.
*Clap*
Pyron was flying through the air at high speeds. 'Palm of the Flame God.' Pyron thought as red flames began to build around his hands.
'Fog of the five elders!' He thought again as visions of him landing in a black flash ran through his mind.
""Finish it, Pyron!"" Both Seiya and Arnor screamed at him at the same time. Pyron pulled his fist back. 'This one is for the both of you!' Pyron said to himself in his mind.
"Black Flash!" Pyron screamed as his punch connected to a centipede curse spirit. He wasn't done, though, as the speed he was traveling with was transferred into the weight of the punch.
The cursed spirit collided with the ground. The earth beneath was unable to handle the punch and subsequently folded under its weight. A crater was formed, with red lightning running through it.
Any curse close enough to the punch was exorcised. The only one left in the crater was Pyron himself, who was kneeling in a 'superhero landing' pose.
(Delusion End:)
{Todo Cursed has completed the challenge: Black Flash}
{Todo Cursed: Black Flash…}
Ghost looked at Cursed with a shocked expression. Knowing he had a cheat to use black flashes, he didn't expect Cursed to ever land one.
*Clap*
Cursed stood close by Ghost after changing his position with a zombie that was shambling close by.
"Just because you have it easier doesn't mean I'll be outdone." Cursed said with a smile on his face. He walked toward Ghost as the zombies were slowly closing in and the curses became more wary.
Finally, standing beside Ghost, he got into a boxing stance. Ghost smiled as he realized what Cursed was truly trying to say. Together, they were both working at 150 percent!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone