Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 550: Battle for survival in the barrenlands Part 3

Left with no choice, Elio broke from the formation and went to investigate himself and found what seemed to be a beast rank flux orb.

"They must be killing each other." The dryad explained as she went to pick up the orb, though the words died in her mouth when the hunter showed up again seemingly out of the blue and snatched it before her.

"That's mine!" Uriel growled, then turned back to face the enemy swinging the 'Red thread of fate' in the air like a lasso, then disappeared back into the shadows after catching something with it. Seeing him now, it became obvious why they couldn't see him anymore.

"He's hunting outside the formation!" The dryad exclaimed when she realized the reason why they couldn't see him anymore was because instead of holding a defensive position, the hunter rushed in to attack the incoming cryptids. Not just that, she also didn't miss that he turned off his lantern.

"Insane... he's insane." Muttered a baffled Elio. As a heavenly rank hybrid from a powerful race, Elio could be considered to be one step down from being a holy rank hunter as proven by his victory against an entity level cryptid, but he couldn't see himself going in the offensive against endless enemies in pitch black darkness.

There was, however, method to Uriel's madness. The reason why he handed everyone gas lanterns wasn't just to tell hybrids from cryptids, it was so the group could cast a light strong enough in their perimeter so it could be reflected on the cryptids eyes in the distance. That was also the reason why he asked his crew to also fire flareguns, though that wasn't all.

"He's... he's..." The feline hybrid fell on his butt after catching a glimpse of Uriel making quick work of the night creatures, gutting some with the knife, exploding others with a single bullet to their center mass, then leaping towards the next group of enemies with the help of the wire connected to the dagger's detachable pommel.

It was efficient, but also brutal beyond what words could describe and the poor hybrid couldn't keep himself from throwing up.

"Ew! This isn't the time to spit your furballs, bajang. Just tell us what's going on." The dryad glared at the now crouching feline ailuranthrope.

"I'm not one of those things, I'm a kanaima," The were-jaguar growled pointing at his rounded ears. "He's killing cryptids left and right."

"Was that so difficult to say?" The dryad scoffed at the poor hybrid who now hesitated to place his eyes on the dark, despite being one of the few present who was both able to see in the dark and follow Uriel's movement speed.

Their discussion was soon cut short when the hordes of night creatures were illuminated with the light of the multiple descending flares, also revealing Uriel's presence.

Thanks to Dash, he moved faster than most could follow, but even those who could see him wished they couldn't as the carnage he left behind made them feel as though they made some sort of deal with an abyssal creature far more dangerous than any cryptid. Him being covered with cryptid blood and entrails, far from alleviating their concerns only made things worse.

Many of those present found themselves thinking the raging hunter could actually be a cryptid himself and the only thing that kept everyone from running away was the fact that at least he wasn't invincible.

Although they were few, small wounds and bruises were starting to pile up which made him look more human than beast and the fact that so far he had only defeated beast and monster rank cryptids, the latter with more difficulty as some of them could resist a couple of his Magnum rounds, meant that in case he was a cryptid it wasn't an impossible enemy.

"Look, there's another one of those horned beasts!" A hybrid managed to point his finger at the strange quadruped.

Then, the subconscious fear that accumulated turned into horror after they witnessed the hunter taking down in a split second one of the horned beast that took their strongest treefolk guardian and being surrounded by hybrids to defeat, though they didn't see exactly how did it came to happen. One second the beast was raging and the next it was already vanishing into a flux orb.

The carnage went on and it became so gruesome, some even pitied the poor creatures that stood in Uriel's way and even felt a tinge of relief when the hunter fell under the grasp of a tall giant creature with dark claws that seemingly emerged from a random spot in the ground.

"Something caught him!" One of the few armed hybrids pointed his gun at the enemy creature, but was stopped by a branch-like arm.

"Don't intervene, you could hit him by mistake." Kalos said barely containing his excitement at the prospect of Uriel finally getting killed.

Just like the hybrids thought, most of the cryptids Uriel killed were beast rank and a few monster ranks.

The one who actually killed the brunt of the monster rank cryptids and the bull like cryptid with sharp horns was Nika, though she only managed to do it thanks to Uriel figuring out that it wasn't the attacks it received by the many hybrids what killed the last one, but the fact that Elio stopped its movement.

Like all the entity rank cryptids Uriel had previously encountered, it was immensely strong and could shrug off their attacks with ease and regenerate from those it couldn't, but it also had a weakspot.

It wasn't that it wouldn't stop, it was that it couldn't. The minute the entity level bull-like cryptid stopped moving was also it's last moment.

Now, however, Uriel got himself trapped by another entity rank creature, one he didn't know anything about other than the two impossibly big hands that grasped him in an ever tighter clasp. It took him all he had and then some more to resist being immediately squished, but every centimeter he gave allowed the cryptid to press him even tighter.

"A little help!" Uriel shouted, but his plea fell on deaf ears. After finding out he was human, the hybrids who saw him fight were less than inclined to risk themselves to save him, let alone hitting him by mistake and making him angry. Then, something happened that left everyone puzzled for a second, he spoke at a random direction.

Even more shocking was the fact that from some place unseen, an answer came back.

"Sorry, I'm busy down here." Nika replied as she attempted to take down a black wolf that took advantage of Uriel's position to invade his shadow.