Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 500: Apartment hunting

Luna was the first to reach when the cries for help began, though instead of rushing there, she blocked the way to prevent Uriel from doing something stupid.

"Luna, move out of the way." Medusa said as she bumped into her.

"No, we don't know if it's safe yet."

"But they're in trouble! Uriel, we need to do something!" Medusa cried, but he too remained still.

"I do agree that we don't know if it's safe to go there, but we won't find any answers in here. We should go, but with our eyes open."

"If you're mocking me, I swear..." Medusa started speaking, but Uriel cut her short.

"What I meant to say was to keep our guards up."

With that, the party moved downstairs, trying their best to ignore the desperate cries for help that came from an undetermined place somewhere in the floor directly below them. They moved slowly, making sure not to even breathe too loudly, and as soon as they reached their destination they realized the carpet was damp as their steps made an annoying squeaky noise.

At first they thought it was blood, but Luna informed it was just water. They didn't know if it was a good or a bad sign, but it didn't take them long to figure out the source of that water.

There was an odd anthropomorphic creature made of mud standing in the middle of the hallway, its facial features were very characteristic and probably resembled those of an actual person, but none of them knew who it was which is why Uriel doubted if it was a revenant.

"Aren't revenants supposed to be summoned using the souls of the people you know?" Uriel whispered to Luna, being careful so the cryptid couldn't hear him, but Luna replied with her usual tone of voice.

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"It's a revenant, but it was most likely summoned when the fog was still in here. Now it's inactive because it's separated from the fog, so it probably can't even move." Luna said as she fearlessly walked towards the cryptid who didn't react even after Luna poked it with her finger.

"So, this is what happens when they run out of fog?" Uriel asked after confirming that the creature possessed exactly the same amount of flux energy than the environment with his glasses.

"Yes, it's like their fuel. I've also confirmed they can't see or hear anything outside the fog created by the titan, and also that the fog tends to fade when exposed to light."

"We should get moving to the next floor, this one is empty." Medusa said, a bit unsettled by knowing there was a revenant nearby and both Uriel and Luna agreed.

The next floor was another massacre scene, much similar to where they found the pile of gnawed bones. Only the blood was more fresh and there was a pungent smell, though Luna didn't react to it. Most of the doors were untouched, which forced them to explore each apartment individually.

In order to save some time, Uriel activated his Dash skill and unlocked each door before coming back to the stairs where his friends were, then he proceeded to open the closest door to check the apartment which turned out to be empty, just like the next one and the one after that.

"This is going to take ages, we need to split." Uriel let out in frustration.

"Uhm... no" Was all Luna said as a reply. Explaining her reasoning again felt like a waste of time, especially since they already agreed on staying together. Usually, Uriel would try to reason with her, but deep down he knew she was right.

"Alright, next one." Uriel sighed before pushing the door and a familiar voice greeted them.

"Uriel! You're here!" Vivian cried as she tripped on her own feet. Her face was bloodied, but other than a few scratches she seemed unhurt. Instead of rushing forward to catch her, Uriel not only let her fall on her own, but quickly summoned his gun and opened fire.

"Why did you do that?" Luna, who saw the whole scene asked with a seemingly straight face, but evidently shaken by Uriel's actions.

"She was a hybrid," Uriel pointed out before taking a trite and dropping it on top of the corpse, causing it to boil into nothingness. "This isn't Vivian's apartment and she wasn't as injured as to fall to the ground. Besides, she's not a hunter and yet, she had a strong flux signal."

"I know, she smelled funny, but you made too much noise, idiot." Being called an idiot by Luna didn't feel great, but the worst had yet to come.

"Why did I even bother making you a dagger." Medusa let out dejectedly. Uriel would have loved to say there was a reason behind him using the revolver instead of the dagger, but he couldn't deny he simply got carried away by the excitement of being able to tell it wasn't a human and that his 'to go' weapon was always the revolver because he wasn't yet accustomed to the dagger.

Contrary to his long explanation, he was able to tell the Vivian in front of them was a fake just by looking at her flux signature. It was fuzzy and also very powerful, something completely different to what he expected from the Vivian he knew. But even if she was the real one, with that kind of flux energy coursing her body he was certain she would have survived the bullet.

Unfortunately, firing his magnum was the same as warning every cryptid on the vicinity there were humans alive in that building and they needed to hurry their pace. If they were in a rush before, now they were against the clock and separating from each other wasn't just an option now, it was their only chance at finding whoever it was that cried for help.

"Uriel, you're faster than Luna, go check downstairs. Luna will check the apartments here and I'll remain on standby in case any of you calls for help." Medusa took the role of the party leader, something that both Luna and Uriel appreciated as they were both 'thinkers' rather than 'doers'.

Luna rushed to check the apartments one by one at the top of her ascended speed, finding more than a few revenants surrounded by deformed bullets in bloody scenes and corpses that couldn't possibly be human.

From this, Luna figured the Fallen corporation sent their soldiers to fight against the mist creatures, but she wasn't as naive as to think either the cryptid or the hybrid were on human side even if they opposed each other.

What troubled her wasn't the fact that the bullets shattered instead of destroying the target as she knew that revenants were a reflection of the people they took after, including their traits and power. Heavenly rank hunters resisting bullets wasn't unheard of, after all. What troubled Luna was the fact that the corpses on the ground were nothing like she had ever seen before.

They weren't skinwalkers, vampires or even eclipses. The last remaining option was that they were wendigos, and the problem with that was that she didn't know how to defeat them, but somehow the revenant did.

All she knew about wendigos was that they fed on human flesh and they were seemingly the most powerful among the entity rank cryptids, so much so, not even such a reckless hunter like Uriel was willing to fight against them.

She wished she had the means to activate the cryptid and make it speak, but she lacked any means to experiment on the cryptid which is why she opted with taking a 'sample'.

"It's all clear." Luna said, carrying an odd round shaped cloth bag Medusa was unable to see.

"Let's go meet with Uriel, then." Medusa replied and they went downstairs, only to find that half the building was destroyed and Uriel was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the open space allowed Luna to see they were absolutely surrounded by Fallen corp. soldiers, easily recognizable in spites of their lack of uniform.

Their black stares, blistered skin and purulent faces were all Luna needed to know they were failed experiments. "Luna?" She asked when she felt Luna's tiny hand tightening her grip.

"Don't be scared, but I think this would be a good time for you to take off your blindfold." Luna muttered with a shaky voice as her heart raced in the face of danger. Not because of fear, but because she let her emotions run free in order to trigger her transformation into a fully fledged werewolf, though instead of lunging forward like usual she readied herself to escape.

"What about Uriel?" Medusa asked, still hesitating about wearing off her blindfold, but Luna was already back where they came from. All Medusa could hear was her own heartbeat, all she could feel was the immense flux pressure surrounding her. She was just a 'blind' girl in the middle of a city infested with cryptids, only now she didn't feel helpless.

A bright crimson light shone on the apartment building, like a camera flash, allowing Medusa to see for a glimpse of a second the unsightly faces of her enemies right before they turned into stone.