Alex was stunned by Momo's cold attitude, although she secretly had that kind of 'Yandere' vibe from the start, it was the first time for him to see her in a complete murderous mode...

This probably because she was severely overwhelmed by the situation, also had seen a couple of inhumane things since her arrival... she might be a superpower alien girl, but it didn't mean she saw such cruelty before, and she's not invulnerable.

Let alone before her born, there was no more intergalactic war, she opened her eyes for the first time and the world had been peaceful.

He couldn't help but started to doubt whether it was a right call for her to be in this world, at first, he just wanted to take advantage of her ability to escape the forest, probably also using her strength to survive, but he never expected to encounter any gruesome views, considering the world's name was very dreamy after all.

Her mentality was also no different than other teenagers, easily frustrated by the emotional events, they were more susceptible than the rest of them in his group.

Thankfully, Shizuka had no problem befriending her, Momo certainly more comfortable to hang out with her than with a bunch of matured men.

"Remind me not to bring up this event again once we got out..." Dick said.

"Agreed."

Shizuka jumped from a tree in silence, slightly shocked at Momo's words, wishing she didn't take her previous words in the wrong way, unlike Alex who knew Momo's character, Shizuka always thought Momo was just a sweet and loving girl.

The tree ahead of them didn't have a single branch, Shizuka had to apply chakra below her sole and glued into the trunk, Momo moved the light on her phone and surveyed the ground below, there were quite a carcass of animals that swarmed by the Hellhounds, she noticed some was monkeys and rabbits, thinking these unholy dogs literally attacked anything that moves except the treant and their own kind.

"What's that?" Momo knitted her eyebrows, focusing the light back to a certain spot, she caught a strange creature currently had become a feast.

It resembled a chicken, but with longer beak and neck, its body was filled with scale instead of feather and the sized easily bigger than any of them, its pair of red eyes had a blank look on them.

"Isn't that the cockatrice you mentioned before?" Shizuka said.

Well, how should she know? The tree didn't exactly draw a picture for her...

Being reminded about trees, the muscle of Momo's face twitched, she couldn't help but get tensed, clutching Shizuka's shoulders a little bit, but enough to make the older woman winced.

"Oh, I am... sorry..." Momo apologetically said, quickly loosened her grip; yes, she was depressed but that didn't excuse her to hurt others.

Shizuka shook her head, she knew Momo underwent a negative mood, it's better for her not to mention it, for the time being, she said, "We didn't see this creature on the way here, so this perhaps a wrong path..."

Momo nodded, she moved her light toward the different spot, caught a glimpse of something in the distance, she said, "Shizuka, move to that tree."

Meanwhile...

*Slash!*

Alexis cut the flesh of a hellhound that sprang from the northwest of her direction, she lost the portion of her arm strength since she had been fighting non-stop, the hellhound was not just any regular canine, their nose could smell the soul that incorporated a creature body, that's why it almost impossible to hide from them.

A climb type of animal had no trouble with the hellhounds, but the kinds like deers or rodents had to find a hole and buried themselves in it until the sun returned.

*Thud!*

"Ack!"

Alexis groaned, her face smacked a tree, again, despite her sword had been guiding her since the entrance, she ought to collide with one of them sometimes.

*Slip!*

"Ah!"

Her footstep trod on nothing, Alexis stumbled forward, but luckily the ground level was not that lower, she still managed to stop from crashing, but she also could feel her thigh slightly injured.

She was in an awkward position now with one leg on the higher ground, resembling a dog took peeing.

Alexis twitched her face as she dragged her other foot slowly, but at this moment, she heard a rushed from her left side, she immediately grasped her sword and thrust backward.

*Puchi!*

Cold blood splashed on her face as Alexis turned her face away, a whining sound resounded from the agile movement that held by her sword, she slowly pulled it down and took out the blade.

She gasped for air, there was almost no comfortable stench here, it was either rotten smell from these hellhounds, their corpses or from their blood that stuck on her hair, face, and body.

Leaning onto the blue sword, Alex swept the surrounding area with desperation, her mind told her just climb a tree and save yourself, but she couldn't stand the idea of letting Sir Star and his group to suffer.

Besides, she couldn't get out now, so even if she climbed a tree, then what's next? Waiting until someone else rescues her?

This was a Grandmaster spell, could only be broken by a Grandmaster rank mage from the outside, or maybe by a Saint or Sage from the inside, and the last time she checked, the number of people in Moonlight Continent who achieved the Grandmaster ranks could be counted with fingers; The Lionheart Kingdom had 2 Grandmaster, The Knightwalker Kingdom had 2 Grandmaster, The Beowulf Kingdom had 1 Grandmaster, there was another 3 Grandmaster without any affiliation with all the kingdoms, two were missing and the last one was very mysterious... she knew that much at least.

So the odd for her to survive inside of here was not pretty comforting...

"Grr..."

Alexis stiffened, she rolled toward her front the same time she heard the low growl, she turned her body and laid on her back, then she thrust her sword toward the air, the sharp end punctured the hellhound jaw, all the way through its upper skull, the hellhound flinging its long limbs, she could hear a small whimpering it let out.

She pushed the hellhound to her side, laying tiredly on the ground.

But before she could relax, she heard the sound of a snapping branch from her left side, there was a small brief of pause, Alexis hesitated for a while, said, "Sir Star?"

*Bark!*

Alexis shook her head painfully, cursing these unholy dogs for not giving her a single break.

(***)

15 minutes later.

*Drip... Drip... Drip...*

"Seriously? You had to do that in a situation like this?" Jason rolled his eyes.

"Hey, they still haven't found another way... and I have to go," Damian said with somewhat a small comfortable moan.

Alex and the others now waited on a branch without a single adjoint, Momo and Shizuka had been busy in the distant, jumping from one tree to another tree, looking for a clue...

The process was getting slower, now the ground was covered in thick bushes, making difficult for them to search a clue such as used bullets, and the hellhounds perhaps had eaten all the corpses.

"This feels like a horror movie... you know 'The Evil Sewer'..." Dick said while overlooking the hellhounds, they just wandered around the ground now, sometimes sniffling with their nose, sometimes stood while looking up toward them.

"Ah, yeah, 'The Evil Sewer'..." Damian let out a hum, "I'll totally bang Jojo Novic..."

"You bang a hellhound," Jason said in a mocking tone, earning a dissatisfaction notion from Damian.

"What's this movie about?" Alex wrinkled his eyebrows, feeling both names they mentioned slightly familiar.

Dick said, "a group of people surviving an attack of a man-eating mutant in the sewer beneath this city, this sewer actually connected to a genetic research facility belonged to a foreign company, one of their staff was having a secret deal with other company to sell the engineered virus, but he made mistake and compromised the entire facility, releasing this mutant out and killed everyone inside."

"The protagonist was an exterminator, he was tasked to investigate rat infestation on that sewer, but later met and attacked by a group who had been tasked to kill the mutant, they met two another guy who completely mysterious, they were about to execute them before the mutant suddenly appeared and killed one of them, eventually, in the end, there were only two survivors left, the protagonist and this chick of the group called Bingbing, played by the beautiful Jojo Novic."

"They managed to kill the mutant by using a rail gun within the facility, but before it died, the mutant had been injecting its parasite on the protagonist, finding him perfect as the next host, the film ends with both survivors leaving the sewer."

"Sounds scary..." Alex smiled.

"Oh yes, it's quite a blast, the lack of lighting and the powerful but smart mutant gave a sense of dread, the thing was, no one knew this Bingbing would survive because she played by an actress who had not been famous yet, but Kami, she's gorgeous," Damian gave a dreamy appearance, causing the rest to drop a sweat.

Shizuka and Momo returned, they shook their head, confirming unable to trace any more signs.

Alex sighed, thinking about what should they do next...

At this moment, the hellhounds on the ground suddenly lifting their heads, their nose sniffled the air before all of them howling, then they turned around and dashed toward somewhere, completely leaving Alex and the group.

They looked at their departure with a dull face, then exchanged glances while thinking what attracted them so much that all of these dogs left at the same time?

"Should we follow them?" Momo said.

"Well, since we have no idea where to go next..." Alex said, then he saw a hellhound passed beside the tree they were occupying, "Shizuka follows where it goes!"

The kunoichi nodded, she jumped from the branch and quickly pursued the hellhound's movement.

"Momo, keep making a path, we go with the direction Shizuka told!"

The pink-haired girl clenched a bullet in her palm and pressed it on the branch, quick another path shot out and reached toward the other tree.

On the location quite far from them, Alexis was brandishing her sword crazily, she stood above a rock but not enough to save her from the hellhounds, the height of their leap was pretty impressive.

Her forehead had been bleeding, the tunic was torn up, pants shredded, there were several dents on her armor, clearly, if she had not worn them in the first place, her chest and shoulder would have been wounded.

She diagonally slashed, dividing a hellhound in an instant, then she stepped to the side, cutting vertically a hellhound on her left, then she got slammed from behind, almost stumbling to the ground but she persisted and wildly swung her sword to behind her.

Her chest heaved frantically, sweat and blood mixed into one, the mind was getting numb, consciousness slowly falling...

Elliot...

A hellhound leaped toward her front, she raised her hand to block its attack, and the dog bit on it, chewing on her glove.

The pain jolted Alexis' mind, briefly resurrected her spirit, she swung her hand and let the hellhound crashed against its fellow, then she butchered them with her blue sword.

Elliot...

She swung her sword, but it only grazed the hellhound left leg, its entire body crashed against her, and she fell from the rock...

Elliot...

She was unwilling, her will was to protect Elliot's life, without her around, who's going to take care of him? Who's going to shield him from those bad people?

"Look at that weasel... our bloodline is doom already..."

S...

"What?! He's entering Grand Art Academy?! Have he not create enough shame?!"

S... u...

"I never have a son... your existence is simply lost to me... now leave, and never come back..."

...

"SHUT UP!!!"

It was the final roar, all of the hellhounds pounced on her, with only her sword protecting her face and neck, all part of her body had been bitten, torn by their sharp fangs and claws.

Shizuka and Alex, including the gang, heard the extreme howling of the she-knight, their face immediately changed.

Alexis? What is she doing here?!

"Alex, I am going!" Shizuka said through the comm on his ear, then she dashed sharply, even surpass the speed of the hellhound she had been followed.

"Momo, a slanted trunk into the ground!"

"Alex?"

"Just do it!"

Momo startled but she quickly did as she told, as soon the trunk appeared from her palm, Alex didn't waste the chance but slid along with it, he fell before reaching the ground and despite the pain, he quickly stood up and shouted.

"You stupid mangy dogs, you wanna piece of me?! COME AND GET IT!"

The others were surprised by his action, but quickly soon followed him to the ground.

"Momo, create a blockade around me except for the front part, made a small bump on it!"

The Devilukian created several trees, quickly surrounded Alex and the gang, he took out his rifle, crouching on the ground together with Dick, Jason and Damian stood behind.

Momo summoned Shibarisugi, she wielded her own rifle and prepared to give support fire from above.

One minute... two minutes...

"Alex, a huge tide of Hellhounds heading toward your direction!"

"Got it, you focus rescuing Alexis, let us take care of this..."

"Yes!" Shizuka increased her speed.

After a while, they could see a mist began to approach, couldn't help but swallowed their saliva, feeling cold and apprehensive...

"Well, boys..." Alex grinned, a cold dripped from his temple, "let's get ourselves some hotdogs."

---

Elliot

https://imgur.com/XmTTqwn

Alexis

https://imgur.com/72G0TNM