Chapter 91 - Friend Or Foe?

The pack of rabid hounds scraped their feet on the ground and snarled at Liam before bounding towards him collectively.

Their ferocious gnarling sounds were terrifying and the sight of an entire pack together was even more terrifying. 

Liam stood calmly, unfazed by the fact that he was outnumbered. Since he still had a couple of seconds before they reached him, he quickly activated his skill [Lava Rain].

Black rain was still pouring endlessly around him but now laced with these droplets of corrupt water, there were beads of lava falling from the sky.

The hounds hissed in pain as the lava seared their skin and within a second, injuries started piling up and damage numbers were popping out.

GROWL!

The bunch of rabid hounds became extremely enraged as they leaped towards Liam, wanting to rip him apart, limb from limb.

Liam smirked. He instantly unsheathed his sword and blocked the hound that came for his throat. 

Clang!

The paw nails of the hound scratched his sword, producing a screeching metallic noise as the beast was flung aside.

Liam did not stop there. 

Clang! Clang! Clang!

He parried with three more hounds that were aiming for his vital spots. As for the rest of the rabid hounds that were coming at him…

[Sword Dance]

His lean muscular figure spun around slashing unceasingly at every enemy that daringly bared its teeth at him.

"Aim for the hounds that are bleeding and send out fire bursts."

"Attack the two on my left."

Hearing Liam's instructions, both the fox and the five undead scorpions quickly got to work. 

If they had attacked right from the beginning then the beasts would have aggroed onto them completely and the level 20 rabid hounds were a bit too strong for either to handle.

The Level 4 fox would probably become a snack in a second for the Level 20 hound. This was why he had asked them to wait first. 

But now that he had the full attention of every single enemy, he was comfortable asking the fox and the undead to join the fight, leaving the pet bird in reserve.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The small fox had good eyes to pick out the targets with the most number of injuries and it aimed for them, shooting out fire bursts one after the other.

The five undead scorpions stabbed the two fallen down hounds with their pincers and when they were struggling to get back up, they dealt the final blow by stinging them with their venomous tail.

[Ding. You have gained 165 experience points]

[Ding. You have gained 165 experience points]

As the undead finished their target, the fox took down three as well since these hounds were already heavily injured by Liam.

[Ding. You have gained 165 experience points]

…

…

Liam, meanwhile, also finished three hounds and the big pack of ferocious rabid hounds that could strike fear in many players' hearts, were suddenly reduced to a pair of stray dogs.

Growl! Growl!

The last two came running at Liam and he slashed down at one while gripping the other one's throat with his left hand.

He then materialized a ball of fire right where its head was directly blasting the hound apart.

[Ding. You have gained 165 experience points]

[Ding. You have gained 165 experience points]

As the last one also dropped dead, all the ten hounds laid scattered around. Their heavy bodies lifelessly sunk inside the red desert sands.

"Good job." Liam did not forget to compliment the fox on a job well done and he then looked around to see if any skill books had dropped.

"Hmm… No luck huh. That's fine." He placed the copper coins that were nearby into his pockets and then also placed all the rabid hounds into the inventory space.

He then once again proceeded to walk towards the place where he had seen the red flare go up.

Liam was still quite unsure of where exactly he was.

Unlike the Gresh Kingdom map, he didn't know this one all too well, but if he reached the city or town, he had the confidence to at least vaguely guess where he could be.

There would also probably be NPCs whom he could talk to for information. So he just had to reach a settlement.

After a few minutes, the group reached the place without running into any other monsters, and Liam walked ahead to talk to the two guards standing at the entrance of the city.

It seemed to be a small city juxtaposed in between rocky barren hills and the two guards standing were also quite peculiar.

They looked very gruff and angry and they had scales covering their bodies. These were undoubtedly demon and beast hybrids.

And as soon as Liam laid his eyes on these two, he immediately remembered something important!

The event! He had completely forgotten about the significance of the event that had opened up this nether realm to everyone!

When the nether realm was opened for everyone, it was because the divine army wanted to use the chaos in the nether realm and massacre the beings of the nether realm.

But in the end, only some of the human factions joined the divine army. The rest ended up joining the demon army.

Now that this hadn't happened yet…

There should be no other players or even many humans here except for Liam. More importantly, humans would be considered as a hostile party.

"Damn it. Should I not have tried to enter a settlement?" Liam silently pondered. He did not want to be captured and massacred, his death made into a spectacle.

More importantly, he didn't want to be imprisoned by some lusty demoness and used a sex slave which was a very common occurrence in the nether realm.

He keenly observed the two guards as they stared back at him, both observing each other's reactions.

After a while, Liam decided to back away as this was his last chance.. He was about to activate [Stealth] when the demon-beast opened his mouth, pointing his spear at Liam.