Dungeon Raider System
Chapter 728 - 728: Not prey Part 2

"So soon?" Elara rubbed her eyes as she woke up alerted by Nika's presence.

"Don't mind her, she's being a nuisance." Uriel let out a sigh.

"No, we seriously need to leave. Listen to me!" Nika blurted out in exasperation.

"Ok, I'm listening." Uriel said, though he closed his eyes and half snored prompting Nika to facepalm so hard it snapped him awake.

"Uriel, I know I may seem annoying at times..."

"All the time." Uriel replied.

"Fine, whatever. But hear me out. There's werewolves in this town!" Nika's words caused Elara to giggle like a child. "What's so funny?"

"Of course there's werewolves in this town, this is a werewolf town after all. Though, we prefer the term lycanthrope." Elara said.

"Did you hear that!? We need to leave."

"For flux's sake Nika! This is Luna's hometown, what did you expect?" Uriel grunted.

"But... they all behave strangely, even you! It's like they're being mind controlled! Have you spoken to Cassandra!? She's even dumber than usual."

"Now that you mention it..." Uriel said in a pensive tone.

"You're even sleeping right next to a woman you never met before. If before coming here I told you this was going to happen you would have said I'm crazy, but am I?"

"Yes, you are, but you do have a point. What's the deal with people in this town? I sort of guessed it was a werewolf thing." Uriel asked Elara who lingered for a few seconds before replying.

"It's true, after my husband passed away, may he rest in peace, I became the alpha and you could say I'm technically controlling their minds..."

"A-ha! I knew she was up to no good! She just admitted to it, let's kill her!" Nika shouted, causing Cassandra to dark inside the room in her werewolf form which was nowhere near as imposing as that of Luna and actually looked more like Amy.

"Calm down, would you? You too sweetie, go back to sleep." Hearing Elara's voice, Cassandra retreated in silence. "I didn't admit to anything. I can't control him because he's not a lycanthrope. Since you've lived with my Luna I bet you noticed a few strange things about her."

"Like the fact that she seems to be a quite and shy person but actually can't shut up, she speaks annoyingly slow and is completely dismissive of other people's feelings?" Uriel asked pointedly.

"No, I meant that she's prone to following her primal instincts," Elara explained. "I'm not sure about our lineage, but one thing I'm certain of is that we are, at least, part cryptid. This means we inherited part of their abilities, such as regeneration and higher flux recovery speed, but unfortunately we also inherited an innate weakness."

"It's not exclusive to lycanthropes, other races do have weaknesses too." Luna added as she poked her head from behind Elara.

"You were sleeping here too!?" Nika gasped, slightly unsettled by the uncanny resemblance between mother and daughter. Had she not known better she would have thought there was a doppelganger amidst them.

"Uhm... she's my mother. It's Uriel the one who shouldn't be here."

"It's not like I chose to sleep here, I passed out! If you didn't want me sleeping here then you should have carried me to my bedroom or something." Uriel grunted.

"I don't mind you sleeping here, what bothers me is that you're trying to steal my mother away."

"What is this weakness?" Uriel asked, though he already had an idea.

"Is that whenever someone puts a leash in our necks, our lycanthrope mind takes over. It also causes us to recognize whomever put that leash onto us as our alpha, which means we can't disobey them. Not just that, it also creates some sort of bond that allows the alpha to somewhat know how the other is feeling."

"Like me with my jaguar. It's weird because I know how it feels even at a distance, but his feelings don't affect me." Uriel nodded. Elara being forthcoming and honest about the secrets of her race was enough for Uriel to put his distrust to rest, but the same couldn't be said for Nika who noticed Luna wearing Atsa's necklace.

Without any meddling words she blinked into the shadows and attempted to take the necklace off, tough despite it being just a thin thread of leather with a wolf tooth tied to it, it didn't break.

"No, please..." Luna said faintly as she choked, though that prompted Nika to pull even harder.

"Stop what you're doing immediately," Uriel shouted, then went to Luna's side to comfort her. "you went too far this time, Nika."

"But she's wearing a necklace! She's being brainwashed!"

"I'm not. Contrary to most lycanthropes, my wolf side was always predominant. When I wear a necklace my human side takes over. Also, I put on the necklace myself." Luna said with a blank face.

"Why would you do such a thing?" Nika asked taken aback by Luna's revelation.

"Because I wanted to experience what is normal to you." She lowered her gaze.

"Then what about Cassandra? Why would you put your own daughter on a leash!? You're a monster, you definitely are evil!"

"Because she's damaged... when I found her she was a broken mess and it was the only way to give her a chance to recover. Lycanthropes can recover from injuries faster than humans, but we're just as vulnerable in regards to emotions or psychological problems." Elara said regretfully, then silence was made as everyone stared at Nika.

"Nika, it's incredibly rude to break into your host's room in the middle of the night and make baseless accusations. The least you can do is apologize." Uriel said without bothering to hide his hostility towards Nika who now felt as though she was in the middle of enemy territory.

"But... but... what about the weird animals!? I'm telling you, there's too many weird things going on in this town."

"What weird animals?" Elara tilted her head in a fashion much similar to Luna.