"Meyaaw!" "Rargh!"

With a snap another monster fell to Anput's maw, dropping to the ground to join its dead comrades

"Nicely done Anput"

YuJu ribbed her blood-stained maw, not minding the sticky feeling

"I think we got far enough from the centre, let's heal up here and then continue"

He said to the tired group, this made the tear eyed girls happy as they could finely rest

He led the group into one of the nearby houses

Upon entering he laid the sleeping girl on a couch and told Ellis to put the rats on the ground and go wash up the dried blood with Anput

Ellis nodded and headed with Anput toward the bathroom

"Hmm, how about you girls look around for something to eat? I'm sure we are all hungry"

The little girls nodded and started to walk around the house searching for the kitchen

"Squeeee!" "Grrr"

Suddenly YuJu heard a rather sharp squeak and Anput's growl and hurried toward the bathroom, there he saw Ellis's pale face throwing up near the door while Anput seemed to be retreating step by step while keeping Ellis behind her

"Sque sque squeee!"

The incessant squeaks made YuJu peek his head into the bathroom

Red eyes, human size, sharp long claws and four sharp teeth, this dark red rat seemed to come out someone's nightmare as it stood on top of an unrecognizable half-eaten dead body

"A beast that evolved? I never heard of any appearing this early around here"

He calmly spoke, as if the trio weren't facing the most dangerous opponent they had faced yet, even Anput who usually eases up whenever seeing her master calm could let go of the sense of danger she was receiving from this enemy

YuJu looked at the growling Anput and the pale Ellis before turning back toward the huge beast

"Well this should prove as a good last test for today, slay it in two minutes and I will allow you to avoid combat for the rest of the day"

After saying that he turned around and left the stunned duo

"Squeeee!!"

The rat couldn't hold it in any longer and squealed loudly, attacking the two

"Rargh!"

Anput responded with a provocation but didn't lung at it, instead she swivelled around and used her back legs to kick the door closed, sadly the rat's speed was extremely fast and already had half its body past the door

'No!'

Thought Ellis as she hurriedly slammed into the half-closed door, now trapping the rat in its place, a familiar scene yet so different from before

"Squee!"

In anger, it tried to claw at the two with its long nails, but its awkward movements made it easy for Anput to dodge it and only Ellis who had to keep hold of the door was sliced by them

"Uugh"

She grunted as the nails cut deep into her waist, they were much sharper then she expected, she can't take another hit or it might be crippling, but she couldn't let the rat out either or they would just be slaughtered by it, she knew for certain they weren't it's match in an open space, only if they limited its movements in the bathroom would they have a chance at wining

"Head butt it"

She decided to take a gamble and yelled to Anput before opening the door while rolling backwards

The rat who was just let free smashed open the door, in the process though it used up quite the momentum allowing Anput's headbutt to roll it into the bathroom again

"GO!"

Ellis yelled and darted through the door, jumping on the rat's face and smashing it into the ground, but when she jumped off it she hit the low ceiling, a fatal mistake the sent her back into the rats now open mouth

"Sque-" Click

Thankfully Anput was there to the rescue, pawing the open mouth shut making it bite off its own tongue

"Haaa!"

Ellis couldn't avoid the rat so she instead straddled its neck, then rolled forward while keeping her grip on the rat strong, she let go of it only when she was halfway into the roll, slamming it into the bathroom wall

"Ooof!"

The air was blown out Elli'ses lungs when Anput used her to make a jump at the rat, latching onto its back and biting whatever vitals she could see

"Squeee!"

The angry rat quickly got up whit Anput on is back, after a few futile shakes it and failed attempts at rolls in this small space it decided that Ellis was a much better target, sadly when it turned to her she found her already darting through the door and closing it behind her

"SqueeeSquee!"

The rat could only make loud noises with no way to vent its anger, and the constant bites only irritated it more, in the end, it decided to slam itself into the door, in hopes to break free, but sadly that only shortened its life as the constant struggle made it bleed out before finally succumbing to death

'Is it dead?'

Ellis thought to herself and opened the door to peek

"Ahh!"

The rat's bloody angry face surprised her into crying out and retreating allowing the door to open and the rat to slide down

"Took you quite some time" "Ah!"

A voice surprised her again making her look to the side with fear, but when she saw YuJu's disappointed eyes she finally snapped out of her fearful state

"Finally snapped out of it? I thought your battle born title wouldn't make you fall into fear to begin with"

Ellis looked at him in a daze before getting up with a mad face, but before a word came out her mouth YuJu calmly motioned for her to remain quiet, then pointed at the rat

"It was ten levels higher than you, thus you were inflicted by level suppression making you fall into fear, within lower levels any creatures that are ten levels apart will be suppressed, the reason Anput didn't get suppressed is that she is already level nine while you are still at six, meaning the rat was between levels sixteen and nineteen"

Ellis understood what YuJu meant but was still not satisfied, but before she voiced out her dissatisfaction he again motioned her to be quiet

"Your Titel BattleBorn should have allowed you to easily avoid the suppression of a mere ten-level gap, thus I deemed it easy to kill the thing, but why were you suppressed?"

Ellis was dazed by YuJu's question, then it made her recall the body and throw up again

"?"

He looked at her puzzledly

"...That body, she's, shes...I remembered this place when I was walking and it was my aunt's new house, the body must be my..my aunt.."

Ellis explained ith tears while YuJu froze, he didn't think his random choice would lead them to her aunt's house, only to find her aunt inside being eaten by an evolved rat that shouldn't be here

"Tch, fate is playing tricks again"

Cursing at the whims of this world he went ahead and helped Ellis up, before jabbing her chest with a syringe

"Ah?"

Looking down Ellis saw a blood-filled syringe being emptied into her bare chest which was exposed when the rat cut open the jacket

"Don't look so horrified, its a blood potion, well more like just blood from one of the blood rat's organs, it should heal you in half an hour if you drink it, but injecting it halves the time so we will be able to move out in fifteen minutes"

Ellis felt a little heat rush through her body, removing much of the pain she was beering

"Now go wash up in the kitchen's sink and then grab some of your aunts clothes to wear, we will move out in fifteen"

She nodded and let YuJu guide her toward the sink as her legs felt wobbly, he only let go when she leaned on the sink, leaving her to her own business

YuJu didn't just sit around though, instead, he went to the roof of the building, then used nimble movements to climb up the electricity pole nearby, getting a good view of the surrounding area

Looking around he started planing the road based on its creature count, making sure to make the absolute minimum contact with them, even if that meant taking one or two hours more as he had already told the two that he wouldn't make them fight anymore today

"Still, I'm quite disappointed"

That he was, but not with the both of them, no, it was Ellis who caused him disappointment

"To think she was this weak-willed early on"

The Ellis he remembered before moving through time and this one were completely two different people

That one was a valiant commander and leader of the all-female Red Sword Guild, never having her mind shaken even when facing absolute death, her sword always on the ready for a fight

Then there was this ever complaining weak-willed, and somewhat cowardly Ellis

Of course, he knew that it was only the first day and her attitude thus far was commendable if not excellent, but still, the fact that she lost the will to fight for a moment even with her title made him disappointed

"Sigh, it seems I have a long road ahead before I can make her anything useful to me"

Done with his area scan, and lamination he jumped off the pole landing neatly on the balcony, before sliding the door open

"?"

"...?"

What greeted him was the bare Ellis who was looking at herself in the mirror, now questioningly looking at his entrance

"...Do you have a knack for getting naked?"

"You're the one who barged in! And how did you even get through the balcony"

"I was scouting and just got down, I didn't know this was your aunt's room when I came in"

"Can you just get out?!"

YuJu shrugged and headed out the room through the door instead of hopping off the window again

Seeing him exit Ellis heaved a sigh of relief before looking at her naked figure in the mirror

"...Do I really have a knack for getting naked?"

She started to seriously contemplate that

....

Fifteen minutes later Ellis walked out the room with new close and only a few scars on her body, but what grabbed YuJu's attention was the sword in her hands

"Where did you find that?"

"This? It's my aunt's, she bought it because she likes animation about samurais and ninjas, but its the real deal, I figured can fight better with it than a knife"

He smiled happily at this, she finally picked up a real sword he thought

"Okay, let's head out now, Ellis you pick up two girls and I will pick up three ourselves, the current route I planned should have nor more than two or three solo beasts that prove no challenge to Anput, so we will be going at top speed and only stop when I have to plan a new rout"

The two nodded at his words before bursting out the apartment, children in hand

Just as YuJu had said there only two rather weak beasts that Anput dispatched in no time, not even making the other two stop as she caught up to them seconds later, this run continued for a whole five hours during which YuJu would climb up poles from time to time to plan a new road with few beasts before the group moved again

Finally, they reached a rather large building, it was covered in half-broken glass and one could see a few people looking through the glass every now and then

"The bank?"

"Yes, for now, it seems people had made a barricade inside the bank"

"That's great! Should we also join?"

"No we have our own plans, we will only drop the girls here"

"...Y..Do you think the girls will be okay here?"

She was about to call him by his name but found out she couldn't, instead asking her question directly

"They have as much chance as the others inside this building, what do you think we should take everyone else with us too? I bet you there are children in here too, how about we gather all them up and run through the streets with them?"

"...."

She knew what he meant, why would they prioritize girls they knew over ones they didn't, might as well just leave them all here, but her thought process was the opposite of this, as just like he said she wanted to save them all

"Alright, we will leave them here and go"

She said, after all, she had said she would follow him, she wouldn't break her promise, not hen him leaving meant she would be left on her own without any means to power up to speak of

"Good"

He nodded and the two head toward the bank