"That is... uhm... dumb." Luna replied nonchalantly.
"But..." Uriel attempted to rebuke and Luna cut him short.
"I have been watching your fight and while I agree that if you breach the rules of chivalry you will likely trigger an ability, if you continue fighting in its own terms you will end up dying." Luna pointed out and Uriel had to agree.
He had been playing on the defensive and relying solely on the few cuts he managed to land on the horse to replenish his flux energy with the Red thread of fate, but if things continued like that he would end up getting exhausted way before the cryptid ran out of flux.
"Even if you were to defeat it, it can simply jump to the next host and everything will start over." Luna added.
"That's it! I should make sure the bandits are all dead!" Uriel said, a rciless glint on his eyes as he scanned his surroundings, but the battle still raged and albeit repetitive, his physical exhaustion was making it increasingly more difficult to dodge.
"Useless, there might be more potential hosts than we can see. Besides, it may still be able to possess the corpses. My theory is that the armor feeds on anyone who wears it and if you break the rules of chivalry, you will end up wearing it. My running theory is..." Luna went on a rant that Uriel couldn't afford to listen so he simply asked.
"How do I defeat this thing!? I thought this thing was throwing the fight, but this isn't looking great anymore." The more ti passed the more difficult it was becoming to dodge the very obvious attacks.
"Are you accusing of going easy on you?" The knight raged in a scream and bashed once more at Uriel who dodged the heavy sword by a hair's breadth.
"I guess that is not correct, uhm.... why did you think so?" Luna asked.
"Oh, I don't know, maybe because it's been doing the sa thing over and over!?" Uriel answered with a jagged breath.
"Is that sarcasm? I honestly can't tell." Luna pondered, then ca up with an idea. "Uriel, is there a way you could find out the black armor's true identity? I an, the human being that then turned into a cryptid."
"Of course I know his na, a huge sword like that has only been ntioned a couple tis in history and judging by the bits he's been saying I can safely assu he can't be other than Rodrigo Diaz, the Cid." Uriel snarled.
Upon hearing it's na, the black armor stopped moving mid charge. All the montum it carried died down as though it clashed against an invisible wall and then it spoke.
"Ti has ran out it seems, but I had the chance to have the best fight of my life." The armor bellowed.
"What are you talking about? It was like watching paint dry." Uriel said as he placed both hands on his knees to remain standing up.
"I was talking about her, tell that I apologize for being rude just because she was a woman and she is a worth a hundred knights. I was forever undefeated and now, I admit my defeat to her," The armor lingered then chuckled. "at least I'll always be able to say no man ever bested in battle."
"I'm right here, dude," Uriel pointed at himself, feeling hurt that he considered his fight against him to be sub par. "Also, there's no way I'm telling her, it'll get to her head big ti."
"My fight against you was nothing but trying to grant you the wish you asked for... I could have done it, after all... few things can be more noble than helping an orphan reunite with their family." Were the armor's last words before the process of vanishing made it impossible to continue speaking until eventually a horror level flux orb dropped on the ground.
"You didn't ask for money...." Luna muttered aloof, though looking her in the eye it was obvious she was shocked.
"Just do your job and try to save those guys." Uriel grunted.
Luna begged Uriel for him to tell her the story of the knight while she treated the bandits, to which he only agreed after a huge deal of insistence and only during a Vlog. He was tired and grumpy, but he also wanted to record it for posterity.
"Here, this is Uriel Sage right after a fight with a black armor..."
"Dullahan, that's the na of the cryptid." Luna added.
"Dullahan," Uriel corrected himself. "it's a powerful parasitic cryptid that will consu its host. It will grant a wish to whoever prays on its shrine, the likelihood of the wish becoming a reality is not confird. The only evidence we have it may be true if that Alice asked for revenge on the bandits and the armor granted it to her by attaching itself to her.
By now it's clear that praying in the shrine is the sa as consenting to be possessed."
"Yes, but only in part. For the armor to possess soone they need to breach the code of chivalry or knighthood. Alice asked for revenge, which is against the code. Also, it can't possess soone who is already possessed."
"Look, if you're going to interrupt I'll cut this Vlog short."
"How did you know the na of the knight?" Luna asked, knowing Uriel could not resist answering.
"The sword was a big hint, quite literally. There's few ntions of such big swords in Spanish history, the more important being Tizona and Colada, both belonged to the sa knight. A man called Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, also known as the Cid, was married to a woman nad Jina.
He was also known for fighting on horseback, the na of his horse was Babieca...." Uriel said, then beca pale when he noticed the undead horse standing right by them.
Luna, who had just finished patching up the wounded bandits that she previously thought had been killed, also noticed this and before Uriel could kill the cryptid she placed herself in front of the horse.
"He is a good boy and hasn't hurt anybody. You can't kill him!" Luna scread. Placing herself in front of the horse that was about two tis her height made her look tiny and helpless as she was giving her back to it, but the horse didn't seem to mind her and just stood still.
It was only when it beca clear that the horse would not attack that Uriel realized his smartphone was working without issues despite being in proximity to the cryptid.
"Look." Uriel showed his smartphone to Luna.
"It's like with your jaguar. It doesn't produce a field of disruption." Luna said excitedly.
"It doesn't show on the recording either, though." Uriel let out a sigh.
"You ntioned there were few big swords ntioned in Spanish history. How did you know it had to be specifically that Rodrigo guy." Luna asked, trying to distract Uriel from the horse cryptid she was now petting.
"So parts of the old man's story and what the armor said made rember a curious bit about Rodrigo Diaz. You see, he was betrayed by his king, but he remained a loyal subject until the end. However, even after he died in battle his wife Jina geared his corpse up with his armor, mounted it in his horse and sent it to battle.
Seeing him on his armor like nothing happened after receiving a mortal wound made his enemies flee in terror and that is how the city of Valencia was taken by a corpse."
"so, maybe it wasn't a corpse. Maybe that is how he beca a cryptid, then returned to his castle. Then his mind beca corrupted when his wife passed away." Luna added.
"I guess we won't ever know the truth." Uriel replied, then fell silent when he noticed Luna was mounted on top of the horse.
"Can I..."
"No."
"Ihm... please." Luna insisted.
"Even if you wanted to keep it, we have no way to control it and you can't summon it. You can't just adopt cryptids, you need to find the artifact tethered to them and only then you will be able to keep it." It hurt Uriel to shut down Luna's desire to own a cryptid, but as much as he would have liked, there was nothing he could do.
However, at that precise mont sothing miraculous happened. The seed Luna had been literally keeping close to her chest for a long ti, the one bestowed upon her by Ciara of the Dolminicos, started acting up.
At first a shadow root poked out of her underarmor as though probing the air around it, then as soon as it made contact with the shadowy horse a hundred shadow roots erged from the seed and attached themselves to the horse.
The horse struggled as the roots fed upon its shadow nature and flux energy alike causing Luna to fall on the ground, but what happened then them both in disbelief.
[System notice] Babieca, the steed, has been sealed inside the seed of the Shwarzwald.
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