Cerberus

The three-headed hellhound arose from the altar he had been sleeping on. Although now that TJ looked closely, the altar was more like a slab of black rock with jagged edges and coarsely ground top surface.

Behind the now fully awake hellhound, the obsidian-black blade of a sword was planted about a third of the way deep into the rock, slightly tilted to the right. TJ imagined himself grabbing the blood-red hilt and yanking the weapon out of the rock as if he was the only one worthy of owning it, like in the legend.

Except there was no such legend, as evidenced by what happened next.

The hound got up and stood on its two hindlegs. No, not on all four of its legs. Turned out that the monster was bipedal. And its front paws were…not really paws. They were like human hands, except with one thumb and three fingers instead of four. Long, curved claws extended from the tip of each of those fingers.

Standing about two meters tall atop the altar, it looked down at TJ with six red eyes full of bloodlust. All three snouts contorted briefly while sniffing the air, trying to take in TJ's human scent, before baring its fangs so wide it almost looked as if it was sneering.

And then it raised one hand, grabbing ahold of the sword's hilt, before pulling it out of the rock. The sword couldn't give a damn about who was worthy to wield it. It was not at all alive, so it was free for the taking.

'Never thought in my life I'd ever see a three-headed Dobermann standing on two legs while holding a sword,' TJ thought, which was perceived by Magnus 2.0 who was still on the line.

'What, you thought the sword was just kinda there as decoration? There's a reason several cerberus had fought for it; they are actually able to use it as a weapon like humans do,' said Magnus 2.0. 'And yeah, people call this creature a cerberus. It's a type of hellhound that has undergone evolution.'

The cerberus jumped down the altar and started to march toward TJ, the sword held in one hand while the center head was staring straight at TJ's eyes. The other two heads kept growling, with drools streaming down their jaws.

'Any tips before this escalates?' asked TJ.

'Hmm, not really,' answered Magnus 2.0. 'It may be faster than regular hellhounds, and I heard it could use the sword's active skill. But as long as you keep your distance and always aim for its fatal points, you'll be fine. I can't give you much to go off of, though, since I've only ever heard other people's stories. Oh, it also doesn't have a big Health pool. But yeah, it's a speedy type.'

'Got you.'

'Anyway, gotta go. My girlfriend needs me,' said Magnus 2.0. Before he hung up, he added, 'Just don't die.'

The cerberus abruptly accelerated while raising the sword, ready to slash its human enemy in two.

TJ's eyes widened seeing the speed at which it was running. It was almost twice as fast as a regular hellhound, despite running on two legs. One second it was still about five meters ahead of TJ, the next second it was already right in his face.

It swung the sword down, but its target had jumped back a mere second prior. TJ immediately circled the monster and shot [Flamethrower] at its side three times, which was a successful attempt. The fireballs hit its shoulder and waist, burning its black fur. However, it quickly shook the fire off, extinguishing it before it could do more damage to its body.

Clearly, [Flamethrower] couldn't be relied upon too much during this fight. So TJ opted for its more deadly version, [Death Flame]. However, before he could cast it, the cerberus raised the sword's blade in front of him horizontally, and put one claw of the other hand on the blade's mid-section. It then swiped its claw forward and passed the tip in one quick motion, creating a grating sound that made TJ cringe. Like starting a fire with flint and steel, sparks burst out of the friction before creating a small black flame the size of a tennis ball. The black fireball was then shot out at TJ.

The guy of course dodged it, only to see more black fire balls hurtling toward him. He kept dodging while shooting out black fireballs of his own. None of the dark element-fueled fireballs from either side managed to hit their target. But TJ didn't mind this, as the barrage of [Death Flame] he created was just a distraction as he slowly closed the distance toward the hellhound. Not too close, though.

He pulled his cracked earth sword out of the Inventory and prepared to launch it to the monster's defenseless body like how he had done to Lisa during their spar.

However, the cerberus was fast enough to read TJ's movement. It noticed he had suddenly stopped firing. So it took that chance to flash forward while channeling mana to the sword's blade. Black fire crawled along the long blade as it traveled downward in one swift motion, intending to slash its target.

TJ hadn't anticipated the cerberus' fast reaction. Fortunately, he was left-handed while the monster was right-handed, making for an awkward positioning for the latter. So instead of throwing the earth sword, TJ used it to parry the burning sword. He ended the parry by using extra strength to shove the sword aside. His right hand was free while the monster's front side was now exposed.

TJ stepped forward and pressed his palm on the hellhound's center head's right eye. He casted [Decay].

"Roaagh!" the cerberus let out a deep guttural bellow as one of its six eyes went blind. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time for TJ's dark element mana to travel deeper into the hound' skull before its other hand tried to slash its claws at his side.

TJ retreated. The outer edge of his earth sword now had tiny pieces falling off of it after the impact against the black sword. Not to mention, the dark element mana from its black flames was starting to rot a small portion of it. The training weapon barely resembled a sword anymore, and was almost rendered useless.

So TJ did what he had originally intended to do with it. He mustered all his strength to his left arm and threw the sword forward.

The cerberus' other eyes noticed his movement and was fast enough to evade the flying sword. But it didn't expect a quick follow-up from TJ. The thrown sword was just a decoy.

Less than half a second after launching the weapon, TJ quickly shot out the fastest projectile skill in his arsenal, [Wind Bullet]. He didn't dare aim it at the monster's head, though, since he knew he had terrible aims. So he targeted its torso, instead.

But of course, the cerberus wouldn't just stay still after avoiding the flying sword. It had begun zooming toward TJ again, attempting another sword slash despite its previous failure. Monsters weren't very intelligent, after all.

The wind bullet ended up grazing the side of its chest, creating a deep slash that started bleeding.

'Nice. At least now its Health will keep dropping unless the wound is healed. Please don't tell me monsters can regenerate. This isn't a video game.'

The cerberus ignored the injury it just suffered and kept on advancing, ending up right in TJ's face in a flash. TJ knew he couldn't get away fast enough, so he had prepared [Solar Flare]. Flames burst out of his body, scorching some parts of the monster's front and forcing it to retreat.

But not before dealing a huge amount of damage to TJ. It had been quick enough to swing down its sword at TJ who had his left arm raised out of reflex, shielding his front side.

"Argh!" he screamed as the burning blade managed to sever his left arm from the elbow down. Blood spurted out of the exposed flesh and bones as his Health plummeted.

Magnus 2.0's voice suddenly rang in his head. 'Run away as fast as you can and quickly stop the bleeding!'

TJ stole a glance at his severed arm on the ground before picking it up and storing it in his Inventory. He then turned and ran, getting further away from the monster who was still patting the flames ravaging its chest from TJ's earlier [Solar Flare]. As he ran, he casted [Lesser Heal] on himself.

'You didn't need to grab your arm. I can regrow it in less than half an hour,' Magnus 2.0 remarked. 'But I guess now I can just reattach it and save time and mana. Smart move.'

It took a while for the bleeding to stop, as the low-level healing skill could only slowly mend the flesh and skin back together.

Meanwhile, the cerberus had deactivated the black flames on the sword's blade. It held the hilt between its fangs as it got down on all fours. It then began chasing after TJ at full speed.

TJ barely finished treating his wound before the monster jumped at him. It removed the sword from its mouth and grabbed it in its hand midair. The monster descended fast with the tip of the sword aimed right down at TJ's head.

TJ whipped around and reflexively raised his left arm, or rather, his stump. He realized his stupidity soon and managed to step aside quick enough to evade the oncoming tip of the blade. However, the monster's body crashed into his, pinning him down on the ground. With the sword planted on the ground right next to his head, he had to wrestle with the monster's center head trying to maul his face.

He grabbed ahold of the center head's bottom jaw and pushed it upward while casting [Decay]. The right head was trying to reach his stump while the left head couldn't do much but bellow and bite the air as TJ's dark element mana started destroying the center head.

The monster and the human were stuck in that struggle for half a minute before the center head's bottom jaw disintegrated and its bone detached from its joints. [Decay] had just leveled up.

The center head's exposed tongue flailed around as blood sprayed from the parts where the bottom jaw had detached from. TJ's chest and face were drenched in blood now, but he didn't care. He was about to continue decaying more of the center head before the left head pushed it aside and bit down on TJ's right shoulder.

"Fuck!"

TJ then casted [Solar Flare], scorching the inside of the left head's mouth and the rest of the monster's front side. TJ took that opportunity to push the huge body of the monster to the side and slipped out of its entrapment. He quickly casted [Lesser Heal] on his shoulder to stop the bleeding.

The monster's front body was now battered in burn wounds and its center head was basically dead as blood kept pouring out of its exposed jaw. Its Health must be reaching the lower digits by now.

As it flailed around trying to put out the fire, TJ ran toward the now-ownerless sword and finally got his hands on the weapon. He yanked it out of the ground. He felt the weight of the sword and was tempted to inspect its appearance in detail. However, he knew he didn't have the time to do so. Ignoring the awkward feeling of holding the weapon in his non-dominant hand, he zoomed toward the monster and in one swift motion, chopped off the left head.

He was about to move on to the still-intact right head before noticing its red eyes dimming. The damage dealt after the left head was decapitated and blood kept pouring out of its neck, combined with all the burn wounds and the bleeding from the center head's jaw, the monster's Health had finally been drained. Like Magnus had said, it didn't have a big Health pool. After a few more seconds, the monster was officially dead, indicated by the 260 points increase in TJ's XP.