Chapter 275: They are Odd (6).

Nero tightened his grip on his spear, scanning the treeline. The tremors were growing stronger.

Then something emerged from between two massive oaks, and Nero raised a brow.

The creature was enormous, easily fifteen feet tall at the shoulder. Its body was vaguely ursine, covered in matted black fur that seemed to absorb light. But where a bear would have a single head, this thing had three, each one mounted on a thick, muscular neck. The heads were canine in shape, with elongated jaws filled with rows of jagged teeth.

Each head had beady eyes with milky white pupils.

The creature’s legs were long, giving it an unsettling, stilted gait. Its paws ended in claws that looked more like curved daggers, each one as long as Nero’s forearm.

“A Cerberus Variant,” Arthur said quietly. “Grade C.”

Jacob’s expression shifted. He clicked his tongue then turned to Arthur,

“How do you want to handle this?”

Arthur was silent for a moment. Then he turned around to face the man behind them. Seeing the man’s face still impassive, he huffed,

“Let’s blitz it. I’ll take left and center, you take right and watch for openings.”

Jacob nodded. Brandishing his axe, he bounced on the balls of his feet then shot forward, already moving to circle around the creature’s flank.

Seeing this, Arthur chuckled then rushed forward as well.

The three-headed beast tracked their movements, all six eyes following them simultaneously. Its middle head let out a deep, rumbling growl.

Arthur moved first, closing the distance with surprising speed. His sword came up in a rising slash aimed at the creature’s left head.

The beast was faster than its size suggested. The left head snapped forward, jaws closing around Arthur’s blade with a sound like steel on stone. The enchanted edge didn’t cut through the teeth. Instead, the creature held the sword locked in its jaws.

Arthur didn’t try to pull the sword free. Instead, he stepped in closer, his free hand shooting out to grab the creature’s lower jaw. His fingers dug into corrupted flesh, and he wrenched the jaw downward with near impossible strength.

The beast’s left head screamed, a sound like tearing metal, and released the sword. Arthur immediately reversed his grip and drove the blade up through the roof of the creature’s mouth and into its skull.

The middle head lunged forward. Arthur pulled his sword free from the left head and brought it around in a horizontal slash that caught the middle head across the snout. The blade bit deep, carving through flesh and bone, but didn’t sever completely.

The right head came in from the side, its white eyes fixed on Arthur’s exposed flank. Before it could strike, Jacob’s waraxe came down in a massive overhead swing that caught the creature on its shoulder.

The impact was tremendous. The axe blade buried itself nearly two feet into the beast’s body, cracking ribs and pulverizing internal organs. The creature staggered from the force, its right head whipping around to snap at Jacob.

Jacob released his axe, leaving it embedded in the creature’s shoulder, and rolled backward out of range. The right head’s jaws closed on empty air.

Arthur used the opening to drive his sword through the middle head’s eye. The blade punched through the socket and into the brain beyond.

The Abomination seemed to realize its situation. Its white eyes blazed brighter, and its jaws opened impossibly wide. A sound emerged from its throat, a high-pitched keening that made Nero’s ears ring.

The air around the creature began to shimmer and distort. Nero grimaced, wondering what kind of attack this was.

The two fighters instantly turned sluggish.

Arthur’s movements slowed as though ice had began to form on his armor and clothing. Jacob, still weaponless with his axe embedded in the creature’s shoulder, was forced to back away further as the sound waves stretched out further.

The right head lunged forward, its jaws aimed at Arthur’s throat.

Arthur dropped his sword and caught the creature’s jaws with both hands, his fingers digging into the upper and lower mandibles. The beast’s momentum drove him backward, his boots carving furrows in the frozen earth.

For a moment, they were locked in a contest of pure strength…

Arthur held the jaws apart as the creature tried to close them and tear him in half.

Nero watched as Arthur was slowly pushed back. To compete with a C grade Abomination in a bout of pure strength was beyond impressive. It was completely inhuman.

However, the body of an abomination was simply too strong and its physique to overpowering.

Luckily, Arthur was not the only one fighting.

A certain future Templar retrieved his waraxe from the creature’s shoulder, and now he brought it around in a horizontal swing aimed at the right head’s neck.

The blade connected with tremendous force. The enchanted edge carved through corrupted flesh, muscle, and bone. The right head separated from its neck in a spray of black blood and tumbled to the ground.

The massive body swayed for a moment, then collapsed with a sound like a falling tree.

Arthur released his grip on the severed head’s jaws and stepped back, shaking the black blood from his arms. Jacob pulled his axe free from the corpse and swung once to get rid of the blood.

The entire fight had lasted perhaps two minutes.

Nero stood where he’d been throughout the engagement, his spear still in hand. He hadn’t moved. He had not even struck a single blow.

He had defeated multiple grade C Abominations himself, so he knew how powerful they were.

’These two are something else…’

He was beyond impressed.

Arthur retrieved his sword and sheathed it as he muttered, “That should be worth significant points.”

Jacob nodded, examining the corpse professionally with the tip of his shoe,

“It’s certainly something. Could fetch a pretty penny if sold to the right nutcase.”

Arthur shot him a glance then turned around,

“We should have a shot rest before we move on.”

Nero looked at the massive corpse with a strangely thoughtful expression.

A Grade C Abomination. Something that once represented the very essence of death to him once…

He slowly shook his head. Then slowly followed the lead of the other two, choosing a nice spot to sit and rest a bit.

He’d fought alongside them against the Brandors and handled himself adequately against the smaller threats. Surely, that much was more than enough to get him qualified, but not noticed too much.

Unlike the other two, he had to appear as normal as possible. He could not afford to steal their shine. Forget what Bishop had told him, in their eyes, he was a commoner. A lowly born.

And yet, for some reason, despite him being that, these two had not yet treated him poorly.

He had fully expected to be on the receiving end of at least some ridicule.

But besides generally ignoring him, they had, more than anything, tried to keep the danger to themselves at the very least.

’They are odd…’

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