Chapter 69: Chapter 36. Encounter with the "Dragons" (Part 5)
As much as Naobito wanted to angrily retort, he had to focus on more pressing matters. Specifically, Dagon, with a casual flick of his wrist, formed a small sphere of water that swirled beautifully, reminiscent of a damn Rasengan! Unfortunately, I didn't have time to take a closer look at this technique, which would have been useful to learn how to concentrate such an amount of water in such a small sphere. How do I know the volume of water in the sphere? Well, first, Spirit Vision allowed me to see what ordinary Sorcerers couldn't perceive with any of their senses. Second, in the next instant, I was able to experience firsthand how astonishing this technique was.
As soon as the water sphere touched the floor, a mighty stream of water gushed forth, which would have easily crushed an ordinary person. Even Maki, known for her physical prowess, had to react quickly to avoid being swept away and consequently crushed by the torrent. She immediately thrust her spear into one of the columns, then deftly climbed up the shaft like a cat.
As for me? While I was accelerating my "Enhancement," I had to recall my younger days and use the terrain as my weapon, employing a few acrobatic moves. Maybe without "Enhancement," I wouldn't be a match for special-grade curses, but my physical abilities in the "base" state were enough to jump onto one of the columns. With a light push, I propelled myself diagonally upwards to another column and repeated the trick, staying out of the curse's sight.
While I was leaping from one column to another, I caught Naobito's voice echoing softly through the area:
"Hey, cursed spirit. Do you know how many frames per second are in an animation sequence?" The old man, clearly understanding the level of opponent he was facing, immediately decided to use one of the types of "vows." The essence of such a vow is that by revealing information about his technique, a Sorcerer can enhance it. I still haven't figured out how this type of "vow" works, but it didn't stop me from admiring its subtlety and abstractness.
"My name is not cursed spirit," the voice of the curse, still hovering in the air, became much rougher and deeper.
"These days, it's all about resolution and increasing frame rates," Naobito continued.
"My name is Dagon," but Davy Jones wouldn't relent. "Hanami, Jogo, and Mahito."
"4K and 60 fps..."
"We all have names!" Dagon shouted.
"Don't you think it's all pretentious? That twenty-four frames would suffice!" clearly getting carried away, Naobito shouted the last part back at Dagon.
Unfortunately, I never got to find out who would stop shouting their pretentious lines first, because judging by the smell and sound of the impact, Nanami had jumped on Dagon. Though I didn't hear the joyful heartbeat in Nanami's chest, I did hear the cursed spirit's body slam harshly against the floor.
Not giving the curse a chance to set its pace, Maki immediately sprang at it, brandishing her spear. Unfortunately, this was where the gap in strength between her and first-grade Sorcerers showed: Dagon easily stopped the spear's tip with just a palm on its trajectory. The curse wasn't just defending itself; it was already swinging its free hand towards Maki.
At that moment, I caught Nanami's gaze. Before Dagon could strike, Naobito appeared behind him and lightly touched him, followed by a small burst of cursed energy. One of the rules of Naobito Zenin's cursed technique stated: while the technique is active, everything the user's palm touches must adhere to the "twenty-four frames per second" rule during movement. If this rule was broken, the target would be immobilized and frozen in an animation frame for one second.
Unaware of this, Dagon couldn't hit Maki, freezing for a whole second, which was enough time for Nanami to land a solid blow on the curse, sending it flying towards me. Unfortunately, this attack didn't cause significant damage, but it allowed me to see Dagon's defense mechanism up close — he creates a dense ring of water around himself that effectively protects against physical attacks and, apparently, even against opponents faster than him.
"What do we say to 'invincible' defense techniques?"
"Spatial distortion."
In a flash, I was behind Dagon, who still hadn't dissipated the momentum from Nanami's strike, so even without "Enhancement," my blow managed to deal the first damage of the fight.
"Did I draw first blood? Well, literally speaking. In a gaming sense, I did it back in the 'lower forest,' taking out the enemy team's support," I quickly came up with, analyzed, and got disappointed by my own joke.
However, the small scratch on Dagon's back opposite his heart disappeared as quickly as it appeared. But Dagon, realizing what had happened, turned his attention to me. Instinctively, I put my hands up in a block to defend against the heavy fist of the curse. It didn't make things any easier, as in the next moment, my body crashed into one of the columns, causing it to collapse.
"I hate octopuses," I rasped, lying in a pile of rubble and stone. "The meat is tough and tastes weird... Takoyaki is fine, but everything else is just awful."
"Forget what I said when we first met," Naobito chuckled from the other end of the square. "These days, you can't even trust a special-grade. What times we live in…"
"Even with two first-grade Sorcerers, it's not enough," Nanami commented. "The situation is far from pleasant."
"This guy uses a water shield that completely blocked our attacks," Naobito said, not sharing Nanami's emotions. "You've got a massive reserve of cursed energy, buddy, and I'm sure you've got a few more tricks up your sleeve… So, what's the plan?"
At that moment, I managed to steady my hands and fill my lungs with air, feeling my whole body heating up like a true furnace core. Gradually, the warmth spread throughout my body, enveloping me completely, causing the sweat and water soaking my clothes to start evaporating. This was it… This was the most important "Enhancement" of my life.
Getting to my feet, I exchanged glances with each of my teammates. Naobito, sporting a confident smirk, nodded. And in the next instant, we all launched our attack.
The first two strikes came from Maki and Nanami, but they were successfully blocked by the curse's water shield. However, Naobito soon followed, and to our surprise, his strike broke through the barrier. Dagon noticed this quickly and leaped to the side… or rather, upward, hovering in the air once more. Unfortunately for him, I absolutely hated octopuses!
Using the momentum of my sprint and further enhancing my legs with cursed energy, I jumped up to the wall on the second-floor level. Once at the right height, I pushed off again, breaking the wall behind… or beneath me? Either way, it didn't matter, as I was now above the curse. All these actions took just over a second, and as I positioned myself above Dagon, I delivered a solid blow to his back. This time, my fist left a deep dent in the curse's body, enough to make me question if he had a heart.
Of course, neither Naobito nor I intended to stop there.
Despite his age, Naobito was still in top form. Thanks to our roughly equal speed, though he was slightly faster, we began pummeling Dagon as if he wasn't a special-grade curse. A sharp uppercut from Naobito sent Dagon flying toward me, where I greeted him with a low kick wrapped in "Spatial Distortion." My strike brought the curse down to one knee, facing me, which allowed Naobito to land a straight right punch to the head, clearly dazing Dagon. Following the elder's lead, I delivered a wide punch to what should have been his face, slamming Dagon into the ground. For the finishing touch, Naobito landed two more blows to the curse's chest, driving Dagon even deeper into the tiled floor.
"We make a pretty good team," the old man chuckled.
He was partially right. Among all the first-grade Sorcerers, only this old man and Mei could be good and useful partners for me. While Mei was primarily beautiful and only secondarily a user of a cursed technique that synchronized well with mine — no sexism, just a bare statement of the bare facts of Mei's bare body — the old man remained just that: an old man. However, his speed could rival mine, at least for a while. He lacked strength, but he made up for it with his cursed technique, forcing his opponents to expose themselves to his attacks.
Before I could make a snarky remark or attempt to finish off Dagon, we heard the words no first-grade Sorcerer ever wants to hear from a curse:
"Domain Expansion."
In the next moment, we all found ourselves in the middle of a beach.
"Can this be considered overtime?" I asked Nanami, glancing around.
In response, he merely frowned and pursed his lips. At least, I assumed he did, as I had to focus all my efforts on activating "Simple Domain."
Fortunately, knowing that Dagon would resort to "Domain Expansion" at a critical moment, I had maneuvered during the fight to ensure that Nanami and Maki were close to me at that moment. Unfortunately, while Maki was indeed right behind me, fully within the range of "Simple Domain," Nanami was slightly to the side, with his left side partially exposed outside the protection. In the next moment, a chunk of flesh was torn from his shoulder. More precisely, it was torn off by a shikigami that took the form of a fish resembling a piranha.
"Are you okay?" Maki quickly asked.
At the same time, I noticed Naobito and what he was using to counter the curse's "Domain Expansion."
Falling Blossom Emotion — this secret art, an anti-domain technique, is passed down in the three great houses. Unlike Simple Domain, it doesn't create its own domain. Instead, it counterattacks with cursed energy when the moment of attack comes.
"It's nothing serious," Nanami stoically declared.
"Hey," I sharply drew attention to myself. "If you want to deal with 'Domain Expansion,' don't think."
"What the hell?" Maki snapped. "Maybe instead of vague advice, you could activate your own expansion?"
"Shut up and listen, this isn't the time," I said, frowning as I shot a sharp look in her direction before continuing. "You won't see the attack with properties of a hundred percent hit, meaning you won't be able to dodge it, but you can try to predict where the strike will land and…"
"Technique Release: Death Swarm," the curse interrupted me, clasping its hands together and summoning a massive horde of shikigami behind it.
"Predict where the strike will land and what?!" were the last words Maki left for me.
In the next moment, Dagon appeared before me, swinging wide and delivering a blow.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
amattsu
amattsu Don't forget to support the fanfic with power stones. Also, if you want to read up to 10 chapters ahead of the webnovel, you can check out my Patreon.
patreon.com/amattsu
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone