Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 376: Taken Part 2
The jaguar spirit moved swiftly across the streets of the megacity of Texas, displaying its agility by dodging anything and anyone on its path. People poked their heads out of their windows to see what was the source of the commotion, but it was so fast they could barely catch a glimpse of the mystical creature, let alone the person riding on its loin.
Although the jaguar spirit was a summoned creature, it still possessed the characteristic field of disruptions characteristic to cryptids which meant that wherever it went, lights would go out albeit briefly.
Moving at an incredible speed allowed Uriel to reach his destination in a fraction of the time it would have taken him if he took public transport, perhaps if he used Dash he could have been even faster but that would have left his flux energy reserve completely empty.
"Where’s Nika?" Uriel asked Janett, the receptionist who was half asleep on the desk, but Uriel ran upstairs before she cold even greet him. It wasn’t until he reached the second floor that Uriel realized the pitiful state of his company. There were no guards at the entrance, no one was working the extruders on the smeltery and everything seemed in bad condition.
Stunned by the lack of furniture, appliances and peope, Uriel was left out of speech for a few seconds. But then he felt something small but heavy hitting him on the stomach with incredible force.
"I knew you would come back." Luna said holding on to him with all of her considerable strength.
"I can’t breathe..." Uriel let out.
"Look who decided to show up," Nika stepped in with a cocky smile and then continued. "To what do we owe this pleasure? Did you run out of money? I’m sorry, but our accounts are still frozen."
"I really can’t breathe..."
"Sorry, I got excited." Luna explained with a blank face that didn’t convey any emotion.
"Medusa was taken, we need to rescue her! Nika, mobilize the security team, Luna, call Miss Dragonfang and Amy. I’ll see if any of the Armstrong men are willing to fight."
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"Hold your horses, boss. I’m glad you came back and all, but it’s a bit too late. We were forced to fire everyone, Janett is the only one left because she’s technically a government agent."
"But I have some money, maybe if..."
"Maybe if you came earlier or if you asked us to wait we wouldn’t have fired them, but you left us with no choice. Most of our employees wanted to remain in the company even after telling them we couldn’t afford their salaries, but after our last chat I thought you weren’t coming back and figured there was no reason to hold on to this company anymore."
"Does this mean, we’re out of business?"
"Uhm, we’ve been out of business since we came back from Easter Island."
Although the loss of a company he didn’t care for and didn’t want in the first place sholdn’t have been meaningful to Uriel, it was. He felt as though all the memories he shared with his friends on that building were lost and that things could never be the same.
All he wanted was for things to be the way they were before. To wake up and meet his friends first thing in the morning, see everyone cooperating to make the company grow with a smile, to see Medusa working on the Pegasus or creating artifacts. Then he realized, it wasn’t the building, the company or even their job what he longed for, he just wanted his friends back.
"We can fix our company later, but you need to hear this. I just killed a skinwalker that impersonated Medusa, judging by its appearance it’s obvious that she was wounded at the time the cryptid took her skin and when I... questioned the cryptid, it spilled the beans. It’s ’mother’ has a prison where she keeps strong hunters to impersonate whenever they want and Medusa is one of the prisoners."
"That’s nonsense! We saw her the other day and she was perfectly fine." Nika replied, but Luna shook her face.
"Uhm, the first rule when dealing with skinwalkers is you can’t go by appearances. Maybe she was a cryptid when we last saw her. I have the theory that they feed off their victim’s skin and that allows them to take their appearance for a determined time that depends on the amount of skin consumed. This means that it’s highly unlikely that a skinwalker grabbed her skin and kept it for months.
If Uriel met a skinwalker that looked like Medusa, it would make sense that she’s being captive. Uriel, what do you mean by ’mother’?"
"The skinwalker referred to its ’mother’ when I asked some questions, I think it’s the horror level skinwalker I faced with Professor Charlie. But that’s not the worst part, the worst part is..."
"What are you guys up to?" Sam walked in and spoke casually, but he wasn’t alone.
"Uriel? What are you doing here!?" Medusa exclaimed after being startled by Uriel’s presence.
"You! I know what you did, Sam!" Uriel growled, but Sam remained calm.
"I don’t get why you’re so angry at me. If anyone should be angry, it should be me."
"Uriel, I wasn’t expecting to find you here, but I think it can’t be helped."
"Shut up, you’re a shapeshifter!" Uriel’s eyes became blue as he channeled flux energy, but before he could activate Dash Luna stood in front of Medusa and smelled her. Explore hidden tales at novelbuddy
"You have Medusa’s smell, but can you prove you’re the real one?"
"Of course I can!" Medusa said as she took out the silver crucifix Uriel gifted her. It worked as proof of identity not just because it was one of Medusa’s belongings, but also because shapeshifters were heavily allergic to silver.
Just when all the misunderstandings seemed to be cleared, Nika walked a step forward carrying a dead serious expression on her face. "That doesn’t change the fact that you’re not welcome here anymore, Mister Lightbringer, head of the Fallen corporation."
