<~> Chapter 155

As Jasper ran back in through the door Bella had me pick up and move the beastfolk guard away from the door. While carrying her I quickly ran through what I remembered about blood types from high school biology class. Blood types are distributed into A, B, AB, and O, because of antigens on the blood cells. Some people also have another different antigen described as positive or negative. Meaning there were combinations like A+ and A- etc. The details I could give were hazy since not only were there holes in my memory but even if I did have normal memories, it would have been a long time ago that I learned about it.

Bella shook her head. "All of that is really interesting but I don't know where I would even start. I might be able to work with a more experienced healer or mage to create some kind of spell that would be able to determine how blood is different but none of that can come within the next day. There might be a healer that she can go to in time that's more experienced than I am but there's nothing else I can do for her anymore. Some healers can restore missing blood so I'm not sure how useful this information would be anyway."

Another roar rang out from the building and the other guards were getting antsy. The guards closest to the door gripped their spears, as the noises seemed to come closer and closer. Bella picked the unconscious woman up again, whatever Bella's strength was, it was clearly enough because she had no trouble throwing the fox beastfolk over her shoulder as we prepared for the coming noises.

The sounds died out for a haunting moment before an armor-clad ox beastkin was thrown through the door and tumbled into several of the prisoners lying on the ground. Bertrand scrambled to his feet, one arm was limp, the other was still clutched onto his large door-sized shield. He braced himself in the dirt and took a sturdy-looking stance as the shield dug into the ground. Once the nearby guards realized what had happened they began dragging the prisoners away from the entranceway but had only just begun to move them when the giant monster that was chasing him crashed through the wall of the building.

A huge red and black wolf burst through the wall and slammed itself against Bertrand's shield. This time Bertrand managed to stay rooted to the spot and the giant wolf crumpled up against a slightly glowing barrier that had expanded past the edges of the slab of metal Bertrand hid behind. The wolf jumped back to his feet and roared at the ox man, blood splattered out from the monster's maw. The giant wolf's face was caked in it, it was unclear whose blood it was but it didn't distract from how dangerous the beast standing there was. Demonic miasma rolled off of the creature's fur, though the wolf was the least outwardly demonic looking of the demons we've fought, it also seemed to be much stronger than any of them. The giant wolf was even stronger than the shadow behemoth that took a small army to kill in the castle.

"Lilith! We can't fight that! We need to run!" Torien pushed against me, already moving herself as we started the mad dash away from it.

Silva pulled the woman from Bella's shoulder, put the beastfolk over her own, and gave Bella a bit more leeway to keep up. I glanced behind us, the guards with spears were trying to stab at it but like a whirlwind it slashed and tore at the people closest to it and blew fire into the crowd of prisoners, burning them to a crisp almost immediately.

What happened next chilled me to the bone. It shoved one of the guards away from it and looked down the street right at me.

I turned back forward and kept running, looking for somewhere to escape to, anywhere. The city was large and not entirely organized so there were streets and alleys all over the place but a lot of them led to dead ends. I wouldn't be able to trust that we wouldn't just trap ourselves. I hazarded another glance behind us and the thing was now chasing us. And the thing was fast.

"THERE! NOW!" I screamed as I led them toward the shell of the house we fought the hungering corpse in just the other day. It was the only place I could be sure had somewhere for us to escape to. Not to mention it's one of the only places we might be able to actually make it to from here.

All of us ran through the giant gaping hole in the building, this part of the city was still abandoned so it didn't look any different from the last time we were here. That let me lead the group right to the stairs before our eyes even adjusted to the shade. We were only a few steps ahead of the giant dog as we bolted up the stairs as quickly as we could.

The entire building shook when the dog monster made contact with the side of the building. Loose bricks clattered to the street as the monster shoved itself into the building after us, our only hope was that its large body wouldn't be able to fit itself up the stairs after us. Its huge maw growled and snapped at us around the corner of the stairs, unable to make it through the gap as I had hoped.

My friends immediately pressed the advantage, turning to stab and shoot magic at it through the gap of the stairwell. To my shock its eyes were not a weak spot and I watched as Silva's spear bounced off the monster's eye as if it was made of solid glass, doing nothing but pissing the dog creature off even more. Morrigan tried attacking it with both fire magic and fist-sized rocks conjured from the earth magic her staff of manaflow produced but neither proved particularly effective, they just splashed off the sides of its face. The only attack that seemed to do anything was a ball of poison Bella had thrown at its face, bubbling up against the mucus membranes of its eyes and nose.

My eyes widened in realization and I checked the beast's karma. It read -6439. The only thing that seemed to be effective at all to this thing was Bella's poison, probably because of the "Nightshade" ability that was related to her Karma.

"Mimi! I need my claymore!"

As I held out my hand I felt the familiar weight of my cursed claymore fall into it. The room wasn't quite ideal to swing it around in but the only way I would be able to do anything would be to stab it anyway.

I activated [Karmic Retribution], the new form of the ability empowered my attacks against enemies with negative karma. White heat was the only way I could explain the feeling I got from my sword. Nothing particularly looked different but I could feel it coalescing around my sword, somewhat similar to the way miasma felt to be near. I angled the sword and thrust it right between the monster's eyes. The blade only pierced about a foot in, which sounded like a lot more than it actually was considering the size of this monster's skull, but the attack was still effective.

The giant hound yelped and pulled away from the entrance to the stairs. For just a moment I thought that we had maybe scared it off but that was wishful thinking. The entire building rocked again as the giant dog thrashed under us. A fear-inducing growl filled the room as the thing started throwing itself against the floor beneath our feet, broken wood splintered as it created large dents in the flooring.

"We need to get up!" Silva shouted as she began to climb up the next set of stairs to the third floor. I had been here before and there wasn't much up there. I didn't feel like running would help get rid of the thing but it was also clear that we weren't going to be able to kill it either. What else could we even do?

Another large dent appeared in the floor and splintered wood sprayed across the seven of us. I waved to the stairs. "Let's go!" Everyone went up before me as I watched the floor become less and less a barrier for the creature. Before I could follow after my friends the floor fell away and sent wood planks scattering over the monster's form as it looked at me standing there. I jumped up four stairs as the monster barely missed me, slamming into the wall of the stairwell once again.

I scrambled my way up and barely avoided the hound snapping at my heels. Unlike last time it didn't push against the stairs to try and get us, leaving us without sight of the thing. The only reason I knew it was still under us was because I could hear it pacing back and forth below.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Bella asked.

Silva opened a window and looked around. "I see another building we could jump to, it's only one story below us. But that thing will chase us if it sees."

There was another large howl and the monster let out a gout of flame that forced me to step further away from the stairs.

"I don't think there's going to be much choice, that thing is setting the building on fire," Torien said.

Morrigan wiped the sweat from her face, it was getting hotter in here. "I've heard of that thing before, it's a hell hound, it's bad news. I doubt we'll be able to fight it head-on."

Suddenly the entire building shuddered again and splintering sounds came from all around us.

"Fuck." Silva looked around. "That thing is going to bring the entire building down on top of all of us."

"Wouldn't that kill it too?" Bella asked.

"How should I know?" Silva looked out the window again as the building shook once more. "Between the fire and the thing ramming against the pillars down there, this whole building is about to go. We're going to have to make a run for it whether we want to or not."

I nodded and turned. "Mimi, can you eat the wall? A big enough hole for all of us to get through, avoid damaging any of those supports," I asked while pointing at the wall.

"Sure!" She seemed a little too excited for the situation we were in but truthfully Mimi was probably in the least amount of danger right now. After seeing that Dullahan pound her into the ground I wouldn't be surprised if she'd be perfectly fine if a building fell on top of her. She could probably eat her way out after as well.

Mimi stepped up to the wall and quickly pulled off her brigandine, freeing a giant mouth that pulled out of her front and ate a hole into the wall in one giant bite.

Silva stepped away from her. "Oh gods that was horrifying."

"Hm?" Mimi turned and looked at Silva with confusion as she retightened the straps on her armor.

The building shook again, this time it almost knocked all of us off our feet and the building was now tilting toward the building we were about to jump to.

"We're running out of time!" Torien yelled.

I nodded. "Okay! Silva first, you can help anyone if they miss. Try to roll when you fall, it'll put less pressure on your legs. I'll carry the beastfolk."

Silva handed off the injured woman we were still carrying and without another word leaped out of the hole and perfectly rolled across the ground in a perfect motion, like she had done this a thousand times before.

"Good, try to follow her example. Bella next."

Bella looked scared for a moment but took a deep breath and took a running start before jumping through the hole. Right after she leapt through the entire building shook again. I didn't get to watch her land but a quick glance after I regained my footing showed Silva helping her to her feet, she didn't look hurt.

"Morrigan, go! Then Torien!" The twins ran through one after another, both rolling with grace, only slightly worse than Silva had.

"Okay! Mimi—"

Before I could finish, Mimi formed around my neck as a necklace and my breastplate disappeared into her pocket dimension. I nodded as we quickly communicated through the bond as I prepared to jump next. My new leathery black wings burst from my back, ripping right through the thick shirt I wore under my breastplate.

I took a breath and started running. I had never done anything like this before but I had no choice. There was no way of knowing if my new wings would even work. I didn't let myself slow down as I leaped out of the hole in the wall, only looking at the other roof once it was too late to change my mind. It was a good jump and I managed to make enough horizontal distance that it was easy to transition into a smooth glide even while carrying the unconscious fox beastfolk. My new wings strained against the wind but they held strong and slowed my descent enough that I was able to hit the ground and keep running.

Silva took the woman from my arms and Mimi managed to equip my breastplate right back onto me as I shifted my wings away. We ran along the rooftop and away from the collapsing building, the sounds of crumbling wood and stone echoed against the buildings around us. I glanced behind me just in time to see the hell hound climbing up the side of the building and follow us onto the roof. My breath caught in my throat and I panicked a little. We could only keep running.

And then the collapsing building we had just jumped out of fell on top of the monster.

[Your party has defeated a hell hound]
[Flying lv. 1 unlocked - Successfully used your natural wings to glide through the air.]

Saine

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