Dungeon Raider System

After exiting the passage and reaching a place he'd been before, finding the exit became a matter of time. Unfortunately, time was against him because now that he was carrying the maid who betrayed him, the nosferatu was faster than him and she wasn't letting go.

Killing her would solve this issue, but it felt like a disproportionate punishment for something he brought on himself. Nika warned him before of his naivety and he thought he grew past it already and yet, he still trusted a complete stranger would help him escape when there was nothing to gain for her.

Besides, if he was on her shoes he might have done the exact same thing and he felt some empathy towards her.

"You can let go now." Uriel let out with a jagged breath after cancelling Dash. Carrying weight with his skill active was extremely tiring as he needed to apply much more force than the usual.

"No, please! You'll run away as soon as I let go." The maid cried and held on even tighter.

"Fine, you can keep holding onto me, but I'm not running away. If you're staying, you'll have to fight too." Uriel shrugged his shoulders as though giving in to her demands.

"Against that creature!? It regenerates, flies and it can also turn off any source of light!"

"It can't regenerate anymore, the ceiling here is too low for flying and I made sure it can't put out the flares. If I can't defeat it here, I won't be able to do it anywhere else. Running any further will only be a waste of time and flux." Before Uriel even finished speaking the maid had already turned to leave.

It wasn't unexpected, but it left him a bitter aftertaste that lasted for just a few seconds.

"If I make it, I'll owe you my life... I won't forget that." The maid said after turning her head back for just a second before disappearing into the dark halls of the vampire lair.

Uriel knew the vampire was getting closer by the second and he wished he had more time to prepare a trap like the one he used to kill the rougarou in the wetlands, but there would be no point in laying a wire trap if the cryptid knew it was there.

Thankfully, Uriel knew his fair share of human history thanks to his studies as an archaeologist and that included all sorts of artifacts of war and traps.

Since the nosferatu was able to hover over the floor, any kind of fall trap would be useless. Its skin was also probably too tough for a spike trap and hitting it with a boulder would cause little to no damage. In the end, Uriel decided to lay a single wire trap tied to a flashbang towards the exit in case he needed to fall back.

A shrill sound announced the arrival of the horror rank cryptid and Uriel hurried to place as many flares on the ground as he was able to. Spending so much money hurt him a lot, but not as much as a horror level cryptid could. Then, Uriel started blindly firing his magnum to cause as much damage as possible before the enemy arrived.

Uriel couldn't see beyond the dark threshold, but judging by the sounds he heard he realized more than a couple bullets hit the mark and he smiled faintly, until the dark visage of the nosferatu appeared in front of him.

This time it didn't speak and jumped directly on the offensive with a slash Uriel dodged with ease thanks to Dash. The vampire followed then with another slash, but this time Uriel used his dagger to block causing metal sparks against the blackened claws.

Both attacker and defender were thrown off a couple meters and the cryptid felt into a confused state as it wondered what kind of weapon could withstand its sharp claws, but it was now Uriel's turn to strike and he lowered his center of mass to increase his acceleration.

By the time the cryptid wanted to realize it, Uriel had maimed one of its legs. The cut was so clean the nosferatu didn't even feel the pain, only the blood loss that came after which sent it into a frenzy. The precious red liquid was the source of its life and for the first time in centuries he was losing buckets of it.

Uriel's mouth gaped when he saw the impossible amount of blood that gushed out from the cryptid, but that didn't stop him from pressing his attack even further and he attempted to do the same with one of the cryptid's arms, but in spites of being frenzied the cryptid was smart enough to dodge instead of blocking the incoming attack.

The vampire and the hunter became entangled in a fight of speed where the latter had the upper hand. For every strike the nosferatu landed, Uriel was able to kick him twice, but the cryptid was now wary of the dagger and didn't let him come close enough for a clean slash. After losing a limb, the nosferatu knew it was one stab away from losing the match which seemed more likely as time passed.

None of them had any regenerative abilities and the cryptid was losing too much blood to fight at its best. It seemed as though the fight was about to come to a happy conclusion for Uriel who had the advantage in speed and damage, but that only lasted until Uriel received a grim notification by the system.

[System notice] Battery level low.

Uriel's flux energy was almost depleted which meant his Dash skill would be deactivated at any moment. In regular circumstances it wouldn't be so bad since he could take small breaks during battles. Not just that, now he also had the dagger that drained the enemy's life force to replenish his own, but that didn't matter if the cryptid didn't let itself be stabbed.

'If that useless cat was here...' Uriel wishfully thought, unsure if he wanted the help of his spirit or if he wanted to stab it to replenish some flux. Thanks to their bond, the jaguar spirit was able to tell Uriel's feelings which may have explained why it didn't show up at that moment, but Uriel knew how badly the jaguar wanted to kill the nosferatu.

Thinking about the jaguar made him wonder what happened to it and why it didn't show up before, but his thoughts were cut short when the last remnants of his flux energy ran out and the Dash skill was deactivated.

"You're not so bad for an old geezer." Uriel scoffed in a desperate attempt to buy time, but the vampire didn't reply. There were no traces of the chatty and polite creature that made Uriel think for a moment that humans and cryptids could coexist.

The thing in front of Uriel was nothing but a bloodthirsty vengeful monster and the only sign of intelligence it showed was how careful it was not to get hit by the dagger.

Realizing that speaking to the cryptid was useless, Uriel braced himself for impact and attempted to block the incoming attacks. With Dash active, the vampire slashes followed a pattern Uriel had no trouble figuring out, but now it looked like a chaotic flurry of attacks he had no chance of blocking.

Blood spurted out from the many wounds caused by the gnarly claws of the vicious cryptid and Uriel fell backwards towards the entrance. He extended his arm as far as he could and with the tip of his finger he managed to activate the trap, causing the flashbang to go off and blinding the cryptid for just enough time for Uriel to stab it in the heart.

The sharp tip of the 'Red thread of fate' grazed the horror's flux orb within the vampire's body, causing a fathomless pain no human could understand. Except maybe for Uriel, who up to that point had experienced death many times without the sweet relief of the nothingness.

The nosferatu writhed in pain and cried to the top of its lungs as it fell to the ground, carrying Uriel along since he wouldn't let go of the dagger. With every passing second Uriel's wounds regenerated and the vampire became weaker, to the point where all the latter could do was to poke its disgustingly long tongue out to drink the spilled blood.

But no matter how much it tried to fill itself, its many open wounds had turned it into a broken vessel and without the ability to regenerate it reached its end.

[System notice] New title acquired: Vampire slayer.

"Finally something that doesn't make me look like a bum or a criminal." Uriel let out in a sigh, then he hurried to grab the horror level flux orb fearing the jaguar might come from out of nowhere and snatch it from him.

[System prompt] Consume horror rank flux orb (Y/N)

"Yes." He replied with a smile.

Horror rank flux orbs: 2/10

"What!?" Uriel shouted in utter disbelief, not knowing if he somehow killed a horror cryptid without noticing or if the system granted him a freebie. He was so exhausted, though, he didn't care to look a gifted horse in the mouth. All Uriel wanted now was to grab something to eat and take a shower.