Dungeon Raider System
Chapter 729 - 729: Not prey Part 3

Nika explained in detail what happened when she tailed the two hunters who ventured in the forest near the town and while Elara showed interest, she didn't seem concerned. At least until the part when Nika mentioned the strange behavior of deer. At that moment, Luna stormed Nika with questions about those creatures, but there was nothing more she could add.

"They can't possibly be cryptids." Elara said with confidence.

"I disagree. Although it's been mentioned in the lore that animals sometimes behave strangely when humans are not around and walking on their hind legs could be easily explained, it's impossible for herbivores to suddenly grow fangs." Luna said.

"That may be the case, dear, but it's impossible for cryptids to get anywhere near this town. There's several totems protecting this place and the barrier is holding strong." Elara insisted.

"I knew they were totems!" Uriel blurted out, then stormed Elara with questions she also couldn't answer.

"I have no clue how they work, they were built way before we moved in." She shrugged.

"Whatever the case, the fact that cryptids did get inside the protective barrier doesn't change." Luna persisted in her idea.

"There could be other explanations and we won't be certain unless we check the totems out... I meant to say the deer." Uriel corrected himself.

"I'll take you there." Nika declared.

"No, you won't. You already showed animosity towards Elara and your presence isn't welcome here anymore. Besides, I asked you to go back to the city along with Bella and you went against my orders." Uriel glared at Nika.

"But... I did find something you think it's worth investigating. That has to count for something." Nika pouted.

"Sure, it means I'm not going to punish you for being stubborn." Uriel replied.

"You were going to punish me!?"

"The fact that you remained here because you assumed I could be in risk was thoughtful of you, but doesn't change the fact that you did disobey." Uriel scoffed.

"What sort of punishment? Something similar to... you know, what you did with Elara..." Nika asked with her eyes glimmering in expectation.

"Get out!" Uriel shouted.

Elara went back to sleep while Luna and Uriel investigated the matter in person. Their first step was to find the hunter named Zac, though his appearance greatly differed from what they expected by Nika's recount of events.

He was skinnier than they expected him to be and his flux energy signature, albeit clearly of the ascended level, was weaker than the average of the townsmen yet he still enjoyed a good reputation and was considered one of the strongest members of the pack.

This was easily explained by the fact that, although he wasn't a strong hunter, his lycanthrope form was bigger than most which gave him an edge in direct confrontation and would have probably been stronger than the rest of the townsmen even if he didn't have a trait.

That, of course, didn't mean anything when compared to Luna whose lycanthrope form was not only bigger and more intimidating, but she also came from the direct line of the alpha. All she had to do to get him to follow her commands was to ask and Zac promptly took them to the same place where he spotted the deer behaving strangely, though he didn't know how did they found out about it so fast.

"I was thinking on informing Miss Elara in the morning." He said apologetically.

"That was a bad call, something like this could be an emergency." Luna scolded in her accustomed monotone.

"Cut him some slack, he just saw something incredibly rare. It isn't like he expected something like that to happen." Uriel said to Luna.

"Actually, it's been happening a lot lately and we've also lost some hunters. We've tried to get Elara to solve this, but she has been busy with..." Zac fell silent after he directed a meaningful glare towards Uriel who couldn't be bothered to answer and just gestured him to go away.

Dawn was closing in on them and they had little time to find the animals which meant Uriel needed to summon his jaguar for help and he decided it was best to keep his ability to summon the jaguar spirit a secret as always.

Upon being summoned, the cryptid opened its maw wide to roar in the ever impressing manner it used to, but Uriel swiftly shut his mouth with both hands prompting the poor creature to swallow its pride.

"Be quiet, we can't afford to get spotted. Find us some prey, but don't engage and just let me know where they are. Oh, and turn of your flames too, we don't want them to see you either." Uriel commanded and the jaguar spirit also known as Ocelotl disappeared into the woods with the same meek attitude a dog would have.

"Are you always so mean to your pets?" Luna asked.

"What pets? I don't have any." Uriel shrugged as they followed the jaguar spirit. It only took the huge feline a couple minutes to spot the exact same creatures Nika saw and Uriel readied himself to lounge at the creatures, but not before cancelling the costly summon of his jaguar.

"Wait... use your magnum instead." She said.

"Why? We haven't been spotted yet. I can probably take them both down before they even notice. If I fire instead, they'll just run away."

"We just need one sample and the other might be more useful as a live test subject. If it runs away we can always capture it, but there's no way to revive them." Luna said.

"But.."

"Just humor me." Luna insisted.

"Fine." Uriel did what Luna asked him grumbling under his breath. The bullet pierced through the creature's chest causing it to drop dead on the spot and one of them ran away, but against their predictions the last one didn't show any hint of fear and instead charged against them.

"That was close." Uriel said after firing his magnum, then swept off the blood that splattered on him.