Dungeon Raider System
Chapter 834 - 834: Matters of the heart Part 4

Nika exited the room as per Uriel's command not knowing she would appear in the hall directly in front of none other but Medusa herself. The Mapple corporation uniform covered Medusa's body and she kept her usually wild hair neatly tucked beneath a beret and even her face seemed different from last time Nika saw her yet her crimson eyes betrayed her identity.

The sunkissed huntress didn't know what to say and due to her shock she missed how Medusa went to press the alarm button. This, however, was not the silent alarm that would just call for the security division's intervention but the actual full panic mode alarm one would use only in extreme cases.

Alloy shutters that were thankfully see through began falling down one after the other in a sequence that depended on where was the alarm pressed. A simple yet much needed measure to prevent people from being sliced in half by the heavy metal curtains that weighed much more than a regular heavenly rank could endure.

"Why?" Nika let out in a gasp after crossing to Medusa's side thanks to her trait.

Medusa refused to give an explanation and remained silent, her eyes fixated on the way she was certain Uriel would come from. She didn't look sad or even troubled by the situation, it was as though she had expected it from the start and knew exactly what would happen.

Uriel showed up at the speed of a lightning thanks to his Dash skill just as Medusa had anticipated. Medusa's apparent calm wavered for an instant when she noticed Uriel wasn't looking her in the eye.

"I would never use my trait on you." She sighed with a wry smile.

"You can't blame me for being careful. I see you are wearing the Mapple corp. uniform, it's a shame I don't have anything fun to look at now," He said jokingly expecting Medusa to become at least flustered and when that didn't happen a sad smile appeared on his face. "you know I can bash that flimsy alloy curtain down."

"I know, I also knew that Nika would be able to pass through them, but now you are facing a choice. If you don't want your zeppelin to be destroyed, you need to..."

"Zeppelin? It's not just a zeppelin, it's your baby, remember?"

"That kind of emotional manipulation won't work on me anymore. Besides, that thing is just junk put together with duct tape and prayers. Now I'm with the Mapple corporation I can build ten ships, better in every sense of the word." She scoffed with such coldness it bordered in cruelty, but if at that moment Uriel looked her in the eye he would have immediately noticed speaking every word was painful to her.

Unaware of her inner turmoil, the words that came out of her mouth along with her cold demeanor caused Nika to arrive at the only conclusion that made sense and she passed a trite to Medusa, who caught it in the air and retrieved it.

"I'm not a skinwalker." She sneered.

Uriel now faced a choice. He could either bash at the alloy curtain that kept them separated or do the same on the exit, but he didn't have the luxury of time or excess flux energy to do both. At that moment he realized this was a calculated move on Medusa's part and knowing her, he wouldn't put past her that she could even activate some sort of self destruct mechanism, yet he wasn't worried.

"Cut the crap, you're coming with us." He looked her briefly in the eye both showing he was not scared and that he meant it.

"Leave, die, it's your choice. Staying is my choice and there is nothing you can do about it." Medusa shrugged dismissively.

"It wasn't a question, you're coming with us whether your like it or not." Uriel said as he crouched.

Medusa knew all of Uriel's tricks, he would summon the dagger in one hand, the revolver on the other then bash at the door like a madman. He then would try to get her to drop her guard and Nika would be the one dealing the first strike, only for it to be a deception and Uriel would probably finish by summoning the jaguar.

"Go on, summon your cat and see how he fares. I won't use my trait on you, but I can't care any less about that thing." Threats usually went over Uriel's head as he didn't care about what people said and only reacted to their actions.

Most people assumed he became violent after becoming a hunter, but nothing could be further from the truth. The reason why Uriel always chose an aggressive approach was due to him being raised on the slums where the difference between life and death usually lied on how far was someone willing to go. It was a sickening game of chicken where the one with the advantage was always the one with less to lose.

Medusa threatening him would have been one thing, but his Jaguar was a different matter entirely. Up until that moment it never crossed Uriel's head that something could kill his jaguar as he saw him as a powerful entity cryptid that could take on other cryptids at his same level with ease and even withstand a round against some of the most powerful cryptids Uriel encountered. But he learned in Madrid that Medusa's trait was now at the level of petrifying a holy rank hunter, making it clear that if he summoned the jaguar it would be for the last time.

Uriel freezing up before a fight broke out was odd, but him not noticing the security division alerted Nika that he wasn't on his right mind and she decided to take matters into her own hands by placing herself behind Medusa after which she grabbed the Peacemaker from its holster and fired a warning shot before pressing it to Medusa's forehead.

"One more step and I'll paint the walls with her brains." Needless to say, she was bluffing, but the hunters from the security division that showed up had no means to know that. That, along with the Peacemaker's ability to intimidate the enemy made the enemies stop in their tracks despite them being among the strongest hunters in the Mapple corporation.

Tthe weakest member of the security division was an elite soldier just as strong as Nika while he worked as the head of the bodyguard division on the corporation. She knew that overpowering them or even outrunning them was useless, but Uriel had no clue about it which is why as soon as Nika opened fire he lunged at them.

Mid race Uriel noticed a young man taking a couple steps forward to intercept his strike with complete confidence meaning he considered himself stronger and faster than Uriel, but that turned out to be the wrong decision as Uriel activated Dash and hit the man in the face with all of his might.

The man flew past his companions, though they didn't seem bothered by it. The field medic even seemed annoyed he had to go check on the fallen member of their team while the ranger of the unit grabbed her dual pistols and turned the safety off with clicking sounds.

"Easy there," Nika said as she tightened the grip on Medusa's waist. "just let us leave and no one will get hurt."

Instead of the security division backing down, the woman burst into laughter so violent she found herself gasping for air. "You want to take Miss Winona as a hostage!? Good luck with that." A smirk appeared on her face before pulling the trigger.

Uriel was more than accustomed to receiving bullets and though it hurt, it was nothing he could not endure with sheer will. However, each of the bullets that hit him carried an electrifying effect that dulled his movements, causing him to trip and fall face first on the ground. Nika took some distance from Medusa just to gauge her reaction, but it became clear she wouldn't intervene. Not even when a burly man was about to stomp Uriel on the back of his head.

Nika then pushed Medusa to the front before disappearing into the shadows, emerging at the right moment to stop the stomp with a hand, adding a counter kick to the face just because she could.

"Thanks for that." Uriel said, after realizing the bullets poked holes in his skin leaving the muscle bare and had scorching marks around.

"Yup, that's why we should be careful against advanced weapons." Nika chuckled, then readied her stance after receiving a nod from Uriel that told her he was now allowed to use her shadow armor. It consumed a good chunk of Uriel's flux reserve, but he had a contingency plan for that.

Uriel darted forward, this time brandishing the Red thread of fate ready to kill whatever stood in his path to hopefully recover more flux than Nika consumed in her wasteful skill. He wasn't particularly fond of the idea of starting a war against the Mapple corporation, but he figured the time for second guessing had come to pass and if he didn't fight to his fullest he would not live to see another dawn.