Richard walked outside, moving slowly as he followed the source of the rustling sound. A moment later, Steve, dressed like a professional hockey player and fully armed, rushed over as well.
"How is it?" Seeing Richard cast a strange look at him, Steve didn't mind at all and asked.
Richard pointed in a direction, right toward the flower bed in Dustin's backyard.
Though the night was hazy and the light was dim, Steve had good eyesight. Looking closely, he could vaguely see the herbs twitching, as if something was moving inside.
Steve held his breath and exchanged a look with Richard. After receiving a gesture to flank from both sides, he nodded, tiptoed, and slowly approached the flower bed.
Dustin was in the room, looking out the window with his friends. He couldn't bear to watch and shook his head repeatedly, saying, "No, no, no... my mom's poor flower bed that she grew by hand..."
Shhh!
Just as Steve and Richard reached the edge of the flower bed and leaned in to take a closer look, the thing inside stopped moving. Then, it suddenly lunged out with a strange cry, pouncing toward Steve.
Steve reacted quickly, jabbing his hockey stick forward to block the bite. With a flick to the ground, the clawing Demodog was slammed onto the grass.
Richard moved swiftly, his blade swinging down. His attack speed was faster than the Demodog's reaction, cleanly chopping off its exaggerated flower-bud head.
"Nice job!" Seeing this, the boys watching from the room pumped their fists in excitement.
"Steve, behind you!" While everyone was celebrating, the coldness on Richard's face didn't fade. He shouted at Steve behind him before even turning around.
Hearing this, the hair on Steve's body stood on end. His reaction wasn't slow either; he gritted his teeth and swung his hockey stick back with all his might. He didn't even see what was pouncing behind him, only feeling that he had hit something, sending it flying into mid-air.
"It's not over, there are at least three Demodogs around!" Richard barked, warning Steve not to let his guard down.
Steve's scalp tingled. Facing the foggy night, he couldn't help but curse in his heart: How did the number of these Demodogs surge so much? What the hell is the group at The Lab doing? Are they really doing their job blocking the erosion of The Upside Down?
Gurgle, gurgle... The familiar yet terrifying sounds of Dimo Creatures reached everyone's ears. A moment later, the boys inside the house also let out terrified screams.
"Holy crap, did it get inside the house!?" After Steve knocked back two Demodogs with his stick, he rushed back into the Henderson home. "Chade, I'll leave the guys outside to you. I'm going to save those kids."
"Mm." Richard nodded nonchalantly. He pulled an iron rod hanging from his belt behind his waist with his left hand. With a forceful flick, the mechanism triggered, extending the rod to over half a meter in length—it was a Collapsible Baton.
"One, two, three... plus the one inside, are there six in total near Dustin's house now?" Richard silently counted the number of Demodogs by sound. It seemed the Dimo Creatures of The Upside Down were slowly growing to the scale of the original second season, perhaps even slightly exceeding it.
The five Demodogs outside all pounced toward Richard. With the Collapsible Baton in one hand and a machete in the other, Richard dodged and slashed.
He didn't know if it was because he had killed so many of these once-troublesome creatures that his slaughtering skills had improved, but Richard wasn't panicked at all facing five aggressive Demodogs at once; instead, he handled it with ease.
"Next time, I'll charge straight into the Dimo Creatures' nest and burn those eggs. They breed too fast; they'll always be a menace," Richard thought. He slashed four times, and with the final strike, he skewered two Demodogs together, their heads pinned through. He had cleanly killed all five Demodogs.
He took a compass out of his pocket to look for a nearby rift entrance, but Richard was surprised to find the needle shaking violently and pointing unclearly. This could only mean one thing: there was more than one temporary passage nearby.
"Get in the house first and kill that one. I missed the one inside earlier; it must be because there's also a temporary passage inside the house." Richard's thinking was as fast as his movements, and he ran back inside in no time.
At this moment, the entire house was filled with the sounds of a noisy fight and the wailing of the boys and Steve. Well, he could also vaguely hear Mrs. Henderson sleeping like a baby.
"Steve, get it!" Dustin shouted, hiding behind Steve as he looked at the Demodog whose body was swelling in front of them.
Steve's breathing was rapid. Holding a broken hockey stick, he yelled back, "I want to, but the damn stick is broken!"
He felt like crying. He originally thought a single Demodog inside would be easy to handle, but he didn't expect this one to be a mutant. Its body was several sizes larger than the Demodogs outside, and its defense was incredible. The hockey stick that could easily knock back the ones outside had simply snapped.
Young Lucas was both excited and afraid, using his slingshot to do chip damage to the Demodog while roaring, "I'm dealing damage! I'm dealing damage!" He was the literal embodiment of a pathetic ADC in a game.
Will grabbed pots and pans from the kitchen and threw them with all his might, but the mutant Demodog didn't even bother to dodge.
Mike went to the cupboard, pulled out a kitchen knife, and handed it to Steve, swallowing hard. "Steve, if you can kill that thing today, I promise to fully support you and Nancy in the future!"
Holding the kitchen knife Mike gave him, Steve panicked even more. "Is there a longer kitchen knife?"
"That's the longest one in my house!" Dustin cried.
What else could Steve say? Seeing that the mutant Demodog looked like it had finished playing and was ready to start dinner, he could only scream while waving the kitchen knife and charging forward.
Bang!
Steve didn't manage to knock the mutant Demodog back; instead, he was pinned to the ground. Sharp claws scraped against Steve's chest. Fortunately, Steve was wearing hockey gear; otherwise, those claws would have not only stripped away his proud chest hair but also ripped out his heart.
"Get it!" Seeing Steve in trouble, Mike and the others didn't hesitate. They grabbed whatever was at hand—bananas, dish sponges, dish soap—and pelted them at the mutant Demodog.
"Save me, save me!" Steve looked at that ugly, mutated, terrifying face trying to break through his helmet's defense and screamed in terror and despair: "Chade! Chade! Fuck! Chade!"
Puchi!
At the critical moment, a bright blade pierced through that petal-like face. A burst of blood and slime exploded, spraying through the gaps of the iron face mask and covering Steve's face.
"Gah!" Steve couldn't help but dry heave. With the help of Mike and the others, he pushed off the mutant Demodog's corpse. He rolled over and knelt on the floor, vomiting up both the monster's fluids and his dinner from last night.
"Chade is still the most badass." Lucas and the boys slumped onto the floor, and Lucas gave Richard a thumbs-up.
Richard shook the slime off his machete and smiled. "Don't be in a hurry to rest. Find the temporary passage in Dustin's house first and burn it, so they don't come out from this place again."
The five of them nodded hurriedly. They certainly didn't want another mutant Dimo Creature like that one appearing again.