Chapter 66 - Hell Hounds

With his companions safe inside the vault, Viktor was hoping that he would be able to freely grind himself some spirit force points, and when things become too difficult for him to handle, he could just use [All Might]'s to breakout and run.

At least, that was the plan.

However, now that the second stage abyss creature started to show itself, he needed another plan.

Fight, flee, or hide!?

At that moment, another critter suddenly jumped at him. Fortunately, Viktor moved fast enough and barely managed to slash the creature in two.

His heart was beating frantically.

If he had been just a little late, he would have had his flesh bitten off him.

Viktor's thoughts were so distracted by the hellhounds heading his way that he become careless.

He did not even have the chance to compose himself when a few dozen more critters rushed at him yet again.

He did not have time to stay idle.

Viktor swiftly ran while slashing every furry creature that jumped at him. It was then that he saw them.

On the street a distance away from him, pitch-black hounds were running toward his direction, the fire occasionally crackling on their bodies slightly brightening the core of the street. Even though those flickering lights were not burning bright, they were still quite eye-catching in this dark night.

Those hounds were running his way so swiftly that they were practically dashing toward him.

'Sh*t.'

Viktor quickly decided to use all his unused points right away.

"Put all stats into agility!"

[Your agility has increased by 10 points.]

[Viktor Romanov]

[Strength - 29 (33)]

[Agility - 49 (59)]

[Endurance - 31]

[Battle Power - 36(41)]

[Spirit Force - 53]

With the weapon and boost, Viktor was able to increase his battle power to 41. It was a significant improvement, but it was still quite far from the hellhounds' 50 points of battle power.

Of course, he still had his 4 minutes of [All Might], but he would be dead if he used it carelessly and more came while he was affected by the skill drawback.

Not having any bright ideas at the moment, Viktor decided to keep dashing away for the time being.

Viktor and the Djinn ran through the snowy street at full speed. A few seconds after, he looked back and realized that one, two more hellhounds were following closely behind him.

Their speed was not any less than his, who had 59 points of agility. No, from the looks of it, their speed was faster, albeit not by a lot.

The distance between them had lessened quite a bit despite Viktor having run at full speed.

Thankfully, the situation did not just bring bad news. Now that all these abyssal creatures were chasing after him and the blue husky, his companions in the bank vault should be safe.

Although the situation was not exactly favorable to him, this gave him a little peace of mind..

Viktor was running forward as fast as he could when the Djinn suddenly warned him once again.

"Woof woof!"

<Watch out, there are more ahead!>

"Fu*k!!"

He wanted to turn back and run the other way, but the rattling noises behind him did not allow him to do so.

The hounds behind him were beginning to catch up.

Wasn't he basically surrounded!?

Even if he managed to exit the town, the snowy plain would most likely make it harder for him to face these flaming hounds.

Viktor was racking his brain trying to come up with a solution, but it was not easy to think properly when he had to focus on running from these monsters.

"Djinn, any idea here!?"

He was hoping that the Djinn would be of help to him, but to his surprise, the blue husky suddenly turned into smoke and went into his lamp.

"What the f**k, Djinn!?"

<Sorry, I can't help with this one. I do hope you find a way to get out of this, though. I prefer not to wait another thousand years for a new master.>

'This motherf**ker!'

Viktor gritted his teeth. He braced himself before quickly turning back. Following his previous tactic against the red zombies, he began to jump around on top of the closest buildings and continued jumping between roofs.

He initially did not want to do this since there was a chance these hounds would catch up to him faster with their speed, but thankfully, he managed to stay out of reach.

Glancing back, he let out a sigh. It seems that these hellhounds were not as efficient as the red zombies when it came to chasing from roof to roof. At the same time, he realized what the Djinn meant.

From above, he could see that hundreds of critters and dozens of flaming hounds filled the street, chasing after him from all sides.

"...Haha."

He did not even have the energy to swear.

After killing a few more of those furry critters, the hellhounds finally caught up to him.

Viktor jumped toward one particular roof, and just as the hellhound was about to reach the roof, he quickly put his arm on its metal surface and created multiple sharp spikes out of it.

Crackkk!

Being a tier 2 creature with 50 points of battle power, it was quite obvious that ordinary metal would not be enough to pierce its skin, especially when it looked even harder than stone.

Viktor only planned to use the metal spikes to delay the hellhound's chase. However, to his surprise, after the metal spikes struck the hellhound, it fell off and let out a high-pitched growl, almost like a howl.

'...This might work.'

Not letting go of this chance, Viktor swiftly repeatedly slashed his tier 2 ax at the hellhound.

Splat! Splat! Splatt!!

Three consecutive slashes were all it took to make it stop moving. Right after, a yellowish orb flew into his chest.

[Spirit force increased by one point.]

Viktor was elated when he saw the notification. Unfortunately, there was no time to celebrate as two more hellhounds fiercely charged at him.

Viktor was fast enough to dodge the first one, but the second hellhound managed to tackled him, throwing him to break through the house next door.

Bam!

"What the heck…" he muttered, his voice a little shaky. He quickly stood up to leave the area, but sharp pain stabbed throughout his entire body, causing him to flinch.

He felt as if his bones were broken. No, one or two probably really broke, but Viktor ignored it. He gritted his teeth and, while resisting the pain, jumped out the window and continued running as fast as he could.

Unfortunately, his speed was slightly hindered by the pain.

"Urrgh… remind me to put some points into endurance next time," Viktor muttered.

<Of course.>

"F**k you, Djinn, I was talking to myself!"

Fighting while going between inside houses and on rooftops actually helped him fight against that mess a little. He did the best he could to dodge the flaming hellhounds and kill the nearby critters. They kept coming at him, and Viktor kept running while gradually cutting their number.

[Spirit force increased by one point.]

[Spirit force increased by one point.]

He started collecting both points of spirit force and wounds all over his body, from claw marks to even bites from these creatures.

This fight might be quite a rewarding one, but Viktor was definitely not enjoying this. At this point, his entire body was in pain.

Not to mention, his stamina was already beginning to reach its limit.