Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 610: Terms of surrender

"Target is down." Announced the detective through his earpiece after firing the bullet that grazed Miss Dragonfang.

"Good job, what about the perimeter?" A tall man with bulging muscles that could easily tear apart his clothes if he exerted spoke. His posture was rigid and his arms were crossed in a fashion that emphasized his stern character and it also earned him his hunter nickname, the Anvil.

One by one, the different teams that surrounded the Pegasus confirmed the perimeter was clear in an orderly fashion. Watching the ship was only half of their job, they also needed to prevent anyone from breaching the perimeter to keep the Dungeon Raiders from receiving any reinforcements.

For some reason strange reason Anvil couldn't fathom, Lister had decided to take many precautions despite the hostile company's small numbers. Judging by how easily they were able to take down their first opponent he assumed that taking over the ship would be just as easy. Still, the governor insisted on evacuating the area and even went as far as calling in the city's holy rank hunter.

"Sir, may I ask why did you give the order to shoot on sight? It's not like they can take off while being surrounded." A man that could be considered tall, but looked short in comparison to anvil asked with a confused expression.

"I'll tell you why, kid. We stood watch, evacuated the civilians, surrounded them without them noticing and just by standing here we're putting our necks at risk. If we do nothing, as soon as Allegro shows up he'll get all the glory and us nothing but casualties.

This way, we can seize the ship and get credit for it, but if it turns out to be too difficult or dangerous, we can just stall until he gets here." Anvil explained in detail. Judging by his appearance alone he might have seemed like the brawn over brains type, but he actually earned his position due to his high intellect that helped him solve cases nobody else could.

"Is it really our jurisdiction? I'm just asking because something feels off about this operation and if things don't go down our way they'll pin the blame on us." The young detective by his side insisted.

"I'm impressed by your sharp instincts, kid." The burly man laughed heartily. "We've been tracking hunters making suspicious movements at night for a while now. We don't know what they've been up to, but we managed to pinpoint their location to somewhere in this neighborhood.

This alone proves nothing, but the fact that the newly appointed mafia boss showed up is enough to give us jurisdiction even over a holy rank hunter. Our duty is to protect the citizens from crime and that's precisely what we're doing now."

"Whew! I thought maybe this company... the Dungeon Raiders were somehow associated with an international conglomerate, but if they're associated with criminals not even that can protect them."

Anvil would have commended the junior detective for his curiosity and his quick grasp of the situation, but at that precise moment the door opened and a man walked outside with both arms lifted in surrender and he turned his focus towards him.

"Snipers, stand by. First line, keep your shields up. Combatants, get ready to intercept him if he tries to run away." Anvil spoke his commands in a calm voice, a testament of his field experience. Commanding so many teams at the same time was a difficult task, but he didn't even need to think of the strategy and simply repeated the same commands he had issued so many times in the past.

He had seen the exact scene too many times to be easily surprised. Whenever criminals attempted to surrender they would take the moment the detectives lowered their guard to attack, run away, fly, use their traits, take hostages or even self immolate, anything but actually surrendering.

"Don't shoot! I want to discuss terms of surrender." Uriel shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. Without Water warlock's blessing he wasn't immortal anymore, but he was confident enough in his heavenly rank physical prowess to not be scared of regular firearms.

"I am detective Anvil of the Megacity of Hollywood. We are here to apprehend Ciara Dolminico and to search your ship for contraband under the governor's authority. If you cooperate with us there will be no reason for bloodshed and we can keep things civil." By misleading the young man in front of him, Anvil could potentially save them a lot of time and possible casualties.

If instead, he said the truth that they were after their ship, they would have no reason to comply and would fight tooth and nail to escape because they would have no incentive to surrender.

The reason why most hunters died fighting was easy. Sending them to prison was difficult and not really worth it. Not just that, after requisitioning their ship their only choice would be to kill each and every one of them to leave no witness of their crime.

It was a far easier alternative to dealing with the media circus that would ensue if the general public found out about their government's misdeeds. freёnovelkiss.com

"Good morning, detective Anvil. My name is Raider and I'm the CEO of the Dungeon Raiders company. I'm fine with avoiding bloodshed," Uriel replied to Anvil's greeting by tipping his hat, a gesture of respect Anvil didn't miss.

He also didn't miss his youthful voice that made Anvil inwardly scoff at his opponent's naivety while letting the detective taste his soon to be flawless victory, but that only lasted until Uriel continued speaking. "There's just one little misunderstanding."

"There's no misunderstanding, Ciara Dolminico was sighted entering your ship. Hand her over, let us search your ship and you'll be free to go by lunchtime." Anvil replied trying to hold his excitement.

"I'm not here to negotiate the terms of our surrender but yours." Uriel shrugged as a sly smile was slowly drawn on his face and his gaze became sharper giving the feeling of a predator closing in on his prey.

"That was a good one! Wasn't it, guys?" Anvil sarcastically laughed accompanied soon by his men, despite the shivers caused by Uriel's sudden shift in behavior. The detectives were so numerous the sound of their laughter enshrouded Uriel from all sides and for a brief second it brought Uriel's mind back to the chamber of echoes and his smile turned into a frown which his enemies took as a good sign.

After speaking with many refugees that came from Texas he was aware of the figure they called Raider and just by seeing the Fedora hat crowning Uriel's head he knew he wasn't lying. Thanks to his investigation, Anvil had concluded that the reason of the disparity in the rumors about Raider was that people got this 'Raider' and 'Jon Hunter' mixed up.

Jon was also known to wear a fedora hat everywhere he went, but he had seen him in person and the man in front of him was way too young to be him.

"I'm not here to joke around. You have one minute to drop your weapons on the ground and get out of my sight or we'll attack." Uriel declared and walked forward prompting the engineers wielding shields to make a semi circle around him.

"You're too reckless!" Medusa exited the ship and stood by his side, followed closely by Luna.

"Idiot." Luna scolded, but Uriel ignored them both and started counting down.

"Fifty nine, fifty eight..."

Laughter died down for just enough time to allow everyone around them to hear them speak, only to be cranked up to eleven after they caught a glimpse of their enemies. The young man who identified himself as raider was lean and didn't look like much. The tall woman on his side was a sight to behold, but didn't look threatening in the slightest due to being blind.

Last, but not least, a woman so petite she could be mistaken for a child if not for her cold glare devoid of emotion which they mistook as though she had gave up on living.

"Thirty, twenty nine...," As Uriel's countdown progressed so did the laughter until Anvil shut them up before reaching single digits. Knowing they had the number advantage, Anvil preferred to play defense to avoid any damage from befalling the prized zeppelin.

"All the units, ready to engage." Anvil commanded.

"three, two, one." Everyone braced themselves for action expecting to be attacked. What happened instead was a blue burst of flames exiting through the ship's cargo bay and a blonde woman flying out from an open hatch heading to an opposite direction.

"That witch..." Uriel muttered under his breath when he noticed that instead of following his plan, Bella took the chance to escape by herself. Having her by their side was a must if a fight broke out, but to their enemies it looked as though she was a diversion.

"Well played," Anvil clicked his tongue in frustration. "You drew our attention to let your friends escape."

"You're not after Ciara, are you?" Uriel asked, noticing how nobody moved to give chase to either the Jaguar that carried Ciara or Bella. Uriel hoped that their forces would be divided by this move, but he also didn't seem to be surprised when the detective spoke his new command.

"All rangers, open fire."