Dungeon Raider System

"Young bookworm, there is no time for me to report to the barracks. If at all possible, I have something to ask of you." Mister Scofield refused Uriel's invitation and attempted to continue speaking, but Tina cut him short.

"I see what you want to do and it's not going to work. He doesn't care for anyone but himself and you already heard how he wanted to let people die and maybe even kill a portion of the population to become a holy rank hunter." She spoke decisively, but Mister Scofield cleared his throat and continued.

"But we need help, if not his' at least his company's." Scofield reflected taking a brief look at Sam, the holy rank hunter that caused the army and the world so much trouble in the past.

"But you cannot appeal to his humanity, or what's left of it anyways. Mister General, if you'd seen what I've seen of him, you would not even consider taking him in. He's killed innocent people, he humiliated his opponents on the arena and fought without honor and those are the things that are known to the public. If you need someone's help, then you can take my husband." Tina insisted and pushed Mark forward and he acted as though he knew what was going on.

"Absolutely, I'll get the job done." Mark said.

"Well, then, guess I'll have to make a quick trip to the Cryptid hunting agency anyway," Uriel thought out loud, only then his own thoughts felt foreign. It was as though his decisions had stopped coming from a place of reason and rather a fixed point in fate. The same as if a mysterious force pulled every circumstance around him not to go back to the ship, the company's headquarters, the barracks or any other place. "theoretically speaking, how could one avoid the influence of a god on one's decisions?" He proceeded to ask Luna.

"An interesting question, one I can't answer unfortunately." Luna shrugged.

"It's easy, you kill that god and then eat it." Wendy muttered through a toothpick.

"What do they taste like?" Luna asked with curiosity.

"Stop, all of you. Can't you see what's going on? Something is not right here..." Uriel fumbled.

"Uriel, you're acting all paranoid." Medusa pointed out and attempted to give him a hug, but he rebuffed her and held his head with both hands. A high pitch sound like none Uriel had ever heard before started ringing in his head and he fell on his knees unable to deal with the power.

"Psychic attack!" Shouted Miss Dragonfang from the background, but that turned out not to be the case because even though they all became conscious about a possible mind attack that didn't stop each and every hunter from falling on their knees as they too began hearing the noise.

"It is not a mind attack, but another god revealing its presence." Announced Mister Scofield and at that moment Sam noticed two things after activating his trait. The first being that there were actual sound waves exciting the particles around them and the second, that Mark made a run for it without even waiting for the appearance of an enemy.

"If that's the guy you want to put in charge of the city's defense, then we're all screwed." Sam chuckled at the same time the noise stopped.

"This is an anti hunter device or rather, a prototype. It works due to our sensitivity to sounds and the range we can hear is way greater than that of a human being, but other than a little pain it causes no harm. You may think it is useless, but it's good for weeding out the wheat from the chaff." Mister Scofield said as he glared at Tina, then softened his gaze when looking at Uriel. "Captain Sage, I hereby put you in charge of the defense of this city from the invading forces that identify themselves as gods. You are allowed to dispose of those who are enemies however you see fit, banish from this city those who remain neutral and find if any at all are allies in order to protect this megacity."

"I can't believe he left me behind." Tina muttered prompting Uriel who had remained silent to burst into a laughter that would make a supervillain take notes.

"Really? You can't believe that guy abandoned you when he thought a god found us?" Uriel continued laughing until he had to catch his breath. "and I'm sorry Mister Scofield, I mean no disrespect, but what makes you think the rank of Captain holds any value to me?"

"Are you declining my order?" Scofield asked with a sharp gaze, cue Jon placing himself in front of Uriel and speaking after taking a long sip from a flask.

"Whatever you're thinking on doing to him you're going to have to do it to me first."

"I am grateful beyond words for what you've done for me, Mister Scofield, but that does not mean I'll put the people I care about and myself in risk just because you asked nicely. Tina may be as clueless as they come, but she's right. I'm not interested in participating in the defense of this city at this time, considering how ungrateful they've been with me."

"You speak like they owe you something, but doing what's right even without a reward is what a good person does." Tina scoffed.

"Is that what you did when you volunteered your husband to die for the city? Because that is what you asked of him. And now you're shamelessly baiting Uriel to do what not even your husband could." Medusa scoffed back at her.

"Not that it would ever work on me," Uriel chuckled. "when I started my career as hunter I didn't want recognition, I just wanted to study old civilizations. Learn how they lived and what they did. Even technological advancements that are small compared to ours were actual game changers and those were simpler times. I would have died protecting the ruins of an extinct tribe in south america or even an artifact of remote historical significance. But now, I'm just not interested in it anymore."

"Uriel!" Medusa covered her gaping mouth with one hand and used the other hand to shut Luna's slack jaw.

"I'm just not interested in protecting a civilization that is not civilized anymore. The more I learn about cryptids, the more I understand why they're not the bad guys here." Uriel said.

"First you killed a god putting this entire city at risk and now you claim the cryptids are good!? Are you wrong in the head? Everyone knows the gods are the good guys, everyone!" Tina yelled, though no one seemed to share her belief.

"We know there was a war at some point in time and the gods won, that's literally all we know. In history, only the victor gets to tell their side of the story and now I'm starting to understand what all of this is really about. I can't believe you have been telling me the answer all this time and I never understood it before." Uriel sighed the last part looking at Luna who nodded at him.

"I will ask again, are you declining my orders?" Scofield said, this time charging his voice with flux leaving no trace of the friendly librarian, the distant but at the same time always present friend.

"I just cannot be asked to lead the army," Uriel said, then added a smirk to his face. "not with the rank of captain, at least."

"You had me right there, young bookworm. Or should I say, Colonel Sage!" Mister Scofield laughed a teary laugh, though the tears started in the sadness it caused him to even consider being forced to kill Uriel with his own hands and then became tears of relief.

"And you," Uriel glared at Tina. "you'll bring me all the batteries you can find and the artifacts I earned in the tournament."

"What do you want the batteries for?" Tina asked, but Uriel refused to reply and turned to his company instead.

"Long enough have we humans lived with the fear of god instilled into our DNA, it is time we show them the fear of humans!" Uriel rallied his company, though Luna, Amy and others stayed back and only followed after he turned back and anticlimatically added. "And hybrids too."

As the Dungeon Raiders went to fetch the zeppelin, some staid back to coordinate the operation with the army while Uriel recharged his smartphone by using whatever batteries he could find. Most were tier 1 which, but thanks to Medusa's ingenuity they became as powerful as tier 3 batteries after she chained them together. Regrettably, the batteries were destroyed in the process, but that halved the time needed for Uriel to recharge his battery allowing him to reach his top shape in less than an hour and by then, the Pegasus was already hovering above the stadium and the army had already been contacted by them.

"What are we going to call this operation, Colonel?" Asked Mister Scofield with pride Miss Dragonfang never saw on her father's eyes.

"Retribution." He replied.