"Miss, can we stop?"

"Snif sniff, my legs hurt"

Fours hours had passed since the group headed out but the girls had been sobbing and complaining for the past two hours, if not for their fear of the beasts and the occasional screams coming from the main streets the girls would have given up a long time ago

"Just a little more"

That's all Ellis could say, she wasn't all that good with kids, and it had been only four hours, it finally dawned on her that travelling with a kid is impossible as YuJu had said, she even felt that if she had tried to escort the kids herself they would all have been dead already

Thinking of YuJu she turned to look at him, thinking that at some point he would say I told you so, or give her a knowing expression but he had not said a single word other than explanations about the beasts

Still, she wouldn't give up the girls even knowing that it was difficult, it was just her nature

"Shes weak"

YuJu was murmuring under his breath, he never thought that strong women that he once thought a freak would actually be this weak, but he also realized that people were still normal at the first few days, no human would come out a peaceful life and plunge into the apocalypse like a war veteran, well almost no human, there were some rather unique exceptions

"Maybe I interfered too much? Was there something that would have happened to make her the person she was?"

He was curious about it but not indigent, to him, even an insect could be made powerful by him, he didn't care about someone's talent or origin, the only reason he chose Ellis, to begin with, was because she was a bit similar to him and he liked some traits about her

"Sqeee" "SqeeeSqe" "Sqeq"

Suddenly a terrible number of squees could be heard, Ellis and the girls stopped in panic, even Anput showed a slight worrisome expression but seeing her master was still jogging ahead her worries were dashed

"What are you doing? Go fight them"

He pointed Ellis toward the thirty-something red rats

"Impossible! I can bearly fight two at a time"

"All the more reason to fight them, how would you lear otherwise, plus Anput will handle half of the rats"

"Still can't do-" Slap!

A sudden slap toward her bum sent her straight toward the staring rats who sprung into action at her approach, jumping toward her with hungry eyes

"Argh!"

She grunted feeling the recoil form the first two rats collision, it made her bend back slightly opining her wide for the next rats attack

She narrowed her eyes seeing their approaching figures before pulling hard on her now slightly worn knife

"Hah!" Shiin!

With a mighty swing she cleaved through three rats at the same time, courtesy of her raised strength and agility

Blood spilled, shocking the other rats of how easily their comrades died, but instead of being scared the rats were instead stimulated by the blood making them attack madly without care for injury or death

'Just as he said these rats go crazy once they smell blood, but how did he know all that?'

This wasn't the time to ponder though as the real battle had started

Five rats came at her from the front with each a side while two started to climb the nearby walls to get the jump at her

Seeing them she ignored the ones on the ground and instead jumped at the wall, once her foot touched it she put all her strength into it before making another jump high into the air, a feat she would never be able to accomplish without years of body practice if not for the stats

With her being in the air she started to spin clashing her swords with every rat that dared jump at her from the walls, before landing at the ground unstably her eyes now spinning in circles

"Krrr""Aaagh"

A pain on her chest snapped her out of hr dizziness, as she looked down she saw one of the rats latched on to her, biting into her chest as it tried to rip her flesh off

"Haaa!"

She shoved her knife in its chest, but the rat didn't respond, it seemed to be relishing in her flesh, it didn't care about the pain and since Ellis missed its vitals it didn't die instantly

"Aahh!"

Another painful sensation came from her leg as another rat latched on to her, with others their way as well

Ellis's scream stopped seeing the others come as well, she knew she would die at this point, and the pain clouded her mind making her shake in fear and not think about the battle, she was a lamb ready for slaughter

Ding! "Oh? She finally got it? Wait, this isn't the same one?"

A sudden clarity dawned upon Ellis, her muddled brain started to work its cogs again and the pain receded without disappearing, it was still there, still unbearable, but she could somehow ignore it

Shik! Shik!

With two swings she sliced the necks of the two latched rats before rolling backwards, avoiding the incoming bites

'Five down, ten to go, three of which are heavily injured"

Her mind spun at speed unknown to her before, even her injuries seemed to be healed a bit, but only slightly

Wasting no time she kicked off the ground toward the side and jumped at the wall yet again but this time she didn't jump off it but rather climbed up the wall and latched onto a balcony before going in it

The rats naturally followed her, they also climbed up the wall and then jumped into the balcony only to be kicked or sliced, they didn't come in at the same time but in droves and that gave Ellis ample opportunity to take care of them with the advantage of higher ground

The battle was now heavily in Ellis's favour, she had already killed or crippled seven of the remaining ten either by her knife or by the heavy fall, only the two in front of her remained

'Wait! Two?!'

by the time she realized it she was too late as a red shadow fell on her back biting into her flesh madly

The others took the opportunity to attack but only received two stabs in return

Surprisingly Ellis hadn't screamed or panicked, only a slight wince was seen before she killed the rats, then she diverted her attention onto the one on her back

'I can't reach it'

Her knife couldn't reach the rat on her back and even if it did she would be able to hit accurately and might get even injure herself

AS she turned and tossed trying to get it off she saw the door of the bacony and though of something

Positioning her back toward the door she put pressure on her feet before barreling toward the door squshing the poor rat between them, still, that wasn't enough to make it let go much less kill it, so Ellis could only smash her back with the door repeatedly until the poor fellow couldn't sustain any longer

Thud

It twitched and cried out on the ground clearly struggling, seeing this Ellis wanted to finish it, but a sudden idea made her stop and instead put its head between the door and the door frame before slamming the door with all her might! Once! Twice! Thrice! She slammed and slammed until the rat's head turned into mush, only then did she feel satisfied

"Hicc!"

The sudden sound made her turn around with her knife pointed outward ready to slice

"Waah! Don't hurt sniff me waah"

Her actions turned the girl's hiccup into a cry which was soon followed by the other little girls who started bawling their tears out, letting out everything they had been holding in since this nightmare started

Releasing what she had done Ellis lowered her knife slowly, then looked at the bloody alley

aside from the corpses of the ones she killed which made a mess all over the place, there were another seventeen corpses which were orderly slain in a curving line reaching all the way to YuJu, with the last one being next to his feet, apparently, Anput had killed them all without letting a single one bother her master, and she did it in such an orderly manner as well, without a single wound on her body

"You made a mess, but you tried your best, next time no flashy moves or I won't bother saving you again"

Hearing him Ellis jumped down and walked up to him, blood all over her body, and with wrathful eyes, she spoke to him through grit teeth

"And how is it that you saved me"

YuJu didn't respond, merely gazing behind her, she grunted but eventually followed his gaze only to be surprised seeing four knives lodged into the floor

She then realized that the rats probably had enough time to attack her when she was dazed but he scared them with his knives, as to why they didn't turn to attack him she hadn't the slightest clue, in fact, none of the beasts yet had targeted him or the girls which made no sense to her

Turning her angry gaze back at him she still rebuked him

"And why didn't you save me when they were biting me? I could have died! and even if I didn't why let me suffer through so much pain?! Do you enjoy torturing me that much?! Am I a toy to you, you heartless bastard!!"

She spewed all her anger in one burst even though pressure kept accumulating, at the end she was so suffocated she almost fainted on the spot but somehow was able to manage to maintain consciousness

"Because of this"

He said and pointed in front of him where her status screen appeared by his command, she looked at where he was pointing and suddenly found the reason for all this mess

_________________________________

Name: Ellis Jasper

Race: Human

Gender: Female

Level: 6

Class:None

STR: 6.9

AG:7.1

VIT:0.8

INT:4.1

INS: 0.5

AP Available: 0

Titles:

-BattleBorn: One who is forged through battle and born anew!

When in battle both mind and body will adjust accordingly

Gained "Battle Stance"

Special Status: Contracted Master: Yuju

_________________________________

The title shocked her as she now knew she was able to bear the pain all because of it, but what really made her dazed was the fact that YuJu had not saved her because he wanted her to gain it! Just how in the world did he know she would gain it like this? No, how id he even know about titles to begin with, they were mentioned anywhere until she gained it

On the other hand, she wasn't surprised by the new level, the past four hours she had levelled up to five quite quickly and spent some time in that level so she knew she was would level up in this battle, in fact, the level up was probably the reason she was healed after killing the fifth rat as for the mental clarity it was probably the work of both YuJu adding into her intelligence and her gaining the new skill

Her chest was now heaving up and down, complicated feelings raging within, she didn't know whether to thank him or blame him, sure she got a pretty good, maybe even great, Titel but the pain didn't seem worth it

Eventually, she bit her lips and bowed her head in apology

"I am sorry"

Simple words but it conveyed her intentions fully, still, she didn't thank him

"Don't worry about it, anyway when are you planning on getting dressed?"

His first words made her relax as the pressure coming from her soul eased up but his latter ones made her bewildered, she didn't understand and looked down only to see herself bereft of any shirt while her left ramp was bare with blood smeared on it, only now did she remember the first bote had ripped off both her shirt and left part of the bra, and the last rat rampaging on her shredded her shirt into nothing

Quickly raising her hand she covered herself saving whatever dignity she could, all the while her eyes looking at YuJu blamingly all the while

"Sigh, pay more attention, you don't want to streak publicly every time you fight seriously"

He handed her his jacket as he said so leaving him with only a shirt on

Ellis quickly took the jacket and turned around, wearing it and then zipping it up

"Thank you"

He nodded at her words casually

"Let's go now, we spent too much time here as it is, not only are we late but other packs may get attracted to the smell"

The girls had already stopped crying at this point, one of them even slept as she leaned on Anput who had no choice but to stay still

YuJu picked up the little sleeping girl and made Ellis carry two of the dead rat's bodies, while Anput took the lead, previously his plan was to train Ellis but as it stands he had no choice but delay his plans until he healed her up