Fenrir's Shackle

Waking up with a start, Cyrus could see the ceiling of a building with rectangular tiles. But everything was blurry and out of focus. He wasn't sure how he got here, all he could remember was... A flash of the beast laying next to him and then a blue screen appearing in front of him before he passed out. He attempted to sit up, but found that he was bound to a bed. As his senses were returning he could se that he was in a hospital. But that wasn't the only thing that surprised him, he looked down to see a shackle on his right arm.

"Wait... but that is impossible, how did my arm come back?" He thought, then realizing that the rest of his body was also tied down to the bed. He called out, "HEEEYYY!! IS ANYONE THERE!?" That was when a woman in a nurses gown opened the door and saw Cyrus awake. She gasped and went over to him and then clicked a button on the side of his bed. Cyrus looked at the nurse, "Hey can you let me out? I don't need to be bound and tied down. Please let me out," but she didn't even look at him as she then ran out of the room.

He called after her to come back, but she was long gone with the door closed again. He kept calling and calling but no response or anyone coming into the room for a good ten minutes. His voice was killing him, so Cyrus decided to just lay down and wait. If the button she pressed was to alert someone in the hospital about his awakening, then he would just have to wait and see who would come in. That however, didn't take much longer as two men in dark suits came in and looked at Cyrus.

"Seems he is awake," The one who opened the door said. They closed the door and brought up two chairs next to Cyrus' bed. "I am sure you wish to be let out, but we have to be sure you are all stable and fine." The man pulled out a device that had crystal ball in a device that was supposed to measure the Chaos Energy in a person. But Cyrus knew he was just a Standard, nothing but the most basic of awakened individuals.

The man then looked at his partner, "I am agent Darian Smith, that over there is Ryan Wyrin, we are from the Chaos Control Organization." Cyrus widened his eyes, he knew exactly who they were. These two were part of the the organization who regulate and take care of the awakened individuals who go rouge or are consumed by their powers. Cyrus had heard of those that get consumed by the Chaos energy, they turn into the beings known as Crisis Beasts.

"The reason we are here is to make sure you aren't a Crisis Beast..." He had Cyrus place his hand on the orb. Which he didn't refuse or fight, cause these guys were strong. They were considered High Rank individuals. They consisted of different types like the fighters, evokers, and assassins. Rarely they were summoners, but there were some in their organization.

"Is that the reason I am shackled to the bed?" Cyrus asked, but while Agent Smith looked down at the reader. He could see the energies were low like a Standard would be. The only thing that was strange about the young man in front of him was this odd shackle like he was a prisoner. Though it looked old, and strange for a man from the Fenrir Operations Group to wear. The doctors said the thing was unable to be removed. Not even through their top of the line surgical cutters. Even those with powers couldn't remove it.

"Well also the fact you were the only survivor of your team to come out of the rift alive." Smith explained that after some time had passed the rift was acting up and no one had come out yet. So they were called to investigate and had found him passed out next to an Alpha body. Which Cyrus hadn't realized that they didn't find the body of the Aberrant, but the body of the alpha beast that originally existed.

"It was terribly damaged, and the crystal from the beast wasn't inside. Like something dug it out and took it. But no one on your team had it, neither did you. So tell us," Smith put the gauge away, "What happened?" Cyrus stared at the man, he didn't want to lie, but the whole thing was a bit of a blur anyway. All he could remember was that wolf, his team dying, and the system message that popped up.

"I don't know... it was... graphic and I would rather not think about it." That is what he went with, but he did tell them that Captain Jack Graves had managed to kill the beast but his summon went crazy and attacked everyone. Just like if it had absorbed too much Chaos Energy and went wild. That seemed to get them to believe him. But Smith still looked at the shackle on his right wrist.

"Well, then it is good someone managed to live and tell the tale." The two agents stood and began walking out of the room. But Cyrus was still strapped down to the bed. "Don't worry, I will send the nurse up to release you, but do be careful going into a rift next time. You may not make it out again, you just got lucky." With that, the door closed and he had to lay there with nothing but his mind.

"Well, that could have gone south real fast," Cyrus thought about the shackle on his right arm, how it got there and how his arm was even reattached. He thought about how to bring up the messages that appeared before. Trying to think if it was a verbal activation or an inner thought activation. Cyrus wanted to see if it would activate without him having to say anything first.

"Messages." A blue screen appeared and had 2 messages for him to read.

[Item Acquired: Shackle of Fenrir]

[Shackle of Fenrir: This item can never be removed from the host. It holds back your power cutting every stat in half. Unbreakable, can unlock the Shackle of Fenrir in desperate situations. Doubles all stats when unlocked, but returns after you regain HP over the threshold and reduces your stats again.]

[Sub benefits of the Shackle of Fenrir: Chaos Energy absorbed from Chaos Beasts will increase your Chaos Meter. This allows you to gain a stat point and increases your Chaos Meter by 20 points.]

That was the first message of Cyrus' which he had looked down at the shackle again. No wonder he couldn't break out of the restraints. His power was halved the entire time the shackle remained on. But then he looked at the second message.

[Consume Gamma Chaos Beast Crystals: 0/10]

[Consuming 10 crystal will unlock 2 free points, reward you with an item, or bodily recharge.]

[Each time you hit the mark, it shall reset and may add different conditions.]

Just as he was about to close out that message another one popped up. He was starting to get a little annoyed, but what he saw on it was quite interesting.

[Daily Training]

[CQC Practice 0/20min]

[Meditate 0/10min]

[Chaos Energy Practice 0/5min]

[Run 0/200km]

[If not completed by the set time, a punishment shall be administered.]

[Upon completion, you are rewarded 1 point and 50 points to your Chaos Meter]

Cyrus looked at the Daily Training and thought it would be good to do it but he was caught up in this bed. So he had to wait to get released, but he decided to take a look at his stats. The window popped up and it displayed quite a bit of info on him.

[Name: Cyrus Reinhard]

[Race: Human (???)]

[Chaos Meter: 0/100]

[Chaos Points: 1]

[Level: 1]

[Hit Points (HP): 10/10]

[Base Strength (STR): 2 (1)]

[Base Dexterity (DEX): 2 (1)]

[Base Stamina (STM): 2 (1)]

[Base Intelligence (INT): 2 (1)]

[Chaos Energy Pool (CEP): 10/10]

Cyrus could see that his stats had been truly reduced. Seeing the number next to the 2 in parentheses. The only thing that wasn't reduced was his Chaos Energy Pool. Which was probably his amount of energy he had available at the time when he killed the Aberrant. But he noticed he had a point in to assign. So he thought about it and decided to put it into Dexterity. Increasing it would allow him to be quicker and possibly have better reflexes.

[Base Dexterity: 3 (1)]

[Chaos Points: 0]

He had a funny suspicion that it would only increase when he hit an even number. Cyrus decided to take a look at his inventory. Maybe if there was anything there that he had on him.

[Head: Nothing]

[Torso: Hospital patient shirt]

[Hands: Nothing]

[Legs: Hospital patient pants]

[Feet: Nothing]

[Fenrir Shackle Level: 1]

[Storage: Custom Berretta, Short Blade (Electrified), Fenrir Soldier uniform (Damaged)]

Cyrus didn't expect the shackle to have a level, but there it was. He needed to understand how his system worked or he would never be able to possibly improve it. He looked up towards the door, but still no one had arrived to let him out. This was still a good opportunity to learn more about his stats and what each one did. This included another tab on the screen which was "SKILLS".

Strength was what determined how much one could lift, or how hard one could hit. It even told him that he could carry up to 22.68kg with ease, or 50lbs. It even stated how having high strength will allow one to increase their jump distance. Which was a bonus if he thought about it. He could currently long jump up to 5m or 16.4 feet. While his high jump is around 2m or 6.56 feet. It even gave suggestion on types of weapons to use.

[Longswords, Axes, Maces, two-handed weapons, Compound Bows, handguns (heavy caliber), heavy artillery weapons, chain guns, etc.]

He moved onto Dexterity, this stat had the ability for hand-eye coordination, flexibility, speed, and agility. The higher this stat, the more quick, agile, and accurate he was with weapons. His speed wasn't able to be calculated because it was a relative term to determine just how fast one could move. When he got the chance he would figure it out. This also told him a list of weapons that fit with his Dexterity score.

[Daggers, Short swords, Short Blades, Spears/Quarterstaffs, handguns (Small caliber), submachine guns, short bows, throwing knives, etc.]

Stamina was all around durability, resistance to substances, elemental attacks, and how long one could go without feeling exhausted. It had no weapons that would contribute to this, but he imagined it was how long he could use them. It also added 2 points to his health per point into them, but when it was at 2, or halved at 1, it still kept his health at 10. By his guess, it was part of the total score rather than the reduced one.

Intelligence measured powers for Evocation, Summoning, and just to determine how you can process information. Though what confused him the most was that it had mentioned the other types of ability users. Cyrus was curious why it meant that, though if it was like that of an RPG element, then it might have been possible for him to learn magic if that was high enough. It also seemed to add 2 points pasted the current value to his Chaos Energy Pool. There was also an side note to it that when "Unshackled" CEP doubled and all INT based attacks were doubled in power. Summons were stronger and lasted longer, regeneration consumed CEP to rapidly heal the body, and something else with a "???" was mentioned.

After looking it over he inspected his skills, for this was the last section he had to investigate for he was getting tired. Reading wasn't appealing to him unless it was for studying combat forms. He read the list of abilities that were currently available.

[Enhance: Doubles all base points at the cost of 2 CEP per minute. When "Unshackled" this effect is always active and does not stack until the time limit is up.]

[Devour: Absorb Chaos Energy into your body and refuel your CEP and fill your Chaos Meter from dead/living Chaos Beasts and Crisis Beasts.]

[Unshackle (Passive): When under 20 percent of your max health, you can activate Unshackle, but over 20 percent you are restrained from your full strength at all times. As punishment from the gods of old.]

[Regeneration (Passive): You will regenerate 10 percent of your health every hour, rounded up. This will also help regrow a lost limb, but must be resting for a full 8 hours before your limb is able to be useable again. However, if your head is removed or your brain is destroyed, you die.]

This was all important for Cyrus to know, for this allowed him to understand that he can still activate his Standard ability. Which has a name called "Enhance", it made sense since that is exactly what it did. The system interested him more and more, but he still didn't like feeling weak. But he had to guess that from his body already in the enhanced form he was able to have his points start out as 2 all around. With having read all the details on his stats and abilities he decided to close his eyes. Hopefully someone would come wake him up before he would fail the timer of the daily training.

But as he closed his eyes to rest, that timer kept ticking away. No one came to unstrap him, then the timer had reached 5 seconds...

4 seconds...

3 seconds...

2...

1...

[Daily Quest Failed: Punishment now underway... Transporting to Cyrus Reinhard to Penalty Zone.]