Even after having killed a huge number, a larger number still remained.
The moment they arrived on the scene, it was covered with completely burnt and half-burnt carcasses—the appalling smell of blood all over the floor.
While Serin was visibly disgusted, Kael stayed calm.
She looked at the gruesome sight before them.
"I'm surprised, even with all this you still look calm."
After looking around for a bit, she continued.
"Are you sure you're feeling okay?"
He simply smiled.
Indeed, she was right; even after resolving to survive and see the end of this strange kind of fear he was feeling, he was fighting hard not to let his inner struggles show.
"Yes, I'm okay.
Even if only just barely."
He didn't have the time to think about that; the second phase of the plan was about to set in motion.
"Serin, get ready for the second part of the plan."
His loyal and trusty cloak wove into existence once again around his neck, his daggers in both hands.
Serin looked confused.
"Second part? What do you mean by the second part?"
He smiled again.
"Don't worry, just fight—I've already handled it.
The loud howls of the hounds had gotten close.
Serin rushed forward with a pale emerald. Scaled armor wove itself into existence around her small frame within a fraction of a second.
A long slender rapier appeared in her left hand.
'She's definitely an ascended.'
The next thing Kael saw was a flash of white light—and within the few seconds he closed his eyes, most of the hounds charging towards Serin had been slain by the fragile-looking elf.
Surrounded by mangled hound limbs and her armor drenched in blood, suddenly the fragile-looking elf didn't seem so fragile anymore.
He spent an extra second to see the gap between an awakened and an ascended one.
It was rather surprising.
'Yeah, I'm definitely never getting on her bad side.'
Kael shook his head and turned his attention to the hounds coming in his direction.
"Guess it's time for me to do my part."
Taking cover in the remnant smoke from the previous explosion.
Just then some of the hounds vanished into their shadows and appeared from shadows of some of the dead hounds close to them
Some even collided with one another.
Their near-perfect coordination didn't seem so perfect.
Kael seized the brief period of confusion and dashed towards the closest one; just before it vanished into its shadow, he held the hind leg and delivered a fatal blow to the beast's abdomen.
Still holding the lifeless body of the bloody creature in his shaking hands, he turned and looked at the rest of the pack.
The remaining hounds began growling at him.
He spared a second to look at his bloody hand.
'So facing fears isn't as easy as it sounds.'
Before the hounds could move, he pulled out one improvised explosive from his pocket and hurled it at the hounds as he rushed behind a rock for cover.
The initial explosion caught a few of them—that wasn't his goal in the first place.
The smoke produced from the explosion covered the area, and just like that, he nullified their shadow teleportation ability.
A few hours earlier, Nyx had asked about his plan for his part of the fight against the hounds.
He stood upright from the wall he leaned on and looked at the pack of hounds slowly approaching them.
"Don't worry, Nyx; I never planned on fighting those creatures head-on."
Nyx looked at him without saying a word.
Kael could never really tell what his companion was thinking.
He pulled out one of the explosives from his pocket and showed her.
"But isn't using the explosives my part of the plan?"
"Yes, it is.
But this is another plan I thought of."
She looked at Kael for a bit before speaking.
"So, what's this new plan of yours?"
He smiled at her as he played with the explosive.
"Well, the plan is rather simple.
But before that, let me ask you something first.
What do you think is the most dangerous about those hounds?"
Nyx turned and looked at the pack as well.
"I'm not sure, speed. sharp teeth and claws? numbers?"
"Nope, those are rather frightening, but the real threat they possess is their extraordinary coordination.
They can effectively pop out of a shadow in the blind spot of their target and coordinate with the others, then compound the injuries they deliver."
He cleared his throat and continued.
"Meaning destroying that coordination effectively cuts their powers by half."
"That's true, but how will the explosives help with that?"
"After the explosion, there's something else that happens."
Nyx thought for a bit and then responded.
"The smoke?"
Kael smiled again.
"Exactly, the smoke disturbs eyesight, which nullifies their coordination."
While most of what he said was only proven on paper, he had never practiced it before.
"Well, I've never had to fight dangerous hounds just to live and see the next day, but here we are."
Making use of the camouflage effect of the smoke and that of the cloak, he summoned the demonic mask into existence.
For a moment, he hesitated and put it on.
'Well, here goes nothing.'
All of a sudden, the atmosphere surrounding the hounds changed.
The air grew heavy, and a crushing pressure slammed into the hounds, flattening several against the ground.
A few hundred meters away, Serin was slicing hounds left and right.
Her gentle rapier was whistling in the air, cutting and slicing limbs apart.
A few hounds appeared from the shadow of a rock behind her, but the action wasn't quick enough to startle her.
She sliced through the air with her rapier and beheaded the first; then she caught the neck of the second and ripped out its throat in an instant.
All of it barely took a second.
Before their bodies hit the floor, she had already dashed towards another pair coming out of the shadows.
Delivering one fatal strike after another to each creature that appeared from the shadows, as though she were waiting for them to appear.
She already knew their pattern after fighting them for such a long time, but it was her new white-haired companion that taught her how to use their perfect coordination to her own advantage.
Also coupled with the effects of the fog, which was severely reducing the effectiveness of their coordination.
"This is easier than I thought."
While they were preparing their explosives, she was bragging about her exploits to Kael and his silent subordinate, called Nyx.
"Then I let it bite on my shoulder padding and drove my rapier into its skull."
She hadn't had a chance to brag like this in a long time; it felt great.
Kael actually seemed interested in hearing it, perhaps to improve his own skillset.
Kael thought for a bit before speaking.
"You know, your fighting style is really impressive—but you should protect yourself a bit more.
We don't know yet if it can cause the corruption to speed up."
Serin looked at him, and a cheeky smile appeared on her face.
"Could it be that you're worried about me?"
The alabaster-skinned young man seemed to blush a bit, but he cleared his throat and continued speaking.
"Anyways, I realized a much easier way to fight them."
This statement seemed to catch Nyx's attention as she was busy molding the explosives.
"Really, how?"
"Using their coordination against them."
"How would that work?"
He picked up a piece of stick and drew some figures in the dry sand representing the hounds and them.
"They always try to come out from a shadow closest to their target, but there's something I realized while fighting them.
It's that their shadow ability is actually more like a borrowed one, because they can only appear from the shadows closest to the target and nowhere else."
This piece of information stunned both of the listeners.
Serin was the first to speak.
"Are you sure of that?"
"Yes, I'm certain.
It's the strategy I used to kill all the remaining hounds the last time."
Serin looked at him for a few seconds with a rather pained expression when she found him—he was terribly bruised and was bleeding all over, but he still managed to reach her lair.
"Kael, are you sure you'll be okay?"
Kael looked at the elf and gave a forced smile as she held his trembling hands.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure to kill them all."
As she kept slicing and tearing hounds apart, she couldn't help but worry about him.
'I hope he's doing okay.'
Just then, the air around her changed as the once growling hounds retreated away from her.
Even she, an ascended, could feel the strange and inhuman presence weighing down on her, making her stagger a bit.
'What kind of creature could be exerting this type of presence?'