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Delos replied softly. “I’m calm though—”

“I was talking to myself!”

The hound growled, closing in with a predatory glint in its eyes. But they couldn’t step back; the Hellguard behind was blocking the route of escape. On the remaining two sides, there were thorny bushes that exceeded Evan in height, threatening to tear through flesh just as viciously as the two beasts.

They were completely trapped.

Delos started, "Evan—”

“Just stay where you are. Don’t move,” he tried to summon his spiritual energy into his palm to conjure a weapon, but the after-effects of the Thousand Knots was still lingering in his system, restricting the stable flow of energy.

Light flickered weakly between his pressed palms but quickly faded away. “Fuck, fuck, fuck! You seriously can’t be acting up right now.”

He punched his abdomen where his core sat, as if hitting a malfunctioning television to get it working.

Delos moved forward to stop him. “Evan, listen—”

“Watch out!” Evan shoved Delos, sending him stumbling back against a tree as the Hellguard swung a rock his way, aim precise. The rock shattered on the ground right where Delos had been standing a moment ago. The rock cracked at the impact, a small chunk striking Evan straight in the face, knocking him back into the dirt.

Pain burst in his skull, and his vision swam as he gritted his teeth to muffle an irritated scream. When he sat up, warm blood oozed from the gash across his temple, painting half of his face red.

Delos was stuck to the tree like a fly, eyes wide. He seemed more shocked at seeing Evan’s bloody face than he was while witnessing those horrifying creatures.

Evan couldn’t focus enough to feel offended at being judged for his ragged state, when Delos’s attention suddenly moved from him to somewhere over his head. A gust of hot air blew against Evan’s back.

He stilled, then gingerly turned his head.

The three-eyed hound stood a few feet away from him, sniffing in his direction. When it smelled the blood on him, its three eyes blazed brighter.

…fuck.

It lunged.

Reflexively, Evan ducked and shielded his head, as if that could protect him. With a maw that huge, it could chomp off half of Evan’s body with a soft nibble.

But the chomp never came. Instead, something whooshed over his head at an inhuman speed. When Evan blinked up, his mouth hung open in disbelief at the scene he was witnessing.

The hound leapt, maw clamping down on the rock arm of the Hellguard. It thrashed, whipping its head violently as if determined to rip the limb off the body. Even though the demon’s body was solid rock, the hound’s fangs sank into it like it was nothing but slightly hardened meat.

The demon growled in pain and blindly grabbed the beast’s scruff, trying to pry it off its arm. When it didn’t relent, the Hellguard slammed a huge fist down on its head.

The hound jumped away with a whimper, circling its target before lunging forward again, this time from the back. It bit down onto the junction between the demon’s neck and shoulder. Those three eyes had all but turned to a live fire, sizzling amidst the greyish fur. It seemed to be looking at the figure sprawled in the dirt.

Evan stared back, holding onto his bleeding head.

Why had it not attacked him? Was Evan perhaps so tiny that he didn’t think eating him would do much for his appetite? Maybe it was saving him to use as a toothpick.

As the two raging beasts clashed, a gentle hand landed on Evan’s shoulder.

Delos’s eyebrows, for the first time since Evan had ever met him, were furrowed in tension. “You’re injured.”

Evan pressed his palm against the gash on his temple, blue sparks flickering from his palm as he tried to supply some spiritual energy to heal the wound. “Just a scratch.”

Delos helped him up, his frown deepening. “Forgive me. It was my fault. I shouldn’t have…”

Just managing to partially stop the bleeding with his spiritual energy, Evan glanced at him. “What?”

With a shake of his head, Delos grabbed Evan’s wrist. “Nothing. Let’s go.”