<~> Chapter 155As Jasper ran ba through the door Bel had me pick up and move the beastfolk guard away from the door. While carrying her I quickly ran through what I remembered about blood types from high school biology css. Blood types are distributed into A, B, AB, and O, because of antigens on the blood cells. Some people also have another different antigen described as positive ative. Meaning there were binations like A+ and A- etc. The details I could give were hazy si only were there holes in my memory but even if I did have normal memories, it would have been a long time ago that I learned about it.

  Bel shook her head. "All of that is really iing but I don't know where I would even start. I might be able to work with a more experienced healer e to create some kind of spell that would be able to determine how blood is different but none of that e within the day. There might be a healer that she go to in time that's more experiehan I am but there's nothing else I do for her anymore. Some healers restore missing blood so I'm not sure how useful this information would be anyway."

  Another r out from the building and the uards were getting antsy. The guards closest to the dripped their spears, as the noises seemed to e closer and closer. Bel picked the unscious again, whatever Bel's strength was, it was clearly enough because she had no trouble throwing the fox beastfolk over her shoulder as we prepared for the ing noises.

  The sounds died out for a haunting moment before an armor-cd ox beastkin was thrown through the door and tumbled into several of the prisoners lying on the ground. Bertrand scrambled to his feet, one arm was limp, the other was still clutched onto his rge door-sized shield. He braced himself in the dirt and took a sturdy-looking stance as the shield dug into the ground. Ohe nearby guards realized what had happehey began dragging the prisoners away from the entranceway but had only just begun to move them when the giant mohat was chasing him crashed through the wall of the building.

  A huge red and bck wolf burst through the wall and smmed itself against Bertrand's shield. This time Bertrand mao stay rooted to the spot and the giant wolf crumpled up against a slightly glowing barrier that had expanded past the edges of the sb of metal Bertrand hid behind. The wolf jumped back to his feet and roared at the ox man, blood spttered out from the monster's maw. The giant wolf's face was caked in it, it was unclear whose blood it was but it didn't distract from how dangerous the beast standing there was. Demonic miasma rolled off of the creature's fur, though the wolf was the least outwardly demonic looking of the demons we've fought, it also seemed to be mubsp;strohan any of them. The giant wolf was even strohan the shadow behemoth that took a small army to kill in the castle.

  "Lilith! We 't fight that! We o run!" Torien pushed against me, already moving herself as we started the mad dash away from it.

  Silva pulled the woman from Bel's shoulder, put the beastfolk over her own, and gave Bel a bit more leeway to keep up. I gnced behind us, the guards with spears were trying to stab at it but like a whirlwind it sshed and tore at the people closest to it and blew fire into the crowd of prisoners, burning them to a crisp almost immediately.

  What happened chilled me to the bo shoved one of the guards away from it and looked dowreet right at me.

  I turned back forward a running, looking for somewhere to escape to, anywhere. The city was rge and irely anized so there were streets and alleys all over the pce but a lot of them led to dead ends. I wouldn't be able to trust that we wouldn't just trap ourselves. I hazarded annce behind us and the thing was now chasing us. And the thing was fast.

  "THERE! NOW!" I screamed as I led them toward the shell of the house we fought the hungering corpse in just the other day. It was the only pce I could be sure had somewhere for us to escape to. Not to mention it's one of the only pces we might be able to actually make it to from here.

  All of us ran through the giant gaping hole in the building, this part of the city was still abandoned so it didn't look any different from the st time we were here. That let me lead the grht to the stairs before our eyes even adjusted to the shade. We were only a few steps ahead of the giant dog as we bolted up the stairs as quickly as we could.

  The entire building shook when the dog monster made tact with the side of the building. Loose bricks cttered to the street as the monster shoved itself into the building after us, our only hope was that its rge body wouldn't be able to fit itself up the stairs after us. Its huge maw growled and s us around the er of the stairs, uo make it through the gap as I had hoped.

  My friends immediately pressed the advaurning to stab and shoot magic at it through the gap of the stairwell. To my shock its eyes were not a ot and I watched as Silva's spear bounced off the monster's eye as if it was made of solid gss, doing nothing but pissing the dog creature off even more. Man tried attag it with both fire magid fist-sized rocks jured from the earth magic her staff of manaflow produced but her proved particurly effective, they just spshed off the sides of its face. The only attack that seemed to do anything was a ball of poison Bel had thrown at its face, bubbling up against the mucus membranes of its eyes and nose.

  My eyes widened in realization and I checked the beast's karma. It read -6439. The only thing that seemed to be effective at all to this thing was Bel's poison, probably because of the "Nightshade" ability that was reted to her Karma.

  "Mimi! I need my cymore!"

  As I held out my hand I felt the familiar weight of my cursed cymore fall into it. The room wasn't quite ideal to swing it around in but the only way I would be able to do anything would be to stab it anyway.

  I activated [Karmic Retribution], the new form of the ability empowered my attacks against enemies with ive karma. White heat was the only way I could expin the feeling I got from my sword. Nothing particurly looked different but I could feel it coalesg around my sword, somewhat simir to the way miasma felt to be near. I ahe sword and thrust it right between the monster's eyes. The bde only pierced about a foot in, which sounded like a lot more than it actually was sidering the size of this monster's skull, but the attack was still effective.

  The giant hound yelped and pulled away from the entrao the stairs. For just a moment I thought that we had maybe scared it off but that was wishful thinking. The entire building rocked again as the giant dog thrashed under us. A fear-indug growl filled the room as the thing started throwing itself against the floor beh our feet, broken wood splintered as it created rge dents in the fl.

  "We o get up!" Silva shouted as she began to climb up the set of stairs to the third floor. I had been here before and there wasn't much up there. I didn't feel like running would help get rid of the thing but it was also clear that we weren't going to be able to kill it either. What else could we even do?

  Ane dent appeared in the floor and splintered wood sprayed across the seven of us. I waved to the stairs. "Let's go!" Everyo up before me as I watched the floor bee less and less a barrier for the creature. Before I could follow after my friends the floor fell away a wood pnks scattering over the monster's form as it looked at me standing there. I jumped up four stairs as the monster barely missed me, smming into the wall of the stairwell once again.

  I scrambled my and barely avoided the hound snapping at my heels. U time it didn't push against the stairs to try a us, leaving us without sight of the thing. The only reason I k was still under us was because I could hear it pag bad forth below.

  "How are we going to get out of here?" Bel asked.

  Silva opened a window and looked around. "I see another building we could jump to, it's only oory below us. But that thing will chase us if it sees."

  There was ane howl and the monster let out a gout of fme that forced me to step further away from the stairs.

  "I don't think there's going to be much choice, that thing is setting the building on fire," Torien said.

  Man wiped the sweat from her face, it was getting hotter in here. "I've heard of that thing before, it's a hell hound, it's bad news. I doubt we'll be able to fight it head-on."

  Suddenly the entire building shuddered again and splintering sounds came from all around us.

  "Fuck." Silva looked around. "That thing is going t the entire building down on top of all of us."

  "Wouldn't that kill it too?" Bel asked.

  "How should I know?" Silva looked out the window again as the building shook once more. "Between the fire and the thing ramming against the pilrs down there, this whole building is about to go. We're going to have to make a run for it whether we want to or not."

  I nodded and turned. "Mimi, you eat the wall? A big enough hole for all of us to get through, avoid damaging any of those supports," I asked while pointing at the wall.

  "Sure!" She seemed a little too excited for the situation we were in but truthfully Mimi robably in the least amount of danger right now. After seeing that Dulhan pound her into the ground I wouldn't be surprised if she'd be perfectly fine if a building fell on top of her. She could probably eat her way out after as well.

  Mimi stepped up to the wall and quickly pulled off her brigandine, freeing a giant mouth that pulled out of her front and ate a hole into the wall in one giant bite.

  Silva stepped away from her. "Oh gods that was horrifying."

  "Hm?" Mimi turned and looked at Silva with fusion as she retightehe straps on her armor.

  The building shook again, this time it almost knocked all of us off our feet and the building was now tilting toward the building we were about to jump to.

  "We're running out of time!" Torien yelled.

  I nodded. "Okay! Silva first, you help anyone if they miss. Try to roll when you fall, it'll put less pressure on ys. I'll carry the beastfolk."

  Silva handed off the injured woman we were still carrying and without another word leaped out of the hole and perfectly rolled across the ground in a perfect motion, like she had dohis a thousand times before.

  "Good, try to follow her example. Bel ."

  Bel looked scared for a moment but took a deep breath and took a running start before jumping through the hole. Right after she leapt through the entire building shook again. I didn't get to watch her nd but a quice after I regained my footing showed Silva helpio her feet, she didn't look hurt.

  "Man, go! Then Torien!" The twins ran through oer another, both rolling with grace, only slightly worse than Silva had.

  "Okay! Mimi—"

  Before I could finish, Mimi formed around my neck as a neckd my breastpte disappeared into her pocket dimension. I nodded as we quickly unicated through the bond as I prepared to jump . My new leathery bck wings burst from my back, ripping right through the thick shirt I wore under my breastpte.

  I took a breath and started running. I had never done anything like this before but I had no choice. There was no way of knowing if my new wings would even work. I didn't let myself slow down as I leaped out of the hole in the wall, only looking at the other roof o was too te to ge my mind. It was a good jump and I mao make enough horizontal distahat it was easy to transition into a smooth glide even while carrying the unscious fox beastfolk. My new wings strained against the wind but they held strong and slowed my dest enough that I was able to hit the ground and keep running.

  Silva took the woman from my arms and Mimi mao equip my breastpte right bato me as I shifted my wings away. We ran along the rooftop and away from the colpsing building, the sounds of crumbling wood and stone echoed against the buildings around us. I gnced behind me just in time to see the hell hound climbing up the side of the building and follow us onto the roof. My breath caught in my throat and I panicked a little. We could only keep running.

  And then the colpsing building we had just jumped out of fell on top of the monster.

  [Your party has defeated a hell hound][Flying lv. 1 unlocked - Successfully used your natural wings to glide through the air.]

  Saine

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