"Kazuichi!" Arisu and Tris charged forward to help him, but they already knew that their action was a step too late. By the time they arrived to rescue Satoshi, his neck would’ve been squeezed to death.

"Come on!" Takahara grunted, forcing his gorilla grip on Kazuichi’s neck so he’d just die. However, Kazuichi clung on for dear life as he tightened his neck as much as he could.

While Takahara was already at the advantage, he still couldn’t fully snap Kazuichi’s neck. It’s as if his neck was made out of rubber and metal at the same time. Kazuichi was just a different breed of Hybrid and he just wouldn’t die even though he was supposed to be dead a couple of seconds ago.

Just when Arisu and Tris caught up to the two men, Kazuichi gave a mighty kick at Takahara’s balls, causing him to teeter backward as he let go of Kazuichi’s neck. The kick was too unexpected that he impulsively held onto his balls due to how painful it was.

The opening was enough for Kazuichi and he immediately got out of there, realigning his neck so it would heal faster. He could’ve sworn that he could still feel the iron-like hold of Takahara on his neck, as he gasped for much-needed air.

Ruff! Grr~!

Grrr~!

Just when Arisu and Tris were preparing themselves to assist Kazuichi, they heard what sounded like dog growls and grunts. Their attention was then redirected to the small cave where the unmistakable noise was coming from.

On one side, Arisu and Tris put their guards up so they could engage whatever it was that was coming out of the cave. And on the other side, Takahara was one-sidedly overpowering Satoshi with his sheer strength and speed.

At this point, no one knew whether Takahara was a Bulwark, Hound, or Merc, but the smell that came off him greatly resembled a Bulwark with a hint of a Merc’s scent.

Two ghastly figures on all fours came out of the cavern, each of them baring their fangs at the two ladies who stuck close to each other. Arisu and Tris had no choice but to put their guards up as these two figures pounced out of the cave, sneakily approaching them with a menacing glare.

For the most part, the two figures were human, but there was a little bit of beast mixed in on their physique. Their appendages were cruelly replaced with the forelegs and hind legs of what seemed like some type of wolf. Then there was their back, which was botched with animal meat and human meat as if it was the result of some terrible patchwork.

And right up their rear side was a tail that wagged furiously. Each wag caused the muscles that connected it to their main body to tear apart.

It was truly a sight to behold. Whatever experiment these two zombies had to go through, it was obvious that they had undergone some inhumane alterations to their bodies.

"He was right. It’s a Zombie Dog, all right." Arisu commented. The four-legged creatures were actually mindless human zombies, it’s just that some of their parts were replaced by another animal and it worked. Whoever came up with this idea was probably someone who’s extremely sick in the head.

"Behold, my precious pets! Haha!" Takahara screamed as he punched Kazuichi in the face. "They’re my Zombie Dogs."

"Yeah, they’re Zombie Dogs, all right," Kazuichi muttered to himself, spitting out blood from his mouth due to his bleeding gums. As soon as he stood up, he launched himself at Takahara with his arms outstretched, clawing his neck and face before backing down once again.

"Ew," Arisu shuddered when she saw the Zombie Dogs. He knew of dogs who turned into zombies, but these ones didn’t even resemble an infected dog, not in the least bit.

Grunting, Takahara swiped at Kazuichi before pouncing on top of him. Fortunately, Kazuichi managed to roll to the side to avoid the pounce, and then he unleashed a kick right at Takahara, digging his heel into his back.

"Aghk~!" Takahara screamed.

"These Zombie Dogs are actually humans before, and then they turned into mindless infected when dog zombies were fused to their bodies. Here’s the thing, I did everything myself. And let me tell you, the tricky part about these four-legged canines was fusing the tail. It took me a couple of days to think about which muscles to connect to the tail so it would wag just like a dog’s tail. Aren’t they cute?" Takahara lengthily explained while he engaged Kazuichi in a fight.

As for the two Zombie Dogs, they engaged Arisu and Tris in combat. Without hesitation, Arisu stepped forward, gesturing for Tris to step back and support her from afar. Unlike her, Tris is actually uninfected, so just a small scratch from these monstrosities would send her straight to the other side. Arisu could deal with these two Zombie Dogs just fine, provided that Tris supported him a little bit.

Also, it should be mentioned that the Zombie Dogs might target Amaya at any given time, so it was much better for Tris to support Arisu from afar while looking after her younger sister.

One of the Zombie Dogs flared its fangs at Arisu before jumping on top of her. With a quick step, Arisu dodged, simultaneously unsheathing her knife and plunging it deep into the Zombie Dog’s side. An even fouler stench was released from the open wound, and some sort of greenish, blackish liquid with traces of coagulated blood leaked out of its body.

Arisu gagged, but she didn’t lose her composure. While the first Zombie Dog was recovering, the second Zombie Dog attacked Arisu. This time, it tried to launch itself at Arisu with its mouth open. However, Arisu simply grabbed it by the head, grabbed a nearby rock, and bashed it in like she was opening a coconut.

The second Zombie Dog still moved like normal, even though its head was obviously bashed in. As for the first, it finally got its bearings backed and it launched itself at Arisu once again.

"Arisu!" Kazuichi screamed from a couple of meters away.