Dungeon Raider System

Late at night the Pegasus remained docked as the crew members that were chosen for the supply rain had to haul the entire load by themselves. Having a ship available for the task was a huge advantage they could not miss, but logistics not being the rangers strong suit showed causing Medusa to feel the most frustrated she had been in a while. That, however, changed the minute her cellphone rang with Uriel on the other side of the call.

"I knew you would be worried about us, but I wasn't expecting you to call so quickly." She said, covering the phone with a hand so Lizzy couldn't hear what was being said.

"Good, you haven't set off yet. Do you happen to know where Nika is by chance?" Uriel asked.

"Oh! That's got to hurt!" Lizzy Dragonfang said jokingly and a loud noise reverberated in the phone.

"No clue where she is, maybe you should ask Miss Charlie."

"That's the thing, she didn't pick up the phone even though I just finished a mission." Uriel said.

"Why don't you just summon Nika? Do you think she's in trouble?"

"Isn't she always?" Uriel replied and Medusa had to admit that Nika had the knack for getting into dangerous situations, though she was also pretty good at escaping. "the thing is, about half my flux was drained out of a sudden in the middle of the night and I tried summoning her, but nothing happened."

"Is that all you wanted to say? I'm sort of busy here." Medusa asked, trying not to sound as annoyed by the fact that Uriel only seemed concerned about Nika which she was, and a lot.

"It's not that I worry about Nika, she knows how to take care of herself. I wanted to let you know that I was ambushed tonight so you can keep an eye open until we regroup."

"Yes!" Medusa replied before Uriel hung up. That brief conversation was all she needed to sort her feelings and get to work.

Loading the crates only through the cargo bay should have been the fastest choice, but due to Uriel's traveling museum it was packed with stuff and not really efficient. Because of that, Medusa asked the crew to forget about the cranes and load the crates by hand through every entrance even windows.

Doing this cut their loading time by tenfold and they were now almost ready to set off, the only thing left was to ask Bella to wake up and use her trait to empower the ship's movement speed. Or so Medusa thought, but then Amy made a mistake when loading a crate through a window and the wooden container crashed onto the ship's hull.

"Watch out! That's coming out of your next pay!" Medusa grunted.

"You sound like him now." Miss Dragonfang giggled.

"You think so?" Medusa blushed in a cutesy way, then paled when she noticed a red liquid splattered on the ship's hull. It looked bad, but its smell was somehow even worse. Those present shouted for the crew to stop immediately, but it was already too late as Amy was not the only one to miss her shot on the window and the same thing happened.

"What the hell is this!? Are there living beings in those boxes!?" Phlox snarled as she grabbed the rangers liaison by the collar of his neck. He was a tall man wearing a manly outfit and a fedora hat larger than most rangers, though he became speechless when surrounded by the three women nearby.

"Speak!" Lizzy changed her tone and became serious, the contrast with her usually airheaded nature only made her personality scarier, but nothing compared to the red glimmer on Medusa's eyes.

"You have all of three seconds to explain and after that you're dead." Medusa said.

"I don't know what you're talking about..." Stuttered the man.

"Luna!" Medusa called for the vampire's most horrible nightmare, then started the countdown. "one, two..."

"It's blood, human blood." Luna appeared, though contrary to the raging beast Medusa thought would appear, she showed in human form pinching her nose with clothes pins.

"How can you tell if your nose is covered?" Miss Dragonfang hissed as she used her forked tongue to confirm what Luna said.

"They're vampires and feed on blood, what kind of supplies did you think we're loading into the ship?" Luna directed her equivalent to a glare to Medusa who made a guilty face.

"My bad... it seems we wasted a bit of your cargo." She said as she adjusted the man's collar once Phlox put him back on the floor.

"It's fine, really. I expected this kind of treatment when I agreed to be turned into a vampire, it's not like I would have reacted any differently if I was still a human." He said humbly, which only made Medusa feel worse for her mistake.

The ship set off with no further issues, though the atmosphere was so dense it could be cut with a knife. The chaotic events that transpired while loading the ship added to Uriel's warning turned Medusa into a paranoid version of herself causing everyone around her to also become anxious.

"Relax, guys... we'll be fine. Flying during the day is way easier than doing so at night. We won't find any of those pesky lightseekers and most cryptids will not even notice our presence." Dragonfang said with confidence. Her reassuring words may have worked in the past, but after knowing her for so long the crew already knew what to expect.

"We're screwed." Phox declared.

"We are..." Medusa sighed.

"What's wrong?" The ranger liaison asked worried sick, it was his first time flying in a zeppelin and he did not feel safe in the slightest, though it wasn't flying what worried him but the rowdy women in the crew.

When he was selected to organize the supply run with the Dungeon Raiders everyone envied him because not only his job was safer, but he would be in the company of the prettiest hunters they had ever laid their eyes on. He felt as the luckiest man alive up until the moment Medusa started nagging him to work faster, not just that, despite being nice between themselves they were not hospitable to strangers at all.

Uriel may have been cold to everyone, but one of his core values was to always treat guests nicely, even if they were unwanted guests. Whether it was due to his humble origin, being a southerner of his ample knowledge in tradition and manners it was unknown, but Uriel was always nicer to people in his own house than he was to them if he were to meet them anywhere else. This also extended to the crew, but only because of his insistence as he would get mad if anyone disrespected a guest.

"She just jinxed it." Medusa explained, then remained silent behind the rudder taking a few turns and lowering the elevation just to make sure nothing would come their way.

The ambience was tense for about ten minutes, but they reached the outpost and unloaded the supplies for the more than grateful rangers who manned the sentry tower.

"Blood and munitions for three months, this sure helps a lot." A ranger tipped his hat to Medusa who checked the notepad.

"Not to mention the pretty sight." Said another and while Medusa was about to get mad, she couldn't when she noticed the man wasn't looking at her but to the ship.

"Thanks, I made it myself." She smiled, wrapped things up and then set off to the next outpost, then the next one. She didn't know the reason why, but the ranger calling the Pegasus a pretty sight kept resounding on her mind.

It was a nagging feeling that told her something was wrong, something that she overlooked completely. Something obvious that was difficult to pinpoint precisely due to how obvious it was.

"What's the matter, Boss?" Asked Miss Dragonfang.

"Don't call me that, I may be one of the founders but I still consider you my senior."

"If this is a dig at my age..." Miss Dragonfang stopped talking out of a sudden, then squinted her eyes to look at the distance. "what's that?"

A few black dots appeared in the air directly in front of the Pegasus. Due to the distance it was impossible to tell how many they were or their size, but judging by the flutter of wings they could tell whatever they were, their presence meant trouble.

Medusa grabbed the rudder and gave it a full spin causing the ship to tilt on its way to the left, she also spoke to Bella through an ingenious device that needed no electricity whatsoever as it was nothing but a pipe connected to the room Bella was allocated.

"Full speed ahead, we're retreating from cryptids." Medusa commanded and Bella obeyed by channeling a considerable amount of flux into the ship boosting it's speed and reducing air drag.

"No, no, stop...," Luna said to the pipe. "stop I said.... we can't go back to the city."

"Why the heck not?" Phlox asked, unsure whether she should activate her trait to also boost the ship.

"Because we are currently working for the rangers, those cryptids are attracted to blood and uhm... we just delivered blood to them."