The sound of hurried footsteps rang out through the dark of night, coming from none other than a snow-white figure racing into the distance at his fastest speed.
It was none other than Ryuk himself, pushing his limits as he narrowly avoided trees in his path.
The more he ran, the more he heard heavy collisions and the ground beneath him tremble like a beast running amok.
Ryuk's teeth ground together in anger.
'Isha. Isha...' he called out once more in his mind, but there was no reply.
Instead, the sound of collisions grew louder and louder, painful and ragged roars of beasts ringing from the area. But the problem wasn't the roars of the beasts—it was how the beasts were running alongside Ryuk into the distance too.
Ryuk knew the source of the roar. It was, of course, Isha. If that wasn't proof enough, the sight of the Ice Pillar was all he needed to confirm his suspicion.
He had permitted Isha to fight with beasts if needed.
But this wasn't what Ryuk had expected.
Isha's roar had been so loud it had awakened all of the beasts in the forest, and now they were heading straight toward her.
Why would she do something so stupid? Waking up all the beasts and calling them to her.
Isha was strong, but against almost all of the Nocturnals in the Cursed Forest?
It was only a matter of time before she would be killed.
The thought of her death made Ryuk's heart clench even more as he sped up, racing faster and faster.
He could've continued sleeping and told himself, If she got into trouble, she could simply use my pet world and come back. But the fact that she was stupid enough to roar so loud and call all of the beasts to her made Ryuk genuinely doubt if she would do that.
Something's wrong. Something's terribly wrong, and he needed to be there.
But it was the dark of night, with creatures lurking here and there, and Ryuk himself wasn't safe.
He was on his path, running, when he felt the air stand still for a single second, and in the next instant—
The tail of a beast whipped forward like a lash toward Ryuk's chest, faster than he could react, slamming head-on into him.
The force of the attack blew his shirt open and sent him flying backward toward where he had come from, tumbling across the ground for a couple of meters before he came to a stop.
Blood gushed out of Ryuk's lips as he tried to stand. The second he put weight on his legs, he collapsed onto his knees, but he forced the pain down, throwing himself away from where he stood just in time. A deep slash appeared where he had been, the ground sliced into two.
Quickly rising to his feet, Ryuk found the one who had delivered the attack. It was a dog-like creature, except instead of a tail, it had hard ropes for tails—three in total, dangling behind it.
It was about 2 meters in pure size, just about Ryuk's own height, dark saliva sprouting from its lips as it locked its pitch-black eyes onto Ryuk.
[Host has come across The Whip-Tailed Mutt, a Lower Grade B creature!]
[Creature has been assessed to be capable of killing the Host!]
[Host must proceed with caution!]
The system notification blared red as Ryuk almost felt his heart stop beating within him.
'A Lower Grade B creature? That's equivalent to a Core Stage in the Plane of Dominion! This type of beast is just one step below the Colossal itself!' Ryuk thought, gulping as sweat unconsciously trailed down the back of his neck.
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAR!
Another powerful roar boomed out from the distance, the signal of the arrival of a new creature.
'Fuck. Why aren't you in the Pet World, Isha?! Why? I have to get to her!' Ryuk shouted in his mind, yet the sound of whistling in the air forced him to dive to the ground. A meter-deep, smooth line opened up the ground as one of the dog's tails slammed into it, tearing it apart.
The sound of whips curling filled the air as the three tails repeatedly slashed toward Ryuk's figure, who became a blur, dodging here and there. Yet the tails stuck behind him like flies. He gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead.
"Fuck off!" he roared as his scythe appeared, and he cleaved it outward toward one of the tails, severing it into nothing.
Just when Ryuk turned to slash off the second tail, his eyes faintly caught the sight of the severed tail instantly growing back.
Before he could react, they wrapped around Ryuk's leg, pulling him and slamming him into the ground.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A loud bang rang out from the smack as Ryuk felt pain tear through his spine. Blood burst out from his ears, which had borne the brunt of the attack, but he reacted quickly.
His scythe cleaved down towards his legs, slashing off the tail. But just then, he caught sight of another tail wrapping and inching toward his stomach, he hurriedly cleaved outward and severed that one too before he shot back in speed.
Crouched to the ground with his eyes staring at the mutt, Ryuk watched as it elegantly walked towards him, not at all worried about its tails, which were currently spewing out blood.
As the Whip-Tailed Mutt walked towards Ryuk, its severed tails began regenerating, the ends that Ryuk had slashed off knitting themselves back.
In less than five seconds, its tails had been fully repaired, casting behind it in the air as a ferocious and taunting smile laid on its face, looking at Ryuk's bloody figure.
'Damn it!' Ryuk thought.
The creature before him had tails that could tear through his body like knives through butter and even lift him off his feet and slam him into the ground.
The mutt was also smart, as it only attacked with its tails instead of its entire body, forcing Ryuk away from it while keeping him occupied with its tails, which it could easily regenerate if Ryuk severed them.
There was now no doubt about it—the creature before him was a menace, and he wouldn't be rescuing Isha if he didn't defeat it.
"What do I do? What do I do?"
"How do I defeat this?"