Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 946: The dark priestess

It didn’t take long for Uriel to understand the true reason why a pure heart was needed to enter the nameless chamber. He could feel an immense pressure that didn’t relate to flux, it was as though every action ever committed by him was being judged by one of the nameless creatures causing a feeling that far surpassed the level of uncanny, but although Uriel could feel it, he was not affected by it in the slightest. It was akin to a deaf person attending a concert, they would be able to sense music is being played and know where it came from, but lacking the capability to actually hear it.

It was a relief since vaporizing people was not beyond a dungeon’s capabilities. But not being disintegrated on the spot did not mean his situation looked bright either, as a single heavenly rank hunter fighting against two horror level cryptids was far from a fair fight.

Uriel had encountered several horror level cryptids before and faced some of them in a variety of circumstances, though now he didn’t have his trustworthy jaguar by his side or Nika as a support. He only had his artifacts and his wits to fight against vicious cryptids he barely knew anything about.

"I had a bone to pick with you anyway." Said Uriel as he climbed the last steps of the Kukulkan’s castle replica, or maybe the original. Not that he had any time to ponder about those matters as the nameless proved to be quite stronger than what he expected.

Uriel had seen them move on the outside world and they were slow unrelenting cryptids that would somehow always knew where he was, or so he thought. But inside the dungeon they were agile creatures that moved with robotic efficiency and would counter most of not all of his moves.

"This is not going to work." Uriel muttered to himself as the nameless he just cut in half somehow reformed itself in an instant. It didn’t take an expert like Luna to understand that it wasn’t healing or regeneration, but something entirely different. Something Uriel had never seen before and that left him astonished for just enough time to receive the brunt of a claw swipe from the other cryptid.

Uriel replied by cutting off his head with a single clean slash of the bastard sword, but the same thing happened. The sword made contact with the cryptid and while it caused damage, Uriel felt as if the blade barely encountered any resistance.

Frustrating as fighting against such opponents was, he did not have other choice as they cut his retreat path with disproportionate force only to go back to their regular power once Uriel decided to continue fighting. From his perspective, it looked as though the cryptids desperately wanted to keep him in that room while Nika could actually see what was going on.

"They’re playing with him." She covered her mouth in disbelief as she saw the fight from outside the chamber. All of her instincts told her that if she set foot inside that chamber, she would die on the spot and yet she found herself considering doing so anyway just to help Uriel. He was far superior in combat techniques to his opponents, his power and speed were also on another level, but Nika could see something Uriel couldn’t and that decided the end of the fight the moment Uriel entered the chamber.

It was something that only Nika could notice, not because Uriel lacked in experience or awareness. The reason why only Nika could notice it was because of her skill, or rather, it was a habit she caught after acquiring her skill. She would always keep an eye on the shadows of her opponents and those horror cryptids, they didn’t possess one.

"They’re shadows! You can’t kill them!" Nika shouted over and over until her lungs ran out of air, yet Uriel kept on fighting thinking victory was near, unaware that it wasn’t power what he lacked like usual, but knowledge.

"This shit is useless, I’ll ask Medusa to reforge this into a kitchen knife or something!" Uriel snarled after slashing at the two nameless in a single swing of the sword. The reach was perfect, the handle perfectly balanced the weight of the blade and the pommel felt exactly as comfortable with one hand as it did with both. This caused the sword to move exactly as Uriel wanted and it suited his combat style better than any dagger would, it was supposed to be the perfect weapon to fill the gap in his one weakness against larger opponents too, but nothing changed the fact that it did not work.

Even worse was the fact that whenever he attempted to activate the sword’s ability to redirect energy it just didn’t work, leaving him more puzzled and annoyed after each strike. Wounds piled up on Uriel’s back as whenever he turned to fight one of the nameless, the other would come at him. He tried everything he could think of with the sword before falling back to his usual revolver and dagger combo, but since he lost the advantage of a long weapon he also started receiving wounds on the front.

"Repeating the same thing over and over and expecting the same results is the definition of madness, but so is walking into a chamber with these two things." He said, but he was running out of things to try. From shooting directly at the creature’s eyes, to trying to cut off the claws of the other one. Nothing worked and nothing would work as they were nothing but shadows of the actual creatures that remained on the outside guarding the exit of the castle.

Uriel looked back at Nika as if expecting to receive some advice, not that he expected much from her as it was Luna the one who would usually come up with creative ways to deal with impossible cryptids. But he was shocked to see Nika was not there anymore.

’Did she attempt to enter and die? No, I would have sensed her. Did she... run?’ A familiar feeling of being abandoned crossed his mind, but only for a glimpse of a moment as the refreshing sensation of a deep wound painted on his back brought him back to reality.

Nika saw Uriel fighting a losing battle and she couldn’t take it anymore. She knew the horror level cryptids would be waiting for her outside and she knew she was no opponent for either of them, but that didn’t stop her.

She quickly made her way across the convoluted passages that depicted mysterious technologies that should have been developed in the American continent had the dungeon not been raided by foreigners and when she finally reached the emergency exit she heaved a long sigh before proceeding.

"I’m not the same I was back then." She said as she grabbed the Peacemaker from the holster and placed it tight to her chest at the same time she walked through the gate.

A shrill sound coming off the mouth of the blind nameless froze her on the spot while the stare of countless eyes by the other nameless left her unable to even think. It was the sensation of being naked in front of a crowd, humiliated and judged at the same time. She was confronted with the weight of her sins, her mistakes, her regrets, all at the same time.

She felt her body and mind being torn to pieces before she could even reach the opponents as they slowly walked towards her. One extending its arms towards her, with piercing eyes on its hands. The other with a wide toothy mouth that could chop off a limb with a single bite. Nika shook and shivered unable to take a step, unable to fight for her own life.

But this time it wasn’t her life she was fighting for, it was Uriel’s.

"How about I give you a piece of your own medicine." She grunted as she channeled more flux that she could control into the Peacemaker revolver. Just pulling the trigger took it her all and she couldn’t even aim at her enemies. The bullet, as expected, bounced off the floor and disappeared in the distance without causing any harm whatsoever.

But the effect of the peacemaker was immediate, even if they were at the horror level, the artifact somehow caused them to feel an emotion they were supposed to be unable to experience. It was the utmost fear, the same that Nika experienced every time she even remembered them.

Inside the dungeon, the two nameless creatures Uriel was facing suddenly stopped moving which finally gave Uriel a respite from the beating of a lifetime he was receiving. This allowed him to get a few clean hits and strikes at his opponents, with no effect whatsoever.

"What in the world is going on?" With Dash still active Uriel took a lap around the now frozen cryptids as he studied them in search for a weak point, until the system stepped in to give him the answer he wanted.

[System notice] The priestess has been chosen.

Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m