Dungeon Raider System

"Uri!?" Tina Celes ran towards Uriel and attempted to grab his hands, though he took a step back placing some distance between them.

"What are you doing here Tina?"

"The same as you, I'm hunting." She replied, still shocked after being rejected by her ex boyfriend, but trying to appear as if nothing happened. "I'm part of the Celes corporation and it is my duty to keep the whereabouts of our city safe."

"Whatever." Uriel turned on his heels with the intention to leave the place, but someone grabbed his arm and prevented him from leaving.

"Where do you think you're going?" Said a familiar, yet disgusting voice.

"Let go of me, Mark." Uriel grunted as he shook his arm.

"You called for help, now you have to pay us for our rescue." Mark scoffed crossing his arms. He was always a bulky person, but now his arms were broader than Uriel's legs, his chest was prominent and in general, he looked like a gym rat. Of course, all of these changes were the effect of his trait settling, but he looked much stronger than the last time Uriel saw him.

"I didn't call for shit."

"Now you're lying to our face, how shameless!" Mark kept pushing, but Medusa was already sick and tired of Mark's stupid games. It was clear he was only trying to provoke a fight and she feared Uriel might fall into his trap.

"It's the truth, we also heard the call for help but we got here too late." She pointed her lantern at the corpse lying on the ground.

The corpse was dressed in a worn out light armor and plain clothes, but contrary to their expectations they didn't see any wounds on the corpse. Instead, it was completely dissected and drained of all the blood.

"No way, this is Phil!" Tina covered her mouth and gasped.

Everyone in the foreign group looked sad and scared in equal measure, making it clear they knew the person who died. Uriel studied their expressions for a couple seconds, but then lost all interest in them and turned to his companions.

"Grab the flux orb, we're getting out of here."

"Hey, hey, hey! I didn't give you permission to leave." Mark said with a smug, to which Uriel replied with a smirk of his own but remained silent. "With Phil's death, I'm the leader now, and you have to obey me."

"Who needs your permission, I'm not even in your party. Besides, you couldn't stop me even if..." Uriel said, but he was interrupted by a punch to the face he managed to dodge in the last second. "tried." Uriel finished his sentence after taking a step back.

"Mark, stop!" Tina begged.

"I have to teach Urinal a lesson, or else people will start disrespecting my leadership."

"Do you really want to do this, Mark?" Uriel asked with a nonchalant expression.

Medusa, Sam and Luna gathered behind Uriel at a safe distance, while Mark's friends made a semi circle behind their friend.

"You'll regret talking to me like that. Do you really think you can defeat me just because your bitch took me by surprise that one time? My trait already settled and I'm way stronger than I was back then."

"All talk and no play..." Uriel sighed.

Mark cracked his knuckles with an evil grin on his face and took a step forward, ready to put the slum rat in his place. Even before starting to provoke him, he noticed the cold glint on Uriel's eyes and his gaze was much more similar to a predator sizing up his prey than a human being.

It was so unsettling it bristled the hair on the back of Mark's neck, but he refused to accept that someone like Uriel could have undergone a transformation so deep after becoming just an evolved.

He himself was a heavenly rank and, in theory, he had nothing to fear but in reality he was scared. It was precisely that fear what pushed him to provoke Uriel even further as he simply couldn't accept the fact that Uriel wasn't a pushover anymore.

Uriel pondered for a second on whether he should have angered Mark or not, but then he realized it didn't matter what he did, because Mark would have found an excuse to attack him anyway. He was still resented after being kicked on the face by Nika and nothing Uriel did could have prevented this outcome.

Instead of trying to defuse the situation, instead of being afraid, deep down Uriel was thrilled to fight him.

Even though Mark never actually hit him, he had been one of the worst bullies he encountered in his life. He was always humiliating him and playing cruel pranks on him. He would also say mean things about him all the time and then say 'Hey bro, don't be mad, it was just a joke.' making him feel even worse.

But what he couldn't stand about Mark, what angered him the most, was how he tried to act like they were friends all the time in front of Tina, just to get closer to her. It wasn't jealousy, it was because Uriel never had a friend, and when Mark acted friendly with him he truly wished it was genuine.

The first to attack was Mark with a quick jab to the face that Uriel didn't bother blocking. The powerful punch of a heavenly rank should have demolished an evolved like he thought Uriel was, but instead he endured the pain and took the hit full on.

He even resisted flinching or turning his head to the side to attenuate the punch, all Uriel did was to put his revolver to Mark's throat pointing upward.

"How is this possible!? You're just an evolved." Mark whimpered.

Uriel cleaned the blood trickling from his mouth after taking the punch. Even if it was just a quick jab it still hurt a lot more than he expected.

"You're just too weak. Now say you yield or..." Uriel cocked the hammer of his revolver.

"It's not fair! You cheated!" Said Mary, one of Tina's friends.

"Huh? Isn't it obvious?" Uriel asked. "Why would I agree to fight a dude twice my size if I didn't have a couple aces up my sleeve?"

"Tina, you have to do something!" Mary insisted but Tina was in shock and didn't react. The rest of her group, though, seemed to be upset by Uriel's shameless attitude and they slowly closed in. Fearing an all out fight might break out Tina snapped out of her reverie and blocked their way.