The Call (II)

Zero climbed up the tree to scope out the area. In the distance, sounds of hellhounds could be heard. Sniffing through bushes, barking and yelping loudly, the hellhounds viciously fought with each other for dominance.

"They shouldn't have gotten too far from here!" shouted the captain of the guards. "Spread out! Lord Dion has ordered us to find them and capture them alive! We do not want to disappoint him!"

Dozens of heavily armored guards streamed out of the mansion with heavy swords on their belts. Many of the guards had hellhounds snarling on chain leashes. Teeth baring, foam appearing on its side of the mouth like rabid dogs, and pulling to the point where it was a bit difficult for the handler to hold. The hellhounds nipped and tore each other's ears as they tried to get a sniff of a piece of Agnis's blue dress. A couple of times the guards had to kick them into submission as they viciously fought one another. One by one they were let loose and the chase was on.

Sniffing through bushes with their nose down on the ground, they sprinted towards their prey. The hellhounds cried out, telling their owners that they picked up her scent. Blaring sounds of the horn were heard echoing through the forest. In the distance, dozens of loud footsteps sprinted in their direction.

"You guys, pick up the pace. We got hellhounds coming in from nine o'clock," yelled Zero from high in the tree. He squinted trying to see where they were coming from.

"Give us a bit more time. It seems Agnis is stuck!" Zeraph shouted back, "I think she's afraid of heights. My lady, don't worry, I'll save you."

"No, I'm not." Agnis voice squeaked as she trembled with fear. She glimpsed down to check if her feet were still in the crevice of the cliff. "Are those sharp rocks?"

Her eyes begun to lose focus, and she tightly closed her eyes. Her breathing increased as she tried to control her trembling hands. "Please don't let me die, God. Please," she mumbled a silent prayer not to fall.

"This is the worst time to be afraid of heights. They are going to be upon us soon!" Zero yelled back down. He slipped down onto the ground and scrambled towards them.

"At least she's halfway down." Zeraph looked at him with a bit of concern. He turned down towards Agnis, shouting her encouragement. "Keep going, Agnis! You're almost there! Just look at my beautiful face and you'll be alright."

Even at a time like this Zero could not believe Zeraph could spout such nonsense.

"I'll go down and help her. Buy us some time," said Zeraph with a hurried tone. He pulled out some kind of hook to scale down the side. Zero stared at Zeraph's bag in surprise, secretly wondering how much stuff was inside. Usually one could see what was in the bag, but the one Zeraph had specifically was like a black bottomless pit.

"Do you have any more of those smoke bombs and powdered cayenne pepper?" Zero looked upon Zeraph as his eyes brightened with hope.

"Yeah?" Zeraph raised his eyebrows at Zero. "You know it's only going to work temporarily."

Zero nodded his head and replied, "I know, but it will buy you guys enough time."

Zeraph handed him a bottle of crushed cayenne pepper and a couple of smoke bombs. Even now, Zero could smell the hot spice that made his nose slightly runny.

"I'll be seeing you soon." Zeraph smirked at him as he begun to hoist himself down the cliff. "I recommend you stand upwind so it doesn't get in your eyes. Other than that, have fun with it."

Zero grinned back. Without a second to lose he ran off toward the oncoming hellhounds. He stopped several meters away from the cliff and scrambled up on a large drooping pine tree. He broadened his search and soon spotted them halfway across the forest, rushing towards them in full speed.

"They're pretty close. I'll think they'll be here in a couple minutes." Zero tested out the winds by licking his fingers; he felt it lightly blowing towards the hellhounds. He could hear their snarling growls already.

The bush rustled. Two large black hellhounds jumped out from the bushes, growling. They snarled through their teeth as they paced around the tree. The larger of the two hellhounds snapped at the other as it snarled to let it go first. Zero observed them like a hawk, ready to swoop down on his prey at any moment. He pulled out one of the three small wooden sticks that he had eaten shish kabob with from under the sleeves. While watching Agnis during her dance of death, he had sharpened it against the broken flint knife.

The hellhounds barked ferociously when they spotted Zero. Their eyes changed to the color of crimson red while their razor sharp claws extended. They dug their claws deep into the ground. Before Zero's very eyes the bodies of the hellhounds grew exponentially.

What's wrong with these dogs? Are they on steroids? Zero thought in panic. He did not expect them to mutate. "What have these dogs been eating?" said Zero, appalled. Whatever they'd done to these hellhounds wasn't natural. He needed to get rid of them now before it could do any harm to anyone else.

The larger of the two hellhounds backed up and dug its hind legs deep into the ground. With a bellowing roar it charged forward. It rammed its head into the tree, which shook violently with a sound of splintering wood. Knowing that the tree would not last much longer, he jumped out of the tree and flung himself at the hellhound.

"HAGHH!" Zero screamed at the top of his lungs while both his hands were over his head holding onto a shish kabob stick. With a downward force, the wooden stick landed perfectly in the dog's eye, snapping cleanly in half.

Kikiyang!

The hellhound yelped in pain and ran blindly into the bushes. Zero tumbled tightly into a ball to cushion his fall. The second hellhound blitzed towards Zero and clamped down on his arm, yanking him out of his tumble. Zero felt a sharp pain running through his whole arm. He pushed the pain out of his mind as he had no time to waste.

He was viciously thrashed around like a stuffed toy. A loud pop was heard from Zero's shoulder. As the hellhound rested for a moment to get a better hold on Zero, he had just enough time to pull out the glass vial of powdered cayenne pepper in his pocket. He crushed the glass vial over its nose. Whimpering in pain, the hellhound sneezed continuously, trying to get the smell out of its nose. It let him go as it viciously scratched its nose with its paws, trying to clear its sinuses. With a loud yelping noise, it howled out loudly in distress.

With a dislocated shoulder, Zero was limited in what he could do. The pain constantly overpowered his mind and the yelping of the monstrous dog did not help. Pushing the pain to the back of his thoughts, he rushed in and pierced the hound through its neck. The hellhound was hardly hurt with this attack, but it gave him enough time to throw sand into the hound's eyes, temporarily blinding it.

With the hound blinded Zero gave it a crescent kick downwards upon its head, knocking it unconscious. He could hear the splintering sound of the hellhound's skull breaking.

In exhaustion, he wheezed for a breath. He had fought multiple guards and now hellhounds. This hard work was taking quite a toll on his young body. Just like in real life, there were restrictions in the game of Growth. Too much of a burden on the body could deplete strength and result in death. Zero wiped sweat and dirt off his brow. With his job done, he ran back towards Agnis and Zeraph.

"Are you guys safe?" Zero yelled down the cliff. He could see Agnis sitting on the ground, hunched over and trying to catch her breath. Zeraph was rubbing her back, trying to calm her down.

"Yeah, you can come down now," exclaimed Zeraph as he looked up towards Zero and motioned him to come down.

"I'm going to need your help. I can't climb down with this dislocated shoulder. I need you to pull me down." Zero began to wrap his good hand tightly around both the ropes that Agnis and Zeraph used.

The bush rustled, and another large hellhound jumped out towards him. It headbutted Zero perfectly in his chest and knocked the wind out of him. Both the hellhound and Zero tumbled off the cliff. The hellhound landed on its neck in a bone-crushing thud and died instantly. Zeraph rushed forward as he dived towards the rope. Agnis was luckily close to the rope and was able to grab it. Just in the nick of time, both Agnis and Zeraph caught the rope as Zero was harshly pulled to a stop.

He slammed into the wall with his dislocated shoulder. With a loud pop, his shoulder went back into place. He'd forgotten how long it had been since he'd felt this much pain. The last time he'd had such an injury was during Ninjitsu boot camp. One of his teammates kicked him hard on his shoulder while they were sparring. His rotator cuff popped out of place from its socket, leaving him with excruciating pain. Putting it back in place was even worse, but the pain did eventually go away.

Struggling to keep Zero steady, Agnis and Zeraph pulled Zero safely to the ground. Zero's feet touched the ground and he let go of the ropes. He flopped onto the ground exhausted. At that moment it felt like the ground was an amazing bed which he had not lain upon for a long time. He was out of mana, his health was near the red zone, and he was pretty low on stamina. I hope this was all the excitement for today, he thought.

"Are you alright?" Agnis's face was heavy with concern as she looked down upon him. Her white hair tumbled down towards him.

"I think so… I got bitten, thrown around like some kind of a rag doll, and my shoulder just popped back into place. Just give me a second to process everything." He sighed loudly and closed his eyes.

"You do know that all the pain you are feeling is just in your head. It doesn't affect your real body. All the deep dive gear does is give you an illusion of pain. So all you need to do is tune down your thoughts and you can actually block it out," Zeraph explained as if it was nothing.

Zero understood how to block out pain. The concept was not difficult, but doing the process was completely different.

"I expected as much, but tuning the pain out can be quite challenging." Zero sighed heavily as he opened his eyes to stare up at the sky. He could feel a light breeze brush against his face. The clean tangy smell of new rain wafted through his nose.

Rapidly, dark grey clouds rolled into the area. Loud thunderous booms echoed throughout the valley. Flashing lights of lightning strikes danced in the dark starry sky. It was like a Beethoven's symphony of thunder and lightning as light rain began to pour down upon the ground.

"I was wondering when the rain was going to start," Agnis commented as she held up her hands over her head. Clapping her hands together like she was doing a prayer, a drizzle of rain streamed down upon her hands.

"What dumb luck," Zero muttered. This gave them a great opportunity, because dogs could not track them in this weather. Zero pulled out the last two remaining herbal medicines that he'd made. Chewing on one, the medicine took immediate effect and numbed his pain. He sighed in relief. The pain vanished from his body as he added the medicine paste to his wounded arms.

A flask of water dangled in front of his face. "Thanks." Zero took it from Zeraph and drank it heartily. Fresh cold water satisfied his thirst and wiped away a bit of his fatigue.

"Kah." He wiped his mouth of water. "I forgot how thirsty I was," he said happily while capping it. It felt like a long time since he'd drunk water. He handed it back to Zeraph. He felt his stamina slowly coming back.

A large variety of plants lined up against the walls of the cliff. There were a couple of plants that opened up towards the cloudy sky as they caught the rainwater. The air felt hot and stuffy, making it a bit difficult to breathe. Large leaf-like plants covered over them. Agnis walked to an elephant leaf and took it. It was about half her size, almost completely covering her. Both Zeraph and Zero looked at her with confusion.

"What are you doing?" Zero peered at her curiously.

"It's an umbrella." Agnis twirled around. Not a single drop of rain touched her body. "You should get one, it has an effect where it filters out the air." She giggled with bliss.

"Not a bad idea," Zero said. Breathing was a bit difficult during the hot summer rains. Agnis gave both Zero and Zeraph an umbrella.

"This will help me from getting my handsome face wet." Zeraph jokingly replied.

"In your dreams," Agnis retorted.

Zero trotted into the creek first. "We'll go down a couple of miles just to make sure they lost our trail." They both nodded in agreement.