Dungeon Raider System

Chapter 143 The monster under the bed

After breaking through the window, Uriel rolled down on the floor of the apartment to reduce his speed and he came to a stop right before hitting the wall. The light provided by his gas lantern shifted moodily because of the sudden movement, but thanks to the protective glass it didn't go off allowing Uriel to immediately spot the battered woman on the floor.

She was bruised and bloodied, but given Uriel's past experiences with skinwalkers he didn't rush to the rescue. Instead, he remained at a distance while pointing his gun at the woman.

"Where is it?" He asked the only thing that could prove to be helpful. If she was a cryptid she would try to distract him, but if she was a human she would immediately point him in the right direction. What Uriel didn't count with, was that the woman remained stunned in place while trying to gather herself.

Every passing second could mean the difference between life and death to both of them, but she lacked any experience in this sort of situations.

Instead of trying to get her to speak, Uriel closed his eyes and focused on feeling the presence of the creature. He wasn't so confident on his mystical sense, but given the state of the woman Uriel assumed his gut feeling had been right this time and there was a cryptid somewhere in the apartment.

Uriel remained like that for a few seconds until the hairs on the back of his neck bristled and he ducked out of instinct. Then, the sound of something moving too fast for its weight passed right above him.

"Mommy, another bad man came, I'm scared." A child's voice spoke from behind Uriel, but when he turned around to see there was nothing there. Then a scuttling sound, impossible to trace, resounded over the walls and the ceiling.

"Hey, what's going on? Say something!" Uriel yelled.

It was pointless. When the cryptid attempted to attack the young hunter that barged in, Kristina was able to see its true form for the first time. She had always thought it would look like her child but...

"That's not my son..." She fell into the depths of fear and her mind snapped. Find more to read at empire

Realizing he was on his own, Uriel pondered on whether he should close his eyes again or not. It would probably mean the cryptid would take another shot at him, only this time he would be ready, but he decided against it as his mystical sense wasn't that reliable yet and the risk was too high.

He scouted the whole place until he noticed the open door to the bedroom and once inside he spotted the red stain on the carpet.

'It's too much blood for a single person, but there's no one else here.' Someone already fell prey to the creature, but there wasn't even a small chunk of flesh.

All of that pointed towards that the cryptid's hideout was in that room, but other than the red puddle in the carpet and the splatter, it was just a regular child's bedroom.

"Closet or bed..." Uriel cocked the magnum and took a deep breath.

The deafening sound of a bullet being fired in such a small room hurt Uriel's eardrums, but that didn't prevent him from hearing the high pitch screech coming from under the bed.

"Got ya!" Uriel cheerfully exclaimed, but his joy would be short lived.

The bed started trembling as though affected by an earthquake and then slowly rose up in the air as the unsightly cryptid stood up from under the bed. Before Uriel could shoot again, the cryptid threw the bed towards him causing him to bang his head on the wall.

Dizzied, Uriel was still able to notice how the creature stumbled and limped as it turned around revealing its gruesome wound. From the front it was just a small perforation on its abdomen, but from the back it was possible to see a gaping hole caused by the powerful magnum bullet.

The creature was crippled, but far from being done. With every passing second the unknown cryptid regenerated and the wound closed, all the while Uriel remained in a daze after the powerful hit he took full on. Now Uriel finally understood what did Miss Dragonfang meant when she told him that firearms were useful, but that he would eventually notice their flaw.

Cryptids could regenerate their wounds. It was obvious, in fact, he'd seen it happen before when they faced against the first skinwalker. That alone was bad, but Uriel didn't miss the even more dangerous implication which was that the creature was of the entity rank.

Beast and monster rank cryptids could also regenerate, but a single shot from the magnum had never failed to end them.

Realizing how troublesome his situation was, Uriel mustered all of his strength and kicked the bed towards the cryptid who countered with a tackle that shattered it to pieces and broke through the wall dragging Uriel along with it to the bathroom.

Uriel was left out of breath and couldn't lift a finger, but his opponent had regained full strength and was in top condition. A crunching sound called for his attention and he tried his best to identify the source, though he would have preferred not to.

An odd black creature with round eyes the size of a fist and way too many limbs was looking back at him. Its maw was wide and covered in many hooked teeth as sharp as knives and it was busy chewing something, or rather, someone.

Little by little the creature started swallowing Uriel alive in a slow and torturous process, with every movement from the horrid maw his bones were shattered.

Uriel screamed as he tried to wiggle his way out, but with every movement all he accomplished was to have his skin torn apart by the hook fangs that wouldn't budge an inch. Uriel screamed until his voice ran out, then cried until he paled because of the blood loss, then he muttered a single word.

"Luna..."

But Luna wouldn't come, even if she was on her way everything happened too fast and time had ran out already. Uriel was dying, for the second time in his life.

[System notice] User's body functions are shutting down.

'No kidding.' Uriel inwardly scoffed.

[System] Activate Water warlock's blessing [Y/N]

'Yes!'

[System] Requirements not met yet.

'I'm being chewed to death and this stupid system decides to be an asshole and give me false hopes.' Uriel thought, a semblance of a smile was drawn on his face as the creature had mangled almost half of his body.

Uriel's mind drifted. Some people claim they would see their whole life pass in front of their eyes before dying, but Uriel was grateful it wasn't his case. His life was a painful recollection of misfortunes after all. The only good times he could remember were of the time he spent with his friends, with Mister Scofield at the library, with Nika, even with Water warlock...

'Why am I thinking about him now of all times?' He asked himself. 'That's it!'

He found the answer.