B2 Chapter 222: Growing Problems, pt. 2

Snapping to the left, Kaius planted his weight and brought his blade up into a hanging guard.

The dog-beast that had been trying to rush him yelped, cutting itself deep on the angled edge of A Father’s Gift.

Focused and calm, he reset his blade, and slashed through its skull.

**Ding! Savage Hound – Level 30 Slain, Experience Gained! Reduced Experience for slaying an enemy of Insignificant Strength!**

They were weak. Easy to kill. Even if there were a few dozen of them, they had nowhere near the numbers or organisation to overwhelm him like had happened with the bogglings.

A roar sounded from behind him, supported by half a dozen terrified yips as Porkchop tore his way through a milling group of the pack.

Neither of them were using their skills—there was no need, and with the watching guards they’d give too much away. They didn’t need stories of unknown magic and warbeasts summoning suits of armour to make their way around town.

Not that all of the guards were standing in defence of their fallen by the gate.

As Kaius hacked his way through the handful of dogs that circled him warily, he spotted two tribunes—the lowest of common command ranks—leading their men into a charge. In groups of four—the highest one could go before more intensive experience penalties set in—they raced into the fray with leveled spears and heavy tower shields.

Curious at their sudden nerve, Kaius identified one of the front runners—hoping the rudeness would be forgiven in the current circumstances, if it was noticed at all.

Human – level 38

Striker

Disciplined and focused, the men were silent in their approach other than the rhythmic pounding of their heavy boots.

Absorbed as the hounds were in the aggressive devastation that he and Porkchop wrought in their midst, they missed the charge right up until the first of them screamed in agony as a stride of steel and three of wood punched straight through the back of its waist.

Kaius moved, seizing the moment. A thrust punched through the ear of a hound to his front that had snapped its head over to the newest threat in surprise.

**Ding! Savage Hound – Level 32 Slain, Experience Gained! Reduced Experience for slaying an enemy of Insignificant Strength!**

He stepped out of his lunge, a dragging slash severing the shoulder muscles of the hound to the left of the corpse leaking blood from its ears. Movement caught his attention—heart pulsing to the rhythm of his blade. A carry through chop cut through the spine of a hound that lunged in with a snarl.

**Ding! Liturgical Bladeform: Primus Ordo has reached level 64!**

With their bodies broken, both the hounds fell limp.

Driving back their baying allies, Kaius finished them off, bone crunching as his bladepoint slid effortlessly through their skulls.

**Ding! Savage Hound – Level 34 Slain, Experience Gained! Reduced Experience for slaying an enemy of Insignificant Strength!**

…

**Ding! Savage Hound – Level 29 Slain, Experience Gained! Reduced Experience for slaying an enemy of Insignificant Strength!**

Mechanical work—but it was good to get the blood pumping.

Watching out of the corner of his eye, Kaius noted the smooth precision with which the tribunes commanded their men. Curt shouts preceded practiced teamwork, spearmen charging forwards with their shields held out to drive the hounds back, while one of their companions separated one beast from the greater pack with a flurry of jabs.

Another barked command, and the team smoothly rotated through their formation, turning to pincer the isolated hound in a sudden flash of violence.

They stepped back, revealing a limp body leaking blood from punctured holes in its chest and head.

One of the tribunes caught his eye, giving him a nod of respect and gratitude.

Kaius grinned back, before a yelping dog covered in bone deep claw wounds sailed through the air, landing at his feet.

Relaxed and smooth, he drove his blade down—feeling the kicking impact as it drove clean through the stunned beast and rammed into the hardened dirt beneath.

When another hound tried its luck, Kaius kicked it in the chest. Ribs cracked as the beast went flying back, tumbling uncontrollably as his enhanced strength sent it flying into a handful of hounds that had started to harry the guardsmen that had moved to help them cull the threat.

It was a simple fight, but one that still had joy to it. Half a year ago, a pack of this size and level would have torn him and Porkchop to shreds. In comparison, now he was cutting his way through their numbers with contemptuous ease without a single class skill.

Seeing the direct results of his labour laid out so plainly was enough to warm Kaius’s heart, a small smile creeping up his lips as contentment put a spring in his step.

It didn’t take much longer for the hounds to break. With half their number laying shattered and cold on the ground, it was obvious even to their simple minds that they were utterly outmatched now that Kaius and Porkchop had joined the fray.

It was a sudden thing—the way the pack’s snarling barks turned to fearful yips, the pack turning tail and sprinting for the plains.

Porkchop tried to draw them back in with a Bulwark’s Challenge, but it seemed with their spirit thoroughly broken, there was too little aggression for the skill to inflame into madness. If anything it made the problem worse—the hounds nearly falling over themselves in their haste to escape the apex predator who had roared at them in fury.

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Kaius frowned as he watched them flee. Letting them escape felt wrong. The beasts had already proven themselves willing to assault men, and farms lay in every direction. No doubt they’d rally and start their hunt anew soon enough.

Unfortunately, there was little he could do.

Weak they may have been, the dogs were swift, quickly tearing away from Deadacre in a cloud of dust. Catching them was unlikely, and they’d no doubt scatter as soon as he set out in pursuit.

Thankfully, the archers on the city walls had no compunctions about spending arrows like they were yesterday’s bread.