Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 940: Ancient, not old part 2

The game of ball progressed with renewed enthusiasm as both Luna and Nika had received the proper motivation they needed to really give their all while Medusa remained pouting by the corner as she didn’t even get the chance to participate. It wasn’t until ten minutes after without any sort of development that Uriel stopped the match declaring that nobody won.

Not a single light was turned on or mechanismt activated, which meant that whatever it was they did in the first place, they couldn’t replicate after.

"There must be something we can do to activate it." Uriel huffed while studying the carvings on the structure wishing to find the ancient equivalent to an instruction manual.

"Maybe you’re looking at it all wrong. What kind of soccer match would it be if it had just one player on each side?" Nika replied, her jagged breathing showing just how much of an effort she made trying to best Luna.

"What makes you think this is soccer in the first place?" Luna asked in a contemptuous glare.

"She does have a point though. What we call soccer nowadays is actually an evolution from the Mayan game of ball in which it was allowed to touch the ball with any part of your body, safe for the hands." Uriel replied receiving murderous gazes from both Nika and Luna.

"If you knew the rules then why the heck didn’t you told them to us?"

"It’s not about the rules," Medusa interjected. "It’s about activating this structure. But maybe Nika does have a point after all."

With that, they all stood in one side of the court and one by one several glyphs lit up in the distance and they read ’Dungeon Raiders’.

"This is it! It’s working!" Medusa jumped in joy as the grinding of underground stone gears announced they finally activated the structure, though Uriel’s attention was directed towards the glyphs under the name of their company.

"Raider, Shadow companion, Moonlight, Medusa and... Lightbringer too."

"Finally!" Sam’s muffled voice came from Medusa’s backpack and she promptly took the laptop out.

"Should we... You know, exorcise him from the laptop?" Asked Medusa awkwardly, holding the laptop as Sam made puppy yes through the screen, but unfortunately to them they didn’t get the chance as a new set of glyphs appeared on the board.

"We’re against the locals!" Said Uriel as a stone pillar broke through the ground and rose at around four meters tall. From the top of the pillar, ten marbles they recognized as entity level flux orbs appeared and started rolling down in a channel embedded on the rock in a spiral pattern from the top of the pilar to the ground.

From each flux orb, a tall creature emerged. Some were lean, others were bulky, and each took a position in the opposite side of the court.

"Definitely." Said Uriel as he started chanting the exorcism he memorized, followed soon by he girls who also started chanting.

The warriors looked at the scene with disinterest, which gave them the time to carry out the exorcism to the end in spites of Nika constantly mistaking the words and not long after Sam was set free from his electronic prison.

"What are they?" Uriel asked Luna at the same time Sam kissed the ground.

"They are... uhm... Not human, but also not cryptids." Luna informed as she studied the opponent team. They seemed to be wearing feathery clothes, though they actually came from their bodies.

"Alright guys, we don’t know the rules so let’s try to follow their lead." Uriel pointed at the opponents and although they clearly didn’t understand the language Uriel spoke, they certainly understood the gesture.

A leather ball appeared out of nowhere and before the Dungeon Raiders could even understand what went on, the ball flew at a high speed across the court headed directly towards their goal.

"Safe!" Luna declared after Nika used shadow blink to catch the ball in the last moment, thus preventing a point to be marked.

"This ain’t baseball!" Uriel complained.

"Hey, you said to follow their lead. Which means..." With a mischievous grin, Nika kicked the ball with all of her strength and it flew right to the enemy side.

Far from surprised, the opponents moved in the court to prevent the ball from going through and they started passing it onto each other as they advanced through the court.

They moved swiftly and with practiced coordination, but considering how small the court was their speed meant they could cover it in a matter of seconds.

Uriel had no clue if using traits was allowed or not, but he understood that without Dash it would be impossible for him to prevent the enemies from scoring points and without giving it a second thought he disappeared amidst sparks of blue electricity, though the opponent who had the ball quickly passed it on before Uriel could reach him.Uriel was fast, but he couldn’t possibly compare with the leather ball that boomed across the court like a cannon ball being passed on from player to player. With the opponent team being twice the number of theirs, the Dungeon Raiders were at a disadvantage.

It was at that moment that exorcising Sam from the laptop proved to have been the right decision as Sam used his Celerity skill to block the path of the enemy who carried the ball. This time the opponent also attempted to pass it on before they could steal the ball, but Nika used shadow tendrils to alter the course of the ball mid flight and sent it directly towards Luna who received it, albeit very ungracefully with her face.

"Ouch." She said with the same intonation she would use to read a grocery list and the ball was stolen from her by a rowdy looking figure, standing about three times her height.

"Luna!" The dungeon Raiders shouted in joined exasperation.

The enemy who had just stolen the ball from Luna prepared to perform a kick that was certain to score a goal, though his leg whiffed in the air as the ball wasn’t there anymore.

Thanks to Luna’s small size, she was able to easily bypass the enemies without them even noticing, keeping the ball under her control as she darted across the court and scored a point before she could be stopped.

[System notice] New title unlocked, winner of the ball game. Received after completing the trial of the ball court.

Before the message finished to sink in, the losing team had already knelt on the ground and a bright flash of light erupted from beneath them after which they faded into oblivion leaving their flux orbs behind.

"That was dangerous!" Nika exclaimed in horror as she realized the match was a suddendeath, in which the first point scored marked the winners and the losing team would be executed.

As though prompted by Nika’s words, Sam made the wings on his back appear and he took flight before he could be stopped by anyone. As he rose high in the sky, Uriel thought that although it wasn’t what he wanted, Sam’s actions where not unexpected. A sentiment shared by the others who also seemed disappointed.

It hadn’t been that long ago that sam was part of their team and had a great time as a tight group of friends, but it felt as though it was ages ago. They all were very different people from who they were back then, but a glint of hope still remained that somehow things would be how they used to be once again. And that hope disappeared along with Sam as he cowardly escaped from the site.

Or that was what they thought until Sam returned shortly after and exclaimed out loud as though he didn;t notice the disappointment in everyone’s faces.

"I spotted about three buildings in the direct vicinity of this place, two of them are heavily guarded by strong cryptids. We could take them out easily, but It’d take us some time and I figure should start with the easier one." Sam said.

"Sure," Uriel shrugged, then turned to Medusa masking his emotion by getting back to work. "Any findings?"

"Not really, but this technology sure is interesting," Said Medusa who instead of focusing in the game had been studying the workings of the structure all along. "Apart from the pillar that appeared, there’s a scoreboard, lightning, and not to mention whatever it was that killed all those cryptids..."

"Proto humans." Luna interjected.

"And how do they work?" Uriel pressed on what was truly important.

"No clue. I would guess it’s some sort of artificial intelligence, but without an interface it’s difficult to tell. Perhaps we should move on to the next one and see if we can find anything new there."

Uriel agreed as even though they could probably spend a year studying the structure making small discoveries with each passing day, such a safe approach was not something they could afford as what they needed was a breakthrough which they could only reach by studying multiple structures and contrasting their findings. It would save them years of research, thought no without risk.

Sam led them across the jungle with ease as he could not just tell the way by hovering over the trees, but he could also spot any cryptid with a precision both Luna an the jaguar leaked. Thanks to that, they were able to reach the next structure within minutes without encountering a single cryptid.

"This is the Temple of the caracoles" Uriel announced with a sense of prideafter recognizing the building despite not knowing what the structure was for, how to use it, or anything other than its cultural significance.

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