Difficult Decisions

"Rargh!" "Ahhh"

They heard many screams as they made their way to the area, some screams stopped abruptly while others seemed to last longer but by the time they got there only one person remained alive and he was, quite literary, on his last leg

Seeing the two come out the hounds turn their attention to them, and with threatening growls launch themselves at the leading Ellis who decimated them in but a few swings of her sword

"Ugh, agh"

The last surviving man kept agonizingly screaming from the pain of his bitten-off leg

"I remember there is a hospital close by, I will get you there"

Said Ellis to the wounded man

"No no! Argh, you cant, those monsters are attacking the hospital now! We will die"

The man shouted in fear

"There are others?"

"Yes, those idiots, I told them not to make big groups, but they did and now monsters started to attack them together"

Ellis frowned at the man's words

"Just take me to a nearby clinic, please"

Just when she was about to say yes YuJu, who had disappeared after seeing the hounds, came back

"A group of twenty-three hounds is attacking a large group of humans, women and children seem to be safe for now, but at the rate the men are dying I would say you have about three to four minutes to get there before they breach the defence"

Ellis's gaze instantly darted toward the direction he came from, clearly alarmed by the imminent death of her fellow humans

"Please help me, the pain is killing me"

Seeing her want to go help the man tried to gain her attention once again

Her gaze seemed conflicted, she didn't want to leave the man here alone but she didn't want to be late for the rescue

"I will bleed out to death!"

When he said that he saw her stare at him for a few seconds before finally gritting her teeth and rushing toward the location of human grouping

"Young brother, please help me! I really will die"

Seeing as his hope had left him to die he turned to YuJu only to see him staring at Elli's with an intrigued smile, not minding his existence one bit

Then his figure dashed, disappearing from the injured man's view, leaving him to fend for himself

Ellis ran with all the speed she could muster but YuJu caught up within a second, she gave his blurry figure a sidelong glance but paid him no further heed, nothing would be accomplished asking him for help, she thought

The two arrived at the entrance of a large hospital, the place meant for saving lives was turned into a slaughter ground, the men fell left and right as they futilely fended of the hounds, who, instead of dwindling were actually increasing as more and more hounds joined the battle due to the noise

At some point, they even saw a grandma lift an IV and swinging it at the rabid dogs

Ellis dashed into the group of hounds and targeted the ones about to breach the encirclement, slaying them left and right

The humans seemed to be surprised at the arrival of such a strong person, igniting their hope of survival, this made them fight with more vigour as they pushed the hounds back, giving Ellis enough time to take care of them all before any of them got into the hospital

After taking care of the beasts everyone surrounded Ellis in an attempt to talk to the hero

"Everyone please calm down and get back into position, we don't know when the monsters are striking again"

A blind man declared to the group, he seemed to be the leader among them thus dispersing the rapidly formed crowed

"Hello there miss, first let me thank you for your help, if not for you we would have surely been dead"

Ellis nodded at the man and looked behind, only to see YuJu missing

"Don't worry, I think it will be quite sometime before any of them will come back"

He comforted thinking that she was wary of the hounds, sadly his words triggered a flag as a huge group of rats came out, rushing toward them

"Fuck! You couldn't keep your mouth shut!"

Said a nurse beside him as she took out a bloody scalper

"Let's go back and form the circle! Miss do you want to-"

Ellis dashed into the black masses without a moments wait, leaving the man awkwardly standing there

"What are you gawking there for, let's go"

The nurse jabbed him with her elbow bringing him out his trance, then they retreated to the entrance

Thus another fierce battle ensued, with Ellis having no way to guard everyone, people started to struggle once again, a person dying every now and then

Meanwhile, ways away from the battlefield, YuJu was strolling while holding his chin, he had a rare troubled look on his face, Ellis's attitude really bothered him

"Do I really have to suppress her soul?"

It meant her total obedience but had its drawbacks, that's why he wanted her to follow him on her own accord

"But if things continue like this she will only get more and more out of hand"

He looked toward the hospital where he knew a long battle had commenced for he saw the rats and the cats that didn't come out in fear of the large number of hounds

".....?"

As he gazed at it he felt more and more familiar with it, some sort of memory seemed to be surfacing up his mind but he couldn't quite put his finger on it

"Squee Squee!" "Squeeee!"

Rats passed by him wrongly, heading toward the fight with a war squeak

Out the corner of his view, he noticed their eyes were green and not red, something that was rare for the rats of this region

".....!!"

The memory he was trying to recall suddenly hit him, shocking him

His short moment of shock turned into an evil smile, which he directed toward the sky

"Fate, why must you play her like this?.... Well, I won't waste your great opportunity than"

His body blurred as he weaved his way around the hospital, searching for the gift fate bestowed upon Ellis

...

"Squee-" Slice!

Another rat fell to her sword, the blade was already painted with dark and red blood, bodies littered the ground around her, the scene would have been grand if they weren't merely oversized rats

'Im getting faster'

She could tell, her high intelligence gave her the ability to think at superhuman speed, and the world seemed slower in her eyes, minute details like her increase in speed couldn't escape her notice

'He's watching?'

She didn't know and didn't bother looking, she could never find him no matter how hard she tried

Suddenly she noticed a green eyes rat among the group, her vigilance spiked for they all were red except this one

"Sqe!"

Her vigilance proved to be warranted as the rat shot at her with extreme speed compared to its red yed companions

Slice! "Tch"

She clicked her tongue when a normal rat took the opportunity to bite her leg after she barely cut the green-eyed rat

'I need to use my skill'

She could easily hold the rats off with it but that would mean she couldn't switch positions to lower the stress on some parts of the encirclement

"Ahhh!" "Argh, there in th- guguh"

Screams alerted her of two green-eyed rats intrusion into the circle, she watched as one them a bit a man on his back yet white foam came out his mouth seconds later and he fell to his death

'Poison?'

This made the green-eyed rat's danger level go up a few notches, she couldn't let them bite her even once or the battle might just end right then and there

"Don't worry people, there are only a two of them, just hold on till the miss takes care of them"

The blond man's words seemed to give people the will to fight back harder but soon after he spoke more than ten green-eyed rats came rushing to join the battle

"You and your big MOUTH!"

The nurse cursed as people started to lose hope, two of those were enough to breach their defence and were now being hardly held off, ten more would mean death for everyone

Ellis looked at the ten approaching rats with a conflicted face

'When they join I will have to use a defence stance'

If she didn't she would definitely not be able to keep up with the attacks coming from all directions, these green-eyed rats were much stronger than the bats, using the attack stance would allow them an attack or two before they all die, and using counter-attack stance would leave her vulnerable to all the red-eyed rats after killing the green-eyed ones

Ellis was now stuck, she either used her life to save the people or allowed some of the strong rats to pass and kill the people behind while she took care of the remaining ones

In her dilemma, she seemed to think of a great idea, though she felt ashamed of it she still decided to go with it, her pride seemed cheap in front of other peoples lives

Narrowing her eyes she waited for the rats to get closer to her, when they were close but still outside the group she suddenly jumped up and used the normal rats as a stepping stone, bursting toward the green-eyed rats

Mid-air she positioned her self to use counterattack stance as soon as she landed, this put her further from the normal rats and in front of the stronger ones

"Haah!"

To the incoming ten something claws and teeth, she swung her sword in a wide-angle, but she didn't reverse grip it for another swing, instead, she swung with it spinning around and giving another wide swing, countering all the rats at the same time

"He!"

She felt he bones creak as she suddenly went against her momentum and stopped the sword from swinging midway, before making a low shout accompanied with a slash that beheaded all the green-eyed rats at the same time

As genius as it may sound this was a stupid move, as the green-eyed rats weren't her only enemies, the normal rats had already turned around and were now upon her over the strained body, after that slash she didn't have enough time to readjust again to block them

'...I should apologies'

She thought as she felt shame from her idea, even though she had proclaimed she would save them with her gift, in the end, she had to risk her life into making YuJu come to save her and end this farce

Even though he didn't show it she somehow felt that she meant a lot to him, that he wouldn't let her die just because she disobeyed him, in fact, she got a feeling of safety when he was around, knowing that he was always there to save her even though he never bothered to yet

Her feelings though turned to be spot on as killing intent suddenly swept through the battlefield like a wave, freezing all the rats on the spot as a figure suddenly darted from beyond the battlefield at breakneck speed, dashing all her worries away

'I guess it is over'

Sadly the thought lasted for but a moment, just like the killing intent which was negated but a similar enough pressure

Ellis's dilated as she suddenly saw a shadow emitting great pressure coming from behind YuJu, its speed not one bit less than him, in fact, it was a tad bit faster

YuJu could only narrow his eyes and turn around to clash with the shadow, leaving Ellis to fend off for herself