A path overflowing with streaming Hellhounds, which seemingly had no end to it. Just from the plain view of it, the mastermind wasn't someone that should be taken simply. Anyone would automatically shudder if they were to perceive what was reflected in Freya's eyes.

Even though that was the case, from just a single swing of her rapier, it obliterated almost the entirety of the Hellhounds passing through her from one side to the other. The Hellhound's entrails sprinkled everywhere, bodies mutilated, and wailings echoed throughout the restricted underground mine.

With her unparalleled speed and unwithering strength, Freya seamlessly weaved her way towards the origin of the predicament. She mowed down the enemies to the greatest efficiency that she could. However, as much as she could, there's still a margin of error, a minuscule portion that passed through her.

It's not that Freya couldn't kill all of them, it was because of her own self-limitation. She had to stifle her own faculty to eschew havoc that could lead to a collapse. Aside from that fact, most of her concentration was kept on the surrounding. She would leave no angle unchecked to make sure that there was no pulling a fast one on her.

She looked about to her left and right. Nothing was there, no peculiarities, only the slaughtered Hellhounds. And just like that, in only a matter of a few minutes, Freya virtually arrived at the bottom of the large hole, to where the entrance lies.

Freya quickly saw unfiltered lights showering on the very entrance. Coming out of those lights in succession were the Hellhounds, incalculable in quantity.

Now she had two options on how to terminate the teleportation sequence. The first is to undo the magic circle drawn or chiseled out underneath the unfiltered lights. A teleportation spell strictly required two of it, the sender and the receiver, so just destroying either of them would bore the same result. The second is to eliminate the mastermind itself. To meet the condition of teleporting a subject, mana supply, and a sentient being should be present to that site. To add on, the teleportation spell will still take effect even with a single operator, as long as the Hellhounds on the other end is within the magic circle's circumference.

It's clear what Freya had chosen between those two options. As she stood below the unfiltered lights, she vehemently raised her rapier.

Heed my call, Storm Razor!

Complicated geometrical patterns appeared a meter above Freya, then thunderous lightning bolts fired all across the vicinity, frying everything, only excluding the caster herself.

However, in spite of that, the unfiltered lights proceeded to process. Freya cast her eyes down. Not a trace of a magic circle existed, no, it wasn't even there at the beginning.

I see...

Freya whirled her rapier to the newcomer Hellhounds, slaughtering them instantly. And when she was doing that, she intensively geared her senses and sharpened them to the most omnipotent they can be.

Mana Presence.

It had the same principle as the Karda transference on discerning the mana as curly strings. But the sole definitive nuance to them is that even the tiniest grain of mana can be distinguished by Freya's sight—as if being compared to the rain and its droplets.

Freya could now see the circulation of mana going around, whether it was the mana in the air or the mana in the Hellhounds.

Where are you? Come and show yourself, you coward.

Even if Freya tried to say those words, obviously none will answer, and needless to say, the growls of the Hellhounds don't correspond to that. 

After whittling down the Hellhounds, Freya impetuously directed a frontal assault to a random sector.

"Oh! Wow! How did you find me?"

A voice of a woman amusingly asked. The rapier was millimeters away from penetrating her voluptuous chest if she hadn't leaped away. She wore a cloak that had now a slit across the section of her chest, disabling the cloak's concealment.

Freya didn't respond. But just to answer that question, Freya hadn't located the cloaked woman straightforwardly. The cloak that the cloaked woman was wearing possessed high concealment capability that even Mana Presence couldn't detect by itself. That's why Freya reversed it, she used the law of mana to find the cloaked mana. Everything in the world, alive or lifeless, had mana in it so even the littlest inhalation of air, there will always be mana.

In any case, all of her attention is aimed at the Hellhounds and the cloaked woman. If she can seize the cloaked woman, then she could interrogate her later on. But right now, Freya's thoughts are centered on a single purpose—and that is to diminish the menace as much as possible.

"Did you find me through breathing? —Woah, wait. Ah! That was close! Hey, I'm asking—Ah!"

Surprisingly, contradicting her ideal expectation, the cloaked woman wasn't strong, not even half of what it should be. The cloaked woman was barely dodging her attacks—in fact, the cloaked woman's elusiveness is the only worthy trait that needed to be mentioned. If the cloaked woman wasn't commandeering the Hellhounds by now, Freya would've effortlessly diced her to pieces.

With that being said, Freya picked up her pace and had successfully landed a strike... Or so she thought.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Three puny shattering sounds ringed on Freya's ear altogether. The cloaked woman was not only wearing a high-grade cloak but also protection rings! Ten of them to be exact.

Protection rings are like Mana Shield in theory, they protect the user from any harm, but the protection rings are inferior to that it's only finite and doesn't apply the external mana factor as its power source.

"So close, Elegant Blade. Just a bit more and I would've peed over my underwear."

The cloaked woman's mocking voice irritated Freya, so much that it can be visibly seen in her complexion. She sidelong glanced and saw that she had apparently let more Hellhounds out than intended. On the other hand, the cloaked woman had a set of sacrificial Hellhounds to cover her blindspot.

Freya blinked once to compose herself.

"Where's the magic circle?"

Freya calmly—not actually—asked as she swept her rapier on the rushing Hellhounds heading inside the tunnel, massacring them in mere seconds.

"Right here."

The cloaked woman replied by seductively poking her belly button, and by the time she was doing it, she replaced the three broken protection rings by materializing another.

"Is that so?"

Freya stood still as if she had given up. She lay her rapier down of her own volition.

"I've been meaning to ask you about—? Where did you... Elegant Blade...?"

In the blink of the cloaked woman's eyes, Freya vanished from her field of view. As she noticed that, she was uncontrollably slipping sideward. Right then, she immediately understood that her body was separated in half.

"Humph, at least do reply to my question."

There was pure elegance to the execution as if she had died through perfect stillness. The cloaked woman's body made a squelching sound as it dropped on the ground.

Freya was instantaneously behind the cloaked woman. She had to use one of her upper-ranking abilities just to finish a subpar enemy. But she had no other choice, at first, she wanted to capture the cloaked woman to identify her scheme. However, if it would be at the cost of her companion's well-being, there's no such way would she choose the former.

"With this, the chain of terror will end here. I should return to—!"

Freya reflexively deflected a lousy ice shard behind her back. She promptly sensed it as it was starting to cast. It was an awfully pathetic attempt that it might be done just to nab a cheap hit.

"Even though I faked my death, you didn't reveal the secret to finding me. I'm really sad."

Freya was stunned for a bit but quickly shifted it into belligerence. She was a hundred percent certain that the cloaked woman had been cut in half. Then, by looking at the cloaked woman's tattered cloak and the undamaged and complete magic circle on her belly button, Freya peered her angered eyes even more.

Anomalous regeneration? Was such an outrageous ability possible to attain? No.

She cocked her head towards the Hellhounds and killed them in a single stroke of her arm.

An abnormally large supply of mana, a prejudicial magic circle implanted on her own body, and an anomalous regeneration. Freya came to the conclusion that what's in front of her was not a regular human.

Everyone, please brave yourselves for the little slip-ups that I'm about to commit.

... ... ...

"So, what's the plan?"

"First, Mira can you transfer as many Armgolems as you can to Ranju's Karda?

Mira complied without a hitch, same with Ranju.

"Now moving onto step one: To build a double-layered wall using the Armgolems. That's it."

The three of them, harboring confusion, all turned to each other. Then, to confirm it, Aeri asked.

"That was the plan?"

"Yeah. But in order to accomplish it..."

We only had one objective and by we, I mean Aeri and me, and that is to have the Hellhounds piled up for the meantime.

As for Mira, the one who will carry all of the other heavy duties such as:

To protect us, support us, and overlook all of our movement.

To keep the Hellhounds at a certain threshold so that to avoid congestion.

And most importantly, our core solution to the problem—and that is to establish the Armgolems in the Karda onto a fortified barricade.

Basically, Mira's multi-tasking while we're running around, wagging our tails to bait the Hellhounds. She had all the weight upon her.

Meanwhile, as Mira was doing all of that, Ranju will be there to be the main bodyguard.

If only we had time, we could've distributed the Armgolems to Ranju, though some had already been.

... ... ...

Thus, here we are.

[Visual Perception] – [Green] – [Red] – [Red]

A swerve to the left by using Quick Leap as an accelerator.

Got to run, got to run, got to run, got to run, got to run—got to go fast.

I internally chanted as the Hellhounds, having more than the totality of my fingers, are on my ass.

It will take more than a minute to materialize the Armgolems. It's just been fifteen seconds but it felt like an eternity to me. Now I understood the quote "every second count", literally.

Granted, I know that Ranju is more suited to be in my place, but if ever the worst-case scenario happened there—which is the Hellhounds going straight at them, Ranju can protect Mira while I'll just hinder her progress. On the bright side, I'm more effective with regards to baiting them.

Just conjure an image of dogs, scary dogs, chasing after a piece of juicy bone—that's me.

"""Grwhhnghh!"""

A wind sphere shredded the Hellhounds that were chasing me, lessening them to a single-digit once again.

"Mira, barrier—left!"

Aeri requested.

Unlike me, she was intermittently fending the Hellhounds off and fighting back, her agility proved to be far superior to mine. To add on, we had our fair share of the space, Aeri will regulate the right side whilst I'm on the left side. So that it won't cause any perilous collision. 

By the way, we had that code system to notify Mira about our urgency.

Another batch came in, eight Hellhounds were added to my faction.

There's no need to fight, just circumnavigate and outmaneuver the Hellhounds. As inept as myself, Visual Perception is the perfect tool for me to do that.

There were five Hellhounds on my left and eight were on my back.

[Visual Perception] – [Red] – [Red] – [Green]

However, if I go for the right, that'll increase my distance away from Mira, and that'll bring about disadvantages. I'll just have to make an impromptu then.

"Mira, barrier—front!"

The barrier magically appeared on my front and using Quick Leap vigorously, I tackled the Hellhounds.

[Visual Perception] – [Green]

After doing that, I rolled on the ground. I turned around and saw that a barrier was blocking the flames coming at me. The heat was tactile, to say the least. What followed it was another wind sphere aimed at the Hellhounds.

"Thank you, Mira!"

A little taunt at the Hellhounds and I ran once again. By doing so, I triumphantly provoked the Hellhounds.

"Mira, cover—front!"

Aeri was full of energy, she seemed to be doing great as well.

I need to focus! There was another batch delivered, thirteen was added to my division.

[Visual Perception] – [Red] – [Red] – [Green]

I repelled the Hellhound attempt to bite me using my Mana Shield and went directly to the right. I'm hastily approaching the underground tunnel's wall, all the Hellhounds are on my back, steadily spreading outward as if to corner me.

Though, I have my own way to deal with it.

I rushed towards the wall and used Quick Leap.

[Visual Perception] – [Green]

As my foot pressed on the wall, I used another Quick Leap to rebound myself.

"Mira, barrier—below!"

[Visual Perception] – [Green]

Whoops! I got to look out for my head—the ceiling's too low. I used the barrier as a stepping stone and landed both on my feet.

Okay, I'm back on track again.

Mira killed all of the Hellhounds but the next batch already showed themselves. I didn't bother to count them, but they're beyond the last one. At least let me catch my breath!

Right after the last batch, another batch showed but in a smaller quantity.

[Visual Perception] – [Red] – [Green] – [Green]

"REIJI, AERI, CLEAR OUT!"

Just as I was about to dash ahead, Ranju shouted that at the top of his lungs. Spontaneously, Aeri's eyes and mine met, she nodded and jerked her chin to indicate her intention. I understood it right away. She wanted me to converge with her at that distinct point so that the Hellhound would converge as well.

We both ran posthaste and successfully combined the Hellhounds tailing us. Mira then launched three wind spheres in an arch and struck all of those Hellhounds.

Like finishing a race, we crossed the border, Aeri hopping victoriously and we relievedly took a breath.

"Yahoo!"

Aeri's voice was filled with vigor. Mira pointed her staff forward, spindle-like wind magic manifested atop her.

"Please, move aside."

She shot all of it to the Hellhounds sprinting towards us.

"Okay, leave them to us."

Aeri prepared her bow and arrow. She and Mira are now tasked to hold the Hellhounds off while Ranju would keep an eye overall. As for me, I'll be managing the Armgolems at the back.

Phew! That was definitely onerous. But this is only just the start of it. From here onwards, it's a battle of attrition.

Apparently, the Armgolem wall was still in development, perhaps about seventy percent. They just called us for an early retreat. Then again, it can withstand the Hellhounds if ever they tried to jump over. The flame breath would also be pointless now that the narrow path is the only way they can aim it at. Everything's now solved.

I wonder how Freya's doing now? All of our hopes are riding on her. All that we can do now is put our faith in her.

"Color me surprised! What a magnificent alternative solution!"

"?"

An unknown man's voice reached my ears. Chills ran through my spine over and over again. I was—we were sure that there was no entryway on the back, that's what Mira told me, even Aeri and Ranju seconded to that.

I hastily turned around. A scorching sensation that was tenfold stronger, more dynamic than the Hellhound's flame breath. It was so close that all over my vision was filled by an orange-red tint. My joints stiffened up as if my body had involuntarily malfunctioned...

I couldn't move.

[Visual Perception] – [Red] – [Red] – [Red]

… … …

… ...

…

"Ah, it hurts, it hurts! I'm going to—ow, ouch!"

"Deactivate the magic circle, NOW!"

Freya demanded as her rapier was halfway across the waist of the resistant cloaked woman—who had been exposed by now. A pale-skinned with light purplish short hair, or rather was forcibly cut into short hair, and lengthy forelocks covering her eyes.

All of her protection rings that were in her fingers had been blown up, even then, the teleportation of Hellhounds continued. The absurdity exceeded that of any mortal realm. Only the finest S Ranks and exemplary A Ranks can muster that kind of feat yet the one in front of her could do so equally.

Even though Freya had killed her off more than the lives of a cat had, the pale-skinned woman regenerated back to a full bar, be it being beheaded or being divided horizontally.

"How about—ow, ouch, please stop, ouch!"

The pale-skinned woman sneering humor only amplified Freya's frustration, her demeanor is not to joke about. It may portray her impatience but she only wanted to guarantee the safety of her companions. Which is why she had no more hesitation, she'll butcher the pale-skinned woman even how many times it will take.

"It won't stop with me."

Suddenly, Freya's hand twitched. When she looked at the hideous smirk of the pale-skinned woman, she already knew what that sentence insinuated.

A blast coming from the pale-skinned woman had set her free. The wound repairing at a decent rate.

Freya saw that but now that she realized something else, instead of going for the uncertain, she turned her back and dashed towards her companions as fast as she can. She already assumed that there was not only one enemy but to sneak to the back, it was an error of her own judgment.

Freya's face was filled with shame and worries.

"Oops. I shouldn't have said that, should I? But if I don't, I'm going to die. I'm not an immortal after all. Hehe, but I do need to praise myself for being a remarkable actress. I think Grail had done his mission by now, maybe...? Better to contact him for verification... Or should I? Sigh, I'm going to be brutally battered either way."

With a tee-hee, she bopped her head and let her tongue out.