A couple of silhouettes appeared at the entrance and cast magic without giving me room to justify my cause. A strong streak of lightning struck me, and I affirmed the lead person was a progressive mage as I cast [Cardina Garch].

I had to use all my strength to restrain myself from killing these mortals. I was in a rare bad mood, and it didn’t help much either. The second silhouette shrouded in the robe had already materialized a blob of fire with lightning streaking around it.

[Dispel] was all it took to stop the casting, and I jumped over the counter, rushing toward them. The progressive mage bit his finger and drew incantation circles on the floor with blitheness unseen. No one talked, our shoes creaking on the worn-down floor, as the fire and lightning attribute sturdy silhouette block my advance.

The silhouette’s punch was rendered useless as I ducked and swept him off his feet, and I rushed to stop the summoning. Not that it would be hard to manage the summons, but it was just going to be another hassle. The man, no woman, on the ground swiped my leg with her cutlass, and I used [Blood Forge] instantly, piercing her arm with a spike extending from my bleeding leg.

The woman shrieked, and I kicked her square across the face. She rolled to the other end of the wall, crushing the decrepit tables on the way before she lost her consciousness. That was [Fatigue], and its efficacy only improved on a wounded or exhausted target. Under a normal scenario, even Amateur mages wouldn’t fall asleep.

I sent ice sickles to the man underneath the robe and kicked him on his abdomen before he could shape the blood on the floor into a summoning circle.

“Who are you?” the man asked, gritting his teeth, as I erased the blood of the man on the ground with my shoes. He tried casting another lightning spell, but [Dispel] stopped him again.

“Just a bystander hoping to have some fun,” I cast [Fatigue] on him, ignoring the blood that was gushing out of his arms where my ice sickles had struck him. I hadn’t killed them, and if they did die after meager injuries, I wasn’t the one to blame.

A descent through the metallic railing had me cramping myself in the rectangular hole that led to the sewer. Stench of blood worsened every time my leg touched another rung in the unseen darkness. I jumped down the railing once I reached the final rug and splashed a puddle of blood to the mosses covering the walls beside me. Blood dripped from the ceiling along the passage, the rippling sound filling up the empty void of darkness and I concentrated mana on my hands, lighting my passageway. The screams of humans attracted my attention. Adding to the howls of a beast.

I walked in the direction of light, excited to witness agony of mortals, but what greeted me was a large hound, gobbling up the mages who had summoned it. Blood splashed over the incantation circles, the screams of mortals huddled within the cage in the corner echoing in the large room. The winner of the tournament, Prince of Rynak, was scalded in the cauldron, his green hair already coming off with solemnity. He was a member of the heroine’s harem, so this beast was going to have it hard. Or perhaps, had Gladiata abandoned this man to settle for someone better?

I leisurely walked to the room, my cloak masking my silhouette and the blood red eyes of the demon hound locked on me, as blood spurted out of the body of a mage that had just lost their head. Amidst the horrifying shrieks of the mortals, we exchanged looks for a while, until the hound growled in a deep voice. I waved my hand and settled down on the elevated pavement on the right side of the entrance, which spanned the whole circumference of the room.

The hound barred its fangs gleaming with the blood and continuing relishing in the taste of mortal before moving on to the man in the cauldron. It churned the hand first after cracking the cauldron with its enormous body, followed my feet, and I wondered if it had special mechanisms to split out the cloth, for the humans in the cage were dressed.

“Help us!” the mortals in the cage screamed. “Please save us!”

“You full, doggy?” I asked, watching it laze around in the middle of the incantation circle, not interested in eating more meals. “Did you cast [Refluengence] on me?”

That was a counter to [Dark Memory], but only demons could use that to make their targets remember the buried memories, albeit for a short time. Like in my case.

“Grr,” the hound growled.

“Would you mind describing how?” I asked in awe and saw [Devil eye] materialize before me. Well, my eye could cast only [Fatigue], but I suppose this hound’s [Devil eye] was stronger. Not much surprise there, since the [Devil eye] belonged to the hell realm, and so did the hound. The affinity of the summoner was also a deciding factor in the strength of the summoned beings, even in the case of pseudo-summoning spells.

I was annoyed at this hound, but I knew better than to send a demon of its caliber back to hell. I couldn’t resist the smile on my face despite having been used by this black bastard.

“They are as tasty as those mages.” I pointed at the mortals in the cage.

The hound growled and trotted to me with haste. Its blood tongue lolled out of its mouth as it spun in circles and jumped twice.

“You want to leave?” I asked, pointing my finger to the top. “Aren’t you interested in fighting me? I thought you called me for a death match.”

“Grr.”

I couldn’t understand dogs, despite the fact that I could understand higher demons. A Hellhound was still a dog, despite being huge, just enough for a human of Garlan’s size to ride it without any repercussions. If you left out the conditions that demons never served as mounts. But it didn’t mean that the hound didn’t understand me. You could label it as having higher linguistic proficiency than undead.

“Out or fight or eat?” I tried again.

The terrifying eyes of the large black hound paused at the mortals in the cage longingly as drool dripped from its mouth, almost reaching my shoes. It was thick and slimy and bloody. The hound retched out some blood from its mouth and shook its head at me.

“Grr.”

“Out it is,” I said, and the head of the hound bobbed. “Follow me.”

We walked in silence amidst the horse breaths of the hound. The blood dripped from the ceiling, which surprised me again. The blood should have dried by now, and even the puddles shouldn’t have existed in the first place, but the blood was least interested in coagulating and stayed liquid. Science wasn’t quite helping me here, but I didn’t know what would. Were there some novel spells that I wasn’t aware of in the world? The mysteries only made the exploration all the more thrilling.

 The sniffed me for a while now, and I slapped its muzzle away. “You reek, mutt.”

“Gwar gwar.”

The hound stopped, and we exchanged looks before it started wagging its tail. The black fur was thick enough to hide my hand completely, and the hound did not have fur fall problems. Because not even a single strand had tainted the bloody passage to the stairs. The hound growled, repeated, and stared at me, its long tail all erect.

“You want to serve me?” I asked, seeing the haughty expression on its face.

“Gwar grr,” the hound snarled and showed me the long sparkling fangs.

“You want me to serve you?” I tried again.

“Grr,” the hound raised its head and stretched its neck proudly.

“Forget it. Some other undead would have snapped your head in half, opened your bludging tummy, and forced you to gargle with your blood. And don’t forget your gut, either. Be grateful that it is I who helped you out, an easy-going undead.”

The mutt stared at me for a good while and turned its rosy butt at me. This bustard needed some serious spanking. 

We didn’t have an amicable conversation, but I suppose it wasn’t weird that one undead wasn’t able to reach an understanding with a hellhound. I sighed as I watched the hound lick the puddles of blood clean before extending its slouching tongue to catch droplets from the ceiling. For a moment, I thought I could ask it to clean the cobwebs in the mansion but dismissed the idea soon since I didn’t know if my lady welcomed hellhounds that had thick black fur and ferocious muzzle with gleaming red eyes. And a horn to tape everything in place.

When we reached the railing, the hound looked at me pitifully, ready for a piggyback ride if I hadn’t slipped away on time.

“What are your plans after going out? Look for more meals?”

“Grr.”

I took that as a yes, for I didn’t really know how else to interpret a low growl. As long as it wreaked some havoc in the city, I would free it from this prison. My plan to find the mastermind behind the unseen activities had failed, but it didn’t mean I was giving up on a chance to have some fun. A hound would cause enough commotion in the city, and slaughter was on its status quo. Perhaps the heroine might be able to stop it, but killing a hellhound sounded far-fetched even for a human of her caliber. However, this was her world, and we were abnormalities, so anything was possible.

I cast [Weightless] on the hound and carried it over my shoulder, disregarding its ardent resistance. Climbing the ladder with a hound would have been quite a sight, but it was cut short when the mutt jumped out of the metal door I had kept open before descending downstairs.

“Grr.”

The hound cast me a dangerous look and trotted to the streets, disregarding my warning completely. Of course, after gobbling the mages I had knocked out. The stench of blood wafted through the stale air of the night, and I watched the dog retching half-eaten teeth outside the entrance.

He crushed the drunkard resting close to the run-down building using its large paws alone. Blood splashed to the crumbling walls as I walked out, and the head of the man rolling toward my legs, the horrified gaze watching my face intently. I kicked it away before jumping over the nearby compound walls and then over the decrepit roof with [Weightless] spell before following the hound in the stretch of the darkness.

The hellhound broke into a few houses, walked out with mortals in its mouth after killing the families within, and gobbled them down with ecstatic expression on its muzzle. Mutts are pretty expressive if you didn’t know already. I leaned over the eaves before jumping over to the taller building and kept an eye on the hound as shrieks started filling the locale, which alerted the guards.

Shields lined up before the ravaging beast soon, after many mortals had become food for the hound, amidst the horrible cries of the families. I leisurely watched the show from the roof as a few mages dropped by soon to manhandle the hound that was slaughtering mortals indiscriminately.

“On your feet, men! Trap that beast!” the man behind all the shields yelled out loud, but he was the one farthest away from the mutt. Thundering footsteps resounded in the distance as mages filled the ranks soon, though most of them were Amateur mages. The royal mages would take time, but I noticed a purple-haired maiden in the crowd, whose eyes paused at me for a good while before she stared at the ferocious beast without an ounce of fear. Her healing magic worked wonders on the mortals who weren’t gobbled up by the mutt.

My blood mask gleamed in the shimmering moonlight, and I jumped over a different building to watch the tumult as the guards led the hound to a desolate alley using shields. It charged at times, pushing the shields to the ground and crushing the soldiers beneath it with enormous strength but another soldier would replace soon, not letting the hound escape the encampment.