"What was that about?" Uriel asked not expecting an answer as after the tree like creature retreated everyone turned to murmur paying no attention to him.
"Uriel? Uriel, is that you!?" dusa's voice ca from within the protective circle of varied creatures and they began to part. For a second Uriel feared to see a disfigured version of dusa blending in with the creatures that surrounded her, but what he saw shocked him even more than he expected.
There was a completely normal looking dusa wearing her accustod blindfold and nothing about her was out of the ordinary. No, that wasn't what left Uriel speechless, it was the 'thing' he saw laying in the ground next to dusa.
Jon Hunter, the champion of humanity, was horribly disfigured, maid and wounded in all ways possible. His body a patchwork of what a human was supposed to be, the exposed muscles, arteries and even bone horrified Uriel, but the worst part of it all was that he was still alive and conscious.
"Good evening, nice of you to visit." Jon chuckled before attempting to drink from his already empty flask, then dropping his arm flat on the ground.
"Uriel, I'm so glad you're here! I was worried sick about you." dusa cried joyful tears.
"dusa... Jon..." Uriel attempted to speak, but couldn't part his eyes from Jon. Seen him like that left a deep impression on Uriel and it was the first ti he felt sothing different than hatred after looking at Jon.
"This isn't as bad as it looks... that old man did even worse a few years back." Jon said trying to make it sound as though he was fine, when he clearly wasn't. Just speaking was painful, but the coughing fit that followed was even worse.
"What happened to you?" Uriel asked, trying to keep himself from gagging when he noticed Jon's muscles tense up whenever he coughed.
"What do you think happened to ? It was your little friend who did this to . I don't know exactly what did he do, but instead of getting better my body is slowly consuming itself."
"Did you see a doctor?"
"I saw every doctor, but no one knows what is wrong with . It doesn't matter now, I'm done for. Take this stubborn girl with you and leave this place." Jon ordered.
"No! Uncle! I'm not leaving you!"
"Winnie, no, dusa, can't you see that you're all going to die if you stay near ? I can't fight, I can't even walk. I'm just dead weight."
"So, nothing changed. You're still the sa useless old jerk," Uriel nodded trying to get a reaction out of Jon, but he paid no mind to his provocation. Then, Uriel turned to dusa. "What's the situation?"
"Mister Alessandro helped uncle Jon enter the dungeon to keep him safe until he got better, but we couldn't stay because... uncle Jon, please tell him. You said you wanted to speak to him before."
"Yeah, that was before I knew I wasn't going to get better. I don't think this is the ti to speak about these matters, perhaps you can convince Mister Alessandro to fill you in later, but now you got to run."
"Quit bossing us around, we're not your employees. This is what I know so far, we're currently among different races of hybrids that remained hidden within human society for generations, which considering human culture and values probably resulted in more than one confrontation in the shadows.
From what I gathered at the second world, it seems that a society was ford of people with elental manipulation traits and they hoarded the knowledge about flux energy, traits, hybrids, skills and probably also cryptids for generations."
"That's... correct. But that's not all," Jon let out a sigh and then continued with a disgruntled attitude as he understood that Uriel wasn't planning on leaving. "As you said, they've been actively hunting hybrids for generations, but that's not even the worst part.
It seems that now they figured how to tell hybrids and humans apart from their blood, sothing that Alessandro told should be impossible."
"I don't think it's so simple. If what you say is true, then maybe they hold a connection with one of the dungeons I found before.
It was a small one and the strongest cryptid there was just a lizard, but there I found this." Uriel said as he produced an old photograph with just shapeless figures from his pocket thinking that it might be the last chance he would get to consult with Jon about those matters.
"This is..." Jon started speaking as he reached for the photograph, but Uriel quickly withdrew it.
"Easy there! This is mine and I don't want your thieving hands on it. You can look, but if you try to grab it again It goes back inside my pocket."
"Smart kid." Jon chuckled as he squinted his eyes to look at the picture.
"What do you think?"
"I've seen this before, it's nothing out of the ordinary." Jon said until he finally connected the dots. "Where did you say found this!?"
"In the remains of an old noble house near the Mississippi. I wasn't sure before, but now I'm fairly certain it belonged to alchemists."
"This goes deeper than I thought." Jon fumbled as his curiosity sowhat numbed the pain he was experiencing.
"I don't get it." dusa's head tilted in a cute manner prompting Jon to explain.
"This isn't just an old photograph. This is proof that people knew or at least believed that cryptids existed before the arrival. I think your friend... Luna would appreciate this picture." Jon paused for a brief mont to gather his breath masking it as though he was having a hard ti trying to rember Luna's na.
"She already saw it and thought the sa thing, but what is really interesting is that I found so figurines that depicted theriantropes..." The conversation went on for a while and every passing minute the sounds of gunfire in the distance beca more frequent.
"Listen kid, I get that you're curious, but you're just a slum rat without any family background.
Not trying to offend you, but if we're going to sit and talk about all the things you don't know this is going to take a long while and I'm afraid we don't have much ti." Jon spoke, which made Uriel realize that it was precisely because of how little ti they had that Jon was willing to share so much.
"Alright, I just have one question left and if you answer I'll take dusa and leave with my friends."
"For Pete's sake! You won't even let die in peace, you bloody bastard." Jon coughed up a mouthful of blood, though it was evident he found Uriel's behavior amusing.
"Who is that Pete you're talking about?" Uriel asked in confusion.
"Is that your friggin question!? Really?"
"Nevermind that, what happened to the army? When I tried to get back up from the abyss I noticed there were no soldiers around."
"They used the fact that the floating islands could be blown up to use the civilians as hostages, forcing the army to retreat from the dungeon. Before you ask, yes, both the army and the governnt knew about the existence of hybrids and the society from before."
With Jon's words, the last rays of daylight died on the horizon and the place beca silent for a minute. It was as though all the hybrids from the different races had made an agreent to remain frozen on the spot as soon as the light went out and for a mont, everything was peaceful.
Unfortunately, it only lasted until red glinting eyes appeared in uneven numbers in the distance. Those eyes varied in size, shape and so even in color, but one thing they all had in common was that each and every one of them was pointed directly at the direction where Jon lied.
It was made clear to everyone that no matter the distance or the absence of light, every single cryptid was capable of locating Jon.
Before Jon managed to insist on them leaving, Uriel headed towards his souvenir shop and bought as many gas lanterns as he could and passed them around.
"Interesting trait, mate! Do you happen to have any..." Before Jon finished speaking, Uriel threw a couple bottles of alcohol and an energy drink can his way. Uriel had no intention to enable his addiction, but he suspected a holy rank hunter wouldn't get drunk so easily, but even if that was the case, it might help numb the pain from his grueso wounds.
From what little Uriel learned on the field dic training course with Professor Lamar, he knew that Jon was far past the point where so patching up and a dose of serum could help. It wasn't clear what kind of wound he sustained, but Uriel had never seen sothing like that.
"It'll take a minute to get enough lanterns, but please ask everyone to carry one of this... or strap one of these onto them if their species doesn't have hands."
"Thanks, but I don't think this will make any difference. We're surrounded" One of the hybrids replied, completely disheartened.
"Trust , it will." Uriel's face was suddenly highlighted by the blue glint caused by the flux energy glinting on his eyes.
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