Seeing the flames surging from the mouth of Shrarzok, Jason was thinking of every possible way he could get out of this situation. He just didn't have any time, nor could he activate any skill. He was literally chained down with no moves left.
As he was about to resign himself to enduring a grueling period of torture until the town guards arrived, if they even came, he felt a large impact on the shackles of both of his wrists. At the same moment Shrarzoks flames descended upon him he felt the shackles shatter like glass, freeing him to act as he pleased.
Shrarzok felt pleased with himself as he saw the insect who dared belittle him about to be roasted like a good sirloin. He made sure to keep the temperature of the flames low enough so it would slowly cook him from the outside in, releasing the maximum amount of pain! He clenched his fists in joy thinking of the mayhem he would ravish in this plane of existence with his new toy! Driblark would surly reward him for a job well done!
As fantasies of plump and roasted nobles filled his mind, to his surprise a glowing sword came out from the enveloping flames straight for his throat.
Cutting the flow of mana to his spell, he stumbled backwards in disbelief moving his neck out of the way from an instantaneous severing. The sword, however, still managed to pierce his collarbone inciting a furious howl of pain from Shrarzok.
Before Shrarzok the Shadow stood Jason with a tightly wrapped cloak of flames around him. The instant that Jason felt control over the mana return to him, he enveloped himself in his own mana and ignited it with his rage. This had provided him with a decent buffer against the flames raging towards him, even though he still took a decent amount of damage.
With the flames hiding him from Shrarzoks view, he had the perfect opportunity to unleash a mostly successful ambush against Shrarzok. Now that his blade with Holy Seal activated had pierced Shrarzok, he could see a magma like substance leaking from the wound that appeared to be extremely painful to Shrarzok. Jason could also see a little bit of frost on the wound, evidence of his sword's Frost Stack starting to take effect.
As Shrarzok glared hatefully towards Jason, three arrows curved through the air towards the demons head. Snarling, Shrarzok swatted them out of the air and began moving backwards to create some distance between him and Jason.
"Watch the shadows!" Jason roared to whoever was aiding him, as he rushed forward so as not to lose his initiative.
Jason activated his bone prison which instantly surrounded Shrarzok; five bone spears erupted from the ground, attempting to pierce into his sides. Shrarzok instantly disappeared, only to reappear directly behind Jason's back with his massive claws inches away from crushing his skull.
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Jason smirked, he was prepared for exactly this move as he held his shield behind his head which glanced the claws away. The force of the blow was so great that Jason slid forward across the floor; as Jason was sliding he aimed the tip of his sword at Shrarzok and fired an Ice Bolt which firmly hit Shrarzok in the center of his chest. With an explosion of ice it pierced into Shrarzok covering him with frost.
More arrows flew through the air, piercing through Shrarzoks back, chipping away at the Vitality Points of the Demon as Jason pressed this advantage. Running forward Jason used his sword and shield to block tendrils of shadow that erupted from the ground that attempted to pierce through him.
Seeing Jason approach, two long skinny daggers materialized into Shrarzok hands as he roared in anger at the annoying flies afflicting him. The same tendrils that were erupting from the ground also grew off his body and began waving in the air to intercept the arrows flying towards him.
As tendrils of shadow and shadow spikes flew at him from all directions, Jason was able to block and dodge every single one as he came closer to Shrarzok. Expertly weaving through the attacks like a fish in water, Jason arrived in front of Shrarzok to begin battle with him.
Jason was very familiar with this demon and how he fought due to the beginners rift that he had cleared multiple times in his previous life. After every major battle or event, The System would create a rift in the area that Users could enter to experience the battles that had occurred in that area. These functioned similar to how dungeons worked in video games, where the player could enter an instance that was separate from time and space.
It carried all of the major characters of the event, and served as a training ground for Users to become stronger and earn better quality equipment. When Jason had entered the game in his past life, he began by speed running the rift of Shrarzok the Shadow because it would always give good gear and experience.
If one were to die in a Rift, The System would only extract a level as a penalty and bring the User back to the entrance of the rift. Rift Running quickly became the way to speed level low-level characters, and Jason had immediately hopped onto that band-wagon the instant he joined the game in the past. Since Jason would speed run rifts due to the fact that the rewards were high, and the death penalty was significantly lowered, he had participated in almost every rift known to the public. He had especially met with a lot of success in Shrarzok the Shadows dungeon, quickly obtaining an intimate knowledge of Shrarzok that even Shrarzok didn't have of himself after having run the dungeon multiple times.
If Jason hadn't become distracted earlier, there was zero chance he would've been captured by Shrarzok.
Arriving before Shrarzok, Jason slashed at the Demon's thigh but was blocked by a shadow tendril that was quickly followed by a double slash of daggers from Shrarzok.
Bashing away the daggers with his shield, Jason side stepped and ducked under a few shadow tendrils and slashed his sword again.
This time Shrarzok's body turned ethereal, allowing Jason's sword to pass through him. About mid-way through his swing though, Jason activated Holy Seal once more and held his sword in the misty body of Shrarzok. The sword that had once slid through the incorporeal body of Shrarzok now shone in the darkness and caused the black mist to evaporate with a sizzle.
With a howl Shrarzok dropped his daggers, falling to the floor, and vanished.