Gabriel looked around in the main hall and things are rather quiet… Maybe a little too quiet… He looked around and sniffed the air, hoping to find Alucard, all the Last Belmont could do at the moment was pray that nothing bad has happened to him while he was recovering. Making sure that both his wife and his son were safe from whatever "Walter" has wrought on this castle was his top priority.

Since Gabriel had no idea of what to expect from this new enemy, appearance wise everything in the castle was the same. But the more that he explored the more that the castle's atmosphere kept putting him on edge, getting a constant sense that something could appear out of nowhere and attack at any second. He stopped himself dead in his tracks when he nose picked up a scent that smells a lot like rotten eggs: Sulphur…

With the sound of a creature with four legs come from behind, Gabriel once again summons the Void Sword turning around stabbing into the monster that was about to pounce on him pinning it to the ground. He looked to see the now impaled creature looked like a wolf with inky black skin instead of fur which had glowing yellow eyes and streaks on both sides of the body with a strange crimson marking that the vampire was not familiar with, along with some black smoke radiating from its breath as it yelped in pain from the ice cold blade. The Last Belmont was quick to deduce that what he was facing off with was a Hellhound, a monster that he was sure was just one of many now infesting the castle.

Before Gabriel could finish the creature off, he felt set of obsidian like teeth biting down on his wrist causing him to scream in agony letting go of his sword as he turned to see that it was a second Hellhound biting down on him. He quickly used his claws swiping them across the second hound's face cutting both eyes this time forcing the beast to let go temporarily blind.

Gabriel hissed as he blew on his fingers to cool down the hot sting from the lava like blood that these monsters have while letting his fast healing kick in. Finally, a third one appears getting ready to pounce like its brother but once again Gabriel was quick to avoid it by ducking and raising a hand up pushing it away.

With the three demonic dogs lined up together, they would look almost completely identical if the vampire hasn't taken a good look and notice that the second and third one had red marks just like the first but with their symbols that they made up of completely different designs from each-others'.

The second with its eyes now full healed and the third glowed at the last Belmont standing their ground while the first struggled to stand back up with the blue glowing sword still stuck in his stomach as it gave off another whine. Gabriel smirked at the sight seeing that sight showing that he had an advantage but it quickly dropped as he saw that the sword's glow began to fade despite the monster it was still lodged in was weakened. He came to the conclusion that the weapon was a double edged sword in both ways as while the weapon will definitely hurt them, the Hellhounds can deplete its magic in turn.

One another Hellhound goes in for the attack but Gabriel quickly summoned his Shadow whip knocking it away no doubt with the fresh wound already healing. Moving quickly, he dashed and grabbed the Void Sword violently yanking it out of the hurt monster.

Using his whip again he managed to help keep his distances from the three demon dogs until the sword's magic was fully recharged. The Last Belmont then used his weapon to create large crystals of ice impaling the hound closest to him, and then decapitating it putting the first beast out of its misery.

Another actually took a few steps back, showing that it was no stranger to the sense of fear. With it's guard slightly down, Gabriel did a quick dash stabbing the sword through the hound's maw with the blade poking out from the back of the head. Then the last one tried repeating the same tactic of catching the vampire with ambush. However, he was more prepared and with one swing, cut the monster completely in half leaving it to fall into the ground in defeat.

Though as much as Gabriel would've like to just move on afterwards, he couldn't help but notice how easy and quick it was to help turn this fight in his favor. Unfortunately his instincts only proved his suspicions right, when the three symbols on each dog being giving off a crimson glow, the last Belmont clenched his fist in anticipation but then quickly cover his eyes from a sudden bright flash came from the three symbols.

Uncovering his sight, he then looked up in shock to see a gigantic three headed HellHound towering over him with all three heads howling at once. From the corner of his eye, the Last Belmont took notice of seeing the three symbols now merged into a great big one still in the same spot. Just before the flash, he saw that the symbol that got cut in half along with the mutt it was bond to flickered a bit before then beginning to glow brightly, unlike the other two that lit up immediately. Now that he knew what/where the weak spot it all came down to how this beast was going to protect it. Cerberus was here, and he was pissed…

Before he could react, the head on the left let out a huge breath filling the room with smoke. Gabriel coughed a few times trying to locate the now large beast through the black, sulfur filled fog, only to be suddenly greeted by the middle head who was now breathing fire at him no different from a dragon.

After having having all of his skin burned off from the attack, Cerberus then swatted the vampire away with one of its paws making him hit a nearby wall. Slowly getting back up with his wounds still healing, the Last Belmont saw that the Merged Hellhound wasn't moving from his spot confusing the vampire since he was still somewhat vulnerable. He turned his attention to the right head who looked like it had something up in it's cheeks, a few seconds afterwards the right head then hacked out a huge of what looked like magma flying straight towards him.

Gabriel narrowly dodged the projectile the head would try firing some more magma until finally giving up with Gabriel's injuries finally healed and in turn was able to avoid every shot much more easily.

Summoning the Void Sword once more, Gabriel rushed over to the beast's side ready to hit the "mystical bullseye". The left head then tried to flood the room with smoke once more but was interrupted when the vampire then dropped to the ground sliding across the floor and swung the sword sending a beam/slash hitting it directly in the neck causing the built up smoke to spill on to the ground like a waterfall. Immediately picking himself back off the ground, the former monster hunter avoids both the nearest head and paw jumping into the air plunging his cold weapon into the center of the strange symbol causing all three heads to cry out in pain. the Last Belmont roared as he charged every once of magic the blade had into Cerberus causing the symbol to glow a bright white knocking Gabriel away with an explosion.

With a more graceful landing than the last he looked up to see some small snow like substances to gently fall around him. Catching one in his hand he looked at he would describe as "a combination of ash and ice" something that was neither hot nor cold. Looking over to the side, he saw the corpse of the Merged Hellhound was now getting turned into the snow like objects starting from the large hole its side. Remembering that he still has not consumed any blood recently, Gabriel had decided to try an find the nearest source in the castle (which lucky for him) was close to where he was standing.

Unknown to the former monster hunter, someone was watching the whole battle. "Go ahead warrior, take some time to recover. This test was quite successful." spoke a man with long silver hair wearing an black and purple outfit.

Anyone wanna take a guess at who that was watching Gabriel's fight? All and all, I hope ya'll enjoyed and I'd say it's about time that I brought some attention back to this story. ALSO! Expect another chapter for The Power of 'Two pretty soon.

Until Next Time…