Hellhounds, Hellhounds Everywhere

*I planned each charted course~*

*Each careful step along the byway~*

*And more, much more than this, I did it myyy way~*

"Stop that song or I'll throw these hellhounds out the portal and let them wreak havoc on the soldiers!" TJ growled through the Protagonist call.

Magnus 2.0 clicked his tongue while his original tapped the pause button on his phone screen. The Internet may have been gone now, but Magnus had a long playlist of songs from many genres downloaded on that popular music streaming app. And since the apartment they were currently staying at still had electricity, his phone now was on full power.

Five minutes ago, he'd plugged his earphones on the handset port and fitted the rubber buds on his ears before opening the app and selecting one of his all-time favorite tunes. He pulled a can of coke out his Inventory, leaned back on the chair, and rested his feet on the dining table.

TJ's and Summer's screens were opened before him, with his [The Axe Gang] menu on the side, displaying his Team members' status—their Level and Health.

*Clack*

*Tsss*

He opened the can of coke.

*Gulp, gulp*

"Ah, that hits the spot!" he said as Frank Sinatra's baritone voice traveled to his eardrums.

That was when he got a call from TJ on his system. Magnus could guess what his friend was going to say, based on what was seen on his POV at the moment.

Anyway, here's a quick montage of what had happened so far:

TJ and Lisa arrived at the region where a pack of hellhounds were trotting around, sniffing every object they could find.

The two then got off the truck, started blasting magic, killing monsters easily as if they were some kind of high-level players dealing with tutorial enemies. Well, TJ did most of the work, but Lisa still fared much better than anyone normally would on the same Level. She also took the time to show off her newly-learned skill, [Ice Spear].

Fast-forward ten to fifteen minutes later, TJ was currently standing before the black hole leading to the Abyss. Behind him, Lisa could be seen throwing an ice spear, impaling the last monster standing. Around her, twelve to fifteen soldiers watched with their mouths agape as tens of hellhound corpses were seen disintegrating into motes of dust; that was what happened to monsters who died outside the Abyss.

Magnus didn't know how exactly it happened, but apparently monster corpses always turned to dust made of Abyss energy. As the energy scattered in the air, it contaminated vegetation and small living beings like insects within regions where monsters roamed around, over time causing them to rot. It wasn't as harmful to humans, though. And for those already surpassing Level five and above, the Abyss energy literally did zero harm.

Back in the original Universe, many people liked to call monster-infested regions as the Abyss Circle, since there was an invisible barrier bordering a radius of a few hundred meters around each portal, and the monsters coming out of it weren't able to travel further than that.

"Ayo! What's up?" Magnus 2.0 picked up TJ's call.

"Do I just walk through this thing or what?" asked TJ, staring at the portal.

"Yeah, go for it, dude," answered Magnus 2.0.

TJ looked behind him and gave the battered and exhausted Lisa a sharp glare. "Don't even wait for these soldiers and quickly return to the others," he ordered. The tone of his voice gave her no room to protest.

'Aww, big brother TJ is worried,' Magnus 2.0 teased.

'Right? He does have a caring side, after all,' Magnus added.

TJ ignored the two as he stepped through the blackhole, feeling a cold tingle around his body and a disorienting buzz in his head.

Meanwhile, Lisa looked on as TJ vanished behind the portal before looking down at her own body. There were a couple of bite wounds on her arms and legs along with a few lacerations, from which blood was constantly pouring out. Her Health was approaching the single digit and her Mana was almost depleted. However, she still had enough to fly over to the other group. They were only a couple of blocks away, after all. And so, she had no choice but to suppress her curiosity about what was on the other side of the portal, and inform Sergeant Jordan that she was leaving the area.

And so, as TJ tried to adjust his mind after experiencing the cross-Realm disorientation, he told Magnus to stop the song currently being played on his phone. Magnus was actually surprised that TJ was able to hear it through the call. It was probably because he was enjoying the song, thereby putting it on the front of his mind.

"There, we stopped it. You're welcome. Got any song request, perhaps?" Magnus 2.0 asked.

TJ swept his gaze across the sight before him. A plain that consisted of dead and cracked soil, no trees or even a single patch of grass within view, blood-red sky, and one lonesome moon that was about twice as big as the Earth's moon. That was also colored red.

Basically, it looked as if some artist spilled a ton of red hue when color-grading the landscape.

And of course, the Abyss wouldn't be the Abyss without the monsters. Almost a hundred pairs of red eyes were locked on TJ's form, as sharp fangs were bared and deep, feral growls slightly shook the ground.

The hellhounds did not look very welcoming to the human invading their territory, and their black furs were standing, making them look more fluffed. They may look scary, but they were more like puppies compared to the thing sleeping on an altar further up ahead.

By the looks of it, it was also a type of hellhound, only twice as big and with three heads instead of one. It was snoring without a care in the world, and since it was lying down with its chin rested on its front paws, TJ could see the hilt and the crossguard of a sword poking up from behind its body. It was as if the hound was guarding the sword. While sleeping.

"I guess that's supposed to be my sword," TJ commented while cracking his knuckles. He prepared to cast a skill as he told Magnus, "Play me anything I like."

"Aight," Magnus said before taking another sip of coke while scrolling down his playlist. His finger then tapped on one title.

*Dun, dun dun dun dunnn~*

*Dun, dun dun dun dunnn~*

A clean guitar intro played as a wild grin bloomed on TJ's face. "Nice choice," he said, watching the hellhounds that started to run toward him.

He immediately casted [Line of Fire], making a half-circle of fire wall in front of him, forcing the hounds to halt and retreat. He then lifted one arm up high and casted [Death Flame], creating a ball of black fire about fifty-centimeters in diameter.

*Say your prayers, little one. Don't forget, my son~*

*To include everyone~*

The black fireball was launched to the front line of the hounds, immediately decimating almost ten of them. His [Darkness User's Starter Pack] gloves had enhanced the effectiveness of his dark element, after all.

TJ then proceeded to shoot a bunch of smaller, normal fireballs to the rest of the closest hounds, severely wounding them before the flames eventually devoured their bodies. The hounds' Health pool was actually quite small, which was why even Lisa hadn't had a hard time killing them.

*Sleep with one eye open~*

*Gripping your pillow tight~*

TJ kept whittling down the number of hounds, but he wasn't fast enough to prevent the hounds who were further ahead to circle around and approach him from the sides. A few of them even reached the spot behind him.

TJ cursed as the hounds surrounded him. As they were about to pounce on his seemingly defenseless figure, red aura covered his body before bright flames burst out of it. [Solar Flare] whooshed out and scorched many hounds who were too close to run away.

*Exit light!*

*Enter night!*

*Taaake my haaand*

"We're off to never, neverland, baby!" TJ yelled before pulling his earth sword out of his Inventory. It was called an earth sword, but since it had a blunt tip and edge, he started swinging it around like a club. The sturdy training weapon kept hitting the hounds' skulls and ribs, creating sounds of bones breaking and puppy's whimpering as he strode slowly toward the hellhound boss.

He kept casting [Solar Flare] every now and then, preventing the hounds from sinking their teeth in his flesh. However, some hounds still managed to swipe their claws at him. He now had to bear with many claw marks on his body as blood kept pouring out of them.

Thus, his Health was gradually dropping. Not that he felt much pain, since his [Pain Resistance] was already on level six.

He didn't falter, though. Sometimes, he would cast another [Line of Fire] on his front and back, creating a protective circle of fire around him. All the while preparing another black fireball to instantly wipe out eight to ten hounds at once.

While his left hand kept swinging around the sword-slash-club, he multitasked by shooting out [Flamethrower] from his right hand. Like this, as he advanced toward the three-headed hound, he created a trail of hound corpses in his wake.

"Come on, TJ! You've got this!" Magnus 2.0 cheered through the call. "You have what most others don't! And you know what that is?"

TJ smashed another skull before asking under his breath, "What?"

"Plot armor! You're my Protagonist, remember?"

TJ couldn't even hear his friend's answer as he felt a sharp pain on his right arm. Not even [Pain Resistance] could dampen this level of pain.

One hound finally managed to have a taste of TJ's blood and flesh. The bitten arm was yanked around as the hound shook its head side-to-side. However, TJ didn't panic. Even though his Health was dwindling, he still had enough to finish all the remaining hounds. Hopefully.

He clubbed another hound approaching from his left before momentarily putting the earth sword back in his Inventory. He used his now-free hand to cast [Decay] on the growling hound attached to his right arm. The skill had reached level four, thus the speed at which it rotted skin and flesh had considerably improved.

The skin on the hound's forehead rapidly disintegrated. The pain finally kicked in as the dark element mana began ravaging the exposed flesh, making its way to the bone. The hound whimpered as it retracted its teeth from TJ's arm and retreated.

But TJ didn't give it a chance to get far. He casted a smaller [Death Flame], finishing [Decay]'s job and eventually, the hound's life.

TJ didn't even take a moment to breathe before the earth sword appeared on his left hand again. Unfortunately, the bite wound had accelerated the speed at which his Health was plummeting.

"Fuck."

For now, he ignored the wound and kept his advance, swinging the earth sword and shooting out fireball after fireball.

About ten minutes later, the hellhounds had been completely wiped out. TJ's body was riddled with bleeding claw marks and one deep bite wound. He was panting hard. His shirt and jacket were badly torn, prompting him to take them off.

He was about fifty or so meters away from the hellhound boss, but the beast was still sleeping as if it hadn't heard the crying of its minions being slaughtered left and right.

"See? I told you you'd need a healing skill," Magnus 2.0 said. "You kept avoiding learning it as if the name would be a blemish on your skill list. But look at the state you are in now!"

Magnus 2.0 had hung up sometime ago to conserve his AP, allowing TJ to concentrate on his battle since the music had stopped. But now he was back on the call again.

"Shut up." TJ then casted his level one [Lesser Heal] on his bite wound. At first, it looked like it did nothing else but slow down the dropping of his Health. But after about ten minutes, the bleeding finally stopped and the flesh started mending itself back together. It took about twenty minutes to completely heal the wound. Which was quite a long time.

He then proceeded to heal most of the scratch wounds, which took almost half an hour. He didn't heal all of them, on the account of preserving his Mana, which had now been reduced to a fourth of its total number. He then decided to take another ten minutes to replenish it, bringing his Mana to about three-fourth of its total.

"Right, you ready to face the big puppy now?" asked Magnus 2.0. "You shouldn't delay this any longer. Another pack of puppies on the other side of the plain have probably sensed their kin dying and have started heading your way."

TJ picked up his earth sword from the ground. The training weapon now had several cracks on it, which was honestly a testament to Magnus' high level [Earth Manipulation]. It had been used to pummel almost a hundred hellhounds, but it was still in one piece, albeit seemingly not for long now.

He took a deep breath and started striding toward the three-headed hound. As he neared it, the monster's ears finally twitched and one of its eyes opened to a slit.

"Hey there, puppy," TJ said. "Looks like you have what's mine. So now you need to die!"