Dungeon Raider System

"Va-va-vampires?" Sam stuttered in fright. "Like in the old movies?"

"No, I mean, I'm not sure." Luna replied and then fell in her usual inopportune silence.

"Luna, listen to me. This is very important so try to focus on what you know while we hold them off. We need to know how to defeat them or, at the very least, if there's a way to escape from them." Uriel said calmly. His cool demeanor took everyone by surprise as the cryptids were drawing near.

"Hold them off!? We can't do that! Just one of them killed Phil, if they're dozens we're doomed!" Said one of Tina's party members. It was a girl a bit taller Mary and, just like Mary, she remained by Tina's side at all times.

"You can do what you want but we're not going to run blindly without a plan. That's not how we do things." Uriel said as he lit a flare and threw it in the direction where the vampires were coming from. Though his physical prowess was much better than before, the flare barely made it past one block distance.

Medusa followed suit and did the same, only doubling the distance covered by Uriel's flare and making him look bad in comparison.

Uriel wished he had a flaregun to spare him from the embarrassment and gazed at Medusa with a blank face to which she simply shrugged.

"If those things make it to the first flare, we open fire. When they reach the next one, we run." Luna, Medusa and Sam all nodded in reply and then it was Luna's turn to explain what she knew about vampires.

"This is the first time I've seen a cryptid like that, but even if there was no evidence to support that claim, I somehow know for sure the one Medusa killed was a vampire. Don't ask me why, I just do." Luna proceeded to speak with her usual monotone voice.

Medusa, Uriel, Tina and some of her party members were paying close attention to her words, though most of Tina's group was panicking all over the intersection. "But there is evidence to support that clam.

First, the cryptid looked like a regular human, only with pale skin, second its mouth was bloodied and the corpse was dry which means it drank its blood and finally, he was able to fully regenerate within seconds. Those are the most common features of vampires in the lore."

The mention of Phil, the former leader of their party, as nothing but a corpse made those from Tina's group shiver. He was an ascended, but one with years of experience in hunting and he stayed behind to save his team from the unstoppable cryptid that simply wouldn't die. Luna, though, remained unfazed by the pained emotions of people around her and continued her explanation.

"There is a lot of lore about vampires, too much actually, and it varies a great deal depending on the location. In Europe they were depicted as high class immortal people that mingled in society but in Africa they were blood thirsty beasts that barely resembled a human being and would attack anything that moved on sight."

Sam who didn't take his eyes from the enemy for a second made a gesture signalling that the cryptids were getting close to Medusa's flare.

"Luna, its weakness please." Uriel said as calmly as he could, knowing that unsettling Luna would only slow her already obnoxiously slow way of speaking.

"Uh... yes. They also vary a lot. They dislike daylight, garlic, silver, crosses and religious paraphernalia. They need human blood to survive and will die if stabbed in the heart with something made of wood or if they're decapitated apparently..."

"Just tell us what they all have in common." Uriel cut her short trying to avoid a full lecture about fantasy creatures. At that point there were already some guns being fired at the cryptids that were drawing near and there was barely any time left for them to continue their conversation.

"Uhm, there's one thing they all have in common. They can't enter sacred places."

"Sam, a church!"

"Yes!" He replied and immediately scanned their surroundings. His trait allowed him to see as far as he wanted, unhindered by the mantle of the night that blinded everyone else but, he couldn't see through objects. Since he was at ground level, his sight was obstructed by the litter and rubble present in the city and he quickly realized he needed to find a higher place.

Sam climbed on top of the destroyed car and this time it was much easier for him to look around. Thanks to the immensely long street that crossed the city in a straight line he was able to see a city square in the distance.

"There's a plaza of some sorts and there might be a church nearby, but its really far and I don't know if we can make it." Sam said as cold sweat ran across his forehead.

"It's better than nothing. We're moving." Uriel replied.

"Who died and made you our leader?" Mark who had been sulking since his defeat finally gathered enough courage to speak.

"Do whatever you want, no one is forcing you to come with us." Your next chapter is on empire

"Mark, let's just do as he says, there's no time to worry about who's our leader. Uri seems to know what he's doing, let's trust him." Tina said in a pleading tone, but at that time Uriel and his party had already made their exit leaving everyone behind with nothing but their worthless flashlights.

When people realized this, they instinctively followed after Uriel's party as they didn't want to be left in complete darkness making Mark's complaints pointless.

Uriel's party took the leading position in the formation which allowed the rest of the hunters to follow them safely across the rubble ridden streets. The caring Medusa also went out of her way to clear some obstacles for the ones following her, but the rest of her party didn't care so much as to look back.

It wasn't something strange considering their current situation, being chased after by cryptids in a dangerous POI, but Uriel's behavior had been strange for a while now. He wasn't the same lovely and thoughtful archaeology student she met before, he was cold and uncaring.

Medusa was starting to feel out of place in her own party and all of her bottled up feelings wanted out, but this wasn't the time to sort her emotions and all she could do was to endure, just for the time being.