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CYRUS
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Jules’ voice filled Cy’s mind.
If it comes to it, I will. Cy, Whiskers is leaving his watch for the Shrine.
The blinding effects of Selene’s Script expired, and Cy's peripheral vision returned. He stood atop the third tier of Marina Veridia, at the highest peaks of its cliffs on this side of the port.
> [Shrine Hunting — Quest Objective COMPLETED: Ascend the third tier of Marina Veridia.]
Great, Cy conveyed to Jules. Kat was pissed at me then, if she took him.
The battle at sea waged on with The Flying Dutchman taking on…about a third of the entire Coralith military. Again, Cy froze in pure awe before the power of an Alter.
Cy, if you die, they’re gonna kill you.
Selene approached Cy and trapped him between herself and the cliffs. Cy peered down and saw the cliff terrace out a few times to a rocky beach, far below. Cy invoked a Script, which had no immediate effect, but his eyes remained lit a pastel violet color.
> « « Bait and Switch » » [₹72,920 // ₹298,080]
Again, great. Again, kinda busy. See you all. Cy shut his mind off from Jules.
“Man,” Cy whistled down the precipice. “Good thing we landed near the docks. That would have been a bitch to scale.”
“You finished running?” Selene asked.
Cy looked left. He looked right. He stepped back until he was just inches from falling backward. “I guess so. There’s nowhere else to run.”
“I never figured you for a coward, Cyrus.” She took two steps toward him.
“Please, call me Cy. And I’m not stuck here with you… You’re stuck here with me.”
The light from Cy’s eyes dimmed and extinguished; his Scroll activated. Selene wobbled on the ledge, and Cy stood in her previous position. Her foot slipped, and a rock tumbled down the bluff. Cy lunged to her.
Selene slashed at Cy with dual-wielded daggers. He deflected and parried her blows with ease—she could only move two feet in any direction at a time without falling down, but each strike worried him more and more. How long will this crap steel last?
Far below, the Kraken breached and shrieked a bloodcurdling cry. Its rubbery body slapped onto a military vessel below. Black mist settled on the rocky beach below.
Davy Jones…
“So, you gonna tell me?” Cy asked.
“Stop treating me like a child and fight me.”
OK.
With a quick flick of his sword, he disarmed her of both weapons. She drew two more and attacked much faster than before.
No, you stay in time-out until I say so.
He disarmed two more, and she drew two more. Cy swatted one down the cliffside, and Selene plunged the second into a pectoral.
“Where is it?” he snapped.
“Where is what?” Selene left another dagger sticking out of him and drew two more.
“Your Binding Vow.” Damn face won't crack—yet. Cy swung his sword at her left arm. “Here?”
He could have cut off her arm but barely scratched through her black leather armor. Her ripped sleeve remained in place because the armor was so form-fitting.
“Damn, it’s awfully hard to get you out of these clothes.” Selene thrust at his throat. “Why did you get it?”
“Wrong question.”
Whoah, she actually gave me some kind of answer, and judging by her face, she’s shocked she said it, too.
“Wouldn’t why be the most important aspect of a Binding Vow?” Selene executed a four-piece combo—a thrust straight ahead, to an upward slice, a slash down diagonally to the left, then straight across to the right.
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If not why, then…?
She repeated the combo several times. Cy never gave her an inch of ground to gain and kept her on the ledge.
“When did you get it?” Selene executed the same combo again. Cy watched, confused, until he realized she etched a number—backward, though not from her perspective. “You were four!?”
Selene withdrew her assault. Probably can’t talk about it as a condition. But you are finding loopholes to communicate it.
Salvos, do I love a loophole. Cy switched his sword to his left hand and showcased his open right palm. Selene’s eyes widened at his own Binding Vow.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of. I got this one when I was seventeen.” She turned herself at an angle, so she didn’t face the Vow directly. Why does this scare her? Selene jerked her head again.
“Move,” she warned.
A shadow rose from Selene's feet up to her head.
> « Sight » [₹67,720 // ₹298,080]
The Rune gave Cy an omnipotent view of his surroundings for a tenth of a second—that was as much as he’d mastered. Ragnar fell from the sky behind him, his wicked battle ax drawn overhead.
Hm. Only one way to go—
Cy leapt past Selene, off the cliff. He heard the impact explode above. Salvos-damned earthquake up there. Gotta trust he didn’t harm his comrade.
> « Air » [₹66,820 // ₹298,080]
A column of air surged past Cy's face and decelerated his descent. He rolled into a break-fall on the second tier cliff.
> [ERROR: Shrine Hunting — Quest Objective INCOMPLETED: Ascend the third tier of Marina Veridia.]
Much narrower, shit. And it drops another level. This isn’t—
Cy pushed off the ground with all his might and tumbled to the side. A massive boulder crashed down where he'd laid. He jumped back toward it—
Ragnar slammed his battle ax down into the ground again. Damn, he hid behind that rock as he jumped down. Selene gracefully slid down the rocky descent. A cloud of dust dragged along her boots and hook-clawed hand.
“Two-on-one. Great.”
Selene hurled more daggers at him. Cy flipped through the air and contorted his body in new and uncomfortable ways to avoid them.
"The hell do all these come from!?"
Selene’s barrage pushed him back to Ragnar, who swung at Cy. Cy blocked it, with one hand on his curved sword’s grip, the other on the back of the blade. He didn’t absorb any of the Holy damage like the others, and Ragnar's eyes widened. Cy blocked another blow, dodged a second, blocked a third, but each connection reverberated through his bones until an overhead power attack cracked Cy’s blade in half. Cy raised a hand and invoked a Rune.
> « Fragment » [₹65,820 // ₹298,080]
The spinning broken-off shard of steel exploded into shrapnel and struck Ragnar’s face. A dagger pierced Cy’s exposed upper arm in the confusion.
Dammit.
Cy rolled to the ledge. Ragnar roared. He surrounded himself with an aura of Ryoku and infused it all into his battle ax.
Shit.
Cy chucked the remnant of his sword at Selene to slow her pursuit. Ragnar swung horizontally to knock him off the cliff, but Cy squatted down low instead. He braced one hand on the ground and turned his body sideways. The ax head and shaft swept past him, just over his torso. Cy wrapped his legs around Ragnar’s arm and secured an arm-bar. With one hand still on the ground for leverage, he jerked back and carried their momentum over the cliff.
That Hand-to-Hand worked out—
> [Pang! Hand-to-Hand increased to Level 23.]
>
> [Pang! Hand-to-Hand increased to Level 24.]
Holy—I wish Jules could see this!
They hurtled down towards the rocky beach below. Cy unsheathed his katana Vessel, Tensa, and sliced off Ragnar's locked arm.
> « Ice » [₹62,720 // ₹298,080]
Cy kicked off of Ragnar and stabbed his Vessel into a rising column of ice. He let the friction and drag slow his descent to a sharp halt. Ragnar splattered into several pieces on the beach below.
Cy regained his bearings and abandoned the ice column for the rock wall. He slid down it towards his enemy. Gold lace stitched the puppet back together. Cy severed the same arm a second time, then the other. Damn Regeneration—Wait, are those strings?
Cy removed a leg and spun around in a whirlwind. His blade swept over Ragnar’s head and cut the invisible strings that suspended him.
Ragnar crumpled down in the sand. No longer a puppet, but a pile of assorted extremities and a disfigured and defiled corpse. The Sight Rune over his third eye dimmed out and faded away.
> [ERROR: Shrine Hunting — Quest Objective INCOMPLETED: Ascend the second tier of Marina Veridia.]
Selene ran to Ragnar but halted short. Her face and jaw dropped. “Ragnar,” she whispered. She glared at Cy, like she wanted to kill him.
Normally she’s expressionless, disinterested. Sometimes guilty, but now she looks…betrayed? Cy took a deep breath.
“I’m gonna find that Vow one way or another. Though, I gotta admit—”
Cy twirled his Vessel’s grip around in his hand, and Selene drew two fresh daggers. He slashed ruthlessly at her chest, then her arms. He sliced through her leather armor, exposing one thin strip of skin at a time. Occasionally a few slices combined at an angle and a piece of the armor flapped down or fell off.
“—I kinda hope it takes a while.”
Cy focused too much on offense and his search, and Selene ripped apart his armor as well. They stripped each other near the water, on the beach, one piece of rough cloth and leather at a time. Soon, the remainder of their clothing clung on in tatters.
Cy finally saw it.
“You tried to hide it, blocking it with your right arm. But now it’s laid bare for the world to see.”
“Speak for yourself.” All that remained of Cy’s clothing were his billowing pants. His upper robe and shirt were shredded and draped down over his legs, his entire torso exposed.
Cy closed his eyes and took a deep breath. She would be pissed at him, no doubt, and he didn’t know if her wound would ever fully heal.
But I’m about to set you free.
A massive wave from behind soaked him. Salt burned his eyes.
The Kraken shrieked for blood.
Cy recalled the gift he'd received from The System on day he met Selene and opened his eyes wide.
Oh, fuck.
“Ahoy there, laddie! Seems me 'Ole Bessie taken a likin' to ye, on account o’ that Trophy there on yer back.”
Cy looked from Davy Jones to Selene.
“Run,” he warned her.
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