Dungeon Raider System
Chapter 829 - 829: Shadow of the Pegasus Part 2

It took a few minutes and a bucket of water for Miss Dragonfang to regain consciousness, though the moment she opened her eyes she almost fainted right away as she remembered what Uriel just told her. Had anybody but Uriel told her gods were real she would have not believed it, she even saw one with her own two eyes and simply assumed it was a cryptid similar to the one that brought Uriel and his friends together during their first incursion.

But she knew Uriel was not joking about it, but that implied she had committed one of the most heinous sins a mortal could.

"I just ordered to open fire at a god...," She shivered. "does that mean I'm evil?"

"If it makes you feel better, that thing was not friendly at all." Uriel chuckled. If Miss Dragonfang's shenanigans were annoying to him in the past, after being apart for such a long time the fact that she was still the same person was refreshing.

"But I don't want to go to hell," She insisted, then took a pause as an idea hit her like a brick. "or could it be that we all are already in hell and we just don't know about it."

"That's just nonsense." Uriel grumbled.

"No, no, she has a point," Nika butted in. "I dare you to name one genuinely good person that cares about other people without selfish reasons. Just one. I don't think I've ever met anyone who could be considered good."

"Medusa." Uriel replied unblinking.

"Look who still has a crush." Nika said in a mocking tone as she waggled her eyebrows.

"Shut up, she's the best of us and you know it."

"There's also children..." Kristina also joined the conversation.

"Nah, kids are evil incarnate. They only care about themselves and use emotion to manipulate adults. Don't mix up naivety with kindness." Uriel said.

"About Medusa... I wouldn't be so sure." Miss Dragonfang said somberly as her eyes became devoid of emotion.

"I guess we have a lot of catching up to do, don't we?" Uriel said with a wry smile.

"To make a long story short, we got fucked in the behind and not in the fun way." Phlox scoffed.

"No joke, you look like shit." Nika laughed, yet Phlox didn't let it go and they started butting heads in the background as Uriel continued speaking with Miss Dragonfang.

She explained how after they dropped off Medusa to see her granfather who was sick, she decided to stay with him and break all ties with them. Jon of course stayed with her along with Seiren. If losing such a great portion of their manpower wasn't bad enough, they were also cut off from Uriel's bank account which forced the Dungeon Raiders to hunt.

At first they tackled pretty much every cryptid they could find, but they were scarce and more powerful than the ones in their country. To make matters even worse, without a cryptozoologist they were in the exact same situation all other companies were, only they were in a foreign country where people didn't know or even liked them.

"The first time we ran into an entity level cryptid we lost Longlegs..." Said Dragonfang with an upside down frown.

"How did it happen?" Uriel asked, thinking on ways to compensate her family for her demise.

"It was a big monkey thing and it wasn't armored or anything, but it took us the entire day to kill it. Our weapons caused a lot of damage but as long as there was a tiny ppiece of flesh that damned thing popped back up like nothing happened. In the end, Phlox returned to the ship and fired our plasma cannon and that did the trick."

"And Longlegs?" Uriel asked.

"She grabbed her share of the flux orb that dropped and quit the next day." Miss Dragonfang poked her tongue out. Uriel was not amused by her joke, but if she joked about that he figured things were not so bad.

"What about Emma, Amy, the Armstrong family and the rest?"

"We lost some to other corporations, but they're all fine. It was just that we could barely afford to stay afloat, especially after what happened in Spain. Those bastards thought they could get smart with us, but Medusa showed them."

"Did she really kill a holy rank hunter? Is that why you said she's not a good person?" Nika asked with Phlox on a deadlock.

"She did way more than that. It was awesome and terrifying... but that guy had it coming. The reason why I'm saying that is because she refused to help us. The Medusa we know and love would have never allowed her 'baby' to look this bad and yet here we are, flying what is essentially a ghost ship now. We don't have comms, our hull has more holes in it than Swiss cheese, we don't have much in storage and pretty much the only thing that still works fine is the plasma cannon Medusa installed before abandoning us."

"If you don't have comms, then how did you hear our distress signal?" Uriel was more puzzled by the second, but this time Phlox was the one to answer.

"Oh! We heard you, Boss. That was a pretty nifty trick, you have to teach us how to speak that loud."

"One last thing before I hit the bed, what is the deal with those clothes?" Uriel spoke ever so calmly, yet anybody who knew him would immediately understand they were in trouble.

"We only did what you taught us, pride is for the living and all." Miss Dragonfang shrugged.

"It wasn't easy to convince the others, but we erased our logos, took the banners off and grabbed Mapple corp. uniforms from some generous corpses. Then we posed as Mapple corp. employees to borrow supplies and money from a remote megacity to the east. It also helped to deter people who wanted to steal what little we had from us." Phlox said to which Dragonfang added with determination.

"This ship may be a piece of junk now, but it's our junk."

Pride being for the living made Uriel feel more alive than ever. He was so proud of his crew for doing whatever it took for them to survive he wasn't even bothered some of them quit. In most circumstances it would have been considered a betrayal, but in this case they were left completely on their own by their superiors and did only what they needed to do to survive.

Not just that, those who remained loyal didn't just survive. In spites of the appearance of the ship they somehow managed to thrive in a foreign continent that proved to be a challenge not just anyone could endure and came to the rescue without hesitation the moment they heard his voice.

"I'll hit the sack now, don't wake me up until we're in Spain."

"Spain? Don't you mean the England?" Phlox asked, yet Uriel was already well on his way towards his room.

Rewarding his crew was Uriel's top priority, but in his current condition even staying awake was a painful endeavor. Hunters, albeit much more resilient and powerful than regular humans, also had physical needs they needed to fulfill and Uriel was craving some sleep and contrary to Luna who was able to doze off immediately in almost any circumstance, Uriel suffered from night terrors.

Sleeping was a chore for him, but one he needed to perform if he wanted to be in optimal conditions and he needed to be in top shape if he wanted to make his plans succeed.

Unfortunately for Nika, her participation in the fight was crucial but not enough to excuse her from performing her duties. If Uriel was the boss and she was his shadow, that meant it fell upon her shoulders to submerge herself into the nitty gritty of the company's affairs while he rested.

She took a look at their updated list of employees, their poorly managed budget and their travel log. Then, she went on to compile all the incident reports to get them ready for Luna whom she knew would be more than ecstatic to learn about all the new cryptids the Dungeon Raiders encountered in their absence.

"Thanks," She said as she drank a cup of coffee that came to her hands in a single gulp. It was bitter and hot, precisely how she would describe the maid who just served her coffee. "you're still around?"

"I will excuse myself if my presence is bothering you." The maid said with a slight bow showing two things that unsettled Nika. First, there were no clothes beneath the Mapple corp. long coat she was wearing and second, there was a strange bump on her head that looked fresh.

"That's not what I meant, I mean... you, are you Okay?" Nika got entangled in her own words as she also didn't know what she meant by that.

"I am fine, It's just regretful that I was kept from Master for such a long time and now he politely told me I can't join him in bed." She let out the last part in a bitter sigh.