## Chapter 200 – Outer Spirit – Ishanna, the Hunting Dog of the Order (2)
He couldn’t move forward. It felt like someone was firmly grabbing his ankle and pulling him down. Low, noticing Ryu trembling in his arms, decided it wasn’t wise to push him too hard. He wrapped his arms around Ryu and spoke in a soothing tone.
“Let’s rest for a bit if it’s too much.”
Only then did Ryu seem to snap out of it, stepping away from Low’s embrace.
“Ah, no. I can do it.”
His face was still filled with terror, but he had a feeling that if he retreated here, he would never be able to move forward again. And his hunches were usually pretty accurate.
Taking a deep breath, he started walking again, and the scenery gradually began to change. There were remnants of buildings everywhere, indicating that people once lived in this forest, and nearby were numerous charred corpses.
With each step, the entrails and blood of the corpses tangled around his ankles. The intense, piercing smell of blood and the vacant eyes staring at him from all directions. He barely endured the indescribable unpleasant sensation that was building up, and as he cautiously moved forward, someone suddenly grabbed Ryu’s ankle.
“Aaaaaah!”
Ryu screamed involuntarily and jumped back. An outer spirit? His heart was beating faster than ever before. Ryu leaned on Low, barely calming his startled heart, and stared at the thing that had grabbed his ankle.
There, a mangled corpse with a distorted face and tattered limbs was looking past Ryu with a terrified expression. Blood poured from every hole in his face, and he opened his mouth with a voice that sounded like he was about to die at any moment.
“Ah, ah… please save me. Let me escape this pain…”
He rolled his eyes around in terror, looking around, and then spoke with a face that was turning blue.
“I’m not a heretic…! The, the hunting dog is coming! God, please have mercy on me too…!”
It’s coming.
Death was approaching.
The terrified land and forest were trembling and screaming.
He didn’t know when his whole body had started trembling. The trembling was definitely his own, not the trembling of the ground. Before he knew it, he could hear the sound of trees breaking and something huge dragging across the ground.
The thing that emerged from between the trees was so large that it made him forget to breathe for a moment. It was larger than most trees, and although it moved slowly, it was definitely approaching.
It wore a veil on its head, like the nuns usually did, and below the neck, it wore robes similar to those worn by humans. An outfit that seemed to represent her life. Moreover, the face, obscured by the darkness, fueled the fear of the unknown. If that was all there was to it, Ryu wouldn’t have been so nervous.
What stood out were the numerous arms twisted in bizarre directions behind her, reminiscent of trees, and the various types of weapons held in her hands.
Ishanna, the hunting dog of the Order. It brought death in an instant.
Ishanna didn’t look at Ryu, but slowly approached the corpse lying on the ground and began to mercilessly strike it with a club without any warning. The corpse, whose limbs were dismembered in an instant, no longer retained its original form. Among them was the person who had just spoken to Ryu.
He was so overwhelmed by the being in front of him that he forgot to breathe. If Low hadn’t been by his side, he would have run away immediately. Low had already retreated and was sitting on a stump with a nonchalant expression.
“I’ll save you if your life is in danger, so you don’t have to worry too much.”
Low’s words seemed reassuring at first glance, but on the contrary, it meant that he would not intervene at all until a life-threatening situation occurred. In other words, Ryu had to either kill that monster alone or suffer the pain of being on the verge of death.
No sooner had he thought that than – creak – its head turned.
He couldn’t see its expression, but it was definitely staring at Ryu. Then Ishanna quietly became enraged. It judged the demon as a heretic and immediately took action.
‘It disappeared!?’
A shadow loomed over his head.
Thud!
Ishanna landed where Ryu had just been standing. Up close, Ishanna had a faint scent of night that could be smelled at dawn, mixed with the smell of blood, creating a nauseating odor.
“Ma, race… kill, kill… purify… with the hammer of God…”
With a bizarre voice that seemed to cut off, its arm began to glow red. Soon, the flames that began to spread engulfed its weapon.
Ryu flinched at the heat that he could feel vividly on his skin. Ishanna did not miss that moment.
A simple movement of wielding a weapon without any technique. But the result was by no means small. What was approaching Ryu with the wind pressure was literally the hammer of God, the strike of the Flame God.
If he hadn’t entrusted himself to instinct and rolled on the ground to avoid it, he would have been roasted whole with his body shattered.
But Ishanna didn’t give No. 25 any time to reorganize.
Kugugugung!
The hideous mace held in the emaciated hand protruding from behind his shoulder blades was approaching Ryu, scraping the ground.
The heavy mace swept across the ground, causing the earth to shake. The place where he was standing was on the verge of collapsing.
It was too late to avoid it. As soon as he judged that, he planted his spear in the ground, supported it with both hands, and even put his weight on it to barely block it, but his body floated up along with the spear. Fortunately, he didn’t end up rolling around on the floor in an unsightly manner.
But Ryu’s will to fight was more than lost.
It was simply a swinging attack. It wasn’t like the opponents he met at the academy competition who used great techniques.
The ground was deeply dug with just one swing, and this was the power even though he thought he had blocked it properly.
This was no joke.
The battles with the monsters he had experienced so far felt like child’s play. Did Low entrust Ryu with hunting monsters because he knew something like this would happen someday? Ryu looked at it again with trembling movements.
Even in the dry weather where not a single breeze was blowing, the scent of death was strong.
Ishanna circled around Ryu, looking for an opportunity. With its skills, it could have ended Ryu’s life at any time. Nevertheless, it showed no signs of carelessness. The title of Hero was not earned for nothing.
His body remembered it.
The movements of his past life, the way of fighting.
The tree was shaking.
His figure, grabbing the tree with four arms and floating in the air, looked precarious. A leap that started from an unnatural posture. The arm raised high. Two weapons heading towards Ryu. All of it seemed to be moving slowly.
Thud!
The floor was dented as if it had been hit by a meteorite.
Confirming that the attack had missed, Ishanna hid again.
After landing, Ishanna immediately leaped and gradually accelerated, using the tree as an axis.
To the point where it was invisible.
Even though it looked quite human, its movements were unmistakably those of a beast.
At this rate, he would be defeated in vain. If he couldn’t prove it to Low here, it would interfere with his future endeavors. Ryu took a deep breath and focused on the object in front of him.
The movements themselves were flashy, but in the end, the body flew in a straight line when attacking, so there was no need to deliberately match the attack.
Ryu pressed down hard on the ground where he stepped. He put strength in the hand holding the spear to prepare for any attack that might come. All he had to do was place the spear in Ishanna’s path. For that, he needed a lower body that could withstand Ishanna’s attack first.
He could hear the sound of the wind splitting.
The sound gradually got closer.
Before he knew it, Ishanna’s scent lingered at the tip of his nose.
Ryu bet everything on this, which was close to a gamble. He could feel the malice directed at him.
‘Now!’
He raised his spear in time with the moment Ishanna flew in.
But the result Ryu expected did not come out.
He aimed for the face accurately, but Ishanna twisted his body to the side in the middle of the leap, only tearing his side slightly.
‘He twisted his body in the meantime?’
The damage wasn’t completely absent.
The body, which had been twisted grotesquely in order to avoid the spear in mid-air, made a cracking sound and returned to its original position.
Perhaps feeling upset that he, who had reigned as the overwhelming strongman in this forest, had been injured, Ishanna began to stomp his weapon on the ground in a fit of pique.
A harsh voice tore from Ishanna’s mouth as he scratched his face painfully with his spare arm.
“Heretic! Heretic! Hereticaaaaaaan! My light…! Stand by my side and give me the power to punish them…!”
With the sound of calling God, flames soared every time the weapon scraped the ground. Starting with the arms behind him turning red, a burning energy began to rise from Ishanna’s entire body.
It was the fire of God that burned heretics. The unjust karma that pushed innocent citizens to the other side of the abyss.
Ryu realized.
Until now, Ishanna’s actions were simply hunting demons. And at this moment, Ishanna judged him as a heretic.
The flames that began to burn the forest in an instant were reminiscent of hell. It was difficult to even breathe in the raging flames where there was no place for sinners to set foot.
The smell of burning flesh tickled his nose.
The reason that had begun to ripen with the heat he felt was urging him to get out of here before it was too late.
Ishanna’s movements were quite different.
The thing that had been moving like a beast until now held a weapon in its hand and took a stance like a warrior.
The burning madness of the one who was once called a hero was now directed at Ryu.
