Dungeon Raider System

Chapter 81 : First men

Thinking he had fallen into another trap Uriel jumped backwards in haste, but even though the sound was similar, that wasn't the case.

Four man sized creatures lunged towards him. Their skin was gray with black veins all over their bodies, something Uriel was only able to notice thanks to their unusually slow movements. The sound of grinding stone encompassed their every move and dust fell from their articulations.

Uriel readied the high tech rifle he had been carrying for a while and shot aimlessly, enduring the painful recoil against his battered chest. He felt the pain of a thousand needles inside of his lungs as his cracked ribs shook violently, but Uriel gritted his teeth and kept his finger on the trigger nonetheless.

Bullets kept raining all over the place until the first creature in the formation crumbled into a pile of stone and red dust. Unfazed by the death of his comrade, the rest kept 'running' towards Uriel at turtle speed. Even though he was fairly certain these faceless stony creatures had to be cryptids, somehow he felt as if he had just killed a human being.

It wasn't just their anthropomorphic shape and that they moved just human beings only slower, something else bothered him.

"Three times the gods created men... first they made them of clay and stone, but they were too rigid and lacking on intellect." Uriel muttered as he remembered a passage from the Popolvuh, one of the last remnants of the old Mayan religion.

After witnessing first hand the marvels hidden in plain sight on the Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá he couldn't disregard their religion as nothing but an overactive imagination anymore. This meant the creature he just killed was most likely an ancestor of the human species.

None of that changed the fact that it was a fight or die situation, though.

Resolved to killing his enemies Uriel took a deep breath and pressed the rifle against his shoulder in an attempt to mimic the stance he'd seen Phlox, the corporal that left the army along with Miss Dragonfang, perform whenever she opened fire. This time the recoil didn't hit him too hard and it was also easier to aim. Thanks to this, another stone man collapsed.

Uriel still had some time until the remaining two stone men were able to reach him and he made good use of this time to practice his stance some more. He spread his legs and lowered his center of gravity, causing the recoil to be almost completely nullified, allowing him to take down another stone man with but a single bullet.

Needless to say, the only reason he could afford to practice was thanks to the sluggish movements of his opponents. With just one enemy left Uriel confidently aimed at its head and pulled the trigger, only this time all he heard was the clicking sound and no gunshot.

"The battery!" He said as he clumsily grabbed a tier 3 battery from his backpack.

Although slow, the stone man didn't give up in chasing after Uriel. Every step the stone man took made Uriel more anxious, the seemingly harmless creature was now a real threat as it was getting too close for comfort.

Uriel was a lot faster than the creature which meant he could have retreated and shoot at it from a safe distance, but the fear of blindly falling into a trap made it impossible for him to even consider this option.

Once activated, the battery charged the high tech rifle in a matter of seconds but it was already too late as the creature performed a seemingly impossible jump for such a heavy looking cryptid. Uriel managed to roll on the floor on the last moment, timely dodging the powerful stomp that would have killed him. He then pulled the trigger from behind, piercing the cryptid's skull.

"That was close!" Uriel leaned on the wall to gather his breath. His battle against the stone men had been slow, but dangerous nonetheless. "At least now I know how to properly use this thing." He patted his rifle, realizing too late it was red hot.

He squealed in pain and quickly retrieved his hand, but the damage had been done. A splotchy burn mark was starting to appear on his palm along with awful looking blisters. Without any means to apply first aid or even water to cool off the wound, Uriel had no chance but to slash his already tattered shirt to improvise a bandage.

It did nothing with the throbbing pain, dressing the wound was enough to allow him to continue using his hand in combat. Even if it was possible for Uriel to fire his magnum with one hand, that wasn't true for the rifle as it was too bulky.

He walked past the remains of the unknown creatures leaving behind the orbs as he didn't have the luxury of time to even think on crouching to get them. Being chased after by the nameless worked wonders to keep him focused on his escape.

The narrow passage he followed forked into two different paths, both clearly marked with the already familiar ancient glyphs.

The first one read the most beautiful message Uriel had read in his life: 'Emergency exit'. The other one, though, had a much more alluring one. Uriel couldn't believe his eyes as he read the single word that, in other circumstances, would have been a dream come true 'Xibalbá'.

The mysterious land of the gods and the dead. What lied beyond that road would probably be the answer to humanity's most ancient question 'What comes after death?', but Uriel was too close to death himself to worry about such matters.

'There's no point in trying to take a peek, after all, if those creatures catch up to me, I'll know everything there is to know about the afterlife anyway' A wry smile appeared on his face as he was forced to leave behind the chance to glimpse at what could be considered the most meaningful discovery a person could achieve.