The hunt has now began.

  The only question that remained was this—who was the one doing the

  hunting in the first place? Was it us or the Cerberus? And if it was the

  latter, did I make a mistake? Was it too ambitious of me to coerce a

  fight between the LVL 20 boss monster of this wave and the measly LVL 5

  and his group of four, even lower-leveled humans?

  Because at the very moment the preparation time began, three of the

  wolves heads had sprung out from the shadows around us instantly and

  simultaneously, without even giving any of us a chance to react.

  “[Force Shield]! [Air Gap]!”

  Fortunately for them, Orion had managed to cast his skills fast enough to stop two of its three jaws from harming the group.

  Unfortunately for me, I was too far front from the group. Orion’s

  defensive skills was just a little bit out of range from the last set of

  jaws, which had come from underneath me. Its head emerged from the

  ground as now, I was fighting for my life keeping the Cerberus’ jaws

  from crushing my entire body. Both of my hands were keeping the upper

  jaw open, while both legs were keeping its bottom jaw.

  “Mister!” Orion panicked.

  Even though I was struggling against its jaw trying to crush my

  entire body, I still managed to keep it steady. Three explosive puppets

  materialized into existence into the open jaws of all three of the

  Cerberus’ heads, and they dove deep inside it.

  “Listen!” I shouted at them. “I’ll live! Just keep to the instructions I gave you!”

  “Mister! I have to—”

  “Just go, Orion! Stick to the plan and we’ll win!” Yuna’s puppets

  suddenly exploded, but it didn’t originate near its head, no. It felt

  faint and muffled, as if the sound came from the shadows where the head

  was peeking through. All of Cerberus’ heads all cried at the same time.

  Its jaws had now loosened its grip to me and all of their heads began

  retreating from the shadows. That would’ve been my cue to let go.

  But I didn’t. I kept my grip tight into its jaws and “hitched” a ride

  through the shadows. Its head seamlessly phased through it as a darker

  patch of the ground rippled like water, and with that, I phased through

  as well.

  It was a seamless portal where I didn’t feel anything when I passed

  through it. It was just a quick black, then I was on the other side. I

  jumped off of its jaws as soon as it passed through. Landing on my feet,

  I could finally see the Shadowflesh Cerberus in all of its horrific

  glory.

  It looked just like how I’d seen it before. It was heavily scarred

  and bruised. Its muscles were distorted and deformed, as if its boned

  had fixed themselves yet grew on the wrong place. I was sure that Yuna’s

  puppets hurt the Cerberus to some extent judging from its yelp earlier,

  but unlike its effect on the Shadowflesh Direwolf, it dealt little

  damage at all.

  Now, all three of its heads and six of its blood-red filled eyes were now looking at me with extremely malicious intent.

  “That’s right, Cerberus,” I muttered. “You’re my opponent.”

  I swung my arm sideways as I took out my Crude Multi-shifting Blade.

  Without hesitation, I force-cast [Overpower] and [Goblin Mania]. Two dings tuned in my head, and a panel appeared in my vision.

  [The combined cost of a Forced B-Tier and C-Tier Skill Cast is thirty seconds of Agony.]

  This time, I managed to contain the urge to scream. The pain was

  rushing through my entire body that made it feel like all of my muscle

  fibers were being torn apart one by one, but I gritted through it. With

  my empowered sword and maxed-out stats, I dashed to attack the Cerberus.

  Unlike the nimble direwolf, the Cerberus was surprisingly slow. It’s

  likely from the size difference, with me being a normal six-footed adult

  male and the monster being a two-story tall monster. Once I got under

  it, I tried to slash its large limbs with my mania-embedded blade, but

  it wasn’t doing anything other than making shallow cuts that never even

  evoked as little as a reaction.

  As long as I can avoid it from using its shadow skills, I’ll be fine,

  is what I thought. As I relentlessly pressed on the attack, the Agony

  debuff dissipated, leaving my body in a rough yet still livable state.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  At that moment, a flaming orb inside the Cerberus’ left jaw swelled

  rapidly, growing from a flicker into a condensed sphere of molten

  orange. Its right jaw then gaped its mouth, letting out a high-pitched

  shriek that rattled everything inside my brain. It felt like the sound

  itself was scraping my insides, rendering me immovable as I tried to

  cover my ears to no avail. It was literal Agony but in hearing form.

  But amidst the noise, the monster kept me stunned enough that I could see the flaming orb growing larger and larger…

  Then, something wrapped around my waist.

  A rope, glowing faintly with an auric red glow, cinched tight and

  yanked me backward with violent force. My feet left the ground, my

  balance completely gone, and then the place where I had been standing

  vanished beneath a torrent of inferno. Heat seared through the air as I

  found myself being pulled from behind with the rope, dragging me to

  safety. If that rope had been a fraction of a second slower, I would’ve

  turned to literal ash.

  The rope loosened its grip as abruptly as it had appeared. I stumbled

  on landing but kept my footing this time, dragging in a breath that

  felt half-burned in my lungs. When I turned around, I saw the red aura

  fading from around Luah’s hand.

  She looked more irritated than relieved. “Jesus Christ, Devon,” she

  snapped, lowering her arm. She must’ve cast that skill. “Do you have any

  idea what I would’ve told Orion if you just stood there and let

  yourself get incinerated?”

  “Thanks for the save,” I said. “Did Arthur and Orion do what I told them to do?”

  “Yeah. They should both be back at the library by now.”

  I nodded, acknowledging her answer. I followed up with, “Where’s Yuna?”

  “Right here.” Yuna stepped out from behind a fractured section of

  wall, shoulders rising and falling unevenly. She didn’t look injured,

  but she looked just about spent for the day.

  “Sorry,” she muttered, brushing the sweat-matted silver hair out of her face. “I’ve used way too many puppets this past hour.”

  “How many more can you summon?”

  “N-not sure,” she answered between breaths. “Five? Maybe seven if I push it.”

  That wasn’t ideal. I wanted her puppets to keep being an annoyance in its back in case of danger.

  I turned back to the Cerberus. All three of its heads were scanning

  the battlefield, realizing that it had burned nothing but asphalt and

  the adjacent buildings in front of it. Six blood-red eyes from its three

  heads had now locked onto the corner we were hiding in, and I could

  practically feel its hostility sharpen.

  “Let’s run. You two go ahead first. I’ll make sure it follows us back to the public library.”

  Luah shot me an incredulous look. “I still don’t understand why I’m

  this girl’s bodyguard. You could at least pretend to be her boyfriend

  and protect her.”

  “Move,” I repeated. The two of them run in conjunction with each

  other, keeping up their pace. If not for the literal situation we were

  in, I could almost see them having a match with each other on who’s

  fasther.

  As for me, I waved my hands, taunting the Cerberus by conjuring a

  small fire with my [Conjure Fireball]. “Hey, you three headed bitch!

  This was what your flame felt like!” I shouted.

  I was sure dogs can’t understand human trash-talk but I must’ve made

  it mad as hell, because who I thought was a slow Cerberus had now lunged

  into a running sprint. For something its size, each hop was obscenely

  large. Its massive frame surged forward in a single bound, cracking

  pavement beneath its weight. The distance it covered in one leap erased

  any illusion that it was slow.

  I had underestimated it.

  I cursed and started running. My lungs were already tight with

  exhaustion from my forced cast earlier, so I had no choice but to yank

  the [Potion of Energy Drink] from my inventory mid-stride and cracked it

  open. Cold liquid hit my throat as I chugged the entire thing without

  slowing down.

  [(D-Tier Item) Potion of Energy Drink]

  What energy drink? I’m not

  infringing on anything, am I? If you think the can—er, potion’s design

  is familiar because it has a black and green color scheme with a claw mark on the logo, you’re just

  imagining it. Drinking the entire can gives you a +5 boost to your DEX

  stat for five minutes.

  The effect kicked in almost instantly. Combined with the +2 from

  [Overpower], my base DEX jumped from 12 to 21. My legs suddenly felt

  lighter and responded faster than I expected. When I tried to pick up my

  pace, I shot forward hard enough that the sudden acceleration almost

  threw me off, so much so that I can now keep up with the two girls who

  had a head start.

  The two were still keeping pace. Yuna had her two stamina-boosting

  items active but Luah didn’t need one. She was the nimblest among all of

  us anyway, with a total base DEX stat of 19 even without any buffs.

  “What comes after the chase phase again?!” Yuna shouted over the rush of wind.

  “Library!” I yelled back. “Lead it to the fountain!”

  But I knew it wouldn’t be as easy as saying it.

  Because now, I heard howls. Multiple

  howls of wolves coming from all directions. They were emerging in the

  alleyways, ignoring the presence of the Cerberus as their vicious and

  predatorial intent were now focused on us.

  “Wolves?!” Luah panicked. “I thought you said the wolves can’t be near the Cerberus! What the hell, Devon!”

  It’s either I was wrong about my assumption about how the fleshwolves

  acted around the Cerberus, or that the viewers were trying to stop us

  from reaching the public library. It was only a couple of blocks away

  anyway. I hoped it was the latter, so I decided to push through.

  “Clear a path!” I ordered. “The Elimination Stage should keep new ones from spawning inside once we’re in!”

  I veered slightly to the side, drawing closer to the Cerberus’ line

  of advance instead of farther from it. If the Cerberus attacked the

  girls instead of me, we were finished.

  And so, as the girls took the time eliminate the onslaught of fleshwolves, I said, “I’ll keep the Cerberus busy.”