Dungeon Raider System

Having Tina lift up the city barrier was the first step of the plan to protect the city from the gods, but it acted as a double edged sword as it also kept those who were already inside the city from exiting it and while it sounded dangerous, it played right into Uriel's hand as Arausio confirmed his suspicions that he was being targeted by them. Not that it would have been difficult to tell at a glance as a literal dark cloud followed him wherever he went, though instead of bad luck it would cause him to be zapped by lightning the moment he stepped outside an enclosed space such as a megacity or a properly insulated ship.

As usual, when faced with an impossible enemy or an impending threat, rather than retreating Uriel would double down on the offensive until someone gave up. It usually worked for him because he was never the one to give up, but now he not only relied in his friends but also in the help of what remained of the Fallen corporation and the army.

"I am not about to take orders from a guy who just showed up with a shiny new rank. I have seniority." Said one of the colonels present at the barrack, his face red in anger and the others nodded displaying an equivalent measure of displease. Two colonels showing up in the same city was already a strange event, but eleven of them was something unprecedented. More than reassured by their numbers, it scared the wits out of each of them turning people who would usually follow reason and army hierarchy to the letter to turn into the likes of rebellious teens.

Uriel remained silent and took his time inspecting each and every one of them to make sure no gods were present, though clearing his mind was increasingly more difficult as he couldn't shake off the idea that he needed to show up at the Cryptid hunting agency. More than a nagging feeling, it started becoming a compulsion and that didn't bode well with him.

"To make this clear, you're asking us to follow your orders on the supposed word of the Quill who didn't come to fight enemies we have never seen or heard about with the army resources? Not to mention none of us know you. I think we're done here." Another colonel said as he grabbed the sheets of paper in front of her and tapped them on the table to adjust them.

"First, the Quill did not come because he's busy coordinating the city defense with the other holy rank hunters. Second, the enemies you don't hear about are always the most dangerous ones and third, some of you do know me. Isn't that right, Colonel Mayhem, Colonel Tate?" Uriel addressed the only two colonels who remained silent the entire time and limited themselves to read the sheets offered by Uriel.

"That is correct, Colonel Sage made me the soldier I am today." Mayhem performed a flawless salute.

"I'll apologize for that later." Uriel joked, then Tate added.

"I'm a newly appointed as a colonel, but there is no other man I would follow than Colonel Sage." Tate said in his firm tone while also performing a salute.

Mayhem and Tate Eurus were two sides of the coin in the sense that the former started her career as a known troublemaker and the later was always a disciplined man who lacked ambition to rise up the ranks of the military. Yet they both managed to do it and became important assets for the army. Because of their differences, they usually butted heads and would have the room split, but with both of them vouching for Uriel there was no room left for doubt and the colonels stood in attention for Uriel's commands.

"Yeah, this feels scripted too." Uriel fumbled to himself.

"What was it?"

"As of this moment, the army and its resources will be at the disposal of my company, the Dungeon Raiders. Please address any questions to Lizzy Dragonfang, former lieutenant of the army and Quill's daughter," Uriel said as he gave place for Miss Dragonfang to step in, then he also pointed towards Emma. "Emma will be the one locating the enemy and dispatching the teams, but I'll need you to have them on standby in five. That is all."

"Why doesn't she get a last name or a nickname? Is she not a hunter?" Asked one of the colonels who reached its rank not because of power or discipline, but because of his last name alone. To her, making connections with important families in the army was more important than becoming strong or even competent at her job.

"Intrepid girl." Emma said blushingly causing the room to burst into laughter.

"Emma it is." Said Tate in a no nonsense fashion.

Everyone got to work soon after that with Tate catching up with his sister Bella as they ended being paired up due to their impressive control over the air element. They were no match for a god, but they could at least fight back even if the god of wind itself presented himself. The teams ended up being comprised of a captain, a member of the Dungeon Raiders and several lieutenants and corporals and during the first two hours of work not a single team was dispatched.

"Come on, you have to give us something," Uriel nudged on Emma who remained stuck to her phone. "Sam is on the lookout for strange activity, but he can't tell gods apart from humans."

"There's several cases that could be related to gods, but they may as well be cryptids. Not to mention that killing a god's avatar likely put them on their guard. I need more time."

"Let me hear it." Luna butted in.

"What?"

"I don't know much about gods, but I can definitely rule out the most likely phenomena caused by cryptids."

"The list is long, but the most outstanding cases are the following. People are starting to hum songs they don't know the lyrics of and not only can't stop, but it seems to be contagius."

"it's gods." Luna nodded.

"Many reports of people experiencing Deja vu on repeated occasions throughout the day."

"Not sure."

"People claiming they've seen plants grow wildly, weather shifting suddenly, earthquakes that can be felt only within a building, multiple missing people reports, red smelly liquid coming out of a faucet..." Emma proceeded to list the events she had collected over the internet one by one and Luna replied each time whether she thought cryptids could be involved which made Emma's work faster.

The reason why Luna joined her late was not a blunder on her part, but a conscious decision as she didn't want to play any part in the data collection phase to avoid disregarding anything that could be helpful. After all, despite her vast knowledge in mythology she lacked any practical experience on the matter and she knew better than to commit to a task she was unable to perform.

"That settles it, I think." Uriel said as she took a last look at the list presented to him by Mayhem. The teams were well balanced and they were also being dispatched to the locations where their traits supposedly worked best, but Uriel was displeased with how long it took for the colonels to put them together. He was left wondering if they were incompetent or if Nika was secretly a genius as she would come up with the perfect team compositions on the spot and was able to find the best locations for dispatch within seconds.

"She wasn't in the higher echelons of the Mapple corporation for nothing." Medusa said as though she read Uriel's mind.

"You noticed too, huh."

"It's difficult not to, take a look around you." Medusa pointed her hand at their surroundings and only then did Uriel notice that although they were in the military barracks, his employees had already taken over the instruments. It should have bothered the soldiers, but the Dungeon Raiders showed how efficient they were by outperforming the soldiers in every possible metric.

"No, I'm not giving them a raise." Uriel scolded as if Nika said something, but she wasn't there and neither did he have any time to linger on these thoughts because Emma began steadily shaking her head.

"No, no, this is bad, this is very bad." Emma muttered.

"What's going on?"

"Internet challenges, they're all over the place..."

"What's wrong with that? I've done plenty. Do you guys remember when I got my tongue stuck in a popsicle? That was fun." Miss Dragonfang said.

"For like two minutes, then you started crying." Phlox said unamused.

"Usually, I would agree with you, but this is getting out of hand." Emma displayed her screen on a nearby TV and what they saw they could barely understand. People of all age started undertaking the most outrageous tasks for no other reason than internet likes and the results didn't take long to show up.

"I'll take care of that, Sir." Said Mayhem as she tapped a key code on a computer and an alert appeared on every cellphone in the megacity and was later relayed to the other megacities in the continent.

'Continental Alert: Stay away from Social media.'