Cyrus readied Wolf's Fang and already unpowered it. Having taken a portion the blessed water while stepping through. He had also acquired another level up which was good for him. Including the two stat points from winning the duel. He increased his Stamina and his Dexterity stats so he was able to take better hits as well as be faster.
Once he entered the throne room he immediately saw the beasts surrounding a man with shadows covering half his body. Then his sense of smell kicked in as it smelled of death and decay in the room. However there was no bodies anywhere, just the stench of foul ooze and the scent of the shadow. Cyrus covered his nose briefly to smother the scent, though he knew it would pass shortly. He looked up from his arm readied the firearm.
The man across from him laughed, "You think you can withstand being in our presence? You shall be corrupted on the spot!" As a wave of dark energy came from the man passing through Cyrus. He braced himself as he felt an itch along his skin.
[Shadows failed to possess your body, Blessing of Purity provided you protection]
[Vexxitiz gained 200 CM for being hit with another Shadow's attack and survived]
[Defeat the enemy for an instant level up, Save Roland Galihath from the enemy's attacks]
Cyrus heft his gun to point at the corrupted human. "I am assuming that was meant to do something?" The man was shocked as nothing seemed to happen to the intruder. His shadow conversion didn't affect the mysterious young human. As well as he seemed to just shrug it off like it was nothing.
The corrupted human snapped his fingers and the two large beasts turned their attention from the barrier to Cyrus. The man snickered, "You are more resilient than most humans, however you will not fair as well against our beasts." A lion with wings and snake's head for a tail sprang forward. It's claws outstretched roaring at him. The lion's body was massive and muscular that one swipe could bend a metal support beam. Using his Enhance ability he quickly dodged out of the way drawing his weapon up and firing at the beast's head.
It roared in pain as the bullets caused it to flinch and twitch. Cyrus unloaded a few more rounds into the creature as he backed away. While the second creature a six-legged reptilian creature scuttled across the ground from his side. He whipped around and used the momentum to slash with his Chained Blade. The phantom strikes matched his power and cut through the summon's head like butter.
[You killed Marcus Dramtur's summon, awarded 640 CM]
The creature collapsed to the ground as it slowly dissolved. He now knew who it was that he was facing. Cyrus looked at the man as the injured lion creature struggled to stand. Marcus Dramtur, he was the leader of the Fenrir Operations Group and he was corrupted by the shadows.
The moment Cyrus realized who he was fighting, he knew he was in trouble. He needed to utilize all his powers at his disposal to defeat Marcus. While his opponent realized that Cyrus knew who he was fighting the moment his stance changed. It smiled at him and snapped his fingers, causing shadows to open up from under his lion summon. Eyes and gnarly teeth had began to swallow the summon killing it. Cyrus didn't get the points for it dying since it wasn't by his hand or by someone of his party.
Sounds of crunching bone and the grinding of flesh as the summon was devoured. Then Marcus smiled, "You're more guarded than confident now, why is that?" He asked while smiling the whole time. The shadow part of his face having a much more sinister grin. "Are you afraid? You better be, for I am going to enjoy devouring you!" He heard the words which sent an odd chill down his spine. Cyrus' mind recalled that he would think those words when he was hunting the lesser husks of the penalty zone. His only thought was to use whatever he could to bring Marcus down. He fired a few rounds at Marcus retreating around the room to keep his distance. But the shadows blocked his attacks by forming shields to protect himself.
Cyrus empowered the last two rounds and prepped a Fire bolt spell. He fired the bullets which collided with the shields having Marcus to block with multiple shields. This gave Cyrus the moment he needed to use his Enhanced speed to quickly dash around Marcus and send a Fire Bolt into his back. It managed to connect and deal some damage but wasn't significant damage for it had been blocked the by the shadow covering his body. As it turned into thick armor, Cyrus spun around and slashed at Marcus in different locations. But the shadow armor was quick and blocked most of the attacks.
Having Vexxitiz as a summon meant that the shadow was the one taking the damage Cyrus was dealing. However it was always significantly less when it came to physical damage. Magical attacks, Holy damage specifically, did the most out of the reduced damage. While it took double damage from any Holy based attacks. He could feel that each attack was making connection but it wasn't hitting as hard as it should have. Especially if he used the Chained Blade, for each attack after being reduced by 75% still did 11 damage for each of the hits plus phantom blades. It was the most consistent damaging weapon he could use.
Cyrus ejected the magazine from Wolf's Fang, then pulled out the gunslinger's .50GI mag. Knowing that it's ability was a choice of energy type he had available to empower the bullets. He decided to use Holy rounds from drawing from his Light Spears spell.
[Holy Spells temporarily unusable while empowering Wolf's Fang magazine]
This was a surprise for it didn't say it would prevent him from casting those types of spells that matched the energy type. Loading the mag Cyrus decided to empower the shots and make them more potent. The runes on the weapon glowed a heavenly white color as it showed the element was also affect by the boost. His CEP was already down to almost half with how many abilities and spells he was using. He needed to make each ability count and stile hard for he needed to defeat Marcus.
However, he also wished to free him from the shadows but he didn't know if it was possible. Shaking his head Cyrus focused on the fight now as Marcus had raised his right hand causing shadows to fly in his direction. Causing Cyrus to side step out of the way of the gnawing shadows that erupted from the ground. The eyes from within that dark spot all looked at me and continued to follow me. This wasn't one of Marcus' normal summons, but he guessed it was a twisted version of one. Or it had to be from the shadow itself, he wasn't sure.
For the moment he had to keep moving away from the blob of shadow that slithered across the floor. It's movement was fast and could expand to catch him, but he was quicker than it by just a hair. For his reactionary speed was better than most humans even for those who were on the Standard level. Even now, his body reacted on its own to dodge the shadow's attacks and keep him safe. But it wasn't perfect for he did get nicked by the shadow a few times. Causing small cuts on his legs, arms, and upper torso.
Marcus was getting agitated, "What kind of human can dodge our attacks or that of our beast?" He snapped his fingers and the shadow returned to his side. Then it slowly risen from the ground as a wolf covered in the shadow's eyes and mouths. It was the same size as Fenrir was now, though its body could attack from all directions from the shadows across its body. Marcus pointed at Cyrus, "Human, you will regret coming here and interfering with our plans." He always found it strange that Marcus kept saying "our" or "we" like he was talking about himself and his beasts. But that wasn't it, Cyrus noted that Marcus was not seeming to resist the shadows at all. Cyrus looked at Marcus closely and his system gave him a new notification.
[Kill Marcus Dramtur, Seeker of Darkness, failure results in death]
[Rewards: Vexxitiz absorbs the shadow getting a new ability. Unlock your choice of one of your skills.]
Cyrus gritted his teeth that it would end with Marcus dying. If he didn't kill Marcus he would die as well. He was in a lose-lose situation that he couldn't escape from. The system didn't give him an alternative which meant there was only one way. He had to kill Marcus, to save the worlds of Earth and Chaos.