The Chaos Beast in front of Cyrus stretched out its arms and howled once again. The very force of the howl caused Cyrus to get flown back, sliding against the cobblestone ground. Having braced himself, Cyrus got into a fighting stance. His pistol in his left hand aimed at the werewolf and his right hand holding the sword at his side ready to strike. Then he received a notification:
[Fenrir would like to participate in the fight]
Since Cyrus was by himself, he was going to need all the help he could get. Summoning Fenrir in a burst of purple flames, the wolf entered into a low stance. Both wolves growled at one another, as Cyrus looked at the werewolf again he could see its hair standing on end. Then with a bark from Fenrir, the two rushed each other.
Fenrir was lower to the ground and had good balance than the werewolf, but it had better reach and strength. As the werewolf went to strike Fenrir, it jumped back and growled at the beast. Cyrus ran to the left side of the beast firing a several rounds at it. They were mostly dodged, but landed a couple hits. That is when he started to notice its wounds slowly healing.
"Well, this is going to be more difficult for it has a fast regeneration ability." Moving his jacket to the side, he emptied his magazine at the werewolf while Fenrir came from the other side and bit into the werewolf's leg. With the werewolf being attacked from both sides, it decided to lift it's leg and throw Fenrir at Cyrus. The mass of flaming fur slammed into him causing him to have to catch Fenrir.
The werewolf moved quickly as it dashed forward attempting to use the distraction to its advantage. That is when Cyrus looked to his right and outstretched his hand. "Devouring Chain!" The flaming spike came out of his hand and shot towards the ground. The spike latched to the ground and just before the werewolf's strike could connect, Cyrus and Fenrir were yanked away.
Rolling and righting himself, he let Fenrir go and they again readied for combat. The idea of the chain pulling him away from the attack had saved them from taking damage. But that surprise was now gone and the werewolf knew he had more abilities hiding. Cyrus saw as the werewolf started to advance again, but this time moving side to side to confuse where they going to strike. The effect caused it to disappear and reappear whenever it moved.
"Enhance (Focus): Speed" [CEP: 13/20]
[Sharing buff to Fenrir, increasing his speed]
Feeling his energy diverted to his legs, he could feel like he had speed equal to that of the werewolf. Fenrir also seemed to feel the surge of power. As the werewolf was close to Cyrus for a claw attack, he managed to block it with his sword. But the strength behind it had thrown him away away.
[HP: 7/14]
This worried him, even though he blocked it, there was still enough strength to cause damage. Fenrir saw the attack and used the enhanced speed to quickly go in and tackle the werewolf. Knocking it back into fountain Fenrir barked angrily at the Chaos Beast. Flailing in the water the werewolf stood up, now soaked.
Cyrus knew that if he didn't kill the werewolf, then he could not advance to get stronger. That was when he watched as the phantoms of Yuri and Samantha walked through the gate leading to the next floor. He wondered if they could see him on their side, but he decided it wouldn't matter at the moment. For the werewolf seemed agitated.
He looked at his stats briefly, while he was enhanced, his strength was better than all his stats from the item buff. While his stats couldn't reflect the "Focus" part of his legs, it felt like his DEX stat didn't have the penalty from the shackle. His speed complimented by his strength, were now his best option. He only had a minute of this active and he already wasted 20 seconds.
Raising the sword, he sheathed the pistol and gripped the handle with his other hand. He decided to activate the weapon's property. Causing the blade to ignite and the length of the blade extend out to another meter. He was practically wielding a claymore that was as light as a dagger.
The werewolf noticed the flaming weapon and growled menacingly. Fenrir got closer to Cyrus and both were ready for another engagement. With blade in hand, he rushed forward. Fenrir in toe as they had did the same vanishing effect the werewolf did.
Except with two of them the werewolf had trouble keeping track of them together.
Deciding to try to keep track of Cyrus who was a bigger threat. But as he had focused on Cyrus as he lunged forward. In the briefest of moments, the werewolf went to strike at Cyrus' head. But instead of Cyrus, a smaller form had taken his place. The attack having missed Fenrir's head just barely as the wolf latched onto the werewolf's arm. The attack was stronger thanks to increase to his INT stat.
Without letting up, Cyrus appeared behind the werewolf and dragged the sword up. The blade's flame dug into the cobblestone leaving behind a scorch mark. As it left the ground, the searing blade made contact with the werewolf's arm. With the added speed and combined with his increased strength, the blade passed through the flesh and bone, severing it's right claw.
It let out a piercing howl as it felt the blade cut cleanly through its arm. Watching it fall to the ground and leave a chard stump of a forearm. Trying to shake Fenrir free of its other arm, it decided to use it the summoned hound as a weapon. Clenching its fist the werewolf swung Fenrir to connect with Cyrus, throwing them against the next floor's gate. When Cyrus opened his eyes from the pain, he could see both his and Fenrir's HP had lowered drastically. His more so as he also was what cushioned Fenrir's body instead of hitting the gate itself.
That's when he saw the warning...
[Fenrir HP: 1/7]
[HP: 2/14]
[Warning! Unshackling power!]
The shackle that had been on his right arm the entire time had finally snapped off. But the effects of this were more drastic than expected. For his right arm started to crack and let out the purple flames like Fenrir's paws. His arm was being changed by the effects of being Unshackled.
It started at his fingertips, the purple energy began to climb up his fingers to his hand. As it reached his wrist where the shackle was, runic symbols appeared and glowed a bright red. As the energy climbed it instead started to show the cracks as the flames became more intense. Cyrus could feel the cracks traveling up his right shoulder and neck.
His hair started to have the vibrant purple tipped flames, while Fenrir seemed to have his paws ignited. Leaving behind scorched paw prints wherever he walked. His tail also seemed to be glowing with a bright purple glow. While slowly returning to his feet, Cyrus saw a new message appear.
[Shackle of Fenrir Removed, until you've healed above 20%, you will remain in this mode.]
[Unlocked Form: Rage of Fenrir]
The werewolf saw the transformation the intruder had turned into. Not wanting to let it finish powering up it engaged. As it had gotten its claw an inch in front of Cyrus' face, flaming chains seemed to be holding in place, suspended in the air.
Cyrus stepped to the side, looking at the werewolf who was surprised and trapped. The sword grew in length again, it's flame seemed to be even more intense than before. For his abilities were doubled at the full base power.
[STR: 18 (9)]
[DEX: 12 (6)]
[STM: 8 (4)]
[INT: 14 (7)]
[HP is not increased; Physical and Elemental resistance increased to 30%]
[CEP costs half the value rounded up, form does not add more CEP]
Raising the sword, Cyrus activated its ability and shoved it into the Werewolf's chest. The ignited blade burning it from the inside out. It let out a weak howl as it began to disintegrate. Fenrir howled with it, a more aggressive one compared to the werewolf's somber death one.
"That's... for throwing... Fenrir..." Cyrus pulled the blade free of its chest, letting the body slump and fall to the ground. The ashes floating away from its chest.
[Slayed Delta Werewolf!]
[Defeated a Delta Chaos Beast while in Unshackled mode: 40 points to your Chaos Meter were added!]
[First Floor Boos defeated, 100 points to your Chaos Meter were added.]
He noticed his level up and
[Items Rewarded: Delta Crystal, Rune Coins x500, Wolf Ring, and 1/10 Crystal Orbs]
Cyrus collapsed to the ground and planted heavily. His body felt like it was on fire, he had no healing, no way of progressing without certain death. After having received the rewards from killing the werewolf he decided to sit by the fountain. His arm still blazing with the runes around his wrist. He couldn't quite identify what there were, but it had to be something important.
Pulling up his stats menu, he went ahead and added his newly acquired point into Stamina to race his HP a little more.
[STM: 5 (2)]
[HP: 2/16]
[CM: 135/180]
As he increased his max HP, he decided to look at the other rewards. Seeing the Rune Coins, he believed they were a type of currency. But to what or who he didn't know, it was an unknown variable for the time being. A Wolf Ring and an odd orb of some kind. Inspecting them to reveal the details about the items seemed like a good moment of his time.
[Crystal Orb of the Wolf: 1 part of the key to unlock the door to the last floor of the castle. Continue to find others, but beware, you will need more strength to beat the Chaos Leader.]
[Wolf Ring: Health Regeneration can be activated at the cost of 2 CEP for 1 HP.]
"Now that will come in handy," Cyrus said out loud to himself. Fenrir walked over and stared at Cyrus. It looked at him and decided to push him back causing Cyrus to fall into the water.
"Hey what is the big..." He started to get angry before he noticed that his arm began to revert back to the way it was before. The cracks sealing and his body reverting to normal. A floating pop-up kept appeared the longer he stayed in the pool.
[HP +2]
[CEP +1]
His health and energy were replenishing from being in the water. Fenrir himself jumped in and regained his HP much more quickly.
[Fenrir's HP: 8/8]
"I hope that there are more of these later on, or else there may be no easy way to heal other than the ring." He said to Fenrir, who scowled at him. Cyrus turned to face the gate which slowly rose. It was time to move on to the next floor. "Guess we move forward, hopefully Yuri and Samantha haven't gotten too far ahead."
Little did he know that they were exactly 5 floors ahead, however, their power was slowly draining. The more power one used, the more power given to the one sealed away. However, because of the system, the Chaos Leader couldn't gain more power from him.
Off they went, to the next floor of the castle...