Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 761: Merman king Part 1

That night, Uriel went to the beach with the intention to repeat his routine like usual. After several failed attempts to kill the merman king he didn't hold much hopes of success, but he could feel he was getting closer with each passing day.

At first, fighting against the merman army vanguard was impossible and he needed to retreat after killing a couple merman even with the presence of his friends and the strength boost he gained from his dagger. Then he figured the time it took for them to recharge their water projectiles which allowed Uriel to keep fighting for longer without the need to keep Dash active all the time.

It wasn't until Luna was able to examine one of the corpses before it disappeared that she was able to learn the location of their flux orb, the purpose of their internal organs and the thickness of their skin. This newly acquired knowledge helped Uriel to defeat the cryptids in a single strike while it also allowed him to know more or less what to expect from them.

After that, all that was left was to learn their attack patterns to finally get close enough to the merman king to fire at him with his Magnum revolver, though even after all his effort that was as far as he managed to get since the bullets would cause no damage to the creature whatsoever.

Charging the shots with flux energy helped a little, but the little damage they caused was meaningless as the cryptid was able to regenerate himself.

It was a stalemate that repeated itself each night, but things were different on this particular night where the moon was nowhere to be seen in the sky and even the stars seemed to be turning their face the other way just to make the black of the night even darker.

Uriel's dim lantern moved across the beach at a speed that made Nika believe for a second he was using Dash, but at moments it became even faster to the point of almost disappearing from sight.

"So, we're just going to sit here? I joined this company to make money." Alice said with a pout, now uncaring of Uriel's progress.

"This is interesting." Said Luna in a monotone, though the meaning of her words couldn't be more ominous. If she found something interesting then it couldn't possibly mean anything other than danger.

"What is it?" Nika prompted the annoying huntress to speak.

"The merman king didn't show up tonight," She said pointing at the shore where the merman king usually awaited for Uriel to get close. "every time we come, it's been there. Always silent, always quiet and serene. This means something changed."

"Isn't it a good thing?" Asked Bella hovering in front of Luna.

"No, I just realized something. We come here every night to watch Uriel fight, not just to give him support, but also to learn anything we can about the merman. I think it's possible the merman king has been doing the same thing and that scares me."

***

Uriel roamed the shore killing anything and everything that crossed his path under the watchful eyes of his team, ready to jump in at a moment's notice. Now he was accustomed to running on sand he didn't feel heavy anymore and was able to perfectly aim the Red thread of fate directly towards the cryptids flux orbs, effectively killing them on an instant.

As effective as this strategy turned out to be, it had the downside of their flux orbs being wasted. Not that he had any choice, though, since mermans were far stronger than the beast rank cryptids Uriel was used to fighting against.

Whenever mermans attempted to use numbers against him, Uriel would shoot a flare to blind them for just enough time to slay them before they were able to recover. When they, instead, dispersed to fire at him from multiple angles, Uriel would return fire with far better precision.

It took him a long while to learn, but now he was in the best shape he had ever been in his life and became an adept combatant able to fight against hordes of creatures that could wipe an entire hunting party, completely on his own.

This newfound confidence was likely the reason why he dared to venture just a few steps into the water without noticing Luna signaling him to retreat. The result of this seemingly harmless blunder came faster than Nika could blink and before Uriel wanted to notice, a long fishing spear went directly through his hand, arm and chest tearing away the under armor like it was made of butter.

"Uriel!" Shouted Nika when she finally managed to get to his side, but the merman king slapped her away with a gesture fit for an emperor sending his minions away. Only she didn't move from where she appeared as the water beneath her feet had become solid like concrete.

It wasn't frozen, just eerily still and impossibly hard as though the weight of the entire ocean had shifted into that small portion of sea where the two hunters remained.

Alice and Bella fired away, one with her bow and the other with her trait, but despite channeling a considerable amount of flux energy their attacks amounted to nothing against the thick scaly skin of the cryptid.

'We're dead.' Uriel inwardly thought.

'Shit, we're dead.' Nika too thought to herlself as time seemed to come to a halt. They looked each other in the eye without actually seeing each other as their very lives flashed in front of their eyes, but that lasted only until a bright flash of light came off from the tiny Luna who had rushed in to help.

"Don't step into the water!" Uriel shouted, but it was too late as Luna was now caught by the cryptid's 'Sea Lock' skill.

A disgusting grin was drawn on the merman king's face, the scaly crown that crested his head shimmering faintly as it channeled enough flux energy to keep them locked for centuries and he retracted the hooked tip of the fishing spear, tearing through Uriel's internal organs in a violent burst of blood.

New novel 𝓬hapters are published on fre ew𝒆bnovel.com