Dungeon Raider System

The black dog that appeared from Uriel's shadow was about to bite on Medusa's calf and it was already too late to call for her attention. Aware that his aim wasn't that great and he could potentially hurt his friends, he was left with no choice but to try and block the attack with his own body.

The cryptid's maw closed on Uriel's arm, leaving behind a streak of blood as his very flesh was torn apart. He fell to the floor in pain, yet the black dog was far from over and it tried to finish the job by jumping on top of him.

Thankfully, Luna noticed Uriel wasn't in his position and turned at just the right moment to bash at the dog, giving Uriel the chance to stand back up and discharge his weapon. Being so close to the cryptid, he couldn't miss and the brain of the vicious creature splattered all over the place.

It was at that very moment that the last dog started shifting in front of everyone.

The fur in its loin bristled and it grew bigger. It became rabid and foam came out of its mouth, then its eyes started shimmering in red making it look much more like 'The black dog' Atomic saw when they were riding in the armored vehicle. The black dog now looked fierce and incredibly powerful, with broad limbs and a ferocious demeanor.

Unfortunately for Sam, he was the first one to see it after its sudden metamorphosis and he felt as though his heart was being compressed by an invisible force. Only he was able to see it all too well, a black mist came towards him and, despite trying to cover himself with his arms, the darkness went through him and entered his eyes turning them black for a couple seconds.

"Ack!" Sam fell to the floor rubbing his eyes as the cryptid's curse affected him. He felt a burning pain inside his body and, even though there wasn't any physical harm, he felt as though he was in the brink of death.

Now that there was only one black dog standing things should have been a lot easier, but that wasn't the case.

Much to their relief, Instead of fighting against the newbie hunters, the black dog turned on its tail and ran away leaving them no time to react. All the while Sam knelt on the ground clasping his chest in pain.

Although Luna saw Sam's condition, she deemed Uriel's wounds to be more important as he was bleeding a lot.

"I'm fine, go help Sam" Uriel muttered gritting his teeth.

To Medusa's surprise, Luna did as Uriel asked in spite of his gruesome wound. At the moment she couldn't understand why would she prioritize treating Sam even though Uriel's condition was much more urgent, but it all became clear when two things happened.

First, Uriel's wound started closing on its own right in front of her eyes. The process was slow, but it was still at a speed visible at naked eye. Medusa had many questions she wanted to ask Uriel but then Sam started suffering from seizures and she missed the chance.

Sam's whole body trembled and became rigid, he was also drenched in sweat and his breathing became jagged. Luna made sure he didn't bite his tongue, turned him on his side and kept him in place to prevent Sam from injuring himself.

"It did something to me, I saw it..." Sam said, still struggling to breathe.

"What did it do to you?" Luna asked, seemingly unconcerned by Sam's well being and more interested in the cryptid's ability.

"The damned thing started growing and I was staring at it, then it shot something weird at me. I tried covering my eyes, but it got me anyway."

"I didn't see anything, can you describe it?"

"It was... like a weird shadow." Sam replied. Now he was in much better condition, it was as though nothing happened and he stood up with ease.

"This is strange..." Luna muttered as she took her distance from Sam. "Strange indeed."

"Don't do this, Luna, please tell me what did that thing do to me!" Sam cried.

Now that there weren't any immediate threats the party regrouped and Luna began her explanation.

"Last time I told you all I knew about the lore, but after examining their corpses and seeing what happened I believe I know what's going on. The black dogs are beast rank creatures that reproduce by cloning themselves and they have a simple, yet incredibly powerful ability: When they die, a part of their flux passes on to the closest members of their pack."

"That makes sense, they did become a lot stronger. But how does knowing something like that helps us now?" Uriel asked.

"Uhm, no one knows for sure how do cryptids reproduce, where do they nest, why do they attack us and such but, I have a theory. There are cryptids that only attack humans, while others attack other cryptids too, in a sense, they're similar to herbivore and carnivore creatures."

"So, you're saying we're like a salad to them. 'Herbivore cryptids target only humans, while 'carnivore' cryptids also hunt other cryptids." Medusa nodded knowingly.

"You're an idiot, but yes." Luna meant no offense with this as, in her mind, she was simply stating a fact, but Medusa was deeply hurt by her words. Nevertheless, Luna continued her explanation uncaring. "The reason why cryptids are so voracious is because they can evolve. By consuming humans and other cryptids they become stronger and when they reach a certain point they become something else."

"I get what you're saying. In this case, as their numbers were reduced they became stronger. That caused the last two to evolve, which apparently gave them the ability to merge with the shadows and, when there was only one left, it became even stronger.

If a regular black dog is a beast rank, the one who can merge with the shadows is a monster rank, it would mean that the last one is an entity level cryptid." The group was thankful for Uriel's explanation as he spoke more clearly and a lot faster than Luna.

"I can only assume that the entity level black dog's ability is something like a curse that affects those who see it. We can't disregard centuries of lore stating the fact that those who lay eyes upon block dogs meet their death, besides, Atomic may have fell victim to it unknowingly." Luna theorized.