Chapter 200: Cerberus (1/2)

“We mean you no harm, if you require help, we might just be able to help you.” I let Mo Na off my neck and then opened my arms to show that I was unarmed. With that gesture of peace, at least it was one in my mind, I slowly approached the Cerberus.

“Grrr…” Instead of reining in its aggression, the Cerberus seemed even more agitated by my actions. The closer I got, the louder it growled.

Seeing that, I was reminded of a saying from Earth, ‘Dogs who bite, don’t bark.’ Clearly that didn’t apply here. Even with a river separating us, the hellhound didn’t let its guard down at all. Realizing its warning wasn’t going to work, it arced its back and a second later leaped into the air, crossing the 10 meter wide gap of lava between us in an instant.

With a hound as large as a bull closing on me like that, I had no choice but to make an emergency dive to the side lest I was rammed into.

“Mama!” Mo Na flew over at that instant and hugged me before helping to pull me out of the way as well.

*Bang!*

The Cerberus crashed into where I was just seconds ago. So forceful was its ram that it took the combined strength of No.3 and Big 4 to finally halt the momentum of its leap and avoid being knocked away. However, because of the sheer power of that leap, the two were pushed back a significant distance before they finally managed to steady themselves.

“You dare to harm the Master? Unforgivable!” Hastily throwing on the Fire Devouring Fish Claws, No.3 lunged at the right most head of the Cerberus.

*Thud*

His fists struck the head with a resounding thud and yet not even the fur on its head was damaged by No.3’s claws.

‘Was this what the legends meant when they mentioned ‘Thick-skinned’ people?’

“Don’t kill it, I want it alive…well, just do your best.” Thanks to the efforts of No.3 and Big 4, I was able to safely extricate myself from danger. I reached out for Shadowfang with right hand just as before. But after giving it some thought, I decided not to draw it in the end. After all, this was the long-awaited encounter with a devil, unless there was really a need to, I didn’t want to kill it.

No.3 and Big 4 grabbed onto right and leftmost heads of the Cerberus, leaving the center one unrestrained to wildly flail about and bite at the other two, spitting fire at them from time to time.

Perhaps it was because it had been spitting fire all this while, but its flames weren’t as hot as I had expected and barely left a mark the flame resistant No.3 and Big 4. As if they were born of steel itself, the two devils stood there like immovable statues and held down the hellhound’s heads. Whenever one of the heads tried to bite, the other devil would apply more apply force and drag the hellhound more to his side. Like that, No.3 and Big 4 rotated between protecting each other while neutralizing the threat of the hellhound.

To prevent any potential accidents, Mo Na took this opportunity to tie down the last head with her darkness whip. At times, I couldn’t help but wonder how an object made entirely of energy was even able to do that; truly marvelous.

With that, the hellhound was completely restrained by us. Realizing that as well, the hellhound gave up on struggling though it still had that fierce look on its faces. Its heads were swiftly pressed down onto the floor, causing its limbs to follow suit soon after.

For now, the Cerberus wasn’t going to be a threat to us, especially since No.3 and Big 4 had their arms wrapped around its vulnerable neck. And yet while all that was happening, I couldn’t help but notice the unusual lack of strength it showed. My instincts were telling me that this shouldn’t have been all that it was capable of.

Naturally, that judgement was based on my experience with Violet Snow and her hellhounds.

Violet Snow once told me that a hellhound only evolved into a Cerberus once it reached the level of Four-stars. Moreover, just because it was a Cerberus, didn’t mean its body would become as huge as a bull.

However, this Cerberus only managed to display the strength of two Four-stars combined despite being the size of a bull. No matter how one looked at it, something wasn’t right. Furthermore, taking into account that it had been spitting fire at a nearby platform…

‘This Cerberus is probably in some kind of trouble.’

“Sweetie, can you fly up to that platform and take a look for me?”

Since I couldn’t fly myself and No.3 and Big 4 were on restraining duty, that left only Mo Na free to check out the platform. Before doing so however, Mo Na channelled even more mana into her darkness whip and lengthened it so as to maintain the binding on the Cerberus while she flew up there.

“Woof wooff…” Seeing her fly up like that, the Cerberus immediately broke its silence once more and began violently thrashing about. It clearly was on its last legs but that didn’t stop it from nearly throwing off No.3 and Big 4 with its last desperate attempt at breaking free.

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