Chapter 298 – The Black Dog and the Summoner

We teleported from the labyrinth entrance’s stone monument to the Blazing Fortress.

The normally suffocating heat felt bearable thanks to Tephra’s Blessing. What a relief. With this, we should be able to proceed with the conquest at a steady pace.

Continuing from last time, we would be advancing from the hall beyond the castle gate after defeating the gatekeeper.

Descending the stairs leading from the hall brought us to a maze. Eventually, it would lead to the castle’s inner courtyard, from where we could finally breach the main keep.

In short, to reach the fortress interior, we needed to traverse the underground maze. The maze’s route was unpredictable due to its structural changes. Today, I hoped to make it through this maze.

“Alright, let’s go. If you sense anything unusual, deploy your Shields immediately.”

“Mm. Understood.”

Sheila, being the Scout, nodded of course, and everyone else followed suit.

Descending the spiral staircase and opening the door revealed a corridor constructed of stone.

It’s fairly spacious. Immediately after descending the stairs, I could see a narrow passage continuing on the left side.

Just as we were about to begin our exploration—Lavigne groaned while staring deep into the passage. From the darkness, countless red glows were approaching us.

“Those are… Hellhounds.”

The glows were the eyes of living creatures. Spewing fire from their mouths as they came toward us… they were four-legged beasts. Their appearance resembled black dogs. Their faces were contorted, baring fangs—a visage of utmost ferocity.

“I’m going.”

Grace, Sheila, Ignis, and I dashed out to intercept.

I took the lead and charged in. As I passed a certain point in the passage, a stone block embedded in the right side of the corridor began to glow faintly red, catching the corner of my eye.

“Passage right! Bomb Rock!”

Simultaneously, Irmhild’s voice rang out.

Irmhild’s voice came from the direction of the Bomb Rock. Seraphina had transferred the sound to where Irmhild was pointing. The next moment, an axe was thrown from Grace’s hand.

The axe, roaring through the air, struck the Bomb Rock directly. The sound of shattering stone and the clinking of the retracting chain echoed.

Even when attacked, the Bomb Rock didn’t explode. Partly because Grace shattered it in one blow, but also because these monsters only burst when they reach their limit, scattering explosive force and fragments.

The troublesome part is how they camouflage themselves as building materials or natural objects, making them indistinguishable until they activate. Still, it ended in a dud. If we can discover and handle them before they explode, that’s the ideal way to deal with them.

Ignoring the shattered Bomb Rock, we confronted the Hellhounds coming from the front. As I leaped forward to charge, a Hellhound also pounced. I assumed a stance as if swinging Ouroboros, which glowed with Spark Light, and the Hellhound made a gesture as if trying to bite and stop Ouroboros. Another one behind it. It seemed one would hold down the weapon while the other attacked.

But that’s naive. Using Shield and Levitation, I performed an emergency stop, halting mid-air. Immediately, I rebounded downward, and from directly beneath the Hellhound that snapped its fangs in vain, I thrust Ouroboros upward into its belly.

“Icicle Lance!”

An ice spear shot out from the tip of the Dragon Staff, pinning the Hellhound in mid-air. The next one, missing its timing to breathe fire, was slashed aside by Nemea’s claws as they passed each other.

Grace, Sheila, and Ignis also plunged into the pack.

Protected by Fire Rat fur and Tephra’s Blessing, Grace charged through the flames unfazed. Radiating Fighting Spirit from her axe, a purple lightning-like afterimage passed, leaving only Hellhounds split cleanly in two.

From wall to ceiling, ceiling to pillar. Sheila moved three-dimensionally, changing trajectory mid-air. Her movements, grazing past their noses, left only the futile sound of snapping fangs. Flames scorched empty space.

Unexpected Sticky Thread and Lightning Strikes from unforeseen directions. The Hellhounds, having missed their attacks or had their movements hindered, were left full of openings. Ignis charged in, and with a roar from its War Hammer, sent them flying.

Even so, the Hellhounds’ movements remained coordinated. Ignoring their comrades being taken down by us Vanguards, a group of Hellhounds dashed toward the Rearguard. Clearly, movements controlled by someone.

While it might seem like there was a large gap between the Vanguard and Rearguard, full of openings—there was a reason the Midguard itself was absent.

The moment the leading Hellhound stepped into that space, its body was torn apart, spraying blood as it screamed in agony. A line of light ran from pillar to pillar in the corridor. It was a Trap using Magic Threads, set by deploying Magic Slaves.

“Too bad.”

Rosemary, watching from a distance, smiled faintly behind her feather fan.

Seeing their comrade caught in the trap, the Hellhounds immediately halted. The dogs’ reactions weren’t bad… but being in that space itself was like stepping into a trap.

“Now!”

With Ashley’s voice, Marlene’s Saucer, hovering above the corridor, cut off their retreat. As they were cornered, Ashley and Lavigne’s ice bullets, Irmhild’s Light Arrows, and Seraphina’s Sound Bullets rained down upon them. With sufficient distance, stray shots wouldn’t hit the Vanguard.

Dullahan, Caduceus, and Lavigne remained on standby as escorts for the Rearguard. Claudia, as usual, prepared for retreat using Teleportation Magic.

Eclair also joined the shooting. Flapping her wings, electrified feathers flew out. Even if the feathers themselves were dodged, something like a side lightning strike occurred—Lightning Strikes burst from the feathers, shocking the targets, which were then shot through by Irmhild’s arrows. It was a rather troublesome attack where merely avoiding the feathers was meaningless, and one had to counter the Lightning Strikes themselves.

The dogs that charged the Rearguard were annihilated in an instant—but from the darkness deep in the passage, a second wave of Hellhounds came surging forth. Quite a number. Combined with the initial pack of Hellhounds, this was an abnormal quantity.

Normally, this would be the situation to retreat to the narrow passage on the left of the corridor and fight while avoiding encirclement… but I didn’t like it. If that was the enemy’s plan, we should assume traps were set in that passage. Even if we advanced toward the passage side, we still had to deal with the Hellhound pack coming from behind.

“Go!”

While dealing with Hellhounds pouncing from left and right, I enveloped Balor, perched on my shoulder, with a sufficient amount of Magical Power and sent it charging deep into the passage.

While controlling Balor, I smashed a Hellhound’s skull with Ouroboros and impaled another with ice. Martial arts and magic execution. Nemea and Capella. Simultaneous control of Balor—.

While we were scattering the Hellhounds, Balor flew on. As long as it was enveloped in my Magical Power, a visual link with Balor was possible. Soaring over the dogs’ heads, passing the corner—I saw a group sitting in seiza, deploying a Magic Array.

Ash-gray skin. Egg-smooth heads. White eyes without pupils, faces without noses. Humanoid monsters clad in tattered cloth were fervently continuing their incantations.

Demon Summoners. Magician-type monsters possessing summoning abilities. So, they were the ones endlessly summoning the Hellhound packs.

Distance, position confirmed. From one end of the passage to the other. Balor, transformed into a Light Bullet, closed in on the Demon Summoners. Relying on momentum, I made it shoot through the Summoners’ chests. Continuously, two, three, four bodies. After piercing all the coordinates where the Summoners should have been, Balor opened its eyes to find the Summoners, chests pierced, lying scattered.

Simultaneously, the Hellhound pack shuddered and stopped moving. Probably sensing an abnormality after the Summoners’ control was suddenly cut off.

Massive openings. No reason to let that slide. It didn’t take much time for the Hellhound pack to be annihilated.

“How is it?”

I asked Sheila while she proceeded with looting.

Carefully examining the narrow passage on the left side, Sheila shook her head.

“Full of traps. For example, that floor stone there. Step on it, and spears or arrows… or a mechanism that releases poisonous smoke from that hole in the wall.”

Where Sheila pointed, there was a slightly protruding floor stone and a hole in the wall.

…Quite nasty. I had no intention of verifying the traps’ nature. Since there was another passage in the direction where the Demon Summoners were, it seemed better to proceed that way.

“No point deliberately taking a passage meant to drive us into traps. Even if we got through, there’s a high chance of an ambush. Let’s head in the direction of the Demon Summoners.”

“Understood.”

Sheila nodded, stopped peering into the passage, and joined the looting operation. The Blazing Fortress… even when looting, we couldn’t let our guard down. Because Bomb Rocks might be lurking.

“I wish we knew a way to identify Bomb Rocks before they activate,” said Irmhild.

I understood the sentiment, but I shook my head. Being stone monsters, they had no scent and made no sound. Irmhild could detect them relatively quickly through temperature changes… but that might only be possible thanks to Tephra’s Blessing. I had thought Irmhild’s detection ability would be halved in the Blazing Fortress due to the high temperature, but this was a pleasant miscalculation.

Well, since they emit light just before exploding, if we knew they were there even amidst chaotic battles, deploying a Shield would be possible.

“For now, we can only try not to miss the signs before explosion. For looting too, divide roles between watchers and workers, and be careful not to overlook changes in the walls, floor, and ceiling. Pay special attention to behind monster corpses, among other places.”

“Understood.”

Irmhild nodded with a serious expression, approached the looting team, and began scanning vigilantly without letting her guard down.

Now, about the looting. From Hellhounds, we could obtain pelts. From Bomb Rocks, we could sometimes recover Magic Stones of medium quality or, rarely, Gems.

From Demon Summoners, besides Magic Stones, we could seize their used Magic Staffs and such as spoils of war.

Hellhound pelts had high Resistance to fire and were strong against Slash Attacks, so they should fetch a good price. The Demon Summoners’ staffs, while unnecessary for me, seemed to be quite decent items. Considering building an Airship, I wanted to collect as many Magic Stones as possible.

For the combat time invested, it was a quite profitable battle.