There was a lull in the air as the hellhound corpse laid on the ground drenching the dirt path in an almost cartoonish amount of blood. Silvia fell to her knees as shock set in soaking her in even more of the blood. She could barely understand what was going on and she thought for a second that she may have simply gone insane. In the moments before her death her mind created a peaceful fantasy in which she was saved by a literal knight in shining armor, but surely she was taken by the Demon God of death. However, the fantasy didn’t end and she realized she wet herself from the fear.

Kevin and Jessica paid no mind to Silvia as they turned their attention to the other hellhounds. They thought that there would be at least a challenge to killing one of the beasts by what Gael had told them. However, these creatures were by Kevin’s estimations only around boss level one which is only around level thirty. The thing is they had none of the resistances, or buffs that a boss from the game would have possessed making them even too weak to be considered anything more than a mob creature.

“That was not what I expected.” Kevin stated while looking over the corpse. “They are about as strong as a water balloon.”

“So, might as well wrap things up here then.” Jessica said as she spun her guandao taking an attack stance. “I’ll take the next one without magic.”

“You can have both, Beautiful.” Kevin said as boredom eked into his voice. “I’ll check on the people over here.”

Kevin swiped his blade in the air, flinging all of the blood to the ground before sheathing his blade. His shield vanished into his inventory and he turned to look at Silvia. The girl was covered head to toe in blood and gore but none of it looked like it was hers so he looked up at the crowd. People had stopped in their tracks at the unbelievable scene before them. Silvia’s eyes widened as she gazed up at the man that saved her. He was the same foreigner that she saw with the elven woman on the bridge. She then stared down at the hellhounds on the hill.

“Look out,” Silvia yelled.

The remaining two hellhounds finally noticed them and began their ascent from the temple. Their furious jaws undeterred from the death of their packmate. Kevin paid the other hellhounds no mind as he walked over to Silvia. She couldn’t understand why they were so calm. No one could stop those beasts alone, not even Willy and his team of decorated argonauts stood much of a chance. Tears again streamed down her face knowing for sure she was going to die.

As the beasts drew in closer Jessica spun her large polearm in an arch around her body. In a blur of motion she dodge to the side as the jaw of the massive dog snapped shut in the place she used to occupy. She stabbed the end of the polearm into the side of the monster's head faster than it could react. The guandao cut through tough skin and bone as if it were wet paper before finding purchase in the brain of the first hellhound. Jessica then removed the blade from the creature's head and jumped into the air swinging the blade with precision and grace while decapitating the third and final hellhound as if she were merely doing an acrobatic flip.

“Are you okay?” Kevin asked Silvia.

The words hung in the air for a few moments as Silvia stared blankly at the hellhound corpses. Her senses did not allow her to understand what she was seeing. Only after she looked down at her sticky and bloody form, did some of her sensations return.

“I-I… I think so.” Silvia stuttered, her body shaking.

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Silvia’s mind struggled to comprehend what was going on. Without warning all she could do was laugh at the fact she lived; it was a somber laugh full of tears and emotions that still failed to process. Soon the laughing stopped and all that remained were the tears. Silvia could finally see an end to the nightmare that invaded their town.

Despite their disappointment in how weak the hellhounds were, Kevin and Jessica felt good to have helped the town. They also noted how the hellhounds in this world looked different from the hellhounds from the game. Pneuma could summon hellhounds at a much higher level than these creatures and they looked more like black wolves with red armor. Something about these creatures and their six eyes looked wrong.

Since the hellhounds were dead the temperature quickly started to drop. Kevin and Jessica paid no mind to the group of townspeople that congregated to inspect the dead beasts and check on the young girl they just saved. They merely looked in the direction of the forest where the beast originally appeared. Kevin and Jessica could feel the presence of many more of the creatures beyond the treeline. Had this all still been a game they imagine it would be the same as having the red dot indicating a hostile on the map. The surreal nature of the new sensations were less jarring than when they first appeared in this world.

“You think we should?” Jessica said over the privat chat.

“We did already start might as well take out the rest of them.” Kevin responded in the chat. “It’s pretty much like a level twenty quest at this point and the village elder said she would give us a reward.”

“You all go back inside your homes there appear to be a few more of these things in the woods.” Kevin said to the group. “We will return once we have eliminated all of them.”

“Wait.” Zachery said as they approached. “Are you sure you should go alone? Should we not flee the village and get help?”

“No, just go home, we got this.” Jessica said as she started to walk towards the obsidian portal still cracking with energy. “Your elder miss… uh… Mrs. Wretched, I think was her name… well whatever, she hired us to kill the rest of them so don’t worry about it.”

Evan pushed his way through the crowd which up until that point he and Gia went unnoticed. He was trembling with sorrow and indignation. Evan marched up to Kevin after placing Gia on the ground fist balled at his side. He raised his hand and pointed directly at one of the hellhound corpses.

“Why didn’t you help earlier?” He screamed tears streamed down his face. “You did this so easily yet… yet… so many died! You could have saved so many people! If you helped earlier.”

“That is enough.” Zachery yells.

Kevin and Jessica merely looked at the crying man feeling nothing towards him or his plight. Jessica could feel herself getting angry for having saved him just for him to accuse them of not doing enough. This wasn’t their fault or their problem to clean up. They had no obligation to this town or its people. Kevin let out a sigh and grabbed her hand.

“Collect your dead and find your families. Be grateful we decided to help at all.” Kevin said sharply to the distraught man.

Kevin and Jessica turned without another word and walked into the swirling portal and the archway crumbled into motes of black light. The crowd were silent as the realization of what just transpired really sank in. The town would never be the same after this attack, not after so much loss.

“We have to collect everyone just like they said.” Silvia said, finally breaking the silence.

Silvia could feel everyone's eyes turn to her bloodied form as if surprised she was the first to speak. Several people helped her to her feet. She looked defeated and exhausted and her words were distant as if she were running on autopilot. Her emotions were too painful to bear so she lost herself to her duties to the people of the town. She was the next in line heir of her family and she needed to hold her weight.

“You need to rest.” Stuart said.

“No, we have work to do.” She said as the tears finally stopped flowing.

“Who in the name of the Gods were they?” Paisley said as she looked over at the empty space where the portal once cracked with magic.