Dungeon Raider System

The gigantic serpent-like train slithered its way across the city wrecking havoc wherever it went. The streets were soon carpeted with crushed vehicles and red stains marking where the unlucky citizens had been standing.

The alarm was sounded due to cryptids breaching the city walls for a second time in the span of two days, only now it wasn't a pack of beast level cryptids but a single cryptid of unidentified level.

Hunters all over the city gathered at the rooftops and took defensive positions, coordinating their efforts in an attempt to force the cryptid out of the city. They knew their measly weapons were unlikely to cause any harm, but if they somehow managed to gather its attention and get it to leave the city alone that would count as a huge win.

A group of hunters rallied at the top of the tallest building, though contrary to most local hunters they had faced a cryptid of the horror level before and managed to survive. Their weapons were also intermediate and caused little damage, but they did posses an artifact which their leader brandished to strike at the cryptid at a distance.

"Take that you snake!" Shouted a hunter behind a gas mask, cheering for the clean ranged strike their leader Hazel just landed on the cryptid's head. Although her weapon was melee, it possessed an ability to transfer momentum across the ground which synergized perfectly with Hazel's ability to manipulate earth.

Before each strike Hazel needed to channel the right amount of flux energy into the artifact, then unleash her trait at the proper distance and strike with her weapon at the same time. The steps she needed to follow were complex to say the least which meant her attack speed was way too slow to actually kill the cryptid despite it causing enough pain for the cryptid to be in trouble.

Each hit sent the snakelike train into a daze and it fell in momentary state of confusion, though it wasn't long until it found the source of the hurt it experienced and moved swiftly to take out the threat.

While the cryptid was large enough to be noticed from afar, due to it moving at the ground level it remained out of the line of sight most of the times but then the cryptid did the unthinkable. Every hunter in the city was able to see how the heavy train sprung towards the tallest building, coiling around the concrete as it climbed to the top.

It was bad news for the Defenders who now were trapped in the roof, but it became even worse when the front car lunged back and emitted a hissing sound as it shifted its appearance into that of a snake.

With black scales as thick as a vault door, brimming yellow eyes with vertical pupils instead of headlights and fangs larger than a human, the Culebre had finally revealed its true form and it was beyond horrifying.

The fact that it resembled an animal was of little comfort to the Defenders since it only took a glance at the cryptid to know they had heavily overestimated themselves. Nevertheless, Hazel stood her ground against the foul creature, her long hair the same color of her hazelnut eyes waving in the wind giving her a noble appearance.

Hunter and beast, each glaring at their natural enemy in understanding. There was no need for words to communicate what their sole existence expressed, one of them had to die.

Hazel retracted her hammer as she channeled her flux energy ready to strike with all of her might. Her companions, inspired by their brave leader supported Hazel with all they had. Even if the intermediate level weapons would case no harm, even if they didn't make a difference in the outcome, it was all they could do.

As the Culebre opened its maw, Kristina took some time to admire her companions. She knew those were likely her last moments alive, but she didn't regret following Hazel and considered it to be the best decision of her life.

Living adventures in foreign lands and saving people was always her dream, though dreaming was the only thing a slum dweller was allowed to do as their lives were meaningless and she had long made her peace with her own death like most slum dwellers.

She lived in borrowed time and she knew it, which is what allowed her to smile as the cryptid lunged forward its dislocated jaw so wide it could swallow the entire roof in one bite and the only thing Kristina could think about was that she was grateful she made a difference, that she didn't live an average life and she found solace in the fact that her death would be swift.

At that moment, a tingling feeling on the back of her head made her open her eyes before she could make sense of it and she let out a gasp when the snake cocked its head back in pain instead of attacking. The rest of the defenders looked towards Hazel, expecting her to be the cause of the cryptid's strange behavior only to find her just as confused as the lot of them, but Kristina knew what happened. Or at least, she knew who was the one responsible thanks to her trait that allowed her to identify and track flux energy sources like no one else could.

"It's him, it's Sage." Kristina said right before the Culebre coughed a hunter whole, who then landed on the rooftop taking tumbles.

"Aim for the eyes, you rookies." He said with a smirk, blue sparks of electricity surrounding him, steam coming from all over his body as the snake's venom dissolved his clothes leaving the orichalcum underarmor unscathed and for some reason, the fedora hat too.

Hazel found herself nodding at Uriel, her beautiful lips parted in shock and then amazement when Uriel seemingly flew towards the cryptid in a circular motion and landed in the back of its head where it proceeded to fire shot after shot at the exact spot where the flux orb was located.

It took Hazel a while to channel enough flux energy and strike again, but this time her aim was true and the Culebre's eye popped like a bubble all the while Uriel dug his way towards the flux orb causing the cryptid to shriek in pain and shake its head making it difficult for Hazel to aim and by the time she managed to take out the other eye, the first one was already fully regenerated.

The cryptid then looked up the sky and spat a large amount of venom. The ensuing acid rain that fell on the buildings filled the rooftops with holes the size of a coin. By just grazing their skin, the filthy venom caused any human to drop dead on the spot, but hunters possessed a tougher skin that allowed them to resist it.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said about the toxic gas that was created after the droplets evaporated and whoever breathed that substance in would become poisoned. Depending on their ranks and their traits, some of them would die a painful death while others would become poisoned.

Be it luck or fate, the Defenders had always been characterized for wearing gas masks during their incursions. It was mostly to hide their identities, but on this particular occasion it turned out to be a life saver as they were immune to the fumes.

"Don't breathe, the air is toxic!" Shouted Kristina to Uriel who remained attached to the back of the snake's head futilely trying to carve out the flux orb out of a still living cryptid.

'If this thing was smaller or if I had a weapon with longer reach...' Uriel inwardly regretted losing Thunderbolt Iron so early and also letting Bella escape with the fishing spear as that would have made things much easier.

With Dash active Uriel had the luxury of time to ponder about such matters and also to be fully aware that his current task was pointless with the tools he had at his disposal. With little to lose he entered his museum looking for a lucky break. The Jaguar cryptid was no match for the Culebre and would just become injured, Nika was a good choice but he didn't want to risk leaving Luna by herself.

He mindlessly walked the halls of the museum, casually passing by the book of the dead, the ancient sacrificial dagger he found in Chichén Itzá and finally stumbled upon the crystal dagger just given to him by Saint Germain.

'This would get rid of this snake, but...' Uriel had an albeit brief yet intense inward argument, eventually deeming using such a powerful single use artifact on a horror level cryptid a complete waste of resources.

He strolled inside his museum for a short while longer until he finally had to admit to himself that the answer he looked for wasn't in the artifacts he possessed. Just when he finished ruling out each and every single artifact in his museum as a possible solution, the answer came to him in the form of the system.

After briefly checking his skills, Uriel cancelled Dash and listened to Kristina's warning with a grin before breathing in as much of the toxic fumes as he could.

"I got this..." He said in a thin voice to prevent the poison from exiting his lungs.