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"That\'s because you\'ve been stupid and didn\'t even try to use the dagger! Why did you pick a weapon if you weren\'t planning on using it in the first place? It\'s not like orichalcum breaks easily, in fact, I\'ve never seen any weapon made with it break or even get damaged."

"Hang on, you\'re telling me there are people out there using orichalcum weapons?" Uriel gasped in surprise.

"Of course there are, heavenly rank hunters are too strong to wield steel weapons and since traits vary from person to person we need to have our weapons handcrafted specially for us."

"I guess that makes sense, if someone was to use their trait wielding a regular weapon that can\'t channel flux it might get destroyed instantly."

"I have an Idea," Said Nika as she composed herself. "I\'ll go fetch Flanagan and the bodyguards assigned to you. We left them behind but they shouldn\'t be that far, in the meantime you stay safe in here figuring out the boring stuff and if there\'s trouble just shout and I\'ll come out from your shadow."

Uriel nodded in reply and the woman vanished in front of his eyes as usual, only this time she didn\'t use her trait. She just moved so fast, the eyes of an evolved had trouble keeping up with that speed and she seemingly vanished.

***

A few minutes earlier, when Uriel and Nika made a run for it to reach the old looking square building covered in carvings called the priestess temple, the four bodyguards along with Flanagan didn\'t even attempt to follow them. While the engineer woman and the field medic were too busy shooting at cryptids across the bloody battlefield and didn\'t notice their departure, Flanagan had something else on his mind.

"Hand me the bracelet, Stella." Flanagan commanded the female engineer whose name was Stella. Although she was considered a hunter thanks to being an ascended, her trait wasn\'t that useful in combat and her most important qualification was actually her engineering career.

"I can\'t do that, it\'s an important artifact that belongs to the Mapple corp. and you know only Miss Nika or the head archaeologist can ask for it." She replied a bit surprised by Flanagan\'s order.

"Listen, we\'re surrounded by enemies and, even though I can take care of most cryptids, eventually I\'ll run out of flux. Our only chance at making it alive is to use anything at our disposal and that bracelet is made of orichalcum and it could make the difference between life and death." He finished, hiding his madness behind a facade of reason.

His words made sense, but Stella didn\'t know why she found them hard to believe. She knew the chain of command was absolute in the Mapple corp. but she also knew the one actually in charge of the operation security was Nika, the same person that seemingly abandoned them in pursuit of who knows what.

As she pondered her new course of action, the small group was attacked by a black feline with intense yellow eyes. The creature didn\'t emit a single sound and it was as if all the light was being sucked up inside its fur creating something similar to a shadow mantle.

The group took battle stances and started shooting at the cryptid as soon as they noticed it, yet instead of the expected result of the creature dropping on the ground, bullets bounced off on its thick fur. None of them possessed a weapon as advanced as that of Nika nor a trait powerful enough to even face the entity rank creature that somewhat resembled the jaguar spirit. Thankfully for them, despite bullets being unable to pierce its skin they still did enough damage to drive it away.

Just when Stella was about to heave a sigh of relief, an arch of electricity flashed from behind and she fell unconscious.

"Why the fuck did you do that!?" The field medic asked Flanagan who had just used his trait against the unsuspecting engineer.

"She disobeyed my command, if it weren\'t for her I would have been able to easily defeat that cryptid. I don\'t have time for games anymore, if you\'re not willing to do your job properly and follow my orders, you\'ll leave me no choice but to do the same to you." Flanagan said as he rummaged through Stella\'s backpack like nothing had happened. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The field medic was taken aback by his actions, but even though he had gotten to enjoy the company of Stella in the last months as they had been idle for a long time on the site which led them to become close, that wasn\'t enough to value her life over his own and the medic decided to fall back obediently.

Flanagan seemed pleased by the medic\'s disposition, but his attention shifted as soon as he found what he was looking for. It was a plastic alloy box which contained the jeweled bracelet, opening the box and wearing the bracelet took him no more than two seconds, as he placed it on his forearm without hesitation. As soon as he did so, a strange mist appeared, swiftly covering their surroundings.

"Yes! I knew it! This is the nameless bracelet mentioned in Ponce de Leon memories, I finally have it!" Flanagan exclaimed as the mist grew thicker, then a powerful earthquake shook the earth taking cryptids and humans by surprise. The battle came to a halt as everyone had trouble keeping their balance. As if on queue, as soon as the earthquake stopped, the two sculptures that up to that point had stood still in the platform of the descending god, suddenly woke up and slowly moved towards the mist.

"What\'s going on?" The field medic asked in disbelief as he noticed the two apparent sculptures slowly walking towards them.

"Don\'t worry about that, just follow those two cryptids and keep your mouth shut. I promise you\'ll go back home alive and well." Flanagan said with a grin as he entered the deep mist walking towards the horrific cryptids without a hint of fear.