Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 2937: Subduing The Will

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Blossom District, Sky Blossom City

Aqualas was correct in a way. Under normal circumstances, Veerott’s defensive stance would have been nearly impossible to break.

Unfortunately, Seraphina knew better. Unlike Aqualas, she wasn’t judging the battle based solely on appearances. She was judging it based on the force behind those attacks. The power contained within each fist was terrifying.

Among all the powerful opponents she had fought throughout her life, very few possessed such overwhelming physical strength. Even those who specialized in strength often fell short.

The more she observed, the more a disturbing thought crept into her mind. Was this level of physical power even supposed to be possible in the Card World? Veerott himself was an anomaly, but Southern Hope was proving to be a bigger anomaly.

Meanwhile, the reality of Veerott’s situation was far less comfortable than it appeared. On the surface, his defense seemed flawless. His diamond-hard muscles remained intact. His skin showed almost no visible injuries. His posture hadn’t collapsed.

To outside observers, it looked as though he was effortlessly enduring the assault. The truth was different. Every impact sent violent shockwaves through his body. His muscles absorbed most of the force, but not all of it.

The remaining energy traveled inward. His bones vibrated and organs trembled. Tiny internal injuries accumulated with every passing second. Individually, the injuries were insignificant. Together, they were becoming a problem. If not for him using soul energy and celestial force to strengthen his organs and bones the situation would have been a hundred times worse.

For the first time since adopting his defensive posture, Veerott regretted his decision. His original plan had been simple: attack, break through, and overwhelm his opponent before the battle could drag on.

Instead, the sudden appearance of more than two thousand fists attacking from every direction had forced him off script. He had reacted instinctively and prioritized defense. At first, it seemed like the correct choice.

His defenses were holding. The attacks couldn’t break through. Everything was under control. After some time, Veerott began noticing subtle differences. The fists felt heavier, the impacts penetrated deeper than before, and the shockwaves reaching his bones and organs grew increasingly violent.

More troubling still, the pain felt different. Each punch seemed disproportionately painful. Far more painful than the actual damage warranted. It was as though his body had suddenly become more sensitive. Every strike felt like it carried the weight of a killing blow.

The pain itself wasn’t enough to break him. Veerott had endured far worse during his training, his will was strong enough to work through the pain. But he was forced to actively maintain control by overexerting his will, to suppress instinct, to remain calm, to stop his body from reacting.

Suddenly, a realization came to him. It was the curse field. The One Thousand Curse Fields whose effects should no longer be affecting his invulnerable body, were suddenly affecting his sensitivity to pain and will. His senses, his pain perception, his mental state, and even his will, they all seemed to have been influenced by the curses.

He soon realized this was the second wave of effect of the one thousand curse fields. The Southern Hope hadn’t used them all on him the first time. Then a dreadful thought crossed his mind, did the Southern Hope know about his conditional invulnerability?

He couldn’t dwell on that thought as the increasing sensitivity, amplifying discomfort, eroding concentration, the creeping doubt, made it hard for him to make proper judgement. They accumulated, stacked, and reinforced one another. Sending him further down the rabbit hole.

It felt like thousands of tiny cuts slowly becoming a fatal wound. For the first time since the battle began, Veerott realized that the greatest threat wasn’t the fists battering his body. It was the curse field that he thought had already rid himself of. It was quietly working against him, turning every weakness, no matter how small, into a fatal flaw.

”Do you give up?”

My voice echoed throughout the One Thousand Curse Fields, coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

With the help of my Soul Pupils, I was fully aware of everything Veerott was experiencing physically. Every torn muscle fiber, fractured capillary, shockwave rattling his organs, and the subtle change occurring within his body.

As for his mental state, that was even easier to track. After all, I knew exactly which curses were affecting him.

From the beginning, I had never intended to unleash the full power of the One Thousand Curse Fields against Veerott and his companions. That would have been wasteful. More importantly, it would have been the wrong approach.

I knew better than anyone how frightening a Viltronian’s physique could become once properly trained and empowered with active soul control. I understood from the start that, with his Viltronian physique, Veerott would eventually overpower my thousand curse fields if I tried to overwhelm him through sheer quantity. So I never committed the entire curse field to him and his companions.

Instead, I used only a carefully selected handful of curses, saving other curses for a later purpose.

Even now, Veerott was facing only a fraction of the thousand curses surrounding him. Each had been chosen for a specific reason. They weren’t meant to cripple his body but to wear down his resolve, cloud his judgment, and slowly erode the certainty that had carried him through countless battles.

If someone examined the terms of the wager closely, my intentions would become obvious.

I had never intended to subdue Veerott physically. I intended to subdue his will.

That was why the wager had been structured the way it was. I had deliberately removed any reason for him to fight desperately to the death with me. Whether he won or lost, both he and the friends would survive this ordeal. So going as far as to sacrifice one’s life seemed pointless. All that remained was a battle of endurance against a worthy enemy and crush any obstacle in his path.

Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t fighting his body. I was fighting the mind inside it.