Zoey manipulated her weight with her Gravity Rune and launched herself at the ceiling of the room just as the corrupted was once again attacked from behind by Viridi. The big feline had been able to approach unnoticed and right before it attacked had activated her Gravity Rune, significantly increasing the creature's weight to hinder it. The gravity change was so strong the ground beneath the creature actually cracked and started to cave under the weight.

Viridi seized the opportunity by leaping on the creature's back and using all her power to stab her tail spear into it from behind. Even with all her efforts she was still only able to gouge the exoskeleton a bit, with no real damage being done.

The corrupted reacted to the attack by throwing itself onto its back in an effort to crush Viridi. She managed to leap away, but the creature twisted around and caught her rear left leg with a slice from its blade arm, causing her to land hard and tumble on the ground, blood from the wound splattering on the ground behind her.

As the creature got to its feet and tried to charge at Viridi to continue its attack, something fell from above and smashed into the round in front of it. The next instant the creature was hit again with Zoey's Gravity Rune. She had fabricated several different tools to use with her Gravity Rune, and what she had thrown was one of them. It was basically just a metal spike engraved with her Gravity Rune array that activated when thrown, and that she could control remotely. Now that it was in place, she cranked up the Gs.

Under the sudden pressure of its own rapidly increasing weight the creature was forced down to one knee as it roared out in fury. Once it was pinned Zoey quickly checked on Viridi, who sent back her reassurances. Thanks to the Mittra Regen Rune, her leg was already nearly healed. Turning her attention back to the creature below her, Zoey once again went into action.

She released the Gravity Rune array holding her to the ceiling and dropped toward the creature. At the same time she motioned with her left hand and directed the Mk1 to strike at the creature, aiming for the same spot she had hit earlier. The blade flew in, cutting through the air with a vicious sound as the creature struggled against the gravity pinning it down.

The corrupted recognized that the sword was a threat, as it had been the only thing so far to actually damage it, and it furiously struggled against the gravitational pull it was under as it tried to block the incoming blade.

However, Zoey had the advantage. She was directly above the creature as she descended towards it, and could see every hole in its defenses thanks to her Dark Star Enmity.

With calculated precision she manipulated her weapon to avoid the creature's defenses and struck at the open wound she had made before. The Mk1 struck home, penetrating into the creature's carapace with a sodden sound, stopping against the inside of the exoskeleton. The creature howled with rage, the red orbs in its face burning with raw hatred as it twisted its face to look at Zoey above it.

Zoey, falling towards it like a meteor, was not going to let it recover. She cranked up her Gravity Rune as high as she could to keep it in place as she summoned her DAAC and fired a double shot of laced slugs at the creature's face. As the slugs hit and detonated on the creature's face, Zoey activated her Crystal Claw Bracer and boosted it with her magic energy as she made herself heavier, falling faster towards her target. The explosion of the slugs hindered her vision, but she drove through it and struck with her claw where her Dark Star Enmity directed her senses to.

She felt the Crystal Claw slice through something as she came down with a crash, smashing the floor beneath her into bits. She immediately dodged sideways while pulling out her 9mm Custom and unloading a magazine of Ice Venom bullets in the creature's general direction as she jumped away.

Smoke and dust covered the area, but Zoey knew that the corrupted was still alive from the screaming. She was still applying pressure with her Gravity Rune as much as she could, but any higher and the metal spike acting as the anchor would shatter from stress.

As the mess cleared a little, she was able to finally see the damage. Her Crystal Claw had completely sliced through the lower part of the creature's shield arm and part way through its left thigh. The injuries were leaking the foul smelling, black tar-like substance onto the ground where it sizzled like acid on the stones.

It turned out that the magical blade of the Crystal Claw was very effective against the creature's armor. On the other hand the Ice Venom bullets from her 9mm Custom had done barely anything.

The damage Zoey had done had enraged it even further, and it thrashed around as it tried to free itself from the effect of the Gravity Rune holding it down, it's roars echoing throughout the dungeon.

Zoey checked on Viridi who seemed to be healed up and back in fighting form. After she got confirmation from her companion, she reloaded her DAAC with a blur of movement and prepared for the next engagement.

She also reached out with her Dark Star Control and tried to pull the Mk1 out of the creature's shoulder, but she could not pull it free from where it was embedded. It was like it was completely stuck and wouldn't budge. She let it go for now as she in Viridi began to circle around and close in on the struggling creature.

They started off with a barrage of Shadow Blades aiming at the creature's wounds and weak spots as they advanced. The creature tried but it was not able to block all of the Shadow Blades, some of which were at the right angle to actually penetrate through the exoskeleton and do damage.

It howled and struggled under the barrage of magical attacks, furious that it could not strike back at its opponents.

Then Viridi managed to score a direct hit with a Shadow Blade on one of the cracks on the creature's face. The hit snapped its head back and left it stunned for a moment, and that was when Zoey knew her chance had come.

She dashed towards the creature's back while activating her Crystal Claw Bracer and injecting power into it from her Arbiter's Mark. The claw turned from its normal blue color to a brilliant white as the divine energy flowed into it, lighting up the surroundings.

When Zoey got to the still stunned creature, she stabbed forward with the Crystal Claw, directly into the center of the creature's back.

The pain seemed to bring it back to reality as it suddenly recovered from its stunned state and tried to reach back to attack her.

But Zoey was not waiting around.

She twisted the Crystal Claw, cracking open the exoskeleton as the creature screamed and the black tar-like substance flowed out. Then she pushed the barrel of her DAAC into the wound and squeezed the trigger.

The resulting explosion blew the creature's torso completely open, scattering its insides and bits of carapace all over the area. Zoey was thrown backwards but thanks to her Ice Armor Rune she suffered no damage from the blast.

She watched with a tired sigh as the corrupted creature slowly toppled forwards and crashed onto the ground.

It was finally dead.

Zoey had triumphed once again against the corrupted.

The only thing left was to find a way to close the dungeon for good.