Chương 103: I Get Chased By Ugly Dogs
It turns out that Elite A-ranked daemons can survive a Crimson Nova to the face.
Technically, they don't have a face, but you get what I mean. Right?
A painful grunt escaped my lips as I grabbed the trunk of the nearest black tree and pressed a trembling hand over the gaping wound in my stomach.
The daemons barely survived the explosion of my Crimson Nova. Barely. And while I finished them off, the cost was heavy.
Heavy for them. Heavy for me.
Each breath sent fresh waves of soul-wrenching pain through my body, but I forced myself to focus on the open wound.
The power of Haema took hold, blood swirling as it slowly began knitting torn flesh and muscle together.
Agonizingly slow.
The hole eventually closed, leaving a scar that blended with the map of old scars carved across my body.
Another addition to the collection.
Gritting my teeth, I blinked back tears.
Why?
Why do I have to endure this?
Is this life some cruel penance for sins I committed in my past life?
If that is the case, this is too much.
I clenched my fists.
I am just sick of this!
Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself. No point in wallowing. Not now.
After what felt like hours, I rose from my resting place under the black tree, grunting as the pain flared.
The attack on the final daemon had sent me deeper into the forest, far from the edge.
And now, of course, I was lost.
Great. Just bloody great.
With a sharp breath, I released an ardor pulse, expanding my senses outward.
Immediately, a frown tugged at my lips.
The ambient ardor had thinned out in this part of the woods—too thin, in fact. But that only made it easier to pick up the other signatures around me.
A lot of them.
Low growls rumbled from the shadows, and my heart rate spiked.
Something—or some things—were lurking in the darkness, watching.
Waiting.
Long, shifting shapes flickered at the edges of my vision, darting between trees.
I gulped, cold sweat trickling down my back, chilling my spine.
Okay. This is not good.
I turned toward the direction I felt it—the Tear. The sickening energy was unmistakable, burrowing into my bones.
I couldn't tell how far it was—too many other signatures and the remaining ambient ardor interfered with my senses.
But it was there, pulling at me, even as its twisted energy made my skin crawl.
The low growling intensified, the shadows moving closer. Too close.
Time to move.
Anything was better than sticking around to meet whatever horrors were hiding in the black forest.
I trudged forward, my boots sinking into the thick carpet of white leaves that blanketed the forest floor.
The gravity of the Tear tugged at me like a hook attached to my chest, pulling me forward.
Yet, every step sent a wave of revulsion through me, as if my very being was repelled by its unnatural pull.
More shadows flickered in the periphery of my vision. The growling grew louder, persistent. Closer.
I quickened my pace, eyes scanning the impenetrable darkness. Nothing but black trees and shifting shadows, yet the growls persisted, gnawing at my nerves.
How close were they?
Ahead, the shadows flickered again, darting in and out of sight.
"I hope my mind isn't playing tricks on me," I muttered as I continued on.
********
My bloody mind is playing tricks on me.
I've been trudging along the black forest for a week without stopping once and I already feel like I'm losing my marbles.
Shadowy forms flicker in the corners of my vision, slipping away the moment I try to catch them.
Each time they vanish, they leave behind an oppressive silence that makes my skin crawl.
The constant growling? Still there. But now there are voices—hushed, insistent, whispering dark, twisted words that claw at the edges of my mind.
It was as if black trees looming over me were whispering them in my ears.
I clutch my head, my breath hitching as the flashes of nightmarish images invade my mind.
An endless sea of corpses, Iris's bloodied and ravaged face which completely healed only for her empty blue eyes to have no recognition in them.
"I'm sorry. But who are you?" Her voice echoes, cold and indifferent, as her face crumbles to pieces in front of me.
"You're an absolute fool," a sickening voice slithers through my thoughts, distorted and ever-changing.
"You shouldn't have let her go," says another voice, soft and sweet, like a child's.
"You should've kept her close," a deep, mechanical voice chimes in.
"After all, she was the only one you truly loved," a woman's seductive voice purred.
I clenched my teeth. "Shut up!"
These distorted voices spoke in my ears, filling my mind with their malevolent words.
I'm seriously tempted to take one of my daggers and shove it into my ears.
Just when it seemed I would actually do that, it suddenly became silent as a grave.
I lifted my gaze and my soul almost jumped out of my body.
Inches from my face, staring straight into my eyes was the face of a bizarre four-legged creature made of darkness.
It resembled a massive hound that was grotesquely mutated to create a horrifying abomination with uneven black spikes, and misshapen black claws.
Its ribs are exposed, dripping with thick, inky liquid. Three serpent-like tails writhe behind it.
A familiar growl escaped the creature's throat as it bared its black serrated teeth at me, its milky white eyes bore into me, cold and soulless.
More growls echo from all around as I feel multiple presences surround me from all sides.
It was as if they came out of nowhere.
I glance around, sword-ready. First elite A-ranked daemons. Now weird mutated shadow hound thingies.
Could this get any worse?
The black hounds snarled and snapped their jaws as they circled around me.
I carefully followed their movement, keeping my sword before me, its green edge gleaming menacingly.
But then, something changes.
They stop.
All at once, the snarling ceases. The creatures go utterly still, surrounding me in an eerie, oppressive silence.
Their milky white eyes remain fixed on me, unblinking.
I frowned, absolutely perplexed by this behavior.
What the heck is happening?
Before I can react, my left leg erupts in searing pain.
I yelled out in pain and looked down to see one of the hounds latched onto my leg, its jagged teeth buried deep in my flesh.
I hadn't even sensed it. Its aura had been masked by the others.
"Trying to take a bite?" I snarled, swinging my sword and driving it straight into the creature's milky white eye.
Black ooze sprays across my face as the blade bursts out through its jaw.
However, it didn't react at all to my attack. It only clamps down harder, its teeth grinding against bone.
Does this thing feel no pain?
With the pain burning in my leg, I quickly glanced at the other hounds. They just stood there, silently watching me.
I growl in frustration and yank my sword upward, slicing clean through its skull, decapitating it.
That's when the others move.
All at once, the remaining hounds lunge at me, teeth bared, claws outstretched.
Crap.
*******
"Just leave me alone!"
Howls and barks filled the air as more than a dozen Abyss Hounds chased me through the black forest, their unnatural white eyes glinting like distant stars in the darkness.
The more I killed, the more they appeared, as if the forest itself were giving birth to these abominations.
It was as though the trees were creating the hounds out of thin air
Sensing a sudden presence to my right, I whipped my body backward just as the jaws of a hound snapped mere inches from my face.
Twisting around, I saw multiple black serpentine tails rushing towards me, their spiked ends dripping with inky black ooze.
Spinning my sword, I shredded the tails and summoned multiple vortex bloodlances around me.
The hounds pounced on me from all sides and I launched the crimson projectiles just as their ugly snouts reached me.
Black ooze splattered all over me and burned my skin.
"Wonderful," I hissed through clenched teeth. "Their blood is corrosive. Just wonderful."
Unfurling my blood appendages, I lashed out with a vicious assault, tearing through the hounds like paper.
My senses screamed at me—more were closing in. A lot more.
Twenty? Fifty? A hundred? I had no idea anymore.
I didn't feel exhausted. No matter how much I fought or ran, my body didn't tire.
The pain from the bites and burns still throbbed, but I could keep going—forever if I had to.
Which doesn't sound appealing at all.
I glanced at my stopwatch.
"Two days," I muttered. "These ugly mutts have been chasing me for two days straight."
I activated Haema and accelerated my blood. I won't be needing Transcendence or body enhancement for these guys.
Feeling the boost of my quickened blood flow, I got ready to face the horrors of the Abyss.
The first wave of hounds burst from the shadows, their howls tearing through the air, their soulless white eyes locked onto me.
Droplets of blood floated around me and quickly morphed into crimson spikes with half of their deadly length formed from crystallized blood.
The first wave lunged, and I launched the spikes with a flick of my wrist, impaling nearly all of them before they even reached me.
I moved through the trees, dancing between trunks and slicing through stragglers while my blood appendages protected me from every angle.
The rest of the waves of hounds melted out of the forest shadows as soon as I was done with the last hound.
This huge avalanche of unholy creatures contained hounds of various sizes.
Some were the size of regular dogs while others were the size of rhinos with spines that looked more like horns protruding out of their bodies.
Morphing my appendages into massive crimson wings, I shot into the air, unleashing a barrage of blood lances and other codes in my arsenal while my white blade tore into their black flesh.
Pain flared all over my body as their corrosive blood burned my skin along with their teeth and spiked tentacles sinking into my body.
I fought like a madman for a long time until I made my gravest mistake.
My foot slipped. A patch of black ooze on a tree trunk caught me off guard, and before I could recover, I crashed down.
Damnit!
Just before I could recover, the hounds pounced on me, their sharp teeth tearing through my uniform and plunging into my flesh.
I screamed in agony as they clamped down, dragging me to the ground. The weight of their bodies pressed on me, suffocating me.
Desperately, I tried to control my blood to create a Crimson Nova but the horrific pain shattered my focus.
My vision blurred, filling with the hideous visages of the Abyss Hounds, their teeth gnashing, ready to tear me apart.
Is this how it ends? Torn apart by these bloody ugly dogs?
As my vision darkened, something in the trees caught my attention.
A figure—a humanoid form, shrouded in shadowy darkness, perched high among the branches, its outline shifting and swaying like smoke in the wind.
Before I could make sense of what I was seeing, darkness overtook me, and my consciousness slipped away.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
just_a_fox
just_a_fox This suddenly reminds me of the time I was chased by dogs.
Also, apologies for not uploading for two weeks. I was quite busy with the admission to my new college.
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