Chapter 3 - First Fight

'Just when I thought I was going to get some breathing room,' Eliza thought. She quickly rose to her feet and moved behind Karen.

Karen clutched a wooden spear tightly in her hands and passed two to Eliza. She then quickly assumed a defensive posture, facing one direction. Eliza immediately followed her lead and took a defensive stance behind her. She held one spear in her hand and placed the other in her inventory.

The atmosphere had suddenly become extremely tense. If they encountered a powerful monster now, they would surely die.

After a few moments, they heard the sound of something slowly approaching them. As soon as she heard it, Eliza tightened her grip on her spear. Soon after, the silhouette of a monster appeared in the fog in front of them. Every second felt like an eternity as the silhouette of the dog-like monster became clearer. After a long wait, the monster finally materialized in front of them.

The black color of the dog-like monster was unmistakable. When it growled, its razor-sharp teeth were made visible. While looking at Karen and Eliza, its ruby-red eyes radiated extreme bloodlust.

Karen exhaled a sigh of relief after looking at him, but she didn't relax her guard.

Despite being one of the weakest monsters here, the Hellhound was still powerful enough to make quick work of them. Even so, it wasn't the worst-case scenario. They would be able to kill it with careful planning.

"Hurry up and climb that sturdy tree," Karen instructed Eliza, pointing to a nearby dead tree. "When the opportunity to strike presents itself, strike with all your might. Until then, don't do anything stupid." Eliza wanted to argue back, but one look at the bloodthirsty Hellhound was enough to put an end to any resistance she had. She dejectedly climbed the tree and started watching the confrontation.

While looking at the Hellhound, Karen quickly used her Identification Skill.

Suddenly, a message flashed before her eyes.

[Identification skill level up]

'Perhaps the skill improved with repeated use,' she reasoned. The information about the Hellhound was then displayed in front of her eyes.

Species: Demonic Hellhound (Young)

Stats:

Vitality – 14

Strength – 16

Endurance – 14

Agility – 18

Mana – 11

Intelligence - 5

Skills :

Stare – Inflicts fear on enemies with weaker minds.

Precaution – Demonic hellhounds are more violent than any normal monster. If they are agitated enough, they will even try suicide tactics to kill their adversary.

Surprisingly, it lacked a level and displayed only stats and skills in its status window. Karen decided to inquire about it with Eliza later.

Karen firmed up her nerves after reading the status. The atmosphere around her shifted. In a defiant gesture, she pointed her spearhead at the Hellhound.

The Hellhound approached her fearlessly as if she were already dead in his eyes. When he was close enough, he directly lunged at Karen.

Having fought numerous battles, Karen had already anticipated this. She swerved sideways and stabbed one of its hind legs with her spear, injuring it. The injured Hellhound bolted away from Karen in a hurry.

He growled at Karen from a safe distance. He had grown wary of her by this point. Karen was much weaker than he was, and such things should not have happened. But, contrary to his expectations, everything had gone wrong, and he was even injured. Even if the wound was minor, it showed that Karen was someone who should not be taken lightly.

Karen returned the Hellhound's stare, clearly intending to provoke him into another attack. However, this time he didn't approach her carelessly.

The deadlock lasted only a few moments before the Hellhound revealed his violent side and launched himself at Karen once more, this time with even more speed and ferocity than before. Karen dodged yet again, but she was unable to counterattack. The Hellhound continued to exert pressure on her.

This continued for a few more minutes. Karen avoided him every time by a hair's breadth, suffering only a few minor bruises on her hands and feet.

In the meantime, things were not looking good for the Hellhound. Blood was pouring from various parts of his body after he'd taken several more hits. His pace was slowing as well. Only Eliza, who was watching the entire fight from atop a tree, was well aware of the true situation.

Despite showing a brave face, Karen was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion. Her forehead was covered in sweat and her palms had also become slippery. It took all of her strength to avoid and counterattack the Hellhound, who had more than twice her stats. The only reason she was able to pull this off was because of her insane battle instinct, which she had developed and honed through countless battles. Any other person would have died several times by now.

But it won't be long before it's all over for her. Her body felt as if it was about to give out at any moment. Her spear was also on the verge of breaking as well. The Hellhound, too, became aware of its opponent's predicament and launched an all-out assault on her without giving her a moment to rest.

During the continuous onslaught, Karen spotted an opening and dashed toward the tree where Eliza was hiding. The Hellhound pursued her with all of his might. The Hellhound jumped on her as they got closer to the tree. She swerved to the side, and the Hellhound collided with the tree.

It shook its head a few times to relieve the pain before turning to face Karen again. Just as he was about to attack her again, he heard a shout from above.

"Hey, you dog bastard. Look who's arrived!"

During the midst of the battle, he had completely forgotten about the little girl sitting on the tree. A small foot landed on his back as he looked up. A wooden spear had already lodged itself in his neck before he even realized what was going on. His throat had a spearhead protruding from it.

Suddenly, it began to jump erratically and threw Eliza off its back. The pain was so intense that he felt like going insane. However, he was able to barely hold on to his last reason.

The blood was pouring out of the wound in torrents. The Hellhound could feel its death approaching quickly. When it turned around, it saw Eliza standing up, a small smile on her lips. As a result, it became even crazier and lost all reason. If he was going to die anyway, he would also drag his killer down with him. It charged at Eliza, its eyes filled with rage.

Eliza felt a shiver run up her spine as she looked at the crazed Hellhound. She was not as versatile as Karen, so she could do nothing but run. The Hellhound madly rushed behind her to kill her.

The gap between them was quickly closed. Just as the Hellhound was about to pounce on Eliza, something slammed into his side. He was thrown off balance and crashed into the ground. He discovered another spear lodged in his stomach when he attempted to stand.

Before his miserable death, the Hellhound gave one last long howl laced with unwillingness, while looking at the fleeing Eliza.

After hearing the long howl Eliza, who was still running, looked back with the corner of her eyes. The sight which entered her eyes astonished her. She quickly stopped running and faced back. The corpse of the Hellhound was lying on the ground with one more spear protruding from his stomach.

Her legs gave way and, she fell on her knees. Between her heavy breaths, she lightly sighed, 'I really thought I was going to die.' After her breathing had calmed down a little, she glanced in Karen's direction. Looking at the crazy smile on Karen's face, who was leaning against a tree, she felt a shiver crawl down her spine. She resolved to never cross Karen in the future She quickly stood up and began to walk towards her.

Karen, like all Demons, had a natural affinity for combat. Her emotions became even more heightened after she regained her youth. As a result, after killing the Hellhound, she had a big grin on her face.

[Level up]

This announcement jolted Karen out of her stupor. Eliza approached her shortly after, and their skin began to glow a golden hue. Karen noticed that her body was quickly recovering. All the bruises on her hands and feet were disappearing at a visible rate. She closed her eyes and relished the sensation. In a matter of seconds, she was back to her peak. Following that, the light vanished.

Eliza gently tapped Karen on the shoulder to rouse her. Karen blinked open her eyes and looked at Eliza for a moment before asking, "What was it?"

"A Healing Spell is automatically cast on us whenever we level up," Eliza replied. "It heals most of our injuries and recovers fatigue."

"Seems to be very effective," Karen commented with a smile.

"Also, thank you for everything you've done before. The Hellhound was going to kill me for sure "Eliza thanked Karen while staring at the lifeless corpse in front of her.

"Don't worry about it. We're in this together. Moreover, what about the Level Up message we received? "Karen asked.

"Check your Status Window and you will know," Eliza said with a mysterious smile.

Karen quickly opened her Status Window.

Karen

Species: Young Demon (Royalty)

Level: 1

Stats:

Available Points (5)

Vitality -8

Strength -6

Endurance -6

Agility -6

Mana -5

Intelligence -7

Skills:

Available Skill Points (2)

Identification - Level 1

(Hereditary skills will become available as your level increases)

Soul-Binding Skills:

Telepathy - Level 1

Soul Transfer - Level 1

Intermediate Regeneration – Level 3

(As your bond grows, new skills will become available.)

Penalty (Permanent) – As a result of the forbidden technique used by the hosts to save their lives, their Level will increase 10 times slower than before.

"So this was why Eliza was going crazy," Karen muttered under her breath after looking at the available stat and skill points. "It is, without a doubt, extremely addictive."

"It has started again," Karen heard an unknown yet familiar voice in her head.

She quickly turned around to check her surroundings, but no one was there. "Is something wrong?" Eliza, who was standing next to her, wondered.

"Nothing. Perhaps it was just my imagination," Karen smiled.

Since she didn't want to appear stupid, she didn't tell Eliza about the voice. But she was sure that she had heard it before. 'Who could it possibly be?' she wondered.