'Am I going to die?'

That thought dominated Ellis's mind as she saw YuJu clash with the fast shadow, it seemed that the person she put all her hopes on was struggling just as much as she was

But that thought was soon squashed by her will to live, making her turn toward the slightly disoriented rats

'He gave me a chance!'

The sudden killing intent stopped the rats for only a second, but a second was barely enough her to turn around

'I can't make it if a defend normally'

It wasn't enough, the numbers made sure that if even a few made it past her guard she would then be overwhelmed

'The only way is to take a stance!'

She never tried to do stance after stance before, she didn't even know if that was possible, only by trying would she know and she was already pretty much dead if she didn't try

"Haaaaaaa!"

She shouted with all her power as her already creaking bones seemed to crack due to intense pressure of switching between two different stances

This was the second time she felt huge pain, but this time it was much bigger as it left waves through her body, she didn't know attempting two stances one after the other would cause such a stress on her body, she fought hard against losing focus and her sword seemed to move in a circular motion, it went counter-clockwise, hitting every rat with the flat side of the sword, adjusting their trajectory away from her while using the momentum to carry over toward the next rat

If anyone saw this technique they would be mesmerised, it required so much precision, delicate control, and high speed live calculation that it was beyond human reach

'Good she made it'

YuJu thought as he put away the flying daggers that he was hiding under his sleeve, if not necessary he didn't want to kill anything, thus he was glad Ellis took care of herself, more so that she learned how to link stances which would help her immensely

His body then blurred as he clashed once again with the troublesome fellow that halted his rescue

'Annoying guy, I need to do a major cut on his speed if I want to make her fight him'

He thought, meanwhile he used the status screen while fighting to put the last points from her level up into agility again, now she had better chances at surviving its onslaught

'She's ready'

He nodded to himself gazing at her status

_________________________________

Name: Ellis Jasper

Race: Human

Gender: Female

Level: 25

Class: None (Swordsman)

STR: 10.9

AG: 29.1

VIT: 11

INT: 41.1

INS: 5.2

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

_________________________________

Everything she had gotten from the last six levels went into her agility while other stats slightly raised on their own, but while her speed was more than double her previous one she would still have nothing on this thing, after all, he was even faster than him

'Seems like you need major trimming'

He smiled looking ahead, then dashed toward the battlefield with it following close behind

Ellis was thinking of how to escape the encirclement and attack instead of defending but the rats started to run on their own

'Huh?'

Then she looked to the side and saw two blurs chasing each other while approaching her

When they were close enough she could hear the sound of wind zipping around their bodies as the two clashed at speed the normal human eye couldn't follow

Of course, she was stronger than your normal humans and could finely see what YuJu was fighting

"Oh lord, what is this atrocity"

She unknowingly exclaimed, that's when the two figures suddenly stopped, standing a few meters away from each other, allowing everyone to take in their figures

YuJu's human figure was expected, only his focused green eyes seemed to suck one in but he didn't stand out too much, not when compared to the abnormal entity in front of him

"Sss!"

All the humans who saw it sucked in cold breaths, even the rats that retreated to the sides took a step back looking at this thing

Standing there it towered over YuJu with his to meter hight, its green globe-like eyes emitted green florescent light that gave one jitters just looking at, it had arms and legs just like any human but with sharp claws dripping with green liquid, its head was that of a rat with a mouthful of sharp teeth

But the most disturbing fact about it would be the bumps of blood covering its skin, seeping through it was a green grimy liquid that burnt the creature's flesh from within

Soon after their shock at the beast's appearance subsided they noticed a more astonishing thing and that was the fact that other than those bumps it was also filled with many knife marks on its body, some deep and some shallow, while YuJu didn't have a single scratch on his clothes

The two strongest beings of both sides kept staring at each other, even when they didn't intentionally exert their pressure everyone around was having a rough time breathing, some kids and women were on the verge of fainting even, and it only increased with time

Step-Boom!Whoosh!

Both took a step each but the next action was totally different, the beast caused cracks to form under its feet as it shoot toward YuJu like an arrow while he seemed to float along with the wind at an ever-changing speed

The beast slashed at YuJu but its hands somehow phased through his body

"???"

Ellis had a dumbfounded expression on her face as she saw the claws pass through his body, but she didn't dare blink lest she misses the fight

But her attempts were dashed as the two of them turned into a blur again, this time moving at speed her eyes could barely catch up to

'No these aren't even clashes as we thought, the only one attacking is the beast while...Master isn't even trying to attack back'

Ellis began to accept YuJu more and more as her master, not because of his sudden show of strength, instead, it was when she had to risk her life and rely on him even though she was supposed to accomplish her duty on her own

The beast continued swing left and right without landing a single strike at YuJu, and when it slowed down its assault YuJu sliced it with his knife, just no fatally but enough to make it attack fully again so as to not get injured

This went on for around twenty seconds but a few tens of clashes had happened already

At this point, even with the beasts low IQ it figured out YuJu was playing with it, that made it extremely angry, so angry it decided to attack with everything it has to kill this evil two-legged being

"SCREE"

A weird sound assaulted the ears of the humans causing them to hold their hand to their ears in pain

The rats, on the other hand, squeaked with the beast and their eyes seemed to go mad as they assaulted the humans once again without a care for their life

Ellis saw this and ran back to help them

'It sure took its time'

The beast seemed to activate some skill as its body radiated a green hue while the bumps on its body started to explode eroding its flesh with acidic subtenses, this brought it extreme pain and damage but it ignored it in its rage and blasted the ground into pieces with its charge

"??"

Much to its dismay it suddenly lost track of the two-legged being, this confused it greatly as it was just in front of it a moment ago, did it scare it so much that it ran away with greater speed than itself?

Slash! Slash!

"Kree!"

It felt its calfs slashed through like butter, allowing blood and grimy green liquid to flow out freely, it wanted to turn around and slice whoever dared sneak attack it but when it barely managed to do so it found no one near it

Slash Slash

Another two slashes, this time it was its shoulders, but it wasn't sliced deeply, instead only a third

The beast went crazy at this humiliation, it turned around and slashed behind it with insane speed despite its injury yet its attack only phased through YuJu who then jumped away with no intention of finishing it off

It wanted to follow up and attack but its body was constantly destroying itself from the inside, and with these injuries it might lose its arm and legs before it even caught YuJu, that would mean certain death thus it cancelled its skill

YuJu nodded his head in satisfaction then disappeared from his spot, a second later he appeared in front of the running Ellis blocking her path

Ellis was puzzled seeing him as he was supposed to be fighting the strengthened beast o she turned around to check only to see the beast barely standing on its bloody legs, arms dangling slightly by the side while its face showed great caution and for the first time a spec of fear, the green hue that was glowing around it was slowly receding back into its body taking with it the madness of the rats

This meant their victory but somehow Ellis didn't look happy, instead, she had a worried look on her face, she turned back to YuJu only to see him staring at her coldly, then back at the beast

She didn't need to be smart to understand him, he obviously meant for her to finish what she had gotten them into

Still, she couldn't help but look at the humans who were still fighting the rats, albie with more room to breath

Noticing her look he also sent a look backwards, with it came the pressure of a level twenty-six Master, sending a chill down all the present rat's spine and scattering them just as quickly as they came

This scene was something was unbelievable, one look was all it took to scare the large group of beasts? The watching humans couldn't believe it, after all, they were all humans, but while they had to fight tooth and nail with them all he had to do was glance?

There was nothing surprising about it though if one thought of it logically, rats where always the cowardly bunch, they only dare attack humans because of their massive group and the lack of human's strength, as for when YuJu came their just as strong leader was protecting them from him, but now that they faced this strong predator all on their own their obvious choice was to run

With her worries delt, Ellis sighed in relief, she gave a grateful nod at YuJu, some complicated feelings mixed within, then turned to face her deadliest foe yet

Hesitation was never of one of her traits yet she had been thrust into a new era where everything seemed to need extra thought, that's what she believed at first, but after gaining strength through her struggles she regained her confidence and was decisive with her actions

Yet now she felt hesitant once again, she saw with her own eyes what the beast could do, its pure speed that wasn't traceable with the eyes, its strength the cracked the earth, not to mention whatever technique it used to become extremely strong

So even though it was injured and even though her master was right behind her she didn't have the confidence to fight, other than gripping her sword and taking a few steps toward the beast all she could do was stare at it with conflict brewing inside of her