The Dawn of the New World

"Come on! Come, fight me!" Hao Xuan growled, sounding more like a beast speaking a human tongue than the other way around.

But they cared little for his taunts. Each of these canine beasts was at least a hundred years old, with some having lived for close to three hundred years. They were not young in any sense of the word and knew how to carry themselves.

Not to mention they did not have 'emotions' to drag them down so it was not easy to get a reaction out of them.

They continuously circled Hao Xuan, occasionally landing a quick piercing jab somewhere on his body. He could feel their suffocating auras trying to snuff out what little sanity he had left and therein lied the crux of their true power.

Although these beasts were fast and had sturdy bodies, that wasn't the reason why there were so dominant and feared even in the world where they had come from.

The human tribes of their planet had a name for these canine beasts, the 'Nightmare hounds'. The glowing gemstones protruding from their bodies were the source of their actual power, which was to deplete a person's sanity bit by bit.

Once a Nightmare Hound reached the level of an Ether Beast, it would be able to drag its victim's consciousness into a world of nightmares from which there was no escape. Life and death was decided there.

But before reaching the Ether Beast realm this effect was greatly reduced and could at most manifest in the form of slow degradation of their victim's rationality and levelheadedness.

Currently, half of Hao Xuan's mind was focused on the Nightmare Hounds while the other half was worried about the immediate future.

He had told the barbarians to leave without him if they couldn't find him in time and it had already been more than 10 minutes. Did they leave already? Was he all alone here, in this moshpit of death? That was all he could think about now.

Hao Xuan tried his best but couldn't put enough distance between the hounds and himself and they did not want to pick a fight with him up close. Even if they greatly outnumbered him, unlike humans the instincts of a beast were not so easily disregarded.

They knew all too well that there was nothing more dangerous than a cornered animal and until the very last moment, they were going to use their numbers and agility to their utmost advantage.

The light from the gemstones continued to fall on Hao Xuan, whittling down his mental stability without him realizing it one bit. He staved off their attacks for another 3 minutes but was on the verge of losing his mind.

"Argh! FIGHT ME!" he shouted, brandishing his claws haphazardly in the air while growling and snarling like a wild animal.

He couldn't utilize the Chaos Qi nor his own strength properly, madly throwing himself at the hounds. Hao Xuan's vision was overcome by a crimson red color of bloodthirsty derangement.

He couldn't even see properly with only every fifth or sixth image being registered within his mind and even that could not be processed accurately.

Within 5 more minutes Hao Xuan was on his last legs. Half of his body was covered in bloody wounds that leaked like a sieve. He was exhausted and about to lose his mind until he caught something from the corner of his eye.

Hao Xuan was in the middle of a wide swing when all of a sudden his head jerked to the side upon seeing a familiar figure waving his hands while sprinting towards him.

"E-Eh?" as if awoken from a bad dream, Hao Xuan suddenly came to his senses. He saw Tasgall in the distance, jumping over and under different beasts desperately trying to come to his aid.

He saw the mute barbarian's worried expression and couldn't help but smile, 'What are you so worried ab-'

But before he could even finish the thought Hao Xuan's body jerked forcibly as he felt a sudden piercing coldness coming from his chest.

"Hm?" curious, he looked down and saw a beating red fleshy growth protruding out of his chest, attached to a long curved claw.

"Wha-"

*Skleeech*

His body jerked again as the claw was pulled back out.

Hao Xuan lost all strength in his body and fell on his back. And as he did, he saw what the claw was attached to and what it had pulled out.

It was attached to the bird Ether Beast that was hanging from the ceiling and the fleshy object was his heart, which had now left his body. There was a large gaping hole where his heart should have been, an empty space that leaked blood by the liters.

Some of it came out his mouth and nose, drowning him alive. He tried to take a breath but ended up swallowing even more. It felt like needles in his lungs, a new kind of pain that he had never felt before.

It was only then that Hao Xuan realized what had happened, and that he was now dying.

He tried to scream and get up but all he could do was flail about on the ground, much like a chicken with its head cut off.