Meeting the Survivors

[400 coins added]

[5,850/12,000]

Cyrus had killed a Beta level crocodile like creature that had six legs and a sticky tongue it used to shoot out at him. The creature was by no means easy to take down. It's scales were tougher than tank armor and resistant to his bladed weapons causing it to just barely scratch the surface. He hadn't acquired any blunt weaponry yet as his preferred weapons were those of the bladed category.

Cyrus was happy with the reward of coins as he knew he needed as much as he could get to supply his major power from the shackle. For going into his "Unshackled" form was now a cost of his coins. Not something he was really fond of, but the pay off was a huge strength increase. Or so the ability read, for he hadn't yet seen the possibilities with the new power he had. He just wondered what his power could do for not going into full form. For he could see an ability where he could transform parts of his body in order to attack.

[Hybrid Form, level 1]

[Transform limbs into deadly claws and talons, while also growing a tail, horns, and small patches of golden scales. Damage is based off your Strength stat and hand to hand combat skill.]

It was a neat little ability to allow him to use his hands and legs as weapons rather than using weapons. Cyrus felt it was a good thing to have if he couldn't access his weapons for whatever reason. What was even better, is that the Hybrid Form didn't require a Coin cost. For it looked like some abilities did require his own stash of currency than just using Chaos Energy.

"I am guessing by having your burden is what influences my powers depending on which shackle I wear." He said out loud for Fafnir to hear. The dwarf, who was relaxing next to the edge of the tree chuckled and was flipping a gold coin.

"Don't ask me, I had to satiate my Greed from having my brother's cursed ring. But never did my powers cost me my hoard, so I do not have an answer for ye." Fafnir looked over the edge and watched the forest floor where the forest was slightly being overtaken by the swamp. The flooded areas made it difficult to get through unless one used the tree roots to cross it. However, Chaos Beasts would always lie in wait for anything to cross the roots.

Riptodile, the six legged crocodile creatures that had teeth that could saw through an elephants leg. Having great defensive protection from bladed weapons as their body was harder than steel. Then you had the Camilodon, four armed creatures that had the ability to blend into their environment with ease. Equipped with a poison tipped tail and sharp claws.

Another creature that he would rather not deal with were called Hypno Strigiformes. In basic terms, they are owls who have the ability to hypnotize prey with the sound of their hoots. Their eyes being large like a very large olive that got shined. These creatures weren't easy to kill as getting too close was dangerous, so Cyrus avoided them.

That's when he started to hear shouting beneath him at the bottom of the tree. Fafnir smiled, "Well well well, we got ourselves company. Would ye say that they be here for that other human?" Cyrus guessed that it was the case but he didn't exactly think there would be a search party for the man.

"We should observe what happens for now." Cyrus said, not wanting to get discovered by the other human hunters. For he was quite comfortable being free from the restrictions of his old job. Having survived the horrors of the Castle and the shadows that plague the worlds of Chaos. He felt like his growth in strength was going to out pace many of his old superiors.

Cyrus watched as the fight below took place, dealing with the creatures one by one. He noticed that the main lead was a Tank, the one who taunts enemies towards them. As far as he could tell, the Tank had yet to use his ability. He felt it strange that a Tank wouldn't use their ability sooner. That's when he saw them take out all of the Riptodiles that had assaulted them.

However, Cyrus knew that once there was blood in the water, more would come. Which did happen as more Riptodiles crawled from every place they could. He sighed then stood up summoning Grimm.

"I can't have them dying while I sit here and do nothing. I am not someone who abandons his people," As he dropped off the edge of the tree he had Grimm send large Ice Shards down into the creatures below. Then spending half his OEP, he summoned the White Knights who also punctured several other beasts from above. Having Vexxitiz cover his head with the shadow cowl like before and putting on the black long coat. He had appeared before the people as the Renegade.

Looking around Cyrus saw that there were still a few of the Riptodiles left. The White Knights were helping fend off the beasts to protect the other fighters and healer. While the man in heavy armor behind him was stunned for a moment. As he could see Cyrus' body begin to change. His legs and arms became covered in golden scales horns grew out from under his hood and a long golden tail sprouted from behind him.

Looking at the new power of his Hybrid Form, Cyrus clenched his clawed fist. He vanished in a blink of an eye and stood over a Riptodile with his fist raised in the air. Bringing it down, Cyrus slammed the creature with such force that it caused a shockwave of force that pushed the water away from the impact. It let out a sound of pain before he got a notification that he had killed it in one hit.

He couldn't believe how his strength had improved so much compared to how he was before. Looking at the others with a massive grin on his face that was thankfully obscured by the dark mist of the cowl. Soon he would be seen vanishing and massive shockwaves from the remaining Riptodiles had died in a single hit. It only took a few moments before the group had realized what had happened. As they realized that one person managed to deal with all the creatures in a single hit.

Urik watched in awe and disbelief of how strong someone was. Little did he know that Cyrus wasn't even using his full stats, for the Riptodiles weren't the most dangerous, just that their scales were tough and made them difficult to kill. However, with Cyrus' knowledge he found that they had a weak spot at the base of their heads that could be hit that would kill them outright with enough force. Cyrus just got to practice while he was in the forest by himself for a whole month.

Cyrus reappeared in front of Urik who just looked up at him, "We..." Urik tried to form the words right now as he didn't want to make an enemy of someone who could take on several of the six legged creatures. "We are grateful that you had shown up when you did. We might have not made it without your help." He offered his hand out to Cyrus.

Cyrus looked the man up and down, then spoke as his voice was slightly changed, "You shouldn't be out this way." Urik was surprised by his response. But Cyrus continued, "I happened to be in the area looking for more creatures to hunt. You just happened to attract a lot of them." Cyrus then turned to look at the knights that began digging into the beasts.

"My name is Urik Green, Captain of the Radiant Dawn faction." Urik looked at the Renegade and then bowed his head. "We were looking for our lost member that had been scouting for us." Urik saw that the claws and other additions that Cyrus had were retracting.

[Hybrid Form on Cooldown: 5 minutes]

Cyrus saw this and kept it in mind, if he wanted to use different abilities he would have to keep in mind that this ability had a time limit. He snapped his fingers and suddenly a burst of purple flames caused a creature that looked like a living wood creature. It then soared into the air and vanished into the tree tops.

"I think I found your lost scout as he was bleeding to death from surviving an encounter with Camilodons. Though he won't be able to move about for awhile." Cyrus said as Visne glided down gently setting the man down on a tree root. Urik saw that the man was Barns, his missing scout that the Renegade had with him. He found it odd that he had him and didn't use him as a bargaining chip. For most people he had come across tried to use something as a bait for bargaining.

'I am going to get them to trust me easily before long.' Cyrus thought in his mind, 'Act as if I don't know anything about what is going on and try to get them to help me kill that Mutilamposaurus and close this rift.' This was his goal all along, trying to get help on killing that huge monstrosity. He doubted he could kill it alone.

Urik looked towards Barns and then back to the Renegade, "I don't know what you want here in this rift, but we have to close it soon. I get the feeling that if we don't then the rift would open allowing creatures to escape to our world." Cyrus nodded, allowing Visne to return to his summoning pool.

"Since I helped you find your lost soldier, then how about you help me in return." Cyrus began, as the others also turned to look at him. The White Knights returned to be behind Cyrus. "I want to kill the Rift's Boss as much as you. But for my own reasons, I want claim to the right of the Crystal within it." The others started to protest that he had no claim or right to do so for killing the Boss. But Urik raised his hand silencing his team.

"In return for our help I ask that you compensate us for the fight. I am guessing you have crystals to spare don't you? Someone as strong as yourself wouldn't have a problem with that. As well as you help us devise a plan to take down the boss. We don't have much intel on the creature." Urik looked at the man in front of him.

Cyrus placed his hand to his chin, thinking of the deal. Reaching into his sack he used to carry crystals that didn't go into his inventory when he killed the Chaos Beasts. He reached in and pulled out 3 Beta crystals and one Alpha. He felt reluctant to hand them over as he felt his shackle tighten around his wrist. Which he guessed that it might be a drawback from the curse of Andvari's Ring.

"This is your compensation, but in return for the Alpha Crystal, I'll ask for something else after the hunt. If it's successful that is." Jack stepped forward and pointed his weapon at Cyrus.

"How can we trust you by your word? You are not working for any of the major corporations that protect humanity. Or are you working for..." But Urik stood over Jack, his mere presence engulfed Jack in an aura of fear and intimidation. Cyrus caught the intense energy coming off of Urik. He wondered if he could produce such an aura like that. But he was pretty sure he wouldn't get a skill like that.

"You will cease this right now Jack, we won't be able to beat the boss without their help."

Jack then returned his weapon to the sheath and scoffed at Cyrus.

"You're the boss," Jack said, still having some attitude more directed towards Cyrus. Then Urik let his aura go as Jack was far enough away along with a sigh. He returned to conversing with Cyrus about the boss of the Rift. Which Cyrus interrupted the conversation.

"We should speak someplace more safe than the base of the trees." Cyrus said, as the others looked around for any more creatures. Urik agreed and started leading the group back to their camp. Cyrus followed having his knights guard as a protective perimeter as they travel to their camp. There was one person who was interested in chatting with the Renegade, and that person was Hilda.

Hilda fell back a little to walk beside Cyrus. He looked at her as she looked at him. That's when she broke the silence, "Are you a summoner? Or a Magus? Or some kind of variant in between?" He couldn't help but smile, although she couldn't see it. "I saw you have that book, the weird wyvern, and the white soldiers, you got to tell me about your magic."

To Cyrus she was like a little kind in a candy shop when she kept asking him questions about his magic abilities. Feeling as he could indulge her of his magic he summoned Grimm again. The book floated in the air while blinking its metal plated eye. The glowing blue orb in the center looked at Cyrus them to Hilda. Who seemed have her own eyes shining like lightbulbs.

"Oh my goodness! It's like a living book!" She kept wanting to touch the book but it always seemed to float away just out of reach. "Aw come on I just want to read your book. Why won't it let me touch it? You aren't doing it are you?" Cyrus said he wasn't, saying that Grimm had a mind of his own.

"This thing is older than all of us put together. It's been around for a very long time as I was told. Plus it can learn even more magic if it takes it from the pages of magical spell books or those that have the magical concepts of spells with the actual spells themselves." Cyrus explained a lot about Grimm without telling her about his own powers. Though she started asking him anyway about his magical powers.

"I can do a varied amount of spells, I'll leave it at that. Then how about I ask you a question," Hilda nodded still beaming with her desire for knowledge. "What magic to you possess?"

"Ice magic, I am actually a High Beta rank Ice magus. I have been meaning to learn more but this expedition has prevented me from learning the next stage of Ice magic."

That is when Grimm finally got a little closer, as Cyrus could feel his curiosity getting the better of him. "Seems someone is interested in your Ice Magic, I'll show you some things that I can do, if you allow Grimm to observe or take some knowledge from you. How does that sound?"

Hilda nodded and gazed at Grimm, who seemed to blink and clap his cover. Seemingly excited for magic discussion. That is when Cyrus got three notifications from his system.

[Recruit Hilda Verglas as a Follower]

[Reward: Expanded Ice Magic abilities]

[Succeed defeating the boss of the Rift]

[Reward: ???]

[Recruit Urik Green as a Follower]

[Reward: ??? (Discover more about Urik to unlock reward description.)]

This was a surprise as it had given him two more potential followers to recruit. Which meant they would have to leave their corporations for them to join him. He would have to figure out a way to do that as he didn't have a corporation or Faction of his own. Since he was still part of Fenrir Operations Group he couldn't leave it and start his own without funds. Though the idea of gaining followers and possible subordinates was tempting.

Hilda was probably the easiest to obtain as a follower though as she was curious about his and Grimm's magic. 'However,' Cyrus thought, 'Urik would likely be impossible to gain as he didn't expect to find an interest with someone like him.' Cyrus looked ahead and thought how Urik would more likely try to recruit him more than anything.

But now he had some goals to work on. Each one going to bring him more power and more strength for the future. He needed to gain more followers.

[Hidden Stat "Loyalty" unlocked]

[Loyalty grants a .2% boost to all stats depending on your loyal followers.]

[Obtain 5 followers before your trial begins.]