Chapter 102: Running for Their Lives 1

The roar of the magical beast behind them was growing clearer by the second.

Now, mixed in with those cries, Kent could even hear heavy impacts echoing through the tunnel.

That alone was enough to tell him one thing.

Whatever was chasing them was enormous.

“Daphne... you go on without me.”

Kent’s face had gone pale as the roars drew steadily closer.

“I really can’t run anymore. I’ll stay here and hold it off for a while. You keep going.”

He had already pushed himself to his limit.

There was not a trace of strength left in his body.

Kent knew he could not keep this pace much longer.

He was, by nature, someone who was terribly afraid of death.

But now that he had been driven this far, there was nothing left to do but face whatever was coming.

And Kent had absolutely no confidence that he could defeat it.

Any magical beast powerful enough to send a peak Level Four Earth Lizard leader fleeing in terror could not possibly be harmless.

So Kent simply dropped to the ground and sat there.

Rather than waste the last of his strength trying to run a little farther, he might as well recover what he could and prepare to fight the monster behind them with everything he had.

For some reason, images of his parents back on Earth suddenly surfaced in his mind.

His relationship with them had never been especially close.

But family was still family.

No matter how distant they had been, there had always been some bond between them.

Kent looked at Daphne.

She was already trying to pull him back to his feet.

He pushed her hands away and shouted,

“Go! Get out of here!”

“No!”

Daphne’s eyes were already wet.

“If we leave, we leave together.”

How could she not understand what Kent was trying to do?

He wanted to stay behind and buy her time to escape.

But Daphne already had strong feelings for him.

And when she counted carefully, Kent had saved her life twice.

The thought that he was now willing to sacrifice himself for her moved her so deeply that tears immediately filled her eyes.

She grabbed Kent with both hands and pulled as hard as she could.

But Daphne was only Level One.

There was no way she could drag a man who weighed well over a hundred pounds back onto his feet by force.

The more she failed, the more anxious she became.

And the more anxious she became, the harder she cried.

Tears streamed down her cheeks like pearls from a broken string.

“Go, you stupid girl!”

Seeing her like that, Kent felt a surge of emotion.

But precisely because he was moved, he had to harden his heart.

He glared at her and shouted harshly,

“Get out of here!”

“No!”

Daphne kept pulling at him.

“If you’re not leaving, then neither am I.”

Her voice was firm despite the tears.

“We dark elves do not repay kindness with betrayal. Besides... you’ve already saved me twice.”

“You foolish woman! You idiot! I told you to go!”

Tears welled in Kent’s eyes as well.

Truthfully, ever since the incident involving the wager, he had harbored some resentment toward the dark elves.

But today, Daphne’s actions shattered much of that prejudice.

His eyes burned.

Tears gathered at the corners of them.

Yet Kent stubbornly forced them back and continued cursing at her, even as his exhausted body trembled.

At last, he forced himself to stand.

“AOOOHHH! AOOOHHH!”

The instant Kent got to his feet, a tremendous crash sounded from behind them.

He turned his head.

The moment he saw what was coming, all thoughts of staying to fight vanished.

Kent grabbed Daphne by the hand and ran.

Charging through the tunnel behind them was a monstrous creature with two enormous heads.

The instant Kent saw those heads, he recognized it.

A Three-Headed Hellhound.

The legendary Three-Headed Hellhound was said to guard the gates of Hell itself.

Kent had never imagined that he would encounter one here.

A mature Three-Headed Hellhound possessed three heads, each aligned with a different power.

One controlled earth.

One controlled fire.

And the third possessed acid.

Fortunately, the creature chasing them had not yet reached full maturity.

It had only two heads.

One was fire-aligned.

The other wielded acid.

But that was already terrifying enough.

The acid produced by a Three-Headed Hellhound was comparable to sulfuric acid back on Earth—and not merely diluted acid, but something closer to concentrated sulfuric acid.

If a person were struck directly by such a spray, the result would be too horrifying to describe.

Worse still, Three-Headed Hellhounds were known to toy with their prey rather than kill them immediately.

The moment Kent recognized the creature, strength seemed to surge from nowhere.

His exhausted legs suddenly found new life.

He broke into a desperate sprint, dragging Daphne along with him.

Daphne barely reacted.

She simply allowed Kent to pull her forward, because she was still staring behind them in shock.

According to the legends she had grown up hearing, Three-Headed Hellhounds could only be found on the fourth underground level.

And some stories even claimed that the fourth level marked the very entrance to Hell itself.

Perhaps those tales were only legends.

But seeing such a creature here, on the first level, was enough to leave Daphne utterly stunned.

“AOOOHHH! AOOOHHH!”

As Kent ran with everything he had, the Hellhound behind them let out another excited roar.

At the same time, the thunder of its heavy footsteps grew louder and louder.

“Mana Shield!”

Still running, Kent forced himself to concentrate and cast two protective spells—one on himself and one on Daphne.

The Mana Shield could defend against both magical and physical attacks.

What Kent was most worried about was the Hellhound’s acid.

Acid itself was not a spell, so in theory, the shield should at least be able to withstand one direct hit.

Unfortunately, maintaining concentration while sprinting for his life was nearly impossible.

Kent had no choice but to chant the full incantation.

The moment the spell was completed, a faint glow appeared around both Kent and Daphne.

It was a Level Two Mana Shield.

Even so, Kent had very little confidence in it.

A fully mature Three-Headed Hellhound possessed three heads and ranked as a Saint Beast—a Level Ten magical beast.

Even one with only two heads was at least Level Seven.

Against a creature of that rank, even its acid breath might be powerful enough to tear straight through Kent’s shield.

But something was still better than nothing.

More importantly, Kent was gambling on another possibility.

Hellhounds were said to enjoy playing with their prey.

If that rumor was true, perhaps the beast would not kill them immediately.

Because if it decided to use a Fire Dragon spell instead...

Kent knew they were finished.

Fire Dragon was a Level Seven fire-element spell capable of summoning three blazing dragons at once.

If the Hellhound unleashed something like that, Kent and Daphne would have no chance of surviving.

“AOOOHHH!”

The Hellhound’s roar was filled with excitement.

It seemed almost delighted.

Looking at the two weak little creatures fleeing ahead of it, the beast was clearly enjoying the chase.

It surged forward.

Then its thick tail whipped through the air.

“BANG!”

Kent felt an enormous force slam into his back.

The next instant, both he and Daphne were thrown forward.

At the moment of impact, Kent instinctively wrapped his arms around Daphne.

As they crashed toward the ground, he twisted his body so that she landed against his chest while his own arm struck the stone first.

A bolt of agony shot through him.

Then came a sharp crack.

Kent instantly knew what had happened.

His arm was broken.

“Run!”

There was no time to examine the injury.

Kent dragged Daphne back to her feet and started running again.

That single blow had thrown them more than ten meters away from the Hellhound.

Kent did not know whether he had simply been lucky or whether there was some other reason, but aside from his broken arm, the rest of his body seemed to have escaped serious injury.

And just as he had hit the ground, he had heard something else.

Running water.

Kent could not be certain.

But right now, even the slightest possibility of escape was worth pursuing.

He did not dare cast a healing spell on himself yet.

A broken bone had to be properly set before healing magic was used.

Otherwise, the bone might heal in the wrong position, forcing him to break it all over again before setting and healing it properly.

Fortunately, there was no bleeding.

That meant he could still endure the injury for the time being.

If the wound had been bleeding heavily, Kent would have cast healing magic immediately, even if it meant breaking and resetting the bone later.

Too much blood loss could kill him long before the Hellhound ever caught up.

Even so, every step sent a fresh stab of pain through his shattered arm.

After only a short distance, cold sweat was already pouring down his face.

But Kent still did not let go of Daphne’s hand.

Someone willing to stay behind and die with him was not someone he could simply abandon.

Of course, if Daphne chose to leave on her own, Kent would not stop her.

But as long as she stayed...

he would not let go.

“AOOOHHH!”

Seeing its prey continue to flee, the Hellhound finally began to grow irritated.

Its playful excitement turned to anger.

With another furious roar, it charged after them.

The distance between them vanished rapidly.

Then both of its enormous heads opened their jaws.

Two blood-filled maws lunged toward Kent and Daphne at the same time.

“Illumination!”

Kent suddenly caught a foul, bloody stench from behind him.

The moment it hit his nose, his head began to swim and his thoughts turned sluggish.

He immediately shouted the spell at the top of his lungs.

At this point, yelling was the only way he could force himself to concentrate.

At the same time, Kent grabbed Daphne and threw them both into a desperate roll across the ground.

Fortunately, Daphne was light.

Even so, the movement was far from graceful.

Kent’s forehead ended up meeting the stone floor head-on.

“BANG!”

“CLACK!”

“AOOOOHHHH!”

Three sounds erupted almost at the same instant.

The first was the heavy thud of Kent smashing into the ground.

When he had pulled Daphne into the roll, she had reacted half a beat too slowly, throwing off his balance completely.

What should have ended with Kent landing on his backside instead ended with his forehead slamming into solid stone.

The second sound was the sharp clack of the Hellhound’s jaws snapping shut.

Its two rows of vicious teeth crashed together exactly where Kent and Daphne had been a moment earlier.

And the final roar came from the Hellhound itself.

Kent’s Illumination spell had burst directly in front of its eyes.

The sudden, blinding flash overwhelmed the creature’s vision in an instant.

For that brief moment, the terrifying Hellhound was completely blinded.