The Devil’s Cage

The calm voice sounded like the arctic wind from the far north, causing chills amongst Hounds when they heard it.

As their comrades died off one by one without a single sound, it finally made the notorious Hounds feel a sense of fear.

When the voice sounded again and again, it increased the fear endlessly.

“Ninth!”

“Tenth!”

After two more bodies fell to the ground and were heard by the survivors, the Hounds had lost half of their members.

The Hounds started to panic.

From the moment they joined the Elder Council and became one of the Twenty Hounds, they had never encountered such a scenario before.

Every battle in the past, they would kill their targets with absolute advantages, and now it was the exact opposite.

The strangeness of the feeling made the Hounds even more anxious and doubtful.

Each of them stood still in their original locations and carefully put up their respective defenses.

From that moment onwards, anyone who approached them would be their enemy.

As for Melanie’s orders, the remaining Hounds chose to ignore it in the end.

“Damn it!” Melanie cursed at her comrades in her heart.

The Head Hound finally understood Kieran’s plan at that moment.

Kieran didn’t have any intentions of escaping from the start, instead, he really wanted to fight them to the death!

Once she thought about her incorrect command earlier, Melanie felt enraged, especially since she felt that she was tricked by Kieran into giving out such an order. Her enraged state even made her breath heavily.

However, Melanie didn’t lose her cool.

She knew if she didn’t wish for Kieran to hunt down her comrades one by one, the dust before her eyes had to go!

Then, Melanie gave up on hesitating, she took out a thumb-sized shell-like magical item and at the next moment, a heavy wind was blown out from the shell.

Fuuuu!

The dust was quickly blown away by the heavy wind.

The figures in the sewer tunnel started to become clear again, the Hounds saw each other and also their target: Kieran!

Kieran was standing beside his sword box!

“Go!”

As they recovered their sight, the Hounds regained their courage. After a loud shout, four Hounds who were skilled in close combat dashed out to Kieran in a surrounding formation.

Two more Hounds raised the bows in their hand and two other Hounds started to chant incantations deeply.

Another big and strong Hound grabbed [Calga’s Crush], trying to prevent Kieran from attacking in the same way again.

The teamwork among the Hounds allowed them to complete their formations quickly.

Melanie stared dead ahead at Kieran, she would not give up until the moment Kieran was killed!

Otherwise, how would she settle the grudges in her heart?

She saw Kieran opened up his box and take out a gigantic two-handed greatsword. He was not slow or fast in his motions, he even looked like he was at ease.

The four Hounds who specialized in melee attacks were a few feet away from Kieran and yet he was still acting leisurely.

Melanie had a bad feeling in her heart when she saw Kieran’s reaction but the four Hounds in front of Kieran couldn’t think anymore. All they saw was Kieran being caught off guard.

“Die!”

“Back off!”

Two different voices sounded almost simultaneously.

The first voice was from the Hounds ready to tear Kieran apart and wash away their shame; the second voice was from Melanie who suddenly thought of something.

But it was too late!

An area of supernatural shadow clouded the area starting from Kieran’s position.

Kieran and the four melee combat oriented Hounds vanished from sight.

The others who held bows and chanted incantations instantly lost their target.

The one Hound who grabbed tightly onto [Calga’s Crush] was astonished.

None of them had expected such a sudden change.

Whistles and agonizing cries inside the shadow were heard. The Hounds outside who had just witnessed the sudden shadow changed their facial expressions instantly, including Melanie.

The female Head Hound’s face was at her ugliest.

She had received news about Kieran’s ability in utilizing shadow powers but she kept it to herself and didn’t share it with the rest of her Hounds.

Between the Hounds, there was no such thing as friendly partners and kind comrades. The core value between the Hounds was brutal infighting and the deadly devouring of others within the group.

So, Melanie didn’t think hiding some news from the others would be something unacceptable.

It was just that she didn’t expect that hiding such news would affect the current battle of life and death.

While seeing her so-called comrades losing the target again and their faces smeared with fear Melanie’s heart turned cold but she uttered, “Attack!”

The Hounds with bows fired at the shadow without hesitation, trying to hit as many parts of the shadow as possible after they heard Melanie’s command.

Sou Sou Sou Sou!

Arrows were fired into the shadows like a downpour of heavy rain.

The other Hounds who were chanting incantations didn’t stop, blazing fires together with poisonous mist gushed into the shadow like a rising tide.

Then…

Everything went silent.

The shadow that blocked their sight didn’t produce any sounds after that.

The Hounds outside stared at the shadow, hoping for a decent outcome.

Men’s mentality was to always hope to be lucky and fortunate regardless of timing and situation, the Hounds were no exception.

“Is he dead?” the Hound holding on to [Calga’s Crush] said.

However, the moment his words subsided, the Hound was dragged into the shadow together with [Calga’s Crush] by the great force from the other end of the chain.

Kacha!

After the clear sound of cracking neck, the four remaining Hounds shivered.

They started to vent out their fear by launching relentless attacks into the shadow.

Arrows, flames, poison mist, the relentless attacks were enough to blot out the sky and cover the earth but the sturdy [Elmerius Sword] acted like the hardest shield, not only blocking all the attacks for Kieran but also allowing Kieran to charge out from the shadow. He rapidly shortened the distance between him and the other Hounds.

Their eyes were trembling with fear when they saw Kieran closing upon them like the grim reaper.

On the verge of death, the four Hounds dished out all their hidden aces.

The ground beneath Kieran’s feet was turned into a swamp-like mud after a dim shine.

Two chains the size of arms appeared from thin air, binding Kieran tightly as he wielded [Elmerius Sword] while charging forward.

With a great suction force pulling him down, Kieran who was bound on the spot kept sinking downwards. It still wasn’t the end.

Boom!

Amid the big bang, a 3-meter tall iron puppet, branded with mystical runes appeared out from the air and swung a punch at Kieran.

But another smaller black venomous snake was faster than the puppet’s punch. The venomous snake turned into a mirage and threw itself at Kieran’s neck.

The four Hounds who were forced to a desperate state had vicious gazes and ferocious expressions as they dished out the best skills they had.

Whether was it the swamp-like mud, or the iron chains, all of them were extremely powerful items, even Calga the knight who was known for his strength would not have broken free if caught.

It would be the same for Kieran since they thought his strength was on par with Calga.

The iron puppet was once used as a castle siege weapon and the black venomous snake could kill an elephant with a drop of its venom!

Therefore, Kieran was dead for sure!

That was what they believed, but the scene that happened next frightened them beyond their senses.