The Dragon’s Shackle

[Chaos Energy Points: 18/50]

Cyrus drew the Chained Blade from its sheath and took note of the impact to his CEP from the Blast spell. The cost of Blast was pretty costly right now as he could only do that a couple of times with it not being empowered, but right now it took 30 points from him. But the doubled damage was good as it was thanks to Grimm getting to empower two spells for himself but only one to use for Cyrus. Taking a defensive stance Cyrus was ready to defend himself as now Fafnir wanted to see how far he could push Cyrus into a corner. Standing from the ground and catching his breath, Fafnir laughed again with a hearty throat rumble.

"My boy, that was a surprise I didn't expect and I felt it," he brushed himself off, "but only a wee bit." Cyrus widened his eyes and then focused hard on the incoming fight as now he knew just how tough an Aberrant Chaos Beast was, meant he was going to fight to the death to defeat Fafnir. However, with his already had depleted some of his pool of CEP, it was going to be difficult. With this in mind, Cyrus carefully worked his way to a duck behind a pile of gold. He pulled out Wolf's Fang and checked its magazine, seeing the full mag made Cyrus let out a quiet sigh. Before he had no choice but to continue to duck and move as far away from Fafnir as possible.

"Why are ye runnin' boy? Afraid to die?" Fafnir taunted, trying to coax Cyrus to speak or make a remark back, but nothing came of it. With a huff, Fafnir searched behind the gold pile he saw Cyrus disappear behind and noticed he wasn't there. He looked around and smiled as his eyes locked onto a particular pile of gold. That is when he heard a howl come from the pile and saw two blurs separate from the pile as they went different directions. This confused Fafnir as he looked at both of the figures swearing that he and Cyrus were the only ones in the cave. What Fafnir didn't know was that there were actually 6 individuals that had left that pile. One was Cyrus, but the others were the five Holy Knights that he had yet to use.

[Order Energy Points: 22/50]

Cyrus took cover behind a pile a not too far away from the original pile, but he had ordered the knights to not attack and just to keep moving from pile to pile. The knights were covered in a white misty aura as their armor also took on a marble look. They were slightly taller than Cyrus but not enough to warrant a lot of investigation. As this alone confused Fafnir, not knowing which one to chase, he pounced on one of the piles but watched as the blur had moved to another pile. This gave the others also a chance to move, while Cyrus would creep around to flank Fafnir.

Though the dragon seemed to now be annoyed, "Your tricks won't work on me! Come out and face me!" He swiped at the gold pile where one of the knights were and in an instant burst into white particles. The Knights had found new spots to hide as they kept Fafnir busy. Cyrus looked around and could just see the tail of Fafnir swinging angrily around as he bounced against the ground and hit a few piles.

"Is there any way to defeat Fafnir?" Cyrus asked Fenrir, hoping the wolf would have an answer. Which he did have a theory.

"The sword fragment he gave you, might have the pieces here in his trove. Or you could find his cherished item, the symbol of his greed." He described it to be a ring of some kind, forged by dwarves and fought over by Fafnir's family. Who he killed in order to possess the ring. "No mere mortal can hold that ring without feeling the effects of the desire of greed. But I think we can," Fafnir wasn't paying attention to anything else other than attempting to wipe out the creatures behind the gold.

Cyrus would search the piles of gold as quietly as he could, the coins shifting about as he dug a little into them. Using his system's Identifying trait whenever he held an item he could tell what they were. But everything seemed to be common gold items or fancy looking weapons and armor. Nothing really useable or worth his time. He would nearly drop something as it fell from the pile he was searching in.

He reached down quickly to catch it and gripped it hard. Doing so, he could feel blood trickling down his right hand. What he touched was part of the Wyrmslayer artifact. He also lost a couple points of HP just from touching the blade piece. He was surprised that it was still so sharp and if his resistance wasn't high enough he probably would have lost fingers. But now he had a problem, Fafnir caught the smell and turned his direction.

"There you are!" As the sound a roar and thundering footsteps came barreling towards him. Cyrus quickly healed himself and summoned Vexxitiz to use Shadow Step, as a corridor of shadows opened from his own shadow. Stepping through he briefly felt cold and empty as he then was next to a pedestal holding a small chest. He could hear Fafnir get more agitated as he saw that Cyrus wasn't where he just was. Sniffing the air and trying to locate him as quickly as possible.

Cyrus looked at the box and then towards where Fafnir was. Mentally commanding his Knights to draw Fafnir's attention for only a moment, they all manifested shields and pikes. Rushing from behind the gold piles and stone pillars, they swarmed Fafnir. This gave Cyrus just enough time as he heard Fafnir growl angrily behind him. As he reached the box he ran into a magical barrier. Slamming hard into the force field with a loud thud. Fafnir heard this and looked to where he saw Cyrus next to the box.

"Get away from that box! It's mine!" He started swinging his tail and claws about wildly as the White Knights would barely hold out on attacks or be vaporize. Cyrus pressed his hands against the barrier and could feel the magic in it. He didn't have any dispelling magic and nothing he knew could break this barrier. But then he remembered one attack that might do it, but he was far from mastering it. The Impact Strike...

Cyrus stepped back and closed his eyes, trying to draw the two energies together. Feeling them gather into his right arm, this only made his arm shake violently as the energy was compacted into one location. He didn't know if he could hold it as the energy then exploded and sent him flying into a pile of gold to his left.

[HP: 32/50]

Standing back up he ran back over and tried again. Trying a different tactic as gathering it in one fist wasn't the best idea. He recalled his training back with his master, going through different martial art forms and remembered an attack that struck with both his fists. He slowly gathered both energies into each of his fists, taking a deep breath and feeling the energy flow to his hands. One side Chaos, one side Order. The white and purple glowing energy radiated from his hands as he brought them in.

Fafnir behind him roared out in anger, "Don't you do it! Get away from my treasure! My precious!" As he crushed the last Holy Knight and started to run at Cyrus. The echoing stomps of this massive dragon going silent as he felt the energies ready to burst from his hands. As Fafnir was about to snap Cyrus up in his teeth, he through out both his hands and struck the barrier.

In that instant, a loud bang and explosion came from his hands as the barrier cracked and shattered under the attack. Causing a rush of energy to push Fafnir back away from Cyrus while Vexxitiz used his morphing body to pin Cyrus to the ground. Cyrus looked up to the box as it lay there still on the pedestal. Now with Fafnir in a daze he walked up and opened the box.

Inside, was a gold ring decorated with gems and jewels no one has seen cut so perfectly. Inscribed with Nordic runes that warned of the greed of one's heart, being tainted and driven mad. Cyrus looked towards Fafnir and then to the ring. He realized that Fafnir himself was a prisoner to his own greed, making him do awful things and kill for his desire for more gold. Cyrus felt bad for Fafnir as he had found the dragon's own shackle. Reaching inside the box and gripping hold of the ring Cyrus saw the warning notification.

[Holding Andvari's Ring induces your worst desire. Do you wish to take this burden?]

Cyrus selected yes and felt the ring expand in his hand. It grew to then move over his arm and he watched as Fenrir's shackle disappeared as a golden shackle formed from the ring. It clasped onto his wrist and burned as he got another notification.

[The system prevented the Curse of Andvari's Ring from damaging the user. The effect of the curse has been nullified.]

[Do you wish to claim Fafnir as your bound Summon?]

Cyrus turned to Fafnir who looked astonished and seemed to be a little more clear minded as he looked at Cyrus. He then said to Fafnir, "If you wish to get stronger and fight with me, do you accept being my summon?" Fafnir looked at Cyrus and returned to his dwarves form and kneeled.

"Ye 'ave done me a great service. Yer will is my command." With that, Cyrus selected yes and with that, Fafnir disappeared in a golden flash as he was now bound to the golden shackle. His system popped up once again giving him a smile to his face.

[You have acquired a new shackle! Limit on stats as been increased to 40. New effects are given for having two shackles.]