Chapter 883: The red meeting Part 2
As the darkness expanded in the room a sense of dread filled the hearts of those present. Darkness was supposed to be nothing but a phenomenon caused by the absence of light, but this was something different, something unfamiliar and mysterious. It was as though darkness had become a substance that not only covered light, but also consumed it.
That sensation was actually nothing new to Uriel as he had experienced it many times in the past and he also was not impressed by neither the scale or the power of the skill as even in complete darkness he would still be able to find his target and open fire since his victims were screaming in panic.
"I said stop!" A deep voice resounded.
"And I asked you to give back what you stole." Uriel replied without missing the chance to kill yet another employee, his eyes briefly brimming in the blue glee of murder.
"You're a psychopath!" Mark shouted as he rushed in to tackle Uriel dragging him along to a neighboring office through a wall.
With Dash active, Uriel managed to fire two times before the room went dark which infuriated Mark who then grabbed Uriel by the collar and threw him on the floor hoping to disable him, though the alloy reinforced concrete floor turned into a double edged weapon as Uriel used the leverage to kick Mark off of him.
Free of his burden, Uriel went on a rampage across the floor killing anyone in sight. His targets seemed like sitting ducks and his aim was impeccable, meaning each bullet amounted to a kill.
In a desperate attempt to stop Uriel, Mark bashed at Uriel once more to push him out the window, but Uriel being faster he was able to easily dodge and he watched as Mark fell to the abyss as the darkness of the eclipse enshrouded him like a black cloud.
"Oh, well..." Uriel sighed after cancelling Dash. With Mark gone there was no way to retrieve Soulfire's artifacts hence no way for him to get rid of the curse, but Uriel reflected that at least he got rid of one nuisance. With no business left in the office building, Uriel turned to leave but not before killing one more employee just because he could unaware that Mark had not fallen to his demise like he thought.
That gunshot informed Mark that just because he was not present didn't mean Uriel would stop and he rocketed himself back into the office by using the fire element as propellant and this time he made sure to drag Uriel out with him, but that proved to be a mistake. Unlike Mark, Uriel was unable to fly and was well aware that falling from that height meant dying, which is why Uriel fought against being dragged.
He attempted to stab Mark multiple times, though each of those times the tip of the dagger was met with the blackened skin of the eclipse protecting Mark. it was akin to a full armor, only it took nothing from Mark's mobility. If anything, it made him stronger and faster.
Mark may have not been the smartest, but with the help of the eclipse he was on a whole new level of power and if that was not enough, then the two handed sword that appeared seemingly out of nowhere sure was enough to at least contain Uriel and force him back on the defensive.
Uriel parried the sword with the Red thread of fate, but due to the difference in the blade length he was unable to strike back. But that restriction did not apply to the magnum which he had at the ready and fired at every opportunity.
Unfortunately to Uriel, bullets did not have enough piercing power to breach Mark's skin empowered by the eclipse, but the kinetic remained the same which meant Mark felt the equivalent to a fist strike each time a bullet hit him.
"Why can he still see me!?" Mark cried at the eclipse, then seemingly replied to himself in another voice. "He can't, his eyes are closed." Not even the horror level eclipse that was older than humanity itself could fathom how was Uriel capable of parrying a sword without the sense of sight, but neither the cryptid or the host had any time to ponder about it as Uriel speed up his strikes.
For every three sword strikes Uriel parried, he was able to counter with a stab. While the longer reach gave Mark an advantage, the short length of the dagger provided Uriel with the ability to attack faster. But before Mark could make sense of that, Uriel was now up to countering every two sword strikes and eventually, every strike Mark attempted to perform was punished by Uriel countering with the dagger.
Mark was still able to dodge some, but the ones he didn't certainly caused him a lot of pain. Although it seemed as nothing could pierce through the Eclipse, it was only an effect caused by the eclipse's invulnerability to physical attacks and his ability to regenerate the host. But there was nothing the cryptid could do about the pain receptors which meant that although Mark seemed to be fine, he was having one of the worst times of his life and the worst had yet to come.
When Mark tried to retreat, Uriel pressed on the attack and followed him with a barrage of slashes that seemingly came from everywhere. The pain had become so mind numbing Mark had lost the sense of direction and unwittingly fell off the broken window once more. In a sense, it was precisely what he needed as he was given a break from the pain, but that break was short lived as Uriel followed him.
According to the eclipse's count, Mark was stabbed about a hundred times in the fall of the first five floors and shot roughly the same amount of times. It tried to make some quick calculations in his mind and realized that no matter how much it tried to do to help Mark, his host would be reduced to either a bloody pulp or a psychological broken mess.
"Let me do it." The eclipse said as it took control of Mark's body. The change in the fighting style was so sudden it allowed the eclipse to cut off one of Uriel's legs with a swift movement of the sword, though that didn't stop Uriel's onslaught but rather increased its speed.
Sword and dagger clashed in the air with such power the windows they passed on their fall were shattered due to the impact waves, but Uriel kept the fight in close range by grabbing on to mark. The eclipse tried to capitalize on this opportunity to slash at his arm, but this movement allowed Uriel to pull harder and place himself behind Mark and stab him repeatedly on the neck.
Them fighting mid air allowed Uriel to be even more reckless than usual, since the battlefield was tridimentional. This also meant that him losing a leg had no impact on his leverage, because he had none. But that was the extent of his advantages as he overlooked Mark still being able to manipulate the fire element, especially now that none of his employees were in the area of effect.
Empowered by the eclipse's flux energy, Mark's fireballs were now much more powerful though only slightly bigger than usual. None of them landed a clean hit on Uriel, but the heat alone was enough to hurt Uriel as he was too close to his target.
Remaining in close range would mean dying a scorching death, while taking distance would only make him an easy target for Mark and the eclipse. But Uriel found a way around it by using the flux wire on the hilt of his dagger to stay at the precise distance that suited his fighting style.
With that issue solved, it all fell down to who was the better swordsman and who had the best weapon. The first being the eclipse and the latter being Uriel, which again put them at a stalemate and the fight carried on while they descended at a rapid pace, following a rhythm only a hunter could follow.
It was then, that Uriel's pattern of attack changed completely and the eclipse was rendered unable to block any of his strikes. To add insult to injury, despite its masterful swordsmanship, the eclipse was unable to land a clean hit and only managed to scratch Uriel's body here and there seemingly causing no more pain a papercut would.
"Is that a skill!?" Asked Mark, but Uriel remained silent as the reason for the sudden shift in his attack pattern was that he was actually listening to music which, thanks to his smartphone being stored inside his trait, no one but him could hear.
Uriel did not have the training or experience to match that of an ancient being, but by following the rythm of the music and skipping the songs when the eclipse memorized his pattern Uriel got the upper hand in the combat. It was the silliest trick that followed the rule of 'if it is stupid and it works, it's not stupid'.