Dungeon Raider System

So far, the best part of Uriel's plan had been the face Soulfire made when he thought he was betrayed. It wasn't his intention to scare him, but he deemed it as a nice bonus. All he needed was to get access to the employee only part of the building, which turned out to be way easier than he thought initially.

Uriel wasn't surprised when the waitress led them to a locked door that went underground. A basement was the perfect place for a vampire's nest and it was to be expected, though he was taken aback when the 'boss' turned to be someone he knew, but it wasn't Mark.

"Charlie!?" Uriel let out in a gasp. The former Ranger was wearing her usual attire: tight shorts, a leather cowboy hat and a bikini top, though it was now black instead of brown like before.

"Magnum!? I wasn't expecting you so early," She said after composing herself with a smile that, thanks to her protruding fangs, seemed creepy rather than charming. "You dropped the Miss, that's good." She continued as she caressed the back of her desk, pressing a concealed button.

"She called for security! What should we do now?" A panicked Soulfire let out. As the acting CEO of the Jacobson construction firm, such measures weren't a secret to him and he knew security was bound to come in a minute.

"Now we fight." Said Uriel with a determined look on his face before activating his Dash skill and darting forward. A knock on the back of Charlie's head was all he needed to take her out, but he went even further.

To the waitress who was still present it all happened in the blink of an eye. She saw Uriel disappear from his position, then he was behind Charlie piercing through her skull with a metal pipe he grabbed from the wall. Next thing she knew, she received the same treatment.

Uriel knew it wasn't enough to kill either of them since they were vampires and he knew he needed to stab them with something made of wood. However, he decided not to kill Charlie since she was the sole daughter of the head of the rangers and he considered turning her in for a reward. He also knew her from before she became a vampire and would have felt guilty for killing her.

But he had no such feelings for the waitress who was also a vampire because he didn't know her. For that same reason, he decided not to kill her since there was nothing to gain by doing so at that moment.

"Fight!? I can't fight! Oh! What did I get myself into?" Soulfire panicked some more and started taking laps in the small office just like a trapped mouse. Seeing him so distressed brought great joy to Uriel who calmly watched him for a few seconds.

"Keep it together, you're a heavenly rank hunter, are you not?" Uriel asked when he reaized he wasn't faking it.

"A hunter!? I'm not a hunter! I'm a peaceful citizen! My father turned us all into heavenly rank hunters by buying flux orbs and forcing us to crush them." Soulfire cried.

"What!?" Uriel let out, not knowing it was even an option.

"It's expensive, but most of the wealthy families do that to secure their position," Soulfire hurriedly replied, but then continued shouting in anger. "You ranked up a couple times, don't pretend you didn't know about that. More importantly, that woman called for security, we're probably surrounded by now."

Uriel had to admit that, although it was unfair to keep the fact that hunters could become strongerby crushing flux orbs, he couldn't complain since he also kept most of his findings a secret. Besides, it wasn't like it could be of help to most hunters who barely acquired enough flux orbs to make a living.

Crushing orbs was the same as burning money and it wasn't that efficient of a method considering that being near vanishing cryptids also allowed hunters to rank up.

"What's taking them so long?" Uriel asked himself when the security guards failed to show up.

"You did this on purpose?" Soulfire felt his knees faltering and had to sit on Charlie's desk to keep himself from fainting. The fact that he was in a small underground room with two twitching women with metal pipes through their brains and the psychopath responsible for that didn't help in the slightest.

In spite of his heavenly rank constitution, Soulfire was already short of breath and on the brink of collapse, though that didn't stop him from noticing there were two buttons under the desk instead of one. "This is odd..."

Uriel noticed Soulfire's puzzled face and came close to inspect the desk, only to be left with the same puzzled face his new companion had.

"One must be for the silent alarm, but this other one... unless..." Uriel fell into a pensive state again, realizing now that Charlie said she was expecting him. It opened the possibility that one of the alarms was meant specifically to signal his arrival, which wasn't strange considering how scared Mark must have felt after their last encounter.

All Uriel needed to confirm his theory was to close his eyes and focus on his mystical sense, which seemed to work fine in spites of being underground, hinting that the building materials weren't up to standards. Something that reassured Uriel he would have a way out of there if things got out of hand.

Then, he stood up and went back upstairs where, unsurprisingly, the music had been turned off and there were people waiting for them.

"Please, don't tell me they're vampires." Soulfire whispered.

"Okay."

"They're not vampires?" Soulfire pressed his chest and heaved a sigh.

"I didn't say that either." Uriel shrugged.

More and more people showed up in an orderly fashion, but they didn't lift a finger against Uriel, not even when he came close to them. Instead, they silently opened a path for him showing him that he was free to leave whenever he wanted. Uriel would never admit this to anyone, but even after he found out this was the case, he still walked towards them because he found their behavior amusing.

Uriel was still playing with the people he assumed were vampires when Mark finally showed up, but he wasn't by himself. There were two girls next to him, though it wasn't something Uriel didn't expect from Mark.

"They won't do." He scoffed.

"Hi brother," He nodded at Soulfire and then asked. "What do you mean?"

"They hold no value as hostages, you can kill them for all I care." Uriel replied shortly.

"They're not hostages, but aren't you being too cold with your ex girlfriend?" Mark said with a crooked smile.

"It's fine... I deserve it." Tina Celes kept her gaze down, her beautiful face frozen in a sad expression.

"If they're not hostages, why would you even bring them to a fight?"

"A fight? I'm not here to fight you, I'm here to propose you a deal."

"They won't do, they're not even my type anymore." Uriel lied through his teeth. Like any sane man, he always thought Tina to be one of the most beautiful girls on campus and the other girl by Mark was also quite pretty.

"They're not honey traps either... In fact, if you hadn't killed Charlie, she would have explained things to you." Mark said after noticing the blood stains on Uriel's white shirt, thinking he already killed his servant.

Uriel was now curious, even if striking a deal with Mark was something he wasn't interested on, he still decided to hear him out because he figured he had nothing to lose.

"What kind of deal are you talking about?"

"No, you can't do this! He's going to ask you to kill me!" Soulfire cowered behind Uriel.

"Why would I want to kill you? It seems you've misinterpreted my intentions."

"You killed father! Don't even try to deny it!" Soulfire accused, but then retreated back to his safe spot right behind Uriel.

"Stop acting like a child! Also, let go of me, I'm not your bodyguard. You paid me to kill Mark and I'm here to do it, now let me do my job."

"I can't say I'm surprised," Mark lowered his gaze and then continued. "I've been an awful person to both of you. It's only obvious you think the worst of me. If killing me is what it takes for you to forgive me, then I won't fight back."

"Mister Mark! Please don't!" One of the vampires cried and several others covered their mouths.

Uriel may have thought it was nothing but a theatrical play, staged only to convince him to let Mark go, but he was able to feel the turmoil in the flux energy caused by the heavy emotions those present experienced.

'What the hell is going on?' Uriel inwardly asked himself.

"I see you're confused, so I'll start by the beginning." Mark spoke as soon as silence was made again.