When flowery garden with beautiful shimring creatures fluttering harmlessly around the hunters shifted into a gray withering forest it ca as no surprise that the cryptids they would encounter wouldn't be the sa, but nothing could prepare them for the unsightly bone faeries as not even Luna was able to imprint the accurate picture of their appearance in their imagination.
At around two ters of height the bone faeries were taller than so of the hunters, though their joints were bent in unusual ways allowing them to seemingly grow taller out of a sudden. Their disproportionate limbs gave them an advantage in their attack range, but had that been all the hunters would still had the advantage.
With firearms more technologically advanced than anything seen in the past, each round fired carried along a small amount of flux energy that would shred beast and monster level to pieces. So entity level cryptids would also be destroyed on the spot under the barrage of bullets with the hunters being in the nurical superiority.
But things went south for two albeit simple yet definite reasons. The first was that they seemingly appeared out of nowhere, though in reality they ca from within the trees finally shedding so light as to why the trees were death. It wasn't a natural process but due to the bone faeries carving holes in them to conceal themselves which thanks to their color they were able to camouflage themselves to perfection.
The second reason was that their body was comprised of pure bone, but not ordinary bone. It was so dense and heavy each step they took was heavy and bullets bounced off of their bodies without so much as leaving a crack.
Despite his acute mystical sense, Uriel was among the first ones to be ambushed out of sheer bad luck sprinkled with so curiosity as he leaned forward to a tree to inspect its oddly colored bark which turned out to be a bone faerie.
The cryptid's eyes ca to life in a deep red and Uriel managed to escape a deathly embrace by the skin of his teeth only to fall prey to another that intercepted him as he retreated.
"Help!" He shouted, yet the closest one to him was none other but Silvana who had made sure to remain by his side to keep him under control. She looked his way with a smirk and shook her head before sprinting to Magellan's side who was now shouting commands in all directions.
From the mont a bone faerie opened its eyes, its energy signature would co off and although Luna ntioned them not being as nurous as leprechauns, reality disagreed as more and more cryptids popped off from inside the trees.
Uriel struggled to release himself from the bone faerie, but his movents were completely limited by an unexpected number of arms that ca from its back. He closed his eyes bracing himself for the world of pain he saw coming his way when he noticed that, while he was unable to move the cryptid was also still
"I'm... safe?" He didn't know if it was a question or an assertion, but dusa decided to reply.
"You are, but we need to get moving." dusa looked around to a daunting scene to the soundtrack of cries for help as the hunters were outmatched by bone faeries all around them. Blood splattered and hunters fell on the ground wounded at the feet of the scariest looking cryptids dusa had yet to see. Especially after she noticed that fangs and teeth covered their entire bodies, causing the unlucky combatants who fought lee to shriek in pain after hitting them.
"This is stupid, you're all stupid. Just stay put and everything will be fine." After a few seconds of looking around Luna had noticed that, while looking nacing, the bone faeries were not the cause of most injuries and they were actually due to friendly fire and ricochet. Magellan gave the command to cease fire on multiple occasions, yet in spites of their discipline it was difficult for hunters not to open fire against such gnarly creatures.
"She's right, they're slow as fuck!" Silvana cheerful voice was cut short when she realized that she had been strategically surrounded by enemies. In a desperate attempt she slapped one of them at random with the intention to move it to the side and create an exit path. Unfortunately to her, the cryptid not only did not budge but her hand fell limp like a glove as every single bone in her hand was sucked in by the cryptid. "Help! Soone..." Her shout went unheard by most, but both Magellan and Uriel were up close.
The forr attempted to break the ominous circle of faeries, but the creatures were far heavier than he could handle. The latter, instead, settled with silently watching as the bone faeries drew closer to the helpless woman who had now fallen on her rear, her molten hand flapping in the air useless as she waved her arm in the air to call for help that would never co.
"Don't you dare save her, we're better off without that... I guess insulting her would be uncalled for. She's already getting what she deserves." He sighed as the faeries grabbed onto her causing her body to slowly deflate as it lost its supporting frawork.
What remained of her body fell flat on the ground as though it was a suit of her past self to the point where it was impossible identifying her as a person anymore. It was nothing but a pile of flesh covered in skin. It lasted only two minutes, but when the bone faeries ended their feast all those who previously killed a garden faerie suffered a fate similar to hers and only a few bone faeries were defeated.
"She's still alive, you might want to say your goodbyes." Luna spoke casually to Magellan who could not believe what he just saw. He looked at the pile of flesh and couldn't resist making a disgusted face.
"I... I'm sorry... I..." He apologized to what remained of Silvana in a gravely silence that was broken suddenly when Uriel fired a shot through what he hoped was her brain. "You killed her!"
Uriel was about to point out that if sothing similar happened to him he would prefer it if soone did the sa for him, but then he realized he had gone through worse and lived to tell the tale.
"It was the correct thing to do. Bones are necessary for all the basic functions of internal organs. She might have been conscious, but there was no going back from her condition." By the ti Luna finished speaking, Uriel had already moved on for his next target until the last of the boneless hunters had been put out of their misery.
It was a rciful act that no one dared to perform and so even tried to stop, though they didn't put much effort into stopping him as deep inside they knew it was the right thing.
"You knew this would happen." Accused Magellan.
"Yes, I warned you." Luna replied with the thing those who made a mistake hate the most, the honest truth.
"Apprehend them! We played nice in front of the security division and explaining why only your team died inside the dungeon would have been too difficult, but now that we lost so many n your lives are but a statistic." Magellan's voice was a growl that managed to get even those who had been hurt by shrapnel to stand up and perform their duty.
dusa didn't put up a fight and Luna also remained calm, but when it ca to Uriel he gunned down three hunters before they reached him and placed his head on the ground.
"What a fantastic piece of gear you have, kind of a waste in the hands of an evolved." Magellan said as he grabbed Uriel's Magnum, only to throw it away with a grimace when he realized the chamber was empty. "a sha we don't have magnum rounds."
The group kept on following the tracks of the tiny leprechauns, only now they were aware of the enemies that lurked from within the trees and it showed on their faces. If anything, the only ones with a calm deanor were the captive Dungeon Raiders who now were certain they would be safe from those creatures as long as they didn't kill any garden faeries.
On the contrary, Magellan was growing even more anxious as he not only feared the faeries but also that Nika might pop out from Luna's shadow at any given ti and attack them. That is why he took so distance from the tiny huntress and placed his strongest hunters near her, unaware that Nika had been present through the whole ordeal.
Walking by that forest felt like being pierced by countless needles from all directions in the most primitive manifestation of fear, but the walk was short as the leprechaun they were tailing had continued on a steady pace even when the fight broke out.
"And there it is, the entrance." Magellan said, a wide smile replacing the frown he had been carrying.
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