Marcus slammed the dagger into the blade letting the surge of the Executioner's energy funnel into it. He exerted his strength and pushed the Executioner back.
The executioner was taken aback for a bit but returned, attacking him again, swinging his sword.
Marcus' feet were uprooted, and he began swinging his dagger too.
"Swing that dagger like a toothbrush, Marcus. If you're gonna fight like that, at least floss your enemies to death," Marcus commented.
Anomaly floated overhead, casting his shadows below.
"Precision zero. Style? Negative. If embarrassment is lethal, you'd be a walking nuke, Marcus."
Marcus was panting. He was bleeding and his knuckles were torn. He gritted his teeth. Something in his chest burned. It was not a rage, not even a shame, but something older. A pulse.
Suddenly, the dagger in his hand shifted. The handle reshaped, the edge sang the words of Fang's true power, accepting him.
Fang blinked.
"The hell?"
Anomaly hummed.
"Synchronization reached 12%. Unexpected," he said.
[System Response]
Devour initiated..
Analyzing : [Violet Sword Technique]
Adapting to Physical Limitations
Skill Fragment Acquired: [Phantom Slash]
Boost Enabled: [15 minutes speed]
Marcus and the Executioner slammed each other's weapons. Marcus's matching up with the Executioner's speed.
"Marcus, 15 minutes speed boost. This is your first real trial, Marcus. Win this so we can move to part 2 of Phase one. Lose, and I'll overwrite your obituary in advance."
Marcus tightened his grip, and the dagger pulsed with heat.
"Don't worry, I don't plan to die the second time."
"Oh yeah, hoodie boy! Drive Violet the way you like! She's adjustable," Fang cheered him.
The Executioner's sword hit Marcus, but not with full force. The dagger disrupted the flow. Marcus rolled, tumbled, his ribs screaming, but he stood up. The dagger had changed, elongating slightly, now leaving an echo when he swung.
The executioner roared. Fumed.
Marcus dashed forward.
The enemy raised it, but Marcus vanished under it, appearing at the side in a blink of glitching movement.
15 minutes speed boost up. If that time ran out, Marcus knew he'd die.
He swung his dagger. The dagger, now charged with speed and physical boost, left a loud echo of the Executioner's own blade behind it.
A cut exploded across the giants' arm.
The executioner staggered, roaring as green liquid bled from the wound.
"Not bad," Fang mused. "It's like a worm pretending to be a cobra."
Marcus grinned through the blood.
"As long as it bites," he said.
The fight kept going on. The wounded Executioner seemed to refuse giving him. He growled, corrupted armor splitting at the seams as dark tendrils of mana burst from its joints. The dungeon trembled with every step it took, its monstrous sword dragging sparks behind it like a hellfire.
"You gotta be kidding me," he said, which made Fang laugh. "Hows that he still has energy left while I'm close to collapsing?"
"Oh my GOD!" Fang said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall inside Marcus' mind.
"What?" Marcus asked, confused.
"Obviously the guy ate a lot of food before facing you while you, on the other hand, looked like you hadn't eaten in three days, trying to swat a fly with a spaghetti noodle."
"Seriously?"
"Have you ever held a weapon before? Because that dagger swing? Depression Incarnate, you stabbed like your soul clocked out five minutes before your body did."
"I'm new to this!" He yelled, annoyed.
"New? Buddy, a toddler with a frying pan, would've done better. I've seen sandwiches with more killer instinct."
"For once, I agree," Anomaly said, materializing in Marcus' head. He had been watching Marcus' screen tab. "For once, I agree with blade-head. You fought like someone who didn't finish their breakfast or skipped every meal since birth."
"Glad to know I have two emotionally supportive hallucinations tagging along," Marcus said.
"Oh yeah? Boost will end in 10 minutes. Finish him," Anomaly ordered him.
The fight continued. They fought tooth-tooth, weapons clanging together, shockwaves exploding.
Marcus was drenched in sweat and blood while clutching the humming dagger. It hissed with unstable code, flickering like a dying signal but Marcus stood still.
SYSTEM ALERT!
VITAL SIGN: Red Zone
INTERNAL BLEEDING: Moderate
MANA RESERVES: Critical
MENTAL STABILITY: Fractured
Fang whistled.
"I bet five seconds before your legs give out."
Marcus didn't answer. His eyes were locked on the enemy. His body screamed to collapse but his will refused.
The executioner charged again, moving faster than a beast its size, bringing the massive sword overhead in a brutal arc.
Marcus didn't dodge. He stepped into the swing. And the moment the blade came down, Marcus threw up the dagger, not to block but to partially weaken the hit. The force of the coalition and clash hurled him back like a cannonball, slamming into a wall hard enough to crack.
But he was alive.
"Five more minutes until the boost is over, Marcus," Anomaly reminded him.
As Marcus was fighting to death, Anomaly started the skill evolution.
"ALERT! SKILL FRAGMENT EVOLVED. SKILL EVOLUTION IS AVAILABLE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO USE IT?"
Anomaly studied the skill. And he smirked.
"Proceed."
[SKILL: Phantom Cleave has now evolved to [Ghost Fang Slash]
"You heard that, boy? Use the damn new skill to finish the fight or I'll really be going to write your obituary after 5 minutes," Anomaly announced as he used his magic stick to transfer the skill to Marcus who seemingly about to die anytime soon.
"Took you long enough to evolve a skill?" Fang asked him, still leaning against the wall.
"I have too. Marcus' mana was damn low. If I used it, evolution wouldn't be successful and Marcus might die. That's the thing I don't want to happen."
"Well, boss, Marcus' Mana couldn't be leveled up if I don't devour anything."
"That's why I have told you to let him use you," he replied.
"That's not possible. You knew Marcus' still too weak to wield me. I'll just end up devouring him. I ain't gonna eat someone I bully."
[SKILL: Ghost Fang Slash (activated)]
Marcus nodded, hearing a voice in his head as he sprinted in. The executioner swept the sword sideways, a horizontal cut meant to cleave Marcus in half, but Marcus ducked, skidded under it, and vanished mid-slide. He reappeared above the executioner's shoulder.
He brought the dagger down in a slash that left five ghostly fangs behind, all mimicking the trajectory of the executioner's own massive sword.
There were loud explosions, and the executioner screamed, blood spraying from the open gashes along its back.
Marcus landed. His knees were buckling, but his body moved again. Not by instinct but rage, pure rage as if all his frustrations were thrown in this fight and he didn't want to lose.
The executioner rotated and stabbed its sword like a lance, trying to skewer him. Marcus dodged it sideways. He barely dodged the blade because he lost his footing. The massive blade grazed his arms, tearing through his flesh, but Marcus didn't care.
Marcus flipped the dagger in his hand and lunged, plunging it into the Executioner's hip. It didn't stop moving either Marcus.
Screaming, Marcus pushed forward, dragging the blade along carving deep through Executioner's armor.
"Never again would I let anyone look down on me-"
The Executioner screamed, lifting its sword one last time for a death blow. Marcus turned and hurled the dagger as hard as he could and buried it into the enemy's eye socket.
"–ever again!"
The dagger detonated. The burst of mana exploded from the wound, cascading through Executioner's body.
He staggered, trembled, and tried to reach out before he fell.
[Boost has ended]
[Boss Eliminated]
[Dungeon Clear: Phase 1 initiated]
[Skill Core Absorbed]
[Shadowcore- Execution] added to Inventory
Devouring system Sync: 15%
Awakening Progress: 4%
Marcus collapsed to his knees, panting. Now that the boost wore off, he started to feel the outcome. He was tired as hell.
"Not bad, Boy," Fang said in a slow and impressed voice.
"Told you I can do it," he replied before he collapsed and pulled into darkness.
Deep inside Marcu's body, inside the ball that Anomaly once visited, something stirred. The fetus-like creature moved.