Prince Sohan clutched his torn off forearm and groaned in pain. His black overcoat was soaked in blood and sweat, the runes on it ran beyond an optimal rate to heal him and still failed.
Trihound which had split off into three hounds had fused back at some point. The beast was a high rank 6 Adept.
It wasn't immune from injuries, however. One of the beast's head was badly injured, with its skull sunken a few inches. Another head side's body had its chunks of its flesh missing with whip marks. The third one had a dozen holes drilled all over, splashing blood on its feet.
The Trihound and the heirs all learnt the hardway that they couldn't kill each other, not when they fought separately.
So, the Trihound fused back to kill them one by one. The prince and princesses teamed up to slay the beast.
"If those two cowards stayed instead of fighting a man who isn't even in their rank, they'd have died an ugly death." Maria's body trembled as she rose to her feet, a gaping hole in her abdomen that squirmed and slowly closed.
"No matter how much I hate that spineless bastard, he has the combat experience which would put any prince of the kingdom to shame." Sohan picked his great sword with left hand and wrapped a healing cloth at the right elbow where the forearm was bitten off.
"There's no way this dog is better than him. Baldur…that person wouldn't be able to survive."
His voice grew dull and ended with a sigh of resignation.
"We need to take care of this first," Bella stretched her arms and swung her whip twice for a double check.
Of the three, Princess Bella inflicted the most injuries on the hound. In return, she took the most injuries.
From her shoulders down to her feet, there were bites of flesh missing, as if a beast gnawed on her—which was actually what happened.
"You want a healing potion?" Maria offered her a silvery glass bottle. "It's not instant heal, but it can cover the small injuries in a few minutes."
Even she had been running out of treasures by this point. She had a treasure that could easily annihilate the Trihound but once she used it, the mission would fail. The two men who went in must've also had a treasure of equal caliber.
'So I still have hope that the mission can be a success?' Maria wondered how she became this optimistic. 'Optimistic or deluded?'
"No, thank you." Bella rejected the healing potion and positioned herself for an attack. She leaned forward slightly, her left foot two steps forward and her right foot one step backward.
The right hand gripping the whip was drawn back, ready to deliver an unforgettable whipping.
"GO!"
With a full swing of Sohan's great sword, a fierce shockwave struck the Trihound. The creature's balance was thrown off and it fell onto its back.
Maria didn't miss the gap and the twirling spear in her hand shot forward. As it did, the tree girl released a golden paper she was holding in her other hand.
The paper burned off before the spear could even cover a few hundred meters and transformed into a golden gas which reached the back of the spear. Then, the golden gas covered the spear's body and the space around it cracked.
The speed of the spear rose exponentially and reached the injured head of the Trihound. A layer of crimson qi manifested over the dog and clashed against the spear.
Space cracked and shockwaves dangerous enough to instantly kill a rank 5 swept the region.
The Trihound's three faces, particularly the face under the attack of the spear, whimpered and put on a desperate struggle.
The qi shield still cracked and the spear plunged itself into the hound's skull. Unfortunately, it was only a few inches deep and couldn't kill a rank 6 Adept creature.
And that's when the sound of space cracking resounded in all directions.
The whip in Bella's hand passed through a space crack and coiled itself around the targeted injured head.
"Ughh!" Bella gritted her teeth and pulled hard. Prince Sohan and Maria held the whip and added to the pull.
Amidst the panicked screams of the Trihound, its head was ripped off its body and rolled on the ground.
The royal heirs looked at each other, panting in exhaustion, but with a smile plastered on their face. "J-Just two more times and we're done."
It wasn't as easy as it sounded. But certainly doable.
At this moment, the Trihound did something they didn't expect. Its two heads bent down and ate up its own head.
"I've witnessed cannibalism but what the fuck is this?" An uneasy feeling swept Maria.
"We can't wait for it to do whatever it plans to do. Attack! Now!" Sohan raised his great sword and dashed forward.
But the previous attack took a tool on them all. Even though he tried his best, Sohan's speed was slower compared to before, so was his strength.
Maria was clear about this but didn't complain. She ran after him with Bella.
The swing of the great sword was blocked by a Qi wall this time. The beast wasn't dumb enough to fall for the same trick.
And they knew it too.
"Haaa!" Bella's whip wrapped, brimming with her own Qi, reached the Qi wall. But it didn't conflict mindlessly and instead, focused on a single portion, resulting in a sizable gap.
A spear passed through that gap and pierced the Trihound's second head, splitting it open and cracking it to pieces.
The Trihound gobbled its broken head with fanatical eyes.
"Alright, one more and we're done." Prince Sohan took a deep breath and raised his great sword.
"I can only do one more."
"I might faint any moment."
Their responses were concerning but this was the final shot.
As they were about to squeeze out the last bit of their strength, the Trihound started cackling.
A very human, a very creepy and a very out of place cackle.
"Hahahahahaha!"
"Ahahahaha!"
"Haa! Aaah! Ahaha!"
Two heads grow out of their empty necks and joined in its madness.
