You can always talk to the database directly without any ORM abstraction on top of it.
In order to receive access to the database specific to the entity you can either call $dbal->database() or request it
via the Source object available through the ORM:
$source = $orm->getSource(User::class);
$db = $source->getDatabase();
$table = $source->getTable();
Typecast ORM to
Cycle\ORM\Select\SourceProviderInterfacein order to ensure access togetSourcemethod.
Once you gain access to the entity database you can write queries manually using the query method of the database:
$result = $db->query('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?', [1]);
print_r($result->fetchAll());
You can also use named parameters:
$result = $db->query('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = :id', [
':id' => 1
]);
print_r($result->fetchAll());
To execute a non-SELECT query:
$affected = $db->execute('DELETE FROM users WHERE id = :id', [
':id' => 1
]);
print_r($affected);