Reincarnated as a Mutt

Chapter 13: A Fight Between Otherworlders

   Carlos ducked, evading a bullet of mana by a hair's breadth, and rolled to the side, conjuring his barrier and shot 25 blue arrows at the assailant. The assassin narrowed his eyes, drawing his other gun, and shot down 12 of them within a second. Arrick then side stepped, evading the remaining arrows, quickly slashing 8 of them to fragments with his knife. For the remaining five, he simply used his handgun to shoot them down over his shoulder without looking.

   Arrick stepped back, weaving his head down to evade an enchanted steel sword's deadly blow. He brought his handgun up to his chest, firing at Scar's skull. Scar kicked the ground, moving back just enough to gain some crucial time to bring his sword back, angling above his head and barely managed to block the bullet in time, deflecting it into the air. The assassin moved his knife and slashed against Scar's femur, severally cracking it to the verge of crumbling to dust. Scar stumbled, seeing Arrick direct the barrel of his gun against his skull. Scar quickly ducked, allowing a small, cloaked figure with topaz-colored eyes to vault over his poncho with a dagger at hand, slashing at Arrick's throat. Arrick was surprised yet didn't hesitate in the slightest to fire at the small critter's chest. The critter shrilled and flipped his body forward and above the projectile, avoiding it albeit nicking his back in the process, his tainted red blood dripping onto Scar's poncho. Using his flip's momentum, the short monster swung his dagger enshrouded with a putrid miasma with greater strength, its speed significantly faster and forcing Arrick to step back. The middle-aged man dodged the dagger and roundhouse kicked the scoundrel away to the side, who let out a "Giiii!" as it tumbled on the floor. Arrick felt something drip from his cheek, finding blood from a minor cut, surprised that a small ugly creature was capable of such a task. From the small cut a numbing pain emerged, his cheek becoming slightly pale as the veins around it blackened faintly and smelled rotten.

   The assassin kicked the downed Scar away and swung his knife in front of his eyes, slashing against two darts coated with poison, and quickly retaliated by firing his handgun into the shrubbery with eight consecutive shots without skipping a beat. Soon a couple tens of [Magic Arrows] and [Spinning Magic Arrows] flew at him from every direction, and behind them were waves of blue fire closing in with scorching heat. Arrick frowned, grabbing a canister from his belt and pulled the pin, dropping it straight on the ground. The canister let out a 'shhk~' sound and black smoke shot out with a metallic appearance, covering his entire body and 3 meters around him. The arrows collided against the smoke, shattering upon impact with a 'tang' as if hitting metal. And as for the fire it engulfed the smoke and burned passionately to rid the man's barrier, however, the smoke began to seep through the blue fire and shred it apart like paper, swallowing the remains hungrily as if it was starved for centuries. Carlos and the two golems were shocked to see such a scene. The properties of Mana Fire allowed it to burn magic power away with startling efficiency, and yet it could not contest with this metallic black smoke. It was ripped apart and swallowed as if it were nothing. Carlos knew that at his current power he wasn't omnipotent and expected some hardships in this battle, however, he could never have guessed that he was fighting a goddess's champion. Though the events that took place through the small amount of time was enough for him to draw the conclusion that he was dealing with an Otherworlder blessed with a god's Divine Protection.

   Carlos' ears perked up and felt a sudden crisis, quickly conjuring all four of his barriers and reinforced them with a surplus of mana as a knife laced with black smoke appeared out of thin air plunged towards his spine. The knife slashed against his barrier, tearing through the first two and stopped by the third one, just barely making a dent in the forth. A raging blue fire exploded from the barriers, scorching Arrick's right arm and led to him leaping back. However, Carlos didn't allow this sweet opportunity to go away and along with all the [Arcane Magic] users present use their max limit of [Arcane Orb] and had them use [Arcane Chakrams]. Arrick soon found having a hundred chakrams fly towards him, and no matter how he dodged they pursued, no matter how much he shot the orbs would adjust their pace and trajectory, allowing the bullets harmlessly pass them as they were each simply three orbs spinning in a circle. Arrick frowned, grabbing another canister only to have it fly out of his hands by an invisible force, and disappear into a particular pup's collar. The said puppy gave him a smug look and pitter-pattered his paws up and down in place, taunting his foe as he purposely stuck his tongue out to literate how a puppy got the upper hand in a battle with a very lethal assassin. Arrick growled, stopped in his tracks as wisps of black energy gathered in his fists and feet. He kicked an arc around him, leaving behind black flames to linger several centimeters in front of him and stopped every chakram dead in their tracks. Arrick bent his knees, taking in a deep breath and swung his black-flamed enshrouded fist at the makeshift shield he made, launching all the chakrams towards Carlos alone as they were supercharged with the very black energy Arrick used to stop them. Carlos stood there expressionless, swearing in his mind, scolding himself for celebrating too early as both his [Arcanic Arms] came out enshrouded with bright blue flames. Carlos reinforced his barriers, gathering several orbs and had them assume formation in front of him, interlocking them with appendages of mana that sparked to create a rigid structure of a reinforced shield, however, rigid and makeshift with high costs, though easily affordable due to his Titles and Perks. His newly constructed shield burned vehemently with blue flames as his orbs gathered around his [Arcanic Arms], with a stream of energy forming between them and connecting, obtaining a spring-like appearance wrapping around his arms. Carlos had his arms cup together as one would catch a ball, but in this case a hundred magical saw blades supercharged by hatred and the souls of the damned. The first chakram collided with arms with little to no impact, however, one by one in rapid succession they smashed right into the arms, pushing them back and causing mental discomfort as Carlos forced the arms to endure. What made this harder was the defense penetration this chakrams had coupled with Arrick's Divine Protection made Carlos's current situation a living hell. Carlos growled, allowing the arms to be push back to the maximum before letting the springs release, ejecting an enormous amount force the supercharged chakrams delivered directly towards the arms' natural strength, and launching them back right back at Arrick. Carlos was sure to have delivered a little something extra in this gift exchange, perplexing the advancing assassin has he saw a large blue, burning, gaseous ball approach him along with a choir of gentle whispers, causing him to stumble and fall, the sentience leaving his eyes and replaced with vacant eyes with the desire to swim towards the beautiful hymns of a siren. But at that moment Arrick bit his tongue, the taste of iron in his mouth and the pain snapped him out of his ridiculous stupor, utilizing a grappling hook and using it grapple away to a far tree, however, it was too late. This [Wistful Departure] had activated, unleashing tendrils of magic that penetrated trees and boulders, eager to annihilate all in its path. Arrick shot at one of the rapidly approaching tendrils in rapid succession, however, it seems like the tendrils had a mind of its own as it gracefully evaded each bullet, wrapping around Arrick's ankle and up against his torso, firmly holding his throat, constricting to prevent his escape as he was dragged to the ball's core. Arrick clicked his tongue, bursting into a violent storm of black fire, however, it seemed to barely impact the tendrils at all. Arrick used these flames to reinforce his defenses as he, along with the other objects that were unfortunately plucked, collided into the core with more than enough force to shatter bones upon impact. Even worse was how the trees and boulders slammed against his limbs, further increasing the pain and damage suffered before [Wistful Departure] spontaneously exploded into a spectacular light show. From the very core of the explosion unleashed the supercharged chakrams Arrick had sent to counter Carlos who, surprisingly, used those very supercharged counter attack spells to counter him. Arrick could not have the time to be furious at Carlos as all the supercharged chakrams were sawing into every opening, grinding and twirling around his body like some sort of sick and tortuous game of hula hoop, flying him up and absolutely refusing to allow him to touch the ground. The assassin let out a cry, unleashing a burst of magic, dispersing the chakrams and Arrick hit the ground soon after, his clothes in tatters and open wounds, lacerations, gashes, and a few fractured ribs. Truly this assassin was a mess, however, his tenaciousness knew no bounds as he stubbornly stood up and glared at Carlos.

   The pup felt danger as he saw five grenades with crackling black lightning emitting from their core fly towards him. Carlos tried using his [Psychokinesis] to redirect them, but upon doing so had a splitting headache that nearly caused him to pass out. By the time it passed, it was too late and Carlos stood his ground. The arms grabbed the grenades and cupped together tightly in a near vacuum-like grip, extending to the sky above as Carlos severed his arms before conjuring new ones, wrapping them around his shield and barrier as he assumed a fetal position. The explosions the grenades unleashed had blasted the clouds away, darkening them and the sky as black lightning raged violently, lighting the forest on fire and striking its unlucky inhabitants to death. Even Carlos's undead troops were no exception, however, these were the fodder they were working with so it wouldn't have bothered the pup that much. Unfortunately, Bob received heavy injuries even though he used everything in his disposal to defend, and Dread, while also injured, was nowhere as bad as his sibling. Carlos had taken the brunt of the attack, clashing against his shield which lasted only 12 seconds before shattering, shredding his Arcanic Arms within 3 seconds, and constricted against his barriers like a python strangling an unfortunate hiker. Carlos desperately poured mana into his barriers before a violent explosion ignited, creating a crater where Carlos stood and dust clouding his subordinates' vision. Eventually the dust settled, revealing Carlos hacking up blood and limping on one foot as he struggled to maintain balance from weakened and stressed muscles.

   His breath wavering, vision shaking, blurring, and spinning, his eardrums ruptured and blood poured out. Carlos forced himself to remain conscious to see this battle through. And he succeeded with very unwilling results. Before he could react, Arrick had closed the distance from behind, rose his foot, and smashed the poor pup's skull in. Dread's jaw dropped, falling to his knees as he felt his very bones threatening to detach as he saw his master's brain matter stain the earth before him. Bob laid in his bed of a broken body, lowering his head and whirring out a cry of soul crushing sorrow. Scar couldn't have done anything to help his master with his injury and even then with his current strength it wouldn't have mattered. Gob had helped his brother Cho get up from the bushes to tend to his gunshot wounds, only for both of them to see the fate of their rather young master. Their topaz eyes expressing disbelief and how little their actions served to benefit in battle and the regret filled their undead hearts was hell. Arrick coldly looked at the pup's corpse. Unmoving. Lifeless. Nothing. Arrick retreated his foot, having finally achieved his goal he would tend to his wounds and fulfill his promise, despite his disgust to his benefactor.

   Arrick froze as he noticed the supposedly lifeless body twitch before collapsing into dirt. And from the dust cloud emerged Dagger Head flying at breakneck speed, penetrating through an unprepared and surprised Arrick, drilling through his entrails and exiting out the back, using its sharp head to quickly tear Arrick's left Achilles tendon apart before darting to a safe distance. Arrick coughed up blood, falling to his knees from the massive pain and shock of suddenly having his guts protrude from his belly and one of his Achilles tendon torn was too much. As he laid on his knees, cupping his guts with one of his hands and the other supporting him up, he noticed a spot from where Carlos stood had a hole in the ground. His eyes widened as he realized he fell for his trap and was immediately met with multiple magic arrows piercing his back, worsening his condition and leading to further blood loss. Arrick laid there on his knees, wheezing and coughing up blood as he could feel his body unwilling to move despite his wishes. Arrick felt like a foreign substance had entered his body as his muscles and joints began to lock up. As he steadied his breathing to tolerate the pain, he heard two pairs of feet slowly making their way towards him. Eventually he saw a puppy casually walk in front of him and sat down on his bum, shaking his head.

   "Tsk, tsk, you got so wrapped up in your vengeance you didn't even reali-- . . .No, that doesn't matter now. You've been beaten. You lost and now. . .you're a part of my collection." Carlos got out his prized possession and enslaved Arrick who was currently in agony and throughout the entire process, glaring at the pup with a rage that could rival his sudden outbursts. Carlos stored Arrick into the dark green pearl to recover and laid on his side, finally allowing the stress of battle and certain death to settle in. "FUCKING HELL! OTHERWORLDERS ARE OP AS FUCK! Not to be trifled with. Blessings and shit. I can do it my ass! Barely even made it. . .but like hell I'm gonna die again!"

   Carlos' eyelids grew heavy and eventually shut. The unconscious pup laid there, breathing steadily as he fell into a deep slumber.