The stone statue, half its face missing, rapidly swung its mirror-smooth stone sword.
Whoosh—
The blade swept past his eyes, carrying a biting gust that sliced off several strands of his hair.
For some reason, his physical strength had somehow regressed to what it had been when he was ten.
That was only slightly stronger than an ordinary child.
The intense evasive maneuvers had begun to wear him down.
Left with no choice, he could only use the smallest movements to achieve the most efficient dodges.
Something was very wrong. Why had he lost most of his strength for no reason?
He kicked the charging statue.
The statue swayed slightly, while he used the recoil to pull away and create some distance.
I've been cursed! When did it happen?
Cypher desperately tried to recall the memory of the instant he pushed open the door.
Yet that memory was like something seen through frosted glass, or a damaged videotape.
It was either blurry footage or fragmented clips.
What exactly had he seen when he looked to the left?
The sound of something cutting through the air came again.
Cypher rolled forward.
He darted past the statue.
Taking advantage of the interval before the statue turned around and charged at him again,
Cypher desperately worked his Occlumency, searching through the fragments of memory in his mind.
Why had his subconscious kept insisting that he had to use the Fireball Charm to defeat the statue before him?
Perhaps the Occlumency had worked.
Cypher's thoughts briefly regained a measure of clarity, and he could not help reflecting on why he had to remain here fighting the statue instead of escaping first.
More importantly, he had come here to pursue Casper Crouch. Where had he gone?!
Borrowing that sliver of clarity,
Cypher quickly glanced toward