Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 563: Into the third world

Easton refrained himself from opening fire just so he could watch in detail the slow decline in their enemies health. A burn here, a bruise there, soon they would all fall to the relentless barrage of elemental attacks. He had every possible advantage, numbers, power, weapons, even the tactical position but this was no coincidence.

After hearing that a strange hunter claiming to be Bella's boyfriend Easton immediately knew it had to be Uriel and had an entire day to prepare his strategy. He could have captured them on the floating islands, but because he knew how powerful Bella was he decided it was best not to give her the chance to create a storm.

Not just that, most people thought the incident with the island that exploded was caused by the earth element users, but being one of the most competent fire users Easton was told the truth only a few knew.

The Dungeon Raider's island had been actually destroyed by its owners. They didn't know how did they do it, but if they were capable of doing that to the island they called home there was no telling as to what they would do if cornered on the Central island.

Easton was the one who suggested letting them through, then ambushing after they passed. It was the only thing that came up but everyone agreed it was a flawless plan. Their squads on one side and cryptids on the other, they had no way out and would eventually surrender.

In the off chance that they decided to die fighting and were overrun by cryptids, all they had to do was to retreat back to the second world using Uriel's party as a shield.

"Should we move in for the kill?" The second in command asked.

"We're not supposed to kill them. Bella will definitely lose her seat at the council, but whoever marries her could get access to her family's artifacts. Just keep firing until one of them does something stupid." Easton explained, though the actual reason why he didn't want to get in close combat was because he faced Uriel before and it was an experience he didn't want to repeat.

"Something like that?" The second in command pointed at Uriel who for some strange reason wasn't taking cover and instead of running away, walked straight into the merciless rain of projectiles.

"I wasn't expecting that... not from him." Easton didn't like Uriel, not in the slightest. After all, he not only defeated him easily in the past but he also turned him into the laughing stock of his companions after finding the smartphone Uriel used to trick him. But he wasn't going to underestimate him.

He knew Uriel was able to move faster than him without making a sound and wondered why would someone with that kind of power walk out of his cover. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, he realized by now that Uriel wasn't so stupid as to expose himself without good reason. He didn't know what kind of scheme was he going to pull, but he knew he had something up he sleeve.

"Grenade!" Easton shouted and jumped backwards just in time to dodge the object Uriel hurled directly at him.

"Nice call, Easton, you have to be careful when handling this...," Sneered a water user that crouched to pick up the round flat object that fitted in his palm. "You don't want to cut yourself!" The man broke into laughter and those around him followed suit causing a brief window of silence as they were unable to continue using their traits.

It made no difference if they stopped attacking for a few seconds, their victory was ensured by their numbers and power, or so they thought.

The laughter extended for a few more seconds as some hunters took the opportunity to mock Easton for whatever reason or for no reason at all and the joyful mood spread like a wildfire in the ranks of the society until a shrilling sound echoed in the dungeon.

For a moment, even the nearby cryptids fell silent and the only sound that could be heard was that of the broken mirror dropping to the ground after the water elemental user who held it used both hands to cover his eyes.

"What's wrong, dude, you scared us." Someone shook his shoulder trying to get him to stop screaming.

The water elemental user could barely contain his screech and turned back, revealing for a second the black cavities where his eyes used to be and the red streaks of blood that climbed down his empty eye sockets.

"Help..." His gasp cut short once his body hit the ground, then the same thing repeated nearby.

"Cryptid!" Easton shouted and this time no one mocked him.

A pale woman dressed in a white gown rose up a head above the group of enemies and became their new target. All sorts of projectiles flew her way, but because of the distance some projectiles interrupted each other and even other hunters.

"Retreat!" Easton commanded.

"We can still catch them, look!" A novice fire element user pointed towards Uriel who was now kneeling in the ground after enduring so many ranged attacks. Unfortunately for the novice, the white woman passed through his line of view and a searing pain coursed through his entire body.

"Who is she? She's kind of hot." Kalos asked Uriel after picking him up from the ground.

"Don't even look at her!" Uriel let out.

"Seriously!? Are you building a harem or something?" Despite Uriel's warning Kalos kept his eyes on the woman who now was laying waste to the witches.

"Listen to him, you dumb twig! That's a cryptid!" Bella scolded Kalos, then turned to Uriel with a look of admiration. "I can't believe it, you can summon cryptids too! It must be at least an entity rank! Where did you learn that spell? Can you teach me?"

"Just wait until you see his cat." Medusa chuckled thinking back on the first time she saw Uriel's jaguar spirit.

"There's no time for that, we need to get moving." Tate insisted before lacing Uriel's right arm to help him walk.

"Now that we're alone, this place doesn't seem so bad. Maybe should take the chance to kill some cryptids." Kalos proposed, thinking on how much he needed money now that his family was homeless.

Beyond the scarred terrain caused by the enemy fire, Kalos was able to see the beautiful terrain, colorful flowers and lush vegetation along with many beast rank cryptids that had run away as soon as the battle started.

One thing they all had in common, other than their rank, was that their appearance matched the cute and seemingly harmless appearance that added up with the many rainbow bridges in the distance.

"Sure, but not here." Medusa replied.

"Why not!? There's plenty of beast rank cryptids. Their flux orbs are cheap, but it's easier killing a thousand of those things than going to the next island where the creatures are more dangerous." Kalos wasn't in a rush to rescue her sister nor did he have any intention to go back to his family for one simple reason.

As long as his sister was alive, he knew he would never become the next guardian of the forest.

Without his father's money, there was nothing but responsibilities waiting for Kalos. That was the main reason why he courted Medusa since she came from one of the wealthiest families in the world. In his mind, as long as she learned he was a treefolk hybrid she would fall head over heels for him and he would be able to get his hands on her fortune with the added bonus of her stunning figure.

But all of his plans failed as Medusa made it clear she wasn't interested in him and he settled with just grabbing a few flux orbs.

"We can hunt here, but don't touch anything, don't attack the pupae laying around. They're cryptids, but if we alert them they'll hatch into iron butterflies. Oh, and whatever you do, don't kill the gray fluffy creatures."

"Who do you think you are to boss me around? Those things looks weak and I could take them on with a single sweep of a branch." Kalos snarled venting a part of his frustrations after being rejected by her over and over.

"I have more experience than you in this dungeon, so shut up and listen. Or do you have termites in your ears?" Medusa who was also pretty angry finally snapped and threw the first insult that came to mind.

"Look at you so high and mighty making fun of me. I'm not the one who stood still like a fucking target practice the entire fight. Even that witch was more helpful!" Kalos finally snapped out, the fact that a sworn enemy of witches pointed that out was painful, but what hurt the most was that he was telling the truth.

"It doesn't matter who she is, she's right and you should listen to her. Wind users are the only ones able to move freely across this dungeon and of all the things we've encountered, the most terrifying one are the cute cuddly gray things."

"How bad can they be?" Tate asked after spotting one of said creatures pouncing at a flower and falling on its snout, then sneezing in a funny manner.

"I forgot you're sort of new here. They have an ability to summon other cryptids and they will chase at whoever harms the little ones." Bella then fell silent as though trying to shake off an unpleasant memory which convinced even the stubborn Kalos to leave the beast rank cryptids nearby alone.